Posted 10:10 CDT
MEXICO - Happy but wary about the Arizona injunction. Union leaders denounce the entire nation and our "state-run persecution policies," even as Amnesty International calls the pervasive abuse of migrants in Mexico "a human rights crisis."
FRANCE - Building the Sun: $21 billion budget for the Iter nuclear fusion reactor.
CHINA via GERMANY - Excluding America from international conferences, including tyrants in international business deals. Establishing 500 Confucian Institutes worldwide, increasing scholarships at Chinese Universities 10-fold. Military buildup, sophisticated diplomacy: "China is in the process of outmaneuvering the West everywhere."
Note: VPNews returns August 2nd
NETHERLANDS - Infidels behaving: Taliban in Afghanistan congratulates the Dutch for withdrawing: "We would like to wish the citizens and government of the Netherlands all the best."
Stephane Peray, The Nation, Bangkok, Thailand
GERMANY - City officials, festival organizers: Laying blame for the Love Parade.
SOUTH AFRICA - Seemingly global phenomenon: Protection of Information Bill is debated in Parliament, making it obvious that "many of the MP’s had no clue about what the Bill intended to do or would in fact achieve."
POLAND - Discussing an increase in the VAT, currently at 22%.
UKRAINE - IMF approves $15 billion loan.
NORWAY - Honoring St. Olav, the nation's patron saint.
ICELAND - 183 million cubic yards of Eyjafjallajökull ash now on Icelandic soil.
PROVERBIAL WISDOM OF THE DAY:
Old sayings contain no lies (Spain).
PHOTO OF THE DAY:
A woman walks by burning barricades set up during a protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, against the government’s lack of help in rebuilding after a January earthquake (Ramon Espinosa/AP).
