“If the media had done its job last week Brownlee would by now have resigned for brazenly and deliberately misleading the public and New Zealanders would finally understand just what was at stake for Jackson, Taylor and Warner Brothers over the contractor issue.”
...

"For those not aware of the world of contractors here’s an example from the last couple of weeks when a friend of mine applied

SecondMarket Holdings, the private-market securities trading firm best known for allowing numerous overzealous fans to buy FaceBook at moronic valuations, on Monday "will roll out a platform allowing lenders to issue securities backed by student loans directly to investors."

Why is SecondMarket doing this? The same reason Lloyd Blankfein was selling Abacus (and all those other synthetic MBS CD

While Julia Gillard has vowed 'to stop foreign workers being put at the front of the queue', Tony Abbott is playing his own xenophobic card in relation to boat people. Both are taking the 'low road' with regards to foreigners ..

Julia Gillard’s pledge to put foreign workers at the back of the queue for Australian jobs is tapping into what Labor sources describe as the “economic patriotism” dee

“the Leveretts’ real sin isn’t defending the Islamic Republic but holding U.S. policy elites—in government, media, academia, and think tanks—to account in intimate detail for making such a volatile hash out of our Iran statecraft.”

.. Obama’s early vaunted overtures to Tehran were empty gestures intended only as a prelude to severe economic sanctions, a policy that jibes well with our own trib

Chrysanthopoulos said that in the coming months, “There will be further increases in armed actions. There will be bloody demonstrations.”

Without giving details, he said, “There are contacts by certain politicians with elements in the armed forces to guarantee that in the event of major social unrest, the army will not intervene.”

This last claim was likely made for public consumption. Even

With Spain's unemployment rate over 26pc, the country has seen a huge amount of homeowners default on their rents or mortgage payments, prompting a wave of repossession by government-backed banks.
However, following several suicides some locksmiths are no longer willing to carry out banks's orders to evict people from their houses.
David Ormaechea, president of the Locksmiths Union, told AFP th

After outrage and protests erupted, four businesswomen set up Safecity.in, a website for victims of harassment to channel their anger.
The site encourages them to “Pin the Creeps” by reporting incidents of harassment and abuse — ranging from catcalling to rape — which are added to an online map and sent to those requesting alerts.
Mumbai-based Elsa D’Silva, a founder of the site, said social me

In his policy speech to the Japanese parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a “strong Japan” and ominously drew a parallel between the current tense standoff with China over disputed islands in the South China Sea and the Falklands war in 1982 between Britain and Argentina.
Abe cited former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who declared that “the rule of internationa

It sounds like the stuff of satire. On Thursday, RBS, the bank that taxpayers were forced to buy, posted 2012 losses of more than £5bn. That was after paying out more than £600m in bonuses. On the very same day, an EU draft agreement to cap bank bonuses emerged – and the prime minister immediately signalled that Britain would resist.

For a time, early last year, there was no trace of Robespierre to be found on the street where he lived in the days of his fame. The restaurant called Le Robespierre had closed its doors, and after a while its portrait sign was removed from above the entrance of the house on the rue Saint-Honoré. Once again, the plaque on the wall had been smashed. The marble was shattered, the letters gouged awa

I am loathe to speculate why Zygier hanged himself. I can come up with any number of reasons including the simple fact that his second child was on the way and he never saw her. Perhaps the thought of her first visit to him as a father would be while he was in jail and this was just one burden too many to bear. A significant part of Zygier's training and conditioning would involve doing whatever

A lawyer acting for Alexander Litvinenko’s widow said that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was attempting to block the disclosure of evidence that showed Russian involvement in his death and exposed the former KGB agent’s relationship with MI6.

“You are being steamrollered by two states acting in collaboration with one another,” Ben Emmerson, QC, told Sir Robert Owen, a High Court judge wh

The shale gas revolution was meant to bring lasting prosperity. But the result of the gas glut may be just a bubble, producing no more than a temporary recovery that masks deep structural instability.

While the horsemeat scandal continues to unfold – prepared meals were removed from shelves in Finland, Sweden and Switzerland over the weekend – the European Commission has decided to authorise the use of animal meal in feed for farmed fish, beginning June 1. It was banned in 1996, during the "mad cow" crisis.

.. some analysts speculate that the revelations from the leaks at the very least accelerated Benedict’s decision to resign. In early 2012, he appointed three trusted cardinals to investigate beyond the criminal case involving his butler. They interviewed widely inside the Curia and out, and delivered their final report in December. Its contents are sealed, though speculation is rife that the card