This & That, Ceci et Cela

Rolls Royce is available in India through a local dealer for the 1st time in almost 50 years.  Although there is a steep 107% duty on luxury cars in India, there is apparently a lot of interest in the return of the Rolls. How many people actually pay that tax? Methinks those actually rich enough are ...

Oh the ties that bind thee.  A group with members like the Bushes, the Vatican, bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and China's Communist overlords, among others? "It seemed, at first, like nothing more than a novelty item in the news briefs, the kind of odd, meaningless side-fact thrown off by most major stories: "New Pope, President's Brother Had Link in Swiss Group." But a look beneath the surface of this innocuous connection ...

Attraction of immigration destination is in the eye of the beholder. According to Globe and Mail article by Doug Saunders, Record number of the Dutch are emigrating due to recent immigration and racial turmoil.  "Majority are heading to places like Canada for the adventure, 'more tolerant' atmosphere, and job opportunities". Hmmm, Newsflash! One: Canada has substantial immigration problems (e.g. the way they admit people based on professional ...

Pressure to make the yuan more flexible has come from the United States and other members of the Group of 7 industrial nations, who say the peg to the dollar gives Chinese manufacturers a price advantage that has helped drive the U.S. trade deficit to a record level and threatened economic growth in Europe. The currency is fixed at 8.3 yuan per dollar. But ...

In case any of their staff/even the writer stumble across this site, seeing as I have still not received a reply! The Moscow Times online newsletter is read by non-Russian residents/citizens like me who don't speak the language at all but are interested in global news and current affairs. So article like "Damsels in Linguistic Distress" and "Cold Cuts and Hot Beats" become a complete waste to a significant portion ...

Interesting commentary on the real facilitators of the UN oil-for-food scandal. Chris Floyd declares in "Global Eye Gut Check": "All the guff about law, democracy and morality is just cornball for the yokels back home and for the cannon fodder sent off to die in the elite's commercial and dynastic wars". Interesting to learn that although Texas oil baron David Chalmers of Bayoil and his partners were charged ...

Myriam says "I am the only woman private detective in Morocco. When I started up, people came to my office in Casablanca out of curiosity, saying: A woman can't do that job. But I have taken on all sorts of cases now, anything from finding out if someone is committing adultery to locating former employees who have stolen money from banks ...

I saw the Passionate Eye documentary on Indian grooms based abroad who go home, take brides, collect massive dowries, then return to the west without the brides.  These "runaway grooms" use the wedding as elaborate scam to extort money from families before dissapearing. A prospective groom ...

-Or whatever you may say at Googles new ever-increasing capacity of user's inbox. I noticed a week/two ago that my allotted inbox capacity was growing at the rate of a few MBs a day, which I believe is their way of pinning down bragging rights to the mail hostess with the mostest in terms of space offered.