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Sorry to be so curt. But what a schmuck he is . . . in every sense of the word. And in this context, I don’t mean Castro.
The Bush administration was accused of “cutting and running” from the Iraqi reconstruction effort after it emerged that Bechtel Corp, one of the biggest construction firms in the world, was leaving the country after coming to the end of its last government contract.
Over three years Bechtel was paid $2.3bn (£1.21bn) for work repairing infrastructure, mostly electricity supply and sewage systems. Much of the work was carried out by local sub-contractors. In that time 52 workers were killed and 49 wounded. No new reconstruction funding has been allocated by Congress, and the company said it had completed its last contract, claiming to have completed 97 out of 99 projects it was assigned…
That’s strange. No, not just that the Guardian apparently manages to forget from just one paragraph to the next that the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration are different branches of the U.S. government. More interesting is how we seem to recall it has been astute Guardian columnists who have always been among the loudest proclaimers that the invasion of Iraq was undertaken in the first place at least partly because the Bush administration wanted to parcel out post-invasion reconstruction contracts to its rich supporters.
Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited the remote Karakoram mountain range and were presented with a yak by villagers on the last day of their trip to Pakistan, officials said…
…The highly-prized, long-haired animal will be taken to the United Kingdom, an area administration official said…
We all know the feeling we get when away and we are given a special gift, or we stumble upon some really nice purchase, that is just a little bit too large or cumbersome. Within moments, you find yourself a bit downcast when you realize that you do have to manage to get it home. Fearful of putting it into the hold (don’t want it damaged; and Ryan Air also charges extra for hold luggage), and yet knowing it might not be acceptable to take through security; but if it can be brought into the cabin, we find we are not allowed to leave it on the floor, or blocking the aisle, and we are left with the last choice, and yes, we’ve all been there . . . trying to fit a yak into our airplane’s seat’s overhead compartment.
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