Latest News Clips 2013.08.19

                 

1.      Egypt on edge after at least 278 killed in bloodiest day since revolution

CNN   August 15, 2013

Cairo (CNN) -- Egypt, including its capital Cairo, teetered on the edge early Thursday as clashes persisted following the bloodiest day since the revolution two years ago that was envisioned to bring peace and democracy to Egypt -- but has not.

The violence Wednesday pitted Egypt's military and current government against backers of deposed President Mohamed Morsy, though others also were caught in the fray.

At least 278 people were killed, including 235 civilians, state TV reported, citing an Egyptian emergency official. Interim Interior Minister Gen. Mohammed Ibrahim said that an additional 43 police officers died.

"It's an open war," said a protester who escaped one of two Cairo camps that were raided.

The intensity and violence lingered into Thursday morning, when state TV reported Morsy backers were attacking police stations, hospitals and government buildings despite a government-mandated curfew. More Egyptian troops were being deployed at entrances to Cairo and Giza, with the unrest prompting the closure Thursday of banks and the nation's stock market.

The 2011 revolution that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, who'd kept a firm grip on power for 30 years, was followed by Egypt's first democratic elections. Morsy -- a leader of the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood -- won the presidency in that 2012 vote, but was forced out by the military last month.

Morsy hasn't been seen since he was taken into custody. Yet his supporters have very public in voicing their opinions, massing on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere to slam military leaders and demand Morsy's return to the presidency.

Egypt's new government refused to back down, criticizing elements of the protest movement and specifically ordering them to leave two spots where they'd been gathering in Cairo for six weeks, or else they'd force them out.

On Wednesday, they did.

2.       Hollywood’s New Stars: Pedestrians

The New York Times   August 16, 2013

     

Everyone in Los Angeles has a ridiculous story about driving somewhere when two feet would have worked just as well. Mine features a celebrity. I once interviewed John Travolta at Paramount Pictures for an entertainment magazine, and when it came time for us to move from his trailer to the shooting location, a limo was summoned. Estimated distance of our chauffeured, temperature-controlled, Evian-sipping road trip: less than 25 yards.

This impulse is not so uncommon in Los Angeles. Friends of mine joined me at CicLAvia in June. It’s a recurring feel-good event that encourages walking, skating, strolling, scooting and biking through closed-off city streets normally blazing with car traffic. If you are a hipster from the Highland Park neighborhood in possession of a penny-farthing, this is your happiest day of the year.

At this year’s TED conference, the author and the Silicon Valley corporate executive Nilofer Merchant delivered a three-minute talk that scared the life out of me about how sitting has become the smoking of our generation. It arrived on the heels of a Harvard Business Review article she wrote that said Americans average 9.3 hours of sitting a day, compared to 7.7 hours of sleeping. So elemental is sitting to our daily routine, we don’t even think about it, and yet it’s killing us.

Just one hour of sitting slows production of fat-burning enzymes by as much as 90 percent, she said, and a longer term habit (you might want to sit down for this) negatively affects good cholesterol levels and increases the risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain kinds of cancer.

The detail that catapulted me out of my chair was the conclusion of an Australian study that found that for each additional hour of TV a person sits and watches each day, the chance of dying rises by 11 percent. Even the recommended 30 minutes of vigorous exercise cannot make up for the problems of hunching over your laptop the rest of the day.

Ms. Merchant’s prescription is to just keep moving. Walk with friends instead of stuffing your faces at meals. Walk to any destination within a mile radius of your home or business. Consider a standing desk (Ikea sells components to hack one for under $150) or even a treadmill desk, a kind of turbo work station that allows you to waste time on Facebook, but at an invigorating 2 m.p.h.

3.      Israeli-Palestinian talks: Why Netanyahu's dark world view clouds peace prospects

CNN , August 14, 2013

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Carlo Strenger says Netanyahu believes Israel is at the forefront of a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

·         Many are pessimistic about the outcome of the Mideast peace talks, writes Carlo Strenger

·         He says a strong reason is because of Benjamin Netanyahu's "dark world view"

·         But some of his fears are based on historical precedents, writes Strenger

·         Strenger: Odds are low that Israelis and Palestinians are on verge of peace

Editor's note: Carlo Strenger is Professor of Psychology at Tel Aviv University, author of "The Fear of Insignificance," and a political commentator for Haaretz and Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

(CNN) -- While commentators have been impressed by John Kerry's single-mindedness in bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, most are quite pessimistic about the prospect of reaching an agreement. One strong reason for this pessimism is Benjamin Netanyahu's basic worldview that he has held consistently since the 1980s.

Netanyahu believes Israel is at the forefront of the clash of civilizations between the West and Islam, and that the Arab world has not come to terms with Israel's existence. He thinks that the international community's focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is shortsighted and wrongheaded.

Netanyahu also believes Israel's retreat to the 1967 borders will not solve the core issue. Israel will continue to be surrounded by a civilization that intends to erase Israel in the long run, his thinking goes, but it will lose strategic depth and be exposed to rocket attacks on its population centers.

Israel's prime minister is a man with a dark world view that is guided by fears and suspicion. But not all of his fears can be dismissed as simple paranoia; indeed some are based on historical precedents and have been corroborated to an extent by recent events.

4.      Chinese tourists targeted in Paris pickpocketing spate

CNN    August 7, 2013

Chinese tourists in Paris are perceived as tempting targets because they often carry lots of cash.

 (CNN) -- It's known as the City of Light, but it risks becoming known as the city of the light-fingered.

Paris, the most visited city in the world by many counts, has been suffering a spate of pickpocketing -- and one of its main targets appears to be that relatively new group of tourists, the Chinese.

Petty crimes against Chinese nationals have jumped 22% in the city this year, according to Paris police.

Chinese visitors are thought to be particularly tempting because of a cultural preference for carrying cash over credit cards, the South China Morning Post reported.

They could also often be distracted more easily than some more experienced tourists.

Twitter warnings

Outraged visitors to Paris -- as well as Parisians themselves -- have posted warnings against the pickpocketing epidemic on Twitter.

"The annual August exodus from Paris has begun, the 7th arrondissement is deserted, only beggars, pickpockets ... and tourists [remain]," reads one post.

Another tweet warns, in French, of the latest pickpocketing technique: a thief pretends to be disabled and asks for your seat on the metro, only to relieve you of your possessions as you clumsily swap places.

A further post succinctly sums up the pickpockets' recent nationality bias: "Chinese tourists hate credit cards; French pickpockets love their cash."

Cash preference

Tourists from China not only often trust cash over cards but also, along with Russians, are among the biggest spenders in Paris -- and they often spend indiscreetly.

"I, and many people I know, have often been approached by the Asian tourists thronging outside the Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Elysées, who approach you with cash to buy bags for them, as the store limits each customer to two," Paul Roll, director of the Office du Tourisme de Paris, told the Telegraph.

Parisian businesses are worried the risk of theft might drive Chinese travelers elsewhere.

The number of visitors from China to Paris last year, 1.4 million, was 23% up from 2011, the SCMP reports.

The city is a favorite destination among wealthy Chinese.

But a group of luxury retailers, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermes, recently warned that top spenders would visit London or Milan instead, if Paris came to seem too risky.