Foreign Affairs

Try The Daily Star or Ha’aretz. Daily Star : LEBANON UNDER ATTACK Israel targets Lebanese air bases, Kuwaiti nationals among dead and UN prepares envoy to Region Ha’aretz : One rocket fired from Lebanon hits central Haifa Two Israelis killed, 120 hurt in rocket attacks Rockets slam into towns Nahariya, Safed, Carmiel Hezbollah gunners continue shelling communities across northern Israel; two people critically wounded in latest strike on Safed.

Starting July 12, 2006, you can fly direct to the Azores. Wow.

Slate; “Abu, Ibn, and Bin, Oh My!” ; July 3, 2006 : The term can also be used in a more colloquial sense. A guy with a moustache might be called “Abu Shanab,” or “father of moustache.” You could even refer to a place or object as “the father of” a certain quality. “Shibshib abu khamsa gnieh” literally means “flip-flops, father of $5,” but it would be taken to mean “a $5 pair of flip-flips.” Similarly, the place name Abu…

I’m not sure that the Swiss analogy fits 100 percent, but this is an intriguing idea nonetheless: You might call it a “dual state.” Instead of the familiar formula in which two states exist side by side, Israel and Palestine would be two states superimposed on top of one another. Citizens could freely choose which system to belong to. Their citizenship would be bound not to territory, but to choice. The Israeli state would remain a homeland for Jews, and…

The so-called Principality of Sealand, seven miles off the coast of Felixstowe and Harwich, was evacuated at lunchtime yesterdayafter a generator caught fire. Thames Coastguard, Harwich RNLI lifeboat, Felixstowe Coastguard rescue teams, firefighting tug Brightwell, the RAF rescue helicopter from Wattisham and 15 Suffolk based firefighters from the National Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG) were all called into action to tackle the blaze. One man, believed to be a security guard, was airlifted from the scene and taken to Ipswich…

NYT : If the major characters in the migration drama unfolding in Chiapas could be captured in a collage, it would include a burly, white-haired farmer named Eusebio Ortega Contreras, who did not hide that most of the workers who picked mangos in his fields for $6 a day were underage, undocumented Guatemalans. Indians from Chiapas used to do these jobs, Mr. Ortega said. But in the past five years, they have been migrating to the United States. And lately,…

Wikipedia, Bière de Chimay: As with all other Trappist breweries, the beer is only sold in order to financially support the monastery and some other good causes. The brewery business pays rent for use of the property within the abbey, which is used to support the monastic community. All of the profits from the sale of the beer is distributed to charities and for community development around the region.

Without a TV at my disposal, if I want to watch any of the World Cup games online, apparently there are ways to get it to work. But alas, after an hour of muddling through them, I couldn’t get it. Apparently the BBC is showing some of the games online, but you have to have a British ISP in order for it to work — in other words that old proxy trick won’t work anymore. I tried checking Australia’s SBS…

NYT: Iranian’s Letter to Bush Emerges Um, guys, this letter isn’t from just any Iranian — IT’S FROM THE PRESIDENT! And if you’re curious, you can read the letter (in English translation) here (PDF).

NYT: “I love my country, but I hate these mullahs,” said Houshang Samandi, a television director for an Iranian satellite channel whose life in Los Angeles remains so completely Iranian that after 14 years he still asks a fellow exile to translate the word “sanctions.” “Sanctions will only harm the ordinary people,” Mr. Samandi said. “If there is a military attack, they will be killing my people. But if they don’t attack, the mullahs will never leave.” I think this…