2010 March 06

1:34 pm Mar 6, 2010

“Criticism for how Haitian money spent”
Finance

Haitian leaders are frustrated with the way billions of aid money is being delivered and spent.

“The world’s bill for the Haitian earthquake is large and growing, now $US2.2 billion ($A2.44 billion), and so is the criticism about how the money is being spent. As half a million homeless people received tarps and tents, far more are still waiting under soggy bed sheets in camps that reek of human waste. More than 4.3 million people got emergency food rations; few will be able to feed themselves anytime soon. Medical aid went to thousands, but long-term care isn’t even on the horizon”

1:29 pm Mar 6, 2010

“British child-killers jail debate”
International Crime

“The pink-cheeked 10-year-old staring from the front pages of Britain’s newspapers is, some argue, the face of evil. The photo is a mug shot of Jon Venables, one of Britain’s most infamous criminals, convicted along with another boy of murdering a toddler in Liverpool in 1993. The crime shocked Britain and has remained vivid in the public memory, due partly to video images, replayed countless times on television, of two-year-old James Bulger [pictured below] being led to his death by the two bigger boys”

1:26 pm Mar 6, 2010

“Liberals rap Kremlin as Stalin is worshipped”
Russia

“Russian communists paid homage to Soviet leader Josef Stalin, while liberals accused the Kremlin of conniving to whitewash the dictator. Communist Party chiefs led a procession of largely elderly people across Red Square on the 57th anniversary of Stalin’s death, laying flowers at his grave by the Kremlin wall. The solemn visit is an annual tradition for communists steeped in nostalgia for the Soviet era. But this year, it comes as Russia’s bitter debate over Stalin’s legacy sharpens ahead of May 9 celebrations marking 65 years since the Nazi defeat”

11:10 am Mar 6, 2010