Group items tagged

The latest Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll is a significant blow to President Obama’s flailing presidency, just 7 months since taking office. According to Rasmussen, a highly influential pollster, Obama’s approval rating now stands at just 47 per cent, with 52 per cent disapproval, and 37 per cent strongly disapproving.

At the same time in his first presidency in August 2001, George W. Bush’s approval ratings stood at around 55-59 per cent in most major polls, with roughly 35-38 per cent disapproval. It was not until Spring 2004 that Bush’s ratings were as low as Obama’s figures in today’s Rasmussen poll – more than three years into his first term of office. The White House will point to other surveys that show stronger approval for Obama, but all leading polls demonstrate that support for the president is eroding. The Obama presidency is sinking faster than almost any other in recent US history, largely because he is trying to force a radical left-wing agenda on a nation that is still far more conservative than liberal, that overwhelmingly believes in limited federal government, free enterprise and decentralization of power.

It is hardly surprising that Obama’s standing in the polls is declining. He has launched a highly ambitious, ideologically driven agenda to transform the United States by expanding the role of the state at the expense of the individual, while at the same time weakening America’s defences and undercutting its standing on the world stage. It is a recipe for failure, and a left-wing vision for the future which fortunately is being rejected by the American people.

AUSTRALIA is likely to abandon its $1 million attempt to take Japan to the international court over whaling after New Zealand gave up its plans to use legal action to stop the annual cull.

using aircraft and ships to gather evidence against Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean.

But the New Zealand Government has since discovered "significant difficulties" with taking Japan to the international court and has abandoned the tactic.

So many scholars and commentators attribute suicide terrorism to such factors as poverty, foreign occupation, or religion, among many other things.

Over the past two hundred years, there has been a global, though highly uneven, shift within the values systems of various societies.

One particularly profound transformation has been the relegation of one’s religion to the private sphere, as a matter of purely personal choice.

QANTAS may pursue Malaysia Airlines following the demise of the Australian carrier's $8 billion merger plans with British Airways.

Qantas had wanted majority ownership in the deal, reflecting its bigger market value, but BA was not prepared to become a junior partner.

faced a number of significant hurdles

Each of these flavours of English has its own local properties. If you know something about the pronunciation of the languages of these countries, you can often identify the speakers' nationality by their English.

These Englishes can show a variety of errors of grammar and vocabulary. Sometimes this is caused by interference from the homeland language. Sometimes it is just a feature of the local English that has become established

does it really matter? After all, the Australians, the British and the Americans routinely announce "all trains cancelled".

Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?

Young men with downy beards, caps, kneelength a traditional Arab galabeyas and sandals sat chatting in a McDonalds' restaurant in Nasr City, a large middle class district in the eastern part of Cairo.

In the neighborhood Egyptians, the European Salafists - Sunni religious fundamentalists - are outsiders.

A dynamic music program is helping migrants connect to their new home

His experiences as a migrant give him the perspective needed to work with other newcomers."There's a system, and many people get trapped in that system," he says. "They put you in a housing commission flat when you first arrive as a refugee

I was battling a lot of things, like racism and stuff, and hip-hop helped me understand a lot of things about the government, about what happened back in Africa — it gives me more self-confidence to be here. So if I face racism I don't take it personally, I think, 'Maybe I need to educate you about some stuff.' "

There are a lot more similarities than differences between the U.S. and China. But some of the differences are substantial.

Americans confronted with business disputes expect to turn to lawyers and courts. That isn't done nearly as often in China. Companies, especially smaller private ones, turn instead to relationships. If they don't have relationships to turn to, they sometimes fall back on threats and physical fighting. But you see many more paper tigers than real ones.

Use relationships rather than legalese whenever possible to solve problems.

They are young, earn little and spend little, and take a keen interest in fashion and personal appearance -- meet the "herbivore men" of Japan

some men who she said were changing the country's ideas about just what is -- and isn't -- masculine

"Some guys still try to be manly and try to be like strong and stuff, but you know personally I'm not afraid to show my vulnerability because being vulnerable or being sensitive is not a weakness."

the oriental "neglect'' of the mouth can lead to more mistakes in interpreting a person's emotion, said the study, describing how feelings can be ``lost in translation.''

Asian participants had difficulty recognising facial expressions of fear and disgust, mistakenly interpreting them as surprise and anger instead

News that Germany and France have, with a mini-bound, escaped recession must be the most ominous development of the week.

For those within this system, Germany had been an extremely comfortable place until the downturn. But the apparent failure of its export-driven social model changed all that. As a result, Germans had begun to campaign for a responsive political system.

In all sorts of ways,  Germans had begun to realise that the economy - and thence German society - had reached the end of the post-war path. The worry is that today’s GDP figures will drive them back to the old, familiar way of thinking.

mulling an Internet filtering system similar to China’s controversial “Green Dam” project

Government has called for a tender for a system that could block “undesirable websites.”

The MSC Malaysia Bill of Guarantees specifies that the Internet will not be censored to ensure the success of the MSC Malaysia initiative

Authorities in Venezuela say they will punish TV stations if they continue to broadcast episodes of cult US animation Family Guy.

the show should be banned because it promotes the use of marijuana

messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents

A TRIP to India next week to promote Melbourne as a safe city has turned into a monumental challenge for John Brumby after another racist attack that has attracted fresh headlines and anti-Australian fury across India.

Two Indian men and another two of Indian origin say they were racially taunted and told to ''go back to your country'' before being kicked and punched by attackers who were part of a large birthday celebration at Legends Entertainment Centre. The Indian Government increased pressure on Australia last night over the ''recurring attacks'' on its citizens. It called on authorities to ''take all necessary steps towards the safety and security of Indians''. Indian consular officials in Melbourne were also ordered to investigate.

One of the victims, Sukhdip Singh, 26, had been in Australia just one month. A relative said he had suffered head and facial injuries and wanted to return to India immediately. His uncle, Mukhtiar Singh, 45, also a victim, said Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recent assurance to India's Foreign Minister that Australia was safe for Indian students rang hollow. ''I used to say the same thing … now I would say Melbourne is worse than a Third-World country, violence-wise,'' Mr Singh told The Age. Recalling Saturday's incident, he said his nephew was taunted with verbal abuse and racial slurs in the bar before they were later set upon in the car park by about 20 people. ''I have lived here for 22 years,'' Mr Singh said. ''I've got my own business here, my own house, my kids have grown up here. Why should I go back? We all come from somewhere.''

This is the San Polo municipal football ground on the outskirts of Brescia - a big industrial city in the north of Italy home to one of the biggest south Asian communities in the country.

The attraction is cricket - the final rounds of a limited overs competition.

"It's not a good place to live", he says. "Most Italians only speak their own language and so - unlike Indians and Pakistanis - they don't mix well with people from other cultures."

Microsoft Corporation is apologising for altering a photo on its website to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture

on the website of Microsoft's Polish business unit, the black man's head has been replaced with that of a white man

Poland's ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo

ens of thousands of protesters thronged to a historic square in one of Europe’s largest capitals on Saturday to defend press freedom amid concerns of growing government interference in how the news is reported in Italy.

Free information, not on a leash

Mr. Berlusconi dismissed the protest as “a real farce.” Speaking at a political convention in northern Italy, he said, “Freedom is far greater in Italy than any other Western country,”