Monthly Archives: March 2006

Damn Spam

Posted on March 30, 2006 by Tim Newman

Apologies to those of you (Keefieboy, SD, Lyndon) who have made comments on here and seen them guzzled greedily by my spam filter and not spat back out again. I’ve been subject to a sustained attack by a blogspot address … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments

BBC in “Iraq War was planned” shock!

Posted on March 27, 2006 by Tim Newman

Bush-Blair Iraq war memo revealed exclaims the BBC triumphantly. The New York Times says it has seen a memo which shows that the US president was firmly set on the path to war two months before the 2003 Iraq invasion. … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

A Small Victory

Posted on March 25, 2006 by Tim Newman

Recall last month the case of Oleg Shcherbinsky, who was jailed in Russia for allowing a speeding ministerial car to crash into him, which led to protests in several Russian cities against the system which allows ministers and government favourites … Continue reading →

Posted in Russia | 1 Comment

Anchored in Love Bovine

Posted on March 24, 2006 by Tim Newman

The desert sun does strange things to some people.  Last year we had somebody in Ras Al Khaimah jailed for shagging a camel, now somebody has been caught in Fujairah sexually assaulting a cow: A Bangladeshi labourer allegedly turned into a wild beast after dashing … Continue reading →

Posted in Dubai | 2 Comments

Obsessed? Me?

Posted on March 24, 2006 by Tim Newman

Books I have read over the past year: Berlin: The Downfall, 1945, by Antony Beevor Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky Among the Russians, by Colin Thubron The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, by Peter Hopkirk … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Russia | 3 Comments

Anti-war, anti-business, anti-clue

Posted on March 22, 2006 by Tim Newman

Good to see the anti-war crowd are up to speed with current events: Protesters against the war in Iraq yesterday stormed an oil firm’s premises. The six-strong group entered KBR Production Services headquarters at Dyce shortly after 9am and tried … Continue reading →

Posted in Oil & Gas | 1 Comment

Business as usual

Posted on March 16, 2006 by Tim Newman

Meanwhile, further down the page of the Gulf News, it is back to normal.  Here is their take on the Jericho prison siege: The barbaric offensive by Israel on the Jericho prison, literally under the noses of the two Western great … Continue reading →

Posted in Gulf News, Israel | 1 Comment

Night of Stone and Russian Trains

Posted on March 14, 2006 by Tim Newman

If you scroll down a bit, you will see from that clever software plugin that I am currently reading Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia by Catherine Merridale.  I’m only one page in, but already a passage has … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Russia | 10 Comments

Syriana

Posted on March 13, 2006 by Tim Newman

Upon winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Syriana, George Clooney said: “We are a little bit out-of-touch in Hollywood…I think that’s probably a good thing.” Syriana is a film largely about the workings of the oil and gas industry, … Continue reading →

Posted in Dubai, Films, Oil & Gas | 12 Comments

South Africa vs Australia

Posted on March 12, 2006 by Tim Newman

Probably the finest one-day cricket match I ever saw was the tied semi-final of the 1999 world cup between Australia and South Africa.  I doubt that any true cricket fan will ever forget Herschelle Gibbs’ drop of Steve Waugh in … Continue reading →

Posted in Sport | 6 Comments