Below-the-belt campaign videos
Campaigning for the American presidency just got nastier in the run-up to the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday. The only candidate to keep out of the campaign video catfight is Republican candidate John McCain... although the ageing conservative hasn't managed to avert attacks fired in his direction. Here's our selection of below-the-belt campaign videos.
Obama - Clinton debate: "Boy did they skirt the rifle issue!"
© ABC News
Democrat candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton faced each other for the last time before next Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary in a televised debate last night. Our Observers in the state react to the candidates' ideas on weapons, the economy, and Obama's apparent elitism. Read more...
Can Russian police really do that?
This video, supposedly filmed by the Russian police, emerged on the internet on Monday. We don't know where it came from, nor is it possible to know exactly where it was filmed. But our Observers confirm that this type of cruelty is not unusual. Read more and see the video.
China's new chart-topper: "Don’t be too like CNN"
We've published several posts about the onslaught of online criticism aimed at the Western media, in particular CNN, over its coverage of violence in Tibet. Here's the latest example of CNN bashing : a song originally broadcast on the state TV channel CCTV, is now running rife on the Internet. See the video.
"I'm almost dead, but I love my body"
Image from the pro-ana blog Fairydust
The French parliament is currently debating a law banning all blogs and websites that encourage or defend anorexia. The white paper refers specifically to "pro-ana" blogs, where the illness is considers extremely fashionable. Young anorexics react to the proposed law and tell us about the pro-ana movement. Read more...
A Chinese protester campaigns in front of Carrefour in Beijing
UPDATE (18
APRIL 08 10am): Protests against Carrefour have sprung up all over China and the demonstrators
have extended their crusade to several other French companies including Luis
Vuitton, Sephora and Dior. New pictures at the bottom of the post...
YouTubers will be let down by the Queen of Jordan
The latest member of the YouTube community is none other than Queen Rania of Jordan. In an effort to challenge western stereotypes about the Arab world, the net-surfing monarch decided to launch an online debate. Yet, after attracting almost 5000 responses, she seems to have lost interest in the scheme. Read more...
Elections in Italy: "The only candidate was Veltrusconi"
Italian comedian Beppe Grillo called on the Italian electorate to boycott yesterday's parliamentary elections. On his blog, considered by Technorati as one of the world's top ten most popular, he slates the corruption of Italian politicians and the dependency of the media. Here, he comments on the elections for the Observers. Read more...
Journalists at France's prestigious daily face a dilemma
The facade of Le Monde building in Paris. Photo taken from the metro by "Mademoiselle N"
The French daily
newspaper Le Monde announced plans to lay off 130 staff, including some 90
journalists, in an economic reshuffle last week.
But the news did not go down with the editorial staff, who today, for the first
time in the newspaper's history, went on strike. Read more...
Clinton "so proud of Wal-Mart" footage made public
Clinton on stage with Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton
She doesn't talk about it in her speeches - or her autobiography, or the official bio on her campaign website - but Hillary Clinton was a board director of the controversial retail giant Wal-Mart for six years. Footage released on Thursday shows the presidential hopeful at a store opening in 1991 with floods of praise for the company. Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, calls her a "great friend of ours." Read more...
