Paul E. Ester's Flogger

“Sorry we let unsubstantiated claims drive our coverage. Sorry we were dismissive of experts who disputed White House charges against Iraq. Sorry we let a band of self-serving Iraqi defectors make fools of us. Sorry we fell for Colin Powell’s performance at the United Nations. Sorry we couldn’t bring ourselves to hold the administration’s feet to the fire before the war, when it really mattered.

“Maybe we’ll do a better job next war.”
… Rest of Article

new virtual reality website, www.fullscreenqtvr.com, which launched last week. This QuickTime¨ VR (QTVR) website will serve as a directory of high-quality, full-screen QTVRs on the Internet. QuickTime¨ VR is an award-winning photorealistic cross-platform virtual reality technology from Apple Computer, Inc., that makes it possible to explore places as if you were really there. Locations are numerous and varied, including amazing interior views of the Vatican, inaccessible Egyptian tombs, detailed interior and exterior views of the new Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and the latest breathtaking panoramic images from NASA’s Mars rovers. Kaidan has offered their support in the effort to launch this month…. Rest of Article

Almost a year ago, when kitchen workers at the United Nations’ headquarters walked off the job in a dispute over holiday pay, the cream of the world’s diplomats thronged to the five unattended restaurants there and stole everything that wasn’t nailed down.

As one witness marvelled after seeing an envoy make off with a baked turkey under one arm and a framed picture under the other: “They were locusts!”

The next day, however, the incident had not happened – not officially, anyway.

A UN spokesman swore blind that a senior official, concerned that his colleagues might go hungry, had granted permission for staff to help themselves. In other words: no mass theft. As excuses go, it was not bad.

If all pillage was as easy to explain, the UN might not today be facing what is shaping up as the biggest scandal in its history. This time it’s not about cutlery and baked hams, but at least $11 billion, depending on who is doing the counting – or rather, the guessing, since the UN has been disinclined to investigate.

Whatever the sum, it vanished from the UN-administered Iraq Oil for Food program, and those at the centre of suspicion are not lowly bureaucrats but a tight cluster of high-up insiders centred on the office, family and inner circle of Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself.

To understand what happened – what might have happened – you have to go back to 1996, when the UN set up a system whereby Iraqi oil could reach the market only if the proceeds went to the “humanitarian relief” of the Iraqi people.

Two years later, at the end of 1998, the UN appointed a Swiss company called Cotecna to run the program, which would supervise the flow of some $100 billion in oil receipts before it was finally shut down last November, when the UN reluctantly surrendered the job to the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council in Baghdad…. Rest of Article

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) — Six British cave divers trapped for five days by rising water in central Mexico turned down local rescue offers on Tuesday, preferring to wait for aid from the British Royal Navy, authorities said.

The divers were in caverns near the town of Cuetzalan, 110 miles (175 km) northeast of the Mexican capital when rains lifted underground water levels, trapping them.

Above ground, another six British cave divers have been in touch with their trapped colleagues via telephone, Civil Protection and Red Cross sources told Reuters, adding that they had declined all offers of assistance.

“Civil protection rescuers are at the scene, but the six Englishmen have refused all help as I imagine they don’t trust in the abilities of the Mexican rescuers,” Puebla Red Cross spokesman Jose Trinidad Luna Reyes said.

“They said they are awaiting the arrival of British Navy specialists,” Luna Reyes added.

It was not clear if the divers were in the cave for a scientific investigation or practicing caving as a sport or if they were British servicemen…. Rest of Article

CHICAGO (Reuters) – An Ohio woman was served a salad containing part of a restaurant worker’s thumb sliced off while chopping lettuce, a health official said on Friday.

The woman “thought it was gristle or something like that” when she tried to chew the unexpected garnish, said William Franks, health commissioner for Stark County, where the incident occurred earlier this week…. Rest of Article