8/31/2007

If you thought Catholic priests were gay...

"I now bless you with the sign of peace"
Hey, I was wondering where my window drapes went...

Sean Fritz, left, and Tim McQuillan embrace at the end of their wedding ceremony as The Rev. Mark Stringer, right, looks on, Friday, Aug. 31, 2007, in Des Moines, Iowa. The Ames, Iowa, couple was married a day after a judge threw out the state's ban on same-sex marriage. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Say heil to the crowd


France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) waves to the crowd as he leaves a Leclerc shopping centre in Bois d'Arcy, near Paris, August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Pierre Verdy/Pool (FRANCE)

Here's to you, Angie


German Chancellor Angela Merkel toasts during a luncheon hosted by Kyoto prefectural government at the Kyoto Guest House in Kyoto, Friday, Aug. 31, 2007. Merkel is on the second leg of China/Japan tour before departing back home. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

GeishaMerkel


German Chancellor Angela Merkel poses for photographers with Geishas at a Geisha school in Kyoto August 31, 2007. REUTERS/Peer Grimm/Pool (JAPAN)

Tea time for Angie


German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) is served by Master of Tea Ceremony Genshitsu Sen at a Japanese tea ceremony, as part of her side trip to the ancient Japanese capital in Kyoto, August 31, 2007. German Chancellor Angela Merkel sips a bowl of green tea at Japanese tea ceremony as part of her side trip to the ancient Japanese capitol in Kyoto, August 31, 2007. Merkel wants to offer developing countries a compromise pact on climate change and carbon dioxide emissions based on population size, but said on Friday that negotiations will be tough. , a master of the tea ceremony. REUTERS/Junji Kurokawa/Pool (JAPAN)

8/30/2007

Good idea, Angie

Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed a new system of measuring greenhouse gas emissions in developing nations, a step aimed at helping countries such as China and India sign up to global efforts to tackle climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Merkel, on a five-day visit to China and Japan, proposed calculating the carbon-dioxide output of each country by its population instead of the absolute measurement used at present, according to the text of a speech to an economic symposium in Tokyo today.

Ouch


Right flanker Juan Smith(R) of South Africa is tackled by scrum half Mike Blair of Scotland during their World Cup warm up match at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Scotland. South Africa ran in three first-half tries on their way to a morale-boosting 27-3 World Cup warm-up win over Scotland.(AFP/Peter Muhly)

Heiling the unions


France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) walks with French employer's body MEDEF union leader Laurence Parisot (L) as he arrives at the MEDEF summer forum on the campus of the HEC School of Management in Jouy-en-Josas, near Paris, August 30, 2007. REUTERS/Charles Platiau (FRANCE)

You OK, Angie?


German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at a business symposium on the environment in Tokyo, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007. 'We need a common global rule and we must make such a rule concerning global warming by 2009,' Merkel said, referring to a June agreement between the Group of Eight industrial countries to come up with a successor to the Kyoto Protocol by 2009. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

8/29/2007

Heiling in Corsica


France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) waves to the crowd while flanked by Lucien Benvenuti (R) at Saint-Florent during a one-day visit to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica August 28, 2007. Benvenuti is a local restaurant owner who claims to have received extortion threats. REUTERS/Charles Platiau (FRANCE)

Heiling in China


Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (C) waves to employees of Siemens Numerical Control Ltd. in Nanjing August 29, 2007. REUTERS/Aly Song (CHINA)

8/27/2007

Don't trust them, Angie


German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference with China's Premier Wen Jiabao at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing August 27, 2007. REUTERS/Guang Niu/Pool (CHINA)

8/26/2007

Idiot reporter

Chavez Offers Billions in Latin America

By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON and IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writers

Laid-off Brazilian factory workers have their jobs back, Nicaraguan farmers are getting low-interest loans and Bolivian mayors can afford new health clinics, all thanks to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Bolstered by windfall oil profits, Chavez's government is now offering more direct state funding to Latin America and the Caribbean than the United States. A tally by The Associated Press shows Venezuela has pledged more than $8.8 billion in aid, financing and energy funding so far this year.

While the most recent figures available from Washington show $3 billion in U.S. grants and loans reached the region in 2005, it isn't known how much of the Venezuelan money has actually been delivered. And Chavez's spending abroad doesn't come close to the overall volume of U.S. private investment and trade in Latin America.

Clay Lowery, the U.S. Treasury Department's acting undersecretary for international affairs, argues that the U.S. plays a larger role than reflected in its aid figures. The United States, for instance, drove Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank debt relief deals totaling $7.5 billion over the past three years in Latin America, he said.

"Who is the biggest financier of the IDB? The United States. Who is the biggest financier of the World Bank? The United States is. We don't count those," Lowery said. "We're basically engaged on a multilevel, multi-prong approach."

Angie and kinder


German Chancellor Angela Merkel sits with children in the G8 summit beach chair in the garden of the chancellery during the open house in Berlin August 25, 2007. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke (GERMANY)

Almost a heil


German Chancellor Angela Merkel waves as she walks over a bridge in the garden of the chancellery during the open house in Berlin August 25, 2007. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke (GERMANY)

Everybody loves Angie



German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks through the crowd in the garden of the chancellery during the open house in Berlin August 25, 2007. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke (GERMANY)

Don't mess with Angie


Merkel holds a copy of the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, which features her visage with the headline: "Pure Racism." (AP)

8/25/2007

Caddyshack Jack and Coke


Bill Murray at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament in California, February 10, 2007. Murray was stopped by Stockholm police on Sunday and tested for drunk driving after he was found at the wheel of a golf cart en route to his downtown hotel, police said on Wednesday. (Robert Galbraith/Reuters)

Sarko "waves"


France's President Nicolas Sarkozy waves to the crowd during a one-day visit to the south-western Atlantic coast city of Arcachon, near Bordeaux August 24, 2007. REUTERS/Charles Platiau (FRANCE)
French president Nicolas Sarkozy waves to the crowd before having lunch in the French Basque city of Ciboure, southwestern France, Friday Aug. 24, 2007. France will show 'no weakness' toward terrorists, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday, after a van loaded with explosives blew up outside a police station in a Basque city in Spain. (AP Photo/Thomas Coex, Pool)

8/24/2007

Howard Heils


Australia's Prime Minister John Howard (C) gestures as captain Stirling Mortlock (L) and coach John Connolly look on at a farewell ceremony in Sydney, ahead of the Wallabies departure for the Rugby World Cup in France August 22, 2007. REUTERS/Mick Tsikas (AUSTRALIA)

Don't cross Angie


German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives at the government's guesthouse, Meseberg Palace in the village Meseberg north of Berlin on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007. The German cabinet meets in conclave at the palace on Thursday Aug. 23 and Friday Aug. 24, 2007. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Angie practices her whistling


German Chancellor Angela Merkel reaches for a bottle opener before the start of a two-day meeting with cabinet members, inside the government guest house Schloss Meseberg, some 70 km north of Berlin, August 23, 2007. REUTERS/Bernd Settnik/Pool
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Vice Chancellor and Labor Minister Franz Muentefering gesture during the cabinet meeting at the government's guesthouse, Meseberg Palace in the village Meseberg north of Berlin on Friday, Aug. 24, 2007. The German cabinet had met in conclave at the palace on Thursday Aug. 23 and Friday Aug. 24, 2007. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

8/23/2007

Savages

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a key rival to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, can return to Pakistan from exile under a Supreme Court ruling Thursday.

Outside the court, some 200 supporters of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party cheered and danced in celebration. One bearded activist slaughtered six goats as a celebratory act in front of the white marble court complex, leaving the road smeared in blood.
By SADAQAT JAN, Associated Press Writer

8/22/2007

Angie makes a new friend


German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown leave 10 Downing Street in London August 22, 2007. Britain and Germany believe the fundamentals of their economies are strong, Brown said after a meeting with his German counterpart Merkel on Wednesday. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor (BRITAIN)

Angie's up to something


German Chancellor Angela Merkel waits for the start of the party board meeting of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin August 20, 2007. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz (GERMANY)

Angie, we can hardly see you!


German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference in Budapest August 21, 2007. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh(HUNGARY)

Bush pic of the day


U.S. President George W. Bush listens to his introduction before delivering remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, August 22, 2007. (Jim Young/Reuters)

8/19/2007

Try not eating worms while diving

Fri Aug 17, 11:32 AM ET

Reuters

A Dutch scuba diver became the surprise catch of the day for a 13-year-old boy fishing in the Netherlands when his hook got caught in the man's lip.

"I heard a sound on my head and immediately I felt a jerk on my lip," Wim van Huffelen, who had been swimming in the North Sea, was quoted as saying by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

The daily ran a picture of the diver with the hook embedded in his lower lip.

The diver had been swimming close to the shore near the southern Dutch town of Zierikzee. A doctor managed to free him from the hook.

Stay strong, Angie


German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks past a German police officer as she leaves Berlin Dome church after a memorial service for three killed German police officers in Berlin August 18, 2007. The three police officers were killed near Kabul in Afghanistan in a bomb attack on August 15, 2007. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann (GERMANY)

8/18/2007

The look on the girl's face says it all


Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tries to get the attention of students at the renovated Mary McCleod Bethune Accelerated School in New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007. Pelosi is helping lead a congressional group on a tour of hurricane ravaged areas in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Looking at the camera is Kayla Magee, 10. At top left is U.S Rep.William Jefferson, D-La. At right is Principal Mary Haynes-Smith. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

The key to a long life: lots of cake


Edna Parker , 114, smiles as her great great grandson, Jackson Parker, cuts a cake while he is held by Don Parker in Shelbyville, Ind. Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007. The world's oldest person — 114-year-old Edna Parker — celebrated her feat of longevity Thursday by dining on a slice of her favorite type of cake after telling reporters that she can't believe she's lived to be so old. Parker, who was born in 1893, became the world's oldest person Monday when a Japanese woman four months older than her died. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Well done, Ellen


Ellen DeGeneres, left, and girlfriend Portia de Rossi attend the funeral for entertainment mogul Merv Griffin at the Church of Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday Aug. 17, 2007. Griffin, 82, died Sunday of prostate cancer. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool) REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Mission accomplished, Sarko


French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks to journalists during his morning jog in Wolfeboro, New Hamphire, where he is vacationing. Sarkozy said Thursday at the end of his US vacation that France is popular again in the United States and hailed the countries' "terrific" relationship.(AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

Angie the explorer


German chancellor Angela Merkel collects blue berries as she visits the diminishing Sermeq Kujalleq glacier near Ilulissat on Greenland's west coast Friday, Aug 17, 2007. Merkel said China and the United States must be part of a new deal replacing the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gases. Merkel and German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel arrived Thursday in Ilulissat, where the nearby Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, a U.N. heritage site, has thinned in recent years in what scientists say is one of the most glaring signs of global warming. (AP Photo/Michael Kappeler, pool)

8/15/2007

Seek revenge, Angie


German Chancellor Angela Merkel is silhouetted as she makes a statement at the Chancellery in Berlin, on Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007 about the diplomatic convoy hit by a remote-controlled roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Three senior German police officers charged with protecting the German ambassador were killed and one was wounded in a roadside bomb near the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, German and Afghan officials said. A white four-wheel-drive vehicle was totally destroyed by the blast on a dirt track leading to a NATO and Afghan army training base. (AP Photo/Hannibal Hanschke, Pool)

Angie represents


German Chancellor Angela Merkel starts a promotional tour for the new party basic programme in Berlin August 15, 2007. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke (GERMANY)

8/13/2007

Sarko goes after the twins


French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C, back to camera), greets Jenna Bush (L) and Barbara Bush (R), the daughters of U.S. President U.S. President George W. Bush, upon Sarkozy's arrival for a social visit to the Bush family residence in Kennebunkport, Maine, August 11, 2007. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)

Hey France, can we switch?


President Bush, left, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, smile during a boat ride Saturday, Aug. 11, 2007, off Kennebunkport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Nice headphones, Sarko


French President Nicolas Sarkozy jogs along Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. US newspapers on Sunday avoided editorial comment on a meeting between Presidents George W. Bush of the United States and Sarkozy, limiting themselves to publishing correspondent reports from Kennebunkport, Maine.(AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

8/07/2007

Tossing salad to beat terrorists


An Israeli resident of kibbutz Nir Am fires eggs and vegetables towards the neighbouring Gaza Strip, 02 August 2007. The real army put a quick stop to the "mixed salad" barrage. Those behind the ad hoc artillery bombardment were protesting the Israeli's government's failure to stop the rocket attacks from Gaza.(AFP/Edi Israel)

8/06/2007

Indecent Sarko


French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) jogs on a path in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, on 04 August 2007. Sarkozy, rarely shy in front of cameras, found enough was enough when chased down by two news photographers while boating in his bathing suit on his American holiday.(AFP/File/Don Emmert)

Leave Sarko Alone!


AP Photo/Jim Cole

By BEVERLEY WANG, Associated Press WriterMon Aug 6, 12:43 AM ET

French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost his temper with two American news photographers covering his vacation Sunday, jumping onto their boat and scolding them loudly in French.

The confrontation came Sunday afternoon as Sarkozy and companions were headed for open water in a boat on Lake Winnipesaukee when he spotted Associated Press photographer Jim Cole and freelancer Vince DeWitt aboard Cole's boat, which was outside a buoy barrier monitored by the New Hampshire Marine Patrol.

"He was happy and smiling and he waved at the security people as he was coming out," Cole said of the president. "And then he noticed us taking pictures and his happy demeanor diminished immediately."

The men said they watched through their lenses as Sarkozy pointed toward them and his boat began moving in their direction. Coming alongside Cole's boat, Sarkozy, clad only in swim trunks, jumped aboard and began shouting at them.

"The president was very agitated, speaking French at a loud volume very rapidly," DeWitt said.

Both men said they repeatedly stated they did not speak French. Cole said that he asked whether any of the other passengers on Sarkozy's boat spoke English, but that no one answered or intervened.

Sarkozy picked up DeWitt's camera but then put it down. A woman then spoke up in English and relayed Sarkozy's request to be left alone, DeWitt said. The woman did not identify herself.

8/05/2007

Heil and heil back


French President Nicolas Sarkozy waves to a crowd that gathered during his news conference in the lakeside town Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, August 5, 2007. The Sarkozy family is vacationing in Wolfeboro. REUTERS / Neal Hamberg (UNITED STATES)

Sarko in a row over US vacation


French President Nicolas Sarkozy paddles a canoe on Lake Winnipesaukee while on vacation in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire August 4, 2007. New Hampshire residents and visitors, accustomed to a steady stream of U.S. presidential hopefuls, said on Saturday they hoped Sarkozy's visit signaled strengthening relations between Washington and Paris. On his first vacation since taking office in May, Sarkozy is staying at an estate at the end of tree-lined road along the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. REUTERS/Neal Hamberg (UNITED STATES)

Sarko Jogs the US


French President Nicolas Sarkozy jogs along a bike path while on vacation in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire August 5, 2007. REUTERS / Neal Hamberg (UNITED STATES)