h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Seeing the "disinfection-images" from the States on the news, I couldn't help but wondering what kind of people take lettuce with them in their luggage...

Headlines in Belgium (barring the weekly sports-results on Monday):
- the election of the first socialist mayor of Paris since 1977, and the victory of conservatives in other cities;
- the newspaper accusing an author of plagiarism last week, retracts its allegations: the author sues;
- 2 policemen severely wounded after hit and run in a tunnel in Brussels (I wonder, could it have anything to do with last month: police AGAIN (!) just gunning down (and killing) a young man, SUSPECTED of drug-dealing, because he tried to run?);
- hold up of Ikea-store with only minimum loot, but luckily no-one hurt;
- Electrabel (national electricity company, now having a monopoly) is announcing a strike, in protest of the opening of the market for other companies (I don't know if their actions are going to find support from civilians, most of whom are fed up with high energy-prices, lack of timely services and their "no mercy"-policy for people with financial problems).

Scandal in Germany at the moment over Jürgen Trittin (ex Green, now Socialist and Minister for the Environment) calling a colleague in the opposition a "skinhead"

Headlines in Belgium today:

- transport of sheep and goats allowed again;
- accusations of "human traffic" (Brazilian football-players), centred in Belgium (some papers claim proof, others deny);
- concensus found between the government and the teacher's unions (more money, less pressure);
- government promises rewards for police informers (*THIS is scary*);
- a total of 45.000.000 euro has not been collected by lotto-winners in 2000;
- teletubbies cause children to grow fat (*I'm NOT kidding, it's THERE, on the front page*);
- city taxes on the rise because of city debts everywhere (*use the lotto-money*).

Todays headlines in Estonia:
- 4 years old girl got hung accidentally when her hood was caught on the fence;
- Estonian sailing-ship Lennuk arrived from the trip around the world;
- pension rise may not come;
- Meredith Monk in Tallinn.

In the UK:

Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Keith Vaz sleaze allegations, will David Beckham get booed at Anfield (which is up there with 'Is the Pope a Catholic?' in the stupid questions league).

We are back at BSE(mad cow) as Russia announced today that they had 3 CJD deaths last year.

Germany:
Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Sophie from UK, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Schröder & Putin, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Foot & Mouth, Lufthansa pilots preparing for striking over Easter, F&M...

and football.

UK:

F&M, F&M, F&M, F&M, F&M, F&M, F&M, Blair electioneering by ringing up Motorola and saying 'I don't think you should make those people redundant', Sophie Wessex (dying down a bit, this one), F&M, F&M, F&M, F&M, F&M, Will ManYoo win the league this Sat?, F&M, F&M, F&M, F&M, Internet babies, Caroline murderer in Florida.

At the moment in the South of Germany and West of France there is a lot of hoo hah about radioactive waste being transported across the country. The train actually passed right by my office window and I counted 14 police vans, an ambulance, a helicopter, a Border Police van and about 50 various uniformed persons. Not a single demonstrator. There were a few hundred demonstrators just over the river in Philippsburg where there is a nuclear power station though.

Only very recently was such a transport held up in the North of Germany by people cementing themselves to the rails.

In aussieland the headlines are:

*drop in job participation rate (less people looking for work)
*Oil company, Mobil has taken the Austn manufacturing workers union to the industrial relations commission to stop workers striking
*the south-african soccer stampede which killed 47
*rise in sydney petrol prices
*american spy-plane crew back in the US
*A drug charge against suspended Olympic swim coach Gennadi Touretski has been adjourned until next month (he coaches Micheal Klim and Alexander Popov)
*the on-going Rose Porteous, death of tycoon Lang Hancock thingy
*and middle east discussions resume

Germany: Minister of Defense, Rüdiger Scharping has problems:
a) he's in love
b) he was on holidays (Mallorca) and used a Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) aircraft for his return flight. His excuse was that the aircraft was scheduled anyway because another member of the cabinet had ordered it and hence he hadn't misused tax payers' money for his private interests. The problem is that it was quite the other way round: the other minister had a regular ticket, and the flight had been ordered from out of the Ministry of Defense. Of course the opposition and the media are in pure excitement.

True. This is a very German thing. Just off to see if the BBC even give it a mention, and, if not, what is their headline for today (05.09.01).....

The Belfast Bombing, of course, which was also covered quite extensively here in Germany. And - I don't believe it - the question of whether same-sex marriages are acceptable. The first ceremonies have just taken place. (As far as I know, sodomy is still illegal in Britain, but maybe they repealed that one first)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_1526000/1526622.stm

On checking out the BBC World News page, it seems that there are more pressing issues than the German budget being spent on Ministers' dirty weekends. The Mexican immigration issue and the Zimbabwean farmers are certainly more important. No mention is given to Mr Scharping.

Today's big event world wide must be the fusion of HP and Compaq. Well, for some. I know some HP people - in Germany and the UK - and, according to the news in Germany, even top management of both companies here were surprised by the announcement. We are all just pawns on the chess board, I tell you.

The headlines in the Licolnshire Free Press are:

Jailed for selling an ecstasy tablet (this is a rural place, drug dealers are few and far between - allegedly)

Sneak thieves target disabled woman (74 year old wheelchair bound woman had her pension stolen from her house while she was in the back garden hanging out the washing)

Human remains found in marsh (this story is on the front page, but really tiny!?)

P.S for all the people who have never been sentenced to rural England, Lincolnshire is a county on the east coast with a much lower population density than most but a much higher road fatality rate.

Oh yes - do let's have some provincial stuff. Perhaps we can find some parallels, too. I live in the back of beyond. The German system of newspapers is slightly different and we get a regional newspaper with "world" news and a page or two of local news every day. Sometimes you get the impression that they are having trouble finding enough "news" to fill the local page. Even insignificant car accidents get mentioned. What I can never understand though, is, why when my son gets knocked down by a car and has to spend the night in hospital, the newspaper only talks about a woman in the next village who was grazed on the arm by a passing car and was seen to on the spot and sent home.

One of the main subjects this morning was about a Black African (can't remember where from exactly) priest not being given a visa to visit a village he has visited with no trouble several times already. And the worst one, making the local radio news, too, was a knifing of a visiting Ugandan priest by Neonazis. When you get back down to the level of provincial news, the items are probably identical eventually. Interesting, isn't it`?

Headlines!
Estonia has football on the front page (our team was beaten by Netherlands 0:5) and presidental elections, selling the powerstation to US company, punk killed by the policemen on the other pages. We have had a lot of discussion about police this summer - several car accidents caused by drunk policemen, violence etc. Couple of weeks ago a police officer killed himself because he drived off the road and was drunken. He shot himself immediately, before the other drivers reached him. Now the media is to blame.

This week will be for counting dead bodies: Since sunday 30 men and women have died because of bootleg vodka which turned out to be methanol (3 cl kills). Police says that it's very likely that a lot of people are still not found. 58 persons are fighting for their lives in hospitals, most of them are in coma and dialysed. For such a small country like Estonia it's a catastrophy.

This weeks headlines in Sweden:

The Norwegian elections: Can any conclusions be drawn from the results regarding the swedish election next year? Is there some "scandinavian" political trend to be indentified?

Several days of heavy rain causes trouble in northern Sweden - flooding of basements and roads, power & phone outages, dams about to break asf. The rain also has created traffic problems in the rest of the country, and large amounts of water on the roads are making an even worse mess of the already messed up traffic situation in the capital, Stockholm.

However (and this isn't in the news, just my personal observation), the commuter train I ride to work everyday is dry and running on time.

In Britain last night:
- The ongoing trouble taking I think its catholic children to school via a protestent area (or it could've been the other way around, I'm none too good at the 'troubles' thing)
- The police have passed the files dealing with John Prescott's hitting a farm worker Mr Evans who threw a raw egg at him from very close quaters on the campaign trail to the crown prosecution service, however they've not said who is being prosecuted, or even if prosecution is reccomended or anything
- The FTSE 100 closed down quite a lot last night, it was generally a bit of a rollercoaster in the london market, and one would be well advised not to invest in it for the time being

Today's headlines make the rest seem rather pointless. My sympathy to all involved. What are your papers - newspaper-readers of the world - conjecturing as to what will come of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington?