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Athletes who take Tibet stand 'face Olympic cut'

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:02:14 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Athletes who display Tibetan flags at Olympic venues — including in their own rooms — could be expelled from this summer’s Games in Beijing under anti-propaganda rules.

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that competitors were free to express their political views but faced sanctions if they indulged in propaganda.

He accompanied those comments with an admission that the Games were in “crisis” after pro-Tibet protests engulfed the Olympic torch relay.

Mr Rogge’s call for Beijing to abide by its promise to address human rights was given short shrift by Beijing, which bluntly told him to keep politics out of the Games.

The question of what will constitute propaganda when the Games are on in August and what will be considered opinion under IOC rules is one vexing many in the Olympic movement. The Olympic Charter bans any kind of “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” in any Olympic venue or area.

World's most expensive coffee at $100 a cup; made from cats' droppings

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:00:36 GMT

clipped by: reimers
clipper's remarks: The civets eat the soft coffee cherries, digest the fruit pulp and excrete the beans on the forest floor, because they cannot digest the beans.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

It might not be to everyone's taste - and that's not just because at £50 a cup it's the most expensive coffee in the world.

The secret behind the special blend about to go on sale at an upmarket department store is that it is made from cats' droppings.

While such an ingredient might leave many spluttering into their cups, Peter Jones thinks it is on to a winner.

For the rest of April, it is serving espressos, Americanos and lattes made from the droppings in its in-store coffee shop in Sloane Square, central London.

And for those who want the ultimate talking point over the after-dinner mints, the coffee beans are also on sale at £50 for 100 grams.

The store, part of the John Lewis partnership, has bought 60 packets of the exclusive blend of Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kupi Luwak bean.

The bean is rare, with less than 450lb harvested each year.

The beans are extracted from the droppings of the palm civet, a cross between a cat and a monkey which lives in Indonesia.

Nations make secret deals over grain

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:00:00 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Clip Source: www.ft.com

Governments are racing to strike secretive barter and bilateral agreements with food-exporting countries to secure scarce supplies as the price of agricultural commodities jump to record highs, diplomats and cereal traders say.

The moves coincide with a significant tightening of the global food market as leading exporters of agricultural commodities ban foreign sales. The government-to-government contracts could bypass those restrictions, diplomats say.

Wheat traders said on Thursday that Ukraine was close to an agreement with Libya to devote up to 100,000 hectares of its own land to grow wheat for the north African country. Kiev-based analysts questioned the feasibility of such an agreement after the former Soviet republic restricted its cereals sales earlier this year.

The discussions follow a barter contract signed between Egypt and Syria in which Cairo agreed to supply Damascus with rice in exchange for secure wheat cargoes.