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Brown could lose it all
HAVE you heard the one about the international airline, the spin doctor, the Prime Minister and his anointed successor? It is a story stuffed with enough conspiracies to rival any political thriller and now looks set to dominate Britain's forthcoming general election campaign. Soon after New Labour was elected in 1997, it became apparent the government was divided into two warring camps. One surrounded then-Prime Minister Tony Blair at No 10, the other fought loyally for Ch

Let's fight over a big plan
by Thomas L Friedman THE NEW YORK TIMES
UNDERLYING the latest United States-Israel spat over settlements is the deeper - real - problem: There are five key actors in the Israeli-Palestinian equation today. Two of them - the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the alliance of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah - have clear strategies. These two are actually opposed, but one of them will shape...

Analysis
The real threat is inside parliament
by Tulsathit Taptim
TO deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the bloody mess left to be cleaned up was not the same thing cleaners were assigned to do yesterday. His entire political movement has been known to be fractious, but the problem may become glaring once the Red...

Analysis
a clash of civilisations
by MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
WITH the West locked in conflicts across the Muslim world, why would anyone add fuel to the fire? A small group of Europeans have been doing just that - provoking death plots and at least one murder by turning out art that derides the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran in the name of Western values. Behind the scenes is something bigger: A rising European unease...

Past ghosts, present tensions
NINE years ago, I was travelling with Tony Blair when he became the first British Prime Minister to set foot on Argentine soil. That was a big deal then, his visit to the border town of Puerto Iguazu coming almost 20 years after Argentina's ill-fated invasion of the Falkland Islands. As his motorcade sped through the stunning Brazilian countryside, across...

Pay-TV changes: A new distortion?
by Siew Kum Hong
PUBLIC sentiment has finally moved the mountain that is the Media Development Authority (MDA). With the prospect of not getting to watch the World Cup live still looming large, the MDA has finally reversed its longstanding position on exclusive carriage deals for pay-TV content. Last Friday, the Government announced that pay-TV operators would now have to...

Final straight for our athletes
Swimmers are training hard hoping to make the list of athletes who will fly Singapore's flag at the Youth Games..TODAY FILE PHOTO
They must go to bed every night dreaming of that moment in the spotlight, the swimmer just before he flies off the block, the sprinter a split second before he lunges from the start line, the gymnast moments before the pirouette into her routine. The days are...

They're the real deal
Modest Fulham have impressed many with their run in the Europa League. AFP
Some Liverpool fans felt I gave the Europa League short shrift earlier in the week when I questioned the ability of manager Rafa Benitez and the club to finish fourth in the Premiership. They tried talking up opponents like Unirea Urziceni, FK Ventspils and...

Clegg could become kingmaker
A COALITION government of ministers from different political parties could be running Britain for the first time in 65 years. Voters in the United Kingdom were this week slowly waking up to the prospect as polls predicting the outcome of the forthcoming general election pointed towards a hung Parliament. Both Labour and the Conservatives are desperate to...

This time, it's personnel
Liverpool striker Fernando Torres has been in the first XI only 51 per cent of the time.
IT SUCKS to be a die-hard Liverpool supporter right now, enduring sleepless nights grappling with the biggest mystery in football: What the hell is wrong with Liverpool? Rafael Benitez' men were so good last season that many Reds fans - and some neutrals like...

No need for witch hunt
HE MAY be licking his wounds, but Radojko Avramovic knows the score. The buck stops with him, as Singapore's national coach, he has to take the bouquets with the brickbats, it goes with the territory. After the Lions' loss to Jordan last Wednesday, he should not be surprised to hear calls for his head. He was confident of guiding the Lions into the Asian Cup...

Oh Jack, you tiger!
  JACK Neo, as you know, is in trouble. He has admitted to one affair, which is dire enough, and now there are reports of at least another 10 women whom Jack may have been anything but a dull boy with at some point in time. That number may have gone up by the time this article has gone to print. It would be because we have yet to come up with the...

Fools rush in, scuttling recovery
by David G Blanchflower Bloomberg
John Maynard Keynes wrote during the Great Depression that only ''fools and madmen'' say ''the path of escape is to be found in strict economy.'' Several countries - notably Greece and Ireland - have now started ''strict economy'', or fiscal tightening, after the biggest financial crisis since World War II. Portugal plans to cut its deficit to 2.8 per cent...

Desperate for their game
by Leonard Thomas leonard@mediacorp.com.sg
Milan need soomething special from Ronaldinho if they want to make the last eight. AP
  THERE is no part of Dimitar Berbatov's right foot that cannot make a pass. It means the Manchester United striker has the extraordinary ability to open up a defence whichever way he is facing. Aston Villa defenders were powerless to stop his exquisite...

Gentlemen, start your engines
Schumacher's return is set to spice up the battle on the track and lure back fans and sponsors. AFP
THE past three years have not been vintage ones for Formula 1, which has been gripped by scandals and bitter squabbles that threatened to tear the sport apart, not to mention the financial crisis. Happily, with the new season flagging off in Bahrain this...

How about an ethnic integration grant?
by Yolanda Chin and Norman Vasu
IMPLEMENTED in 1989, the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) was driven by the desire to facilitate interaction between the different races in Singapore by preventing the formation of racial enclaves. There has been much debate over the extension of the integration policy to permanent residents (PRs) but, it does not resolve a key issue at the heart of the...
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