- Greece's debt crisis spreads to Italy and Spain
- Hong Kong holds 'anti-locust rally' protesting mainlanders from China
- Syria's first lady is banned from EU, except for Britain
Greece's debt crisis spreads to Italy and Spain
Remember two years ago when there was a big debt crisis in Greece? Oh, wait, that was two weeks ago, not two years ago. Since then, one pundit after another has been declaring the euro crisis over, especially since the European Central Bank printed over €1 trillion and poured it into the European banking system. Even so, Italy and Spain are following the same path as Greece. Investors are increasingly betting that Italy and Spain are going to default on their debts, and so yields (interest rates) on 10-year bonds from those two countries have been increasing, and are now well above the psychologically important 5% level. However, Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said that comparisons between Spain and Greece were "total nonsense." And we all know how much we can depend on these guys telling the truth, don't we. Globe and Mail and Telegraph
Hong Kong holds 'anti-locust rally' protesting mainlanders from China
The song "Locust World" is popular in Hong Kong. It describes tourists from mainland China as "experts in stealing, cheating, deceiving and lying." According to a Hong Kong professor,
"Locusts come in groups. When they come as individuals, it doesn't matter. When they come in thousands and thousands, it looks like a swarm of locusts."
Hong Kong speaks Cantonese, a distinct dialect of the Chinese language from southern China, different from the Mandarin that most mainlanders speak. Hong Kong people people see a mainland threat to the values they hold dear, including a respect for the rule of law. NPR
Syria's first lady is banned from EU, except for Britain
The European Union imposed further pointless sanctions on Syria on Monday, by placing president Bashar al-Assad's wife, Asma al-Assad, as well as Assad's mother, sister and sister-in-law on a blacklist that bans them from travelling to Europe, and freeze any assets they may have there. However, Asma al-Assad is a British citizen, so she can still travel there. While her husband has been exterminating the Syrian people as if they were cockroaches, Asma has been leading a life of high style, shopping for European furniture, jewelry and Christian Louboutin shoes. Asma grew up in London, and her parents and other family members still live there. Independent