This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.

China slams Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama says to President Obama: ‘My Nobel Peace Prize is bigger than your Nobel Peace Prize!’

China accused the United States on Sunday of “grossly” interfering in its internal affairs and seriously damaging relations after President Barack Obama met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House on Saturday. According to China’s Foreign Ministry:

“This action is a gross interference in China’s internal affairs, hurts the feelings of the Chinese people and damages Sino-U.S. relations. The Dalai Lama has for a long time used the banner of religion to engage in anti-China splittist activities. We demand the United States conscientiously handle China’s principled and just stance, immediately take steps to remove the baneful impact, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop abetting in and supporting ‘Tibet independence’ anti-China splittist forces.”

Reuters

Mumbai terrorist attacks may have been a business deal

Having been unable to identify the perpetrators of last weeks triple bombing terrorist attacks in Mumbai, investigators are now considering a disquieting possibility: that terror is being outsourced to local criminal gangs, as a kind of business deal. For a few thousand rupees [a couple of hundred dollars], you can get a criminal with no particular skills to place a bomb for you. Times of India

Construction boom in Gaza since fall of Mubarak regime

Since the fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt, there’s been a construction boom in Gaza, where more than 14,000 new construction jobs have been created so far this year. The reason for the change is that it’s now easier to smuggle construction materials through the tunnels from Egypt, where the Mubarak regime had made it almost impossible. The Israeli blockade of Gaza restricts construction materials, because they could be used to build military bunkers. Al-Jazeera

Germany withdraws Quadriga award for Vladimir Putin

The Quadriga award is named after the sculpture of a horse-drawn chariot that sits atop the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Germany’s Werkstatt Deutschland has reversed a decision to award Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the prestigious Quadriga prize. The organization had planned to give Putin the Quadriga Award as a “role model for enlightenment, dedication and the public good” and for his contribution to Russia’s “stability through the interaction between prosperity, economics and identity,” as well as to the reliability of German-Russian ties. The decision was reversed because of “massive criticism” from the media and politicians. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former Czech president Vaclav Havel have won the award in the past. Ria Novosti and AP

Ironically, Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou won the award last year for the “Power of Veracity,” in recognition of Papandreou revealing the “truth” about the state of Greece’s public finances. Inside Greece

Mixed feelings in Austria at funeral of Otto von Habsburg

Austrians felt a mixture of clashing emotions as Otto von Habsburg was buried at 98. The funeral ends the Habsburg dynasty that ruled central Europe for over six centuries. His father, Charles, was the last Habsburg to ascend the imperial throne in 1916; two years later, the empire broke apart after defeat in the first World War and the last kaiser relinquished the throne without formally abdicating. The lavish funeral honored “Otto of Austria, former Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, Prince Royal of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukowina; Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Osweicim and Zator, of Teschen, Friaul, Dubrovnik and Zadar; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trento and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria: Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenburg; Lord of Trieste, Kotor and Windic March; Grand Voivod of the Voivodship of Serbia.” Irish Times

Google zaps your memory

It used to be that comic books made you stupid. Then it was television that made you stupid. Now it’s the internet, especially Google, that’s making you stupid, since you don’t have to try to remember anything if you know you can just google it any time you want. PC Magazine