International: November 2007 Archives

So America's new BFF is France.  French president Nicolas Sarcozy told Congress that France is "the friend of the United States of America."

Remember when France and America were total frenemies?   

America thought she was cool with France, but France was acting like she thought she was better friends with Iraq than America.  America was so mad that she told France she would never eat french fries again.  Ever!  Her new freedom fry diet was starting right now.

France was like, well, whatever.

Anyway, France and America have been BFFs again for like 2 weeks now, so it's totally possible that this rekindled relationship could last as long as a good Hollywood marriage (about 6-9 months).  Afterall, Mr. Sarcozy said himself that "our friendship and our alliance is strong."

A 19 year old woman who was kidnapped and gang raped 14 times by 7 men in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in prison.  The sentencing court said that the young woman violated laws prohibiting  women from being alone with unrelated men.

See also:

Ruling Jolts Even Saudis: 200 Lashes for Rape Victim [The New York Times]

Saudi court ups punishment for gang-rape victim [CNN]

Saudi gang-rape victim is jailed [BBC]

Saudi orders court lashes, prison for rape victim [The Boston Globe]

 Mikhail Gorbachev and his pet Louie.

Former leader of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, knows the power of a hot handbag.  He appeared in a recent advertisement for Louis Vuitton, seated next to a Louis Vuitton bag in a limo.

The ad has caused drama, because of a Russian magazine poking out of the open bag.  The headline of the magazine (when tranlated from Russian to English) says, "The Murder of Litvinenko: They Wanted to Give Up the Suspect for $7,000." 

Litvinenko is Alexander V. Litvinenko, the former KGB spy who died last Novermber after being poisoned with a radioactive material.  On his deathbed, Litvinenko said that President Vladimir V. Putin was behind his poisoning.  British officials later charged Andrei K. Lugovoi, an associate of Putin, with the crime. 

So the drama is all about whether the magazine was placed in the ad on purpose, and if so, what does it mean? Louis Vuitton, its ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, and a representative for Gorbachev all deny that the magazine placement was intentional or designed to send a message. 

Not everyone is buying their story though.  As one observer told the New York Times, "In an industry where sesame seeds are hand-placed on a hamburger bun by food technicians before a shot, one would reasonably assume that this was not something that happened by chance.  Ads like these get art-directed to the very millimeter and airbrushed so that the advertiser gets exactly what they want.”

Come on, Louis Vuitton. We may be polichicks, but we're not dumb broads.

14,000 dolphins are killed every year in Japan for food.  Japanese fisherman see nothing wrong with this and believe that dolphins should be treated like any other fish that's caught and eaten by humans. They say that eating dolphin is a part of Japanese culture, and foreigners ought to stay out of it.

Hayden Panettiere disagrees.  The Heroes star left Hollywood behind, joined other dolphin rights activists in Japan, and confronted Japanese fisherman in the water as they began the dolphin slaughter.  The fishermen used a long pole to push Hayden and her pals away, and sadly, not one dolphin - not even the little baby dolphin that Hayden said looked at her - was saved.  Hayden returned to shore and sobbed on the beach.

Hayden is a spokesperson for savethewhalesagain.org.

Video below.