The US Pentagon has alerted Congress, in an e-mail sent 23 November, that Wikileaks is working closely with three major international media companies to prepare a new batch of leaked military documents. They could be published as soon as 26 November, the day after the big American Thanksgiving holiday, when offices are typically closed, the Armed Services Committees of the House and the Senate were told. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has warned that he will soon publish yet more damaging documents, in addition to two batches published earlier in 2010, about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Wikileaks is reportedly working with The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel, who received advance copies of the other documents.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Wikileaks, and background story, CS Monitor, August 2010
US Senator Jim Webb, a member of the Senate’s foreign relations committee, will be the first US member of Congress to visit Burma/Myanmar in more than a decade. He is on a two-week trip to Asia that takes in 5 nations. He will also be the first US official to meet the reclusive General Than Shwe, leader of the military junta that has ruled Burma since 1962. It is unclear what Webb’s mission is.
Earlier this week the US condemned Burma’s conviction of Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 months house arrest for violating the terms of her detention. CNN, Reuters
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Americans in the Lake Geneva region celebrate today their traditional national holiday: Thanksgiving Day. In the US the stock market is closed, malls and businesses are too, and supermarkets shut their doors early for this secular celebration.
From the editor: the second part of the article on Switzerland’s 66 top wines, adapted from l’Hebdo, will be delayed to Thursday afternoon due to technical problems. If you haven’t yet checked out our most recent features and interviews (always below the international news on the home page), this is a great time to do it – wine and food and sports and business and more.
100 year old duck egg (really a few months old), covered in sulphur to age it properly
Morges, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Hundred-year-old eggs are not part of the daily diet in China, but they are not considered odd, and eau-de-vie de viper, or brandy with a snake in it, might pass in some parts of France as a sensible way of getting rid of your fear of snakes. In Switzerland, both are unusual. Morges this weekend is offering lessons to the brave or curious on how to unlearn cultural notions about food and drink, with Jean Michel Durivault leading workshops on how our taste buds work (photo album from Morges Aliment bizarres workshop).
