About this date, 10 years ago, I tried getting out of bed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to get ready for my job as foreign editor of the Cambodia Daily. I passed out from the pain of doing so; it felt like I'd been hammered on the head with a baseball bat. I didn't know it at the time, but I wouldn't work again for another year.

Yesterday, Russia's President Vladimir Putin explained why he kissed a young boy's stomach.

But in the same BBC webcast, he also had this riposte when asked about when he lost his virginity:

Mr Putin, apparently enjoying himself, invited further questions.

"What about the one that so many voted for on the Russian website,'" asked one journalist. "About when you first had sex?" Even that was something he was prepared to field.

"I can't remember the first time," he said. "But I remember exactly when I last did it."

Macho man indeed.

Hopefully he isn't referring to the June 28 incident. :)

The BBC has a special section: 7/7: One Year On.

The Guardian has Attack On London: One Year on.

The Independent has the following:

• The big question: How successful have the police been in thwarting terrorism since July 7
• Bomber's video shows hand of al-Qaida
• Muslims set up coalition to fight extremism
• Tears and prayers on the day a city remembers its dead
• Minister: Public inquiry 'would be a diversion'

The Times of London has a special report: London Bombs

From The Globe and Mail: Shattered faith, fresh optimism and split opinion (That's a print edition story; if you link to this online story, you can access some of the Globe's interactives).

Dr. Abby Goodrum of the Ryerson School of Journalism is doing a study on The Mediasphere and the Blogosphere, which started in January. And what would a study like that be without a blog of its own?

Her research assistant is Susan Susannah Schmidt.

Someone made the following posting:

Reporter’s notebook

July 4th, 2006

Noticed for the first time that Doskoch occasionally refers to his news writing for CTV.ca on his blog in addition to news round-up:  http://billdoskoch.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/7/3/2080831.html

Observe the choice of words: "Noticed for the first time ..."

Actually, I do it with all bylined features I write for CTV.ca News (I started there as a staffer in January 2004). Interestingly, no one has ever left a comment on one.

I guess most people are shy about saying, in public, that something's perfect. :^)

Seymour Hersh talks to Democracy Now! about his current New Yorker article on the Bush's bombing plans for Iran. Here's a link to an earlier, related New Yorker story from April.

A BBC article on World Cup fever in France that tastes faintly of sour grapes.

This was one of my favourite TIFF films from last year. Here's the Now review (John Harkness gives it three stars).

Unfortunately, the only place it's screening is at the Kennedy Commons.

What a terrible place to screen a fine movie like that (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift should be playing on every screen there). Hopefully the Bloor or some similar venue picks up The War Within in the not-too-distant future.

Update:

Writing in The Globe and Mail, Jason Anderson gave it two stars. Susan Walker, a Toronto Star entertainment reporter, gave it three stars.

Here's RottenTomato.com's collection of reviews.

WASHINGTON, DC—A team of leading historians and psychiatrists issued a report Wednesday claiming that the United States was likely the victim of abuse by its founding fathers and motherland when it was a young colony.

The War of 1812, an example of early abuse by the motherland.

 "In its adulthood, the U.S. displays all the classic tendencies of a nation that was repeatedly mistreated in its infancy—difficulty forming lasting foreign relationships, viewing everyone as a potential enemy, and employing a pattern of assault and intimidation to assert its power," said Dr. Howard Drexel, the report's lead author. "Because of trust issues stemming from the abuse, America has become withdrawn, has not made an ally in years, and often resents the few nations that are willing to lend support—most countries outgrow this kind of behavior after 230 years."

 According to Drexel, nations that act out in selfish, self-destructive ways in statehood were usually granted too much independence at an early age, especially if the motherland had other newly annexed lands to care for.

According to Yale University psychology professor John Bauffman, while some rebellious behavior in a nation's adolescence is common, and sometimes healthy, America's historically stormy relationship with mother country Great Britain points to a deep need for acceptance.

From The Onion

Russia's President Vladimir Putin explains to the BBC why he kissed a young boy on the stomach the other day.

From the Beeb:

Mr Putin described the boy as "very sweet" Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his controversial kissing of a boy on the stomach was just a spontaneous gesture of affection. Mr Putin came across Nikita, five, in the Kremlin last week, lifted up his T-shirt and suddenly kissed him. "He seemed very independent and serious... I wanted to cuddle him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. He seemed so nice," he said. The kiss - shown on Russian television - triggered huge public interest. "There is nothing behind it", Mr Putin told the BBC in a live webcast on Thursday, explaining that the encounter on 28 June was quite spontaneous. Nikita was among a group of tourists visiting the Kremlin.

I can only presume Mr. Putin is trying to soften the image he's built up as a cold-eyed, iron-willed authoritarian judo-meister who likes to use verbs like "crush" when referring to terrorists.

And what better way to do it that publicly licking a little boy's belly?

A snippet of an interview with Malian singer Salif Keita, playing at Harbourfront tonight:

Keita, 56, recalls listening to James Brown's 1962 Live at the Apollo album "over and over -- I didn't even try to understand the words, just the sounds," he says with the intermittent aid of a French translator, on the phone from a tour stop in Washington, D.C.

Asked if the roots of Brown's locomotive funk and pining ballads seemed African to African ears, Keita doesn't hesitate with his reply, in hearty English: "Of course!"

(Thanks, Don!)

Here's Tuesday's BBC headline: 'No request' for Afghan back-up

And here's today's: UK considers bigger Afghan force

An excerpt from the Thursday story:

The possibility of sending more UK troops to Afghanistan is being considered "as a matter of urgency", the defence secretary has said.

Des Browne said he had received advice on additional deployments and that he was discussing it with chiefs of staff.

The decision would be announced to the House of Commons as soon as possible, Mr Browne added.

The news comes a day after a UK soldier became the sixth in a month to die on duty in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

Helmand is immediately west of Kandahar province, which is where Canadian efforts are centred. Sounds like the Brits are in a tougher spot than our guys. We haven't had a combat death since Capt. Nichola Goddard back on May 17.

There has unquestionably been an upsurge in violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan this year, and it seems to be reaching Kabul, the capital. Kabul used to be the oasis of stability. Hard to spin that as a good thing.

During the current frenzy of Bush administration invective against the NYT and other news organizations, journalist Mark Goodman asks how life might be different today had newspapers printed the truth about the First World War as it was happening.

A number of major broadcasters are ready to begin offering news programming in Arabic. But will it help, or make matters worse?

(DING! DING! DING! This is this blog's 3,000th post!!)

The Beeb reports that Islamist gunmen burst in on a cinema in central Somalia that was showing a banned World Cup game. When the shooting stopped, two people were dead.

For whatever reason, a number of marketeers have been emailing me lately. Here's some sample messages.

Taking the street car eastbound on College this evening, an armada of cars -- at least three -- bearing French flags honked their way westward ("You Portuguese swine: I fart in your general direction!").

Not one Citroen or Peugot in the bunch. :)

As we approach my stop, I mention to the operator that this is the first time I've seen French flags on a car for the entire World Cup tournament.

"You know, I don't like soccer," he said. "What a wimpy sport. The guy gets pushed a little bit and he goes down screaming. There's hundreds of millions of people watching. I'd be embarrassed to do that."

And he's right: It's the single worst thing about soccer as a sport, although as an aside, the National Post reportedly had a story in Wednesday's paper on the art of the dive. :)

Anyways, the operator went on: "Can you imagine a hockey player doing that?"

Well, in fairness, there are some divers in hockey, but they are scorned.

And even then, no hockey player has taken diving to the operatic heights of some of soccer's master thespians. :)

Luiz Felipe Scolari, Portugal's coach, had won 12 straight matches in World Cup competition.

However, France prevailed on this day, winning 1-0 one a first-half penalty kick by France's veteran Zinedine Zidane. Portugual's goalkeeper Ricardo guessed right, but the shot was hard and perfectly placed.

Portugal had chances, but the poor shooting that haunted them against England continued today. Luis Figo will be haunted for the rest of his life by the short-range header he missed (but Fabien Barthez, France's goalkeeper, gets to forget about the inept way he bobbled the ball, giving Figo that opportunity).

So, it will be Italy vs. France in the big game on Sunday. I like Italy's chances. On Saturday, Germany will win the consolation game over Portugal.

Some vignettes:

I tell a cop at College and Ossington that he should have an easy shift tonight, as Portugal just lost 1-0.

"You know, I worked until 2 in the morning and was back in at 8, so I'm glad Portugal lost, because I don't want another night like that," he said with a chuckle.

On the east side of College Street, some young Portuguese guy clutching a replica of a World Cup statuette darts around on the sidewalk. "Come on: Steal the World Cup from me," he yells. "I'll say you're French!" Mild laughter from the assembled Portuguese jersey-wearers.

A buddy of his loudly muttered: "Fuckin' French. Fuckin' assholes."

But then who comes up the street are two young guys wearing French flags! (And big smiles, it goes without saying).

To his credit, the France-hater goes over and shakes hands with the two France supporters.

But then, as they're walking away, he yells at them: "You're goin' down to Italy!"

Finally, a 40-something woman wearing a Portuguese flag as a cape had the right spirit: "Who cares if we lost? We can still party!"

And at Cervejaria, a few die-hards were still making the best of it this evening.

At the Monarch, mixed reaction amongst the Portuguese regulars, with some matter-of-fact and others acting like their hearts had been ripped out.

For a little context, however, one keen observer of the scene said: "What's the big deal? These guys watch soccer once every four years!" :)

I don't know if this is the typical response of people who have seen Road to Guantanamo, but I still don't have a satisfactory answer to this crucial question: What the fuck were you Tipton Three guys doing in Afghanistan with the war underway?!?!

Wow. So Italy and Germany play to a scoreless draw for about 94 minutes of regulation time.

They go through another 15 minutes of OT (plus stoppage), and then, about two minutes before penalty kicks would be called upon, Italy breaks the deadlock with a terrific shot by Fabio "Louganis" Grosso, drilling it with his left foot just inside Germany's far post.

But Italy wasn't done yet.

With time running out, Italy broke in on Germany. The ball was passed to Alessandro del Piero on the left, who was all alone. German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann came out to challenge him but del Piero shot quickly with his right foot, catching Lehmann on his heels.

The ball rode a wire into the upper right corner.

And Germany's dreams of a World Cup championship on home soil in 2006 are now irretrievably dashed.

If you take partisanship out of the equation, however, and you simply enjoy watching soccer at its highest level, I don't know how anyone could complain about today's game.

Passionate, graceful, creative, hard-fought -- it was pretty much a perfect soccer game. Beautiful, even.

Here's hoping France and Portugal have a similar game on Wednesday.

I liked this passage from a Greil Marcus speech reprinted in Salon:

There's a way in which you can see every American story as a version of the Declaration of Independence: every story an attempt to make it true, or prove it a lie. In 1941, Henry Luce called the 20th century "the American century"; he meant this was the century when America became a colossus from which the rest of the world would have to step back, trembling with awe. But if that American century was truly American, you can almost see Lincoln reminding us -- or, if not Lincoln, the doorkeeper at Independence Hall -- then the story of the American century is the story of all sorts of previously excluded, marginalized, scorned, despised, ignored or enslaved people -- laborers, women, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Jews, Latinos, gay men and women -- entering into full citizenship and full participation in national life. If not full citizenship, a more complete citizenship than even Lincoln or the doorkeeper could in fact have imagined -- as, again and again, decade after decade, those echoing words of the Declaration of Independence sounded as if for the first time.

Nick Denton, one of the first people to try and make a business of blogs, has put two sites up for sale, reorganized others and sent some of his journalists packing. What does he know that others don't?

From the NYT:

A Chinese draft law that threatens to fine the news media for reporting on "sudden incidents" without permission applies to foreign as well as domestic news organizations, an official involved in preparing the legislation said Monday.

The law, now under consideration by the legislature run by the Communist Party, calls for fines of up to $12,500 for unauthorized reports on outbreaks of disease, natural disasters, social disturbances or other so-called sudden incidents that officials determine to be false or harmful to China's social order.

Wang Yongqing, vice minister of the legislative affairs office of China's State Council, or cabinet, told reporters at a news briefing that the law should apply to all news organizations, including foreign newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets, which usually operate under different rules from those of the Chinese news media.

Almost exactly 30 years ago, militants with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Baader-Meinhof gang hijacked an Air France jet, eventually ending up in Entebbe, Uganda.

The Israeli military pulled off what was seen as a miraculous rescue.

For a look back, see this BBC story.

Beeb analyst Paul Reynolds takes a look back at the "Great Game" of the 19th century between Britain and Russia in Afghanistan.

Seems like World Cup mania has affected the ability of some Buddhist monks in Thailand to attend to their more spiritual duties.

T.O. photog Joseph Michael did some World Cup tourism and assembled a Web-based photo gallery: 32 Nations, One City. Each photo represents the nationality of fans cheering for one of the participating teams.

He invites you to guess the nationality and promises one clue in each photo.

While his web design skills need a tune-up (sorry, Joseph: It had to be said), it's a nice work of documentation about this event.

From Salon's War Room blog, by Tim Grieve:

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a resolution Thursday condemning reports on the Bush administration's monitoring of financial transactions and saying that it "expects the cooperation of all news media organizations" in protecting the president's antiterror plans.

The resolution is symbolic, and that's not good enough for some of its supporters. Melanie Morgan, a fixture on "Hardball" and Fox News, says it's high time for the government to bring treason charges against the New York Times for reporting on the financial-monitoring plan. "My advice to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at this point in time is chop-chop, hurry up, let's get these prosecutors fired up and get the subpoenas served, get the indictments going, and get these guys behind jail," Morgan says.

And if someone -- say, New York Times editor Bill Keller -- is tried and convicted? Morgan says she'd have "no problem with him being sent to the gas chamber." As for other editors "responsible for leaking national security classified information"? Morgan says she'd like to see them "locked in a steel cage with the family members of slain troop members who would happily deliver the ultimate punishment of death."

God bless the USA.

Here's a Media Matters for America profile of Ms. Morgan.

I would close by saying if anyone was wondering where blind patriotism crosses into psychopathic fascism, Ms. Morgan provides a real-life example.

OK, losing 1-0 to France is technically like Brazil not really losing at all, correct?

In that case, I'm only technically wildly wrong in my prediction for Brazil to make the semi-finals.

But greater soccer minds than myself say France is jelling at the right time (and doing so just before losing in sudden-death elimination would have to be seen as the right time), while Brazil never really got it together this tournament.

France will go on to play Portugal. I suspect France will win.

Germany's got the teamwork, the scoring and the home-field advantage, so one would think they'll have an edge over Italy.

However, for whatever reason, I don't feel comfortable in writing the Azzurri off.

This is a work day for me, but I hope it's a fun day for you as you celebrate Canada's 139th birthday.

If you're really stuck for something to do this weekend, you can go to CTV.ca and take the Canada Day quiz.

To recap the England-Portugual quarter-final, won in a shootout by Portugal:

Seventeen minutes in the second half, England's Wayne Rooney stomps on a guy's gonads and then pushes Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, a teammate from professional soccer, thus achieving his apparent goal of getting red-carded out of the World Cup quarter-final.

This left England down a man for 60 minutes of play.

However, Canadian-born Owen Hargreaves stepped it up big time at both ends of the pitch.

His efforts were aided by the fact that Portugal's snipers were kicking with their eyes closed. Maniche didn't have a good day shooting.

In the shootout, however, Portugual scored three times, with Ronaldo administering the coup de grace. Hargreaves potted England's only shootout goal.

Give full credit to Portugal's netminder Ricardo Pereira for that.

As I said yesterday, I expect Brazil to defeat France in today's other quarter-final.

The current management of the Royal Theatre decided to go out screening Monty Python and the Holy Grail and 2001: A Space Odyssey -- Stanley Kubrick's still-compelling masterpiece.