FA: Various items
 

Last day for some painfully inxpensive bargains at:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZphilsthebossQQhtZ-1

Good luck should you decide to bid.

Phil GZOW

Quote of the week: On the subject of hostages, let me briefly share an
anecdote that my source at the time swore was true.
In 1980, just after the crazed old Ayatollah Khomeini had taken over
Iran and with US diplomats being held hostage for (eventually) 444
days, two Soviet diplomats were kidnapped. The Soviet ambassador went
to see Khomeini. The envoy said nothing but walked up to the
Ayatollah, drew from his pocket a watch on a chain, laid it on the
floor then smashed down one studded boot.
The stunned old cleric found himself looking at the crushed fragments
of the timepiece. Then the Russian spoke.
"If my two colleagues are not returned intact within 24 hours, that
(he pointed downwards) will be the holy city of Qom."
Qom is a centre of Shia and Koranic learning and the Ayatollah had
studid there. The kidnapped diplomats appeared that evening outside
their embassy, safe and sound.
Somehow, I do not think Margeret Beckett (secretary of state for
foreign affairs) is quite up to this old-style diplomacy.