World best target Prix d'Amerique

Bangkok Post
Published 31/Jan/2010 (01:53 PM)

Eighteen of the world's best trotters take part in the 89th Prix d'Amerique on Sunday, an event founded in 1920 to honour American soldiers fighting in World War I.

French rider Pierre Levesque celebrates before crossing the finish line to win the world's most prestigious trotting race, the 86th Prix d'Amerique, driving Offshore Dream at Vincennes horsetrack near Paris, in January 2007. Eighteen of the world's best trotters take part in the 89th Prix d'Amerique on Sunday, an event founded in 1920 to honour American soldiers fighting in World War I.
Around 40,000 spectators are expected to watch the action unfold at the Paris-Vincennes course here, while millions of dollars are waged worldwide.
"To take part in the Prix d'Amerique, it's a dream. To win it would be the ultimate," said Christian Bigeon who will be in charge of Paris Haufor in Sunday's event.
The speed record for the course is held by Offshore Dream (winner in 2007 and 2008), the horse of Pierre Levesque, who in 2007 set an average speed of 1:12.00.
This year, Levesque will drive Meaulnes du Corta - last year's winner with Franck Nivard - the most successful horse in terms of prize-money having won 2,355,760 euros.
"Meaulnes is very tough, in form and can pull off the double," said Levesque.
Fifth last year, and second in 2008, Swedish entry Opal Viking, driven by Jorma Kontio, is the best hope of the foreign entrants while Dutch hopeful Russel November (driven by Hugo-W-Langeweg Jr) and Ghiaccio Del Nord (Enrico Bellei) are among the leading amateurs.
The prize money for Sunday's race is a million euros, the majority of which goes to the winner.
The Prix d'Amerique will be closely followed in real time throughout the world, from London to Hong Kong, with massive sums of money waged.
In France, the record amount of money bet on the event was 37.9 million euros in 2006.

Bangkok Bank:Finance and the Axis of Evil

By Pooky, this blog economics journalist
Bangkok Bank was started long time ago, by Chin Sophonpanich.
Chin braved a great deal, meaning he is Chinese and back then, Thailand was very anti-Chinese influence in Thailand. That saw Chin escaping Thailand under political pressure-and Bangkok Bank growth, “Mothballed” for many years.
If anyone should have learned a lesson about freedom and prosperity, it should be the Bangkok Bank. But apparently the Bangkok Bank did not learn a thing.
It started with rumors that Bangkok Bank went opening bank accounts to the Yellow Shirt, while they occupied the Thai government House.
That rumor followed the former Bangkok Bank president becoming the Finance Minister of the coup government of 2006. Yes, as rediculous as it seem, a top banker of a top Thai bank-went running the coup government finances.
The Red Shirt, fighting for Democracy and Liberty here in Thailand, got so freaked out by Bangkok Bank’s opening bank accounts in the occupied government house, it started to boycott Bangkok Bank, calling for Red Shirts to “Burn” their Bangkok Bank savings account book.
And many Thais, in deed, burned their Bangkok Bank savings account, after closing their accounts. Look around, member of the Sophonpanich family, is deeply involved with the Democrat Party in Thailand, that is being proped up by the Thai military.
Then it graduated the current Thai Finance Minister, Korn, selecting Bangkok Bank to be a major lender to the massive government borrowing to finance the Thai stimulus-and we are talking billions and billions here.
The picture becomes very clear now, with rumors that member of the Bangkok Bank are somehow involved with a golf course, existing right smack in the middle of a forest, with Prem, the Thai councilor that runs Thailand as a member.
Meanwhile, another major Thai bank, Kasiforn Bank, have seen a family member ditching politics-and resigning from a cabinet position in the current government.
As always, Kasikorn Bank is at the cutting edge in Thailand.

FUTURE IN DOUBT

Front page news of January 29, 2010, is the GT200 bomb detector as Thai military officials
are starting to admit there may be a problem with it. We will get the details in general news.
And we will find out why health authorities suddenly suspended H1N1 flu vaccinations for every pregnant women, in easy Engliah news. Therefore, that means in easy bussiness news, Jon Fernquest looks at how free trade agreements are lowering costs and benefitting some agricultural exporters. Then we will learn why some Chinese students are working to buy fake passports for staying in China. This is a funny and interesting lesson.



http://www.readbangkokpost.com/

Newzealand: Police identify body found in garage

Police have identified the man who was apparently killed and his body dumped in a New Plymouth garage.
He was 38-year-old Dean Stuart Browne, thought to be from Auckland.
A homicide investigation was launched after Mr Browne's body was discovered in a double garage behind a Drake Street house about 8pm on Friday.
Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Coward said Mr Browne's body appeared to have been in the garage for 12 to 24 hours before being discovered.
Police believed he was killed elsewhere before his body was dumped at the address.
The house was believed to be occupied by a young couple and their three children, who had been unable to help police identify Mr Browne.
About 20 staff, including detectives and scientists, were working on the case.

Martin Luther King Day 2010

Bright Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, site of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day worship, was packed beyond capacity with folding chairs set up in the sanctuary to catch the overflow from the pews, people standing along the back wall and several groups standing outside the main doors.Participants convened at Badcock Furniture Store for the symbolic walk to the church.Robert Malloy, the new NAACP president, told the audience about purchasing used books from the white schools so that he could have texts and how those books were often filled with derogatory comments aimed at African-American children.The retired police chief said that such inequality was one of the reasons he joined the NAACP. He also recalled institutional racism from his time as a patrol officer, where he was directed to rip up tickets he wrote to white people."Now, what's your excuse for not joining this very organization that was instrumental in all of us being able to walk from Badcock?" Malloy said. "Remember, when you walk today, you didn't have to worry about the dogs. You didn't have to worry about the people taking pictures so tomorrow, when you go into your job, they say you are out of work because you marched. You don't have to worry. What you did today was only symbolic because you were walking in other people's steps."Scotland County Chairman J.D. Willis received a standing ovation from his speech on the successes of black politicians in an area that had once been dominated by whites."Thirty years ago, who would have thought Scotland County would have four black members of the school board?" Willis said. "Thirty years ago, who would have thought Laurinburg would have three black councilmen at one time? Thirty years ago, who would have thought Scotland County would have a black chief of police? Thirty years ago, who would have thought Laurinburg would have a black representative working in the state House of Representatives? Who would have ever thought Scotland County would have a county commission with five black members out of seven? Thirty years ago, who would have ever thought Scotland County would have a black sheriff? This is a great accomplishment. This is an accomplishment Scotland County would never have made without blacks and whites coming together."While the group was recognizing the successes of minorities in Scotland County and the contributions of King in the national struggle for equality, the audience also remembered the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.Rev. Garland Pierce collected $561.83 from those in attendance. The money will be contributed to the American Red Cross's efforts to take aid to Haiti.Monday's event was just one of a number of celebrations sponsored by the Scotland County Ministerial Alliance and the Scotland County Branch of the NAACP over the weekend.On Friday, the NAACP Youth Council honored the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. with the group's 14th annual Martin Luther King Celebration, held at Avinger Auditorium on the campus of St. Andrews College in Laurinburg. The event was the first of the weekend's activities designed to reflect on the past, present and future effects of King's legacy. Audience members experienced a reading of excerpts from King's speeches, music, dramatizations of figures who played key roles in African-American history and culture, and performances by choirs and mime groups. Pastor Darrel "BJ" Gibson was the keynote speaker. "Thank you for the warm welcome, but all glory and honor belongs to Jesus Christ," he said in his opening remarks. "I thought long and hard about what I would talk about tonight as we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; there's not much that hasn't been said about him, but the preacher in me said 'don't forget about Jesus'. And I realized that if not for the Lord, Martin Luther King wouldn't be who he is."Gibson then discussed the greatness inherent in all people, local as well as those more famously known."Why, when we celebrate Black History Month, do we have to look for people nobody knows about?," he said from the podium. "Local people right here in Scotland County are trend makers, too. What happened to honoring people of this county who made possible all the privileges we have today? Martin Luther King said that every man can be great because every man can serve. We don't have to go to New York or to Washington, D.C. to find greatness; we are sitting beside great people right now."Gibson's speech was met with clapping, shouts, and a standing ovation at the finale. Roy Thomas of Laurinburg was perhaps one of those in the audience possessing the "greatness" to which Gibson referred. "I was a corporal in the Marine Corps, serving in Viet Nam when Martin Luther King was assassinated," Thomas said. "When it happened, all of the black Marines were called to the rear, where we were seated before a chaplain who told us the news. We were shocked. People started asking, 'Why are we fighting here in Vietnam after what has happened at home?' There was a lot of tension between the black and white Marines, and some of us thought there was going to be a race war. We were given a cooling off period of about two to three weeks before they sent us back out. When we went back to fighting, things weren't the same, but we had a job to do."Thomas has seen a lot of improvement in the 40 years since King's assassination, he said, but acknowledges that more needs to be done. "Things have changed, but we still have a long way to go," he said. "Nobody knows everything."Other events for the weekend included a Unity Prayer Breakfast at the Highlands, where Pastor Kenneth Blease of Northview Harvest Ministries gave the address. On Sunday evening a Unity Service was held at Solid Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Laurinburg. Dr. O.T. McMillan, director of Bureau Evangelism of A.M.E. Zion International, was the keynote speaker.

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