Tracking the happenings in the world of tennis...

Madrid put on a spectacular opening ceremony for the ATP Tennis Madrid 2009 - the Madrid Open.

This is the TV appeal refused to be aired by the BBC

The following video from CBS gives a realistic picture of the continuing occupation of the West Bank by illegal settlers.  It also shows how Palestinians in the West Bank suffer from the arbitrary whims of Israeli soldiers who decide to take over private homes for whatever purpose and seemingly answerable to no one.

Barack Obama is generating hope in the hearts of many - in America, in Europe and all around the world - that he will bring about a real change in American policy that will lead to a greater chance for peace and justice in our troubled world.

Pavarotti was so ill that it was thought dangerous that he should go live in his performance in Turin in 2006 at the opening of the Turin Olympics. That was his last performance and it was completely faked.This has been revealed in a book by Leone Magiera, who was the conductor. Everyone faked it - Magiera pretended to conduct, Pavarotti mimed the singing, and even the orchestra was just pretending to play. Everything was pre-recorded. And it seems no one noticed anything.One reason to do it that way was that it was going to be a late-night outdoor performance in the cold.

Lots of people have commented disparagingly that Hillary Clinton did not simply "misspeak" about her Bosnia trip, where she said she came under sniper fire.But with the discovery of this secret footage, we may owe her an apology.See for yourself.Hillary WASN'T LYING! Bosnia gunfire footage discovered...

There has been quite a buzz about the speech made by Hillary Clinton last week. She was talking about her trip as first lady to Bosnia. She remembered landing under sniper fire. "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base," she said. Was Hillary under sniper fire?She gave a vivid account that stirs the imagination with a touch of heroism. The problem is this was not what happened. She and her party arrived peacefully at the airport and there was a greeting ceremony conducted in a leisurely pace.What she said was false - it was a lie. Did she lie intentionally, or did she, as she later said, simply misspeak? Misspeaking (what a funny word) means speaking incorrectly or inaccurately, but is neutral as to whether dishonesty is involved.But if it was not a lie, it cannot be that she was giving an account of events, while remembering the true facts were different. She was not making two or three misspoken words or phrases. She was recounting an event.So if it was not a lie, then her description was a fantasy. She thought it really happened when it did not. It's also not mixing up simple events, but re-creating in her own mind a dramatic and life-threatening incident which in fact never took place.Perhaps she did it in all innocence, and it would be amusing if as a grandmother she was telling the story to her grandkids, but it's pretty scary to have a president (or should one say another president) at the White House who can be so easily possessed by false memories, fantasies and delusion.Clinton's Experience in Bosnia

Casey Knowles, the girl seen in the Hillary Clinton campaign ad as a sleeping 8 year-old child, gives her own message in this video, with not many sympathetic words for Hillary Clinton and her campaign.I guess Hillary Clinton really shouldn't use images of persons, even from years ago, until she finds out where they stand politically.

Eliot Spitzer has fallen from grace and resigned as governor of New York. He was outed as being embroiled in using the services of high-priced call girls from the prostitution ring the Emperors Club, in particular with a girl called Kristen. Kristen has now been identified as Ashley Dupre. What of her now?While the mighty have fallen, Ashley Dupre seems now to be soaring into the limelight and may well be coming into the riches that she must have been dreaming of. Magazines are lining up to make lucrative offers, some of which she will probably take up.At 22, Ashley Dupre appears to have come from a broken home, which she left at age 17. Her singing in the shower so impressed her then musician boyfriend that she started touring and singing professionally. Yet clearly she had not quite made a success of her musical career, and somehow joined the ranks at the Emperors Club.Is she any different from thousands of her age, who think anything goes to make a living? In America moral values are not what they used to be. Everyone can define his or her own morality.Dupre says she does not want to be thought of as a monster. Yet will she redeem herself, or will she seize the opportunity to reap the riches that are awaiting her, justifying her decision within her own self-defined moral values?What should be her just deserts?Ashley DupreBWE panelists Paul F. Tompkins and Jessica St. Clair act out Governor Spitzer's resignation speech...the way it should've been.

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On April 7 2008 Olivia Newton-John, joined by a group of celebrities, went on a 21-day charity walk along the Great Wall of China.

This video doesn't show that walk, but shows the breath-taking views of parts of the Great Wall of China -

Just a thought. If Oprah ran for president, would you vote for her?This came to my mind after the recent endorsement of Obama by Oprah. Obama is a new(ish) fresh face, looks and talks different from the humdrum cast of the usual suspects. And no doubt he's a real smart cookie.But what about Oprah? She is well-known. Obviously of some influence already – otherwise what's the point of endorsing Obama? She is articulate, a woman of great compassion, as shown by her contributions to education in Africa. She is generous with her audience. She is well loved. I think she's also pretty politically savvy, despite any protestations to the contrary. Or at least savvy enough.No one person knows everything in the changing political world. Tensions rise and fall. Alliances are made and are broken. Expertise in any field is itself subject to the winds of politics. You can't do something just because you know it's better.So why not Oprah? She will get all the necessary advice from all the experts around her. She will temper it with compassion, so that the rest of the world will not suffer too greatly from her decisions, and may indeed benefit from them. We know she will be in it not for money, power or influence, all of which she has already got. She will add a new dimension to world politics. And peace for all may at last be imaginable.Or maybe it should be Oprah and Obama?