Hope you’re enjoying this Father’s Day. Seems the Sanskirt ‘pitr’ is the origin of ‘papa’, ‘baba’ and ‘father’. ‘Dad’ was first recorded in the 1500s and ‘fader’, precursor to ‘father’, in the late 1500s. ‘Pops’, straight out of the USA, made its first appearance in the 1830s.

International Developments

❖ French President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party has won enough seats to be an “absolute majority” in parliament.

❖ Egyptian presidential elections are occurring in a very complicated situation with the Supreme Council of Armed Forces having declared parliament “null and void” yesterday. Soldiers are now stationed around parliament, there are calls for voting boycotts, and “Pro-revolutionary groups . . . say they will stage a protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Sunday night . . ..”

❖ According to the opposition Syrian National Council, the army is tightening “its grip Sunday on Homs , assaulting the besieged central city with shelling and gunfire.” The Syrian National Council also “ slammed the United Nations on Sunday for suspending its observer mission . . ., saying it is “unjustifiable and unacceptable” for the international community to fail to protect civilians from attacks.”

International Economics

❖ Waiting in the wings for the US-led military departure from Afghanistan, “predator nations [particularly, China, Iran and India] are pouring lavish praise, diplomatic agreements and buckets full of cash on Afghan leaders , trying to win access to the nation’s vast natural resources . . ..”

❖ “Norway’s Ministry of Finance announced Friday that a state fund that is Europe’s largest equity investor would no longer invest in Israeli construction company Shikun and Binui” based on findings of an ethics board “which found the company was in contravention of international law . . ..”

The War on Women

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