Singaporean expansionism.

Thanks to furriskey for the correction.

God bless cranky Polish ladies:

In a small, mountainside Koniakow home with apple trees running down the slope out back, Anna Barska, Elzbieta Kukuczka and Krystyna Kajzer sit on a couch stitching small circular patterns for new thongs under a picture of the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II.

“It pays more to make thongs,” said Barska, her fingers rapidly stitching blue thread. “Table runners take a week to make because of the detail of each flower. Thongs you can make faster.”

Barska, who has stitched lace for 35 years and has taught the craft to four of her five daughters, brushes aside criticism.

“There’s no shame in doing this. Shame would be stealing,” she said. “This is work.”

Mark Mardell at the BBC:

Europe diary: Whiff of hypocrisy

An interesting heuristic discussion of supposed Aristotelian/Stoic divisions between European Catholic and Protestant cultures, that’s mostly hooey.

Climate change might wreck the planet, it seems, but it could save the EU.

Priorities.

Interpol says it is planning to seek the arrest of six Iranian former officials whom Argentina blames for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre.

Another Zionist plot.

Washington Post, Top Line:

‘Swift Boat’ Figure Joins Romney

The primary funder of an independent group that raised questions about the résumé of Sen. John F. Kerry during the 2004 presidential election has signed on to raise money for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s GOP presidential campaign.

Halfway down the page:

Clinton Urged to Return Firm’s Contributions

International Profit Associations, an Illinois firm that has been one of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s largest sources of campaign funds, is facing new allegations of racketeering from former clients.

The firm’s former customers, most of them small-business owners, filed suit in federal court this week alleging they were bilked out of tens of thousands of dollars. One plaintiff, Shelley Amari, who owns a commercial plumbing firm in Woburn, Mass., said she wants to know why the junior senator from New York has been willing to accept so much money from the firm.

“She should return this money,” Amari said. “She should be looking at who these donors are.”

Firm executives have donated more than $100,000 to the senator during her career. The Center for Responsive Politics identified the firm as her 12th-largest source of contributions. The firm also paid former president Bill Clinton $125,000 in speaking fees.

Asked yesterday whether Hillary Clinton would return the money, spokesman Phil Singer said by e-mail, “The allegations raised in these cases are troubling and we’re continuing to monitor their outcomes.”

Issues facing the firm and its owner have been well documented. Last year, the New York Times reported that IPA’s founder had been disbarred in New York and had a record for attempted larceny and patronizing a 16-year-old prostitute; the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opened one of its largest sexual harassment cases against the firm; and the Illinois attorney general has examined the firm’s marketing tactics. At that time, Clinton’s office said she was considering whether to return the money.