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| On Iran, Reality Bites |
 BAD NEWS: the Obama administration
and the West hold a
lousy hand as they go into talks
with Iran. In a world of dreams
and miracles, the conversations,
starting on Saturday, would end
with the mullahs renouncing their drive
toward nuclear weapons, and the disappearance
of a thunderhead of foreboding
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| THE TWO
ECONOMIES |
 THE creative dynamism of
American business is astounding
and a little terrifying. Over
the past five years, amid turmoil
and uncertainty, American
businesses have shed employees,
becoming more efficient and more
productive. According to The Wall
Street Journal on Monday, the
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Arsonist gets 11-year jail for setting store on fire
AFP
LONDON A LOOTER who started a massive blaze that was one of the defining images of the London riots was jailed for 11- and-a-half years on Wednesday.
Gordon Thompson, 34, was sentenced at England’s Old Bailey central criminal court in London, having pleaded guilty to arson and burglary.
He torched the House of Reeves furniture store in Croydon, south London, on August 8 last year.
The store, more than 140 years old, was such a local landmark that it appears on the London transport map — the tram stop outside being named Reeves Corner.
The blaze, which reduced the store to rubble, was so fierce that it engulfed neighbouring buildings and pictures of a young woman jumping for her life from a first-floor flat opposite were seen worldwide.
The court heard that the total financial loss to the Reeves family, which has run the store for five generations, was an estimated £3 million ($4.8 million, 3.6 million euros). In mitigation, Thompson asked his lawyer to apologise on his behalf.
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