News – For the Record

Israel/Palestine

Thousands of Palestinians fled what is now Israel in 1948, becoming refugees. Both sides of the equation have laid blame at the feet of the other side. For the record, both sides hold blame and have holes knocked in their stories by this writer.

A female suicide bomber kills four and wounds seven at the Israel-Gaza border. Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claim responsibility. This is Hamas’ first use of a woman as a bomber, said to be an end run around security. They vow further escalation. Ren is not pleased. Then again, he rarely is when two utterly irreconcilable sides fight over what he considers pointlessly counterproductive to both sides.

The Israeli soldier who admitted to shooting British peace activist Tom Hurndall is expected to face manslaughter charges. Tom died Tuesday after being in a coma since the shooting.

Iraq

The second day of liberal hawks reconsidering their stance on the Iraq war. Meanwhile The Fray has at the first day of this back and forth.

Under the U.S. plan, regional caucuses would select a transitional Iraqi assembly by the end of May, and the assembly would choose an interim government to take over sovereignty by the end of June. Full elections would follow in 2005. (Story)

Iraq’s senior Shi’ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani dislikes this means and has made it clear that he would rather have direct elections rather than caucuses. The State Department is still discussing how the caucuses will work. As well the Kurds are signaling that they won’t like giving influence to a central Iraqi authority. As soon as I get a line on that, I’ll be sure to note it.

A suicide attack focused on an Iraqi police station kills two and wounds more than twenty others. The green car detonated fifty feet form the gate after being fired on by police while it sped toward the building.

US forces have taken four of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri’s nephews into custody following a pre-dawn raid today. The only reason given for this was that two were suspected of helping Ibrahim find safe houses. They think that they might have information that will lead them to him. We’ll see.

Canada will now be allowed to bid on some of the Iraq contracts.

Afghanistan

The Afghan Supreme Court has protested a decision to lift its ban on women singers. Obviously this goes against strict Islamic rules and is, if they persevere against protest, a victory for the more moderate government.

US

A horrible crash and huge explosion were the result in the Virginia/DC area when a tanker truck hauling flammable materials went off the I-895 overpass and crashed down onto I-95. The resulting crash involved at least five more vehicles and has four confirmed deaths thus far.

The slick spot that won MoveOn.org’s Bush in 30 seconds contest.

Bush and company are planning to promote marriage in a 1.5 billion dollar campaign. The plan would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain “healthy marriages,” the paper said.

While Bush has gotten backing at the America’s summit for modest anti-corruption measures and fighting terrorism, he’s received harsh criticism on US economic policy with regard to Latin American nations.

The Supreme Court has ruled in the favor of police who set up a roadblock at the site of an accident to ask for information a week after it had occurred. This occurred back in 1997, the Supreme Court ruling turning over the decision of an Illinoisu Supreme Court that the roadblocks represented an unconstitutional search and seizure of evidence.

Paul O’Neill denies taking secret documents to back his criticisms in Ron Suskind’s book. “I said to him (the general counsel) I would like to have the documents that are OK for me to have. About three weeks later, the general counsel, the chief legal officer, sent me a couple of CDs, which I frankly never opened,” said O’Neill. The CDs were then given to Suskind. Of course, this is great fodder for any conspiracy theorist who think that he might have been slid some secret docs just to help in discrediting him. I don’t give that any more credence at this point than anything else, but it does come to mind. No doubt we’ll learn more as time goes on.

General

Adobe admits that it’s Photoshop CS digital editing package includes a “counterfeit deterrence system”. It looks for attempts to access currency images and, if found, aborts the current operation, warning the user and directing them to a site on international counterfeiting. But it is easily circumvented. Adobe still thinks it was the right thing to do and I agree. They need to refine the software now, based on the ways that people have been able to bypass it.

Today’s Papers has mutual fund companies giving cash kickbacks, top officials ordering the watering down of a report on racial disparity in health care, the Enron CFO and his wife agreeing to plea deals and more.

Amusements

Newgrounds: Finger Puppet Matrix

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this picture of the Archbishop of Boston

Burger King heeds low-carb craze with bunless burgers.