News – Scuttling the Docked Boat

Middle East

Iraq’s special tribunal releases a video of Saddam being questioned about a 1982 massacre at a Shia village north of Baghdad, one of the cases expected to arise at his trial. THe tribunal says Khalil al-Duleimi, Saddam’s chief lawyer, was at the questioning, but this is denied by Saddam’s legal team. This is something that the current Iraq government needs to be very careful about. The last thing they need to do is start doing things that might scuttle the legality of the trial before it’s even begun. Like this, “The defence team has accused the tribunal of denying it proper access to the ousted dictator, withholding documents and leaking information to the press.”

Looking at Terrorism in the Grip of Justice and Amnesty’s Amnesia.

Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Ali al-Jedda, a British citizen held without charge or trial for more than eight months by UK forces in Iraq, wins the ability to challenge the legality of his detention.

Israel seeks to diminish it’s conflict with the US over arms sales to China, while the U.S. demands for closer oversight of weapons deals with India. Here’s an interesting quote from the article The Pentagon fears the Harpy and other advanced Israeli technology sold to China could tilt the balance of power and make it more difficult to defend Taiwan, which Beijing deems a renegade province. Does the US believe it will have to, in time, actively defend Taiwan?

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf believes that alQueda will be dismantled in Afghanistan and a stable democracy will be in place within ten years. All considered, that’s quite a while, considering the relative quiet in Afghanistan. Of course, since he’s likely pulling the number out of thin air(hence the phrase ‘I think’), I wouldn’t give it much regard.

The election in Iran is noted to be the closest in its history.

Asia

Microsoft works with China’s government to censor Chinese blogs. Terms such as “democracy,” “human rights” and “Taiwan independence” can’t be posted and bring up a message saying the language was prohibited. “Even with the filters, we’re helping millions of people communicate, share stories, share photographs and build relationships. For us, that is the key point here,” says Adam Sohn, a global sales and marketing director at MSN. You can draw your own conclusions, but it sits poorly with me to see Microsoft helping in this.

Europe

Every slippery slope has two sides, just as shown in Italy’s laws on Invitro Fertilization. We should take care to not follow in their footsteps.

North America

Cheney argues that Guantanimo isn’t hurting America’s image overseas and argues for keeping it open. I don’t honestly think Cheney believes it isn’t hurting America’s image. He also says the budget deficit will be lower than projected.

Court documents show Lawrence Franklin , a DoD analyst, was charged with disclosing to a foreign diplomat classified information about a Middle Eastern country’s activities in Iraq.

It’s all over save the week of analysis(And more) and tell all books to follow. Michael Jackson has been cleared of all charges against him. Mind you, it seems the court of public opinion remains divided against him, with many still thinking his guilty. Though we also add rumors that MJ might be leaving the US forever. Some might assume(which I don’t, but I wouldn’t rule it out) to find a more permissible environment for his.. interesting lifestyle. Or, perhaps, thinking it would remove some of the heat from him, though I highly doubt that it will in that case.

General

Did Lucas and Spielberg ruin the movies? That’s the discussion topic.

Today’s Papers has the mistaken assertion that madrasas teach extremism and build future jihadists, the Pentagon and Russia in cooperation to block a NATO call for an independent probe of last month’s massacre in Uzbekistan, the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling overturning a 20-year-old murder conviction of a Texas death-row inmate and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Just because somebody bought your house for $700k more than it was worth and was wanting Pentagon contracts shouldn’t make it suspect. The bubble just burst

700 people turn out to watch 10 people cross lake in boats made of nothing but carboard, glue, tape, and paint

Increasingly, companies are firing people for things they do on their own time. Tire slashing, for example

Female interviewer asks Formula One driver about speed-control device on his car during live TV broadcast: “I’ve been imagining it’s your nipples so I’m being a bit more gentle when I take my finger off”

German police unable to catch motorcyclist who sets new unofficial national record for speeding

List of celebrities and their hotel debaucheries

Llama found running wrong way on interstate. Must have been a female

Slow news media leads reporter to investigate “Yu-Gi-Oh” card game. “The next day I went out and spent $100 on cards, and I’ve been hooked ever since”

Fark Photoshop Challenge: <A HREF="http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1524175″>Photoshop this ruined car

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: All ears