News – Progress Toward a Force
Middle East
Talk continues in the effort to wrangle a meaningful number of international forces for Lebanon. France pledges 2,000 soldiers and offers to command the force, with the target strength aimed at 15,000 personnel. This morning, a troop of 170 French solders skilled at demining and reconstruction arrived at Naqoura. Hopefully they can clear out some of the unexploded cluster munitions Israel scatted across parts of the country. Amusing that France ends up being the one to try and break the impasse that has held this all up.
Despite Syria’s rejections of UN forces on the border between it and Lebanon, the Lebanese government wants them there to help prevent weapon smuggling to Hizbullah.
With Gaza’s economy still in the can, those areas vacated by Israeli settlers and bulldozed into the ground remain as they were left. It would be nice if the Palestinians could finally use that land for something to boost their country and economy, but without the capital to get it started, work can’t begin. And that capital won’t come until Israel and the US cease starving the country economically. Also, Israel often targets these areas for bombs, saying they want to keep the militants from using them to launch rockets. Which would be less a problem if the area was properly developed.
The latest unknown group of Islamic militants releases a video in which they show two captured western journalists, from Fox News.
Asia
Zhao Yan, a Chinese researcher for the NYT has been acquitted of leaking state secrets, but will still spend three years in jail on charges of fraud.
An ad showing a naked and pregnant Brittney Spears will be displayed in Tokyo’s subway system, despite earlier attempts to ban it. If Spears wants to make a fool out of herself with yet another display of her.. personality, I say let her.
Africa
Escalation in Nigeria after it comes to light that a soldier was killed during the kidnapping of foreign oil workers. The soldiers proceeded to set fire to the slum area of the port of Harcourt. This won’t help.. not at all.
Bush sends Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer to Khartoum to press the government to allow a UN peacekeeping force into Darfur.
In a UN report to the Security Council, Kofi Annan notes that both the government and rebels in Sudan are guilty of using children as soldiers.
Europe
Remember the report of Iranian troops taking over a Romanian oil rig? The two countries have resolved the situation. By the looks of it, China has been loose with who they try to toss in jail. Which isn’t anything new, really.
A bomb threat is made against a flight from the US to Ireland, which gets it a thorough security inspection. It’s so easy now for pranksters to stymie the normal lives of people. One little bomb threat here or there and panic mode sets in. Things shut down, the normal course of people’s lives are derailed for hours, occasionally even days for no good reason. In my opinion, we won’t truly be secure until we can deal with such threats without derailing the lives of normal people, causing massive delays in travel and generally shutting down whenever something might possibly be happening somewhere at some time. I sure as heck hope I don’t get a false alarm on my trip across country this Christmas.
Polish police hunt a homeless man after he failed to appear in court to answer charges of slandering President Lech Kaczynski during a drunken outburst. The case sounds ridiculous to me. Who cares what some drunk bum thinks?
North America
Some families of Iraq war dead complain that they’ve not always been give accurate information on their fallen loved ones. This has led to the Army reviewing several hundred deaths in Iraq. Makes you wonder, if they can’t get something as cut and dry as this right, how can you flat out believe just about anything they tell you? Personally, I take the military line with a grain of salt at all times.
Javed Iqbal, originally from Pakistan, gets accused of doing business with terrorists for offering broadcasts of Hezbollah’s al-Manar satellite television station to customers in the New York-area. So, is this a terrorism issue or a free speech issue? Or both? Would the government be int eh right to sneak in the charge of material support for terrorism in this case?
Stating the obvious, we don’t know much about Iran when it comes to their weapons capability. The same went for Iraq. This has been our biggest weakness, our lack of good intelligence.
NASA is making a new manned space craft and they’ve named it Orion. It’s planned to take a trip to the International Space Station in 2014 and the moon by 2020. Hopefully it won’t be so fragile as the prior incarnations.
General
In response to Pluto being stripped of it’s planet status by some astronomers, others rise up in arms(figuratively) to decry the decision.
A US team creates ‘ethical’ stem cell lines by plucking single cells from embryos, leaving them intact. Now can we get some official funding?
Trap-Jaw ants bite with a force of 300 times their bodyweight. Not much for a tiny ant, but phenomenal nonetheless. Nature provides some of the most interesting shows of incredible brute force and prowess. Pity we can’t harness such power on our scale.
The drug , lopinavir, commonly used by HIV sufferers can stop cervical cancer. This would allow thousands of women to avoid surgery to deal with cancer caught early.
The Blogs look at the FDA giving the nod to Plan B birth control being sold over the counter, a Forbes column advising men to stay away from smart, employed women and the motives of Russian math whiz Grigory Perelman saying no to his Nobel Prize and prize money.
Explainer lets you know how you start up your own political party.
<A HREF="http://www.slate.com/id/2148397/”>Today’s Papers has an exhaustive review of the evidence in the Duke lacrosse rape case, the State Department is looking into whether Israel violated secret agreements forbidding the use of U.S.-made cluster bombs against civilians in Lebanon(my best is they did, but wont’ see punishment for it), Bush obliquely supporting the decision on Plan B birth control and more in the one page news.
Amusements
Neurotically Yours: Battery Low
Mark Fiore: America the Shootiful
You know what would be funny? Getting 225 people to invade a local Home Depot, then have them all move and shop in slow motion (photo, video goodness included) Ren Sez: The most awesome thing ever.
101 Fun, Alternative Uses For Your Emmy: No. 44: Golden toilet paper holder
Virgin Mary’s 2006 summer concert tour still going strong, now appearing in the wood paneling at a San Diego restaurant
You complained to your Republican county commissioner about trespassers on your property. He told you to get a gun. Yep, you’re in Florida
NH Supreme Court rules that the government can keep and destroy more than 500 CDs taken from their owner, even though the state failed to prove that a single disk was illegal
Paris Hilton’s autobiography tops the list of the books most often left behind by travellers in hotel rooms. That’s okay though, she long ago grew accustomed to being abandoned in seedy hotel rooms by strangers
Middle school geography teacher hangs flags of China and Mexico and is promptly removed from class and put on adminstrative leave. Good thing they took a stand, because it would be hard to justify foreign flags being displayed in a classroom
Australian doctor, convicted for growing almost 50,000 marijuana plants, spared jail when analysis finds his crop was such poor quality, it wouldn’t even qualify as Des Moines ditch weed
A look at some of the insane snack packages in a Japanese grocery store — including blue cream soda that comes in a condom-like container
Beer-drinking man, armed with Viagra and wearing “short shorts” while riding a bicycle with pornographic photo taped to the handlebars, accused of waving his willy at startled female passersby. This dude really brought his game
Pepper spray for women marketed in Swarovski crystal bottles, because that’s why so many women don’t carry it — it’s not stylish enough
Virginia 12-year old gambles her way to the top (including winning car) at special church retreat. Gotta love hero pre-teen gambling tales for Jesus
Nude teens raise eyebrows. Well, only two eyebrows, from one woman uttering the classic line “Won’t somebody think of the children?” Nobody else bothered, busy raising tents in trousers
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Instashop this freewheeling fellow
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this creepy stone alley
Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop theme: If Drew Curtis and George Bush switched jobs