News – Peace Hits a Road Bump

Middle East

The US notes to Abbas that the militants should ultimately be disarmed. Seriously, they should have shut up after giving the nod to his current efforts. It’s obvious the militants should ultimately be disarmed, but the last thing we need is the US to start poking and prodding a process that is already well underway without their assistance in beginning it. Now’s hardly the time for them to start trying to pressure people again. Let Abbas work with as minimal a taint of US intervention as possible. Preferably none to keep him from being portrayed as influenced in any way.

We’ve already got the specter of violence rising once more to plague the young peace process. A girl of ten years shot dead on a playground and Hamas responding militarily, rather than diplomatically. This needs to be reigned in before it rises out of control.

Allawi calls for national unity in Iraq after the weekend elections. We can only hope that it manifests and lingers long despite the assurance of continued violence. On the plane of higher ideals, debate remains on whether the respectively successful election will cause the oft noted domino effect some are hoping for. As we’ve seen in the past, these steps toward Iraq shaping up have rarely lasted in terms of full on momentum. We’ll see if this one is any different.

Trying once more to dispel the Iraq/Vietnam comparison.

Asia

Nepal’s King Gyanendra has sacked his government, assumed power and declared a state of emergency, charging that the leadership had failed to hold elections or to restore peace amid an escalating civil war with Maoist rebels. He’ll be forming a new government to “restore peace and effective democracy in this country within the next three years.” This would also be the fourth time the king has sacked the PM in the last four years. An unenviable track record.

A planned crackdown on illegal immigrants in Malaysia was postponed for tactical reasons, the raids planned to be executed nationwide by a 500,000 officials.

A Cambodian woman who died in Vietnam has been determined to have been killed by the bird flu.

Africa

Rebels in Darfur say that the UN was mistaken in not accusing Sudan’s government of genocide in it’s latest report. The UN has marked several Sudanese officials with war crimes charges and wants to prosecute them throughthe ICC. The US opposes this and wants to spend great sums to establish a new U.N.-African Union tribunal in Tanzania.

North America

McCain is set on his investigations of deals between the US government and Boeing, already eyeing another contract for investigation according to sources. If he’s not careful, he’ll have to run for prez, if only to keep from wasting the good rep he’s building.

Under pressure from Congress to treat soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan better, the Pentagon plans to increase survivor benefits for families of those killed in war. It will be retroactive to October 2001, when the Afghanistan conflict started.

Our government suggests that it’s important for OPEC to maintain affordable energy supplies. Which is bull. OPEC is a business, profit is important to them. It’s our government’s task to make sure our energy is affordable, not OPEC. Just like no US company is behooved by anything but good business sense to charge reasonable prices(prices that people are willing to pay for to get a product or service). OPEC can make us pay through the nose if we’re hungry enough to foot the bill.

U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green has ruled that the special military tribunals to determine the status of each Guantanamo detainee as an “enemy combatant” violated the constitutional protection of a fair hearing and Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspects have the constitutional right to pursue lawsuits challenging their imprisonment. I would agree, generally. Though I wouldn’t extend all protections to non-citizens, the right to a fair trial is one I would. No one deserves to be thrown into a cell for years without the chance to challenge his captors. If the US has evidence on these men, let it be shown.

.S. Ambassador to Romania J.D. Crouch has been tapped as successor to Condi.

As can be expected, Michael Jackson’s fame is complicating jury selection. How do you find non-biased jurors when it comes to this man?

The CEO to English phrasebook: Special AT&T/SBC merger edition

General

Meet the ten visual effects wizards who rule Hollywood. While they do spoil some movies, visual effects have become an important part of moviemaking. Being able to portray the impossible has opened the realm of possibility for movies, allowing for more creative ideas to flourish.

A drowning man was saved in suburban Paris by Vision IQ’s Poseidon system, designed to alert lifeguards to swimmers in distress. A marvelous invention indeed.

<AHREF=”http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6925″>TAPT is a sort of flameless explosive that has been used by terrorists as of late, a very different conventional explosive that is powerful and seems, as of yet, to have no detector made for it.

Plastic that releases nitric oxide could be used to make blood vessels that don’t clog. Nitric oxide stops platelets sticking together, and stimulates growth in the cells lining blood vessels. Even better, it stunts the growth of smooth muscle that could squeeze an artificial vessel closed. The innovations that come about each year impress me greatly.

Today’s Papers has Rummy looking to revive funding for bunker-buster mini-nukes, an accounting of attacks in Iraq on Sunday, further musings about the Iraq election and more in the one page news.

Amusements

German woman loses unemployment for not taking prostitute job

Mexican prison inmates complain of “subhuman” conditions, such as being deprived of pizza, flat-screen TVs, cell phones and sex

Football match abandoned after referee throws a hissy fit, calms down, realises he’s been a complete dickhead and has no alternative but to show himself the red card

U.S. might pay for Spanish-American War by taxing all Internet and data connections

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this man working at a snail’s pace

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Today’s Iron Photoshop ingredients: A pickle, a sickle and a tickle

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop what these seamen are pulling in