News – Quite a Fistful of Dollars

Americas

Latin American migrant workers send more money home than all direct foreign investment and foreign aid. Some $62 billion from all over the world, a third of that coming from the US alone. It may reach up to $100 billion in four years.

A new law in Mexico gives gay couples similar social and inheritance rights as those held by heterosexuals. See, not so hard is it? Things still aren’t smooth for homosexuals in that country, but it’s a positive change.

America seems to have issues with infant mortality, having more than most developed nations. It seems ludicrous for us to have such issues, given our resources.

Middle East

The US has decided to have some contact with the Palestinian ministers they believe they can work with. This is good, as some contact is better than none at all. I’d suggest the same of Israel’s leaders, but I can guess already that they won’t be swayed into a moderate response. Extreme has ever been their path as of late.

Iraq’s VP outlines a five year reconstruction plan that includes pledges on matters of security, rule of law, human rights and corruption. A bit pie in the sky, I’d think, but I do hope they can get all of it done.

Chlorine bombs seem to be the new vogue amongst insurgents in Iraq. It seems they’re going less for high casualties and more for the terror aspect with this.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard promises Australia’s troops will remain in Iraq as long as need be. Of course, given the people of Australia seem to be growing as weary as many Americans are, one wonders how he will fare come election time.

Opinions from the man who led the toppling of Saddam’s statue in Firdous Square.

It’s a fascinating thing how one can become a poster child. And the results, strange and double edged.

Africa

Kenya burns a cache of 8k guns found during an operation to stop the flow of illegal weapons in the country. That’s a lot of hardware. Some officials believe that instability in Somalia is the cause of the weaponry influx.

Slavery still exists in Sudan. Yet another black mark for the leaders of the country in my book.

Entrepreneurs in Nigeria struggle to keep their businesses afloat as the infrastructure crumbles.

Asia/Pacific

China announces a plan to build big passenger airplanes to compete with Boeing and Airbus. Though this plan is set to start no earlier than 2020, so the big names have time to prepare.

Europe

It seems impossible in this day and age, but the sex slave trade is still lingering, even in places like England. I find it hard to wrap my mind around a woman being sold off right off the plane in an airport coffee shop. It just seems.. impossible that no one would see what is going on. Not just civilians, but security.

Residents of Trokavec, not too far from Prague in the Czech Republic, vote down having a radar station for the US missile defense shield in their burg. See, they think it will make them a military target and they don’t want that. Sadly, their vote is largely symbolic and has no legal power.

General

Gene therapy treating babies of diseases while still in the womb? That would be lovely, though doing trials is hard due to the danger.

Research suggests the parts of the brain focused on learning and fear shrink in those who have autism. To be honest, I don’t grasp the direction such research leads, but learning more about the impairment leads to greater understanding of how to deal with and detect it in general.

A German study opines that those who play lots of car racing games tend to drive more aggressively. This would lead to the question of if those games make for dangerous drivers or of those predisposed to driving fast tend to like driving games. Both are equally likely.

Someone changes Sinbad’s Wikipedia page to say he’s dead. Sinbad laughs it off. Wikipedia is a lovely resource, but due to vandalism, should be taken as a starting point rather than an end all and be all.

The first tentative steps toward a mind reading machine?

The Blogs look at vows by a new jihadist group to attack Americans and Jews and China’s new guarantee of property rights.

Today’s Papers has a look at how there have been few reliable statistics in four years of conflict in Iraq, word that David Iglesias, the fired U.S. attorney from New Mexico, was asked to teach other prosecutors about how to pursue election crimes(note, part of the reasons stated as to why they were fired was that they weren’t being aggressive in pursuing voter fraud), Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small’s charging of improper expenses to his employer and more in the one page news.

Amusements

First, troops ordered they can’t have sex, followed by orders not to ever get drunk. Now, troops ordered not to smoke tobacco. Really want to make insane killers now, don’t we?

Vermont police stop man riding mower cross-country for charity. ”Vehicles that travel on our highways are required to be registered and to have a plate,”. That’s some excellent police work there boys

Mom called to elementary school to pick up their “disruptive” child. Mom then throws tantrum in classroom, arrested for threatening principal. Apple didn’t fall far from tree

Marching bands, carnival rides, and John Travolta welcome Scientology to small religiously conservative town

<A HREF="http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dailynews/3997144a11.html”>Man takes rifle to airport, through security, boards plane, plane takes off, nobody notices. Security workers: ” A gun? Really?”

Japanese museum puts massive gold bar worth $2 million on open display, explaining ‘they wanted visitors to be able to touch it.’ Pretty much the worst that could possibly go wrong almost immediately did

Airlines attempt to head off customer complaints by sending out notes of apology

Bear Creek High School is closed after a fire broke out over the weekend. The fire started near a kiln in a ceramics classroom. “The cause of the fire has not been determined.” I think I can help here

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this door. Watch that first step

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop Riccardo Chailly the Blasted Conductor

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this pararescueman