September 25, 2007 5:03

GM Workers Strike

The United Auto Workers called its 73,000 GM workers out on strike yesterday for the first national industrial action at the company since 1970. GM and the UAW are at loggerheads over wages and job security for U.S. workers worried about jobs moving overseas says the Washington Post.

All out - AP Photo/Al Goldis

With GM already playing second fiddle to Toyota, and with the auto industry facing unprecedented challenges from fast looming new emissions legislation, the strike represents "a defining moment from GM," reports the New York Times.

"Grinning madman" is how the NY Daily News described Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his visit to Columbia University. Greeted by protesters carrying signs saying "Hitler lives," Ahmadinejad "squirmed uncomfortably for some 90 minutes while trying to put a loving face on a message of hate," the paper writes. Ahmadinejad was visibly thrown off his stride by the "welcoming" remarks of Columbia University's president Lee Bolinger who described him as "a petty and cruel dictator".

Still the Iranian leader recovered enough to dispatch such zingers as "there were no homosexuals in Iran — not one — and that the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews should not be treated as fact, but theory, and therefore open to debate and more research," writes the New York Times.

Finally in surprisingly honest national news, the Homeland Security Department deputy director is quitting, not to spend "more time with this family" but to earn more money in the private sector. Hopefully not advising on computer network security.

World - Burma Monks Defy Junta

The protests grow - Photo: AP

Thousands of Burmese monks are on the streets of Rangoon again today, defying what the Guardian terms "ominous threats from Burma's military regime". The monks "have been handing out pictures of Burmese independence hero Aung San, the deceased father of detained opposition leader Aung," reports the BBC but their every move today is shadowed by army trucks.

Here's YouTube footage of some of the earlier protests

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged some 80 world leaders to take decisive action to combat global warming at yesterday's climate change summit. "I am convinced that climate change, and what we do about it, will define us, our era, and ultimately the global legacy we leave for future generations," he told the audience.

Of course as the world heats up so does the race to claim the Arctic's natural resources booty. Not content to see Russia, the U.S., Canada et al muscle in, the region's native Inuit people also "want a say in how territorial claims unfold," reports the Christian Science Monitor. Good luck.

Politics - Go Ahead for Gitmo Military Trials

Military trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees could be a legal option for the Bush administration once again after a special military appeals court overturned a lower court ruling blocking the trials on the grounds that the detainees had not been classified as “alien unlawful enemy combatants.”

Talking of political trials, the prosecutor in the Larry Craig restroom-gate says the senator "should not be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea to charges of disorderly conduct because he fully understood the legal process leading up to the deal," reports the Washington Post.

As President Bush prepares to grasp the mantle of climate change leader with this week's major polluter summit, the San Jose Mercury News reports how the "U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, with the knowledge of the White House," tried to pull the political equivalent of putting a banana in the tailpipe of California's attempts to pass new stringent auto emissions standards.

Who's the President picking in the 08' race? Well Hillary Clinton is a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination says Bush. But guess what, she'll be beaten to the White House by the Republican nominee.

Iraq - Deadly Blow to Reconciliation Feast

A suicide bomber killed 25 Sunni and Shi'ite leaders in Baqubah yesterday. The tribal leaders had gathered for an end of Ramadan reconciliation feast - part of the U.S. efforts to "forge an alliance against Sunni extremists" in Diyala province says the LA Times.

Wanna know how the Pentagon can tell sectarian violence is on the wane? They have a team of soldiers "sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers," says the Washington Post. "Signs of torture or a single shot to the head, corpses left in a 'known body dump' - as the body of the Sunni man found on Sept. 3 was - spell sectarian violence," says the paper.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reckons his country is "the tip of the bayonet" in the global fight against terror. Maliki's decision to sing from the same song sheet as the Bush administration suggests he "appears to have won a reprieve from American talk of pushing him aside," writes the New York Times.

Celebrity - Hard Time for Die Hard Director

Hollywood's infatuation with the clandestino techniques of disgraced private dick to the stars Anthony Pellicano has claimed a victim. Yesterday, Die-Hard director John McTiernan was convicted of lying about using Pellicano to spy on a business associate.

Still on the crime beat, Mike Tyson pleaded guilty in Arizona yesterday to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence. He faces up to four years in prison.

To celebrity politics now and Kevin Spacey, following in the footsteps of Sean Penn and Danny Glover, had an audience with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Explain the Usual Suspects plot to me again: Photo: AP

George Clooney and girlfriend Sarah Larson are back on their feet after a car knocked them off their motorbike while riding in New Jersey (the state's great driving reputation continues!). The couple - she on crutches - still managed to hobble down the red carpet at the premiere of Michael Clayton.