November 1, 2007 4:05

Pressure on PKK Grows

Pressure is increasing on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after Turkey imposed economic sanctions against any groups that support it and the U.S. acknowledged it was giving Turkey intelligence on PKK positions in Iraq.

Who do you turn to when your best diplomatic efforts to persuade Turkey not to attack your country has failed? The region's power broker - Iran - that's who.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote thousand of mini memos/mantras/scribblings termed 'snowflakes' while in office. The Washington Post republishes some of them today. Our favorite comes from 2006 after Rummy has read how retired generals want him to resign over Iraq: "Talk about Somalia, the Philippines, etc. Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists". Fear is a great motivator, no?

It's certainly motivating some State Department employees to try and avoid being sent to Iraq. At an angry internal meeting of State employees, one foreign service veteran summed up the mood by saying "Service in Iraq is 'a potential death sentence,'" the WPost reports.

World - 40,000 Years Sentence for Madrid Bombers

A Madrid court yesterday convicted and sentenced 21 of the 28 2004 train bombing defendants but one of the main alleged ringleaders walked free. Two men who were convicted of planting bombs were sentenced to "42,922 years and 42,924 years in prison respectively for each of the 191 murders," reports the Guardian.

The defendants in court - Paco Campos / AP

When the seven acquittals were read, "gasps filled the courthouse, packed with survivors, relatives and scores of journalists. Several relatives emerged weeping. They said they were furious and disappointed," says the Los Angeles Times.

Tens of thousands of Mexican residents have fled their homes in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas after a week of torrential rain swamped their towns and villages.

Two royal families having a get-together in London this week as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is afforded a state visit with Queen Elizabeth II. Not all Brits are happy about his presence however.

Still on the subject of happy families, the "former son-in-law of the President of Kazakhstan has dramatically escalated a family feud by accusing the head of state, Nursultan Nazerbayev, of ordering the killing of an opposition leader," writes the Independent. Said son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev, a former chief of the intelligence service, is currently exiled in Austria.

Politics - Tip-Toeing Around Torture

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey is tying himself up in knots...and no, he's not trying out some new "harsh interrogation" tactic. Rather Mukasey is trying to avoid saying what Senator want him to - namely that waterboarding is torture - in order to avoid a "potential legal quagmire for the Bush administration: criminal prosecution or lawsuits against Central Intelligence Agency officers who used [waterboarding] and those who authorized it," reports the New York Times.

Tort.....I mean repugnant - Stefan Zaklin / EPA

But while Mukasey tip toes around the torture, more Democratic Senators say they can't endorse him.

Malcolm Nance, a terrorism adviser the Department of Homeland Security doesn't pull any punches on the issue. "Waterboarding is a torture technique – period," he writes in Small Wars Journal.

Hillary Clinton may have made a few fumbles at Monday night's Democratic debate but her campaign has come out swinging suggesting that the "pile on" by her all-male opponents will only elevate her in the minds of female voters.

Big labor loves Hillary as well, though it also holds a soft spot for "nouveau man of the people "John Edwards. Both candidates picked up major union endorsements yesterday.

And if, at the end of the day, Clinton is still feeling a little beaten up on, she can take solace from a new poll that says she would "cream" GOP front runner Rudy Giuliani is the presidential election were held today.

National - $11 Million Fine for Military Funeral Protest Church

A Maryland court has fined a Kansas fundamentalist church nearly $11 million for picketing the funeral of a U.S. marine with signs blaming soldiers' deaths on America's tolerance of homosexuals. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka have picketed dozens of military funerals in the last few years. The court awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages to the family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder and $8 million in punitive damages.

Here's how BBC presenter Louis Theroux captured one protest:

Tropical storm Noel has wreaked havoc through the Caribbean and now it's headed towards Florida.

The Smoking Gun has done some good old-fashioned muckraking and discovered "Bernard Kerik, the disgraced former New York City police commissioner (and albatross around presidential aspirant Rudolph Giuliani's neck) is being sued for $200,000 by the law firm that recently angled to keep him from getting indicted on an assortment of federal felony charges." Kerik owes legal fees apparently.

Celebrity - Reality Bites at Screenwriters

Did you miss the very first season of Survivor? Well you might be seeing it again soon as Hollywood looks set to become embroiled in a very nasty writer's strike. The contracts for 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America expired at midnight last night and the Screen Writers Guild is deadlocked with the studios over getting an "increased share of revenues earned from DVD sales and Internet downloads of their work," says Reuters.

Lance Armstrong and Ashley Olsen?

So you're Ashley's big brother? - Ron T. Ennis / AP

Prison Break star Lane Garrison is getting some hard time of his own. He was sentenced to 40 months in jail yesterday for a DUI crash that killed a teenager.

Britney speaks: It's "sad, you know, how people ... how cruel our world can be," she tells Ryan Seacrest in a radio interview where she criticizes media coverage of her.