December 14, 2007 4:52

The Boys of Steroids

Category: The Ag

Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada, Gary Sheffield and literally dozens more major league stars have been implicated in what former Senator George Mitchell calls "baseball's steroids era."

In what the New York Times calls a "blistering report", Mitchell names 89 players who are alleged to have taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs. At least one player on every MLB roster is implicated but the New York Yankees and Mets along with the L.A. Dodgers are particularly well represented.

Mitchell's report is a damning indictment of a "period in which suspiciously bulked-up sluggers have toppled home run records and aging pitchers have magically regained their youthful form (and fastball speeds)," notes the Smoking Gun.

Could MLB's "collective failure" be fantasy baseball's gain? We're thinking of starting a new team called the Juicers: just look at the roster we could draw from!

New Jersey lawmakers voted to abolish the death penalty yesterday, the first state to do so since the Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976. Governor Jon Corzine has said he will sign the legislation.

And while a snowstorm brought parts of New England to a standstill, authorities in California arrested five men on allegations they "caused a fire that destroyed more than 50 homes and caused over $100 million in losses in Malibu," reports the AP.

World - Gore Slams Bush in Bali

"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.” That's how Al Gore summed up the frustrations of global negotiators as the U.S. played a game of brinkmanship that threatened to derail any formal agreement on combating climate change.

I'm talking about you George - REUTERS/Supri

It takes a lot to get European leaders to agree on anything at the moment but the U.S.' refusal to accept language that would commit developed nations to a binding 25%-40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 prompted a remarkable display of unity by the EU. Last night European ministers threatened to boycott President Bush's own "major emitters" summit in Hawaii next month if America didn't accept binding cuts.

The Bush administration complains that the Europeans are moving too quickly on climate change and are supported by Japan and Canada. By this morning, Europe was looking to reduce the temperature of the talks in order to pass some joint statement of intent.

Robert Mugabe has been nominated as the sole candidate in Zimbabwe's national elections, effectively crowning the 83-year old as President for life. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez should be taking notes.

Politics - House Pulls Plug on Waterboarding

The House of Representatives passed a measure that would ban waterboarding and other "harsh interrogation methods" by 222-to-199 votes. Passage through the Senate is not assured however and even then, President Bush has vowed to pour cold water all over the measure.

Mike Huckabee did pretty well from supporters and local businesses out of being Arkansas Governor. According to a Guardian investigation, during his 10 years tenure in Little Rock the GOP squeaky clean contender received "thousands of dollars in presents almost every year: gift certificates to sporting goods stores, clothing boutiques and Wal-Mart, a $3,695 pair of cowboy boots, a $500 belt and more." All the gifts fell within Arkansas ethics rules it should be noted.

Oh you shouldn't have...you're too kind - REUTERS/Keith Bedford

All the Democratic presidential contenders would have fancied skipping yet another debate but Hillary Clinton had more reason than most to want to avoid yesterday's final organized mouth-off before the Iowa caucuses.

Not only is she struggling to "shift from confident front-runner to scrappy, challenged candidate," but she also had to face Barack Obama just hours after offering him a personal apology for remarks made by one of her key advisors about Obama's prior drug use.

Iraq - Iraq Investigator Investigated

Stick with us on this if you can. The Inspector General office, which is responsible for keeping tabs on corruption and mismanagement in the effort to rebuild Iraq, is being investigated for....you guessed it....mismanagement and improper conduct. Allegations include "overtime policies that allowed 10 staff members to earn more than $250,000 each last year," writes the Washington Post.

Iraqi insurgents hit the bottle by blowing up liquor stores in a series of attacks that killed over 19 people around Baghdad.

Back In California, a Marine reservist was found guilty of killing an Iraqi soldier while they stood watch together at a guard post in Falluja last year.

Do Republicans really "like this [Iraq] war" and want it to continue? Those were the words of a very frustrated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday.

Celebrity - Atonement Tip for Golden Globes

The movie adaptation of Ian McEwan's World War Two novel Atonement has garnered seven Golden Globe nominations reports Reuters. Another war story - albeit Afghanistan in the 80s - and another adaptation of a book, Charlie Wilson's War, received five nominations including a nod for its star, Tom Hanks.

More nominations now but this time it's for the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. Madonna and Leonard Cohen head the list of inductees at the expense of overlooked acts like the Beastie Boys and Chic. Ah, seems like just yesterday that little Madonna was getting her big break.....

"Tom likes me in a suit and a mini every now and then. I like it when he likes it. It makes me blush". That's Katie Holmes talking to In Style. Too much information no?

If you've got any old pieces of paper that J.K. Rowling might have scribbled on, hold on to them. A handwritten, unpublished, book of her short stories was sold at auction for $4 million yesterday.

Who shall I make it out to? - TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Finally...and I mean finally, a personal note. After a year of getting up early, digesting the news feeds and writing more than is healthy about Britney Spears and Paris Hilton my time at the Ag has come to an end. Thanks to all the regular readers and commenters.

December 13, 2007 4:07

Central Banks Big Bailout

Category: The Ag

The Federal Reserve, along with the UK, Swiss and Canadian central banks agreed yesterday to pump more than $50 billion into the world money markets "in a move designed to prevent the worsening credit crunch derailing the world economy," writes the Guardian. The move says the New York Times is the "most aggressive infusion of capital into the banking system since the terrorist attacks of September 2001".

The Bush administration, allied with Canada and India, is intent on blocking language calling for mandatory CO2 emissions cuts at the UN climate change talks in Bali.

The head of the UN climate convention, Yvo de Boer, told reporters "he was 'very concerned' about the glacial pace of talks," writes the BBC. Mmm.....it might want to reconsider that description.

Is Congo on the brink of another war that could ignite pan-regional Hutu and Tutsi bloodshed all over again?

Seventy years after Nanking massacre, China remembers the hundreds of thousands killed while Japan still struggles to "admit its brutality," says the Independent.

Finally in world news, famed and aging Brazilian soccer star Romario has tested positive for the banned substance finasteride. But the 41-year old prolific goal scorer has a good excuse - he says he used it to prevent hair loss.

Politics - CIA Contrition Over Tapes

It was a contrite CIA director who appeared on Capitol Hill yesterday. Michael Hayden admitted that his agency had failed to keep lawmakers fully informed that interrogations of Al-Qaeda suspects had been recorded on video and that the tapes had then been destroyed.

A more contrite CIA? - REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The Republican candidates got together for another debate yesterday and proved that they can be civil to one another. The closest anyone came to vitriol was Fred Thompson and he directed his bile not at his competitors but at the debate guidelines laid out by the Des Moines Register moderator. Mike Huckabee even apologized to Mitt Romney for comments that "appear to disparage the Mormon faith," says CNN.

Even Hillary Clinton didn't warrant a bashing, which must be a serious worry for her as it means she is no longer viewed as the one to beat. It's also a problem for Rudy Giuliani says the Politico which writes: "Giuliani's unspoken pitch, according to GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio, goes something like this: 'You need me to protect you from her. And no matter how bad you think I am, she is far worse.'"

How worried is Hillary about the Barack Obama surge? Enough for one of her top advisers to suggest the Illinois Senator might have more skeletons in his closet than simply his past admissions of illegal drug use. "There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome," said a very concerned for the health of the Democratic Party Bill Shaheen before quickly apologizing for speaking out of line. Job done, no?

Iraq - War Budget Deal in the Making?

The House voted to authorize $$696 billion in military programs, including $189 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate is expected to follow suit next week. The news comes as Democrats seem resigned to the need to compromise on a broader budget that would give President Bush the funds he says he needs for Iraq without any provision to withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2008.

The Mahdi army of Shi'ite cleric of Moqtada al-Sadr is getting younger and more radical says the Washington Post. With many of its senior and mid-level leaders dead, arrested or having fled, a new cadre of teenage militants has taken their place and are imposing strict Islamic rule through a campaign of threats and fear.

"Some Iraqis returnees face uncertain lives," is the headline of a Los Angeles Times feature today. Hate to quibble but surely all Iraqis face uncertain lives, no?

National - Ice Storms Kill 32 Across Midwest

Thirty-two people are now known to have died in the massive ice storm that has frozen a large part of the central U.S. Oklahoma is particularly badly hit with 400,000 homes still lacking power in freezing conditions.

The Ice Storm - AP Photo/The Joplin Globe, T. Rob Brown

CSI Fresno scriptwriters pay attention: A local biochemist was convicted of First Degree murder yesterday for knocking out her husband and pouring hydrochloric acid on him.

Never mind reds under the bed, have you checked for Venezuelans on the veranda? CNN reports that four alleged agents of that nation have been arrested in Miami and charged with trying to persuade a U.S. citizen to keep quiet about the origin of $800,000 he recently tried to smuggle into Argentina. Investigators say the cash was destined for the campaign of Argentina's new leader Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Celebrity - Ike Turner Dead at 76

Ike Turner, the influential and infamous musician perhaps best known for his abusive marriage and creative partnership with Tina Turner had died aged 76. Here's a clip of Ike performing just two years ago:

"Britney deposed" we wrote yesterday....well we spoke too soon. Miss Spears was too ill to attend court.

It's been a few days since our last L.A. celeb DUI case but Scott Weiland has saved our barren patch.

Jessica Alba is pregnant. Surely that now marks the death of "lad's mags"?

December 12, 2007 4:49

UN Chief Delivers Climate Cry

Category: The Ag

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has issued a global rallying cry at the Bali climate change talks. "Climate change is the defining challenge of our age. The science is clear; climate change is happening, the impact is real. The time to act is now," he told negotiators from all over the world.

A 40% cut? The Americans will never go for that! - JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty

Nice words, but will they translate into action? The cornerstone of this new round of talks is the drive by the UN to convince developed countries to commit to cuts of 25-40% from 1990 levels by 2020. But with the U.S. refusing to agree any binding cuts, Ban admitted the current goals might be "too ambitious" to include in the final Bali statement.

A Beirut car bomb has killed Brig Gen Francois Hajj, "the man tipped to be the next head of Lebanon's army," reports the Guardian.

A North African chapter of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the two bombs that exploded near United Nations buildings and may have killed over 60 people in Algeria yesterday.

It's been over seven years since Alberto Fujimori fled Peru after his strong-man democracy imploded. Yesterday he was sentenced by a Lima court to six years for abusing his presidential power. He still faces human rights and corruption charges.

Politics - Rudy on the Wane

Mike Huckabee's support may be rising but all that demonstrates is a general state of confusion among GOP ranks as to who should be their presidential nominee according to a new national Washington Post-ABC News poll. Huckabee's Iowa surge "has begun to translate to the national stage, further shaking up a race that has been volatile from the outset," writes the WPost.

Rudy Giuliani should be happy - he still leads the national Republican race say the poll, but - and this is a big but - his support has plummeted from 53% in the summer to just 25% today.

Me? Worried? - Fred Prouser / Reuters

The Democratic Race is not quite as cut-throat....yet. Hillary Clinton still commands a decent nationwide lead over Barack Obama but she's looking vulnerable in Iowa - how else to explain her giving a "how to take part in the caucus" lesson this weekend in a state her campaign earlier had pretty much thumbed its nose at?

CIA director Michael Hayden carried on a time-honored agency tradition and blamed his predecessors during an appearance on Capitol Hill yesterday. When asked about the now infamous waterboarding videotapes, Hayden said "that the decision to record the interrogations in 2002 was made under George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, and that the destruction of those tapes in 2005 came under the watch of Porter J. Goss, who succeeded Mr. Tenet," writes the New York Times.

National - The Shooting Times

Repeat after me...."Guns don't kill people, people do." Got that? Okay, Now onto the daily shooting news from Las Vegas where six teenagers were shot, two critically, at a school bus stop in a midday attack - possibly gang-related - "that followed a fight over a girl," reports the AP.

In Colorado, an autopsy reveals that gunman Matthew Murray, who killed four people at two local religious institutions, took his own life after being shot several times by a volunteer security guard. "Murray was armed with three guns and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition," when he was felled by former cop Jeanne Assam reports the Los Angeles Times.

To Illinois now and CNN quotes a local pastor who says missing person Stacy Peterson "told him in August that her husband, Drew Peterson, admitted killing his previous wife, Kathleen Savio". Peterson is the chief suspect in his wife's disappearance.

Finally the weather. It's icy out there in the Midwest.

Iraq - Bomb Attacks in South

More than 30 people were killed and 40 more injured this morning when three bombs exploded in the southern Shi'ite dominated city of Amara.

Fighting the war in Iraq will remain the U.S. Military's main focus despite the worsening situation in Afghanistan. That was the message delivered yesterday by Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "It is simply a matter of resources, of capacity. In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must," said Mullen. That will have the Taliban quaking in its boots.

In Iraq, the U.S. Military is undertaking the first major change of command since General David Petraeus introduced the Surge.

The Independent's veteran reporter Patrick Cockburn's most recent column on Iraq adds weight to the growing suspicion that the new more peaceful Iraq may not be constructed on the soundest of alliances.

Writes Cockburn: "The U.S. military -- the State Department has been very much marginalized in decision-making in Baghdad -- does not want to emphasize that many of the Sunni fighters now on the U.S. payroll, who are misleadingly called 'concerned citizens,' until recently belonged to al-Qaida and have the blood of a great many Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers on their hands."

Celebrity - Britney Deposed

Mike Blake / Reuters

First the legal news. Britney Spears will be deposed today by ex-hubby, K-Fed's lawyers in their ongoing custody case. "It's expected that Spears will be grilled about her past drug and alcohol use, her alleged failure to follow court orders, and anything that reveals whether she's a fit mother," writes People, positively salivating at the prospect.

To New Jersey now where David Chase, creator of The Sopranos. is going to testify in a federal case brought against him by a consultant who claims he helped create the HBO series. The Smoking Gun has the details.

Orson Welles' personal script for Citizen Kane was sold at auction for almost $100,000 yesterday but his Oscar for the 1941 masterpiece went unclaimed.

Jeapordy's Alex Trebek has had a minor heart attack at the age of 67. The longtime host of the game show is resting and will be back in work in January. Trebek has been hosting Jeapordy since 1964....oops, make that '84.

December 11, 2007 3:37

How Waterboarding Worked

Category: The Ag

A former CIA interrogator has gone public with information about "waterboarding." The agent, John Kiriakou, says he did not do it himself: strapping down a suspect, wrapping the head in cellophane and pouring water into the throat to simulate drowning. But Kiriakou questioned the first high-ranking al-Qaeda suspect captured after 9/11, both before and after the technique was performed. It "may be torture," Kiriakou says, but it proved effective. "It was like flipping a switch" to make the suspect talk, he says, according to the WPost, which has today's most exhaustive waterboarding take. Kiriakou says he once believed the technique was necessary. "I think I've changed my mind," he told ABC.

That may make life harder for CIA chief Michael Hayden. He's due to appear before Congress today to explain why his Agency destroyed hundreds of hours of tapes of al-Qaeda interrogations in 2005, when Congress was investigating claims of alleged torture. The NY Times has an anonymously sourced story that says CIA lawyers gave written approval to destroy the tapes. Those documents, if found, would no doubt help government investigators to piece together what happened.

On the campaign trail:
Mike Huckabee's surge continues. He is now neck and neck with Rudy Giuliani nationwide, according to a CNN poll. But another poll shows a vast majority of GOP voters still undecided about which candidate to support.

Bill Clinton was stumping in Iowa yesterday, telling voters why his wife is the "most gifted person of our generation."

National - Cracks in drug sentencing laws

The Supreme Court voted 7-2 on Monday to let judges deviate from sentencing guidelines that give vastly harsher penalties on crack-cocaine crimes than powder-cocaine crimes. The L.A. Times reports that the "return to more individualized sentences will have its greatest impact in drug cases, but it will affect other federal crimes" as well. Today the U.S. Sentencing Commission will decide whether nearly 20,000 prisoners sentenced under the guidelines will be allowed to appeal.

Just don't expect massive changes. The NY Times notes in an analysis piece that, as a rule, when judges have the power to deviate from sentencing guidelines, they don't do it very much anyway.

Harsh drug laws? Judges can now relax the sentences - Robert Nickelsberg / Getty

In the courts himself: Conrad Black was sentenced Monday to 6.5 years in jail for defrauding his newspaper-empire shareholders and helping himself to $60 million. He's appealing the conviction.

Police have linked two Colorado shootings on Sunday, one at a mission center outside Denver and another in Colorado Springs. Cops say the gunman, Matthew Murray, 24, had been kicked out of a missionary training school a few years back. He won't make it to court, though: he was killed in Sunday's shooting at Colorado Springs.

For the Midwest, there's no reprieve from ice damage. The AP reports that more than 600,000 buildings were without power and at least 15 people dead because of the weather. Oklahoma has declared a state of emergency.

World - Putin's successor

Russia's Vladimir Putin is backing Dmitri Medvedev to succeed him as President in March. The NY Times calls Medvedev "a protégé with no background in the state security services and virtually no power base in the Kremlin," and guesses, therefore, "that Mr. Putin is seeking to retain influence by turning his office over to someone he can readily steer from behind the scenes."

Putin and protégé - Dmitry Astakhov / Presidential Press
Service / Itar Tass / AP

But before the handover, get ready for a Russia-West showdown over the Balkans. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo announced Monday they'll start immediate talks with Western supporters to declare Kosovan independence, since the breakaway province failed to reach an autonomy deal with Serbia by yesterday's U.N. deadline. E.U. countries are split over how much backing to give. Russia continues to oppose Kosovo independence unless Serbia is on board.

In Algeria, two car bombs detonated in the capital on Tuesday morning. One of them appears to have targeted the U.N. refugee agency. Early reports suggest at least 45 people are dead.

And Argentina has its first democratically elected female President: Cristina Kirchner was inaugurated Monday, taking over from her husband, Nestor, who decided not to run again. The center-left pol is "said to model herself on the businesslike approach of Germany's Angela Merkel," reports The Guardian.

Iraq - A new U.S. mandate

Iraq's PM is requesting a one-year extension to the U.N. mandate of U.S.-led forces in Iraq. His letter to the Security Council said this will be the last extension, and that Iraq may even ask for the mandate, which would then finish at the end of 2008, to be cut short. (There might be bilateral U.S.-Iraq agreements afterward.)

It looks like the U.S. has a renewed mandate at home already -- of a sort. An AP-Ipsos poll shows most Americans now feel there is progress in Iraq. Still, most still believe the war will be judged a mistake overall.

El Salvador is renewing its mission: the central American country has announced it will send 280 soldiers next year.

Back on the ground, Iraq's Interior Ministry is demanding that all female police officers hand in their guns for redistribution to men, the L.A. Times reports. Critics call the decision a clear sign of the government's cultural conservatism.

Trainees at the Baghdad Police Academy - Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty

Celeb - Led Zeppelin live!

You may have heard about a small get-together that everyone from AlJazeera to the NY Times has called the most anticipated rock reunion in memory. Led Zeppelin's show in London last night, the band's first full set since 1980, had millions of fans vying for just 18,000 tickets. The show seems to have been a crowd-pleaser despite the hype. Jason Bonham filled in capably on drums for his dad, John, who choked on his own vomit and died in 1980. The tunes were good. And the mostly glowing reviewers seem relieved that, unlike the Stones, Led Zeppelin members on stage these days are opting to keep their shirts on.

There's less dignity for Kevin DuBrow. TMZ says Nevada officials believe the Quiet Riot singer, found dead in Vegas in November, died of a cocaine overdose.

And less still for NFL star Michael Vick. The football player behind a notorious dogfighting ring was sentenced Monday to 23 months in jail.

Michael Vick, jail-bound quarterback - Jason Reed / Reuters

December 10, 2007 3:36

Five dead in Colorado shootings

Category: The Ag

Five people died in two separate Colorado shootings on Sunday. Early in the day, a man opened fire at a missionary center outside Denver after he was refused a bed. About 12 hours later and 65 miles away, a gunman shot at megachurch parishioners in Colorado Springs. He killed two and was then killed by a security guard. Authorities are still investigating, but it seems the attacks were linked.

Nationwide, a backlog of Social Security disability claims has left hundreds of thousands of Americans unable to work and without government assistance for which they're likely eligible, the NY Times reports. The disability wait-list grew by more 400,000 applicants -- more than doubling -- between 2000 and 2007.

A Midwest ice storm cut off power to tens of thousands of people Sunday. The ice has grounded airplanes and is blamed in six traffic deaths.

But in Chicago, Conrad Black feels the heat. He awaits sentencing today for his July convictions on charges of fraud and obstruction of justice.

World - Kosovo deadline

Today is the deadline for Kosovo -- still legally a Serbian province -- to reach an agreement with Serbia over the region's future. Talks lasted many months, but failed. Now ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo are threatening to declare independence unilaterally. And if they do, says the Wall Street Journal, expect a further chill on frosty relations between Russia, which backs Serbia, and the West.

NATO troops are still in Kosovo. Many ethnic Albanians want independence - Hazir Reka / Reuters

Relations are warming in the east, though. It's goodbye, Ping-Pong diplomacy, and hello, Beethoven, as the New York Philharmonic has agreed to visit Pyongyang in February. That's the first major American cultural visit in North Korea's history.

In Canada, a pig farmer accused of being one of the world's most prolific serial killer was convicted Sunday on six counts of second-degree murder. The man, Robert Pickton, faces another 20 murder charges, for which a trial date has not yet been set.

Politics - Oprah's endorsement

Oprah Winfrey was on tour this weekend in support of Barack Obama. "We need a president who can bring us all together," she says, and Obama "is the one." About 30,000 people came to see her Sunday speech: the biggest 2008 campaign event to date, according to CNN.

On the campaign trail, Oprah and the Obamas - Darren McCollester / Getty

The Republican Presidential hopefuls, meanwhile, toned down their anti-immigration rhetoric for a televised Spanish-language debate Sunday. They stood firm on the underlying issues, though.

The U.S. says it will not commit to binding emissions targets at this month's U.N. climate conference in Bali.

And in Washington, the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense has released a new assessment of pork on the hill. The papers run with it. The WPost singles out House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer as one of the Top 10 House earmarkers -- $96 million worth of pet projects this year, it reports -- despite anti-pork campaigning. The L.A. Times checks out instead Hillary Clinton's pork through the years.

Iraq - Britain's PM visits Basra

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a surprise visit to Basra on the weekend. The region, which is the last area still under U.K. control, will be transferred to Iraqi authority in two weeks. Britain plans to draw down its 4,500-troop force to 2,500 by spring. Brown then moved on Camp Bastion, the U.K.'s largest military base in Afghanistan on Monday. It's his first trip to the country as Prime Minister.

Brown in Basra - PA

Mortar shells killed at least seven Iraqi prisoners Monday in an attack on an Interior Ministry jail. The U.S. military had no immediate info about the attack.

The police chief for central Iraq's Babil province was also killed by a roadside bomb Sunday, the AFP reports.

To stem the violence, Iraq's Defense Minister vowed Sunday to launch a new crackdown in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. The minister says that the offensive, if successful, could cut violent incidents in the capital by 95%.

Celebrity - Thieving Britney?

TMZ caught Britney Spears on video as she stole a lighter from a gas station Friday night. The mid-meltdown diva appears more annoyed than furtive as she pays for some other stuff, then goes back to the check-out and snatches the lighter. "I stole something. Oh, I'm bad," she says to the TMZ camera with sarcasm.

Spears, living the high life, perhaps not taking the high road - Toby Canham / Getty

In the U.K. papers:
The mother of Grammy-nominated singer Amy Winehouse, Janis, published an open letter in yesterday's News of the World, begging the troubled musician to come home. Jack Nicholson takes a slightly more relaxed approach to parenthood. He told The Sun he "used to live so freely" that he figures he could have fathered as many as 9,000 kids. Hm.

Let him be an inspiration to the newlyweds. Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough, 34, and Happy Days star Scott Baio, 46, both married their girlfriends on Saturday.

December 7, 2007 4:31

CIA Destroyed Interrogation Tapes

Category: The Ag

The New York Times reports that the CIA destroyed two videotapes documenting the waterboarding interrogation of two Al-Qaeda operatives in order to protect the identity of its own agents. "The destruction of the tapes raises questions about whether agency officials withheld information from Congress, the courts and the Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the program," writes the NYT.

GOP hopeful Mitt Romney made his JFK religion speech yesterday. Seeking to allay suspected voter fears over his Mormon faith, Romney told a Texas audience, "Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions."

The House rebuffed the threat of a Presidential veto and passed its much-talked about Energy Bill yesterday which includes provisions to raise by 40% fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks as well as new taxes on the oil industry. (That last part is bound to be cut by the time this bill makes it through the Senate.)

World - Bush Asks North Korea to Disclose Nuke Plans

President Bush has sent a handwritten note to North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il "reminding him of his commitment to disclose the details of his country's nuclear weapons program by the end of the year," writes the Los Angeles Times. Note to the White House. Frankly we think the personal stuff only gets you so far. Try sending an iPhone instead and then you'll see some action.

Now the backtracking on the National Intelligence Estimate has begun. France and Germany both still consider Iran a potential nuclear threat and "doves" in the U.S. think that "U.S. intelligence agencies, possibly eager to demonstrate independence from White House political pressure, may have produced a National Intelligence Estimate that is more reassuring than it should be on the potential risks of the Iranian nuclear program," writes the LAT.

So what really is going on with Iran's nuclear program? Perhaps a simple Google search might help? That's all it took to find the photo of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin with his wife in Panama earlier this year reports the Daily Telegraph. Of course Iran is a lot smarter than Darwin. Despite being presumed dead for five years, when the suspected con man tried to buy a luxury yacht last year he gave his home address as a contact.

The Sailor of Panama - PA

Darwin's wife is now flying back to the UK from Panama and will be arrested on her arrival.

Finally in world news it seems international food bans can work both ways. Reuters reports that China has stopped the import of a "batch of Procter & Gamble potato chips from the United States for containing a banned additive".

Iraq - Female Suicide Bomber Strikes

A female suicide bomber has killed 16 people in an attack on one of the Sunni tribal "Awakening" groups that have formed to combat Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Also north of Baghdad, insurgents have detonated a bomb under a key oil pipeline but the oil is continuing to the flow.

On the whole foreign Islamic insurgents are finding it harder to get into Iraq says U.S. commander in Iraq General David Petraeus. Those in Iraq have been chased out of Baghdad and are creating a new hub in the northern city of Mosul.

Having completed his sixth visit as Defense Secretary to Iraq, Robert M. Gates says, "I came away from all of it feeling very good about the direction of things in the security arena".

National - Mortgage Relief for How Many?

Don't call it a bailout. President Bush's mortgage relief plan is led by the financial services industry not government. As such it "leaves plenty of wiggle room for lenders. Moreover, it would affect only a small number of subprime borrowers," notes the New York Times.

More details on the Nebraska mall killer are emerging: Robert Hawkins "spent four years in a series of treatment centers, group homes and foster care after threatening to kill his stepmother in 2002," reports the AP. He'd also just been dumped by his girlfriend and lost his job at McDonald's.

NASA is having problems getting its latest Space Shuttle mission off the ground on schedule. In California however, Google is chatting with the first private company to take it up on its $30 million challenge to launch a private sector moon mission.

Should have called Google for advice - Scott Audette / Reuters

It's been a good drug enforcement year for the U.S. Coast Guard. They bagged a $4.7 billion cocaine haul this year.

Celebrity - Grammy Nods

Kanye West and Amy Winehouse might make an eclectic combo on-stage but together they've bagged 14 Grammy nominations. Nominated from the grave is Pimp C who died in L.A. earlier this week.

Winehouse nominated and still standing - CARL DE SOUZA / AFP / Getty

Mmm...what was 50 cent sniffing when a Croatian reporter plus TV crew walked in to his backstage dressing room? Maybe he and his friends were just sharing some cold medicine?

It seems only fair at this point to mention that Rolling Stone Keith Richards is reissuing is 1978 Christmas single "Run Rudolph Run" on iTunes.

Let's welcome Ray Liotta into the none-too-select Hollywood bad driving club. He has pleaded no contest to one count of reckless driving.

December 6, 2007 4:19

Nebraska Mall Mass Shooting

Category: The Ag

The teenager who killed eight people and then himself at a Nebraska mall yesterday had left a note in which he claimed the shootings would make him famous.

Calling the event "Omaha's deadliest hour," the Omaha World Herald describes how 19-year old Robert A. Hawkins, "dressed in camouflage and armed with a rifle opened fire among holiday shoppers".

Police in Illinois are searching two canals for the body of 23-year old Stacy Peterson who has been missing since late October and is presumed murdered. Her husband, an ex-police officer, has been named as a suspect.

One in three Americans would "deny social services, including public schooling and emergency room healthcare, to illegal immigrants," according to a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll. Okay, but that still leaves a majority of Americans willing to be more accommodating no?

World - What Did Bush Know About Iran and When?

Both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times throw their reportorial forces into explaining just how and why U.S. intelligence agencies undertook their remarkable volte-face over Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Reuters raises a more intriguing question: If President Bush was told in August that Iran may have suspended its nuclear weapons program, why in October did he raise the specter "of World War Three if [Iran] acquired a nuclear weapon."

China and the U.S. may not see eye-to-eye over the best way to combat climate change but Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is reaching out to new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In a phone conversation Rudd offered to "act as a bridge between Beijing and the developed world in negotiations on cutting greenhouse gas emissions," reports the BBC.

Rudd: a bridge over troubled waters? - GREG WOOD / AFP / Getty

You may have heard about the British canoeist, presumed dead for five years, who resurfaced at a London police station this week claiming amnesia. Well he's been arrested for fraud and his grieving wife (who cashed in his life-insurance policy) has admitted she's been living a lie now that a photo of her and her husband vacationing in Panama last year has surfaced.

Iraq - Gates Sees Progress Beyond the Bombs

The bombs exploding across in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq yesterday didn't deter visiting Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates from sounding "cautiously upbeat" saying that stability and democracy are "within reach," as the Washington Post reports.

Not quite a bullish as Vice President Dick Cheney though. He reckons Iraq will have a self-governing democracy by the time he and President Bush leave office in early 2009.

That's not quite the military man in charge of operations in Iraq puts it. "Nobody in uniform is doing victory dances in the end zone," General David Petraeus told reporters yesterday.

New rules for State Department security guard contractors. The U.S. military now requires "prior notification" of all diplomatic convoy movements and can halt the convoys from leaving if they deem it necessary. We assume another unwritten clause was ....'and no indiscriminate shooting of civilians'.

Politics - Mortgage Relief for Subprime Borrowers

The Bush administration has cut a deal with major mortgage firms "to freeze interest rates for five years for financially troubled homeowners," reports the Washington Post. The President is set to announce the terms later today.

The Supreme Court looks set to take an active role in determining the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees despite the Bush Administration's argument that all those held at Gitmo already have had "sufficient opportunities to challenge their confinement," reports CNN.

The Supremes will call the shots on detainee rights - Brennan Linsley / AP

With front runner status comes increased media scrutiny and now Mike Huckabee is being forced to defend his decision as Arkansas governor to write a letter supporting the parole of a rapist who later murdered a woman.

It may be cold in New Hampshire but the politics is heating up as a new Washington Post/ABC News polls shows Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama going neck and neck in the run up to the primary.

And while they tear chunks out of each other, John Edwards sees a chance to glide through their slipstream says CNN.

Celebrity - Kiefer in the Can

Upholding a rich tradition of celebrity driving incarcerations, Kiefer Sutherland began a 48-day jail sentence (that's real time not 24 time) for his second DUI conviction.

Another celebrity shot for the L.A. County wall - AP / Glendale Police Dep

How will Kiefer adorn his cell? Not with photos of Jennifer Aniston if a Green Bay prison is setting any precedent. There a murderer has lost a federal court case he brought to allow him to pin up the former Friends star in his room. The prison has a policy banning inmates receiving, and thus displaying, commercially published photographs.

Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers has ducked charges for his recent drunken encounter with an airline after apologizing for his inebriation at Dublin airport last month.

MSNBC via the Daily Star has some scantily-sourced story about Britney Spears' friends threatening to reveal some new Paris Hilton sex tape if the heiress doesn't start being nice to our Brit. Friendship is so complicated nowadays.

December 5, 2007 4:31

Iran Celebrates Intelligence Report

Category: The Ag

Oh boy is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad having some fun today. "This [U.S. intelligence] report... is announcing a victory for the Iranian nation in the nuclear issue against all international powers," he told a national TV audience earlier today.

The National Intelligence Estimate that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program back in 2003 doesn't alter the fact that Iran remains a threat to the world says President George W. Bush. "Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," said Bush yesterday.

China isn't buying that. Its UN ambassador questioned the need for new sanctions against Iran, saying, "I think we all start from the presumption that now things have changed".

A Taliban suicide bomber killed 13 people south of Kabul yesterday. This latest attack took place just as new leaked UN map shows that almost "half of Afghanistan is now too dangerous for aid workers to operate in," reports the London Times.

Somalia isn't any safer. Yesterday Ethiopia called on the international community to help it maintain its peacekeeping mission. The government in Addis Ababa is concerned about getting bogged down in protracted fight with Islamist insurgents that it knows it can't win.

Politics - Bush Plans Middle East Trip

President Bush is planning a Middle East trip in the New Year. The White House isn't offering details but Israeli media say he'll visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority on his first Presidential visit to the region.

Show me the money! - Alexis C. Glenn / UPI

The President is none too pleased with Congress. Not only are those Dems refusing to sign off on Bush's Iraq War Funding Christmas wish list but he says they're trying to stuff the spending bill with lots of pork. Congress should fund troops "without telling our military how to conduct this war," said Bush.

Not that the White House and Capitol Hill are at odds over all legislation. Yesterday the Senate handed President Bush "an unusual victory" when it passed a new trade agreement with....Peru.

Mitt Romney is flying high in New Hampshire and also he's in the market for a new landscaper. Romney fired his home contractor yesterday after new allegations surfaced of undocumented aliens working on his property. Rival Rudy Giuliani has been making political hay months about Romney employing illegal immigrants at his "sanctuary mansion."

Rudy is also feeling the glare of public scrutiny. He's "stepped down as head of his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, after months of refusing to disclose the firm's clients," reports the Hotline.

Senator Al Franken? The comedian says he is serious in his Minnesota bid.

Iraq - Video Threat to Execute British Hostages

Shi'ite militia threatened to execute one of the five British hostages they've been holding since May unless the UK government withdraws its forces in the next 10 days. A Saudi-owned satellite TV channel aired the video in which one of the men, flanked by masked men with assault rifles, says: "Today is November 18. I have been here now 173 days and I feel we've been forgotten."

The first image of the hostages in months - Al-Arabiya TV / AP

Iran and the U.S. are set for new Iraq security talks a leading Iraqi Shi'ite politician said yesterday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates popped over to Iraq yesterday to evaluate the calming success of the Surge.

But how secure is Iraq? "It’s more a cease-fire than a peace,” Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih tells the New York Times. The progress achieved by the three factors that have brought about the peace - the recruitment of Sunni Arabs to fighting insurgents, the six-month ceasefire called by Shiite leader, Moktada al-Sadr, and the large numbers of U.S. troops on the streets - could quickly be reversed, notes the NYT.

National - States of Emergency for Washington and Oregon

Washington and Oregon are racing to recover from twin deadly storms that "pushed up water levels in some areas 25 feet in less than 48 hours," and left thousands without power.

Water, water everywhere - Mike Salsbury / The Chronicle / AP

Five people are known to have died and major highways included Interstate 5 were severed by the floodwaters. Oregon resident Ed Crowdis summed up the alarm caused by the fast-moving waters as he recounted narrowly escaping the floods. "You don't realize how quickly you can become a victim. It scared the living crap out of me," Crowdis told The Associated Press.

Crowdis is unlikely to take solace in the knowledge that he is part of national trend. The NYT tells us today that "the number of severe rainfalls and heavy snows has grown significantly in the last half-century".

To another gathering storm now and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is working "aggressively and quickly" to agree an interest rate freeze with financial institutions in order to prevent an anticipated new surge in foreclosures that could send the U.S. economy into recession.

Celebrity - Quaid Sues Over Kids Overdose

Dennis Quaid and wife Kimberly Buffington are suing the makers of the blood thinner heparin. The couple alleges the product's labeling and packaging played a role in the overdose given to their newborn twins last months. Said twins were given 1000 times the normal dose of the drug says People.

To the highs and lows of rapdom now and it was bad day to be a rapper in Cali. Pimp C was found dead in a Hollywood hotel room while Spice 1, who over the years has worked with the likes of 2Pac and Method Man, was shot and is in critical condition.

Here's some Spice 1 back in the day....

Good job Snoop Dogg has mellowed. The main concern in his life right now is keeping tabs on his kids.

Carson Daly went back on the air without the aid of his writers and, you guessed it, he wasn't funny.

December 4, 2007 4:38

Nukes Intel Report Delivers a Blow to Bush Iran Policy

Category: The Ag

America's intelligence agencies shocked the world yesterday (but not necessarily the Bush Administration) by revealing that Iran hasn't pursued a nuclear weapons development program since 2003. "Rarely, if ever, has a single intelligence report so completely, so suddenly, and so surprisingly altered a foreign policy debate [in Washington]," writes the New York Times.

Honest..."the estimate is good news" says National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley - Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

The declassified report raises questions of whether President Bush knew of this intelligence even when he warned earlier this fall that "a nuclear-armed Iran might lead to World War III," writes the Washington Post. That said, some observers in and out of the administration questioned whether the intelligence community has got its facts right this time?

The news was greeted with glee in Tehran and has prompted Democrats to call for a rethink of U.S. policy towards Iran. And by crying wolf, the Bush Administration may well have scuppered any new international push to impose sanctions on Tehran for continuing to defy the UN on nuclear regulations.

Frankly we don't know who will be more disappointed by this news - Dick Cheney or Seymour Hersh?

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims his party's sweeping parliamentary victory has given him a "moral mandate" to keep his fingers around the throat of Russian democracy. All outside observers say he strangled free expression long ago.

Notes from our warming planet: The tropics are spreading north and south says National Geographic, and the water is most definitely rising in Papua New Guinea reports CNN.

Politics - Huckabee's Stealth Crusade

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is the story in Iowa at the moment. After months as an also-ran, he is now the front runner in the Iowa race with the support of 29 percent of likely caucusgoers, ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (24 percent) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (13 percent).

Me? In the lead? - Carlos Barria / Reuters

Ah, but with this new-found stature comes new media scrutiny into how a candidate with almost no political machine to speak of can be corn-dusting the opposition in Iowa? The Washington Post points out that Huckabee's campaign is "relying on a network of pastors, parents who home-school their children, and other Christian conservatives," to help mobilize the small-core of voters who can swing a result in Iowa.

The Politico meanwhile reports Huckabee's campaign is "being aided by an independent group run by a former top aide at the NRSC [that's National Republican Senatorial Committee for those of us outside the Beltway] and funded in part by a group of retired Procter & Gamble executives in Ohio."

Huckabee's Christian crusade through the GOP ranks might be forcing Mitt Romney to pump up his religious credentials but Fred Thompson isn't bothered. The former Tennessee senator dismissed criticisms that he doesn't attend church enough by telling CNN: "I'm OK with the Lord, and the Lord is OK with me, as far as I can tell."

Iraq - Mass Grave Unearthed

Iraqi soldiers have discovered another mass grave holding 12 bodies in a former Al-Qaeda stronghold that has turned up over 100 bodies since October. The Lake Tharthar region, which used to be a resort area popular with officials under Saddam Hussein's regime, is in the heart of what became known as the Sunni Triangle.

The New Republic has unearthed a journalistic skeleton in its own closet. Yesterday editor Franklin Foer was forced to disavow some "reports about petty wartime cruelty in Iraq, saying the magazine had lost faith in the Army private who wrote them," writes the Washington Post. Amazingly, the fact checker the New Republic employed to verify Army Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp's dispatches was....his own wife.

More than 2,500 Iraq refugees have returned home from Syria says the Iraqi Red Crescent. Many of those have discovered squatters in their homes, especially in Baghdad says the San Francisco Chronicle.

The leader of an Al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group has called on his supporters to launch a new intensive bombing campaign against Iraqi security forces. "Every soldier (militant) is to detonate at least three bombs by the end of the campaign," Abu Omar al-Baghdadi said in an audio recording. Probably not a suicide bombing campaign then.

National - Northwest Deluged by Storms

It's the Pacific Northwest's turn to get hit by the weather. Two people died as hurricane-strength winds (the highest recorded at 129 mph) and driving rain washed away major highways and left entire communities without electricity. Four inches of rain fell in Seattle within 24 hours. Now the storm has headed inland towards the Upper Midwest where it is expected to bring snow.

Normally you'd have to watch local news for useless weather video like this....

Mychal Bell, the black teenager at the center of the Jena Six case pleaded guilty to hitting a white classmate yesterday as part of an agreement with prosecutors that will allow him to go free by June.

Say goodbye to the humble pay phone. AT&T is getting out of the pay phone market next year citing changing consumer habits and declining revenues. Must be tough not to be able to count on all the extra chase from those quarters the phones would swallow.

Celebrity - Taylor Mourned in Miami

Some 3,000 mourners attended Sean Taylor's funeral in Miami yesterday including his Washington Redskins teammates, New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Andy Garcia, father of Taylor's girlfriend, and even O.J. Simpson.

Sean Taylor's casket - Lynne Sladky / AP

Evel Knievel may also have gone to the grave but his exploits, and in this case, the interest on them lives on and grows. Back in 1977, the motorcycle stuntman broke the arm of a PR man named Shelly Saltman with baseball bat. Saltman sued and was awarded $12.75 million in damages. But Knievel never paid and now the uncollected sum sits at over $100 million. Saltman wants Knievel's estate to pay up.

So Jennifer Love Hewitt blasts the media for getting on her case over not being a size zero yet still having the "cheek" to wear a bikini. People magazine takes this stuff very seriously....so much so that it's launched readers' poll on whether Hewitt was right or wrong. Classy.

The Sun reports that "J. Lo's bump is getting bigger". Someone needs to explain the finer points of pregnancy to their showbiz staff apparently.

November 30, 2007 6:11

Big Business Calls for Climate Change Treaty

Category: The Ag

Ahead of next week's UN summit in Bali, business leaders from more than 150 global companies have "called for a legally-binding and comprehensive international deal on climate change," reports the BBC. "They believe climate change is a reality, that continued economic growth depends on tackling it and that the costs of inaction are too great," writes a certain HRH Prince Charles in the Financial Times.

Fifty-six people have died in a plane crash in southern Turkey earlier today.

A New Zealand teenager is accused of being the "ringleader of a hacking network which infiltrated more than 1.3m computers....[and].....of stealing millions of pounds from bank accounts around the world". And you were worried about your kids spending do much time playing video games!

President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party is cruising to an overwhelming parliamentary election win this weekend amid charges from opposition parties of "official interference, seizure of campaign literature and the exclusion of some candidates from the ballot". Experts (and Gary Kasparov) say this will be the "least democratic election since the USSR collapsed," writes the Christian Science Monitor.

Politics - Rudy's Problem With Numbers

The problem with dazzling your supporters with stump statistics, as Rudy Giuliani is discovering, is that pesky news organizations like the New York Time start checking them....and finding out you are wrong or at least doing a bit of embellishing.

Stats, schmats! - Stan Honda / AFP / Getty

Not that Rudy has much time for the media at the moment. He's still mad at the Politico for reporting how he billed some $34,000 in travel expenses for his personal security detail (including 11 trips to Southampton, where the Judith Nathan who would become Giuliani’s third wife kept an apartment) to obscure city agencies.

Giuliani dismissed the reports as a hit job on his campaign and defended the accounting. On the contrary says the AP, the report "exposes the former mayor to harsh questions his campaign wanted badly to avoid — about character, truthfulness and a penchant for secrecy".

CNN has apologized for failing to vet out the Hillary Clinton adviser who was allowed to ask a pointed question on gays in the military at the recent Republican candidate's debate.

Congress is close to agreeing a bill that would raise CAFE fuel economy standards from 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 22.2 mpg for trucks to 35 mpg fleet-wide by 2020. Mmm, by 2020....oh, and "work trucks" like the Dodge Ram, Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado would still be exempt. Add in a tax break for these monsters and Detroit will have a new SUV-like boom all over again.

Henry Hyde, the former Illinois congressman who pushed the impeachment of President Bill Clinton has died, aged 83.

Iraq - Returning Refugees Pose Problems

How do you cope with thousands of returning refugees who want their homes back and need feeding and jobs? It's a question that worries the U.S. Military, not least because it says the Iraqi government hasn't got a plan in place to deal with an influx that threatens to destabilize Baghdad and ignite new sectarian violence.

What happens when they get home? - Ali Yussef / AFP / Getty

Some 550 Australian combat troops should be home from Iraq by mid-2008 says new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

U.S. Troops are staying put but the Pentagon will struggle to run its war operation says President Bush if the Democratic Congress continues to hold up his request for $196 billion in supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American people "do not want disputes in Washington to undermine our troops in Iraq, just as they’re seeing clear signs of success," said Bush.

National - Secret Porn Star Body Found

Who says we can't do tabloideeze? The Kansas City Star reports local police have found the body of 18-year old college student Emily Sander. Her disappearance had made national headlines after it was revealed she led a double life as Internet porn star Zoey Zane.

While we were reading the Star we came across this headline: "Man shot in head drives to hospital". Not that the security guard on his way home from work was in any great rush it seems. The "victim drove west on 31st, attempting to find police, but was shot at again between U.S. 71 and Troost Avenue. He then continued on to Truman Medical Center, where he was being treated for life-threatening injuries." Surprised he didn't stop off for pizza as well.

Could have been worse, he might have been working the night-shift....which is about to be classed as a probable cause of cancer by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the American Cancer Society.

Who could trump getting shot and driving to hospital? Why Rodney King of course. The former LAPD beatee was hit in the face by birdshot fired from a shotgun but managed to cycle 1.5 miles back to his home before calling the police. They say he seemed drunk and uncooperative.

Can't we all just along?

Celebrity - Guild Underwhelmed by Studios' Offer

The Screen Writers' Guild have asked for a few days to consider the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' new $130 million digital rights offer to the writers even as they dismiss the offer as "a massive rollback."

With the Guild tepid on the offer, Conan O'Brien will have to cover the salaries of his non-writing production workers—nearly 80 people in all - possibly for a few extra weeks.

Can we settle please, this will cost me a fortune - Evan Agostini / AP

More than 50 first-time filmmakers will have their work featured at the up-coming Sundance Film Festival in a line-up that will showcase 87 world premieres and 14 North American premieres and feature performances by Mary Kate Olsen and Ray Romano among many others. Good to see Indy film hasn't lost its edge.

Drea de Matteo didn't make the Ag's celeb preg special yesterday as she'd just given birth to baby Alabama Gypsy Rose.

Just when you thought Marie Osmond's baby doll cult couldn't get any worse, here comes QVC with four Dancing With the Stars inspired dolls, bedecked in those garish outfits Osmond wore on the show. Has anyone notified the bad-taste police?

November 29, 2007 4:14

Chavez Faces Student Protests

Category: The Ag

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is having a bad week. First he falls out with Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe over his hostage mediations with FARC rebels. That spat prompted Chavez to withdraw his ambassador from Bogota and vow "no type of relationship" with Colombia while Uribe is in power.

Then there's unrest at home. Chávez is facing possible defeat over a constitutional reform referendum Sunday that would greatly extend his powers in Venezuela (he says he wants to rule until 2030). Yesterday hundreds of students opposed to Chavez clashed with police and national guard.

Troops in the Philippines stormed a luxury hotel this morning where some two dozen mutinous soldiers had barricaded themselves in. The soldiers say they will surrender to protect the lives of civilians and journalists trapped inside.

President Pervez Musharraf begins his first day on Civvy street today but it will be a special one. The former general will be "sworn in as a civilian president....leaving him with vastly reduced powers and Washington with a far more complex Pakistan to deal with in its fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban," writes the New York Times.

Finally in world news, Australia has a new environment minister, Peter Garrett. You might remember him from his old job.....

Politics - Bam, Pow, Splatt....the Sounds From the GOP Debate

The gloves came off in CNN and YouTube's Florida GOP debate. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney went mano a mano (so to speak) over who's got more illegal immigration skeletons in the closet. John McCain and Ron Paul surged at each other over Iraq and all the candidates wished they'd come up with Mike Huckerbee's ridiculous but popular claim that he'd abolish the Internal Revenue Service.

Before the gloves came off - Joe Raedle / Getty

Hillary Clinton barely got a mention as the Republicans tore red-state sized chunks out of each other. But the Democratic front runner's presence was still felt. When an audience member, retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr, asked the candidates about gays in the military he forgot to mention his role as a co-chair of Hillary Clinton's National Military Veterans group.

At one point during the melee, Fred Thompson launched what CNN calls the "first negative television ad" of the 2008 campaign but frankly the whole mood of the evening was so ugly that no-one really noticed.

Surely they weren't talking about this were they?

The Democratic National Committee canceled its final fall season debate in Los Angeles as it didn't want the candidates to cross Screen Writers' Guild picket lines and not because it feared GOP-style all-out fisticuffs.

Iraq - Clinton Opposition Disputed

Is Bill Clinton undertaking a bit of revisionist history with his statement that he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning? The Washington Post quotes a former senior aide to then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice saying she remembers being told by Elliot Abrams, one of Rice's deputies, that "'we have Clinton's support.'"

Some 6,000 Iraqi Sunnis have signed a security pact with U.S. forces as a way of stabilizing the country and driving out Al-Qaeda insurgents. Each of the Sunni "recruits" will receive $275 a month — nearly the salary for the typical Iraqi policeman — to patrol about 200 security checkpoints in a region north of Baghdad.

Despite this co-opting of local fighters to provide on-the-ground security, a top U.S. general in Anbar province estimates it will be a number of years before strike force Marines can pull out of a region that has been a hot-bed of insurgency. While Lt. Gen. Samuel T. Helland believes Al-Qaeda operatives are now on the run, he warns, "It can take a decade to win a counterinsurgency."

Australia is pulling its troops out of Iraq however now that it has a new government.

But it's not all one-way traffic out of Iraq. Some of the estimated 1.5 million refugees currently in Syria are one their way home.

National - Curtain Rises Again on Broadway

The