Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

25 Dec 2010 10:25

tags

World: The Pope’s Christmas wish: Peace in the Middle East (of course!)

  • May the light of Christmas shine forth anew in the Land where Jesus was born, and inspire Israelis and Palestinians to strive for a just and peaceful co-existence.
  • Pope Benedict XVI • Expressing hope for the Israel-Palestinian conflict’s resolution during his Christmas Day mass. He suggested the same for Somalia, Darfur and the Ivory Coast. Merry Christmas, bro. You’ve had as tough a year as any of us have had, what with all those scandals you’ve had to deal with lately. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Dec 2010 10:11

tags

World: Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo still has power, but not money

  • power Ivory Coast spoil-sport Laurent Gbagbo has the military under his finger and as a result has been able to use them to hold onto power even in the wake of heavy international criticism.
  • money Unfortunately for him, The Central Bank of West African States says challenger Alassane Ouattara is president, which means he controls the government’s money. This is very bad for Gbagbo. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Dec 2010 10:26

tags

World: WTF study: Early breastfeeding leads to better grades in school

  • 10% improvement in math and writing, two things we suck at
  • 8% improvement in spelling, something we suck at even more
  • 6% improvement in reading; we’re guessing we weren’t breastfed source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Dec 2010 21:23

tags

World: Ivory Coast election situation raises danger of fresh civil war

  • bad The situation in the Ivory Coast, roughed up over a disputed election, has been getting worse by the day. And the guy who lost, Laurent Gbagbo, went on television denying he lost – again. On the plus side, he says that he’s willing to negotiate about this.
  • worse Just to worry the crap out of you guys a little, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says that forces loyal to Gbagbo have been blocking supplies from getting to UN security forces. He suggested there may be a “real risk” of civil war breaking out in the country. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Dec 2010 11:21

tags

World: He said, The NYT said: Will Afghan War ground raids reach Pakistan?

  • yeah … The New York Times reported that the U.S. military was looking into expand their Afghan ground raids into tribal areas of Pakistan for purposes of expanding intelligence. The article notes that the U.S. has until now used drones in Pakistan out of fears of a backlash from the Pakistani government.
  • … but NATO denies this, with one commander saying this: “There is absolutely no truth to reporting in The New York Times that US forces are planning to conduct ground operations into Pakistan.” Who’s lying here? Did Jayson Blair write that Times article? Or does NATO not want that info public? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2010 22:43

tags

World: More horrific capital punishment, this time with a twist

  • terrible A 50-year old Bangladesh was sentenced to 40 lashes for an alleged affair with her stepson. She died of internal injuries following the beating.
  • strange Those responsible for the beating were subsequently arrested. Why? They weren’t supposed to kill her; that’s against the law. What a world. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2010 21:43

tags

World: International pressure keeps up on Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo

  • He may very well be trying to ignore us and be hoping that we’ll forget and go away or focus on another issue. I can only remind him that this is a unanimous international community. We’re not going away, and we’re not going to forget this.
  • U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs William Fitzgerald • Pointing out that Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo picked the wrong international community to mess with. Fitzgerald’s words should have teeth, and so do American actions (we put strong sanctions on Gbagbo), but considering all of the human rights atrocities that have happened in Africa on the international community’s watch (Rwanda, Darfur, ZImbabwe, so on, so forth), can we really trust this? Seems like these words have a tinge of emptiness. Mind you, we hope things change this time, but where’s the evidence things will? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

20 Dec 2010 19:47

tags

World: Captured Mexican politician freed, looks like he’s been through hell

  • The good news is that Diego Fernández de Cevallos, a well-known Mexican political figure better known as “El Jefe Diego,” former presidential candidate and top national figure in the country, was freed on Monday after seven months of captivity. The bad news is that he looks like this, has probably been through many horrible things and usually looks like the photo in this CBS article. The worse news is that his family reportedly paid $20 million to get the prominent politician released from captivity. The worst part? His captors released him into the world looking like Santa Claus during Christmas week. Can you get more evil than that? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2010 11:08

tags

World: “Europe’s Last Dictator” wins overwhelmingly in Belarus

As contested elections go, the Ivory Coast’s situation is far scarier, but the drama around leader Alexander Lukashenko’s latest election in Belarus is nothing to sneeze at. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2010 10:08

tags

World: *IRONY ALERT* JULIAN ASSANGE’S PEOPLE UPSET ABOUT A LEAK!

  • I do not know who has given these documents to the media, but the purpose can only be one thing – trying to make Julian look bad.
  • Julian Assange’s Swedish Lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig • Offering up the most ironic complaint ever, that the leak of material in Julian Assange’s sex case makes Assange look bad. OHHHHHHHHHH so it’s OK as long as it doesn’t involve Julian Assange. Let’s bask in the glow of this for a second and remind you guys of this site, with its phallic logo and possible improvement over the Wikileaks model.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>