• The end of the letter was actually signed ‘Barack Obama.’ I hope this letter can be kept forever.
• Chinese man Li “Old Li” Liangzheng • Discussing the response he got from the Obama administration about his response to the oil spill. What kind of response was it? An automated one. While Old Li reportedly had a decent idea – it involved a large lid to equalize pressure – the response has perhaps been a little, unexpected. His response has been feted by the Chinese media over the last week. Which, let’s admit it, is kind of hilarious. source

• It’s this shepherd’s lucky day. He’s standing on so much lithium that he could power your laptop’s battery for decades to come. He doesn’t have to herd livestock in the worst place in the world anymore. There are $1 tRILLION dollars worth of precious metals to mine for. This is big. It could change the entire war and might even be enough to defang the Taliban, if it’s handled correctly. And it could make the value of Glenn Beck’s gold tip downward. (Thank God.) Some more details on the amazing find:

• $1
  trillion the amount of money the country is currently standing on
• $12
  billion the size of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product last year

Some obvious questions

• What’s down there? Lots of stuff, including iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium. An internal memo says Afghanistan could be the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” Wow, nice metaphor.
• how long will it take? It might take a few years to put together the things needed to help Afghanistan take advantage of their vast resources. And the U.S. is already there.
• Current economic driver? Opium. Lots and lots of opium. Part of the reason terrorism is so strong in the region is because so much money comes from the opium trade and narcotics trafficking.

Did Afghanistan mine before?

• This is a country that has no mining culture. They’ve had some small artisanal mines, but now there could be some very, very large mines that will require more than just a gold pan.
• United States Geological Survey geologist Jack Medlin • On the sheer lack of mining history n the country. So why wasn’t this discovered before? Well, there were hints of it in prior Soviet-era documents, but for whatever reason, the potential was overlooked. No longer. The U.S. has spent too freaking long in this country not to start mining it for what it’s worth. It’s estimated that it’s going to take decades to reach their full potential of mining. This’ll be fun to watch. It’ll make their opium crops seem like a waste of time. source

• 75,000 Uzbek refugees fled Kyrgyzstan source

• » Editor’s note: As longtime readers know, we go to great lengths to avoid AP stories, but we’re breaking the picket line for this one. Apologies in advance.

• yes North Korea aired last night’s World Cup opening game on a local broadcaster … It wasn’t live.
• no They legally did not have the right to air the game; a South Korean broadcaster had the rights. source

• President Obama said to the Prime Minister that his unequivocal view was that BP was a multinational global company and that frustrations about the oil spill had nothing to do with national identity.
• A statement from David Cameron’s office • Discussing what Obama and Cameron talked about today. We could have told you this before the president even picked up the phone. “The President made clear that he had no interest in undermining BP’s value,” the note added. As we noted last night, the company is just as much American as it is British at this point. source

• 65+ number of people killed in a spate of ethnic violence between Uzbek and Kyrgyz youths that bubbled over Thursday night
• 500+ number of people hospitalized; a curfew has been set and Roza Otunbayeva has asked Russia for assistance source

• The president has lost his confidence in the capability of either the coalition or his own government to protect this country. President Karzai has never announced that NATO will lose, but the way that he does not proudly own the campaign shows that he doesn’t trust it is working.
• Former Afghan intelligence director Amrullah Saleh • Explaining his feelings about Hamid Karzai’s take on the war. Essentially, he has no confidence in either his country or his coalition. He reportedly thinks the Americans were behind the attack (on a national peace conference, no less) that led to Saleh’s resignation. He and one other top security official resigned in the wake of the attack. A diplomat hiding behind anonymity agrees: “Karzai told me that he can’t trust the Americans to fix the situation here. He believes they stole his legitimacy during the elections last year. And then they said publicly that they were going to leave.” source

• NO organizers couldn’t get permits; wonder why source

• 1st His first child, Thembikele, died in a car crash in 1969.
• 2nd His second child, Thembikele, lived only nine months.
• 3rd His third child, Makgatho, died of an AIDS-related illness.
• 4th His marriage to Winnie Mandela ended in 1996 after 38 years. source

• We are sure that South Africans and people all over the world will stand in solidarity with Mr. Mandela and his family in the aftermath of this tragedy.
• A statement from Nelson Mandela’s people • Regarding the tragic, unexpected death of his great-granddaughter, Zenani, just before the opening ceremonies of the World Cup. Zenani, 13, died in a car crash – preventing Mandela from making the ceremony, a much-heralded appearance on the level of his heralding of the victorious South African rugby team in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Why so symbolic? Well, rugby was traditionally associated with the Afrikaner elite, whereas soccer had ties with the black population. So it’s very unfortunate that he won’t be able to appear tonight. source