Wednesday the 23rd of May.
Doctor who ran fake CIA vaccination drive to find Osama bin Laden is jailed:
The Pakistani medical official who ran a fake CIA vaccination programme to help find Osama bin Laden has been jailed for 33 years. A spokesman for Khyber Agency, an administrative unit in Pakistan's restless frontier, said Dr Shakil Afridi would face decades in jail – despite calls from senior US officials to release the man who helped with efforts to track down the al-Qaida chief.
The tough sentence for the former surgeon general of Khyber will be taken as another sign of the terrible state of US-Pakistan relations. And it will further alarm western critics of Pakistan who say the country has put far more effort into trying to understand how US spies and special forces were able to plan and launch the Bin Laden raid than into how the al-Qaida leader was able to remain for so long in the Pakistani army garrison town of Abbottabad.
British ministers 'ponder response to Israeli strike on Iran:
As the talks with Iran got underway in Baghdad this morning, the BBC put out an eyebrow-raising story that ministers in the National Security Council held a discussion last week on what Britain should do in the event of an Israeli strike on Iran aimed at damaging its nuclear programe, and the legality of any such UK action. One of the surprising aspects of the story is why the NSC would only be having this discussion now, while the threat of some kind of Israeli strike has hung heavy in the air for many months. The Guardian's Nick Hopkins wrote about UK military contingency planning last November.
Any UK action would be extremely divisive for the coalition so perhaps it is not surprising that the issue gets a frequent airing at the NSC. Andrew Rawnsley argued in The Observer in March that Iran was the issue most likely to tear the government apart. The prospect clearly worries Liberal Democrat members of the coalition who are adamant that the UK should operate strictly within the boundaries of international law, and not repeat the mistakes of Iraq.
France's Hollande steals show in world stage début:
CHICAGO — In his debut in international summitry, Francois Hollande has made a splash — and held his ground on some sharply defined positions. France's new leader grabbed attention at both the weekend's Group of Eight summit in Camp David and at the NATO summit in Chicago ending Monday, parlaying his mandate from voters in a May 6 election and showing he has his finger on the pulse of the public back home.
An informal European Union summit on Wednesday will cap his whirlwind first week as French president. Hollande first sped to Berlin to meet Germany's chancellor, he then painstakingly formed a Socialist-led French Cabinet. He jetted to Washington, where he mused about his cheeseburger fetish in an Oval Office get-to-know with President Barack Obama that helped replace memories of Hollande's America-friendly predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Egypt election brings hope and fear to historic Shubra:
As I stood in a line of around thirty women in front of Insaf Siry School in Shubra, the historic neighbourhood in central Cairo, the air was tense. The atmosphere was one of seriousness and worry rather than excitement about Egypt's first democratic presidential election. Women from all age groups queued alongside me, some wearing full face veils, others headscarves and some unveiled. The majority were Muslims, but there was a fair number of Christians from the neighbourhood's large Coptic community.
A conversation started between Nevine and Kristin, both middle-aged government employees: "Let's hope this time around the elections are not rigged and the votes in the boxes are the ones announced," Nevine said.
"No no no, this will be fair and clean, the election is being monitored, this is an international election," Kristin said, who will vote for Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, like most people in the line. Fear of the Muslim Brotherhood's domination of political life and possible infringements on personal rights had scared Christians and Muslims at this polling station into voting for Ahmed Shafiq.
Vatican slams new book of leaked documents as ‘criminal’:
The Vatican is threatening to take legal action against those responsible for publishing a new book of leaked internal documents. The book sheds light on power struggles and corruption inside the Holy See and the thinking of its embattled top banker. Pope Benedict XVI has already appointed a commission of cardinals to investigate the “Vatileaks” scandal. It erupted earlier this year with the publication of leaked memos alleging corruption and mismanagement in Holy See affairs and internal squabbles over its efforts to comply with international anti-money-laundering norms.
The publication Saturday of “His Holiness” by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, added fuel to the fire, reproducing confidential letters and memos to and from Pope Benedict and his personal secretary which, according to the Vatican, violated the pope's right to privacy. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said in a statement Saturday the book was an “objectively defamatory” work that “clearly assumes characters of a criminal act.” He warned the Holy See would get to the bottom of who “stole” the documents, who received them and who published them. He warned the Holy See would seek international cooperation in its quest for justice, presumably with Italian magistrates.
The Vatican had already warned of legal action against Nuzzi after he published letters in January from the former second-highest Vatican administrator to the pope. In those letters the administrator begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices. The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican's US ambassador.
Mark Zuckerberg loses friends on Wall Street as regulators probe $19bn slump:
Facebook's $104bn stock market flotation descended into anger and recrimination last night, as shares in the social network slumped further in value and regulators investigated whether important information was kept hidden from some investors. The company's market value had fallen to $85bn by the end of trading yesterday, reducing founder Mark Zuckerberg's stake from $19.1bn to $15.6bn and creating huge losses for investors who bought in when the stock started trading last Friday.
The shares closed at $31 last night, down 9 per cent on its third day of trading. That fall comes on top of an 11 per cent fall on Monday.
Chimps' personalities are like people's, study says:
Chimpanzees and orangutans really do have personalities "like people", researchers say. For years experts have debated whether great apes truly display human-like personalities - or if such behaviour is simply the anthropomorphic projections of human observers.
The research team used a statistical technique to "remove" any biases apparent in human observers of the apes' behaviour, and they say their findings suggest man and ape really do share "personality dimensions".
The vladnz spot......
Jerald Reiter Arrested For Driving Drunk With Zebra, Parrot In Truck:
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) -- An Iowa man stopped outside a Dubuque bar with a small zebra and a parrot in his truck has been charged with drunken driving.
Base-jump goes wrong in Norway:
Base-jumper Hans Lange managed to avoid serious injury after jumping from the side of a mountain in Norway. He escaped with just a broken leg after his parachute failed to release properly, and he landed in a tree. Flying down a mountainside in a specially designed suit is now popular among base-jumpers.
