Saturday, May 19 in the news....
- Israeli planes pounded Hamas targets and rival Palestinian factions exchanged bursts of automatic weapons fire outside Gaza City's Islamic University on Friday. Students were disappointed as the lecture on Dynamics of Non-Technical Zionist Systems of Control had to be cancelled.
- Australia is developing a regional carbon emissions trading scheme that would include China and the US and could form the basis of a "Sydney declaration" at this year's APEC summit. A jubilant Al Gore has been told about the scheme, but he remained reserved after finding out that one of the hurdles is for the US to reduce his gas emissions, as they rival the cow population of New Zealand.
- Nervous residents of Pakistan's biggest city are wondering if last weekend's political violence, in which about 40 people were killed, heralds a return of the bloodshed of the 1980s and 1990s. One resident discussed the 60's and 70's but other residents called him a lucky bastard.
- The United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi television said Palestinian Islamist group Hamas abducted its Gaza bureau chief on Friday. The chief was in the middle of an important meeting about the ratings impact of beards over moustaches when he was taken.
- In remarks at a debate among US Republican candidates in South Carolina on Tuesday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called for doubling the size of the Guantanamo military prison, while rival Rudy Giuliani said he supported the use of methods like "waterboarding," which simulates drowning. When asked what they'd do for the domestic economy especially when it came to those who opposed their ideas, they said the same thing.
