Tuesday, May 29 in the news....
- The United States ambassador in Baghdad said he and his Iranian counterpart agreed broadly on topics concerning the Middle East yesterday, following the first bilateral public talks between the two countries in almost 30 years. Iran promised to end any support for Israel and America promised no more support for Hezbollah or al-Qaeda.
- A 15-year-old Eyre Peninsula girl has become the first recorded female to play an official senior match in the history of South Australia's country football leagues. Kelsey Hurrell, who racked up 'seven kicks and a couple of marks' roaming the forward and back lines, was playing against men up to three times her age. As with country leagues, every bloke who got the ball was yelled at by his opponent "Okay the girl's got the ball now".
- The former head of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz, who resigned in a row about his companion's promotion, said on Monday he had been forced to quit because emotions at the organization had become "overheated". The Europeans were angered at what is a traditional American appointment being filled by someone with ties to the Iraq war and questionable qualifications for the position. Wolfowitz dismissed the lack of qualifications as a bunch of hot air, saying "I'm Jewish, this is a bank, does a black guy play basketball? I mean come on."
- A visit to Sydney by a controversial Somali writer who calls the prophet Mohammed a pedophile and says Islam is inferior to Western culture has outraged Muslims. When a reporter asked her to explain why the outrage is so great, one of her bodyguards replied "Hey look you steal their alphabet soup and they'll be pissed."
- An Australian hotel popular with gay men has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals and lesbians, officials and the owner said Monday. When asked how they would screen such an entry procedure, the owner produced a cucumber and said "We have our ways."
- Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant has spoken out against this summer's Live Earth concerts. Promoted by former US Vice President Al Gore, the concerts will raise awareness about global warming. Tennant was uneasy about 'rock stars lecturing people' and went on to say "rock stars should be telling people to fuck it all and get on drugs, leading by example, these days though we're in the bloody classroom telling kids how cows farting is bad for the climate, this is so wrong".
- President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Monday and the White House said they agreed to keep talking about the U.N.-run Serbian province of Kosovo. As Putin raised his concerns President Bush pressed redial then waited for the beeps to stop, after saying 'Gotcha' the President was back on topic: "Okay, back to the convo on Kosovo, Conkosovo, heh, I'm cracking you up aren't I Putester".
