Thursday, February 21 in the news.....
- A US Navy cruiser blasted a disabled spy satellite with a pinpoint missile strike that achieved the main mission of exploding a tank of toxic fuel 130 miles above the Pacific Ocean, defense officials said. President Bush hailed it as a victory against the forces opposed to democracy.
- Afghan and NATO-led troops killed two regional Taliban commanders in southern Afghanistan. Regional Taliban commanders is also another term for local Afghan tribal chiefs.
- US federal authorities investigating Blackwater Worldwide contractors are returning to Baghdad this week to revisit the scene of a deadly September shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. There was an awkward moment last visit when the authorities asked some locals where the civilians died and they pointed in every direction, and even had an Iraqi man go into his house and come out with a map as big as his body with hundreds of circles drawn in red pen.
- An exiled Iranian opposition group claimed Wednesday that Tehran was speeding up a program to develop nuclear weapons. Israel's Mossad refused to discuss any claims they were paying the group to put pressure on the Americans and Europeans, rather saying, 'Oh look it's not us alright. Okay okay, so look we dressed up in moustaches and tried to claim we were the group, but one of our guys forgot to take off his yarmulke'.
