Welcome to the OND, Magnifico's series. All emphasis and tips are mine.
Top Stories
As the DailyKos front page live threads will attest, President George W. Bush ran his mouth a lot in the final State of the Union address of his unillustrious career. I'll do a brief re-cap.
Iraq is bad.
Iran is bad.
Nuk-u-lar weapons are bad.
The economy isn't bad.
Congress is bad.
Congress won't help the economy, which isn't bad, but Congress is still bad for not making the economy better.
The surge is working.
Trust me.
Why would I lie?
World
Violence stemming from the Dec. 27 Presidential election in Kenya continues to spread across the country. Ethnic groups associated with the newly re-elected president and the leader of the opposition have clashed countless times, each in retaliation for the last. The violence has spread from the county's capital of Nairobi to dozens of other cities and villages.
"What is alarming about the last few days is that there are evidently hidden hands organising it [the violence] now," said Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, the British minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, during a visit to Kenya yesterday.
Five US soldiers were killed in Iraq, in a roadside bomb attack followed by gunfire. The attack was one of the deadliest in months against US forces.
The attack against the US patrol takes to 36 the number of soldiers killed in Iraq this month, up from 23 in December but similar to levels in October and November.
The number of US troops killed since the 2003 invasion now stands at 3,940.
In what may represent yet another reversal, a US ally in Iraq is now threatening to ally himself with al Qaeda in Iraq if they do not receive a share of power in Baghdad. This group had initially allied itself with al Qaeda, only to turn and start to fight against them in 2005 or 2006.
Thailand has elected its new Prime Minster, Samak Sundaravej, officially ending military rule that was ousted in a 2006 coup.
An outspoken political veteran who is prone to profanity, Mr. Samak is disliked by the Thai press and intelligentsia...
sounds good so far...
...and is deeply resented by civil rights groups for his support of deadly crackdowns on peaceful protesters in the 1970s and 1990s.
Nevermind.
"I think the Thaksin group will try to find a way to get rid of him over the next few months," said Jon Ungpakorn, a former senator and democracy advocate, referring to Mr. Samak. "He was an asset in the election. He will be a liability as prime minister."
Severe snow storms in China have paralyzed the country and left at least 24 dead. Air, train, and road travel have all reached a standstill in several parts of the country. The inability to deliver coal to power plants has left many provinces rationing power, and contributed to power outages in many electric trains, which had to be rescued.
Australia has finally agreed to apologize to the Aborigines, but would not be issuing financial reparations to the poorest ethnic group in Australia. Former Prime Minister had refused to apologize, saying that modern Australians were not responsible for the actions of their ancestors, but PM-elect Kevin Rudd promised to issue the apology if elected. The apology is expected to be released soon after parliament reconvenes in early February.
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USA
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's widely-promoted bill for universal health care in the state of California is expected to fail Monday as both Democrats and Republicans in the state senate have serious issues with the proposed legislation. Republicans believe that "80 to 90 percent of the system was working," so massive changes to the health care system were unnecessary. Democrats, meanwhile, worried both about how the bill was to be funded, and were also worried that the working class would wind up paying for health care for everybody.
A TSA official conducting undercover tests of airline security got a small fake bomb past security in Tampa, FL., and CNN got it all on tape.
To be clear, the TSA allowed CNN to see and record this test, and the agency is not concerned with CNN showing it. The TSA says techniques such as the one used in Tampa are known to terrorists and openly discussed on known terror Web sites.
Well, that's good...really an interesting story, actually, lots of interesting tidbits like this:
For starters, every TSA X-ray machine has a Threat Image Projection system, which digitally inserts images of guns, knives and bombs into the X-rays of luggage, to keep screeners alert. This system library contains "tens of thousands" of images, said TSA spokesman Christopher White.
If screeners observe a suspicious object, they can check with the simple click of a computer mouse. If they detect a threat object, the computer congratulates them. Successes and failures are recorded for use in a screener's performance evaluation and are factors in determining pay.
An old US spy satellite is crashing uncontrollably down to earth, and is expected to make impact in late February or early March. Unlike scientists in movies, officials are unable to determine exactly when or where the large satellite, which could potentially contain hazardous materials, is going to crash.
Bottom Stories
By the numbers
Bush has about 357 days left to finish what he started (whatever that is).
The Operations in Iraq have cost $489,720,000,000.
In the same time, the national debt has soared from $6,400,000,000,000 to $9,208,240,000,000, an increase of more than $2.8 trillion dollars. With less than a year until the end of the error, will we see 10 trillion in debt?.
Have a good one.