Morning News Roundup (18 Feb)

Things have been a bit busy the last couple of days, and I've been feeling just a tad overwhelmed with everything. Mrs. F noticed the dearth of posts and wondered how in the hell she was going to get her news. So here we go...

• The furor over the Danish Muhammed Cartoons (DMC) still continues unabated, with Libya the latest hotspot. AFP reports that the death toll rose to 11 (with 35 wounded) after Libyan security forces shot live rounds at the crowd of 1000+ protesting in front of the Italian consulate. Wait... Italy? Yes, it seems that Italian reform minister Roberto Calderoli "of the xenophobic Northern League party, had appeared on a prime time news programme on Thursday wearing a T-shirt printed with the Mohammed cartoons." He has resigned, and the Libyan security minister who was in charge has been suspended.
  
  
• In other DMC news, Iran has now taken a nod from the wacky nut jobs in Congress who, back in 2003, had the House of Representatives cafeteria rename "French fries" to "freedom fries" in protest of France's opposition to the movement toward war in Iraq. The BBC reports that Iran's confectioner's union has ordered bakeries to rename "Danish pastries" to "Roses for the Prophet Muhammed."
  
  
• Hamas has now taken control of the Palestinian parliament, where they have the majority after elections in late January and have the power to name the next prime minister (WaPo and BBC)
  
  
• In the Philippines, up to 1800 are thought to have perished in a massive mud slide. "Hopes faded for finding anyone else alive in the 100-acre stretch of mud that was 30 feet deep in places (AP/Seattle P-I)."
  
  
• President Bush "called for doubling the number of international troops in the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan and a bigger role for NATO in the peacekeeping effort (WaPo)." The NYTimes notes that "Evangelical Christians have been particularly outspoken in their calls for a more active American role."
  
  
• Defense Secretary Donal Rumsfeld asserts that the US needs to "mount a far more aggressive, swift and nontraditional information campaign to counter the messages of extremist and terrorist groups in the world media (WaPo)."
  

  "Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but for the most part we, our country, our government, has not," Rumsfeld said in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York
  [...]
  To remedy this, he called for increased communications training for military public affairs officials by drawing on private-sector expertise, noting that public affairs jobs in the military have not been "career enhancing." He also called for creating 24-hour media operations centers and "multifaceted media campaigns" using the Internet, blogs and satellite television that "will result in much less reliance on the traditional print press."

  In somewhat related news, it was revealed in "congressional investigations of government responses to Hurricane Katrina have revealed that two of the nation’s key crisis managers, the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, do not use e-mail (Newsweek)."
  
  
• Finally, Harry Whittington, the man Vice President Dick "Dick" Cheney accidnetally shot in the chest and face with a shot gun while hunting last weekend, has been released from the hospital, and is very apologetic to the Veep, describing "his ordeal as 'a cloud of misfortune and sadness that is not easy to explain,' saying he was sorry for all the vice president and his family had to go through (WaPo)." Meanwhile, the AP notes lots of inconsistencies in the Cheney Shooting Party story from last weekend.
  

It's gonna be a somewhat lazy Saturday at home, with just an overhaul of our TiVo on the docket (the hard drive went kerflooey, and I ordered a replacement from WeaKnees, which was delivered quite promptly).