News of the Day
A ruptured oil pipeline exploded Friday near Lagos, Nigeria. More than 150 people have been killed.
Yesterday the Senate passed largely along party lines almost $70 billion in tax cuts on stock dividends and capital gains. This bill extends those cuts two years to 2010, when virtually all of President Bush’s tax cuts are set to expire.
Yesterday’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack against a Sri Lankan Navy boat has led a European peace monitor to say that the attack marks a violation of the 2002 ceasefire that ended two decades of civil war.
The Pentagon has begun exploring ways to allocate troops and resources to Homeland Security, now that a House vote has allowed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “under certain circumstances” to assign military personnel to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
In baseball news, the Yankees’ Hideki Matsui suffered a broken wrist last night that will require surgery and possibly sideline him for the rest of the season. The injury ends Matsui’s consecutive games streak at 1,768 (if you combine his 518 Yankees games with the 1,250 straight he played in Japan’s Central League). And in the National League, prized Phillies pitching prospect Cole Hamels makes his much-anticipated debut tonight against the Reds in Cincinnati.
That Nigerian oil pipeline blast is a lot more significant that you might think. Check out this headline from a few daysago
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002965954_nigeria02.html
This is starting to show up in a lot of places, and could easily be the start of China's "Iraq"...
Here is another interesting article.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=12090&R=EBFEEA1
It isn't just oil, China's mining interests as well have aroused rebel groups worried about theft of natural resources. In one country, even inspiring an ecology group to go terrorist.
China is very heavily involved in Latin America, and seems to be behind Chavez rise to power, though there is apparently two different Chinese groups (one Maoist) working at mostly cross purposes there.
May 12, 2006 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink