If you do not know who I am, please let me introduce myself. I have been writing on DailyKos for close to two years, with a focus on international events and news.
What follows is my "PDB" from my blog, which is similar to what George Bush gets every day, except mine is all from public sources and is a bit longer than one double-spaced page.
I have seen where some users have asked for more international coverage, and I am cross-posting the PDB today here to see if there is any interest in it at DailyKos.
I read approximately 50 newspapers every morning and report what I find there, with an emphasis on foreign or international events. You will however not find information about Iraq or the Israeli/Palestinian situation, the first because it is amply reported elsewhere and the latter because it is too contentious.
Events that I feel are well-covered elsewhere, such as the hotel fire in Paris today, are not included for brevity.
In the non-English sections, I'm going to translate the headline of the linked article. All mistakes and errors are therefore mine alone.
Ok, let's see what the world has been up to in the last 24 hours:
In English
The political upheaval in Mexico continues as President Fox seemed to be on the verge of pardoning Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the capital's mayor, if he is convicted and then later denied the possibility. AMLO is considered a serious challenger to Fox in next year's presidential race if he can avoid a conviction.
Shotaro Yachi, a senior foreign minister for Japan, has offered China the possibility of doing joint oil and gas exploration in the E. China Sea as a way to defuse tensions between the two nations.
Meanwhile websites and other sources are warning that there will be more anti-Japanese demonstrations this weekend in China. Protest marches are scheduled for Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Tianjin and Wuhan.
As many as 21 Kurdish "rebels" have been killed in clashes with government troops in southeastern Turkey.
The nation of Nepal continues to spiral into utter chaos as government troops report they have killed at least 60 Maoist rebels in Rukum District.
The non-governing government of Lebanon continues to implode as now former Interior Minister Sulayman Franjiyah says no way will he work with Emile Lahoud.
American television channel NBC is reporting that a preliminary inquiry into the shooting death of an Italian secret service agent guarding recently-freed journalist Giuliana Sgrena in Iraq last month clears the American troops involved of all wrongdoing.
In other news, the government of Italy is on the brink of collapse after his ruling coalition is falling apart.
Some good news for once out of the DR Congo as a key militia in the violence-wracked Ituri District, the UPC, has announced it will disarm. Bad news however as the UN says that the June elections may lead to an increase in violence and a descent into all-out civil war.
The IMF and World Bank announced they would cancel 1.4 billion dollars owed by the nation of Rwanda.
The World Food Program is reporting it may have to further cut already depleted rations in Angola if it does not receive more donations. The WFP, a division of the UN, feeds approximately 750,000 people in Angola every day. Meanwhile the deadly Marburg virus continues to spread.
Nigeria is being rocked by a major scandal as the House of Representatives has indicted the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral "Only On" Sunday Afolayan, for stealing a confiscated oil transportation vessel. The ship MT African Pride was seized for "bunkering" or loading illegal petroleum but later disappeared from Naval custody.
The group Reporters Without Borders has blasted the government of Morocco for incarcerating journalists who dare to criticize the king's policies and actions.
It looks like today will be a critical day in Cote D'Ivoire as the nation waits to see if President Laurent Gbagbo "Baggins" will accept S. African President Thabo Mbeki's proposal for peace in that country.
Several members of the parliament in Egypt have filed a lawsuit against Israeli and its PM Ariel Sharon to demand compensation for "the killings and torture of thousands of Egyptian prisoners of war during the 1956 and 1967 wars". If the lawsuit is approved it would be adjudicated in the International Criminal Court.
The jovial and avuncular government of Sudan has sentenced 23 people for attempting a coup in March 2004. Meanwhile US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick was in Khartoum to inspect the situation.
The Emir of Qatar, "Bakin" Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was in India yesterday to discuss increasing exports of oil and natural gas to that nation.
The Defense Minister of Azerbaijan, Safar Abiyev, stated that the United States is his country's "cloest military partner". Abiyev met with American SecDef Rumsfeld in Baku on Tuesday to hold a number of discussions, including on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline which should be open very soon.
Meanwhile Rumsfeld followed that up with a visit to Kyrgyzstan yesterday where he met with the new government. Rumsfeld landed at Ganci Air Base, which is the American military field outside the capital of Bishkek.
More violence and chaos in Haiti as a UN peacekeeper was killed in Port-au-Prince in a "heavy" gun battle with unknown individuals.
The president of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, is wrapping up his African tour in Senegal, where he apologized for his country's history in the slave trade in previous centuries:
"I want to tell you... that I had no responsibility for what happened in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries but I ask your forgiveness for what we did to black people," said the president, commonly known as Lula.
Accompanied by Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, he stopped to look through the "door of no return", from where chained Africans would take the dangerous journey across the ocean to the New World.
Some of his delegation shed discreet tears, Reuters news agency reported.
It looks like the coalition announced yesterday in Czech Republic has fallen apart before it could be implemented. The BBC is reporting that what will happen now is "anyone's guess", which is probably the most accurate assessment of the situation I've seen.
Japan has asked Indonesia to step up military patrols of the Malacca Strait, the world's most critical shipping lane.
The US State Department Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, is reporting that the EU will not lift its 16-year arms embargo against China.
Yesterday George Bush apparently told China it should let its currency float. Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao allegedly responded by asking Bush to try getting his own currency under control first.
The visit to France yesterday by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince and de facto ruler Abdullah "Petey Pablo" bin Abdel al-Aziz al-Saud went so well that he later remarked, "there are absolutely no disagreements between France on Saudi Arabia, on any matters".
The government of Pakistan is asking the United States to "expedite" the delivery of a variety of advanced weaponry, including F-16 fighter jets, AMRAAM missiles, C-130 transport aircraft and TOW-II missiles.
In Greece, the case against an Austrian cartoonist for drawing a "blasphemous" comic was dismissed by an appeals court.
Meanwhile the bishop of Attica in Greece has been indicted for embezzlement and money laundering in the continuing scandal of the Greek Orthodox Church.
A legislative panel in Japan is considering recommending major changes in the American-imposed Constitution, calling for an acknowledgment of its military and allowing for a woman to become Empress. Such amendments would be put to a public referendum before being adopted.
The government of Australia has formally protested to the government of Fiji in the case of an Australian man who was sentenced to 2 years in prison for having consensual homosexual sex in that country, which is banned by law.
Today is a major holiday in North Korea, known as the "Day of the Sun" or the commemoration of the birthday of N. Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung. Here's a little tidbit from North Korean news on the subject:
The speakers at the seminar unanimously eulogized Kim Il Sung as an outstanding thinker and statesman produced by the 20th century. They said that the founding of the immortal Juche idea is the greatest of his exploits and that the idea serves as the immortal banner in the new era of independence.
The preparatory committees formed in many countries to commemorate the Day of the Sun are sponsoring colorful activities and newspapers and radios of different countries are editing special write-ups lauding Kim Il Sung, who made a tremendous contribution to the cause of independence, as the sun of humankind.
He embarked on the road of revolution in his early years and fathered the Juche idea in 1930 and thus performed distinguished exploits for the Korean revolution and the struggle for the liberation of humankind.
Under the banner of the Juche idea, he led the two wars against the U.S. and Japanese imperialists to victory, creating a brilliant example in the national liberation movement in colonies and the anti-imperialist cause of independence.
A court in Zimbabwe has acquitted two British journalists for reporting on March's parliamentary elections "without permission".
In South Africa, police in KwaZulu-Natal clashed with villagers when they came to seize illegal guns and other weaponry. The apartheid-era government delivered as many as 60 tons of weapons to KZ-N in an effort to destabilize the region.
The president of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, has stated that her country will give up claims to the Pytalovo district of Russia, which was acquired by the Soviet Union during World War 2.
After postponing her visit to Russia indefinitely, now Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia "Gas Princess" Tymoshenko is saying she will make a state visit there sometime soon.
The fun-loving government of Tajikistan is now asking all foreign embassy staff and organizations to "report" all contacts with political and civic organization members:
The diplomatic missions and international organisations accredited in this ex-Soviet republic are now asked to notify authorities on their planned meetings with representatives of the country's political parties and civic groups in advance, the ministry said in a statement.
"Some representatives of political parties, civic groups and media use such meetings to distort the Tajik government's strategy and policies," the statement said.
The Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, will be in Dimitrovgrad, Serbia today to meet with Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica to sign a border control agreement between the two countries.
Tsveta Markov, the head of the Bulgarian State Commission on Information Security, has stated that the Stasi files concerning the 1981 assassination attempt against the Pope contain "no evidence" that Bulgaria was connected to organizing or perpetrating the incident. See my article from April 11 for more information on this case.
Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor for the United Nations special War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia, said she is "confident" that Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic will be arrested "by July". Ms. Del Ponte has said that if they are not produced, she will "reveal" why they have been able to remain at liberty so long, without explaining what she meant.
Media mogul Robert Murdoch has urged newspaper editors to "embrace" the internet:
He said newspapers must overhaul how they gather and deliver news to collect the readers and advertising revenue shifting to the web.
"The trends are against us. Unless we awaken to these changes, which are quite different than those five or six years ago, we will, as an industry, be relegated to the status of also-rans," Murdoch told the annual meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
An arrest of a male prostitute in Mahipalpur, India has led police to a nationwide network of prostitution.
The president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, will be making a historically significant visit to India this weekend and security is ultra-tight ahead of his arrival.
And last but not least, cardinals will meet in the Vatican on Monday to choose the next Pope.
Spanish - En castellano
"De ninguna manera" el armamento recientemente adquirido por Caracas es "ofensivo", dijo en entrevista con BBC Mundo el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Venezuela, Alí Rodríguez Araque. "In no possible way" are the weapons recently obtained by Caracas "offensive in nature", said the Foreign Relations Minister of Venezuela, Ali Rodriguez Araque, in an interview with BBC Mundo
Cuba presentó este jueves una resolución en la que se pide que Estados Unidos colabore con la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Naciones Unidas (CDH) en la investigación sobre la situación de varios cientos de prisioneros de la guerra de Afganistán que se encuentran en Guantánamo. This Thursday, Cuba will present a resolution asking the United States to work with the UN Commission on Human Rights in investigating the conditions of hundreds of prisoners of war that are being held in Guantanamo
Un portavoz del mandatario mexicano, Vicente Fox, sugirió que uno de los principales candidatos para las elecciones del año próximo, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, podría recibir el perdón presidencial si es declarado culpable en un controvertido caso judicial. A spokesperson for Mexican President Vicente Fox suggested that one of the main contenders for the (presidential) elections next year, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, might receive a presidential pardon if he (Obrador) is found guilty in a controversal case
La policía ecuatoriana se enfrentó a manifestantes que protestaban quemando neumáticos y bloqueando calles en el centro de la capital Quito. The police in Ecuador have clashed with protestors who burned tires and blocked off streets in the downtown area of the capital, Quito
Un niño de nueve años fue asesinado y al menos tres policías murieron y quince resultaron heridas hasta el momento en varios ataques guerrilleros lanzados en las últimas horas contra poblaciones del suroeste de Colombia, informaron las autoridades. A 9 year old child was killed and at least 3 police officers were killed as well as 15 injured in various attacks by guerillas against population centers in the southeast of Colombia, reported the authorities
En el Peru, presuntos narcoterroristas atacaron a una escuadrilla de cinco helicópteros de la policía antidrogas, estacionados a orillas de un río selvático, inutilizando un aparato y dejando con impactos por arma de fuego a los cuatro restantes, se informó ayer oficialmente. In Peru, "narcoterrorists" are presumed to be behind an attack on a squadrom of anti-drug police helicopters parked on the bank of a jungle river, knocking one out of operation and shooting up the other four, reported the authorities yesterday
El presidente venezolano Hugo Chávez activó ayer el comando nacional del cuerpo de reservistas de la fuerza armada que calificó como uno de los medios para hacer frente a la ``agresión imperialista''. Yesterday Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez activated the national command over military reservists that he stated would be one of the methods to prepare against "imperialist aggression"
Al menos cinco personas han muerto y 20 han resultado intoxicadas tras una explosión provocada por una fuga de amoniaco en un gasoducto del estado mexicano de Veracruz, obligando a la evacuación de unas 6.000 personas, informó el diario 'La Crónica' At least 5 people have been killed and 20 poisoned after an explosion from an ammonia leak at a pipeline in the Mexican state of Veracuz. Some 6,000 people were evacuated from the area, reported the newspaper "La Cronica"
El presidente argentino, Nestor Kirchner recibió elogios y gestos positivos del gobierno alemán. Schroeder destacó la marcha de la economía y mostró buena voluntad por las relaciones con el Fondo Monetario y el G-7. The Argentinian President, Nestor Kirchner, received praise and positive support from the German government. Chancellor Schroeder praised (Argentina's) economic recovery and its good faith relationship with the IMF and the G7
En Buenos Aires, cada día roban más semáforos. Los barrios del Sur de la Capital son los más afectados. Los ladrones venden los materiales en el mercado negro de chatarra. In Buenos Aires (Argentina), every day more traffic lights are stolen. The neighborhoods in the south of the capital have been hit the hardest. The thieves sell the traffic lights for scrap metal on the black market
El presidente cubano Fidel Castro prometió estar pendiente del tratamiento que dispense Estados Unidos al terrorista Luis Posada Carriles y por segunda vez en la semana demandó al gobierno de ese país definirse al respecto. Cuban President Fidel Castro promised to continue to monitor how the United States treats terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and for the second time in a week demanded that the American government declare what it would do with regards to him
En Asuncion, Paraguay, el Grupo Mercado Común (GMC) del MERCOSUR concluirá hoy en esta capital su 57 reunión, dirigida a la revisión del comercio interno, el arancel externo común, y las relaciones con otros bloques. In Asuncion, Paraguy, the common trading bloc MERCOSUR wrapped up its 57th meeting in the capital, focused on the revision of internal trade, common tariffs on outside trade and its relationship with other trading blocs
Unos siete mil nicaragüenses marcharon hoy por esta capital contra una posible ratificación del Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) con Estados Unidos y exigieron al gobierno detener la ola alcista por el incremento del crudo internacional. Approximately 7,000 Nicaraguans marched in the capital against the ratification of the Free Trade Act with the United States and demanded that the government do something to stop the rising price of petroleum
Italian - In italiano
Le conclusioni del rapporto preliminare della commissione d'inchiesta congiunta anticipate dalla tv americana NBC - Nessuna colpa dei soldati Usa al posto di controllo all'aeroporto di Bagdad che lo scorso 4 marzo spararono sull'auto che aveva a bordo la giornalista del «manifesto» Giuliana Sgrena appena rilasciata dai suoi rapitori e due agenti italiani del Sismi. These are the preliminary results of the joint investigatory commission which will soon be released on American television channel NBC - The American soldiers at the airport control checkpoint are not at fault who on March 4 shot at the car in which Giuliana Sgrena, the Manifesto journalist, recently freed from her kidnappers and two Italian SISMI agents were on board
Romano Prodi ha detto "Mi auguro solo che questa crisi finisca presto, perchè c'è bisogno di governo. E' una crisi che gli italiani soffrono e che porta conseguenze certamente negative sulla nostra immagine e sulla nostra economia" Romani Prodi said "I hope that this crisis will end soon because it's what the government wants. This crisis has caused suffering for Italians and it carries very negative implications for our image and for our economy"
Il parlamento Europeo ha approvato il documento di censura nei confronti dell'Italia per la pratica dei rimpatri dei clandestini a Lampedusa. The European Parliament has approved a document which censures Italy for how it handled the deportations of illegal immigrants in Lampedusa
Clonazione: è nato in Italia Pieraz II, copia di cavallo campione. Cesare Galli, direttore del Laboratorio di Cremona: ''Non è stato prodotto per fini sportivi, bensì per migliorare la specie'' - Cloning: Pieraz II, a copy of a champion horse, was born in Italy. Cesare Galli, director of the Cremona Laboratory, "It was not done to make gains in the sport (of horse racing) but simply to improve the species"
Mario Placanica è stato congedato dall'Arma. Il carabiniere che uccise Carlo Giuliani durante il G8 di Genova, nei giorni scorsi è stato messo in "congedo assoluto" perché considerato "permanentemente non idoneo al servizio militare in modo assoluto". La decisione ha un effetto immediato. Mario Placanica has been fired from the military. The gendarme who killed Carlo Giuliana during the Genoa G8 summit has been fired because he is considered "permanently non-fit for military service in any way". The dismissal order is effective immediately
Romanian - În limba româna
Senatorul PSD Doina Silistru a izbucnit în plîns, joi, în Senat, după ce şi-a exercitat dreptul la replică vizîndu-l pe ministrul Gheorghe Flutur, care a acuzat-o că a intrat în campania electorală fără a-şi lua concediu din postul de şef al Direcţiei agricole Vaslui. PSD Senator Doina Silistru broke into tears on the Senate floor on Thursday while replying to Minister Gheorghe Flutur, who had accused her of running for office without quitting her job as head of the Agriculture Department in Vaslui
Premierul ucrainean, Iulia Timoşenko, a declarat, joi, că nu intenţionează să demisioneze şi a denunţat "zvonurile" vehiculate de presa rusă, referitoare la un dezacord între ea şi preşedintele Viktor Iuşcenko, relatează AFP. The Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, said on Thursday that she has no intention of resigning and denounced rumors that there is a disagreement between her and President Viktor Yushchenko that been reported in the Russian press, reported the AFP
La Republica Moldova, parlamentul a ratificat astazi, cu unanimitate de voturi, Carta de la Ialta a GUUAM (Georgia, Ucraina, Uzbekistan, Azerbaidjan si Moldova), semnata la 7 iunie 2001 de sefii statelor-membre ale acestei organizatii regionale. In the Republic of Moldova, the parliament has unanimously approved the GUAAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) agreement from Yalta which was signed on June 7, 2001 by the respective heads of states.
Traian Basescu a facut primele declaratii consistente despre jurnalistii rapiti in Irak. In emisiunea "Romania la raport", realizata de Carol Sebastian, la radio MixFM, presedintele Romaniei a declarat ca membrii celulei de criza de la Cotroceni au intrat in legatura cu rapitorii. (Romanian President) Traian Basescu issued his first statements about the journalists kidnapped in Iraq. On the show "Romania On The Record", hosted by Carl Sebastian on Radio MixFM, the Romanian president stated that his crisis team at Cotroceni (like the American White House) had made contact with the kidnappers
Pax