Keith D. Milby :: blog

Thailand’s Red Shirts offered peace talks Monday to end raging street battles that have killed at least 37 people in Bangkok as a government deadline demanding the demonstrators vacate a protest zone passed without capitulation.

Helicopters buzzed over the demonstration site fortified with long wooden spikes and tires in the heart of the capital’s commercial district, dropping leaflets ordering anyone inside to leave immediately.

via FOXNews.com – Thai ‘Red Shirts’ Offer Peace Talks After General Dies.

Greece's fiscal crisis took a new turn to violence Wednesday when three people died in a firebomb attack amid a paralyzing national strike, while governments from Spain to the U.S. took steps to prevent the widening financial damage from hitting their own economies.

U.S. Treasury officials have been quietly urging their European and International Monetary Fund counterparts to put together a Greek rescue plan more quickly to contain the damage, it emerged Wednesday, as U.S. policy makers worry the continent's problems could undermine a U.S. recovery much as U.S. housing woes hammered Europe in 2008.

via Europe Crisis Deepens As Chaos Grips Greece – WSJ.com.

An elaborate state funeral for Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, was held Sunday bereft of many world leaders whose travel plans were paralyzed by the plume of volcanic ash that blanketed Europe.

The couple's bodies were flown from Warsaw to Krakow early Sunday for the tradition-laden ceremony and burial in the nearby Wawel Cathedral, the final resting place for Poland's kings, poets and statesmen, including Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski, the exiled World War II leader who died in a mysterious plane crash off Gibraltar in 1943.

via Poland buries president as ash cloud threatens – Europe- msnbc.com.

Venezuela announced on Sunday 24-hour power cutoffs for dozens of companies that have failed to reduce usage in the first punitive measures of a nationwide drive to save energy amid an electricity crisis.

Restaurants, liquor stores, hotels, gyms, car dealerships and a yacht club were on the list of 80 firms in the capital Caracas due to have their power cut on Monday for failing to bring consumption down 20 percent, the state utility said.

The local unit of Japanese firm Sony Corp (6758.T) will also be among those sanctioned.

President Hugo Chavez’s government has introduced rationing, and demanded power cuts across the South American OPEC member, to cope with an electricity shortage that is jeopardizing Venezuela’s ability to pull out of a recession.

The only problem with socialism, it fails every time it’s tried. Idiots!

via UPDATE 2-Venezuela punishes 80 firms for power use | Reuters.

The US has said it is awaiting a “formal” response from Israel amid a row over its decision to build 1,600 new homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israel angered the US by announcing the move during a visit by Vice-President Joe Biden aimed at backing peace talks.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week asked Israel to show it was committed to Middle East peace efforts.

But PM Benjamin Netanyahu rejected any limits on Jewish building in Jerusalem and has yet to respond to US concerns.

via BBC News – US presses Israel over East Jerusalem settlement row.

It’s hard to see the awkwardness of Biden’s visit so far having a broader political impact. But it does contribute to the impression, fair or unfair, that President Obama is presiding over an era of diminished American influence, in which allies and rivals alike feel comfortable thumbing their noses at a White House focused above all else on its domestic priorities.

via Biden’s Disastrous Israel Trip – The Daily Beast.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (L) walks out the doors of the Palm Room of the White House by trash bags waiting to be picked up due to delays from the snow storms of last week in Washington, DC, February 18, 2010 after meeting with US President Barack Obama. The Dalai Lama appeared in public at the White House Thursday and said US President Barack Obama was ’supportive’ in a meeting that drew angry protests from China. AFP PHOTO/Jim Watson (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

via Getty Images – Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dala.

Word is quickly spreading that the Superman’s Fortress of Solitude-like Winter Olympic cauldron in the middle of BC Place malfunctioned during the Opening Ceremonies, as only three of four “ice spiers” rose as expected, making for an awkward moment in the Opening Ceremony’s climactic torch-lighting pageantry.

via Opening Ceremonies fail: Cauldron goes 3-for-4 after malfunction – Fourth-Place Medal – 2010 Olympics Blog – Yahoo! Sports.

A men’s Olympic luger from the country of Georgia died Friday after a high-speed crash on a track that is the world’s fastest and has raised safety concerns among competitors. IOC president Jacques Rogge said the death hours before the opening ceremony “clearly casts a shadow over these games.”

Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled during training, went over the track wall and struck an unpadded steel pole near the finish line at Whistler Sliding Center. Doctors were unable to revive the 21-year-old luger, who died at a hospital, the International Olympic Committee said.

via FOXNews.com – Olympic Luger Dies After Crash During Training Run.

The Front Page of Fox News say it all.

Gay Patriot has a great post with many other links on the issue.