I just love the juxtaposition of that headline with markets crashing. Ha!

Anyhow, lemme make it quick.




The Inaugural Disaster
[Steyn is da man.]


MLK Activists Reflect on Obama's Ascension
[Ascension. That's the actual headline from ABC's homepage. Ugh.]


Rule of the czars -- A more imperial presidency?
As confirmation hearings for some of President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet picks get underway, it is important to note that a number of hugely important policy makers in the new administration won't have to be subjected to the scrutiny of our elected lawmakers.


Protest turns violent in Olympia

US breached order by executing Mexican: UN court

Eight killed in Brazil church roof collapse

Iraq and Syria to build gas pipeline

Saudi-Bahrain pipeline will be expanded

Romanian president: it is time romania resumed relations with syria

Remarks at the Arab Economic Summit Robert B. Zoellick President The World Bank Group Kuwait January 19, 2009

Economic summit to be 'a turning point in the region's history'

Turkey says it would mediate between Palestinians

Atomstroiexport revises Turkey nuclear tender bid

Top Shiite cleric urges Iraqis to vote on Jan. 31

Egypt's Mubarak: Hamas invited Israeli offensive

Egypt Police Detain Hundreds Of Brotherhood Members


Dubai Will Invest the Most in Deal to Boost Nigeria
LONDON -- Dubai will invest most of the $16 billion planned in an infrastructure deal with Nigeria to develop oil and natural-gas drilling projects and the dilapidated power sector in the West African country, an official with Nigeria's state petroleum company said Monday.

The deal, signed last week, many details of which have still to be hammered out, could be a boon to the impoverished West African nation where past and present governments have long been unable to meet the population's basic development needs, such as reliable electricity supplies.



'Hamas rounding up, torturing Fatah activists in Gaza Strip'

Analysis: Israel's plans for Lebanon

Iraq: Babylonian Torah Scrolls May Have Been Smuggled to Israel
[Good!]

Blair’s Sister-in-Law Incites Moslems: “We Want Israel Out!”

Arabs: Israel ammo in Gaza had depleted uranium

IDF: Hamas forced us to act in civilian areas

IDF: Hamas orders armed wing to target IDF troops still inside Gaza

'Arab initiative won't last forever'

Anti-semitic thugs smash up Starbucks



Bush's parting lesson

The US's abstention from the vote on Resolution 1860 is a stunning statement of hostility toward Israel. As former UN Ambassador Dore Gold wrote in The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Resolution 1860 is drafted in a manner that presumes moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Both Israel and Hamas - an illegal terrorist organization - must stop fighting, it says. The resolution also draws a false moral equivalence between Hamas's illegal rocket campaign against Israeli civilians and Israel's assertion of its right to close its borders to enemy traffic.

While Olmert presents the US's abstention in the vote as a major diplomatic victory for Israel, in truth it is a stunning defeat. The US was a cosponsor of Resolution 1860, along with Britain. The fact that the US sponsored such an anti-Israel resolution in the first place is a major rebuke of Israel. And the fact that Washington then allowed the deeply adversarial and dangerous resolution to pass only compounds the failure.

The second aspect of the US abstention on Resolution 1860 that is deeply disturbing is the fact that Israel's leaders say they were taken completely by surprise by the move. On a simplistic level, the fact that apparently until the last moment, Israeli officials were certain that the US was planning to veto the resolution or, at a minimum force a significant delay in voting on the measure, bespeaks a remarkable incompetence on the part of Israel's UN mission and in particular, it bespeaks a personal incompetence on the part of Ambassador Gabriela Shalev.

[Glick is da woman!]



Czech govt approves CSA airline sale terms

Goldman Expects ‘Swift, Violent’ Oil Rally After Low Near $30

Credit crunch hunders Rio Tinto asset sales

Stocks in Europe, Brazil, Canada Decline; Royal Bank, BASF Drop



Russia turning on gas for Europe
Russia's Gazprom says gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine will resume in hours, ending weeks of disruption.
[So they say... we'll see.]

Russia, Ukraine Sign 10-Year Accords to Resume Gas Flows to EU

Prominent Russian lawyer killed



Russia sets sights on Ukraine's vast pipeline network, Ukraine rules out ceding control
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — In the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas shipments to Europe, the grand prize may yet be control of Ukraine's sprawling pipeline network, Moscow's main conduit for pumping the fuel to its most lucrative markets.

Although the dispute appeared close to an end after Sunday's announcement of a deal, the terms of the accord could eventually put pressure on Ukraine and force it to cede some control over the labyrinthine network.



Gas storage under threat as industry loses taste for salt

Brown Tightens Grip on Banks as Recession Worsens

RBS on the brink as shares plummet by 69% and City is warned: 'You're about to become Iceland-on-Thames'
Bank shares plummeted today after the Royal Bank of Scotland revealed it was facing the biggest loss in UK corporate history and the Government launched its latest attempt to avoid economic disaster.


Nth Qld blood stocks low due to Dengue outbreaks


Dengue today more aggressive
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia seems to be losing the war against dengue.
This was what an exasperated Director-General of Health Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said when he announced that the number of cases in the first 17 days of the year was more than double the figure for the same period last year.

From New Year's Day to last Saturday, there were 3,211 cases with eight deaths, compared with 1,514 cases with four deaths last year.



Indian fisherman killed by pirates off Saudi Arabia coast

TagMaster Launches New ID-Tag MarkTag MeM at Intersec in Dubai

Windows worm numbers 'skyrocket'
[Check your security.]

The plague kills 40 al-Qaeda
[Uh-oh...]

Malaria kills 390 in Bauchi

UNICEF director tours Zimbabwe as cholera death toll reaches 2,225

South Africa: 49 Cholera Cases, 19 Deaths Confirmed in Mpuma

Rate of cholera shows no sign of decreasing

Somali executed for 'apostasy'

LRA rebels 'torch crowded church'

Avalanche kills 10 in Afghanistan


Magnitude 5.1 - NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
Magnitude 5.2 - NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
Moderate earthquake hits West Papua Indonesia

Magnitude 4.6 - CRETE, GREECE

Magnitude 5.3 - SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS

Magnitude 6.8 - SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS
Strong earthquake rocks sea areas east of Loyalty Islands

Magnitude 5.1 - NEAR THE EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA

Magnitude 5.3 - SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS

Magnitude 5.1 - OFF THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN

Magnitude 5.1 - MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Mild Earthquake Shakes Nicaragua

Magnitude 5.1 - OFF THE COAST OF BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR
Quakes shakes resorts in Mexico's Baja California

Magnitude 5.4 - SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS

Magnitude 5.1 - NEAR THE NORTH COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA

Magnitude 5.1 - MINAHASA, SULAWESI, INDONESIA