In the News: May-19

Being a good neighbour, Part I:

Top U.S. diplomat ferried cash to dissident: Cuba - 19 May 2008 at 2:56pm - HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Monday accused the United States' top diplomat in Havana of ferrying money from a private anti-Castro exile group in Miami to a dissident in the Cuban capital.

Being a good neighbour, Part II:

US official: Navy plane may have crossed Venezuelan airspace - 19 May 2008 at 2:01pm - WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Navy plane apparently accidentally crossed into Venezuela's airspace Saturday night, triggering protests from that country, according to a U.S. defense official familiar with the report.

Report: EPA head reversed stand on greenhouse gas - 19 May 2008 at 1:29pm - WASHINGTON -- The head of the Environmental Protection Agency initially supported partly granting California's petition for a greenhouse gas emissions waiver - but reversed himself after hearing from White House officials, says a new report.

U.S. troop deployments set to keep Iraq level steady - 19 May 2008 at 11:30am - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon plans to send 39,000 soldiers to Iraq to replace troops scheduled to leave the war zone and to hold the total U.S. force level steady over the next year.

So the "surge" apparently has still accomplished nothing in terms of the ability of the U.S. to reduce troop strength.

Thought for the day:
No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets. -Edward Abbey (1927 - 1989)