Day of Shame: Today’s the 20th Anniversary of the accident at Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant. The suffering of its victims goes on.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270099&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/

FOX NEWS AND WHITE HOUSE MERGER?
IS SUN SETTING ON US POWER
CALL FOR MORE DIVERSITY IN NEWSROOMS

The pretense of a difference between Fox News and the White House slipped away with the announcement that a Fox anchor is to replace Scott McClellan as President Bush’s press secretary:

CNN: Fox News anchor Tony Snow has formally accepted the job as White House press secretary, according to three Republican sources familiar with his discussions with the White House.

BUSH HINTS AT CRACKDOWN ON OIL COMPANIES

The LA Times reports:

President also calls for probe into possible gouging, eases environmental curbs, and calls for rollback of tax breaks for oil firms

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-042506bush_lat,0,3219614.story?coll=la-home-headlines

ALTERNET: “BLAME EVERYONE BUT THE CULPRIT”

Jan Frei writes:

”With gas prices at an all-time high, Democrats, Republicans and President Bush are all quick to point blame. But they’re ignoring the biggest offender: all of us.”

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/35464/

VIDEO: http://www.renewus.org/index.html

CONFLICTS IN NEWS COVERAGE:

NY Times Headline: “Bush Takes Steps to Ease Increase in Energy Prices”

Vs

AP Headline: “Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline”

AL-ZARQAWI SURFACES (WE ARE TOLD)

AP reports

’ BAGHDAD, Iraq - Terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi revealed his face for the first time Tuesday in a dramatic video in which he dismisses Iraq’s new government as an American “stooge” and called it a “poisoned dagger” in the heart of the Muslim world. More attacks to come was posted on the Internet only days after a breakthrough in Iraq’s political process allowing its Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders to start assembling a government.

“It also followed a high-profile audiotape from Osama bin Laden and seemed a deliberate attempt by al-Zarqawi to reclaim the spotlight following months of taking a lower profile amid criticism of bombings against civilians. It was his first message since January.

SEE HIS VIDEO: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/04/25/zarqawi/index.html

Questions about this terrorist “mastermind”
Http://www.thecatsblog.com

Challenges to his existence:
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=350

Whats behind the slaughterhouse that is today’s Iraq?. Mike Whitney offers one assessment:

”The civil war storyline is intended to divert attention from the bloody subjugation of the Iraqi people by a foreign military. This is the real story of the Iraqi conflict.”

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12845.htm

RUMSFELD IN IRAQ TODAY, REVISITS SCENE OF THE CRIME (WP)

AND WHAT ABOUT CHINA, WHAT ARE US AIMS?

George Friedman is a conservative analyst with Statfor.com

”Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Washington last week for a meeting that diplomatically might be called “nonproductive” — or, realistically, “disastrous.” Not only was nothing settled, but a series of incidents — ranging from a reporter shouting insults at Hu and being permitted to continue doing so for three minutes, to an announcement that the national anthem of “The Republic of China” (also known as Taiwan) was being played — marred the visit, to say the least.

“It is hard for us to believe that the admission of a Falun Gong member to the White House press pool would go unnoticed by the White House staff, or that it would take three full minutes to silence her. We are, sad to say, cynical people, and it is plausible that the insults were deliberate. The American side had been leaking for weeks that Hu would try to use the visit for his own political ends in China, and wanted to be granted every honor conceivable during the trip. The White House appeared irritated by this hubris, although it would, on the surface, appear quite natural for the United States and China to exchange full diplomatic courtesies.

“Obviously, something serious is going on in Sino-U.S. relations. The United States has openly discussed a hedge strategy on China, under which economic relations would proceed while the United States increased its military presence in the region as a hedge against future trouble. China, for its part, has been more than a little troublesome in areas where the United States does not want it to be, particularly during the current confrontation with Iran.

Chairman Mao called the US a “paper tiger.” Paul Craig Roberts says the sun is setting on the US empire.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12843.htm

NEPAL: PEOPLE WIN, END PROTESTS AS KING RESTORES PARLIAMENT