US AND IRAN TALK
TV RIOTS IN VENEZUELA—ANOTHER VIEW
BOOK BURNING IN THE USA

I came back to a quiet New York. The express trains were running local and I perused the paper do I could share some of the news I found most interesting with you. All this traveling takes a lot out of me. Highlight of my screening in Albuquerque was the young man who came up to me to say that he and is girlfriend were going to see “that Pirate Movie but we decided yours was scarier.”

Talks Erupt Even as Us Warships threaten Iran

BAGHDAD - The United States and Iran broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze Monday with a four-hour meeting about Iraqi security. The American envoy said there was broad policy agreement, but that Iran must stop arming and financing militants who are attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi told The Associated Press that the two sides would meet again in less than a month. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Washington would decide only after the Iraqi government issued an invitation.

But then after the meeting BBC reports:

‘The US calls on Iran to stop arming militants in Iraq following their first direct talks for almost 30 years.”

Also on BBC: Seven people have died after Afghan police opened fire on demonstrators in Shiberghan, the capital of the northern province of Jowzjan, officials say.

Buried in the report was this : “Meanwhile US-led forces say they have killed 36 Taleban in the south. Locals say most of the dead were civilians.”

CHINA BLASTS PENTAGON REPORT

JOHN EDWARDS—IS HIS POPULIST MESSAGE SMART POLITICS?
LA TIMES Turns Skeptical

OVERTHOWING THE US GOVERNMENT: A HOW TO MANUAL

ISRAEEL: AMIR PERETZ LOSES LABOR PARTY LEADERSHIP

ISRAEL ADVISOR TOLD GOVERNEMNT: SETTLEMENTS ILLEGAL

Secret memo shows Israel knew Six Day War was illegal

By Donald Macintyre Independent 26 May 2007

A senior legal official who secretly warned the government of Israel after the Six Day War of 1967 that it would be illegal to build Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories has said, for the first time, that he still believes that he was right.

The declaration by Theodor Meron, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s legal adviser at the time and today one of the world’s leading international jurists, is a serious blow to Israel’s persistent argument that the settlements do not violate international law, particularly as Israel prepares to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the war in June 1967.

The legal opinion, a copy of which has been obtained by The Independent, was marked “Top Secret” and “Extremely Urgent” and reached the unequivocal conclusion, in the words of its author’s summary, “that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Judge Meron, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia until 2005, said that, after 40 years of Jewish settlement growth in the West Bank - one of the main problems to be solved in any peace deal: ” I believe that I would have given the same opinion today.”

ANDREW CARD BOOED ON CAMPUS

The Associated Press Saturday 26 May 2007

Amherst, Massachusetts - President Bush’s former chief of staff Andrew Card was loudly booed by hundreds of students and faculty members as he rose to accept an honorary degree at the University of Massachusetts on Friday.

The boos and catcalls - including those from faculty members who stood onstage with Card - drowned out Provost Charlena Seymour’s remarks as she awarded the honorary doctorate in public service. Protesters claim Card lied to the American people in the early days of the Iraq war and should not have been honored at the graduate student commencement.

Card smiled slightly while Seymour spoke and raised his hand in thanks, then sat down without speaking.

Afterward he ignored a reporter’s question about the protesters. “It was a great honor and a privilege to be here,” he said.

The protests were mainly contained to an area in the back of the campus arena, though many of the faculty members onstage joined the three- to four- minute outburst.

One faculty member onstage held a sign: “Card - no honor, no degree.” Another sign said, “War criminals go home.”

Chancellor John Lombardi declined to comment on the protests or Card’s honorary degree.

FORECLOSURES HIT THE HOMELAND

MORE HOMEOWNERS STRUGGLING TO MAKE HOUSE PAYMENTS

CNN REPORTED THAT ONE PISSED-OFF HOMEOWNER TRASHED HIS OWN HOUSE WITH THREE PIGS TO PROTEST ITS FORECLOSURE

“A man angry that his house is in foreclosure locks three pigs inside to trash the place.”