Need to know: Egyptian protesters are threatening to yet again bring to a standstill life in the Arab world's most populous nation. Activists stepped up their demands for the government to enact swifter political reform over the weekend, organizing labor strikes and other forms of civil disobedience. Thousands of demonstrators remained in the streets near Tahrir Square on Monday, three days after one of the largest political rallies in Egypt since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11. The News of the World might have been shuttered, but the story appears to be far from over. More revelations about the papers forays into ethically murky, and outright illegal, territory continue to arise, including its shockingly cozy relationship with detectives at Scotland Yard. The fallout from the behavior continues to spread as well as Rupert Murdoch, the chief of News Corp., is asked to drop his billion dollar takeover of Britain's most-lucrative satellite broadcast channel. |
| Want to know: The government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is in talks with the French, one of Gaddafi's sons has said in an interview. "The truth is that we are negotiating with France and not with the rebels," the Algerian El Khabar newspaper quoted Saif al-Islam as saying from Tripoli, the Libyan capital. The comments were published on Monday a few hours after Gerard Longuet, the French defence minister, said it was time for the rebel Transitional National Council to come to the negotiating table with Gaddafi's administration. Separatists in Yemen say that the country's embattled leader, a long-time ally of the United States, is using Al Qaeda to quell their movement in the south. It wouldn't be the first time President Ali Abudllah Saleh has recruited militants to his cause. He did the same thing in the 1990s, recruiting verterans of the Afghan war with the Soviet Union to fight separatists. Some say it is these recruits who now form the backbone of Al Qaeda in Yemen. |
| Dull but important: Pakistan says it is unmoved by the U.S. decision to suspend almost a billion dollars in military aid to the country. The United States believes most of the remaining leadership of Al Qaeda and the Taliban is hiding out in Pakistan's tribal areas and has been trying to maintain friendly relations so it can pursue the militants inside the country. But recent revelations that the country's military has been materially supporting some militant groups led the United States to cut off the funding. In Syria, opposition leaders boycotted a "national dialogue" conference on reform organized by the country's ruling Baath party. The opposition said it would not meet with the regime until it stopped its violent crackdown against protesters. Syria's vice president, who opened the ceremony, said he hoped the conference was the beginning of Syria's transition to democracy. While such comments are common from the regime, they are rarely followed by action and appear aimed at placating the protesters. |
| Just because: Every year around this time, typhoons lash Taiwan and whip people into a panic with strong winds and rain heavy enough to bury entire villages in mud. They also inspire hundreds of surfers to flock to its coastline in search of the perfect wave. Despite the intense storms, these die-hard surfers say conditions are safe enough if you know what you're doing, and now they are now fighting for the right to surf freely, without being arrested or fined by authorities trying to prevent a disaster. With growth slowing in the United States and Europe, Wikipedia has settled on India as the beachhead of its next round of expansion - which will see the seemingly ubiquitous online encyclopedia storm into the developing world for new users, and new contributors, in a host of languages. The Wikimedia Foundation - which administers the online encyclopedia - is set to open its first foreign office in New Delhi in a matter of months. |
| Wacky: In a reveolutionary scientific accomplishment that could change the world, an international team of researchers has managed to decode the genome - of a potato. The breakthrough, which could do wonders for food security around the world, was made in Scotland. The work marks the very first time a major crop in the United Kingdom has been fully sequenced. |
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