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Bad news for Hezbollah: A heavy Christian turnout at the polls in Lebanon brought the country’s Western-backed coalition back to power in parliament on Sunday, thwarting the Islamist party’s bid for greater influence. Lebanon’s March 14 coalition of Sunnis and Christians grabbed at least 70 seats in the 128-member parliament, with more expected to be added as votes are tallied up. Coalition leader—and son of slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri—Saad Hariri said the factions now have to “give a hand to each other and have the will to go back to work.” The election result is good news for Washington, with Obama pushing ever harder for Arab-Israeli peace, and is seen as a blow to Iran and Syria, Hezbollah’s patrons.
No need to put an Italian flag on the antenna of your Chrysler just yet: “Chrysler LLC creditors asked a U.S. Supreme Court justice to block the carmaker from selling its assets as early as tomorrow to a group led by Italy’s Fiat SpA,” reports Bloomberg. Indiana pension funds that lent Chrysler money have asked the Supreme Court to review the sale, and asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg to block the sale until the Court has decided. “The Indiana funds, holding $42.5 million of $6.9 billion in Chrysler secured loans, contend the Fiat deal is a misuse of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which they say was intended for financial institutions, not carmakers.”
Military authorities in Brazil are reporting that 17 bodies have been found in the Atlantic Ocean as investigators attempt to piece together the murky story of Flight 447’s mysterious crash. Four of the bodies were men, and four were women found in the area where the flight, which was carrying 228 passengers, was thought to have crashed. Luggage, a part of the wing, and two seats have also been found. Investigators say they will be able to tell whether the plane exploded from residue on the bodies and if water is found in the victims' lungs. The plane might have been flying too fast or too slowly through thunderstorms, but the cause of the crash is still unknown.
As if dealing with Hurricane Katrina wasn’t enough catastrophic zeitgeist for one life. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has been quarantined in China after possibly being exposed to the infamous H1N1 virus (or swine flu, as it’s still commonly and falsely known). Nagin was abroad on an economic development trip and flew on a plane carrying a passenger with swine flu-like symptoms. His wife and one of his security members have also been quarantined, although none of them exhibit symptoms. A statement from his office read, “The mayor is being treated with utmost courtesy by Chinese officials.” Is Nagin ever in the news for a good reason?
Ensconced in a financial scandal that has all of Downing Street pointing fingers, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown may not be a liability just to himself and his Conservative party — The Daily Telegraph reports that he's a liability to his nation's economy, too. Writer Richard Blackden explains, "Investors have so far assumed that the Conversative Party will win the next general election with a large enough parliamentary majority to drive through cuts in public spending. The possibility of Mr. Brown being ousted before a general election jeopardizes that." Analysts argue that the possibility of a Conservative loss or a hung parliament could cause investors and ratings agencies to "lose patience." Ratings agency Standard & Poor has already threatened to toss Britain out of their most creditworthy nations list.
Has Will Ferrell lost his mojo? The comedy star’s newest offering, the poorly reviewed Land of the Lost, pulled in just $19.5 million in its opening weekend, far below Ferrell’s usual standards. It drifted into third place in the weekend box office, behind the Disney 3-D juggernaut Up, with an estimated $44.2 million in its second weekend, and the surprise bachelor party hit The Hangover, which made its R-rated debut with $43.3 million. Meanwhile, two other new romantic comedies, Nia Vardalos’ My Life in Ruins and indie Away We Go, opened with decent numbers on much fewer screens—the former with $3.2 million and the latter with a $36,000 per screen average.
If you want something done right, do it yourself: “After months of insisting he would leave the details to Congress, President Obama has concluded that he must exert greater control over the health care debate and is preparing an intense push for legislation that will include speeches, town-hall-style meetings and much deeper engagement with lawmakers,” according to The New York Times. “Mr. Obama has grown concerned that he is losing the debate over certain policy prescriptions he favors, like a government-run insurance plan to compete with the private sector.” White House budget director Peter Orszag says, “I think you will see that evolution occurring over the next few weeks. We will be weighing in more definitively, and you will see him out there.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said North Korea may soon be back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism after their nuclear test. "We're going to look at it. There's a process for it. Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism," Clinton said Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. North Korea was removed from the terror list in October to foster denuclearization talks, and benefited from the lifting of some trade sanctions. But since the impoverished nation detonated a test bomb May 25, countries that were reluctant to condemn North Korea such as China and Russia will sign on to strong sanctions against them. North Korea is also using two captured female U.S. journalists as a bargaining chip with the U.S, analysts say.
A quick four-day stint in The Priory hospital seems to have healed all wounds for Susan Boyle, the world’s favorite runner-up. After her shocking loss on Britain’s Got Talent, Boyle was seen wandering around her hotel and having public outbursts, which led to judge Simon Cowell footing the bill for her hospital stay. Boyle told News of the World, “I want to take on the world. I’ve got my sleeves up ready. I feel bloody fantastic.” Cowell, meanwhile, urged her to cling to familiarity: “She needs to be with Pebbles. The best cure for her is time with her cat and family,” although he does have a record contract waiting for the songstress, should she choose to accept it.
The consensus may have since crumbled but, The New York Times reports, in 2005, lawyers debating interrogation techniques at the Justice Department “agreed on a basic point: the methods themselves were legal.” Among those who agreed the 13 techniques including waterboarding were legal were critics of the program like Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who had “argued repeatedly that the United States would regret using harsh methods.” In an effort to persuade the White House to ditch the program, despite his agreement that it was not illegal, Comey “explained to [Alberto Gonzales] what this would look like some day and what it would mean for the president and the government,” according to an email he wrote to his chief of staff in 2005. But he never questioned the legality of the program. Lawyers like Comey and Jack Goldsmith have been praised for criticizing waterboarding and other over-the-top interrogation techniques, but “None of the Justice Department lawyers who reviewed the interrogation question argued that the methods were clearly illegal.”
Roger Federer won the French Open this afternoon in three quick sets, but the tennis match against Robin Soderling was far from uneventful. Before securing his 14th Grand Slam and tying Pete Sampras for the record, Federer had to deal with a wild spectator rushing the court and, strangely enough, attempting to place a hat on his head. The scary moment—security was slow to react—was quickly pushed aside after the second set and Federer won 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4, cementing his status as the sixth man to win all four Grand Slam championships.
How could Walter and Gwendolyn Myers, perfect neighbors in their affluent DC community, be accused of spying for Cuba for three decades? The Myers’ felt a long-standing, well-hidden disdain for U.S. politics. "I have become so bitter these past few months. Watching the evening news is a radicalizing experience," Myers wrote in his diary in 1978. When he visited Cuba (and had a Cuban intelligence officer as a guide), the high-clearance State Department official found an inspiration in the revolution there. But the pair never mentioned Cuba, and didn’t express out of the ordinary political opinions (“We were all appalled by the Bush years,” one neighbor said.). "When I heard they were arrested, I felt like they had arrested Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny," said a friend who docks his boat next to the Myers’ sloop. The Myers are accused of passing information by exchanging grocery carts in stores, using a shortwave radio given to them by the Cuban government, and sending encrypted emails in Internet cafes.
Strange but true: The lawyer for recently-deceased actor David Carradine suggested that he might have been killed by a secret sect of the martial arts underworld for probing too far into their actions. Meanwhile, the actor’s family refuses to believe the Kill Bill star died from autoerotic asphyxiation, even though he was found with a rope around his neck, genitals and wrists, the lawyer said on Larry King Live Friday night. They are urging to the FBI to travel to Thailand and uncover the kung-fu fighters’ role in Carradine’s murder. The family is also seeking an independent autopsy from famed pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, and is threatening to sue any media outlets that reprint a photo of Carradine after death. The gruesome image was published by a Bangkok tabloid on Saturday.
More news on the succession front: the oldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il denies rumors he’s defected since his brother was tapped as his father’s successor, though he was evasive when asked to confirm the secret succession. “I think so. I hear this news by media,” he said, when asked if his younger brother Kim Jong-un would be the country’s next leader by Japanese broadcasters. Kim Jong-un is thought to be born in 1983 or 1984 and was reportedly educated in Switzerland, though no photograph exists of him as an adult. A successor is usually tapped years before he ascends to the role, and Kim Jong Il was rumored to suffer a stroke last year. "The appointment of a successor is totally my father's decision,” 37-year-old Kim Jong-nam said. “He makes his decisions so he doesn't need to talk to me or talk to another person.”
Is Broadway too distant or expensive? Then why not read the plays nominated for tonight's Tony Awards? Dwight Garner does just that in The New York Times, picking up copies of the four best play nominees, none of which he’s seen performed. “If none are blinding classics destined to be heavily revived 10 or 50 years hence,” he writes, “the best are as sharp and thrilling and concentrated as first-rate short stories.” On the page, Garner thinks the winner is God of Carnage. It is “fleet and pointed,” and “borders on but never crosses over into glibness.”
Heidi Pratt has been rushed to a Costa Rican hospital for a gastric ulcer she suffered while being "mistreated" on the NBC show I'm a Celebrity...Get me Out of Here! TMZ reports that Heidi and husband Spencer Pratt, stars of the reality show The Hills, were kept in a dark room for a day and a night with only water and rice and beans as punishment for wanting to leave the show, and Heidi was "convulsingly throwing up." "They are now going to be examined, and their value system utterly deconstructed ...These people really are going to bare their souls," said an NBC spokesman about the isolation. Spencer reportedly fired his lawyer, who wanted him to stay on the show, and has hired a new one in order to sue NBC.
Minnesota’s highest court is still mulling over Republican Norm Coleman’s appeal that more ballots be counted before giving away the state’s contested Senate seat. But experts say he hasn’t got a chance. “Each of the five justices asked some questions that seemed to hone in on the absence of evidence," said Peter Knapp, an expert on the Minnesota Supreme Court. "And when each of the five are asking those questions, that’s significant.” The legal battle, centering around absentee ballots, started in January—but the court seems to think Coleman’s side isn’t presenting enough evidence that the ballots were counted incorrectly. In April, a three-judge panel ruled Al Franken won the race by a little over 300 votes.
Sad news for Silicon Valley: A Stanford computer science professor who served as a key mentor to Google’s founders was found dead in his pool at the age of 47. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page worked with Rajeev Motwani as PhD students. “Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it," Brin wrote on his blog. The three wrote a paper in 1998 that detailed the development of the now-ubiquitous search engine. A university spokesman said the cause of death is unknown. Motwani didn’t know how to swim, and some have speculated he fell into the pool when wandering around at night, since he often worked late.
Could Putin's iron grip on Russia be weakening? For months, grassroots protests have been forming across the country, from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg, as Russians rage over job losses, unpaid wages, and controls on imported cars. Until recently, the Kremlin had been somewhat effective at concealing the scale of the uprisings by imposing a media blackout—but the protests, which often bring together hundreds of frustrated, fed-up Russians, are becoming tougher to conceal. The growing unrest is the greatest Putin has faced since he took office in 2000, as the prosperity he once promised is fading fast.
Whatever happened to playgrounds and video games? Moshe Kai Cavalin, an 11-year-old from California, is four feet, seven inches tall, and there’s a good chance he’s smarter than you. The A-plus average student is graduating from East Los Angeles Community College with a degree in astrophysics after completing courses in algebra, history, and astronomy. For fun, he plays soccer, watches Jackie Chan movies, and, of course, studies wormholes.“Just like black holes, they suck in particulate objects, and also like black holes, they also travel at escape velocity, which is, the speed to get out of there is faster than the speed of light.” If you feel intellectually inferior, don’t worry, Cavalin doesn’t like to brag: “I don't consider myself a genius because there are 6.5 billion people in this world and each one is smart in his or her own way.”
If the Venice Biennale is the Olympics of the art world, then the United States has just taken home the gold. Bruce Nauman, one of the most influential living American artists, secured a Golden Lion for the States on Saturday for his work Topological Gardens. Nauman’s mixed-media work represents developments from his four-decade career, which the judges described as “iconic embodiments of human pain and fragility to pithy jabs at our frailties.” Germany’s Tobias Rehberger won the Golden Lion for Best Artist, a special mention went to Dutch curators Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, and John Baldessari and Yoko Ono were awarded Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement.
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