Moscow | May 9

BBC - Russian tanks and intercontinental missile launchers have been paraded through Moscow for the first time since the collapse of the USSR.

The Russian leadership has decided to revive the Communist-era custom of featuring military hardware in the annual Victory Day parade.

New President Dmitry Medvedev said the army and navy were getting stronger.

Observers say the point of the parade was to demonstrate that Russia is a serious military force.

The Kremlin insists the event, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, is not meant to threaten anyone.

President Medvedev, who was inaugurated on Wednesday, has been leading the parade on Red Square.

AVENTURA, Fla | May 9

WTVJ-TV - Two South Florida cities have voted in favor of splitting Florida into two separate states, but Gov. Charlie Crist seems skeptical. Earlier this week, Margate and North Lauderdale voted in favor of the measure, which would turn Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties into a 51st state.

Proponents of the move said South Florida has different needs than the rest of the state. The mayors of North Lauderdale and Margate also said South Florida should receive more tax money because of the amount taxpayers here contribute.

May 9

BBC - Pro-Taleban militants say they are holding six soldiers in a tribal region in north-western Pakistan.

A spokesman for the militants said 24 other soldiers had been freed in Bajaur agency. The military says just one soldier was captured.

Elsewhere in the region a soldier was killed and at least two others wounded in an attack in the Swat Valley.

Violence in the region has increased in recent days after militants suspended peace talks with the government.

Moscow | May 9

ITV - Russia has celebrated its victory over Nazi Germany with a display of military might not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The annual Victory Day parade, which commemorates almost 27 million Soviets who died in World War Two, also showed Russia's revival and a military that the Kremlin says is still a force to be reckoned with.

David Perlman | Monte Verde, Chile | May 9

San Francisco Chronicle - Southward those First Americans must have come - all the way from Alaska to South America, generation after generation.

And at the end of their migration route 14,000 years ago, they built their wood-framed tents of hide, cooked their food, found medicines in seaweeds, and settled only a few miles from the sea where shellfish of all kinds abounded.

Washington | May 9

NYT - When the Pentagon announced in March that Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan, it reflected the military’s aim to put a crisis-tested veteran in a critical job at a pivotal time in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

But nearly two months later, the military has quietly canceled the assignment of General Hood, a 33-year Army veteran who was excoriated in the Pakistani news media for one of his previous jobs: commander of the United States prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

During General Hood’s command from 2004 to 2006, military authorities force-fed with tubes detainees who were engaging in hunger strikes at the Guantánamo prison, a step they justified as necessary to prevent the prisoners from committing suicide to protest their indefinite confinement. Also during General Hood’s tenure, reports that an American guard may have desecrated a Koran stirred wide protests in the Islamic world.

Mohammed Tawfeeq, Jomana Karadsheh, Tommy Evans, Terry Frieden and Ingrid Formanek | Baghdad | May 7

CNN - The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured early Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said....

... Al-Masri ("the Egyptian"), also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took the reins of the Iraqi al Qaeda offshoot in June 2006 after a U.S. missile strike killed his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Since then, Iraqi officials have reported his death three times, his capture twice and a mortal wounding once.

New York | May 8

Reuters - A U.S. judge ordered the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday to submit to the court a 2002 memo said to specify harsh interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists held abroad.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the memo was written by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel and sent to the CIA in August 2002. The ACLU described the memo as "one of the most important torture documents still being withheld by the Bush administration."

In a copy of the order posted on the ACLU's Web site, Judge Alvin Hellerstein told the government to produce the memo so he can determine whether it should be made public as part of a lawsuit the ACLU and other organizations filed in June 2004 requesting records concerning the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad.

Hellerstein has scheduled a review of the document for Monday.

"This memo authorized the CIA to use specific torture techniques -- including waterboarding," Jameel Jaffer, ACLU's national security project director, said in a statement.

Na'ama Lanski and Gidi Weitz | May 8

Haaretz - Olmert's bureau conceded that 10 invitations were issued on official paper, and regretted this error.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert used his bureau to promote the artistic career of his wife Aliza, a Haaretz report reveals. The report also says that when the couple were in New York for a private art exhibit by Olmert, their stay at a luxury hotel was paid for by an American association.

In the summer of 2005, Olmert presented an exhibition in New York to which dozens of wealthy and influential people were invited. The invitations were allegedly issued by Rachael Risby Raz, the foreign affairs advisor in Olmert's bureau when he was minister of industry, trade and labor. Invitations for a dinner were printed on official ministry stationary.

The Olmerts stayed at the exclusive Peninsula Hotel in a $2,500-a-night suite, for only $500 a night on the say-so of the hotel chain's Jewish billionaire owner Michael Kadoorie. A pro-Israel group headed by a former Likud activist, Sharon Tzur, paid for the room.

Nadim Ladki | Beirut | May 8

Reuters - The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Thursday the U.S.-supported Beirut government had declared war by targeting its communications network.

Hezbollah launched a new street campaign on Wednesday, piling pressure on the government after it declared the network illegal and removed the head of airport security, a figure close to the group, from his post.

Supporters of Hezbollah and its allies have blocked roads leading to the airport -- Lebanon's only air link to the outside world -- and other main streets, paralysing much of the capital.

Sporadic gun battles erupted between Hezbollah supporters and pro-government loyalists in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, wounding five people, security sources said. Similar clashes took place in Beirut on Wednesday.

May 8

BBC - Russia has ordered the expulsion of two military attaches from the American embassy in Moscow, US officials say.

The US state department said it would comply with the order although it objected to it.

Two Russians have been expelled from Washington in recent months, one in November and the second on 22 April.

May 8

Independent - Home Secretary Jacqui Smith vowed today to "turn the tables" on troublemakers, urging police to crack down on individuals who ignore warnings over their anti-social behaviour.

Building on a scheme piloted in Essex, officers will be told to give those who persistently make their neighbours' lives hell "a taste of their own medicine" by subjecting them to repeated visits, checks and warnings.

And their details could be shared with other Government agencies, so they can be targeted for checks on whether they have paid their road tax, car insurance, TV licence and council tax.

Ms Smith also said that parents have a greater role to play in controlling young people.

She told GMTV today: "Parents have to take more responsibility. If we get to the stage where we have to give someone an ASBO, we should consider putting alongside that a parenting order so that the parents take responsibility for the young person's actions."

C.J. Chivers | Moscow | May 8

NYT - Russia’s Parliament overwhelmingly confirmed Vladimir V. Putin as prime minister on Thursday, completing a carefully managed departure from the presidency in a manner that left him the country’s dominant politician and with a clear grip on power.

Mr. Putin, out of office less than 26 hours, received 392 votes in the 450-seat Duma, Parliament’s lower house.

After a brief endorsement from his protégé and presidential successor, Dmitri A. Medvedev, Mr. Putin once again commanded the stage. He gave a 45-minute speech, proposing a series of domestic policy initiatives that seized many of Mr. Medvedev’s campaign themes and echoed his presidential addresses over the past eight years.

“Great and grandiose tasks lie before us,” Mr. Putin said, addressing a legislature firmly under his control as Mr. Medvedev sat silently.

Sarah Rohrs | Bay Area | May 8

San Jose Mercury News - Vallejo has become the first city of its size in California to seek bankruptcy protection.

The decision to file for bankruptcy came in a unanimous vote by the city council Tuesday night as hundreds of residents watched . . . Vallejo has been slammed by increasing costs of its public safety contracts, the housing crisis and lower property values. The city faces a $16 million deficit in the 2008-09 fiscal year that starts July 1. Tuesday night's vote came after months of fruitless talks between city and labor representatives.

Nota bene: They are the first, but they certainly won't be the last! ~spk Mish who is now on our blogroll has more.

Penang, Malaysia | May 8

BBC - A religious court in Malaysia has allowed a Muslim convert to leave the Islamic faith, in what is being hailed as a landmark ruling.

Penang's Sharia court ruled that Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah was free to return to Buddhism, following the collapse of her marriage to a Muslim man.

Nick Juliano | May 7

Raw Story - The few cases that have gone before a judge all have prompted the FBI to back down, ACLU lawyer Melissa Goodman said.

The FBI has withdrawn an illegal National Security Letter seeking information from an online library and has lifted a gag order that until Wednesday prevented any discussion of the information request.

Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation helped the Internet Archive push back against what they say was an overly broad and unlawful request for information on one of its users. The FBI issued its National Security Letter in November, but ACLU, EFF and Archive officials were precluded from discussing it with anyone because of a gag order they say was unconstitutional.

After nearly five months of haggling, the FBI eventually withdrew its NSL, which requested personal information about at least one user of the Internet Archive. Founded in 1996, the archive is recognized as a library by the state of California, and its collections include billions of Web records, documents, music and movies.

DAWSON BELL | May 7

FREE PRESS - Mich. Supreme Court says public employees can't share health care with same-sex partners

An amendment to the state constitution approved by voters in 2004 to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman also prohibits public employers from providing health care and other benefits to the same sex partners of employees, a divided Michigan Supreme Court ruled today.

The court, on a vote of 5-2, found that language in the amendment prohibiting recognition of other unions “for any purpose” includes a ban on the extension of benefits to gay and lesbian partners of public employees. By providing benefits to same sex domestic partners, employers recognize those relationships in a way indistinguishable from the way marriage is recognized, the court found.

Patrick Gillen, a professor at Ave Maria Law School and a co-author of the amendment, said the court’s ruling was “a vindication of the will of people in enacting the marriage amendment.”

Carol J. Williams | Miami | May 7

Los Angeles Times - A dinner with 500 fellow Cuban exiles honors the militant and former CIA operative, now 80 and still wanted in Venezuela on terrorism charges.

The dapper octogenarian in a crisp blue suit, his face smoothed by plastic surgery, swanned from table to table in the candlelit banquet hall, bestowing kisses and collecting accolades.

An aging movie star being feted by fans? A veteran politico taking his bows?

No, the man being honored by 500 fellow Cuban Americans at a sold-out gala was Luis Posada Carriles, the former CIA operative wanted in Venezuela on terrorism charges and under a deportation order for illegally entering the United States three years ago.

Posada, 80, has mostly kept a low profile since his release from a Texas prison a year ago and a federal judge's dismissal of the only U.S. charges against him -- making false statements to immigration officials.

John Noble Wilford | St. Louis | May 8

NYT - If it has a bill and webbed feet like a duck, lays eggs like a bird or reptile but also produces milk and has a coat of fur like a mammal, what could the genetics of the duck-billed platypus possibly be like? Well, just as peculiar — an amalgam of genes reflecting significant branching and transitions in evolution.

An international scientific team, which announced the first decoding of the platypus genome on Wednesday, said the findings provided “many clues to the function and evolution of all mammalian genomes,” including that of humans, and should “inspire rapid advances in other investigations of mammalian biology and evolution.”

Jonathan Adams | Mogadishu | May 7

CSM - Food riots and anti-US protests in Somalia are compounding the chaos in the long-suffering war zone in the Horn of Africa.

Meanwhile, an Amnesty International Report released Tuesday alleged that Islamist militants, as well as US-backed Ethiopian and Somali government troops, are committing widespread atrocities against civilians in the capital, Mogadishu. And a recent US strike against what it says was an Al Qaeda leader in Somalia has sparked further protests.

The Associated Press reports that Tuesday saw a second day of protests over rising food prices, with hundreds of youths burning tires, throwing stones, and blocking roads.

Somalia is just the latest country to see riots over rising food prices, after others including Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso. The Financial Times has a map of the civil unrest sparked by the food crisis here. (more, media roundup article)

Silvia Aloisi | Rome | May 7

Reuters - Italy's prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday unveiled one of the country's most right-wing governments since World War Two.

The 71-year old conservative read out his cabinet list to reporters after meeting with the head of state at the presidential palace.

Giulio Tremonti will return as economy minister and Franco Frattini will leave his post as European commissioner to become foreign minister in the 21-member cabinet.

The election produced a purge of smaller parties, with only six winning seats versus more than 20 in 2006. One casualty was Berlusconi's estranged Christian Democrat allies, who gave his last government a centrist counterweight to the right.

Its absence, plus the League's surprise gains, appeared to have produced one of the most right-wing governments since fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Aliyah Baruchin | London | May 6

NYT - A formerly controversial high-fat diet has proved highly effective in reducing seizures in children whose epilepsy does not respond to medication, British researchers are reporting.

As the first randomized trial of the diet, the new study lends legitimacy to a treatment that has been used since the 1920s but has until recently been dismissed by many doctors as a marginal alternative therapy.

Los Angeles | May 7

Irvine Robbins, who as co-founder of Baskin-Robbins brought Rocky Road, Pralines ’n Cream and other exotic ice cream concoctions to every corner of America, has died at age 90.

Robbins had been ill for some time and died Monday at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., said his daughter Marsha Veit.

While the company advertised that it offered 31 flavors, in fact it has created more than 1,000 flavors, according to its Web site.

I sure hope he left the recipe for THE only Rocky Road Ice Cream worth eating.

Mark John | Brussels | May 7

Reuters - Russia's deployment of extra troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has brought the prospect of war "very close", a minister of ex-Soviet Georgia said on Tuesday.

Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the "foreign minister" of the breakaway Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia.

"We literally have to avert war," Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels.

Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: "Very close, because we know Russians very well."

"We know what the signals are when you see propaganda waged against Georgia. We see Russian troops entering our territories on the basis of false information," he said.

Olivia Rondonuwu & Ed Davies | Jakarta | May 7

Reuters - Indonesia is trying to defend the interests of poorer nations by refusing to share bird flu samples with the West and is locked in a cultural misunderstanding over the issue, Jakarta's health minister said on Wednesday.

Siti Fadillah Supari also said in an interview that a U.S. naval medical lab based in Indonesia for research into tropical diseases was barely benefiting its host country and was not being transparent in its operations.

"Poor countries sent the virus to the WHO (World Health Organisation) on behalf of humanity. But it was commercialised by the WHO," Supari said in her offices in central Jakarta.

Officials in Indonesia, the country with the highest number of human bird flu victims, have said they want to ensure equal access to any vaccines that are made against bird flu.

But U.S. Health Secretary Michael Leavitt said last month after visiting Jakarta that Indonesia also wanted payments.