While Egypt saw bread riots recently, we see another row caused by bread, namely, burning of bread in Israel.

Not to mention panem et circenses (bread and circus games).

Like many US presidents before him, George W. Bush is taking the exact same path.

During most of his first and second term, they are pro-Israel and pretty hawkish when it comes to the Middle East. For example, Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, attempted to redefine "occupied territories" in 2002, by calling them "so-called occupied territories", contrary to UN resolutions and internationa law.

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today while on the streets. A gunman shot her, then blew up himself while she was standing on top of her car.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Benazir's father was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was founder of the PPP (Pakistan's People Party), Prime Minister, then President of Pakistan. A military coup ousted him from power, and put him on trial and executed. Partially out of emotional sympathy, his wife, Nusrat Bhutto was made head of the PPP.

Media bias is a well known fact. Here is an example on how two Canadian news organizations are reporting on Christmas celebrations by the Christian Palestinians in Gaza.

While CBC highlights the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and border closure, CTV has taken a more biased view where it presents Christians are oppressed by Muslims in Gaza, specially under the rule of Hamas.

Ignored are the facts that Christians and Muslims have lived side by side in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East for more than 13 centuries.

Nowadays, it is often taken for granted that Muslims are staunch Anti-Semites. Most people in the West either do not know, or deliberately ignore, historical facts to the contrary.

History of Jews in Muslim Lands

Compared to Europe, Jews faired much better in Muslim lands over 1300+ years.

An oft-repeated cliche is how Neville Chamberlain appeased Adolf Hitler in 1938 in the Munich conference. By doing so, Chamberlain caused Czecksolvakia to be swallowed by the Nazis, and World War II ensued.

Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times writes about how this repeated mantra in today's politics is the wrong lesson learned, and details several cases from recent history of how this is indeed not the case, and that it can cause more harm to "be tough".

Although Dilbert is a US cartoon strip, and this refers to "President", it applies so well for Dalton McGuinty.

After breaking many election promises by raising taxes, he justified that as "leadership".

According to a recent poll, more than a million Iraqis have been killed since the 2003 invasion by the US.

Via Opinion Business Research (ORB).

Ossama Bin Laden, head of Al-Qaeda, appeared in a video posted on some sympathetic web sites. This is the first time in 3 years he has done so.

Noting that he looks more youthful, Western media has noticed his shorter trimmed bird, and less grey hair compared to before.

Moreover, Radio Free Europe analyses certain aspects of the video message, including:

Back in August, opposition newspapers in Egypt reported that president Hosni Mubarak's health has deteriorated, as well as speculation about the succession.

It seems that this is a sensitive topic among the ruling elite,
because in a rare reaction, Mubarak was interviewed in Al Ahram, the
semi official newspaper and the headline read : "I know who is
spreading these rumors and their objectives".