Thursday News Blitzkrieg - Jawohl!

AP: Qaddafi and Chavez are strengthening their relationship between the two countries; BBC: Gaddafi's Venezuela shopping trip

CNN: Afghan FM at U.N.: Don't abandon country

Guardian: Angela Merkel, the new Maggie Thatcher

Guardian: The Tories don't do progressive - Nor should they. If you ask me, the so-called "progressives" in Britain have done quite enough to set that country back a few years.

Guardian: The cost of America's gun addiction - Another ignorant op-ed from another vapid American hippie in the same ol' Guardian.

Wolverine, James Bond and the mobile phone (BBC, Times)

Times: Russia should join Nato to avoid new Cold War - Now there's an idea.

Wired Danger Room: Machine Gun Social for South Carolina Candidate - If more conservatives had fundraisers like these, Democrats would probably never win control of the White House or either house of Congress.

CNN: Study points to benefits from Great Depression - The jokes write themselves on this one. Just for the record, I think that their data may be inaccurate - for example, the Great Depression lasted from 1929 into the 1940's, as opposed to the "four years of the Great Depression, 1930-1933" as stated in the article. Then again, it was printed by CNN, so consider the source.

Georgia 'started unjustified war' (BBC, Guardian, Times); Times: 'Kremlin lied' Georgia claims ahead of war report - The EU will have to excuse me if I point the finger squarely at Russia on this one.

Times: British troops 'lack armoured vehicles'

Times: US under Obama could slide into military dictatorship, says Gore Vidal - Gore Vidal is a deranged lunatic, and has been for a long time, but I think that at least a couple of the items he notes in his remarks have some merit to them. Only a couple, though.

AFP: NKorea looks to unconventional warfare: US general

AFP: Kiwi soldiers quietly battle to develop Afghan countryside

BBC: US relaxes grip on the internet - Leave it to the Obama Administration to screw up the Internet. Equitable management of the Internet that takes European sensibilities into account? Yeah, that's exactly what we need. Unbelievable.