World News!

Afghanistan

• A video purporting to show frontline Taliban fighers has been released, vowing to continue fighting NATO-led and Afghan troops.  "Even if the news of Osama bin Laden's martyrdom is true, it will not change our jihad policy..." the video states, "if it is true that he is dead, it will give us more motivation to continue our jihad."

Bahrain

• Abdulla Mohammed Habib was been sentenced by a military court to at least five years in jail for the attempted murder of policemen and an additional two years for damaging public property[1].

Japan

• Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered the Chubu electric Power Company to suspend operation of three reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant after seismologists indicated that the region is overdue for an earthquake (87% probability of a magnitude 8.0 in the next 30 years).  The plan will need to implement several safety measures - including construction of sea walls - before resuming operation.

Libya

• Mahmoud Jibril, head of the rebel Transitional National Council, has laid out a political "road map" for after they depose Muammar Gaddafi.  The plan calls for an interim government which would draw up a constitution and put it to a referendum, followed within a few months by parliamentary and presidential elections.  He also indicated that the NTC will need $2 billion to $3 billion in the next few months for military salaries, food, medicine and other basic supplies.

Pakistan

• A Predator drone has killed at least eight people in North Waziristan, increasing tensions between Islamabad and Washington.

Syria

• Syrian tanks and troops have gathered in the suburbs of Damascus, waiting for a planned "Day of Rage" protest so that they will be able to clearly identify their targets.

United States

• The Department of Homeland Security announced that there was some evidence that Osama Bin Laden and/or his associates had engaged in discussions or planning for a possible attack on a train in the US on September 11, 2011.  "We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the US rail sector, but wanted to make our partners aware of the alleged plotting," said DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler.
• Two separate US government sources, speaking anonymously, have stated that Osama Bin Laden was not armed and was not threatening his attackers when he was shot.
• Defending the treatment of Bin Laden's corpse, President Obama sais "We took more care on this than obviously, bin Laden took when he killed 3000 people.  He didn't have much regard for how they were treated and desecrated."
• JPMorgan Chase & co has received a subpoena from the SEC over failed mortgages.

World

• A report released by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme indicates that, if the increased warming trend observed in the Arctic continues, global sea leve could rise between 0.9 meters and 1.6 meters by 2100.  This does conflict with the IPCC report from 2007 (which estimates a 18 cm to 59 cm sea level rise by 2100), and is currently founded on extrapolating 6 years of observational data forward.
• Data from Gravity Probe B indicates that Earth's mass distorts space-time around the planet in precisely the fashion predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.
• The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs has released a report predicting that the population of the Earth will reach 10.1 billion by 2100, assuming average fertility.  The high end of the projection indicates we could hit 10.6 billion by 2050 and 15.8 billion by 2100.
• Climate shifts over the past three decades have been linked to a 5.5% decline in global wheat production, according to a study published in the online edition of the journal Science.

[1]  Damaging public property?  The article doesn't really say.  I suspect it's something like "Hey!  My baton is damaged after tying Mr. Habib to a chair and beating him for three hours.  We can charge him!"