World News!

Bahrain

• Bahrain has lifted its Saudi Arabia-supported (through money and troops) state of emergency, after 11 weeks and 20 deaths.  The state of emergency was originally implemented to suppress pro-democracy protesters demanding changes to the way the government works.  King Hamad al-Khalifa has promised a national dialogue on reform beginning next month, but has not indicated if that reform will eliminate arbitrary detention and torture of citizens or secret military tribunals.

China

• The Chinese government has officially denied being responsible for the phishing scam that target Google Gmail users.

Greece

• Moody's has cut its rating of Greek sovereign debt from B1 to Caa1, putting it into the junk bond realm and indicating that Moody's believes that Greece has a 50% chance of defaulting in the next five years.

Japan

• Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence vote over his handling of the March 11 natural disasters and the current nuclear crisis, by offering to voluntarily step down once the worst of the crisis is past.  He is expected to step down sometime in the autumn.

Libya

• Despite the defection of Shokri Ghanem, Libya will still send a representative to next week's OPEC meeting.
• UN investigators, looking into allegations of war crimes and other crimes against humanity in Libya, have tarred both sides with the same brush.  The investigators have determined that "crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed by the government forces of Libya," and that "the commission received fewer reports of facts which would amount to the commission of international crimes by opposition forces;  however, did find some acts which would constitute war crimes".  Don't expect to see NATO airstrikes on rebel positions in Misrata as NATO fulfills its UN mandate, though.

Pakistan

• At least 67 people - 27 Pakistani police and 40 insurgents - are dead in Dir following a Taliban-led attack on a checkpoint on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

 

Syria

• If you want some light reading, the organization Human Rights Watch has published a report on the actions of the Syrian government titled "We've Never Seen Such Horror".

United States

• Google announced that a phishing scam, apparently originating from Jinan, China, compromised the personal Gmail accounts of "hundreds of users including, among others, senior US government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists".
• In "I did not see that coming" news, at least four people are dead in western and central Massachusetts following hail, heavy rain, and two tornadoes.  Governor Deval Patrick has declared a state of emergency in the affected are

World

• The Global Commission on Drug Policy has declared in a report that "the global war on drugs has failed with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world."  It goes on to suggest "experimentation by governments with models of legal regulation of drugs... This recommendation applies especially to cannabis, but we also encourage other experiments in decriminalization and legal regulation."

Yemen

• US envoy John Brennan is en route to Yemen to help try to pressure President Saleh into accepting a deal that would have him voluntarily step down and leave the country.