World News!

Egypt

• In "is it still February" news, thousands of Egyptians gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand that the nation's military dictatorship implement promised political changes more rapidly than has been done so far.

Libya

• The US House of Representatives has voted to deny funding for any direct help to the Libyan rebels - including weapons, training, and advice.  A related proposal to stop US participation in the NATO airstrikes was defeated.

Sweden

• Surgeons in Sweden have performed the world's first synthetic organ trnsplant, implanting a laboratory-grown windpipe into a 36-year-old cancer patient.

Syria

• The Syrian government has expressed outrage over Ambassador Robert Ford's trip to Hama, claiming that it "is obvious proof of the implication of the United States in the ongoing events".  Now, while it may be a stretch to say that the "armed terror gangs"[1] are being sponsored by the US, the official position of the US State Department is that the purpose of his trip is "to make absolutely clear with his physical presence that we stand with those Syrians who are expressing their right to speak for change."  So they may have the vague makings of a point.

United Kingdom

• When hell is full the dead will walk the earth, and the city of Bristol will be prepared with a top secret contingency plan.  The contingency plan also states that city employees "fully qualified in zombie handling may qualify for partial exemption and accreditation in the training for handling pirate outbreaks and for spotting the difference between genuine hot air balloons and evil, giant, floaty space aliens."

United States

• With Rupert Murdoch and News Corp all over the news right now, Reuters has prepared a helpful graphic showing exactly what businesses that company owns.
• Unsurprisingly, yesterday's meeting between President Obama and House and Senate leaders about the debt ceiling produced no results.  The Republican leadership proposed a six to eight month extension, while the President held out for a deal that would last at least through the November 2012 elections.
• Fitch Ratings has downgraded Minnesota's credit rating from AAA to AA+, citing the state's use of nonrecurring revenue sources to cover budget shortfalls, and the fact that the state has been shut down since July 1.

[1]  Have they actually committed acts of terror?  Well, some of them might have blood-borne diseases.  Lots of blood flies around when you're getting savagely beaten by the police, so the Syrian government would probably make the case that they're engaging in bioterrorism.