Iran opens nuclear fuel facility

Iran’s president has inaugurated the country’s first nuclear fuel production plant, making what correspondents say was a defiant speech.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cast doubt on Iranian claims of major progress.

“We don’t know what to believe about the Iranian program,” she said at a news conference in Washington.

CIA shuts down its secret prisons

N Korea leader appears in public

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, has made his first major state appearance since he had a suspected stroke last year.
TV pictures showed him attending a parliamentary session where he was re-elected as North Korean leader.
The session coincides with a separate announcement that North Korea is to revise its constitution.
No details have yet been given, but there is speculation that the changes might be linked to who succeeds Mr Kim.
He has no obvious successor, and rumours of his illness last year led to international concerns about the country’s long-term stability.

The protesters say Mr Abhisit came into office illegally and must stand down.

Georgians rally against president

Thousands of Georgians have gathered outside parliament saying they will not disperse until the president resigns.
Protesters, numbering up to 60,000, blamed President Mikhail Saakashvili for defeat against Russia in August’s war and said he had stifled democracy.
The opposition alleged that dozens of members were arrested before the rally – a claim denied by the government.

‘Civilians die’ in Sri Lanka zone

At least 60 civilians have been killed by shells fired in a no-fire zone in Sri Lanka in the past 24 hours, a senior health official there says.

Two health facility compounds in the north-east region were also hit, Dr T Varatharaja told the BBC.

Tens of thousands of civilians are trapped by the fighting between the Sri Lanka military and Tamil Tigers rebels.

The military has denied responsibility for the casualties, and the rebels have not responded.

Dead mayor re-elected by US town

Voters in a small town in the US state of Missouri have re-elected
their popular mayor to a fourth term, several weeks after he died of a
heart attack.

He won by a landslide, securing 90% of the vote in the 723-population town.

Horrors of KLA prison camps revealed

The man spoke plainly as he explained the horrors he lived through
in a Kosovo Liberation Army prison camp 10 years ago. He told me about
how he watched people beaten with steel pipes, cut with knives, left
for days without food, and shot and killed.

“What can you feel when you see those things?” he said. “It’s something that is stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. You cannot do those things to people, not even to animals.”

As the man talked, his mother paced nervously in the nearby kitchen. She was panicked and tears were streaming down her face.

“They’ll kill him, they’ll kill him,” she moaned, clutching one of her grandchildren.

Chad captures rogue legionnaire

Security forces in Chad have captured a French Foreign Legion soldier who allegedly killed four people, including two comrades and a UN peacekeeper.

His arrest by Chadian gendarmes followed a massive military manhunt.

A French officer described the soldier, who had fled across the southern Sahara on a stolen horse, as “deranged”.

These headlines and leaders are all from the bbc.com site.  I copied and pasted them to this piece, and then added my own smartass punchlines/comments at the end of each blurb.

I read the whole thing again, and erased my stuff.