November 15, 2004

Palestinians play down Abbas shooting incident CTV - Palestinian officials are downplaying a shooting incident at an event attended by interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.  On Sunday evening, militants firing assault rifles burst into a mourning tent for deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, killing two security guards and wounding six others. Abbas had just entered the tent, along with 10,000 others, including about 3,000 armed men, most of them police officers. He stood with Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan and shook hands with mourners.  Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia insists the shooting was not an attempt to kill Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen. "What's happened, we're sorry for what's happened, but anyhow it is not targeting Abu Mazen personally," Qureia said. The incident happened just hours after Palestinian officials set Jan. 9 as a date for elections to choose a new leader. ED: Oh, it was just part of the democratic process, the start of the campaign so to speak. 2:44:39 PM

Gweilo Diaries: Meanwhile, in Darfur, the United Nations, which promised never to forget the Rwandan genocide, after having promised never to forget the Cambodian killing fields, after having promised never to forget the Nazi Holocaust, apparantly forgot -- quite literally standing by and watching as Sudanese authorities attacked and destroyed a village in Darfur. Okay, that's not entirely accurate. First they ran away to a safe distance, then they stood and watched the attack. 1:05:00 PM

Iraqi PM's relatives released by kidnappers CBC News - Two of three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi kidnapped last week have been released, Allawi's office confirmed on Monday. 12:47:08 PM

Firefox 1.0 Renews Interest in the Browser Search Engine Journal - Problems with spyware, pop-up ads, security flaws and indifference and downright hostility to standards-compliant behavior have made Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser one of the most widely reviled pieces of software ever. 7:27:35 AM