October 11, 2005

Scientists bolster case for hobbit people Globe and Mail -  Researchers have discovered the remains of more so-called hobbit-like people on a remote Indonesian island, bolstering the case that a species of miniature humans lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. 9:45:29 PM

Natural Gas Users to Take Hit This Winter (AP). AP - Winter heating bills will be a third to a half higher for most families across the country, with the sharpest increases expected for those who heat with natural gas, the Energy Department forecast Wednesday. [Yahoo! News: Top Stories] 8:26:53 PM

Syrian minister 'commits suicide'. Syria's Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan has committed suicide, the official news agency in Damascus says. The UN report on Hariri's assassination is expected to be published before the end of October. Correspondents say it is likely to implicate Syria's intelligence regime and its allies in Lebanon in the bombing, that killed 20 people in central Beirut in February. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition] 8:22:41 PM

Microsoft, Yahoo to Link IM Networks Microsoft and Yahoo are set to announce on Wednesday a blockbuster interoperability deal that will reshape the landscape of the fragmented instant messaging market. The companies will connect their IM networks so users on each can communicate with one another using text and voice chat free of charge. The agreement marks the first time major players in the highly-competitive IM industry have officially partnered up to enable cross-network communication. Interoperability has always been a hot topic among instant messaging providers, but had never yielded a compromise. 7:38:02 PM

Instapundit:  UNSCAM UPDATE: PARIS (AP) - France's former U.N. ambassador has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food program, judicial officials said Tuesday. Jean-Bernard Merimee, 68, who also was ambassador to Italy from 1995-98 and to Australia in the 1980s, is suspected of having received kickbacks in the form of oil allocations from the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He was also a special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 1999 to 2002. The noose tightens. And reader Bryon Scott, who sent the link, observes: The interesting thing to me is the Guardian is now stating "Saddam manipulated the program" as a forgone conclusion. No longer is the press treating this as if it "alledgedly" happened. One wonders how long it will take the MSM to make the connection between the lucrative income generated by this scam and the "international resistance" to the war in Iraq. The Mainstream media or the left, same question. 7:33:09 PM