Weekly Review

By Roger D. Hodge

The United Nations continued to issue warnings about the ongoing genocide in Sudan, where Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, have been slaughtering and raping black farmers in Darfur; more than one million people have fled their homes and hundreds of thousands of refugees could soon die of cholera and other diseases.¹ A court in southern Darfur sentenced ten Janjaweed fighters to have their left hands and right feet amputated; the Sudanese ambassador in London denied that his government was supporting the militias.² Yasir Arafat rejected the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, and the Palestinian National Security Council declared a state of emergency after militants seized several security officials and four French charity workers.³ The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades assassinated an Israeli judge.⁴ A Sunni cleric in Ramadi declared a holy war on American forces.⁵ Iraqi militants killed the governor of Mosul in an ambush, and⁶ Iraq's justice minister narrowly escaped when a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy in Baghdad.⁷ An audit of the Coalition Provisional Authority found that American officials did not know how much oil Iraq was producing or how oil revenues were being spent, and⁸ Philippine forces were withdrawn from the country in response to the kidnapping of a truck driver. The Bush Administration was not pleased.⁹ Mike Ditka, the former coach of the Chicago Bears football team, said that he might make a run for the Senate, and¹⁰ Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California called his Democratic opponents "girlie men."¹¹

The United Nations estimated that southern Africa will have 50 million AIDS orphans by 2010, and the World Bank reported that only 700,000 orphans receive support from AIDS resources.¹² Mexico's attorney general was implanted with computer chips that broadcast his location and his identity; security experts said that publicly revealing the existence of the location chip was unwise, since kidnappers could simply remove the chip.¹³ Canadian patients were complaining about the quality of government-grown pot.¹⁴ Charges were dismissed against a Texas woman who holds "Tupperware-type" parties for housewives interested in buying dildos.¹⁵ Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison, and¹⁶ Condoleezza Rice said that there was no plan to cancel the November presidential elections.¹⁷ Graduate students at the University of North Carolina discovered that 75 percent of the fish sold as red snapper was some other kind of fish.¹⁸ A first draft of the dog genome was released.¹⁹ Senator John Kerry promised to double the number of American spies.²⁰

The Los Alamos National Laboratory suspended all classified research after it was discovered that two computer disks had been lost.²¹ The inspector general of the USDA said that the agency's mad-cow surveillance system is weak, that the testing is not random, that it fails to require rendering plants to participate, and that it is based on flawed, unscientific assumptions.²² A runaway cement truck killed 17 guests at a wedding party in Java, Indonesia.²³ Researchers found that east Asians are not naturally nearsighted.²⁴ A large survey by the British Ministry of Health of male Gulf War veterans found that they suffer significant fertility problems.²⁵ A mule reportedly gave birth in Bhutan.²⁶ The Senate killed a proposal for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and²⁷ Boston Scientific Corporation recalled 85,000 drug-coated heart stents.²⁸ Public-health experts said that 40 percent of the residents of Los Angeles County get no more than 10 minutes of exercise per week.²⁹ Researchers in Montreal found that people who go blind as infants have better pitch than sighted people.³⁰ Pacific Gas & Electric revealed that it lost three segments of a used nuclear fuel rod.³¹ Britain's Science Museum was thinking about using visitors' excrement to cut down on its electricity bills.³² A study found that children who watch two hours of TV a night risk becoming fat smokers with high cholesterol.³³ Some drug companies were thinking about banning people who respond to placebos from clinical trials.³⁴ A plague of locusts was massing in Africa.³⁵ Scientists said that they could estimate how many years a woman has left before the onset of menopause by using a technique called transvaginal sonography.³⁶ In Florida, a man was accused of beating his girlfriend with a pet alligator.³⁷ A British man was jailed for shooting off his testicles.³⁸