The international negotiators appointed to broker peace in Darfur have resigned, admitting that their mission has been a failure. The UN's Jan Eliasson announced that he and his African Union counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, would both step down, citing Sudanese government intransigence and the fracturing of the rebel movement into more than 30 factions. "It is a very, very sombre situation," said Eliasson. (The Independent, June 27)

From the WCBS-NY, June 23:

Truck Hits Bus; Bus Crashes Into Bank
One person is dead and four people are injured after an out-of-control dump truck coming off the Manhattan Bridge slammed into a waiting bus that was loading people for a trip to Boston.

Yet more evidence (as if we needed any) that the media are making us stupid. From a June 23 New York Times story entitled, "Correspondents Say Networks Put Wars on the Back Burner":

A new Energy Department report says much about how elites view the oil shock—and why the US is in Iraq. It actually mentions the impacts of biofuels, but that's a sideshow to the inexorable threat of China's economic rise. This synopsis does not even mention Iraq—but effective US control of the Persian Gulf will be a lever of control over China's access to energy. From Oil Voice, June 25:

It is pretty depressing that 29 years after Three Mile Island and 22 after Chernobyl, the nuclear industry has recouped its propaganda losses to the point that both candidates are obliged to pay lip service to the oxymoron of "safe nuclear power." McCain is gung-ho for nukes, calling for building 45 new reactors over the next 30 years. Obama's support is more equivocal—he said June 20 that nuclear power is an option worth pursuing, while adding the caveat: "I don't think that nuclear power is a panacea." (Reuters, June 20)

Iran has announced it is reviewing the launch of a joint development bank with Venezuela. "Iran and Venezuela have positive cooperation and are currently reviewing the launch of a joint bank after five meetings held on this issue so far," Venezuelan Planning and Development Minister Haiman El Troudi told Iran's Mehr News in Isfahan on the sidelines of a meeting of the OPEC Fund for International Development.

Lt. Col. Héctor Herrera, president of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Civil-Military Front, decried a "new, unfounded accusation" by the US Treasury Department that a Venezuelan diplomat and Venezuelan travel agent, both of Lebanese decent, are financial supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah. Herrera, whose Civil-Military organization recently held military maneuvers with Venezuelan reservists to defend against a simulated foreign invasion, said the accusations "are more of the same," comparing them to those made about Venezuelan support for the FARC.

At least four Somali government soldiers were killed and four civilians wounded when a roadside bomb hit a military vehicle in Mogadishu June 22. (Xinhua, June 22) Fighting has killed at least 38 since the "peace deal" was concluded in Djibouti June 10. (Reuters, June 20) However, Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein insisted Ethiopian occupation troops would be withdrawn within 120 days of the signing in Djibouti. "The agreement between us and the opposition is a historic one and the Somali government would implement it," Hussein said. (Xinhua, June 22)