Way to go, Mr. Sensitive. From Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 16:

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo on Tuesday--the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II--writing his name as prime minister in the shrine's visitors' book.

From the New York Daily News, Aug. 15:

Crash horror on N.J. Turnpike

A Queens couple and their 3-year-old daughter were among four people killed when an 18-wheeler hauling bricks spun out on the New Jersey Turnpike yesterday - but their other girl miraculously survived, cops said.

Seymour Hersh's latest feature in the Aug. 21 New Yorker openly portrays Israel's Lebanon adventure as Washington's test war for an attack on Iran. Like most of his recent journalism, it relies overwhelmingly on anonymous sources. One "US government consultant" told him that earlier this summer, before the Hezbollah kidnappings, several Israeli officials visited Washington, separately, “to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear." The consultant added, “Israel began with Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and the Middle East desk of the National Security Council." After that, “persuading Bush was never a problem, and Condi Rice was on board," the consultant (reportedly) said.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which rules one half of Iraq's northern Kurdish autonomous zone, is currently facing a wave of popular unrest. Among the greivances are deals the PUK has cut with local tribal leaders respecting their despotic and anti-woman standards of "justice." This Aug. 12 petition was received from Houzan Mahmoud of the Iraq Freedom Congress:

Another heroic blow by the Iraqi resistance... against Shi'ite civilians. From the AP, Aug. 14:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Residents dug through the rubble of devastated buildings today in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad that was pounded by a barrage of rockets, bombs and mortars that killed at least 47 people and injured dozens..

From Prensa Latina, Aug. 14:

LA PAZ -- Bolivian government denounced indications of a conspiracy by economic power groups against the Constituent Assembly to open works in the southern city of Sucre on Tuesday.

From AP, Aug. 14:

LA PAZ -- Bolivia's decision to suspend a plan to nationalize its oil and gas industry has reinforced doubts about the ability of its state-run energy company to manage the country's gas reserves.

We noted one year ago a heart-rending case of indigenous peasants in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas dying after eating a stew of apparently poisonous mushrooms. The peasants were driven by hunger and failed harvests to gather wild mushrooms (which have little nutritional value in any case). Another such tragic case was reported earlier this month, with the ominous conclusion that the mushrooms of Chiapas are mutating—explaining how indigenous inhabitants who know the local flora intimately could make such a fatal error. From AP, Aug. 4: