Egypt has an elected leader for the first time. This is huge. If it is a true democracy, then one would hope the actions of the government reflect the feelings of the people. As Noam Chomsky states, the Egyptian people feel that the U.S.-Israel are a threat. This could escalate tensions out in the Middle East. If Egypt starts to face-off with Israel at the same time as Iran escalating its nuclear programme then who knows how the U.S.-Israel will react. They've already talked about attacking Iran before now. Let's just hope things don't get too much worse.

Monsanto maize has been banned in France, in order to \"protect the environment\". This is however a temporary ban. The article doesn't make that clear, nor does it do the science justice. It says It was modified genetically in order to insert a bacteria into its DNA structure. This is clearly bollocks. Some of the genetic code of a particular bacterium has been added to the genetic code of the maize. Even this is a gross over-simplification of the situation. The genes in question are to generate a toxin that will kill any insects or pests that would try to eat the maize. To me, as long as sufficient testing is done, this ethically acceptable behaviour. The business practices of Monsanto may be less ethical however.

New Zealand authorities, in collaboration with Interpol, have taken down a global child pornography ring. 55 people in 20 countries have been arrested, with 12 abused children being rescued. This is good old fashioned police work in action, with the investigation starting back in October 2010. There was no need to enact new restrictive internet policies in order to bring justice to these paedophiles.

A suicide blast in Yemen kills more than 100 troops. It has left at least 101 dead and 220 injured. Here's a relatively SFW video of the aftermath. As a result the Yemeni president has declared to resolve further his war on terror. Even the Middle East has these issues. It's reading stuff like this that I'm truly glad I live in a peaceful country (everything is relative).

Italy, amongst their debt crisis, are cracking down on Ferrari and Lamborghini drivers. Though only in so far as to make sure they are declaring their income and thus paying their due taxes. The reasoning being that only rich people will have access to such expensive cars. Sounds a bit like the story of the Porches in Greece, though that was a bit misleading, as Porche themselves sold a relatively small number of cars in Greece. So the others were second hand or black market cars. Italy further battled tax evasion recently by 'raiding' a popular ski resort and checking people were paying the taxes on their property. When the squeeze is on the government, that squeeze is transferred to the people it seems.