Hugo Chavez must be grinning from ear to ear. As the White House assiduously tries to demonize him, a Boston popular tabloid hails him as a savior of the city's working class:

OUR VIEW: Heating aid just in the nick of time

The Patriot Ledger, Nov. 28

There was good news on the home heating oil front last week, just hours before the first blast of winter air struck the region.

This is too funny. Followers of this blog will be aware that we recently had to call out "World's Greatest Intellectual" Noam Chomsky for loaning legitimacy to vile historical revisionism on the Bosnia war. The problem with having to diss The Chom is that we thereby risk implicitly loaning legitimacy to other of his critics, who include some extremely unsavory types. Ironically, topping the list are both ultra-Zionists and conspiranoid anti-Zionists. So now we once again have the opportunity to diss a Chomsky detractor.

Speaking with journalists in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer emphasized the alliance's relationship with Pakistan—espeically in terms of the mission in Afghanistan under the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Scheffer said NATO contacts with Islamabad were growing "since even before the horrible earthquake in Pakistan and we are discussing what we call Alliance Communication Agreement that Pakistan being in the specific geographical position can facilitate the support for the ISAF mission. NATO has excellent relations with Pakistan; being a seasoned politician myself I know the sensitivities in the region so India is kept fully informed." (Pakistan Tribune, Nov. 28)

In a surprising shift of strategy, Nepal's Maoist guerillas have reached a 12-point common agenda with the top parliamentary parties, subsequently endorsed by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. The new pact between the armed rebels and political opposition does not seek abolition of the monarchy, but envisages a limited monarchy where the king's powers are well-defined and constitutional. It calls for elections for a constituent assembly, prior to which Maoists will desist from violence and place their arms under the supervision of the UN or other international agency.

Here's some good news that might appease the Sardinian separatists. But where will the base be relocating to, and will it similarly piss off the surly natives? From AFP via Turkish Press, Nov. 24 (emphasis added):

ROME - The United States is to close a military base on the Italian island of Sardinia now considered surplus to requirements for the defence of the Mediterranean, Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino announced.

Well, it certainly is comforting to know that global warming is just a myth.

Rise in Gases Unmatched
By Andrew C. Revkin

New York Times Service

Shafts of ancient ice pulled from Antarctica's frozen depths show that for at least 650,000 years three important heat-trapping greenhouse gases never reached recent atmospheric levels caused by human activities, scientists are reporting today. The measured gases were carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Concentrations have risen over the last several centuries at a pace far beyond that seen before humans began intensively clearing forests and burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels.

The class struggle for the future of New Orleans is made clear by this Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24) report in Newsday that the volunteers who have established soup kitchens and work brigades to help the poor survive and resist being made exiles from their own city have now been ordered to clear out—due to pressure from the city's old-money elite:

The BBC reports Nov. 24 on the struggle of a woman known as Amna to resist village authorities in Pakistan who married her to a man from a rival clan at the age of 10 to settle a family dispute. "All I remember is that my mother cried a lot," says Amna, now nearly 20, and one of three sisters fighting for their freedom from a tribal tradition in which they have no say.

The three—along with two cousins—were married under vani—a tribal tradition whereby disputes are settled through "marrying" girls from the offending family to men from the supposedly aggrieved clan. The marriages were ordered by a village council (jirga) in Sultanwala, Mianwali district. The custom was officially outlawed by the national government in January, but still flourishes in much of the country.