A grass roots demonstration will take place today outside the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Organized by Canadians Against Antisemitism the protest is aimed at the past five years of coverage from the Middle East from veteran CBC correspondent Neil MacDonald.

Sandra Stern, the group’s chairwoman, believes Mr. MacDonald’s coverage is biased, criticism that comes on the heels of a heated debate in newspaper columns between Norman Spector, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel, and Tony Burman, the CBC’s executive director of news.

Hello. Globe and Mail. The headline is a trifle misleading. I’m a gentile and I’d show up at this demonstration and be welcomed by others from all nationalities, faiths, and walks of life.
Hello. CBC. Pay attention. Canada has a dark history of anti-semitism and many of us can’t stomach your coverage. You’d do well to work out the terms of the debate.

Fraticide
Two US pilots will begin an Article 32 hearing today in Louisiana. Majors Harry Schmidt and Bill Umbach face charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty. This hearing will determine whether the men will face a full military court marshall. On April 17/2002 four Canadians were killed and eight wounded in the bombing in Afghanistan. The Canadian blog Flit has been following this issue and coverage very closely.

South Asia

An estimated 1,000 people have died in South Asia in the past month during a cold snap that saw temperatures stay above freezing but prove too harsh for the homeless.

Cold weather across northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal has claimed a daily average of two dozen lives, mostly the elderly and children living on the streets.

A region that is more accustomed to extreme heat is running up a winter death toll comparable with that of Russia, where hundreds have died this winter in a ferocious cold spell that saw temperatures of minus 37C in Moscow.

Planned Parenthood
700,000 abortions in 2001? Does anyone know how many couple in the US are trying desperately to adopt a child?

Speedy Internet Browser
A 16 year old from Ireland has won top prize in a science contest for developing
an internet browser that increases dial up speed up to 500 percent.

Adnan Osmani, 16, a student at Saint Finian’s College in Mullingar, central Ireland spent 18 months writing 780,000 lines of computer code to develop the browser. Known as “XWEBS”, the system works with an ordinary Internet connection using a 56K modem on a normal telephone line.

It does other cool things too.

Other special aspects of his browser are the fact that access to 120 Internet search engines and other features such as music and video players are built in.

“It has got every single media player built in. It is the first Internet browser in the world to actually incorporate a DVD sidebar. So you can watch a DVD movie in whatever screen size you want and browse the Internet at the same time.”

To make the software more user friendly, it features a talking animated figure called Phoebe.

“The character interacts the entire way through the software. It can also read out Web pages and e-mail and I thought it would be really useful for the blind and young children because they can’t really experience the Internet.

relapsed catholic continues the Catholic alphabet series with “E” for the end of the world.

With the saavy help of Quantum Tea, The Gospel According to Mark may have solved the cat mystery in Wales.

Economic Humour

To-day`s Stock Market Report

Helium was up. Feathers were down. Paper was stationary.

Fluorescent tubing was dimmed in light trading. Knives were up sharply.

Cows steered into a bull market. Pencils lost a few points.

Hiking equipment was trailing. Elevators rose, while escalators continued their slow decline.

Weights were up in heavy trading. Light switches were off.

Mining equipment hit rock bottom. Diapers remain unchanged.

Shipping lines stayed at an even keel. The market for raisins dried up.

Coca Cola fizzled. Caterpillar stock inched up a bit.

Sun peaked at midday. Balloon prices were inflated.

And, Scott Tissue touched a new bottom.