Blogs: To trust or not to trust?

By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website

It appears that blogs are not much trusted, according to a 10-country survey of the media.

They come at the bottom of the list, with just 25% of those questioned in a Globescan poll on trust in the media giving them a thumbs-up. News websites are only just a notch better at 38%, so some way to go there as well.

On the other hand, 23% of people did say they trusted blogs. However, personally I am not sure the question asked was all that relevant to blogs, those often pesky, sometimes tedious and occasionally challenging websites of opinion...

Read the Rest


H/T to Mudville

LEADERSHIP MEETING — U.S. Army Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, commanding general, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, greets Governor Aqeel Mahmoud Kareem Al Khaz'ali of Karbala, Iraq at a leadership meeting in the International Zone, April 28, 2006. Leaders from Baghdad, Babil and Najaf also attended the meeting to discuss concerns and reaffirm their dedication to a peaceful Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Karl Johnson

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Bomb Attack Kills 10 Outside Baghdad Court

Homeland Security / War on Terror
'America, You Lost' - Terrorist mocks life sentence
Raw Data: Bush Statement
Video: Moussaoui Sentenced to Life
Video: Moussaoui: 'America, You Lost'
Video: 'Personally Disappointed'
Video: 'Deserves to Rot in Jail'
Video: Defense Attorney Speaks
Video: Prosecution Responds to Sentence
Video: Jury Questionnaire Gives Insight
Attorney general says respects Moussaoui verdict
Homeland Security Issues Mass Transit Terror Alert
CIA row hits US-Europe intelligence work: US lawyer

Other Military News
House Committee Approves Military Bill

Hamas Rising
Abbas to hold referendum on any Israeli peace deal

Worldwide Wackos
Mexican President Backs Off Drug Decriminalization Bill - Farmers Free Police Hostages
Britain, France Introduce New U.N. Resolution on Iran
Iran sees Israel as target for annihilation: Olmert
Military action won't solve Iran conflict: French PM - Video (what a surprise - France ruling out military action in the Middle East)

Politics / Government
House Passes Lobby Reform
Gas Gouging Bill Approved
Democrats push for stem cell vote in Senate
Cheney rebukes Russia on democracy
Bush Makes Case for Extending Tax Cuts

Oddities
Fortune-telling judge couldn't see it coming
Charity exec who stole to pay dominatrix gets jail
Bra Sets Off Metal Detector in Calif.

Fox News
Lava Erupts From Indonesia's Mount Merapi
Hospital Treats Bird Trauma
Stocks to Watch: Univision
Fast-Food Worker Threw Hot Grease at Patron, Cops Say
Duke Lacrosse Player Says Rape Never Happened
Identity Theft Page
Cybersecurity Center

Reuters: Top News
US pushes for Darfur deal before third deadline
Rescuer apologizes for Sago confusion
Blu-ray discs delayed by a month
Tepid interest seen for next-generation DVDs in 2006
As hurricanes loom, many in Florida Keys flee
Joking apart, Russian car maker steps on world stage
Hospital may have exposed some to HIV
Man weighing 1,200 pounds seeks life-saving surgery
Star salaries coming down in Hollywood: report
Picasso portrait fetches $95 million
Kodak posts wider net loss
Tyco earnings beat forecasts
CVS profit rises
UBS profit jumps 33 pct to record 3.5 bln francs
Microsoft switches to own online ad broker service
Marvel 1st-quarter earnings drop
AstraZeneca scraps development of diabetes drug
KT&G shares surge on rumors Icahn to raise offer
P&G shares drop as sales, outlook disappoint
Electronic Arts posts loss, outlook falls short
Cognizant profit up 48 percent
P&G still steady
Turning skyward

AP World News
8 New Frog Species Discovered in Laos
Shell Says 1Q Profit Up 3.1 Percent
NBC Webcast Curtailed to Hit Lunch Hour
Another 'Idol' Contestant Out; Four Left
Pistons Advance to 2nd Round of Playoffs
Vatican Criticizes China Over Bishops
Sago Blast Probe Focuses on Lightning
Starbucks 2Q Earnings Rise 27 Percent
James Wins It With 0.9 Seconds Left in OT
Soda Distributors to End Most School Sales
Tonga Given No Tsunami Warning After Quake

Military.com
Tiger Woods' Father Dies of Cancer
Soldier Honored as Action Figure
2008 Deadline Eyed for Army's FCS

CENTCOM: News Releases
ANBAR GOVERNOR SURVIVES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

IRAQI SECURITY FORCES CONDUCTING SWEEP IN MOSUL

ENEMY FIGHTERS KILLED IN HELMAND PROVINCE

Department of Defense
Rumsfeld, Rice Brief Congress on Iraq - Story
Rumsfeld, Nukaga Focus on Realignment - Story
Range Helps Troops Train for Iraq Duty - Story - Photos
Iraqi Freedom Vet Honored as Action Figure - Story

IRAQIS TAKE THE LEAD
Comm Center Aids Iraqi Police Response - Story

REBUILDING IRAQ
Joint Effort Works to Improve Saab al Bour - Story

ON THE GROUND
Communications Unit Reaches Milestone - Story
Florida Guard Unit Helps Ailing Afghan Child - Story
U.S. Women’s Team Defeats Kuwaiti Team - Story
Coast Guard Detachment Trains Djiboutians - Story

IN IRAQ
Space-Age Drinking Water System Tested
Photos: Raven Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

IN AFGHANISTAN
Air Force Crew Keeps Aging B-52s Airborne
Joint Effort Provides Medical Care to Village

IN THE PERSIAN GULF
U.S. Sailors, Iraqi Marines Defend Terminals
Small Boats, Crews Provide Maritime Links

IN THE HORN OF AFRICA
USS Typhoon Operates in Horn of Africa
Djiboutian Town Brighter with Task Force Help

FACE OF DEFENSE
Heart Surgeon Begins New Career - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Family Sends Coffee to Troops - Story
Rolling Thunder to Hold Fundraiser
Steak Night Dinners Help Vets Heal

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Iraqis Conduct 'Lion's Hunt'
Alliance, Coalition Affirm Successes
Terrorists Killed; Vests Destroyed
IED Kills Soldier South of Baghdad
Rice, Rumsfeld Brief Bush on Trip
Casey: Iraq Marks Milestone
Rice: Politics Help Defeat Insurgents
Forces Kill, Capture Insurgents
Forces Nab 10 Terrorism Suspects
Renewal In Iraq
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (PDF)
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (PDF)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Forces Kill Enemy Fighters
Leaders Discuss Coalition Efforts
Successes Continue in Ops
U.S. Troop Injured in Copter Landing
Commander Meets With Governor
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Joint Command Focuses on Ops
'Ring of Steel' Encircles Platforms
GEODSS Satellite Provides Vital Info
Iran Maritime Relations 'Courteous'
Democracy Will Hurt Terrorism
Al Qaeda Terrorist Leader Killed
Fact Sheet: Budget Request
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
Flu Pandemic Response Roles Set
BRAC Focus: Downsizing, Growth
Conference Addresses BRAC Issues
Medical Center to Continue Legacy
JCOC Special Report
JCOC: Trip Gives Civilians New View
England Signs NSPS Into Effect
U.S. Repatriates 10 Somalis
National Guard, Reserve Update

Weather
Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah
An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

Today in History
1303 - Flemings conquers Middelburg
1471 - Battle of Tewkesbury - King Edward IV vs Ex-queen Margaretha
1493 - Spanish Pope Alexander VI divides non-Christian world between Spain & Portugal
1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica
1540 - Venice & Turkey sign Treaty of Constantinople
1626 - Indians sell Manhattan Island for $24 in cloth & buttons
1626 - Peter Minuit becomes director-general of New Netherlands
1634 - Johan van Walbeecks' fleet departs to West-Indies
1652 - Battle at Etampes - French army under Turenne beats Fronde rebels
1715 - French manufacturer debuts 1st folding umbrella (Paris France)
1747 - Willem IV appointed viceroy of Overijssel
1776 - Rhode Island declares independence from England
1783 - Herschel reports seeing a red glow near lunar crater Aristarchus
1805 - Henry C. Overing buys 80 acres of Throggs Neck in the Bronx NY
1814 - Bourbon reign restored in France
1818 - Netherlands & England sign treaty against illegal slave handling
1834 - Charles Darwin's expedition reaches 200 km from Atlantic Ocean
1843 - Great Britain annexes Natal
1846 - US state of Michigan ends death penalty
1847 - New York State creates a Board of Commissioners of Emigration
1851 - 1st major San Fransisco fire
1858 - War of the Reform (México) - Liberals establish capital at Vera Cruz
1861 - At Gretna LA, one of 1st guns of Rebel navy is cast
1862 - Battle at Williamsburg, VA; Yorktown VA - McClellan halts his troops before town as it is full of armed torpedoes left by CS Brigadier General Gabrial Rains
1863 - Battle of Chancellorsville ends - Beaten Union army withdraws
1864 - Ulysses S Grant crosses Rapidan & begins his duel with Robert E. Lee
1865 - Battle of Citronville, AL - Richard Taylor surrenders; Battle of Mobile AL
1871 - 1st baseball league game (National Association of Baseball Players), (Fort Wayne 2, Cleveland 0) Deacon Jim White gets 1st hit, a double
1878 - Phonograph shown for 1st time at Grand Opera House
1886 - Haymarket riot in Chicago - bomb kills 7 policemen
1888 - Italy & Spain sign military covenant
1893 - Cowboy Bob Pickett invents bulldogging
1896 - Grease fire ignites ½ ton of dynamite at Cripple Creek, CO
1897 - Fire in Paris France bazaar at Rue Jean Goujon kills 200
1910 - Canadian Currency Act, 1910, receives Royal Assent; Canadian parliament accept creation of Royal Canadian Navy; Tel Aviv founded
1912 - Italian mariners occupy Turkish Island of Rhodes
1915 - Italy drops Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary & Germany
1916 - At request of US, Germany curtails its submarine warfare
1917 - Arabs sack Tel Aviv
1923 - Bloody street battles between Nazis, socialist & police in Vienna; New York state revokes Prohibition law
1924 - 8th modern Olympic games open in Paris, France; German Republic election - fascists & communists win
1925 - League of Nations conference on arms control & poison gas usage
1926 - General strike hits Britain
1927 - 1st balloon flight over 40,000 feet (Scott Field, IL); Nicaragua agrees to a US-supervised presidential election in 1928
1931 - Mustafa Kemal Pasja becomes Turkish president
1932 - Al Capone, convict of income tax evasion, enters Atlanta Penitentiary
1938 - Douglas Hyde (a protestant) becomes 1st president of Eire
1940 - 21 "not neutral" Nazis & communists arrested in Netherlands
1942 - Battle of Coral Sea begun (1st sea battle fought solely in air); German occupiers imprison 450 prominent Dutch as hostages
1945 - German troops in Netherlands, Denmark & Norway surrender
1946 - 5 die in a 2 day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Fransisco bay
1948 - The Hague Court of Justice convicts Hans Rauter (SS) - sentenced to death
1949 - Air crash at Turijn (whole Torino-soccer team survives)
1957 - Alan Freed hosts "Rock n' Roll Show" 1st prime-time network rock show; Anne Frank Foundation forms in Amsterdam
1958 - Alberto Lleras Camargo chosen as President of Colombia
1960 - 1st great Delta dam closes, North-South Beveland
1961 - 13 Freedom riders began bus trip through South; Malcolm Ross & Victor Prather reach 34,668 meters (record) in balloon; South-Africa ANC-leader John Nkadimeng arrested
1964 - 70 GATT-countries confer in Geneva
1966 - Soviet Government signs accord about building Fiat factory in USSR
1967 - Lunar Orbiter 4 launched by US - begins orbiting Moon May 7
1970 - National Guard kills 4 at Kent State in Ohio (a number of Guardsmen are also wounded); Premier Kosygin affirms existence of Russian military advisors in Egypt
1972 - Vietcong forms revolutionary government in Quang Tri, South Vietnam
1973 - 1st TV network female nudity-Steambath (PBS)- Valerie Perrine
1978 - Russian President Brezhnev visits West-Germany
1979 - 1st woman prime minister of Great Britain (Margaret Thatcher); NASA launches Fltsatcom-2
1982 - British torpedo boat Sheffield off Falkland hit by Exocet (French-built) rocket
1984 - Dave Kingman's fly ball never comes down (stuck in Metrodome ceiling)
1986 - President Babrak Karmal resigns as party leader of Afghánistán
1989 - US launches Magellan to Venus; US space shuttle STS-30 launched
1990 - Latvia's parliament votes 138-0 (1 abstention) for Independence
1991 - President G.H.W. Bush is hospitalized for erratic heartbeat

Birthdays
1631 - Mary I Henriette Stuart, daughter of Charles I/Queen of England
1635 - Willem van Outhoorn, Dutch Governor-General (Dutch East Indies)
1796 - Joseph Pannell Taylor, Union Brigadier General
1820 - Julia Gardiner Tyler, 2nd wife of President John Tyler (1841-45)
1881 - Aleksandr F. Kerenski, Russian premier (1917-Prelude to Bolshevism)
1902 - Cola [Nicolas] Debrot Bonaire, Governor (Netherlands Antilles)/author
1914 - Abdel Karim Kassem, general/premier/dictator of Iraq (1958-63)
1918 - Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese PM (1972-74), convicted of bribe-taking
1922 - John Paul Hammerschmidt (Representative-AR)
1926 - Milton "Milt" Thompson, US NASA-test pilot/chief-engineer (X-15)
1928 - Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian President (1981- )
1938 - William J. Bennett, US Secretary of Education (1985-88)
1949 - Gerrit J. P, van Otterloo, Dutch MP (PvdA)
1951 - Gene Greenwood (Representative-PA)

Passings
1879 - William Froude, British civil engineer/shipbuilder (F Integer), dies at 68
1885 - Aleksandar I Karadjordjevic, monarch of Serbia (1842-58), dies at 78
1955 - Louis Breguet French aviation pioneer, dies at 75
1970 - Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheuer, William Schroeder, students at Kent State University killed by Ohio National Guard (a number of Guardsmen were also wounded there)
1971 - Donald Dexter Van Slyke, US chemist (Cyanosis), dies at 88
1975 - Moe Howard [Moses Horowitz], comedian (3 Stooges), dies at 77
1980 - Josip Broz Tito, leader of Yugoslavia (1945-80), dies at 87
1981 - Bobby Sands, Irish IRA terrorist, dies after hunger strike
1992 - Ismael Galeano "Commandant Franklyn" (Contra); Vitali Andreyevich Grishchenko, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 50
1994 - Karl Francis Hettinger, Onion Field survivor, dies at 59
1996 - Jean Crepin, soldier/industrialist, dies at 87
1997 - Vijayananda Dahanayake, PM of Sri Lanka (1959-60)

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Malone, Jimmy M., US Army (VA)

1967
Graham, James S., USN (PA); A4C shot down - remains returned August, 1985

Rogers, Charles E., USAF (IN); A1E shot down - KIA / BNR

1968
King, Paul C., Jr., US Army SF (MA); KIA in ground action