What Caught My Eye Today

2008 Presidential Race - John McCain sought to mend his tattered relationship with conservatives and unify a splintered GOP as he all but clinched the party's presidential nomination when Mitt Romney, his former chief rival, dropped out of the race. With weekend contests in Louisiana and Kansas up next, McCain has secured 707 delegates, more than halfway to the 1,191 needed to win the nomination. Romney has 294 and Mike Huckabee 195. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman, had only 14 — and no chance to catch McCain. Honestly, I didn't see Romney bowing out so quickly. I think it is interesting that he chose to suspend his campaign rather than quit outright. Perhaps he's leaving the door open for McCain to do something wildly stupid before the Republican convention later this year.

Space Shuttle - The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from its seaside Florida launch pad today to deliver a $1.9 billion European science laboratory to the International Space Station. Tucked into Atlantis' cargo bay is the European Space Agency's Columbus module, the centerpiece of a $5 billion program to give Europe a permanent toehold in space. For more than 25 years, European space researchers have relied on the hospitality of others to operate their experiments in orbit. With Columbus, Europe will have a permanent laboratory in space for a variety of biology, physiology, fluid physics and other experiments. NASA plans to quickly follow Columbus' launch with the first flight for Japan's Kibo complex. The agency has 13 remaining missions on the shuttle's roster before the fleet is retired in 2010. In addition to 12 space station construction and resupply flights, NASA plans a mission in August or September to service the Hubble Space Telescope. This particular launch was delayed by two months due to some faulty fuel gauges. Before that NASA was dealing with foam insolation issues that were responsible for the Columbia disaster. I don't want to sound like a naysayer, but these guys cannot afford too many more delays (if any) if they have any hope of completing the space station before retiring the space shuttle fleet in 2010.

Mafia - Authorities arrested dozens of people today in a sweeping Mafia takedown aimed at closing the book on decades-old gangland killings and other crimes and knocking out what's left of the once-mighty Gambino family. A federal indictment in Brooklyn named 62 people, including the three highest-ranking members of the Gambino clan. The federal indictment alleges that Gambino associates extorted people in the construction industry, embezzled from labor unions and engaged in illegal loansharking and bookmaking. Well, duh. This is the Mafia we're talking about. The New York raids coincided with an Italian operation, code-named "Old Bridge" and centered on the Sicilian capital of Palermo, targeting Mafia figures who were strengthening contacts between mob groups in Italy and the United States. Aw, come on. Give global commerce a chance. What with the world teetering on the brink of global recession, maybe a little organized crime is just the sort of boost that is needed. There's nothing wrong with a little creative enterpeurship. So a couple of people get fitted for cement shoes and relocated to the bottom of the Hudson River from time to time. These folks probably weren't model citizens to begin with.

Africa - I'm telling you, this joint is getting more and more bleak by the day. Here's a quick rundown of the latest chaos...(seriously, if you are prone to depression, I'd just skip this whole section and come back tomorrow)

Chad - The Chadian government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew across Chad and said it was scouring the capital for coup plotters and their accomplices who were in hiding after days of fighting killed hundreds and caused thousands to flee. Prime Minister Nouradin Koumakoye announced the curfew a day after President Idriss Deby insisted the government had total control of the country following a weekend coup attempt that brought rebels to the gates of the presidential palace. Always nice to see a country's top two leaders operating under the same set of assumptions.

Cameroon - Thousands of refugees who fled Chad's capital when rebels advanced into the city have poured into Cameroon. The U.N. estimated that at least 30,000 people have fled the oil-rich country for Cameroon after fighting broke out over the weekend in N'Djamena, a city of about 1 million. International relief efforts have not yet been mounted. I'm thinking border security isn't real high up on anyone's priority list. First you have Sudanese people spilling over into Chad to escape the violence in Chad, and now the same thing is happening in Cameroon. And good luck with that humanitarian aid. The situation in Kenya--home base for more aid organizations--is still a mess.

Kenya - Washington is wielding a visa weapon against prominent Kenyans who have allegedly encouraged weeks of postelection bloodshed, threatening to bar politicians and businessmen from visiting the U.S. Long considered one of Africa's most stable democracies, Kenya has been devastated by strife since a Dec. 27 election that most observers say was rigged. More than 1,000 people have been killed and 300,000 driven from their homes in fighting that has often pitted many of the East African country's myriad ethnic groups against one another. The economy has been gutted.

I suppose you can make the case that some of this violence is justifiable, especially in those situations where the behavior of the government leaders is suspect, at best. But that isn't always so. Check out this next item.

Mozambique - The Mozambican government announced yesterday that it was scrapping a planned increase in bus fares as the death toll from riots sparked by the price hikes rose to three. The violence had broken out after demonstrators blocked the main highway leading into the capital at around dawn Tuesday, setting fire to tyres and then attacking property. As the protests spread through slum areas of the capital and a number of shops were attacked, police fired bullets into the air in a bid to disperse the crowds. The protests against the new bus fares come after government and transport operators agreed to raise prices on certain routes by 25 percent. All this over bus fares? You have got to be kidding. Those must be some mighty fine buses. In all seriousness, I think this demonstrates just how close to the brink people really are. One has to question just how in touch the government is with the pulse of its population.

How about one more for good measure?

Eritrea - I looked it up, and this is indeed a country. Has been since it declared its independence from Ethiopia in 1991 Eritrea has ignored a U.N. deadline to grant peacekeepers on its border with Ethiopia access to badly needed fuel, but despite the shortfall, a U.N. official said U.N. troops are reluctant to leave because they fear war could erupt. U.N. peacekeepers are acting as a buffer between Ethiopia and Eritrea, both of which have amassed troops on their borders. The two countries fought a 1998-2000 border war and have been deadlocked in a bitter dispute over their shared frontier. Last week the U.N. Security Council renewed the mandate of the U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, or UNMEE, for six months. The council also urged Eritrea to end its fuel blockade of U.N. staff. But Eritrea, which contends that a continued U.N. presence on the border would be tantamount to an occupation, ignored the demand. The 1,700-member U.N. force went to the border in 2000 at the end of a two-year war that killed 70,000 people. I'm with the U.N. on this one. If recent history has taught us anything, it's that if there is the remotest chance for violence and bloodshed in this part of the world, if left unsupervised, the carnage will amass rather quickly.