What Caught My Eye Today

Kosovo - The U.S. and the European Union's biggest powers quickly recognized Kosovo as an independent nation Monday, widening a split with Russia, China and some EU members strongly opposed to letting the territory break away from Serbia. Do you think the Taiwan issue has anything to do with China's uneasiness over the developments in Kosovo? After an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, Britain, Germany and France said they would quickly give recognition to Kosovo, a move that would be followed in the days ahead by most of the bloc's other 24 member states, officials said. The EU does not recognize nations, leaving that up to its individual members, and Spain, Greece, Romania and Cyprus have criticized the effort to make Kosovo independent. Dude, how about showing a little party unity? Hold on, my mistake. For a minute there, I was thinking NATO was a political arrangement. My bad. You guys go ahead and disagree with the folks who have all the guns and are protecting your borders. Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that independence without U.N. approval sets a dangerous precedent for the former Soviet Union, where separatists in Russia's Chechnya region and two areas of Georgia are agitating for independence. Russian officials hinted last week that if Kosovo declared independence it might retaliate by recognizing the independence claims of Abkhazia and South Ossetia — two Russian-supported provinces in Georgia. Nothing like a little tit for tat among world powers, wouldn't you say? Serbia recalled its ambassador to Washington in protest of U.S. recognition for Kosovo, but said it was not severing diplomatic ties. It also withdrew envoys to France and Turkey and was expected to recall others as more nations formally recognized Kosovo as a new state. Yeah, I bet that's really going to sting the folks in Washington. That's going to totally screw up the seating arrangements at the annual State Department's St. Patrick Day Dinner Dance.

Tanzania - President Bush was swept up in an outpouring of affection in Tanzania's rural north, where tens of thousands lined the road to see him. Well, I suppose it is comforting to know that Bush's foreign policy hasn't alienated us from every country. Midway through a trek through five African nations that have benefited from U.S. largesse, Bush spent the day in Mount Kilamanjaro's massive shadow to reinforce the strides being made with his malaria program. The president launched a five-year, $1.2 billion plan in 2005 to cut malaria deaths in half in the hardest-hit countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. It leverages private sector support to provide indoor spraying, cutting-edge drugs and vouchers for a 75 percent discount off the purchase of insecticide-treated bed nets. Vouchers for 2 million nets have been handed out in Tanzania alone. And Bush announced Monday that the U.S. — in partnership with the country's government, the World Bank and the U.N.-sponsored Global Fund — will start within six months distributing another 5.2 million nets here for free. That's enough, he said, to cover every Tanzanian child between ages one and five. Of course, a little life-saving bribery doesn't hurt either. Politics aside, not to mention my cynical perspective, I think it's great to celebrate some of the good things the United States manages to accomplish. We certainly have enough press coverage of all the stuff we mess up.

Canada - I have to give a shout out to the missus for contributing this next item. Past indiscretions are coming back to haunt thousands of American travellers heading north as Canadian border guards use improved technology to screen for criminal records. The sharing of computerized information and increased vigilance since Sept. 11, 2001, have led more than 18,000 U.S. citizens with criminal records to be turned away since 2003. Some 3,430 people were turned away among 28.9 million visitors in 2006, compared to 5,876 who were denied entry among 35.5 million visitors in 2003. With the number of U.S. visitors plummeting from a high of 44 million in 2000 to 28.9 million in 2006 there is growing buzz about tough Canadian borders threatens to dampen tourism further. Visitors from the United States with minor criminal records dating back years can often obtain waivers from Canadian authorities that "rehabilitate" them and allow them to enter the country. This story reminds me of a similar situation facing the U.S. military. In order to meet agressive recruiting goals amount a declining pool of eligible candidates, several branches of the military decides to cast a broader net by reduing the eligibility requirement to enlist. It's basically the same thing here. If you want to boost up those tourism statistics, you may just have to look the other way and those American hooligans cross the border.

Space Shuttle - Atlantis and its seven-man crew is due back Wednesday. Good weather is expected at Cape Canaveral, but if that changes, NASA will guide Atlantis to the backup touchdown site in California to give the military time enough time to shoot down a damaged spy satellite without endangering the shuttle. Yes, we wouldn't want the military to get confused and shoot down the wrong thing would we? The shuttle crew, along with the 3 person space station crew, devoted almost all of their time together to the European Space Agency's $2 billion Columbus lab, which was dropped off by Atlantis. Just about the time Atlantis was undocking, another shuttle, Endeavour, was reaching the launch pad in preparation for the next flight to the space station. That liftoff is targeted for March 11. Just like clock work, right? Let's hope so.

Cycling - Yes sir, boys and girls. It's that glorious time of year again. That's right, its Tour of California time again. Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland rode to a nearly five-second victory Sunday over Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain in the prologue of the Amgen Tour of California. Cancellara, who won the 2007 prologue of the Tour de France, completed the 2.05-mile course that finished at Stanford University in 3 minutes and 51.2 seconds. Levi Leipheimer, winner of the prologue and the race title last year, was fourth. Leipheimer, who rode for Discovery Channel last season, is riding this year for Astana, and he and his teammates hope to use the California race to shake off the disappointment of being banned from this year's Tour de France over doping scandals. Event organizers rejected the entries of riders Tyler Hamilton, Santiago Botero and Oscar Sevilla, who have been linked with the Operation Puerto doping probe in Spain and said that 17 teams signed up for the third edition of the event agreed they would not field any rider not approved by the International Cycling Union. Stage 1, was a 97 mile trek from Sausalito to Santa Rosa featuring 3 sprints and one category 3 King of the Mountains climb. Cancellara retained the overall leader's jersey as did most of the other leaders, including Leipheimer who is 6 seconds behind in the general classification. And--as if I had to tell you--you can see the highlights on Versus along with the riveting commentary of Paul Sherwin, Phil Ligget and Bob Roll. It's like Christmas all over again, ain't it?