>>Kenyan violence continues - A second opposition leader, David Kimutai Too, has been shot dead in Eldoret, overshadowing a second day of talks led by Kofi Annan. A local police chief, claims that Too was shot because of the discovery of his affair with the girlfriend of a local police officer and not connected to the ongoing violence, which top U.S. diplomat Jendayi Frazer has called "ethnic cleansing." Either way, angry crowds have stormed the police station and Kikuyu are fleeing the Rift Valley town. At an AU summit in Ethiopia, commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare urged African leaders to help difuse the crisis, as Rwanda's leader Paul Kagame has suggested that army intervention may be the only way forward.

>>Canada troops in Afghanistan - Canadian PM Stephen Harper has demanded another 1,000 NATO troops be dispatched to the Kandahar region, or else the 2,500 Canadian troops already there will be pulled out. Meanwhile, a report by the former supreme allied commander of NATO, Lt. Col. James Jone, concluded that NATO forces in Afghanistan are in a "strategic stalemate." And, a thousand Afghan infantry troops will be rushed to the battlefield half trained.

>>PM Olmert survives report - The Winograd Commission's report (full text) on the conduct of Israel's leadership during the 2006 war in Lebanon was less damaging than expected, noting "serious failures" but also not blaming PM Olmert directly and even praising some of his key decisions. The brunt of the blame for what the report stated was a "great and grave missed opportunity" to decisively defeat Hezbollah was reserved for Israel's military leadership, which the report suggests were too reliant on air power.

>>North Korean nuclear deal - NK leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese official that he remains committed to the six party talks and implementing existing agreements. Meanwhile, capitalism trumps detente, as the first regular freight train service in a half century between North and South Korea has been cut because there simply isn't enough cargo to ship.

>>Iran: Lower or higher profile? - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Iran will produce nuclear energy by 2009. Ayatollah Shahrudi, the head of Iran's judiciary, has announced a ban on public executions without his prior consent. Taking photos or film of an execution is also now verboten. Meanwhile, five convicts were hanged at Evin prison in near Tehran.

>>Mr. Rose Apple Nose - Sign language interpreters are holding their noses to refer to Thailand's new PM, Samak Sundaravej, but probably not for the reason you think.