AMERICA'S GO-TO MAN FOR GLOBAL ISSUES
"Fareed Zakaria hosts Foreign Exchange which airs on Saturdays on PBS. He is America's go-to man for global chaos, providing some urgently needed outside perspective on our never ending war on terror. In the last few years, Zakaria has become a kind of bridge to the Arab world - an Asian-born Muslim with a Yale and Harvard education who seems willing to act as a cultural interpreter.
Zakaria stands out from the crowd of lily-white talking heads that populate American news shows thanks to his tan skin, clipped Bombay lilt, and his insistence that we pay attention to the rest of the globe. It was his post–9-11 Newsweek cover story "Why They Hate Us" that put him on the mainstream map as someone who could make sense of the now threatening outside world.
(VILLAGE VOICE)

HUNTER THOMPSON'S FINAL GONZO ACT
"Things are shaping up nicely for Hunter Thompson's final blast-off this Saturday. Hunter's ashes have been placed in 34 shells custom-designed by Zambelli Fireworks Internationale. The shells will be launched from a monument modeled after Thompson's Gonzo logo: a clenched fist, made symmetrical with the addition of a second thumb, perched atop a dagger.
Actor Johnny Depp is funding the event, which organizers estimate will cost roughly $2.5 million, to fulfill the vision that Thompson detailed in a 1978 BBC documentary and to his friends and family leading up to his suicide."
(5280, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

GAY MEXICAN GRANTED ASYLUM
"A federal appeals court in the United States has granted asylum to a homosexual man with Aids from Mexico on the grounds that if he was sent back to his country he could face persecution.
The court has made similar rulings in other cases involving homosexual and transgender asylum-seekers from Central and Latin America, because of concerns they would face persecution at home inflicted or condoned by the police.
(THE INDEPENDENT, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)