* “Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may (or may not!) be emerging as a genuine competitor for power in Russia to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin”:http://www.rferl.org/content/power_struggles_and_polemics/3551610.html.
* The Arab Spring continues: “At least 250 people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in Syria since anti-government protests began in the country last month”:http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/syria-security-sweep-banias-area-following-deadly-shooting-incident-residents-say-1.355571, according to Damascus-based human rights lawyer Haitham al-Maleh.
* Over in Yemen, the “opposition rejected on Monday a Gulf Arab initiative for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, because it appeared to offer him immunity from prosecution, while Saleh welcomed the plan”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/yemens-opposition-turns-down-gulf-plan-for-salehs-departure/2011/04/11/AFJPHWMD_story.html.
* Oksana Balinskaya, one of Qadafi’s now famous Ukrainian nurses “tells all in Newsweek”:http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-11/oksana-balinskaya-on-being-libyas-muammar-gaddafis-nurse/#.
* Debate rages on about whether there actually was a “gay caveman in the Czech Republic”:http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979211981.
We now return you to your normally scheduled debate over the size of the US deficit….