So why did his parents want to send cash back home rather than wire the money?

Nine-year-old foils $164,000 robbery: "A quick-witted nine-year-old boy thwarted robbers who made it out of his home with $164,000 (104,000 pounds) in cash before they were nabbed by police alerted to the caper by his covert mobile phone call."

Surely you would think that they would keep the money safe in a bank account and wire it - rather then send cash. After all, if you keep over $100,000 in the house someone might find out about it and steal it!

Quite a good speech - Gore has gone up in my estimation

TAP: Vol 14, Iss. 8. Language and Leadership. Robert Kuttner.: "Who had written this speech? We know that George W. Bush, speaking off the cuff, is painfully clumsy whenever he tries to articulate more than two unscripted sentences. Bush's eloquence on formal occasions is a tribute to the strategic genius of Karl Rove coupled with the elegant phrasing of chief speechwriter Michael Gerson. This team could make a trained monkey sound like Churchill. Where had Al Gore, who repeatedly stumbled in 2000 campaign speeches, found such a craftsman? "

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Roy Hattersley: Keeping up appearances

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Roy Hattersley: Keeping up appearances: "Did Tony Blair not remember that his chief of staff had written a memorandum that explicitly rejected the claim that Saddam Hussein was a real and present danger to the west? Could he not recall that his office had engaged the MoD in a series of byzantine discussions about how Dr Kelly's identity should be made surreptitiously public? Had he forgotten that document after document confirmed that the Downing Street press office allowed its personal feelings towards the BBC to interfere with its protection of the public interest? Or did he think that all that damaging evidence of Tammany Hall manipulation could be suppressed? "

Wasp hater torches flats

Wasp hater torches flats: "ZURICH (Reuters) - A man who tried to fight bothersome wasps with insect spray and a cigarette lighter burned down his apartment and two neighbouring flats, Swiss police say."

I've been to this place

BBC NEWS | Wales | Mid Wales | Record-breaking Phillip keeps bog title: "A 16-year-old swimmer has successfully defended his title in the annual bog snorkelling championships.
Phillip John, of Bridgend, south Wales, set a new record time of one minute 35 seconds after completing the course which involved swimming two lengths of a water-filled ditch.
Now in its 18th year, Monday's contest attracted a field of 97 entrants from as far away as Australia to a peat bog in the mid Wales town of Llanwrtyd Wells"

They say it either the smallest town, or largest village or some such. I went there a few times for the "Mid Wales Beer Festival". They hold several events a year to bring in tourists and fill up the hotels - such as a "Man V Horse" race through the mountains. Quite a thriving little place.

Passion for pigeons traps suspected killer

Passion for pigeons traps suspected killer: "BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian man suspected of murdering his wife 14 years ago has finally been arrested because of his passion for pigeons, police say.
Marcel Pirson, who eluded the police after changing his name and moving house, was caught after his picture showed up in a magazine for pigeon fanciers."

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | The foot soldiers are rebelling

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | The foot soldiers are rebelling: "Is it too late to change course? Perhaps not. 'Defeating al-Qaida would not end the problem of proliferation,' writes Madeleine Albright in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, 'because al-Qaida is deadly even without nuclear, chemical and biological arms. But, meanwhile, the nuclear programmes of North Korea and Iran are driven by nationalism, not terrorism, and must be dealt with primarily on that basis. September 11, the administration's eureka moment, caused it to lump together terrorists and rogue regimes and to come up with a prescription for fighting them - namely, pre-emption - that frightens and divides the world at precisely the moment US security depends on bringing people together.'
So wiser counsels may finally prevail. So the flaunting of US power, the facile bullying of Iran and Syria, the belief that the Pentagon can run the world may be over. But is it already too late?
Why should we assume, for instance, that a UN-led force in Iraq will not be sabotaged and attacked? That wasn't last week's obvious lesson. Why should we assume that a broader Nato coalition - as in Kosovo - will fit the bill? Al-Qaida lives in Riyadh, not Pristina. Getting in was easy. Getting out is already a nightmare, the nightmare for George Bush. And Tony Blair's deepest worry after Hutton, curiously, may be what happens to the faithful dog when he no longer hears his master's voice, singing the Song of the South. "