I think we have our first nomination for Dickhead of the Year. This report from the ABC:

The Australian Shareholders Association (ASA) has moved to clarify comments that it does not approve of companies pledging money to the tsunami relief effort in Asia.

This morning on ABC Radio, association spokesman Stephen Matthews said firms should not generally give without expecting something in return.

John Howard is to be commended for the billion-dollar aid package that he announced in Jakarta last night (media release | press conference) . I'm a bit guarded about some of his attitudes following the disaster, but on the whole I think he has handled things well to date. The initial offer of $10 million in aid was small, but the government has been adding substantially to that as the scope of the disaster became known.

It's a hot one at the SCG today! Pak 2-116 needing 148 to avoid innings def=
eat. More later. Rick

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and with that in mind I thank this gentleman for linking to my website. I offer no further comment.

http://stubbornlikeamule.net/index.php?p=93

I had to smile when I saw this:

New Delhi, Jan. 4. (PTI): In the first contact between the administration and the endangered Sentelese aborigines in Sentenel Island in Anndaman and Nicobar, the tribals greeted the Coastguard helicopters by firing arrows at them.
(source: The Hindu)

For giving Pratten Park Golden Boy Michael J Clarke a "far cough" after having him stumped at the SCG yesterday, Danish Kaneria is coughing up.

After umpires Shep and Billy reported Danish's far coughing to the referee, Madugalle imposed a fine of 100% of Kaneria's match fee. And this after Danish had already committed, like his team-mates, 25% of his match fee to tsunami relief.

January 2, 1967: Project Nassau (AKA Operation Istanbul) was aborted. This was a failed attempt by a band of mercenaries to invade Haiti. US customs officers arrested about 80 people in a beach house at Florida Keys which contained a cache of arms.

Among the people arrested were three cameramen from CBS. It was later revealed that CBS had paid the mercenaries for exclusive rights to film the invasion.

It seems, also, that Haiti was to be used as a springboard for recapturing Cuba. What might have been: "Bay of Pigs 2, Sunday at 9 on CBS..."

Five wickets for twenty runs. If Pakistan were consistent, they'd be dangerous.

Pakistan squandered a great start at the SCG yesterday. From 3/241 to 8/260 and thence to 9/292 when bad light (at the SCG, aherm!) ended play at 5.21pm eight overs early.

Star of the day was twenty year-old Salman Butt, who joined the pantheon of visiting Test batsmen to score a hundred at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The Pakistan captain at the 2002 Under-19 World Cup, Butt has scored his first Test century in his fifth Test after making an ODI hundred against India in November.

A rather staggering report from Indo-Asian News Service:

Indian sports federations reluctant to help tsunami-hit
By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Dec 31 (IANS) While people in different walks of life are coming forward to help the survivors of the tsunami disaster, leading sports federations of India have shown a certain lack of interest in doing so.

Over 122,000 people, including thousands in southern India, died in South and Southeast Asia in Sunday's tsunami.

These are my top ten world news stories of 2004, in reverse order (actually, it's eleven):

=10. People power in Venezuela and the Ukraine
In Venezuela, attempt after attempt to remove Hugo Chavez from power came to an end when his presidency was reaffirmed in a recall vote in August. In the Ukraine, a presidential election was so blatantly rigged that public pressure forced a fresh poll, and a win for opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko after he survived a bizarre assassination attempt.