10 April 2007: Morning

  • On the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, thousands in Iraq peacefully protest the American occupation. (Photos here.)
  • U.S. calls the bank in Macau following North Korea's refusal to shut down nuclear operations until $25 million of frozen funds are released.
  • Mr. Ahmadinejad claimed "the Iranian nation had joined the group of countries who enriched uranium on an industrial scale," but did not specify what that entailed.
  • In the U.S., 13,000 National Guards notified they'll be in Iraq by the end of the year.
  • Britain's Ministry of Defense reverses position on former captives, says they can no longer sell their stories to the media.
  • A 2002 regulatory filing lays out Student Loan Xpress's strategy: "Market to the financial aid offices of schools."
  • After 3,000 years, pawnshops have still been unable to shake their reputation as "the poor man's bank."
  • During a hydrogen-electric hybrid demonstration, Ford CEO saves Bush from self-immolation.
  • With new classical music playing every night for the next six years, notes Alex Ross, New Yorkers have no excuse. (Background here.)
  • For Iraqi police training in Sadr City, text-messaged death threat from militias are a way of life.
  • Man dreams up phone number, falls in love with the woman on the other end, gets married.
  • Most Catholic scientists would agree with the late Pope John Paul II in saying that fresh evidence makes evolution "more than a hypothesis."
  • Man accused of trying to hammer out a tooth from a dead sperm whale that washed ashore on a California beach.
  • Author Miranda July has a fascinating new website for her new book.