Monday Post

A merry Cinco de Children's Day to you all.


Children's Day is not a happy one this year:

Twelve more bodies were retrieved from the sunken ferry Sewol on Monday, raising the death toll to 262 and lowering the number of those missing to 40, 19 days after the ship sank off South Korea's southwest coast. ...

Mourners, meanwhile, visited memorial altars across the nation to pay their respects to the dead. Children could be spotted with their parents as Monday was a public holiday. May 5 is celebrated as Children's Day in South Korea.

When your empire is currently helmed by a moron and held in siege by greedy unions that have backed said moron, this kind of thing was bound to happen:
  

China is set to overtake the U.S. as the world's number one economy, while India has jumped into third place ahead of Japan, according to a new study from the world's leading statistical agencies.

  
Also, mismanagement, slave labour, and currency manipulation don't help.


Vietnam claims China is illegally exploring the South China Sea for oil:

Vietnam demanded China stop oil drilling operations in a disputed patch of the South China Sea, saying on Monday that Beijing's decision to deploy a deep sea rig over the weekend was illegal.

China's move was the latest in a series of provocative actions aimed at asserting its sovereignty in potentially oil and gas-rich waters that have raised tensions with Vietnam, the Philippines and other claimants.

The thing is this Boko Haram moron will probably get himself killed. I'm guessing accidentally getting shot.


Doing the dirty work Putin won't do:

Pro-Russian rebels shot down a Ukrainian helicopter in fierce fighting near the eastern town of Slaviansk on Monday, and Kiev drafted police special forces to the southwestern port city of Odessa to halt a feared westward spread of rebellion.

Ukraine said the Odessa force, based on "civil activists", would replace local police who had failed to tackle rebel actions at the weekend. Its dispatch was a clear signal from Kiev that, while tackling rebellion in the east, it would vigorously resist any sign of a slide to a broader civil war.

Odessa, with its ethnic mix from Russians to Ukrainians, Georgians to Tatars a cultural contrast to the pro-Russian east, was quiet on Monday. Ukrainian flags flew at half-staff for funerals of some of the dozens killed in clashes on Friday.

But in the east, fighting intensified around the pro-Russian stronghold of Slaviansk, a city of 118,000, where rebel fighters ambushed Ukrainian forces early in the day.

On the home-front...


The election campaign in Ontario begins Wednesday:

While the official campaign doesn't start until Wednesday, the leaders of Ontario's three major political parties have hit the ground running.

They spent the weekend touting their platforms and exchanging jabs while attending community events.

Chief Shawn Atleo has resigned:

The government is putting its First Nations education bill on hold until the Assembly of First Nations replaces Shawn Atleo, who resigned as national chief last week.

Atleo declined to take questions after he announced his resignation, but there was plenty of speculation his decision had something to do with significant tensions within First Nations communities over his support of Bill C-33, the First Nations Control over First Nations Education Act.

It's time for Pam Palmater to step up. No one understands the plight of the screwed-over aboriginal like a shrill activist.


And now, things to cook in the merry month of May.