“Over 80% of Iraqis want US and other foreign forces to stop patrolling their cities and make their presence less visible by withdrawing to bases, according to the latest survey by Iraq’s best-known polling organisation.

Forty-one per cent would feel safer if the forces left Iraq altogether, and only 32% would feel less safe.” (Guardian.UK)

“Iraqi militants executed an American soldier they had taken hostage because the United States refused to withdraw from Iraq, al-Jazeera television reported yesterday.” (Guardian.UK)

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: “As Rowling announced the news on her website, she also hit out at those who spread the rumour it was called Harry Potter and the Pillar of Storge.

She gave no indication of when fans can expect the next instalment of the boy wizard’s adventures. There was a two year wait between books four and five.” (BBC)

“Blair is to drop his policy of unflinching support of George Bush‘s foreign policy, deciding that the handover of power in Iraq has now released him from his diplomatic obligations.” (The Scotsman)

“People who take it say it keeps them awake for hours or even days. It has been described as a nap in the form of a pill, making most users feel refreshed and alert but still able to go to bed when they are ready. And because its side effects are rarely worse than a mild headache or slight nausea, experts fear that it has rapidly become a tempting pick-me-up to a nation that battles sleep with more than 100 million cups of coffee a day.

Few numbers are available, but experts say that as modafinil grows more widely available, it is becoming a fixture among college students, long-haul truckers, computer programmers and others determined to burn the midnight oil. Some worry that an array of common disorders, like diabetes and sleep apnea, will go undiagnosed if doctors dole out Provigil instead of seeking the underlying diseases that cause fatigue.” (New York Times )

Movie Review: The Corporation: “Since a corporation is legally defined as a person, it makes some sense to ask what kind of person a corporation might be. The answer offered by ‘The Corporation,’ a smart, brooding documentary directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, is: not a very nice one.

The film, which opens at Film Forum today, half-mockingly offers a psychiatric diagnosis based on a list of abuses that arise from the relentless pursuit of profit. The point is not that individual companies pollute the environment, hurt animals, exploit workers and commit accounting fraud, but that such outrages are a result of the essential personality traits of the corporate life form.” (New York Times)

Atkins diet could lower female fertility: “Women on a high-protein diet, including those following the Atkins regime and some sportswomen, could be significantly reducing their chances of conceiving, a study involving animals suggests.” (New Scientist)

“Taking a capsule of the extract before a night of drinking and partying significantly reduced some of the symptoms of a hangover in young adults, compared with a placebo, showed a study by US scientists.” (New Scientist)

“Children who watch a lot of television produce less melatonin, new research suggests – the ‘sleep hormone’ has been linked to timing of puberty.

Scientists at the University of Florence in Italy found that when youngsters were deprived of their TV sets, computers and video games, their melatonin production increased by an average 30 per cent.” (New Scientist)

“‘An ocean without unnamed monsters,’ wrote John Steinbeck, ‘would be like sleep without dreams.’ But the dream that a new species of sea monster washed up in Chile in 2003 is over.

Marine biologists have definitively shown that the ‘Chilean Blob’ and other similar mysteries are simply the remains of whales.” (New Scientist)

“It is certainly useful to be able to speak more than one language. But, according to a paper by Ellen Bialystok, of York University in Canada, and her colleagues, in this month’s issue of Psychology and Aging, it is useful not just for the obvious reason that it makes it possible to talk to more people. Dr Bialystok found that “bilinguals”—individuals who grew up speaking two languages and continue to do so—performed significantly better on a variety of simple cognitive tasks than people who speak only one. Furthermore, the differences between the two groups increased with age, leading her to hypothesise that knowing and using two languages inhibits the mind’s decline.” (The Economist )

“The United States invaded a distant country to share the blessings of democracy. But after being welcomed as liberators, U.S. troops encountered a bloody insurrection. Sound familiar? Don’t think Iraq—think the Philippines and Mexico decades ago. U.S. President George W. Bush and his advisors have embarked on a historic mission to change the world. Too bad they ignored the lessons of history.” — John Judis, adapted from his forthcoming Folly of Empire: What George W. Bush Could Learn from Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson (New York: Scribners, 2004)(Foreign Policy)

“The real issue is whether or not those targeted by suicide-killings are prepared to retaliate with a higher degree of violence that would reverse the cost-benefit ratio in their favour and thus persuade their foes to abandon the human body as a weapon.

Reuter poses this crucial question in an intelligent way. But he provides no answer.” (Telegraph.UK )