Here n' Now [PressPoints Vol.02 Iss.6]

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Have you ever wondered what the rest of the world is doing? I don't mean the political world, as -- Good God -- we get enough of that! I mean the rest of the world.

For instance: In this week's Guardian Press, from the UK, I read:

FRENCH ROBBERS USE ROCKET LAUNCHER

EVREUX, France (AP) - Friday May 31, 2002 12:10 AM
Three masked robbers armed with a rocket launcher forced a Brink's truck off a road in western France on Thursday and made off with $1.9 million in cash, police said.

The robbery in Saint-Aquilin-de-Pacy came a week after 10 assailants attacked two Brink's trucks near Paris and traded fire with police, injuring three officers.

In Thursday's robbery, the thieves, driving two cars and wielding the rocket launcher, trailed the armored truck and forced it off the road. After instructing the two-man Brink's team to get out of the truck, the three men took the cash and then dumped nails on the road behind them help in their getaway.

And here are some snippets of a new wave of female protests from around the world:

From the Oregonian: Four women bared their chests in downtown Eugene, Ore., in December, protesting society's use of child-unfriendly pesticides (and in favor of legalized hemp).

From the South African Press Association-Agence France-Presse: And "hundreds" of other women in Lusaka, Zambia, this last January, bared their chests protesting the allegedly fraudulent election victory of president Levy Mwanawasa.

From the Reuters News Service: And yet in another protest in Helsinki, Finland, in April, "hundreds" of women publicly vowed to refrain from bearing children for four years unless parliament stops authorizing nuclear power plants.

From the Naples Daily News-AP: Patience Owens, 17, whose 2-year-old son had just accidentally drowned in a filthy backyard swimming pool, was arrested in the February incident despite two separate warnings by the Tampa, Fla., 911 operator that Owens should not jump into the pool after the kid because it was too dangerous for her.

In The National Post-Montreal, Quebec: Keri Wilson, 17, who seconds before had saved the life of an elderly man on subway tracks by jumping down to pull him up, was publicly chastised by transit police, who recited company policy to first notify authorities to cut power to the tracks.

From the Des Moines Register: In two April speeches in Iowa, New York environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said major hog producers are a greater threat to the United States and its democracy than are Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. Current law allows all hog waste to be applied to cropland, which Kennedy said is OK for small farmers, but for a farm of 100,000 hogs (each of which produces the waste of 10 humans), the resulting air and water pollution is disastrous.

Then there's the news of people who are different from us:

From the Los Angeles Times: Trenton Veches, 31, resigned from his job with the Newport Beach, Calif., after-school recreation program when he was arrested on multiple counts of sucking the toes of boys age 6 to 10. Police said as many as 45 kids may have been involved, with several appearing on videotapes recovered from Veches' home. There was no evidence of anything beyond toe sucking, but any touching of a child for sexual gratification is a crime in California.