5 o'clock happy hour: April 14, 2011

Today's top stories, bookmarked for all eternity...

• If you're a Soap Opera lover, your heart's about to be broken one more time... "All my Children" and "One Life to Live" have been cancelled.
• This story is for my sister Dana: HBO's "Game of Thrones" begins Sunday... and here's a first review for this new fantasy show.

(though, sorry Dana, it's not a very nice review)

In government/world news...

• The Senate moves spending bill to President Obama's desk.
• US, Britain & France made a joint declaration to push ahead in Libya ... the declaration states:

"So long as Qaddafi is in power, NATO must maintain its operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds. Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders. In order for that transition to succeed, Qaddafi must go and go for good."

There are so many protests and government shifts and NATO actions and rebels and "world recognized" rulers, etc. flying around the world news circuit right now I know it's really difficult to keep up with.... 

Everyday there seems to be something else that matters more than it did yesterday... there's still violence going on in Egypt! But we're focused on Libya... but how long until we pass over Ivory Coast and go straight to Syria or Morocco? It's a mess, to say the least. I found an amazing document today titled: "The Arab awakening began not in Tunisia this year, but in Lebanon in 2005" by Robert Fisk, published in The Independent. Fisk's thesis states:

In reality, the "Arab awakening" began not in Tunisia this year, but in Lebanon in 2005 when, appalled by the assassination of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri (Saad's father), hundreds of thousands of Lebanese of all faiths gathered in central Beirut to demand the withdrawal of Syria's 20,000 soldiers in the country.

It's a fascinating read, and if you really want to understand the current history of the "Arab awakening" I highly suggest this brief article.

Want to see some amazing photographs? Go here.
This woman is from Egypt. Aren't her eyes gorgeous?!?

As always, check back every day around 5 for the day's top stories ♥