In the News

• Over at The Corner, Peter Robinson reminds us that 25 years ago today Ronald Reagan was first inaugurated as President of these United States. He includes a portion of President Reagan's inaugural address.

• The deadline for hostage-reporter Jill Carroll's release has passed with no word from Carroll. U.S. Negotiators are still working to save her.

• A whale has swum up the River Thames, into London, near Big Ben.

• Some Archaeologists have found a tomb beneath the Roman Forum. They say it is over 3,000 years old and "pre-dates the birth of ancient Rome by several hundred years."

• A tape supposedly from Al-Zawahiri has been posted on the web.

  The purported al-Zawahri tape made no statement, and instead the voice on it was heard reading a long poem honoring "martyrs of jihad," or holy war.
  
  He dedicated the poem to "all Muslim brothers everywhere, to the mujahedeen (holy warrior) brothers in Islam's fortified borderlines against the Zionist-Crusader campaign in Palestine and Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya."
  
  He said the poem had reminded him of colleagues who died in the jihadist cause, mentioning several by name — but not including any of the figures believed killed in the Pakistan strike.

• The crackpot who shot Pope John Paul II is back in jail, where he belongs.