On Tuesday, New York City Mayor-King Michael Bloomberg passionately defended the downtown Islamic community center that turned into this year's "August Crazy." It was even better than the first speech he gave about the issue. Honest! Here are some highlights:
After 22 days at court-ordered UCLA Medical Center rehabilitation, actress Lindsay Lohan has been discharged. She was "spirited out the back" into a luxurious hot-air balloon piloted by a talking dog, and, after launching into space, was never seen again.
Woody Allen is griping that New York is too expensive to film in and that he prefers working in Europe anyway. Maybe that's because the only way he can get a movie made is by using European funding?
In an incident with shades of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, at least 33 people—including six politicians and an 11 year-old boy—have been killed in a Mogadishu, Somalia hotel, in an attack by anti-government insurgents. [NYT. Pic: AP]
Miss Mexico Jimena Navarrete, 22, was crowned Miss Universe on Monday after correctly answering the Sphinx's riddle and selecting the true grail. The runner-up was Miss Jamaica Yendi Phillips, who was quietly executed after the show. Click for more pics.
[Biologists rescued this baby pink dolphin—one of many trapped by low water levels thanks to a drought—from the Pailas river in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Pic via AP.]
[These residents of Khanghar in Central Pakistan don't get to enjoy the beautiful sunset while wading through flood waters toward drier parts of the area. Image via AP]
The Los Angeles public school system, the second-largest in the country, is set to unveil its new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex, a K-12 "Taj Mahal" school that cost $578 million, the most expensive in US history. Too much?
[Tents are set up at a camp organized by the Pakistan Army for Pakistani families displaced by floods in the Sindh province in southern Pakistan. Pic via AP.]
[A Palestinian woman reads from the Qu'ran in Nablus, the West Bank, on Sunday. Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, began a little more than a week ago and ends in early September. Pic via AP.]
According to scientists, rave party staples LSD and ketamine (better known as Special K or just K) can be cures for depression and other psychiatric disorders. Wow, the '90s really are coming back full force. And the best part, too!
Exciting news, comrades: Our Facebook friendship with North Korea is "awaiting confirmation." The North Korean government has apparently set up an official Facebook page. But they only have 65 friends. And North Korea is gay?
[A Pakistani family in the Sindh Province in southern Pakistan stand on their farm compound surrounded by flood waters, awaiting aid distribution. The number of Pakistanis left homeless has doubled to 4 million. Pic via AP]
Poor Treasury secretary Tim Geithner. The lifetime government official has never worked for evil Goldman Sachs, but no one will believe him. Will he ever be able to shed this Goldman taint?
Our federal authorities are targeting the very core of American corruption: baseball player Roger Clemens. Clemens reportedly will be indicted for perjuring himself before Congress in a 2008 steroids hearing. Really? A druggy baseball player gets a federal indictment?
The last U.S. combat troops have pulled out of Iraq. Here, a soldier from the 4th battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment dismantles a machine gun atop a Stryker troop carrier after crossing into Kuwait. Mission a—something? (Pic AP)
[Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's daughter Annie looks like she's about to go toe-to-toe with the paparazzi, who were staking out the family's Chicago house the day after Blago's near acquittal. Image via AP]
Sharon Murphy, mother of the late actress Brittany Murphy, told LAPD that she shared a bed with Simon Monjack, Brittany's now-dead husband, after Brittany's death—though she didn't suggest sexual contact. Does that make it more weird, or less?
[Mayor Michael Bloomberg was served a cheesesteak in Philadelphia today as he campaigned for U.S Senate hopeful Joe Sestak. Between this and those hot dogs, Bloomberg can't do any business without some food in his belly. Image via AP]
