I have 
not really been following any news but ‘skirmished’ through some of the Nobel prize announcements: Doris Lessing won the one for Literature. In the Physics section, the prize went (deservedly so) to two scientists who were instrumental in the development of hard disks. But the biggest surprise was the announcement for the Peace prize, which went to both Al Gore and the IPCC (Nobel Prize website).
Feral Pigs On A Rampage: I can’t wait for the 100th installment of the movie based on a true story that made the headlines in 2007! The most notable quote comes from a ‘Boar Buster’ who equates hunting pigs to ‘guerilla warfare’:
I need to utilize the information that I gain from the local population and then to be able to effectively react to that information to respond to the incursions from the feral pigs.
What he needs is smart bombs.
I also read an article about the environmental issues concerning the Three Gorges Dam (Wikipedia). I only mention this dam because, well, it’s so prominently featured in the Civ IV game. I find that there’s some irony in ‘building a dam to provide clean energy’ versus ‘the dam could cause landslides, soil erosion and pollution’.