Mmm

Liverpool failed to successfully convert the chances they made and Paolo "One Club" Maldini's two howlers went unpunished. Surprisingly, Stevie G didn't make Maldini pay as he shot too close to Dida. Well done to Milan though, for Liverpool, the rebuilding continues.

So David Beckham has finally been deemed worthy to put on an England shirt - I can't believe that he wasn't considered one of England's 23 best players for 10 months, up until his recall on Saturday. If Phil "The Donkey" Neville can be in the England team, how is it possible to leave Beckham out? David Beckham has made a career out of proving people wrong and he will continue to do so, LA Galaxy move notwithstanding.

The mainstream media in the US is mostly supine with very few papers and no TV networks critical of the White House administration - one could venture to say that the media in the US is state controlled in all but name. Hugo Chavez has determined that one of the TV channels in Venezuela, RCTV is trying to destabilise his government and has decided not to renew its TV license. RCTV will stay on air, but it has lost its public broadcast frequency so it will no longer be able to reach as wide an audience as before. He has also put a second TV channel, Globovision, on notice. Given that Chavez was temporarily deposed in an externally engineered (no prizes for guessing who was behind it) in coup in April 2002, who can blame him?

Did you know that when the US makes a food aid donation, it insists that the food has to be sourced in the US despite the enormous cost involved in shipping it to the latest famine hotspot. Analysts have argued that the US would be better off making a cash donation which would allow the famine afflicted country to source the food locally and would be much cheaper as well. You can read how US food aid donations have destroyed Malawi's maize production here.

¡Hasta luego!