News in Brief

Deciding that news is too much fluff and not enough meat, here is everything you need to know that other people might reference today:

Coup in Honduras: The Honduran military, with the support of Congress, has ousted democratically-elected leader Zelaya. Zelaya was flown into exile in Costa Rica. Hugo Chavez, a supporter of Zelaya, has vowed revenge. Many in Congress believe a recent referendum introduced by Zelaya was an attempt at a power grab. An interim President has been appointed to fill the remainder of Zelaya's term, which ends Jan 26.

The guy that did those Oxiclean commercials died. Billy Mays was 50. No foul play, no drugs. Just dead.

Iran. After four days of relative peace, 3,000 protestors clashed with police in Tehran. No reported deaths occured during the clash.

US troops pull out of every major city in Iraq this week as part of the security drawdown agreed upon between the two governments. Last week was brutal there: 200 civilians were killed in bombings by al-Qaeda. Optimism remains. Despite the violence, a civil war has not erupted as it did in 2006 following the Samarra mosque bombing.

The US did okay in soccer this year, but lost to Brazil.

Pakistan is ramping up its campaign to kill Pakistan-Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The Taliban had in previous months taken over Swat, close to the capital Islamabad. CIA drones targeting Mehsud killed 80 last week, many of whom were civilians. Cooperation is suspected between the Pakistani government and the CIA, as there was little of the usual outrage over the casualties.

Ham radio operators communicated for 24 hours straight over the weekend by bouncing radio signals off the moon. This was to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Radio signals took 5 seconds to make the journey.