Interesting if true

Take this with two grains of salt: (1) because it comes from World Net Daily, which is erratic in its accuracy; (2) because the source for the story is of unknown reliability. Nonetheless, if true this is great stuff:

Eastern Ukraine is heavily ethnic Russian. The main industry is coal. The miners are rough, tough, and hate Yushchenko for wanting to take Ukraine away from Russia and toward the West," writes [Jack] Wheeler [of the Intelligence website tothepointnews.com]. "It was arranged for more than a thousand of them to be taken from Donetsk, the capital of the coal-mining region, by bus and train to Kiev, where, armed with clubs and blunt tools, they would physically beat up the Orange Revolutionaries. Such mass violence was not only to disperse the demonstrators but serve as an excuse for the government to declare martial law, suspending the Ukrainian Parliament (the Rada) and elections indefinitely."

Now comes the secret weapon: vodka.

"When the miners got on their buses and trains, they found to their joy case after case of vodka – just for them. When they arrived in Kiev, trucks awaited them filled with more cases of vodka – all free provided by 'friends' of the Donetsk coal miners. Completely soused, they never made it to Independence Square. Too hammered blind to cause any violence at all, they had a merry time, passed out and were shipped back to Donetsk."

Also from World Net Daily, this report (based on an Iranian parliament member's statements to the Iranian press) claiming that Iran is seeking to build more than 20 nuclear power plants and seeking to build a full nuke arsenal. The Monk finds this report believable.