The Santa Barbara County DA's Office has announced that charges of child molestation will be filed against Michael Jackson Thursday. On a related note, Kobe Byrant's pre-trial motions hearing is Friday.

We wonder how much Saddam coverage will be interrupted for these cases. Probably a lot. Saddam may be becoming yesterday's news. We read an interesting article yesterday regarding foreign interest in Saddam's arrest outside the Middle East. Apparently, it's barely news in China and India:

Outside Europe the media reported Saddam's capture, but with surprisingly little comment. The Chinese press quoted a routine comment from the foreign ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao. He said China hoped that catching Saddam would be "conducive to the Iraqi people taking their destiny into their own hands, and to realizing peace and stability."

Papers in India, not by nature reticent in expressing their views, seemed on this occasion to take their cue from the puzzling reaction of Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha. As reported in the India Daily, Sinha can hardly be said to have been bursting with suppressed excitement. "We have taken note that (Saddam) Hussein has been arrested in Iraq," he said. But did India welcome the news, he was asked. "It's only a question of taking note of a development," the minister replied carefully. "That's all."