NYT reporter Judith Miller is in a U.S. federal prison tonight for refusing to name sources for a story she never published.

This Der Speigel article, reprinted in Salon, argues that monetary aid to Africa is part of the problem, not the solution.

Veteran tech journalist John Battelle is working on a book about Google, but when he hits a block, it's off to the blog. And he thinks a better book will be the end result.

From the NYT:

Who said you can't make money giving away news and opinions on the Internet? Apparently not Jim Romenesko, who runs a popular site devoted to comings and goings in the news media. According to tax records filed by his employer, the Poynter Institute, Mr. Romenesko received $169,187 in salary and other compensation in 2003, making him Poynter's highest-paid nonexecutive.

The income picture for other bloggers and Web columnists is less rosy. Some blog for the fun of it - that is, free. Others generate income through advertising, while others cut deals for, say, free rent. True to form, bloggers have plenty of opinions about Mr. Romenesko's pay. On Mediacrity (which promises "occasional rants on goofs, bias and hypocrisy in the media"), some bloggers congratulated Mr. Romenesko, while others bemoaned how little they made.

The NYT looks at the citizen journalism trend.

Finland is feeling the sting of French President Jacque Chirac's under-the-breath slap at the cuisine of their country.

From a Guardian story:

On aid, France and Britain are likely to use unpublished figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to put pressure on the US, Canada and Japan to be more generous. Projections show that of the $46bn (£26bn) aid increase between 2004 and 2010, the EU has pledged $38bn.

The US and Japan - the world's two biggest economies - together with Canada and smaller developed countries such as Switzerland, Australia and Norway, are to provide $8bn extra between them.

OK: My words, not theirs. :)

According to the Guardian, the wealthiest countries are spending a whopping $3 US per head more on aid for sub-Saharan Africa than they were 15 years ago.

And Canada, our home and native land? We -- along with Japan and France -- spend less on sub-Saharan Africa aid than we did in 1990. The figures come from the UN.