Here's the stuff I found interesting and noteworthy over past 12 months. It's kind-of, sort-of in order. But right now, I'm building it as a stream-of-consciousness thang. Consider it a work in progress.

Many people have expressed shock this morning at the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan and opponent of President Pervez Musharraf -- and a target of Islamist extremists.

At the risk of sounding callous, I'm not sure why anyone should be shocked. Given the fanaticism of her enemies and their complete disregard for human life, one should have seen this morning's tragedy in Rawalpindi as entirely predictable. In October, they tried to kill her within hours of her return to Pakistan.

A major question for me is how did her assassin manage to get close enough to shoot her in the neck and chest before detonating his or her bomb?

By an adult woman, no less.

The Toronto Star's Dale Brazao tells the tale of an interview with someone suspected of running an illegal daycare operation. The woman, Klara Solodar of Thornhill, Ont., stole the flash from Brazao's camera. Here's what happened next:

As we were interviewing a mother who had arrived to pick up her child, Solodar jumped (reporter Robert) Cribb from behind, bit him on the wrist, drawing blood, and wrestled a digital voice recorder from his hand before running into the house with it.

Requests to have the $500 flash and $200 recorder returned fell on deaf ears, much to the amusement of neighbours who had front-row seats in this theatre of the absurd.

Negotiations for the return of the equipment lasted a week and went nowhere.

Cribb's digital recorder contained several crucial interviews carried out during our lengthy investigation into the state of daycare in Ontario. So we turned to Peel Region police for help, telling the officers we weren't interested in seeing charges laid, just getting our equipment back. The cops went to see Solodar and put an end to the drama.

But our elation turned to a mixture of horror and bemusement as soon as Cribb pressed the play button on his returned recorder: 12 hours of interviews had been erased and replaced with an hour of Russian folk music.