Tragedies around the world. 7000 dead in an earthquake in Sichuan, probably 200,000 dead in Burma with the refugees locked up in concentration camps, and the Lebanese civil war has broken out again. Burma finally let the Americans send in one planeload of supplies from Thailand. Supposedly the junta is stealing half the aid that comes in. 2 million people are at risk. I vote we parachute in loads of supplies, and if the Burmese government doesn't like it there's not much they can do.

In Spain: The PP has ruled out primary elections to nominate its candidate for the 2012 election. Basque PP leader Maria San Gil has announced that she's mad at Rajoy for toning down the rhetoric on regional nationalisms, and Esperanza Aguirre is backing her. Montilla's been complaining about regional financing, wanting the share of public spending pork that the not-yet-in-force Catalan statute guarantees for Catalonia. Zap told him to shut up.

De la Vega admitted that the gender violence law has done nothing to stop gender violence. Of course not. To stop men beating up on women, you have to protect the woman and jail the man, and this is exactly what Spain is not doing. Telma Ortiz, Princess Letizia's sister, has pressed charges against 57 media outlets for not leaving her alone, as she is a private person, not a member of the royal family. Good for her. Down with the trashy press, and kudos to Ms. Ortiz for not playing the scandal magazines' game.

The rain over the weekend has the reservoirs at an average of 28% full, which means that the restrictions on watering gardens and filling swimming pools may be lifted, and that we probably won't have any cutoffs this summer. Meanwhile, the first tanker ship carrying drinking water will arrive at the port May 15.

Barça choked again last night against Mallorca in their last home game of the season, also Rijkaard's goodbye. He was well-received by the crowd, but Deco, Eto'o, and Henry got booed in what was almost certainly their last game in the Camp Nou. Ronaldinho didn't even show up. Barça got ahead 2-0 and then let Mallorca come back and score three. They're not going to get second place, either, which means they have to go through a playoff to reach next year's Champions League, and if they blow it then the club loses literally tens of millions of euros.

Everybody wants president Joan Laporta to resign. I bet he holds out. A good season next year would save his neck. If they have another disastrous season like this one, though, he's finished and so are his political aspirations.