To-Do List: Mubarak, Berlusconi, and General Butt Naked

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To know: Nelson Mandela was hospitalized yesterday for what his office says were routine tests, but which led to a longer-than-normal stay. The Tunisian government is reorganizing, again. Haiti’s presidential candidate Jude Celestin, whose standings in the election have been contested by international regulators, is withdrawing from the race, according to his party. And before the Tucson shooting on January 8th, Jared Lee Loughner searched online for information on famous assassins, the death penalty, and solitary confinement, according to a source close to the F.B.I. investigation.

To continue: Anti-government protests in Egypt, despite an official ban by President Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Taking to the streets for a second day, demonstrators set fire to two police posts and a government building. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged the country’s leaders to “respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.” After two days of protests, the official death toll stands at six, but Web sites have claimed that “security forces are committing heinous massacres.” The uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have inspired thousands of people in Yemen to revolt against their government, too.

To read: Bill Keller’s account of the New York Timess dealings with Julian Assange, whom he describes as “openly contemptuous of the American government,” “arrogant, thin-skinned, conspiratorial and oddly credulous.” Upon his first meeting with Eric Schmitt, a Times reporter who worked closely with him, Assange looked, Schmitt said, “like a bag lady walking in off the street” and “smelled as if he hadn’t bathed in days.”

To join “Ruby”: Another girl who prosecutors in Italy say Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi paid for sex when she was underage. Berlusconi continues to deny the charges.

To cut back on cookies: The Girls Scouts, who may come calling with fewer varieties this year. (The Wall Street Journal offers a game to test your cookie smarts.)

To practice: Saying “The Redemption of General Butt Naked” with a straight face. The documentary by that name has gotten attention at this year’s Sundance festival, and it’s not a tittering matter—the general was a Liberian warlord who earned his name for disrobing before he attacked.