Gedun Gyatso, a 27-year-old Buddhist monk, was so devoted to the Dalai Lama that when he was in prison he put a picture of him next to his pillow in open defiance of his jailers. The gesture by Gyatso placed another month of incarceration on top of his three years he had already served for his political activity.

Barack Obama’s campaign team slammed a song by rap star Ludacris. The song has been called, “outrageously offensive,” however Bill Burton, an Obama spokesman, described Ludacris as a “talented individual.”

The BBC News reports that, “Politics as Usual calls President Bush ‘mentally handicapped,’ and insults both Hillary Clinton and John McCain … the rap star’s publicist initially declined to comment, reported the Associated Press.”

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has dropped by as much as 1.3 million in the past year, an 11 percent decline since a historic peak last August, an immigration research group said in a report released Wednesday in Washington.

According to the New York Times, “the report, by Steven A. Camarota and Karen Jensenius of the Center for Immigration Studies, found ‘strong indications’ that stepped-up enforcement by immigration authorities had played a major role in the decline.”

After production dropped the most in at least a decade, Exxon Mobil posted a smaller increase in second-quarter profit than analysts had estimated.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, “net income rose 14 percent to $11.7 billion, or $2.22 a share, from $10.3 billion, or $1.83, a year earlier, the Irving-based company said today in a statement. Per-share profit excluding costs related to a ruling in the Valdez oil-spill case was 26 cents lower than the average of 12 analysts estimates compiled by Bloomberg.”

Following up on D Mag’s item on Brett Hull and Mike Modano deciding to open up a restaurant together, I rolled over and engaged Mo in a little pillow talk.

“Yeah, we’re going to try to have it ready in time for football season, for September,’’ Modano tells DallasBasketball.com. “It’ll be kind of an upscale sports-themed deal, a restaurant, and then a big room in back for the guys to hang out.’’

After making sure I would be allowed to “hang out’’ (and at brother-in-law prices, I would damn sure assume), I asked more about the motif. And yeah, it’ll be pretty Dallas Stars/hockey intense. Plus, I’m sure, football and junk. Mo was quite the tall, skinny junior-high quarterback back in the Detroit suburbs, you know.

“Hully and his dad (the equally legendary Bobby Hull) are coming up with a lot of stuff, classy memorabilia, old hockey photos and keepsakes, plus other sports stuff,’’ Mo said. “All classy, though.’’

A former matron at Oprah Winfrey’s school in South Africa has pleaded “not guilty” at the beginning of her trial for allegedly abusing students.

The BBC News reports that, “the six teenaged alleged victims will testify in private as the prosecutor said they were ‘very scared.’ Virginia Mokgobo, 28, who worked at Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy near Johannesburg, was arrested last year.”

The court ruling came after a case brought by the owner of two small bars, who claim that their business has been unfairly hurt by the smoking ban.

According to the Daily Telegraph of London, “introduced in patchwork fashion across the country’s 16 federal states earlier this year, Germany’s smoking ban has been poorly received by often tobacco-friendly Germans, about a third of whom smoke.”

On Wednesday, President George W. Bush continued the Republicans’ full-court press on congressional Democrats to force a vote to lift a ban on offshore drilling. He called for the vote after meeting with his Cabinet at the White House.

CNN reports that, “a partisan fight over energy legislation has tied Congress in knots as members head toward a summer recess, which starts at the end of this week.”