And the winner is...

John Kerry has finally picked his vice-presidential running mate, and that person is none other than South Carolina senator John Edwards. Of course, as soon as this was announced there was a flood of comment and critique on the decision, all of which was infinitely better (if not only more accurate) than the story that the New York Post ran about Kerry's pick. How do you screw something like that up?

A report has come out detailing how the CIA had evidence pointing to the abandonment of Iraq's nuclear and chemical weapons program that they failed to relay to the President before war was declared. In another PR setback, Tony Blair has publicly stated that weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq. Now that the handover of power has been completed, countries such as Norway are beginning to demobilize their troops in the country. Iraq's Prime Minister is calling on Syria to help better oversee their mutual border to prevent insurgents and arms from freely flowing between the two countries. The New York Times has run an article about the amount of effort being put into defending Iraq's offshore oil pipelines.

In China there have recently been a couple of bumps lately in both economic and political development. First there are fears that the recent economic growth may be putting too much demand on the current power supply, leading to possible brownouts in major cities. Officials have also detained a 72-year-old physician, Jiang Yanyong, who was heralded as a national hero for uncovering last year's SARS cover-up, and are subjecting him to brainwashing exercises over a letter he wrote in February denouncing the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Also:
- The first pictures of Saturn's moon Titan are coming back from the Cassini-Huygens probe. The probe has also found evidence that Saturn's rings might be eroding.
- Astronomers have detected a plethora of comets orbiting the nearby star of Tau Ceti, leading to the speculation that the likelihood of finding life in that system is relatively low.
- Scientists are beginning to wonder whether the speed of light is a constant.
- A program created by scientists at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany claims to be the first successful model able to predict gridlock in traffic up to an hour before it happens.
- The Church of England has backed a radical plan to prevent climate change.
- An ex-general has won the first round of voting for president in the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, and will face current President Megawati Sukarnoputri in a runoff.
- An article about physicist Brian Greene.
- The cornerstone of the new Freedom Tower, being built on the site of the former World Trade Center, has been laid over the weekend.
- India and Pakistan are getting ready to meet in August where they hope to resolve the fate of the disputed region of Kashmir.
- The Bush administration's current policy on Cuba may be worsening the lives of the citizens it wishes to free from Castro's rule, causing the Economist to wonder if it will end up as a PR victory for the Cuban leader.
- Things are looking good for non-smokers, as Massachsetts votes to go non-smoking and doctors lobby the British government for a country-wide ban.
- Former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour has begun her new role as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- Slobodan Milosevic's trial has been delayed over health concerns brought on by high blood pressure.
- The UN nuclear watchdog is about to focus his gaze on Israel's nuclear weapons cache.
- The Economist reports that recent electoral defeats may signal the beginning of the end (hopefully) for Silvio Berlusconi.
- Unfortunately, Gerhard Schröder is facing a similar popularity crisis because of the economic reforms his government has passed in an attempt to revive the German economy.
- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is warning of a 'new iron curtain' that could go up between the West and Islamic countries.
- The elections in Afghanistan may be delayed again as members of the Taliban are actively trying to prevent the vote from going forward by launching attacks on election officials.
- A list of the current 100 Wonders of the World. (at least according to this person, I guess)
- MIT is now offering some of its coursework online.
- John Stewart on the Wal-Mart class action suit. (QuickTime movie)
- Believe it or not, but a map of all public toilets in Australia is now available through a government website.
- Now you can get Dick Cheney's famous retort to Senator Leahy as a t-shirt or mousepad.