African finance ministers have ended a three-day meeting calling for renewed efforts to reduce the amount of debt their countries owe to international institutions. In Burundi, a small breakthrough has occurred between the Hutus and Tutsis in their negotiations for a power-sharing government. Recent talks between the government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are also looking somewhat better, though there is a long way to go. In Ethiopia, the legitimacy of the upcoming election has already been called into question by both the EU and Human Rights Watch over numerous reports of opposition intimidation.
In the Congo, the UN peacekeepers are starting to clean house after Pakistani soldiers had enough of the indiscriminate violence. In other UN peacekeeping, Canada has recently committed 150 troops to a stabilization and relief effort in the Darfur region of Sudan. Over 10 years after the genocide in Rwanda, two suspects are finally going before a court for their role in the killings. The CSM ponders whether war crimes tribunals are actually the way to go in terms of facilitating peace in war torn countries.
Slate published a couple of good articles covering the whole Kansas Evolution vs. ID thing, as well as whether conservative religious beliefs are a matter of mass pathology or a real utilitarian choice. Whatever the cause, it certainly has impact, as a chaplain in the Air Force recently complained about the religious coercion by Evangelical officers on their cadets.
An image scientist believes that he has found the spot where NASA's Mars Polar Lander crash landed in 1999, a crash that I believe was caused from the confusion of metric and imperial measures. NASA might have other problems, as it faces a lawsuit by a Russian astrologer over is Deep Impact project, a project designed to destroy and analyze a comet. The astrologer, who's lawsuit has recently been approved for hearing by a Russian court, is looking for $300 million in damages and a restriction preventing the experiment, claiming that it will "disrupt the natural balance of the universe" On a more sane note, astronomers, now having visually discovered the first extrasolar planet in addition to 145 others through non-visual means, fully expect to find an earth-type planet in the near future.
Also:
- British scientists, using exceptionally strong magnetism, have made normally non-magnetic objects float, creating the first 'anti-gravity' machine.
- Scientists at Duke University have trained monkeys to manipulate a robotic arm using only their brains.
- In another blow to the 'gay as a lifestyle' crowd, Swedish scientists have found that gay men respond differently to odourless pheromones than do straight men.
- Scientists at Cornell have produced the first self-replicating robots. But don't worry, they're not going to be taking over any time soon.
- Switzerland has recently had to cover a glacier in a reflective coating to protect it from global warming.
- A NYT story about the export of female labour in Sri Lanka and the perils the workers can face in their new jobs, especially in the Middle East. Related to this story is one from the BBC reporting about the millions of people around the world who live as virtual slaves.
- One of Latin America's greatest living artists, Fernando Botero, has put together an exhibit depicting the torture that occurred at Abu Ghraib. The latter link is the Wikipedia article on it, which I suggest you check out to remind everyone of what we're talking about, and why Botero calls it a 'great crime.'
- In what could even deepening the ideological rift between the United States and the other countries in North and South America, the popular leftist mayor of Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has announced that he is stepping down to run in the upcoming Presidential election.
- Microcredit isn't just a banking thing anymore - religious groups are now getting into it.
- Canadian Steve Nash pulls in the NBA's MVP award.
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