German Chancellor Schroeder's decision to force a confidence vote is getting some German constitutional experts upset, as it is unclear whether the article that will dissolve the government is being legitimately used. One thing is for sure, it looks like the red-green coalition is over, as the SPD and the Greens will be running separate campaigns this time around, with the Chancellor expected to run a very personal campaign focusing on his leadership abilities over those of the CDU candidate Angela Merkel. This split has caused many analysts to question the political future of the German Greens.
The Guardian Council in Iran has officially reinstated two additional reformist presidential candidates at the request of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after moderates threatened to boycott the election. The election is making life more difficult for Europeans negotiating with Iran over their nuclear weapons programme, since it is unlikely that Iran will concede much before a new President is chosen. One candidate, Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is reinventing himself as a moderate reformer after being a key player in the Islamic Revolution.
In the human rights arena, Amnesty International has released its 2005 Annual Report, criticising many of the tactics taken by governments fighting the 'war on terror' as being harmful to the global advancement of rights. The United States was targeted for allowing the torture of prisoners without proper investigation. Canada was not immune from scrutiny either.
The fight for political rights continues in Syria, where several reformers were arrested after trying to capitalize on the attention given to the country over its involvement in Lebanon. Back in Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch is calling for the release of a human rights activist who was detained for attempting to explain to the rest of the world what was happening during the armed crackdown on protesters. The Uzbek leader, attempting to rally some international support, is now visiting a country also not concerned about killing unarmed protestors, China.
The debate over stem cell research has just been turned up a notch with the House of Representatives passing a bill that would allow federal funds to cover the research. Though this line of research is expected to generate a large number of medical advances that would help people suffering from various diseases, President Bush has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill under pressure from hard-core pro-life activists.
Speaking of the way that conservative Christians control the Republican party, the Washington Post ran a story about how big business, the other traditional pillar of the party, is getting upset over the focus on social issues over economic issues. It's a toss-up for me - would I rather want the government to focus on how everyone can be forced to pray in school or how to cut school funding in favour of tax cuts for the upper class so they can buy their third Lexus? At least some Republicans reform -- Walter Jones, a Republican congressman made 'famous' by his bill to change all references of french fries to freedom fries, has recently apologized for the bill, in addition to acknowledging that there was no justification for the Iraq war.
Also:
- Voyager 1, the farthest manmade object from the Earth, is just about to reach the end of the solar system.
- It's not a conspiracy by the moon men, but some people think that the gravitational force of Earth's satellite might trigger earthquakes.
- Energy for all our needs and much, much more awaits at the bottom of the ocean.
- A recent publication sees anti-social behaviour has having a strong inherited tendency.
- Life in 2050, according to a British futurologist.
- Australia and Japan are getting into it over commercial whaling.
- Book publishers are going after Google's for its attempt to make rare books available on the web.
- The Pat Tillman story has gone international, making the BBC News.
- An interesting piece that updates work by Amartya Sen on the relative lack of females in Asia.
- Want to stop the Christian Right from boycotting you? Apparently you just have to buy them out by making a C.S. Lewis film.
- The Donald isn't doing as well as he used to be doing.
- Most interesting CBC headline I've seen: No Lineup For Free Heroin.
- Why pouring gas in fluorescent light tubes and setting it on fire is a bad idea, even if you are trying to make a 'light sabre.'
- Pics of some cool cloud formations.
- Quake is coming back on the new Xbox 360.
- A site that lets you play with a Mandelbrot set, plus an explanation of what it is.
- I'm not sure I'd use the washroom with this sign posted to it.
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