Iranian repeat of Chirac/Le Pen?

The results from the first round of elections in Iran are in, resulting in the need for a second round for the first time ever, as no candidate won majority support. This round will have the front-runner and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani face off against hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad on June 24th. The Christian Science Monitor profiles both men. Electoral authorities in Iran have claimed that the voting was not fraudulent despite the closing of several newspapers and allegations of voter intimidation by reform candidates, and have asked President Bush for an apology over negative remarks he made on the process. The Guardian Council permitted three days in which any reports of fraud could be brought before them. Der Spiegel points out that even the moderate candidate, if elected, will face the same problems that plagued his predecessor, Mohammed Khatami, as most of the political power still resides in the Guardian Council. Here's the Wikipedia article on the Government of Iran to show how the structures relate.

Leaders from African countries are asking Western nations to cancel current African debt to allow for their countries to develop successfully in the run-up to the G8 meeting. Even the new head of the World Bank and former Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz is calling on the United States to increase the amount of aid given to poor African countries as he made the rounds praising several of these countries for lowering their corruption levels. It's not all about money though -- the impact of climate change on Africa must also be taken into consideration in development models, as a good deal of African agriculture could be destroyed with rising global temperatures.

Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi turned 60 this weekend, though she still remains under the house arrest imposed by the Burmese military dictatorship in 2003. The CSM has published a story on a child's perspective of the civil war that plagues that country, especially the use of child soldiers in the conflict.

Today begins the age of the solar sail, as the experimental spacecraft Cosmos-1 blasted into space. There is some concern that the solar sail did not separate from its booster rocket, which will take up to a day to confirm.

Also:
- Advances in quantum theory have explained how time-travel paradoxes can not occur.
- Scientists are experimenting with new technology that could create a 3-D replica of a person in another location, sort of like in Star Wars, I assume.
- Female orgasms are found to shut down parts of the brain associated with fear and anxiety, and other observations from a new study.
- Teratomas, the new way to produce stem cells needed for regenerative medicine without having to kill embryos. Very creepy.
- A critique of Dr. Laura Schlessinger's book on raising children as a throwback to the attitudes of the 1950s.
- A story from the New Yorker about Patrick Henry College, a breeding ground for socially conservative activists. You should check out their honour code which includes "I will resolve personal conflicts biblically." Does this mean you can stone people?
- Other essays on the social differences between men and women.
- A new theory on Alpine glacier melt that is not completely connected to global warming.
- Oil approaches $60/barrel over unrest in Nigeria and high oil demand.
- The heavy impact on churches of the government of Zimbabwe's casting-out of the poor from urban areas .
- The US House of Representatives have voted to limit certain powers in the Patriot Act, despite the threat of a veto from President Bush.
- Both President Bush and Congress are declining in the polls, with Bush receiving an approval rating of 42%.
- Despite having lost the Terri Schiavo thing both in terms of her death and their allegations that she could have been rehabilitated, Republicans in Florida including Gov. Jeb Bush are still trying to keep her alive in the media.
- Canadian political parties who received less than 2% of the vote want their $1.75 per voter from the government.
- Saddam Hussein apparently has many quirks, including a fondness for former President Ronald Regan.
- Traffic calming, or ways to slow down the pace of traffic on busy streets.
- Ways to celebrate the summer solstice now includes partying at Stonehenge or partying in Antarctica.
- The Research Channel, streaming video of scientific talks, lectures and discoveries.
- In one of the most silly lobbying attempts I've heard of, potato farmers have lobbied the British government to have the phrase 'couch potato' dropped from the Oxford dictionary, seeing it as harmful to the vegetable’s reputation.