Mali votes for next president http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Mali_votes_for_next_president_04292007.html
Malians voted peacefully Sunday in presidential elections tipped to hand the incumbent a second five-year term and boost the west African country's democratic credentials. Amadou Toumani Toure, who won praise for restoring civilian rule after he led a military takeover in the early 1990s, is seeking a new term as an independent candidate. The former general ousted dictator Moussa Traore in 1991 and installed a multi-party system before stepping aside in 1992. Ten years later he stood for presidential elections and won. Toure, 58, does not have a political party but enjoys the backing of two large coalitions and a myriad of small parties, including the Tuareg ex-rebels who once waged a separatist war in the northeast. He is facing seven other candidates, the most credible being key opposition figure Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a former prime minister and head of the national assembly. For the first time in the history of this mainly Muslim country a female candidate is among the presidential hopefuls. Sidibe Aminata Diallo, 50, is a professor in town planning at the university of Bamako and has previously worked for the UN children's agency UNESCO.
More than one million rally in Turkey for secularism, democracy http://rawstory.com/news/afp/More_than_one_million_rally_in_Turk_04292007.html
The crowd, carrying red-and-white Turkish flags and portraits of founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, filled Istanbul's sprawling Caglayan square in a demonstration organized by some 600 non-governmental organizations. "Turkey is secular and will remain secular," "Neither Sharia, nor coup d'etat, democratic Turkey," they chanted. Police at the scene told AFP that the number of demonstrators was well over one million. Organizers said the rally drew people from all over Turkey and abroad. The Istanbul demonstration followed a similar one in Ankara on April 14 that attracted up to 1.5 million people, according to some estimates. Tensions rose after Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), narrowly missed becoming the country's next president in a first round of voting in parliament on Friday. The AKP dominates the 550-seat parliament, but does not have the required two-thirds majority to get Gul elected in the first two rounds of voting. The opposition boycotted the vote because of Gul's Islamist past and because they were not consulted on his candiacy for the non-partisan post. The army, which has carried out three coups in the past, issued a statement saying it was determined to protect Turkey's secular system and was ready to take action if the need arose, making it clear, according to many analysts, that Gul's candidacy was not welcome. The government responded by calling the army to order and Gul on Sunday ruled out withdrawing his presidential bid.
Around the world, protestors call for action on Darfur http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Around_the_world_protestors_call_fo_04292007.html
Protests are taking place around the world Sunday as campaigners demand that world leaders act to prevent further bloodshed in Darfur on the fourth anniversary of the conflict's start. The Global Day for Darfur, organised by a coalition including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, will see activists globally turn over more than 10,000 hourglasses filled with fake blood. These are designed to convey the message that delaying intervention will cost lives in the troubled western region of Sudan. In Rome, hundreds of people took part in a march on the Colosseum. There was also a 200-strong protest in Berlin, where marchers carried alarm clocks and a banner saying: "It is five minutes to midnight, we're sounding the alarm!" The conflict in Darfur has caused 200,000 deaths and led to two million people being displaced, according to the United Nations. Sudan contests the figures, saying that only 9,000 have died.
'Africa' laptops for US schools http://www.bruneitimes.com.bn/details.php?shape_ID=28552
A PROJECT that aims to deliver low-priced laptops with string pulleys to the world's poorest children may have a new market: US schools. The nonprofit "One Laptop per Child" project, which was formed to bridge the technological divide in poor countries such as Africa, said it might sell versions of its kid-friendly laptops in the US, reversing its previous position of only distributing them to the poorest nations. "We can't ignore the United States. We are looking at it very seriously," sais Nicholas Negroponte, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology academic who founded the project. Once known as the US$100 laptop, the devices are inching up in price. In February, the project estimated said they would sell for US$150 each. Negroponte now puts their price tag at US$176 apiece, but it will cost more for US market. The laptop features a string pulley to charge its battery, a keyboard that switches between languages, a digital video camera, wireless connectivity and Linux open-source operating software tailored for remote regions. It requires just two watts of power compared to the typical laptop's 30 to 40 watts, and does away with hard drives, relying instead on flash memory and four USB ports to add memory devices. A minute of yanking on its pulley generates 10 minutes of electricity. Negroponte said US schools could receive the laptops by the end of the year in response to interest from 19 governors.
Bush predicts change is near for Cuba http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-04-28T220616Z_01_N28367518_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-CUBA.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-R1-MostViewed-1
President Bush took fresh aim on Saturday at Cuba's communist government, calling it a "cruel dictatorship" and predicting that democratic change was near. The U.S. president's comments came amid signs that Cuban leader Fidel Castro was recovering from an intestinal ailment that has kept him out of the public eye for the past nine months and may soon resume some government duties. Bush, who has tightened economic sanctions on Havana and boosted aid to dissidents with a goal of hastening the end of Castro's grip on power, said in a commencement speech at Miami Dade College that many Cubans were dreaming of a better life.
Calif. interchange collapses after fire http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070429/ap_on_re_us/highway_collapse
An interchange connecting highways to the busy Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge collapsed early Sunday after a tractor trailer hauling 8,600 gallons of gasoline caught fire, authorities said. The truck's driver suffered second-degree burns. The tanker ignited after crashing into a pylon on an interchange connecting westbound lanes of Interstate 80, which includes the Bay Bridge, to southbound I-880 in Oakland, officials said. The fire led to the collapse of a second interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 located above the first interchange, Cross said.
Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Food, Water Supply http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3094072&page=1
At a hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce this week, a government report was made public for the first time revealing that at sites in more than 25 states, perchlorate had leaked into the drinking water and soil. About 65 percent of that contamination was attributed to the Department of Defense and to NASA. The Pentagon said it has invested "over $114 million in research related to perchlorate toxicity," and that they are "developing substitute chemicals." Doctors agree that large amounts of the chemical can lead to thyroid problems in adults and abnormal brain development in children, but it is still unknown how much damage smaller amounts can inflict. Democrats on Capitol Hill are working on a bill that would require the EPA for the first time to set strict guidelines limiting the amount of perchlorate in the nation's drinking water.
Satellite to study world's most mysterious clouds
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2491826.ece
Scientists hope that the wisp-like clouds - the highest in the world - will lead them to a deeper understanding of how the Earth's atmosphere is able to protect the planet from harmful solar and cosmic radiation. The night-shining "noctilucent" clouds - meaning they can only be seen when the ground is in darkness - are one of the least-understood meteorological phenomena because they appear so rarely at heights of about 50 miles. They were first observed in 1885 by an amateur astronomer two years after the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia, which sent millions of tons of water vapour into the upper atmosphere. Since the 1960s, scientists have taken a closer look at the clouds with the help of satellites designed for other purposes but there were still many unresolved questions about how and why they formed in the air. Now that could change with the launch of a scientific satellite dedicated to studying the clouds as they form in the mesosphere, the layer directly above the stratosphere. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said that the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft will spend the next two years studying the physics and chemistry of noctilucent clouds from its orbit 370 miles above the poles.
Aussie Priest says prayer is pointless http://www.cathnews.com/news/704/112.php
Last week, Prime Minister John Howard warned that unless there was significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, there would be no water available for irrigation at the start of the water year on 1 July. "We should all, literally and without any irony, pray for rain over the next six to eight weeks," he told ABC TV. But well-known Melbourne priest, Fr Bob Maguire (pictured) says church leaders across Australia can pray for rain "until they go black in the face" but it won't solve the water crisis. According to the Australian, Fr Maguire's scepticism is also shared by weather experts. Seasonal rainfall predictions from the Bureau of Meteorology reveal a moderate increase in the chance of above-average rainfall across southeast Queensland and northeast NSW. The rest of the country, however, has only a one-in-two chance of even average rainfall over the next three months.
Australia's epic drought: The situation is grim http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=56&ItemID=12655
Australia has warned that it will have to switch off the water supply to the continent's food bowl unless heavy rains break an epic drought - heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation. The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country's agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record, the victim of changing weather patterns attributed to global warming and a government that is only just starting to wake up to the severity of the position. The Prime Minister, John Howard, a hardened climate- change sceptic, delivered dire tidings to the nation's farmers yesterday. Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock. A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought.
Is ‘carbon-neutral’ just a gimmick?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/29/opinion/29revkin-web.php
On this, environmentalists aren't neutral, and they don't agree. Some believe it helps build support, but others argue that these purchases don't accomplish anything meaningful — other than giving someone a slightly better feeling (or greener reputation) after buying a 6,000-square-foot house or passing the million-mile mark in a frequent-flier program. In fact, to many environmentalists, the carbon-neutral campaign is a sign of the times — easy on the sacrifice and big on the consumerism. "The worst of the carbon-offset programs resemble the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences back before the Reformation," said Denis Hayes, the president of the Bullitt Foundation, an environmental grant-making group. Some environmental campaigners defend this marketplace as a legitimate, if imperfect, way to support an environmental ethic and political movement, even if the numbers don't all add up.
"We can't stop global warming with voluntary offsets, but they offer an option for individuals looking for a way to contribute to the solution in addition to reducing their own emissions and urging their elected representatives to support good policy," said Daniel Lashof, the science director of the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Bart bares all in film http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/lifestyle/story.html?id=b21c4912-a551-4b7e-89a7-a9e2ad832672
According to Newsweek, which got a sneak peek at The Simpsons Movie, "little Bart flashes his little part to the entire world" while skateboarding sans clothing on a dare from dad Homer.
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