Politics

With Thailand's The Nation reporting over 100,000 in attendance at the latest rally against PM Thaksin Shinawatra, the People's Alliance for Democracy plans to spend the night at Sanam Luang before marching on Government House in the morning. Reports indicate that over 6,000 officers are involved in policing the event, but no trouble is anticipated. Police do not intend to prevent the protesters from marching to Government House. This latest large-scale protest against the caretaker Prime Minister is likely the most significant since the Feb

With 186,000 cases of Chikungunya, a viral fever, on the island of Réunion, nearly one quarter of the population of that French overseas département has officially been affected since Mar. 2005. The epidemic has gotten markedly worse in the past few months, with the worst point being 45,000 new cases in the week from Jan. 30 to Feb. 5. The Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has stated on Wednesday (Mar. 1) that "Nine out of ten patients were struck since the beginning of the year (...). No one could have anticipated the progression of it."

United States President George W. Bush has nominated Robert Davis McCallum, Jr. to be the new US Ambassador to Australia. The ambassadorship has been vacant for 12 months and 28 days. McCallum is an associate attorney-general for the Department of Justice and previously represented big tobacco companies at an Atlanta law firm. He also has a master's degree from Oxford University and is a Rhodes Scholar as well as having a bachelor's degree from Yale. Former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, said earlier this month that the fact Aus

Former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milošević, 64, has died in the U.N. war crimes tribunal detention center in The Hague, Netherlands. The Serbian Socialist party and UN officials confirmed his death, and Tribunal President Fausto Pocar has ordered an inquiry, which will be done by the Dutch police and the Dutch coroner. A toxicological examination and a full autopsy have also been ordered on Milošević. A statement said that Milošević "was found lifeless on his bed in his cell at the United Nations detention unit. The guard immediately ale

University of Chicago, Illinois biologists Dr. Benjamin Voight, Dr. Sridhar Kudaravalli, Dr. Xiaoquan Wen and Dr. Jonathan Pritchard have identified regions of human DNA showing the strongest marks of natural selection within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years. They found that many recent genetic changes are related to the development of agriculture. In particular, the genes for digestion of milk into adulthood occurred only after some level of domestication of animals. Most mammals drink milk only in infancy. The work may shed light on the gen

A small explosive device detonated this afternoon at a police guard post near to the residence of former Prime Minister General Prem Tinsulanonda in Bangkok. The device injured two tourists, one Canadian and one British. Prem was Thailand's PM from 1980, dismissing parliament and resigning the position in 1988. He went on to join the country's Privy Council and now chairs it. The explosion comes against the backdrop of political tension in the country, with all main opposition parties boycotting the April 2nd election called by Thaksin Shin

Dana Reeve, the widow of Christopher Reeve, died of lung cancer late Monday. She was 44. Reeve served as chairwoman of the Christopher Reeve Foundation and founded the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center. She and her late husband, famed for his movie acting role of Superman, became advocates for paraplegics when he suffered a spinal injury in 1995 that left him paralyzed after falling off a horse. Christopher Reeve died in 2004. Kathy Lewis, President and CEO of the foundation said in a statement to the media, "On behalf of

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to reauthorize with small revisions several amendments to the USA Patriot Act, clearing the way for the Patriot Act to be re-signed into law by President Bush. The bill, which passed the House with a vote of 280-138, will be sent to President Bush this week. Major provisions of the Patriot Act were approved earlier this year by both the House and the Senate. This bill offered slight revisions to past amendments to the overall act. The act itself was set to expire on March 16. Representative F. James

__NOTOC__ Australian Prime Minister John Howard began a visit of India yesterday. Interest in the visit has been dominated by the issue of uranium sales and Australia's stance on the recent agreement between the United States and India. Before departing, Mr Howard gave an interview at Kirribilli House, in which he stressed the importance of Australia's relationship with India, and emphasised their economic significance. "India is one of the great coming powers of the world. The economic growth has been enormous. It's important that we do what

Beleaguered Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra may have offered to speak with entrenched opponents such as the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), but defiantly refuses to give them the satisfaction of him resigning unconditionally. Instead Thaksin has promised not to take office if his Thai Rak Thai party gets fewer than 50% of the votes. With the three main opposition parties boycotting the election, a mass abstention would be required to force the PM out in this way. Protests led by Chamlong Srimuang's Dharma Army foundation are re

According to a U.S. State Department report, coca growth is on the rise in Bolivia and Peru, and is a cause for concern. In a statement, the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said, "We are concerned about the inability thus far of Bolivia's new president to articulate whether or not he will allow coca eradication and U.S. counter-narcotics assistance to continue." Evo Morales was elected President in December, 2005. At the time of his electoral victory, Morales claimed that he would support co

Last June, Black Box Voting successfully sued Palm Beach county, Florida for their audit record of the 2004 presidential election. The organization, which opposes most current electronic voting initiatives, examined the machines logs and recently released a report of their findings. Black Box Voting claims that "The internal logs of at least 40 Sequoia touch-screen voting machines reveal that votes were time and date-stamped as cast two weeks before the election, sometimes in the middle of the night [after the Logic & Accuracy tests but befor