Minority Report

World Where You Live (23 Jan 06)

Surely, there are other things concerning the world besides pictures of Jack Abramoff with President Bush and Angelina Jolie's pregnancy. Let's take a spin 'round the globe and see what's shaking, starting with... Canada. In case you didn't know, they had an election today:

CBC - Harper wins Tory minority government
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will become Canada's next prime minister, as Canadians have elected a Tory minority government and ended a 12-year reign of Liberal rule.

Nationwide, the Tories are currently leading or elected in 123 ridings, the Liberals in 103, the Bloc in 51 and 30 for the NDP. One independant was elected.

What exactly does that mean? Luckily, Daily Kos diarist peacenik23 provides a quick lesson into government formation in Canada (along with a delineation of the major parties):

Canada has a first past the post voting system like the US. What this means is whoever wins a plurality in a given district (called a riding) wins that seat. It is not a proportional system of representation in Parliament which means that the 6% the Greens get won't land them a single seat since they won't get a plurality in any one location. Furthermore, there are 308 seats in the parliament so 155 would consitute a majority. If no majority is reached you have a minority government let by the party which has the most seats.

Thus, the minority government headed by the Conservative party. Here's some of peacenik23's assessment of the Tories:

Generally they are anti gay marriage (which is fully legal in Canada now), some are anti abortion, definetely anti marijuana legalisation. They support a much stronger military. Harper supported the War in Iraq and wanted Ballistic Missile Defense with the US. They are very pro American. However, they are running on a platform which ingores social issues and is actually center or center left. Essentially, they have been campaigning by saying the liberals are corrupt and its time for a change. Then they focus on cutting taxes, increasing money for provinces, and increasing the military. In the last election people feared Harper, now he's putting on a softer face and hiding from being called an American style conservative.

Down in Bolivia, democracy blooms with the innauguration of a new president:

Boston Globe - Bolivia swears in new president
Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, took office yesterday with a promise to lift his nation's struggling indigenous majority out of centuries of poverty and discrimination.

The 46-year-old Morales, a former leader of Bolivia's coca growers and a fierce critic of US policies, raised a fist in a leftist salute as he swore to uphold the constitution. ''I wish to tell you, my Indian brothers, that the 500-year indigenous and popular campaign of resistance has not been in vain," he said.
[...]
He said he plans to bring Bolivia's vast natural gas reserves under more state control, and call a constitutional assembly to answer Indian demands for a greater share of power at all levels of society.

Democracy's all well and good, but it's not too useful if a nuclear armegeddon comes to pass. Speaking of which, let's check in on Iran:

WaPo - Iran Threatens Full-Scale Enrichment
Iran upped the ante Monday in its nuclear standoff, warning that it will immediately begin developing a full-scale uranium enrichment program if it is referred to the U.N. Security Council.

The message, delivered by Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, Iran's senior envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, reflected Tehran's defiance in the face of growing international pressure over its nuclear program. Enrichment can be used in electricity production but it is also a pathway to making nuclear weapons.

Negotiations intensified ahead of a Feb. 2 meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board to decide on referral.
[...]
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "referral absolutely has to be made" on Feb. 2, while remaining vague on what action the Security Council would take -- and when.

Here's some more info on what might be reported to the Security Council, via Agence France Presse:

Diplomats have told AFP that Iran may have received in 1997 three sophisticated P-2 centrifuges, which are machines capable of enriching uranium, from the black-market network of disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Iran denies having received imports of such centrifuges.

A diplomat said the IAEA has only recently obtained declassified US intelligence on P-2 centrifuges as well as on alleged work by Iran on adapting missiles for nuclear warheads.

ElBaradei said the IAEA was only able "to share with the Iranian authorities as recently as a week ago, information relevant to some of the issues under investigation.

"Due process, therefore, must take its course before the Secretariat (the IAEA administration) is able to submit a detailed report," ElBaradei said in his letter.

US ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte asked in a letter to ElBaradei for clarification of the "significance" of a document Iran has shown to the IAEA about refining uranium into hemisphere shapes that experts say can only be used as the core of atom bombs.

England rise in the standings... not in soccer, but in green-ness (according to a study that will be released at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week):

Guardian - UK ranked fifth best in world green list
The tables, produced by international scientists and researchers from Yale and Columbia universities in the US, ranked 133 countries according to how they tried to tackle 16 global and domestic problems and met domestic and world targets.

New Zealand came top, followed by Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. The report said the world's poorest countries, mainly in Africa, came bottom largely because their governments had no resources to address the mounting problems of drinking water, indoor air pollution, sanitation and loss of forests.

The pilot list, which is based on environmental health and habitat quality indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, park protection, and air and water quality, found major differences between countries with similar legacies of pollution, resource degradation and wealth.
[...]
Gus Speth, dean of the Yale school of Forestry and Environmental studies, warned that America's performance, ranked 28th, was of global concern. "The lagging performance of the US on environmental issues, particularly on energy and climate change, signals trouble not only for the American people, but for the whole world." The US had the best water quality in the world, but was ranked low on energy.

And finally, a lil' happy news until next we spin the globe:

HappyNews.com - Red underwear all the rage in Malaysia
Red men's underwear emblazoned with auspicious animals and characters have become the rage among Malaysian Chinese ahead of the Chinese lunar New Year holidays, the New Straits Times reported Friday.

Good luck charms are usually worn around the neck, or on wrist. But this year, Chinese Malaysians are wearing them under their pants.
[...]
Red is considered an auspicious color among the Chinese, and an essential component of feng shui, the Chinese belief of improving fortunes.
[...]
The characters printed on the briefs -- in the front and at the back -- read "attracting fortune," "golden fortune," "prosperous four seasons" and "swirling dragons."