World Where You Live (07 Feb 2006)

Featuring not a whit about the Prophet Muhammed cartoons

Let's take a spin 'round the globe and seehat's happening outside the confined media borders of the U.S. today. In this edition, we cover border positioning in Israel, energy independence in Sweden, elections in Nepal and Haiti, and a surprise announcement in Japan.

But first, let's start with as global an issue as you can get--global warming:

WaPo - January Was America's Warmest on Record
Recording the warmest January on record allowed Americans to save on their heating, but like all good things, last month's mildness seems to have been too good to last.

The country's average temperature for the month was 39.5 degrees Fahrenheit, 8.5 degrees above average for January, the National Climatic Data Center said Tuesday. The old record for January warmth was 37.3 degrees set in 1953.

On the other hand, while much of the United States was basking in warm weather, parts of Europe and Asia were being battered by bitter cold.
[...]
NASA scientists recently reported that 2005 had edged out 1998 as the warmest year on record worldwide. NOAA researchers, however, said their analysis placed the two years in a statistical dead heat.

More on the flip...

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In Israel, some positioning by acting Prime Minister Olmert on Israel's border ahead of elections in late March:

NYTimes - Israel Will Keep 3 Large West Bank Settlement Blocs
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a television interview broadcast on Tuesday that he wanted to set the country's permanent borders, with Israel giving up significant parts of the West Bank but keeping the largest Jewish settlement blocs.

Opinion polls indicate that Mr. Olmert and his centrist Kadima Party are favored in the Israeli national elections on March 28, and he says a top priority would be establishing Israel's frontiers, with or without an agreement with the Palestinians.
[...]
He did not mention any settlements that might be removed, but said Israel would keep the three largest settlement blocs in the West Bank, and cited them by name. They are Maale Adumim, just east of Jerusalem, with about 30,000 residents; Gush Etzion, several miles south of Jerusalem, with more than 20,000 residents; and Ariel, north of Jerusalem, with close to 20,000 residents.

A presidential election took place in Haiti today:

Agence France Presse
Vote counting has begun in Haiti, in some areas by candlelight, after presidential elections that were free of the political violence many had feared but were marked by stampedes that left four dead.

As the counting was underway in some centers late Tuesday, voters elsewhere still waited their turn to fill ballots out at the small cardboard voting booths. Results were not expected before Friday.

Throngs of people walked for hours in the general absence of public transportation, only to find massive lines outside voting centers. Hours long delays in opening numerous voting stations stirred widespread anger, after vote officials failed to show up in time. A policeman and a civilian died of gunshot wounds and four others were injured when a crowd rushed the gates of a voting center in the northwestern town of Gros Mornes, a local radio station reported.

Despite problems during the elections, which had been postponed four times since November, international observers hailed the very fact that the voting could be held in a country terrorized by armed gangs, plagued by rampant poverty, and with a history of fraudulent elections and military coups.

While Nepal is readying a vote, where candidates are few and far between:

CSM - Conflict dampens Nepal vote
One year after King Gyanendra seized absolute power, war-torn Nepal heads to the polls to vote in municipal elections hobbled by Maoist attacks and a boycott by most political parties.

The king is facing mounting calls to put the small Himalayan nation back on a democratic path. Wednesday's nationwide polls, the first in seven years, are part of an effort by the palace to start that process.

But few of those pushing for democracy - including political leaders, journalists, professional groups, and foreign observers - are welcoming the vote. So deep is the disenchantment, and widespread the Maoist reach, that more than half of all offices up for grabs have no candidates.

The pre-election troubles display the extent of Gyanendra's isolation following authoritarian efforts to strengthen his hand against the Maoists. Observers say that rather than gaining ground on the battlefield, the king has only alienated civil society.

Going against the wisdom of NYTimes columnist John Tierney, Sweden is starting to take some big steps toward energy independence:

Guardian
Sweden is to take the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 15 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations.

The attempt by the country of 9 million people to become the world's first practically oil-free economy is being planned by a committee of industrialists, academics, farmers, car makers, civil servants and others, who will report to parliament in several months.
[...]
According to the energy committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, there is growing concern that global oil supplies are peaking and will shortly dwindle, and that a global economic recession could result from high oil prices.

Meanwhile, Hamas is still trying to form a government in Palestine:

Boston Globe - In talks, Egypt urges moderation by Hamas
Top Hamas leaders tried to find a formula for a new Palestinian government in talks yesterday with Egyptian officials, who stepped up pressure on the militant Islamic group to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

A top Hamas official said the group would, for now, abide by past agreements that Palestinian leaders made with Israel -- but would not recognize the Jewish state.

Hamas's contradictory stance -- those agreements include recognition -- reflected its strained attempts to win the support of regional power Egypt, which signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979, and persuade Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to bring his more moderate Fatah party into a coalition government.

Egypt wants Fatah to join the government to contain damage to the peace process with Israel, which says it won't work with a Hamas-led government. So far, Fatah has rejected Hamas calls for it to participate in the government.

In Japan, a big announcement

WaPo - Expectant Princess Has Japan Hoping for Fairy Tale Ending
What's the only thing better than a princess? For some in Japan, the answer became as clear as a glass slipper on Tuesday -- a possible prince.

After decades of girls, girls, girls, the Imperial Household Agency stunned the nation on Tuesday by confirming rumors that 39-year-old Princess Kiko, wife of Emperor Akihito's second son, Prince Akishino, is pregnant -- reportedly by about six weeks. The news came as the Japanese government was putting the final touches on a historic bill that would allow females to ascend the 2,000-year-old Chrysanthemum Throne.

The mere possibility of a long-awaited male heir is a fairy tale come true for conservatives here who bitterly oppose female succession. In Tokyo political circles, passage of the bill to break open the world's oldest male-dominated monarchy suddenly no longer looked so likely.