Zeitgeist!

Apr 08, 2009 13:35

  • With the economy in trouble, funding has dried up for green tech companies trying to bring new clean energy technologies to market, according to two new research reports.
  • More than three years after an immigration detainee died in custody in New Jersey, the mere fact of his death proved troublingly hard to confirm.
  • Russia is keeping troops in Georgia's breakaway regions, despite agreeing to pull out last year as part of a deal that halted the nations' brief war.
  • The House and Senate approved budgets of about $3.5 trillion without a single Republican vote.
  • A unanimous ruling has made Iowa the first Midwestern state where same-sex marriage will be legal.
  • Video footage of a young woman being flogged by a Taliban leader in Swat raised questions about the Pakistani government's peace deal with militants in the region.
  • North Korea launched a three-stage rocket over the Pacific. Although the third stage probably crashed into the ocean, the North Korean government claims that it successfully lifted a satellite into orbit that has been broadcasting patriotic tunes towards Earth.
  • President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan ordered a review of a new law that curbs women's rights and permits marital rape.
  • The government of Sri Lanka and ethnic Tamil freedom fighters ignored a call by the secretary general of the United Nations for a cease-fire, as soldiers battled guerrillas in hand-to-hand combat.
  • The government in Thailand has set up a special website urging people to inform on anyone criticising the monarchy.
  • The Walgreen pharmacy chain has pulled the Chia Obama ceramic-plant product from its shelves, saying the likeness of President Barack Obama is not appropriate.
  • The Obama administration is again invoking government secrecy in defending the Bush administration's wiretapping program, this time against a lawsuit by AT&T customers who claim federal agents illegally intercepted their phone calls and gained access to their records.
  • The conviction of Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has been thrown out due to alleged misconduct by the prosecutors, despite reportedly overwhelming evidence of Stevens' guilt.
  • The Reading Rights Coalition and the National Federation for the Blind staged a protest in New York at the offices of the Authors Guild, to let the Guild know that their successful campaign to remove the text-to-speech feature from the Kindle has hurt blind people and undermined their ability to access a wide variety of works in a more-accessible form.

current events

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