Notes on the News
A few items of news, while I continue reading the voluminous budget proposal.
Togo has a new president and the hollow voice of the UN is screeching in protest to the military backed succession of Faure Gnassingbe, son of the late President Gnassingbe Eyadema. While I can't rightly say I'm pleased, it just strikes me as a clear example of the UN's ineptitude. Even Togo stands defiant before the UN.
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Dollar hits a 3-month high against the Euro. China's leaders can't be pleased.
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Israel and the Palestinian Authority are to declare a cease-fire formally tomorrow. Secretary of State Rice has certainly not been the failure the left was hoping for. That being said, it's still a long way from cease-fire to peaceful coexistence. Hopeful, yet, I remain.
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China is going ahead with its first, the world’s first, "pebble-bed" nuclear reactor. Treading where none since the Titanic have gone, it's being called "melt-down proof." It may be that it is safer than the old technology, seems plausible with the few details provided, the claim isn’t one I’d make. Would love to hear from Steven Den Beste on this, but don't expect it.
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Hassan Rohani after stating that Iran would retaliate if attacked by the U.S., stated that Iran would "definitely accelerate our activities to complete our [nuclear] fuel cycle." Does this sound like the words of a nation with a peaceful nuclear technology program, or one hell bent on developing nuclear weapons?
