winterbadger | friday news round up

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has appointed his brother-in-law as head of military intelligence, reports say.

Really retirement, really nepotism, or connected in some way to the Hariri assassination? I wonder. If Syria really *wasn't* responsible (which I doubt), then they must be extremely embarrassed for letting this happen on what is effectively their turf.

Sixteen Palestinians deported by the Israeli army to the Gaza Strip during the four-year uprising will be allowed to return to the West Bank from Friday.

Israel has announced it is to re-open the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to young Palestinians.

Hopeful, small steps forward.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says recent moves by Iran have convinced him it is not trying to build nuclear arms.

Hmm. I'm not sure I'm convinced. The problem with the Iranian argument is that the *actions* that they would follow if they want highly enriched uranium or plutonium for nuclear weapons are much the same *actions* they would take at this stage if they really only want to build up their power program and establish a fuel-supply business of their own. Only future actions (including the Additional Protocol) can really show their intent, and only if wholly transparent. I can't guess whether Russia would insert itself on Iran's side of this argument purely to poke a stick in the eye of the US (I think Putin is torn between wanting to maintain a buddy-buddy relationship with Bush and wanting to prove that Russia is an international force to be reckoned with, a "playa" if you will). And, honestly, if we were all Iranians, I think we'd want our government to have nuclear weapons too, given that several of our neighbors and especially some of our rivals have them too.

And, in other nuclear news

As the Kyoto Protocol comes into force, some scientists are suggesting that nuclear power could make an unexpected comeback as a "cleaner" alternative to conventional energy sources.

There's a USG (Department of Energy?) report coming out soon that will advocate incentives to build nuke plants in the US (NPR had a story on it recently). I understand the impetus, but even though nuke plants put out much less waste, it's much more toxic, dangerous stuff. Can it really be considered "cleaner"?

And a pile of stuff from Scotland

Rankin offers scholarships
Burns birthplace to be restored
protection for birds of prey
pictures: they haven't used the one I sent them (yet), but they have some lovely ones