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According to party officials, Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will announce Monday, June 23, whether they will pull out of the 2008 presidential election, due to election violence, or stay in the race. This week alone, at least five MDC activists or their family members have been killed in election violence. The MDC's secretary general, Tendai Biti, was charged with subversion and treason. The case has been delayed until July 7, more than a week after the run-off election on June 27. The charges carry a possible death sentence,

The "2008 Research @ Intel Day" showcased conceptual innovations in the fields of visual computing, wireless, health care, environment, and life sciences. Last Wednesday, Intel said it is investing some of its $6 billion research budget in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Technology related to mobile computing, green technology, WiMAX and wireless networking, solutions for healthcare with SHIMMER and BioMOBIUS technology, an intelligent identification robot named "BarKeep", and Platform Power Management, were showcase

United States President George W. Bush delivered a speech Wednesday in which he urged the United States Congress to end a ban on oil exploration off of US shores. Currently there is both an executive order and a Congressional moratorium against such exploration. The Congress issued its moratorium in 1981. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush issued an executive order in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. President Bush said that "we should expand American oil production by increasing access to the Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS. Experts

A 19-year-old man from the Sydney, Australia suburb of Bella Vista has been charged with interfering with a crew member while in an aircraft after a laser stunned the crew of a police helicopter last night. The helicopter was flying at about 6pm at an altitude of about 1600 feet, when a green laser allegedly targeted the crew. The crew members were "momentarily distracted and disoriented by the incident", according to a New South Wales Police press release, but were uninjured and managed to identify a yard from which the light originated. The

Six Orbcomm satellites have been launched by a Russian Kosmos-3M carrier rocket. Lift-off, from Site 107 at the Kapustin Yar launch site in South-West Russia, occurred at 06:36:28 GMT. This is the first orbital launch to occur from Kapustin Yar since April 1999. Orbcomm is an American company which operates a constellation of communications satellites in low Earth orbit. The satellites launched today were five Quick Launch satellites, and a technology demonstration spacecraft which will be operated in conjunction with the United States Coastgu

On June 18, 2008 the Parliament of Sweden approved a bill that permits the interception and recording of data traveling through and within Sweden's borders beginning on the first day of 2009. The proposition was passed in a 143 to 138 vote, with one abstention. It was passed with an addendum to be reviewed this fall. The amendment will further stipulate the rights of the Swedish people under the new law. The stated intent of the monitoring is to protect against foreign threats, cyber warfare, and the like. The hundreds who rallied to protest t

Workers in a Nepalese local government office have gone on strike in protest against actions made by Matrika Yadav, the minister for Forest and Soil Conservation. Yadav caused controversy after locking up Dandu Raj Ghimire, a local development officer in a toilet. Protesters said that this action was an "inhumane and objectionable act." Ghimire had been accused by Yadav of illegally operating a mine, and Yadav said that he locked the official up to show him what it is like to be stuck in 'foul conditions'. The official was locked in the toi

Imperial Tobacco, a United Kingdom-based tobacco company, has announced that it will cut 2,440 jobs as part of a restructuring plan. This move comes after the Imperial's takeover of Spain-based Altadis. The job cuts were made as part of the process of moving the production of tobacco products to Northern Spain. In the United Kingdom, the Bristol factory is the only one that is completely closing, although there are significant job losses at other locations. A spokesperson for Imperial Tobacco defended the move. "We are regrettably closing th

Further rain has continued to fall across southern China after the country was devastated by floods earlier this week. 176 people have been confirmed to have died as a result of the flooding, and around 50 more are officially missing. Xinhua, the state news agency in China, has reported that the flooding in the Pearl River Delta was the worst in the area for over fifty years. The Chinese government says it evacuated 111,476 in the Sichuan Province. In Wenchuan County, 72,000 were relocated. Over the past week some 1.3 million people have repor

Jean Delannoy, an early actor who started out in silent film movies and became a film director has died yesterday at the age of 100. The cause of death was announced as old age. Delannoy was born on January 12, 1908 in Noisy-le-Sec, Île-de-France, France. Amongst his best known works is the 1958 film "Maigret tend un piège", which he directed. Although Delannoy was born in a Paris suburb, his family was from Haute-Normandie in the north of France. He was a Protestant, a descendant of Huguenots, some of whom fled the country during the French

Kivimetsän Druidi‏ is a Finnish female-fronted band formed in 2002 whose music is a fusion of symphonic, fantasy and folk metal, which the band's website dubs 'Rock 'N' Troll'. Brothers Joni and Antti Koskinen formed the band in Kouvola with Joni playing guitar and growling while Antti played keyboard and sings backing vocals. They joined up with a female lead vocalist, lead and bass guitarists and a drummer. The brothers write the songs between them, with Antti doing the main body and Joni writing the lyrics. Together the band recorded and r

After 22 years of waiting, the Boston Celtics have won their 17th National Basketball Association championship, adding to the 16 that already hang from the rafters of the TD Banknorth Garden and before that, the old Boston Garden. The Celtics won the game 131 to 92 and won the series with 4 wins over their old rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers' 2. The game was highlighted by Ray Allen's seven 3-pointers, tying the NBA Finals single game record, as well as the Celtics 18 steals, easily a single game record also. Paul Pierce has been chosen serie