The Iraqi parliament went into summer recess today after having stalled on discussions regarding a set of laws that the US has been pushing. Washington believes that the set of laws before the Iraqi branch of government, if passed, would establish stability in the country and lessen the need for foreign occupation. “We do not have anything to discuss in the parliament, no laws or constitutional amendments, nothing from the government. Differences between the political factions have delayed the laws,” Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman told Reuters. The Iraqi parliament is playing ignorant to the laws, which makes me wonder if the entire situation is being manipulated by different factions. US constituents could have made up the situation to give citizens at home a belief that change is forthcoming, Iraqi’s may be playing coy to buy time for better options. Either way, nothing is changing.
Rebuilding Iraq has come to a halt since American factions began bombing the area years ago. The US agency responsible is citing mismanagement and corruption as reasons for the standstill, claiming that the lack of progress is equivalent of a “second insurgency”. So far the Iraqi government is refusing to take on projects that require billions of dollars towards rebuilding. It brings to mind post-WWII when Germany begrudgingly took American aid to rebuild its war torn areas. Except this time the US went in and bombed yet somehow expects that country to pick up the tab, despite their continued presence.
Ingersoll Rand, the US industrial conglomerate, has agreed to sell its Bobcat division as well as two other units to Doosan Infracore, a South Korean company. The announcement on Monday came as no shock but the price tag was somewhat alarming at a hefty $4.9 billion. The move will make this acquisition the largest buyout any South Korean company has made abroad. Doosan Infracore will also become of the top seven equipment producers in the world.
The prison system in Mexico City is now allowing gay conjugal visits following demands from a human rights commission. The move is a symbolic effort at abolishing discrimination of homosexuals in Mexico. Since 2003, Mexico has been under a law that doesn’t allow discrimination based on sexual orientation.”The Mexico City department of prisons and rehabilitation has allowed the first conjugal visit to an inmate with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual,” the city’s human rights commission (CDHDF) said. Why is it that only third world countries seem to be making steps toward human rights?
The EU has made demands on all cell phone carriers that fall under their blanket of unifications. They are asking that cell phone companies provide a cheaper plan to all customers due to extreme “roaming” fees associated with traveling outside of one’s own country. The new rules require that companies cut off fees by 70% or more by the end of July. Customers will have two months to either change plans or remain on their old one, those that don’t make a choice will automatically be changed to the new plan.
In the latest move to attain a foothold against Google, open-source Wikia has purchased the Grub distribution web crawler from LookSmart Ltd. The buy signals Wikia’s intentions to develop a truly open-source search engine that could eventually compete with Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Wikia is quick to point out that this new endeavor will begin humbly and will be very reliant on users providing feedback and submitting their own links, much the same way that Wikia’s prodigal site, Wikipedia, does. Personally I can’t wait. Hopefully this search engine won’t retain every search people make for 18 months like Google.
