Earthlings, fasten your seatbelts. You’re in for a spectacular journey through spacetime.

More than 30 years since the original series, Cosmos will once again find its way into people’s homes, this time led by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The new series—called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey—premieres this Sunday, March 9, at 9:00pm ET/PT on FOX.

The show will air in 45 languages across 123 FOX-branded channels in 125 countries and 90 National Geographic Channels in over 170 countries. According to the producer, this constitutes the largest-ever global launch for a television series. I don’t know about you, but the fact that the world’s largest TV series launch is for a science show is pretty exciting to me.

I had the opportunity to watch a preview copy of the first episode, “Standing Up in the Milky Way,” which was sent to me by National Geographic. If you’re wondering if you should tune into this show, then the answer is a resounding yes.

More: Cosmos: The Next Generation

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Contrary to the belief in some circles, there is no persecution of Christianity in the United States. But the narrative that there is, based on cases where the Christian majority was not allowed to oppress a minority or to impose itself on to a minority, is still strong. In Akron, Ohio, some ranking church members took it one step further, and asked the local sheriff’s department to stage arrests of their pastors to make a point during their Sunday sermons. But then, the footage of the arrests was posted on the internet as if the arrests were real.

More: ‘Christian Persecution’ Video Turns Out to Be Viral Marketing Campaign

More: Ugandan Scientist Who Chaired President Museveni’s Anti-Homosexuality Committee Runs HIV Project Funded by CDC

A baby girl born today will still face inequality and discrimination, no matter where her mother lives. We have a common obligation to ensure her right to live free from the violence that affects one in three women globally; to earn equal pay for equal work; to be free of the discrimination that prevents her from participating in the economy; to have an equal say in the decisions that affect her life; and to decide if and when she will have children, and how many she will have.

More: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s Message for International Women’s Day

Africa now has three female heads of state, after Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic took office in January. Though women leaders remain the exception in African politics, activists say things are looking up.

Each of these women has taken office amid crisis and transition. Countries like Mali have seen their first female presidential candidates. Bad times are finally prying the doors open.

Discrimination remains, but the pool of qualified women is growing as more girls get to stay in school.

At least 16 African countries have passed parity laws. Countries like Rwanda reserve a percentage of parliamentary seats for women, while others like Senegal have set quotas for women on candidate lists.

More: Women on the Rise in African Politics

Earlier, the 70-year-old ex-president was brought to the court from a military hospital in Rawalpindi in a heavily-protected convoy. He sat in witness box and stood briefly when addressed by the judge. But Musharraf did not speak.

When Justice Arab asked him how he was feeling, he replied with a smile on his face that he was “good”. He remained in the court for 20 minutes and was taken back to the hospital, where he was admitted on January 3 after complaining of chest pain while traveling to the court for hearing.

The trial against Musharraf is related to his suspension, abrogation and subversion of the constitution after imposition of emergency rule in November 2007.

More: Musharraf Appears Before Court in Treason Case - the Times of India

I dont nec. agree - but, nuance is important:

First of all, the main issue - external policy matters. This is not war. War is when two or more countries engage one another in combat. When one country conducts armed operations on another’s territory unhindered, and the other responds with appeals to the international community, that is annexation.

It so happens that at one time I worked with the Kremlin as a political analyst, and I continue to follow its “points of reference”. That was during the time of “Putin the Moderate”, but the main approaches still apply. So it’s with some sense of responsibility that I agree with the argument that “Putin is not the monster you think he is. He’s a monster, of course, but of a quite different kind.”

In that sense, Putin is like a terrorist with a hand-grenade who demands that the plane change course, except that he is holding the world hostage

More @ The Institute for War and Peace Reporting

for some reason i cannot get the link to the source to work - so try this one:
pravda.com.ua

it is in russian - or google the english version at iwpr.net

Commentator Oliver North, a former Lieutenant Colonel who hosts a War Stories segment on Fox News, made the comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Referring to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell two years ago,he said: “The members of our armed forces and their families deserve better than being treated like laboratory rats in some radical social experiment.”

“The people of Ukraine are this very minute paying the terrible price for America’s leadership deficit disorder.”

“Our leader should be admired and trusted by our allies, and if not feared, at least respected by our adversaries.”

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More: Fox Host: ‘Allowing Gays Makes the Military Like Lab Rats, Which Is Why Putin Invaded Ukraine’ - PinkNews.co.uk * PinkNews.co.uk

If you’ve had a chance to visit the September 11 memorials at Ground Zero in Manhattan, the Pentagon and western Pennsylvania — or perhaps have been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. — then you have a sense of the powerful emotions that such places can stir up.

This week, the design was chosen for a memorial to the victims of the July 22, 2011, attacks in Norway that left 77 people dead and several hundred more wounded. Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg’s vision for what’s being called a “memory wound” seems likely to join the list of such memorials that evoke strong feelings.

Dahlberg’s concept cuts a channel through Utoya Island, where 69 of the victims — most of them young people attending a political camp — were shot and killed by right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik.

More: ‘Memory Wound’ Will Cut Through Site of Norway’s Massacre : The Two-Way : NPR