March 14, 2005

Court Rules Against California Ban on Gay Marriage ABC News - A California Superior Court judge ruled on Monday that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. 4:25:12 PM

Drug Stops Cancer in Its Tracks (HealthDay). HealthDay - MONDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental drug that stops cancer cell division and triggers tumor death has been developed by researchers at Temple University. [Yahoo! News: Health] 2:02:43 PM

Unprecedented numbers protest for former prime minister Hariri CBC News, Canada - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators chanted "Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence" and unfurled a huge Lebanese flag in central Beirut on Monday in the biggest protest yet in the opposition's duel of street rallies with supporters of Syria and the Lebanese government. Crowds of men, women and children flooded Martyrs Square, spilling over into nearby streets, while more from across the country packed the roads into Beirut - responding to the opposition call to mark a month since the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. His slaying has sparked a string of protests against Syria, the dominant power in Lebanon. "We are coming to liberate our country. We are coming to demand the truth," said Fatma Trad, a veiled Sunni Muslim woman who travelled from the remote region of Dinniyeh in northern Lebanon to take part. The protest easily exceeded the pro-government rally of some 500,000, held last week by the Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah. That show of strength forced the opposition to act to regain its momentum.  UPDATE: The BBC says "nearly one million" people were out marching! 12:56:50 PM

More good news from Iraq. Arthur Chrenkoff continues to fight the good fight, and has put out another must-read good news from Iraq, part 23 (also at the Opinion Journal and Winds of Change). So, is the news getting better? To find out, I decided to look back at the past installments of this series and do a little count. For the sake of simplicity I started with Part 6, which happened to be the first one to be also published by the "Opinion Journal". When printed out, that July 19, 2004 edition of "Good news from Iraq" is 10 and a half pages long, and contains links to 71 "good news" stories. Since then, the length of each installment has fluctuated, but the overall trend has been up. So much so that the "Good news from Iraq" you're reading now is 23 and a half pages long and contains 178 links to "good news stories." The same trend in evident in my "Good news from Afghanistan". The first installment published by the "Opinion Journal" (and second overall in the series) of July 26, 2004, was 6 and a half pages long when printed out and contained 55 links. The latest one, number 10 of March 7, 2005, is 19 pages long and contains 124 links. Either there is more and more good news coming out of both Iraq or Afghanistan, or the reporters are getting increasingly optimistic about the situation there, or both. Whatever's the answer, it's good news. Indeed it is. [Secular Blasphemy] 12:22:34 PM

Lawmakers: Hands off Web logs CNN - Internet bloggers should enjoy traditional press freedoms and not face regulation as political groups, lawmakers and online journalists said Friday. In separate letters, Democratic lawmakers and Internet commentators urged the Federal Election Commission to make sure that political Web sites that serve as focal points for political discussion, like Wonkette.com and Freerepublic.com, don't have to comply with campaign-finance rules. 12:05:21 PM