[NEWS] Some Saturday links

[rfmcdonald]

• First off, congratulations to friend of the blog Jonathan Edelstein for his role in setting an unjustly imprisoned man free in New York State.


• The National Post repots on calls to send a mission to Europa.


• Der Spiegel's English-language edition reports on the continuing ethnic divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically in relationship to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by Serb nationalists in 1914 that started the First World War.


• Business Week notes that the ongoing crisis in Thailand is hampering the country's economy, observes the ongoing issues with accumulating space junk, documents a Russian HIV/AIDS pandemic made worse by Russia's non-constructive dealings with the causes of HIV's spread, and notes that mass immigration from the European Union--especially Germany--is a major political concern in Switzerland.


• CBC notes that the recent ice storm hurting spending at growing Canadian chain Dollarama, reports that an immunity deal has been struck with an ex-Tory worker charged with involvement in the robocalls scandal, and observes that the so-called IKEA monkey man has been ordered to pay 83 thousand dollars in legal costs to the sanctuary that took in her pet monkey Darwin.


• National Geographic explores the question of whether or not there might be planets better-suited to life than the Earth, and whether these planets should be the subject of searchers.


• The Advocate reports on the case of a transgendered woman in Louisiana, Pamela Raintree, who helped save a local anti-discrimination ordinance by offering the ordinance's opponent the first stone to throw at her, in keeping with the Bible's mandating of death.


• MacLean's argues that Turkey is set for an inevitable crash as its economic and political and social contradictions come to a knot.


• Universe Today notes that, after the success of the Chang'e 3 moon rover, China now wants to land astronauts on the moon and set up a crewed facility.