Inspirational and good news.
Tension between Pakistan and India comes and goes, but there is always an underlying animosity. Currently the countries have an informal policy of notifying each other before testing missiles, but now they plan to make that official.
Any form of cooperation between the two Asian nations is a good step towards permanent peace and stability in the region. Currently they are working on having more agreements, including more bus routes.
A library in Holland is now loaning out volunteers so users of the library can chat with them. The people who have volunteered include homosexuals, drug addicts, asylum seekers, gipsies and the physically handicapped.
Borrowers can take the volunteer to the cafe and sit down and talk. The idea is that this program will break down social barriers and create a more understanding society. Borrowing people to fight prejudice apparently started in Sweden.
A Pentagon General told BBC “If we lose America, we lose the war, †and this seems to be happening already. 
Ralph Begleiter is a professor at the University of Delaware. Some time this year he brought the US Defence Department to court in order to force it to publish pictures of coffins coming home from Iraq.
The Pentagon then published 700 pictures, and this – together with the increasing number of deaths and a lot of resistance from victims’ families – had a big impact in American public opinion about the Iraq war. As American soldiers’ casualties have reached 1850, American public support for the war has dropped to about 40%.
Thanks again to BBC news for the information and picture.
On Sunday China’s Legislature helped women by banning sexual harassment of women and empowers women to “lodge complaints” to relevant organizations. Sexual harassment has traditionally been viewed as a moral issue and not a legal one in China, which means that this is also a huge symbolic step.
This may seem like something that should’ve happened a long time ago, but better late than never. This legislation will improve the lives of all peoples and make the state the more democratic.
You may see something odd crawling around the twisting, narrow streets of Cordoba, Spain. The GEM car, a small electric vehicle with a top speed of about 32kp/h, has found a useful home. Referred to as “blobjects,” the cars have the look of something out of mid-seventies sci-fi. Which is meant as a compliment.
The local Cordoba government has chipped in funding for tour operators to rent out GEM cars to tourists, much to the chagrin of local taxi drivers. The cars are fitted with GPS systems and computers that allow them to give guided tours of the city. However, there’s something that makes these cute little alternative vehicles even better: they’re powered entirely by open-source software. (It’s even made by Daimler-Chrysler, of all people!) Thank you to the BBC for the photo.