Kibaki offers opposition potential power-sharing role in gov't to ease tensions; Scotland Yard team arrives in Pakistan...

5 January :: WSJ reporting "After a week of political stalemate and bloodshed, Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki said Saturday that he was prepared to form a government of national unity with the opposition, easing tensions between the two side and potentially setting the stage for negotiations to end violence that has so far killed at least 300 people and displaced as many as 250,000"... A team of investigators from Britain's Scotland Yard police headquarters arrived yesterday in Pakistan to assist in the probe into the assassination of fmr PM Benazir Bhutto; Pakistan's pres. Pervez Musharraf said the team would assist in forensics but warned against "a wild goose chase" and said their role would not be permitted to interfere with Pakistan's internal politics... According to BBC report, China will see migration of 320 million people —more than the entire current population of the US— from rural areas to its urban centers in coming decades; the mass migration is said to be having environmental impact on "every atom in the Chinese soil", the general diet, the food supply, and potentially agricultural and commodities markets across the world... Le Monde reports indications gathering that US headed for recession in 2008, citing Pres. Bush's caution, pledges to work with Democrats in Congress to shore up economic weak spots, also noting that while only 18,000 jobs were created across the nation in December, unemployment is up to its highest in at least 2 years... French philosopher, writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir was born 100 years ago, spurring a new round of publications and re-editions of her work, to celebrate her achievement and the significance of her ideas in 20th century society and culture...

Senate vote one short of passage of energy bill; judiciary committee votes for contempt charges against 2 Bush aides...

13 December :: Pro-industry forces in the US Senate have blocked the sweeping energy-policy reform bill that Democrats have touted as necessary for future economic and ecological wellbeing of the nation; "in order to bring the bill to a vote, Democrats were forced to drop a provision that required utilities to obtain at least 15% of their electricity from renewable resources, such as wind and solar power. These industries have now suffered another blow because the production tax credit for wind and the investment tax credit for solar, which both expire at the end of 2008, still don't have the funding to extend them"... US Senate judiciary committee imposes contempt citations on White House chief of staff Josh Bolton and fmr. Bush aide, Karl Rove, for refusing to cooperate with probe into firing of federal prosecutors, allegedly for political reasons; White House maintains the firings were performance-based and says Bush's aides are protected from being called to testify by the principle of 'executive privilege'; Sen. Arlen Specter, the committee's top Republican, was one of two Republicans to vote for contempt charges, saying the refusal to testify violates the Congressional subpoenas issued... A major prosecution of what the Justice Dept. has called "homegrown terrorism" has ended in mistrial, Washington Post reports "A federal jury deadlocked over charges that six men from a fringe religious group conspired to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and instigate a war against the United States", while another defendant was cleared of all charges; new trial to start 7 January 2008...