There are 4 million people who can finally cast a vote in Rwanda today. 80% of them have.

France
Life is often cheap to systems….government, commerce etc.
It is entirely possible that the death toll from the heat wave in France this summer is 10,000.
What is profoundly sad among other things is the number of bodies that have not been claimed.

Paris Town Hall has appointed a team of people to track down their relatives, but Mayor Bertrand Delanoe has admitted that some of the victims may have died in complete isolation and their families may never be traced.

Hundreds are and will be buried in unmarked graves.

British Columbia
While over 6 thousand people were allowed to return to their homes or properties yesterday, the crisis is far from over. The area needs rain. Fire guards in Kelowna held last night. 240 homes were destroyed this weekend in the southern part of the city.

SARS
Now that it has been determined that SARS wasn’t the cause of deaths in a nursing home in British Columbia, medical science isn’t any closer to solving transmission than they were months ago. And they may not be for a long time.
Animal to human transmission is most probably a key factor.
The WHO is now looking at common rats, as the possible carrier in the Amoy Gardens outbreak. Rats are eaten in Southern China.
Meantime Hong Kong is undergoing a major overhaul of it’s hospital procedures.

Iraq-UN-US

Just in case anyone was still unclear about it, the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad conclusively demonstrates that the war in Iraq is still very much an ongoing affair. While coalition forces no longer face Republican Guard divisions, the enemy is still active and a significant threat.

The US is left picking up the pieces.

Every Sunday exclamation mark does a round-up of interesting blogs and sites. It is first class, and quite the learning experience.

Jordon Cooper’s blog is down and Wendy Cooper’s isn’t.
Update: Nothing malicious, just a tired tweaker. The blog is back.