This world of ours 1

As we enter a "golden age of planetary space exploration", we are finding that people are of lesser intellectual capacity soon after waking than when sleep deprived.
1. A new golden age of space exploration
2. Sleep study is unwelcome wake-up call

Meanwhile, the use of plastic bags in Rwanda has been made unlawful, and global warming has encouraged the spread of a fungal disease that is bringing many species of amphibians close to extinction.
3. Rwanda gets tough on plastic bags
4. Climate Change Drives Widespread Amphibian Extinctions

In politics, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf recently became the first female president of Liberia (and the first in Africa), Cambodia's prime minister did something kind of weird, Australia defends it's uranium trade with China, and violence is Sri Lanka escalating. UN secretary general Kofi Annan doesn't believe that a return to war in Sri Lanka will resolve any differences between the the government and rebels. Oh, and the US military released 500 Iraqi prisoners, some of them journalists.
5. Liberia's 'Iron Lady' takes helm of country in chaos
6. Cambodia frees critics as 'gift' to US
7. Australia Will Start Talks Today on Uranium Exports to China
8. Sri Lanka remains in a violent limbo precariously close to war
9. UN cautions Sri Lanka against return to war
10. U.S. Military Frees 500 Iraqi Prisoners

O, this world of ours— a tangled, intertwining web of actions and events.