Unix Timestamp: 1077235200
Friday, February 20. 2004, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Linda Schade, spokeswoman for Ralph Nader's presidential exploratory committee, states Nader will appear on NBC's Meet the Press to announce whether he will make another run for the White House. //www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/8000581.htm ("Kansas City Star")

Conservatives win a majority in the Iranian parliament election.

King Norodom Sihanouk, the constitutional monarch of Cambodia, states that he believes his country ought to allow same-sex marriage. He says he decided this upon seeing footage of same-sex couples marrying in San Francisco. He also says that transvestites ought to be well-treated in Cambodia. //advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=11379sd=02/20/04 (Advocate)

Same-sex marriage:

California Democratic leaders try to withdraw from the divisive political issue of same-sex marriage. A Public Policy Institute of California poll indicates that half of Californians oppose same-sex marriage. Some California Democratic officeholders were discontented over the matter becoming a national political issue. //www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/02/20/MNGSF54RDD1.DTL ("SF Chronicle")

Hubble Space Telescope measurements show that Dark energy is pushing apart the universe this appears to be the constant, repulsive force that Albert Einstein once predicted. Astronomers announce this as evidence that the theory of the cosmological constant proposed, but later discarded, by Einstein may have been right after all. //www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/8003724.htm (Mercury News) //msnbc.msn.com/id/4327735/ (MSNBC) //www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58912-2004Feb20.html ("Washington Post")

Louise Arbour is nominated by Kofi Annan to serve as the next United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Arbour, currently a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, will replace the late Sérgio Vieira de Mello, pending ratification by the General Assembly. //www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/02/20/arbour_UN040219 (CBC) //www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=9836Cr=humanCr1=rights (UN)