Yasuo Fukuda, Japanese Prime Minister, has congratulated Lee Myung-bak, South Korean President, on the day of his oath as South Korea’s new president.  Fukuda hopes to work with Lee on further development of cooperative and amicable relations.  Lee also vows to strengthen ties with Japan by overlooking their historical issues.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has elaborated on the government’s new position on the climate change issue which has gained world wide attention from media.  Japan will host G-8 summer this year, which will seek a way to discuss climate change.  The proposal is entitled “Cool Earth Promotion Program.”  This is definitely worth listening to.

Since the House Democrats can’t force the United States to withdraw from Iraq, they’re going to do the next best thing: spend the $108 billion dollar war request to pass billions of dollars in election-year domestic spending.

“I reject the president’s view that all this supplemental should be is for spending money overseas,” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, said yesterday. “We believe Americans have needs.

Some of the programs in dire need for funding is the Hurricane Katrina relief and the extension of unemployment benefits. However, according to President Goerge Bush, he will veto any supplemental war-funding bill that exceeds his $108 billion spending limit or that micromanages the war or “ties the hands of our commanders.”

This has a lot of Democrats in rage. According to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the President, “seems to think that he can issue pronouncements like the great Yoda and that the American people and the Congress will comply.”

Source 

After winning the Pennsylvania Primaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton gets a $3.5 million fundraising haul literally overnight. The Senator sees this as an opportunity to convince other superdelagates in different states to choose her over her competitor for the Democratic Presidential Representative position, Sen. Barack Obama.

On the other side, Obama’s supporters are saying that he is more likely to win by adding states like Virginia, and that the Pen results won’t change his prospects for capturing the nomination. His campaign manager listed down 13 states wherein Obama would win: Colorado, North Carolina, Oregon and Michigan.

“We can make Montana competitive,” he said, while Mrs. Clinton is losing by double digits. “The best chance we’ll have to win the general election is to expand the playing field.”

Source

“We were up against a formidable opponent who outspent us three-to-one. He broke every spending record in this state trying to knock us out of the race. Well, the people of Pennsylvania had other ideas,” Mrs. Clinton told supporters at her Philadelphia victory party.

On the losing side, Sen. Obama said the following:

“We closed the gap, we rallied people of every age and race and background to the cause,” he said. “Whether they were inspired for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, we registered a record number of voters, and it is those new voters who will lead our party to victory in November.”

We’ll see in November who wins the ultimate prize.

Source�

The US will be releasing $200 million in emergency aid to countries, largely affected by the soaring cost of basic food necessities resulting to riot and chaos such as Africa, Egypt, and elsewhere. Chaos and rioting from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt to Mozambiquehas gained global attention to their plight.�

This was largely in response to the appeal made by the World Bank President, Robert Zoellick.�

“While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day,” Zoellick said late last week in a speech opening meetings with finance ministers.

Hopefully this will somewhat ease the affected country’s woes.

Source

One of Sen. Hilary Clinton’s chief campaign strategist, Mark J. Penn, resigned last Sunday. This has been the second shake-up to the New York Senators campaign since a onetime front-runner decided to support her competitor for the Democratic Candidate for the U.S. Presidency, Sen. Barack Obama.

The ex-strategist resigned because of a conflict in interest. Penn, as a president of a giant PR Firm, Burson-Marsteller, met with Colombias ambassador and discussed the promotion of free-trade agreement. Unfortunately, Clinton was against the idea. Penn then apologized for the error in judgment and the Colombian government fired his firm.

According to Maggie Williams, Clintons campaign manager, Geoff Garin and Howard Wolfston will take over Penns job.

Source