President Bush praised Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for confronting the Shi’ite militia forces in Basra. According to Bush, the PM, shows his leadership and his commitment to enforce the law in an evenhanded manner” and “demonstrates to the Iraqi people that their government is committed to protecting them.” He continued on by saying that the militia can only do one thing: retreat.
However, things seem to have turned out for the worse. Another U.S. Civilian was killed in the Green Zone, and the Iraqi government spokesman was kidnapped by militia forces. Because of all these, the Iraqi government decided to implement a curfew.
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Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has won the general elections on February 18. The question many people ask is:Will the new Pakistani Government follow in the war of terror led by the U.S.?� However, PPP’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari stated that they are fighting their own war on terrorism, rather than the war of the United States.
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The two-day conference in Tunisia was attended by Arab interior ministers to discuss improvement of frontier controls and cutting off funds for extremist networks.They also examined programs to combat organized crime and smuggling. The meeting has ended with a very strong denunciation of all kinds of terrorism, which greatly inspired international communities.
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Russia is wrapped up in its 12-day exercises with its joint Navy and Air Force in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, which aroused concerns from other western countries and NATO members. This has been the first large-scale drill of Russian aircraft and fleets since the Cold War. Analysts believe that Russia is flexing its military muscles to show its strength and determination to deal with the West.
Latest developments in Pakistan have drawn increasing attention in the international community ever since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto (Prime Minister) in December last year. The coming parliamentary elections will also shake the social order of county. Because of this, the Pakistani government has aimed to safeguard the internal stability of the nation by asking the support of the people,
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All parties that are involved in this talk may have their own motives hiding behind the peace process. Israel has availed itself this opportunity to isolate Hamas further. Then President Abbas is bent into seeking more military and economic aid. On the other hand, U.S. has made an attempt to deal with Iran to pave the way for in-depth adjustment of the Middle-East strategy.
President Obama has won the election and is in control, or is he? Much speculation has been raised on his experience and actions during this early years of his presidency which would be a difficult time indeed. The Recession is taking its toll on the economy and not even the might of the Federal Bank may solve the problems being faced by the US economy. His team has their hands full in coming up with solutions to the ever growing problems they have to solve and they have do do it quickly for even the mightiest companies have been hit so hard they may not have enough time before they collapse as they go down on the domino effect as the sub-prime market collapse ripples globally.
In the rest of the world, governments are looking to the US for inspiration for they are the biggest economy on earth, what they do may give clues to what they can achieve and what may be too far fetched for their capabilities. Global banks collapse and multi-national firms file for bankruptcy, seems the economic troubles of this year are just beginning to take their toll as we ride through this recession. The world is facing even more pressure from global warming as economies try to enforce laws that will help make the earth last longer. But even with such pressing issues, the world seems to be trying its best, just hope it’s good enough to make it count.
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The three Bali Bombers, one of them called, The Smiling Bomber eventually gained sympathy from the Muslim community and seemed to be regarded as Islamic martyrs due to the governments mishandling of the case. The convicted three had the chance to appear in several TV stations and urged the viewers to retaliate for their pending execution. The images of the convicts praying mainly fueled the sympathy of the masses. The three who were executed confessed to have planned and assisted in the Bali nightclub blasts on October 12, 2002. Others say that due to the government’s delays in the execution of the convicts, it raised expectations and kept militants in the spotlight. Although some critics believe that the sympathy for the three will fade in a short time.
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Money woes also hit the art market. Sales has been slowly grinding to a halt. Prices sagging. It has obviously ended the market’s boom. At that time, paintings and other art works are must have commodities for the rich. Even in Sotheby’s and Christie’s, many of the art works have gone unsold. Many observers foretold the art world’s crash ever since the subprime mortgage crisis in US began to affect economy around the world. Art market is directly with the crisis due to the fact that the art buyers were hedge fund and private equity millionares. But amazingly, prices stayed high mainly because partly, Russian and Middle Eastern buyers were virtually protected from the crisis.
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People’s look upon for the Republican presidential nominee has worsen across-the-board since September, an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll showed Friday, with McCain losing ground in how favourably he’s seen and in a long list of personal merits voters seek in White House contenders.
Perceptions of Obama have enhanced or remained steady. Beyond views of the two rivals’ character traits, McCain faces another trouble — Obama is more trusted on the economy, the contest’s commanding issue, including a 15-percentage-point edge for better grasping how the raging financial crisis is upsetting people.
Obama’s image has been sturdy even as voters’ views of the overall campaign have tumbled downhill since September. The portion of people saying the contest excites them has sunk to 32 percent while those calling it frustrating have grown to 41 percent — and in both cases, six in 10 of those whose feelings have worsened are McCain backers.