November 2, 2009
Categories: General . . Author: Natasha . Comments: Leave a Comment
Mr Castro Reacts
Reported that Mr Castro reaction to Mr Obama’s Nobel Award was he had often disagreed with the choice of Norway’s Nobel judges who handed power to his brother Raul last year after falling seriously ill, made clear that he believed the award was primarily a repudiation of Mr Obama’s predecessors.
“Many believe that he still has not earned the right to receive such a distinction,” he wrote in a column published in state media. “But we would like to see, more than a prize for the US president, a criticism of the genocidal policies that have been followed by more than a few presidents of that country.”
said he had often disagreed with the choice of Norway’s Nobel judges.
German Elections 2009
One more time German Chancellor Angela Merkel has won re-election in the German national elections today. She claimed victory with 34% of the vote for her Christian Democratic Union (DCU) party and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) party. Both are conservative parties. The classically liberal Free Democrats (FDP) won 15 percent of the votes. The three top, more conservative, parties won a solid 49% of the vote.
This result gives Merkel the votes she needs to form her government with the more center-right political parties as opposed to having to attempt to govern with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) as she has had to do during her first term as Chancellor. That ‘grand coalition’ can be replaced with the center-right coalition of the DCU/CSU and FDP parties.
This is the first time since World War II that the leftist SPD party has done so poorly in an election, winning just 23.5 percent of the vote.
Less than an hour after the polls closed, Franks Steinmeier, the Social Democrat candidate for the chancellorship, conceded defeat in a tough speech that promised a strong opposition to Merkel’s new government. Merkel welcomed the result soon afterwards. And though the popular-vote totals may shift slightly as the full results come in, no one thinks that the Right’s victory will be seriously undercut.
The headline result is therefore: Center-Right Coalition Replaces Right-Left “Grand Coalition.” Merkel will finally have the reforming conservative coalition she has always said she wanted. Her socially conservative Christian Democrats will have the economically conservative Free Democrats as their junior partner.
Together with the fact that Merkel’s own spokesman on economics is a risk-taking believer in market reforms, this probably means that Germany’s so-called “social market” economy will shift slightly rightwards with long-term structural reductions in tax and economic regulation.
Merkel has been popular because of her stable, calm governance of the economic situation. During the election, she appealed to the German people to not take a chance by changing horses in mid-stream (so to speak). She also appealed to them to allow her to govern with the center-right, business friendly FDP, who have been out of power since 1998. Her argument being that the country needs to cut taxes in order to revitalize Germany’s economy.
From the election results, it appears the Germans gave her a resounding vote of confidence.
Pakistan Military Operation
According to CNN Pakistan has arrested a key militant commander suspected of launching suicide attacks in the country’s northwest, Pakistan’s army announced Monday.
Abu Faraj was arrested during a military operation in the Swat region, but the army statement did not say when. Abu Faraj is believed to be one of the key commanders for Maulana Fazlullah, the head of the Pakistani Taliban in Swat, who is still at large.
Fazlullah has stated that his goal is to impose a harsh interpretation of Islamic law in northwest Pakistan.
Fazlullah’s father-in-law, pro-Taliban leader Sufi Mohammed, helped mediate a peace agreement with the Pakistani government earlier this year.
The Barack Obama’s ratings has directed downwards
In half a year after the beginning of Barack Obama in the post of the US president his personal rating has fallen below 60 %, and a rating of his sign initiatives is below 50 %.
As Rasmussen Report shows, in the end of this week only 49 % of respondents estimated Obama’s activity positively. At the same time under calculations of site RealClearPolitics, the average positive rating of the present owner of the White house makes 54, 5 %. Also last Gallup Poll and newspapers USA Today gives to Obama of 55 %. As marks an observer of the newspaper Susanne Page, this rating puts Obama somewhere on the tenth place among post-war American presidents during the similar moment of their governance.
Obama is far behind, but it does not mean that he has bad prospects. On the other hand, Bill Clinton and at Bush-younger had in six-monthly anniversary unenviable enough rating (Clinton rating has fallen then to 41 %). And nevertheless both have been selected in the second time. But the rating of the president is all the same important, because it defines degree of its influence both on own party, and on opposition. Obama’s positive rating has fallen since January to 9 %, and negative has jumped up on 16 % and has reached 41 %. According to Rasmussen, Obama’s activity is approved by 83 % of democrats whereas 80 % of republicans respond about her negatively. And only 37 % of independent voters estimate it positively. Unique area, in which the majority of respondents are satisfied with Obama, is his foreign policy sphere. But its internal political initiatives steadily lose popularity.
Elections in Iran
On Friday, on June, 12th, elections in Iran have come to the end with a victory of the working president, Mahmuda Ahmadinezhada. It has typed about 62 % of percent. Many Iranians remained are dissatisfied with results – after all many youth participated in elections voted for other candidate, Mir-Hossejna Musavi.
On a presidential post, besides operating head of the state Mahmuda Ahmadinedzhada, pretended the former prime minister of Iran Mir-Hossejn Musavi, and also the former speaker of parliament Mehdi Kjarubi and the ex-commander of the Case of guards of Islamic revolution Mohsen Rezai.
Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called for creation of a limited Palestinian state firstly in his political career. He said it should be disarmed: “In any peace agreement, the territory under Palestinian control must be disarmed, with solid security guarantees for Israel”.
Netanyahu also said the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
“I call on you, our Palestinian neighbors, and to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority: Let us begin peace negotiations immediately, without preconditions. Israel is committed to international agreements and expects all the other parties to fulfill their obligations as well.”
Restarting Military Tribunals
President Barack Obama have decided to restart military tribunals for a small number of Guantanamo detainees, reviving a Bush-era trial system he once assailed as flawed but with new legal protections for terror suspects, U.S. officials said.
The changes to the system, which will affect a small number of detainees, will be announced Friday.
The military trials will remain frozen for another four months as the administration adjusts the legal system that is expected to try fewer than 20 of the 241 detainees at the U.S. naval detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Thirteen detainees — including five charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — are already in the tribunal system.
Two senior administration officials outlined several of the rules changes, which will be carried out by executive authority, to The Associated Press on Thursday night. They include:
Restrictions on hearsay evidence that can be used in court against the detainees.
_A ban on all evidence obtained through cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. This would include statements given from detainees who were subjected to waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning.
_Giving detainees greater leeway in choosing their own military counsel.
_Protecting detainees who refuse to testify from legal sanctions or other court prejudices.
what do you think about?
New World Order?
“The world’s leaders have responded today with an unprecedented set of comprehensive and co-ordinated actions,” Obama said. “This has to be a worldwide decision to inject new ethics into trader remuneration,” Sarkozy said. “These are our red lines. We are totally prepared to discuss other things so long as these issues are clearly dealt with and solved.”
In The Same Boat
During a visit to Beijing on Sunday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “So by continuing to support American treasury instruments, the Chinese are recognizing our interconnection. We are truly going to rise or fall together. We are in the same boat and thankfully we are rowing in the same direction.” World mass media are full reports about finance crisis but I can’t understand yet what do they mean calling the world finance situation as fall, drama, catastrophe etc.? How it might be evinced practically? Are we in the end time? Which plot should be expected? Global war, starvation, destruction… I don’t know. I would like to prepare.
Besides that, It seams to me I have heard about “same boat” already. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, describing the world financial crisis as a “perfect storm,” he added: “We are all in the same boat.”
“You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.”
