The US Election – Obama and McCain In Final Dash For Voters

Obama

According to wikipedia Barrack Obama is the first African-American to be nominated by a major American political party for president.

A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.

He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003.

After a primary victory in March 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He was elected to the Senate in November 2004 with 70 percent of the vote.

McCain

Biography states, John McCain (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and presidential nominee of the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential election.

McCain graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958.

During the Vietnam War, he nearly lost his life in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese.

He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer.

Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, winning re-election easily in 1992, 1998, and 2004.

While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain at times has had a media reputation as a “maverick” for having disagreed with his party

Outcome

With the US election only hours away Obama and McCain are coming to the end of their long running and very expensive campaigns. This time tomorrow morning the Us will have a new president, the world is waiting for change.

To follow the US election night click here

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The USA and Syria - US Forces kill eight in Syria

Syria

Wikipedia states that Syria is an Arab country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north.

Its capital city, Damascus, was the seat of the Umayyad Empire and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Empire.

Due to Syria’s close proximity to Israel, Syria has had a long turbulent history of internal conflicts and terrorism.

Syria gained independence in April 1946. Officially a Republic, Syria has been under Emergency Law since 1963 and governed by the Baath Party; the head of state since 1970 has been a member of the Assad family.

Syria’s current president is Bashar al-Assad,

With the appointment of Bashar al-Assad in 2000 interest in political reform surged, leading to the so-called “Damascus Spring” (July 2000-February 2001).

Assad appointed pro-reform candidates to formal and less formal positions, but the 2001 arrest and long-term detention of the two-reformist parliamentarians signals slow political reform.

Middle East and the US

America has always had a troubled and unstable relationship with the Middle East.

Its organisations such as the CIA have helped certain governments to be overthrown, and put certain pro-west leaders in its place.

Ever since 9/11 the Middle East and the US have had a far more antagonistic relationship, with many in Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Iran and Iraq displaying their anti-American feelings.

Post the US invasion into Iraq, the Middle East tends to look more unstable now then it ever has done, with foreign fighters coming from all over the Middle East into Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine the US looks like it has a lot of work ahead of its self.

Of course many believe the reason behind the America’s keen interest in the Middle East is it oil reserves.

The Middle East has over 50% of the world’s oil within the region; the US has been trying to secure the supply of this resource so that future generations of Americans will still have access to this finite fuel.

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The Sex Trade - Child Sex Trade Rockets In Cambodia

History of Cambodia

Cambodia is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 14 million people.

The kingdom’s capital and largest city is Phnom Penh.

The online encyclopedia states, Cambodia is the successor state of the once powerful Hindu and Buddhist Khmer Empire, which ruled most of the Indochinese Peninsula between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.

The country borders Thailand to its west and northwest, Laos to its northeast, and Vietnam to its east and southeast. In the south it faces the Gulf of Thailand.

The Mekong River and the Tonlé Sap an important source of fish dominate the geography of Cambodia.

Cambodia’s main industries are garments, tourism, and construction.

In 2007, foreign visitors to Angkor Wat numbered more than 4 million.

In 2005, oil and natural gas deposits were found beneath Cambodia’s territorial water, and once commercial extraction begins in 2011, the oil revenues could profoundly affect Cambodia’s economy.

Sex Trade in Asia

A report by the World Health Organisation on the sex trade in Southeast Asia turned up some interesting findings.

According to the report Asia’s sex industry is rapidly expanding and changing, threatening efforts to control the region’s AIDS epidemic.

More men are visiting sex workers, and in a wider variety of settings and areas.

The sex trade is spreading from traditional red light areas to suburbs, and international borders – wherever there is a high density or movement of people.

Often, this growth is not accompanied by rising AIDS awareness.

Indeed, it is believed that most commercial sex in Asia takes place without the use of condoms.

The report titled Sex Trade Expanding in Asia also found the following:

• There is a high demand for the young, with the premium age for sex workers in Asia between 12 and 16. This partly reflects cultural norms as women marry in their teens in many parts of Asia

• In Thailand, many sex workers start in their teens, and a third of foreign sex workers are less than 18 years old.

• In India, it is believed that 40% of female sex workers enter the trade before 18 years, while in Nepal about 35% begin sex work when they are 15

• A study in Sri Lanka found that one-third of sex workers had been trafficked.

These findings are horrific considering the modern age we live in.

Southeast Asian governments must be held accountable for this lack of care, and western governments must pressure countries like Cambodia to make an urgent attempt to eradicate the child sex industry.

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Global Financial Crisis - Sacked High Profile Banker Kills Wife, Kids and Self

The credit crunch is said to have started in November 2007, however in recent weeks the financial crisis has begun to effect people throughout their everyday lives.

Many people are trying to reduce their outgoings, whether this is through buying fewer brand named products at the supermarket, or cutting their spending on the high street.

Recession Fears

At the beginning of September 2008, many economists and financiers predicted that the UK would be in recession by Christmas. However, recession is now facing the USA and even the Asian markets, which were thought to remain stable, are now beginning to fluctuate.

As the financial crisis seems to have become a global one, numerous people around the world are beginning to feel the crunch in their everyday lives. With the Icelandic government recently taking control of all of Iceland’s banks, which many UK citizens have savings in, has allowed the economic crisis to hit at a grass root level that hasn’t been seen since the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

With people committing suicide over their economic situations in the UK and America, one has to question why we have this credit crunch?

The Root

Obviously we all know that the credit crunch began because of the recklessness of US banks. Banks lent money to people with no job and no savings, to allow them to get a mortgage (sub-prime mortgage). Of course these people could not afford to repay the debt that they were taking on. Many fell behind on their payments, causing the banks to borrow from other banks to fill in the gaps.

With all this borrowing and no crediting, many banks were suffering; the housing market was beginning to slow down causing a knock on effect in terms of unemployment rates etc. Over time this impacted the UK banks and caused the same process to happen here.

Opinion

Personally I go by the opinion that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have had a lot to do with the financial crisis. The amount of money that the USA and the UK spent on these wars is immense, the borrowing that took place to fund these wars cost both countries heavily. However, I have heard very little in the media as to whether the wars were in any way to blame for the economic downturn.

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By Rose Hawkins – rosehawkins21@hotmail.com