Juan Camilo Mouriño

The Mexican Government has totally ruled out the possibility of Mouriño’s plane crashing because of a bomb attack.

They are not yet certain it wasn’t an attack; they just said they did not find any trace of explosives on board. The aircraft’s black boxed have been sent to Tucson, Arizona for further investigation.In a press conference held in Ciudad de Mexico, the Minister of Transports and Communications, Luis Tellez, has announced that there is no indication of a technical error either, since the engines were working at the same intensity.

Juan Camilo Mouriño, close friend of the Mexican President, died on the 4th of November in a plane crash, together with José Luis Vasconcelos, the President’s Security adviser.

The accident also caused the death of five civilians who just happened to be on that street in downtown Ciudad de Mexico when the plane crashed.

Gilberto López Meyer, the Director of ASA (Airports and Auxiliary Services), has announced that the remains of the airplane will be taken from the crash site in maximum 48 hours.

The human remains of Juan Camilo Mouriño (1971-2008) have been taken to the memorial house of a cathedral situated in Campeche, Southern Mexico, where he had spent his childhood.

Khaled Meshaal, Hamas Leader

Obama’s election has been received extremely well by the majority of world leaders and institutions.

Latest events come to show that even terrorists groups like him more than they did President Bush; during his mandate, the United States have totally rejected the idea of keeping contact with the Islamic terrorist groups, and they did not seem willing to do so either.

In order to try to solve the political problems in the Middle East, Hamas have announced their availability to discuss with the President-elect Barack Obama.

Representatives of the Islamic movement have ensured that, as long as Obama will respect their rights and political convictions, they are willing to meet with him.

Obama has visited Israel this past July and has told Hamas leaders that the only way to have better relations with the US was to stop the acts of violence and officially recognize the existence of Israel as a separate state.

Cristina Fernández , President of Argentina

The Argentinean Congress has agreed on the nationalization of the pension funds, despite the opposition’s contrary opinion.

The Government run by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has won yet another political battle yesterday, by obtaining the approval of the Congress on the nationalization of the pension funds.
With 160 votes for and 75 against , the controversial law project has eliminated the private pension funds and has reinstated a single pension system.

The law project will now go through to the Senate, where President Fernández hopes things will go fast and without any problems.

The Government said that the main reason for this whole process is that they wanted to stop the financial groups from charging such high account administration taxes.

The political debate on the extinction of the so-called Administrators of the Jubilation and Pension Funds went on with great difficulties and there have been virulent discussions between the participants.

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's New Chief-of Staff

One day after he was elected president, Obama has announced the names of the members of his transition team, which was mostly formed of ex- advisers of former president Bill Clinton.

He has also made a proposal to be his chief of staff to Rahm Emanuel, ex- adviser of Bill Clinton, and close friend to Obama.Yesterday, Democrat Rahm Emanuel has officially accepted President-elect Obama’s proposal and is therefore his new Chief-of-Staff.

In a press release Obama has announced the names of his transition team supervisors: John D. Podesta, former chief of staff for Clinton, Valerie Jarret, one of Obama’s loyal and long time advisers, and Pete Rouse, former chief of staff of Obama’s Senate team.

The team also includes Carol Browner, for environment issues, William Daley, former Secretary of Commerce, Christopher Edley, Michael Froman and Julius Genachowski, Donal Gips, Governor Janet Napolitano, Federico Pena, Susan Rice and Sonal Shah, from Google.org.

This week Obamas’s team will launch their official website, www.change.gov, which will keep us up to date with the new president’s actions.

Obama and Bush Shaking Hands

Early next week President Bush is scheduled to meet with America’s 44th elected president, Barack Obama.

They will discuss matters of national security, international politics, the Iraq war, the global financial crisis and all other issues that will be passed on from the old president to the new one on the 20th of January.President Bush also wants to express his congratulations to President-elect Obama for his great campaign, and for his resounding victory.

He declared that, since Mr Obama is still choosing the members of his team, his advisors will be more than happy to give them a briefing on all important ongoing national projects, laws, as well as on economy and on foreign policies.

Bush also said that he will do all he can to ensure that, within approximately 75 days, Mr Obama and his team are more than prepared to take over the White House and the presidency of the United States, without even noticing they have only started their activity.

President -elect Obama and the members of his transition team are already being treated as such; they have been given security clearance for the White House, and some of them even receive updates on cases containing classified information.

Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

The monarchy of Butan and it population have welcome Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, their new king.

He is only 28 years old and he has been crowned king in the country with the shortest history of democracy.

The coronation ceremony started at 08:30 local time (03:30 GMT), at the exact moment chosen by the astrologists of the Royal House, and under the strict supervision of the Prime Minister, Jigme Thinley.

The new monarch has received an Oxford education, and has also studied in the United States and India.

He represents the new spirit of Butan, a small kingdom situated in the heart of Asia, bordered by China and India.

His purpose is to try to leave behind conservatory ruling methods and continue the work of his father who abdicated in 2006 in order to make Butan a democracy.

Omar Osama Bin Laden

The fourth of the 19 sons of Osama Bin Laden, Omar, has requested political asylum in Spain immediately after landing on Barajas Airport, in Madrid.

He arrived on Spanish territory on Monday, accompanied by his wife, UK citizen.

After two days of analysing the request, Spanish authorities have decided to reject his petition, as everybody expected.

The Ministry of Interior advised Omar Osama Bin Laden of their decision yesterday, hours after having received an official UN report on his situation.

Both institutions have come to the conclusion that there is no reason for Mr. Osama to live in Spain, since there is no evidence suggesting his life might be endangered if he continues to live in Saudi Arabia, where he was born and raised.

But Osama Bin Laden’s pacifist son can still do something to change this decision; he can make an appeal within the next 24 hours and, if his petition gets denied again, he can appear before an administrative court.

If the request gets rejected again, Omar Osama Bin Laden will have to leave the asylum hall of Terminal 4 and leave Spanish territory.

Juan Camilo Mouriño

After conducting initial investigations, the Mexican Government states that they do not know fur sure whether Juan Camilo Mouriño’s death was an attack or just a terrible accident.

The plane by which were travelling Mouriño, Mexican Minister of Interior, and 1several other people, including the most fierce fighter against narcotics trafficking, has crashed over Ciudad de Mexico yesterday, leaving no survivors.

They were returning from San Luis de Potosi when, for no obvious reasons, the aircraft crashed in the center of the Mexican capital city.

Juan Camilo Mouriño, aged 37, was born in Madrid, Spain and was the son of Celta de Vigo football club owner.

He was married and the father of three children, and one of the most important people of President Calderón’s campaign. There was a close friendship between him and the president which went beyond their official relationship.

The Mexican Minister of Transport and Communications, Luis Tellez, has announced that they will do all the necessary investigations in order to determine the exact causes of the crash, and that they have already flown in experts from UK and the United States.

Obama Celebrating His Victory with His Voters

Even before being elected president, Obama had a quite clear idea of whom he wanted by his side, in his Cabinet of Ministers.

His Chief of Cabinet will be, according to sources in the Democrat Party, Rahm Emanuel, who has not yet officially accepted the position.

Barack Obama, the newly elected president of the United States has spent his first dayas president with his daughters, one of his friends and his campaign staff, to whom he is most grateful for their help.

Emanuel is an Illinois congressman best known for his aggressive attitudes towards health, commerce and social security issues. He was Bill Clinton’s advisor in 2002 and is, therefore, fully aware of how things work at the White House.

Until Emanuel officially accepts the position, Obama will continue working on his list of ministers with his transition team run by John Podesta. It is believed that by next week, President Obama will have decided the structure of his entire Cabinet.

Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The visit of Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to South-Eastern Turkey- a region with mostly Kurdish population- has caused severe clashes between the police forces and Kurdish protesters.

The Kurds in the area do not like the Prime Minister’s methods and have demonstrated against his visit.The most violent encounters have been reported in Yuksekova, a town situated at the border with Iraq. The riot police had to face about 3,000 angry demonstrators and had to use tear gas to keep the crowds under control and away from the members of the official delegation.

The Prime Minister visited the area in order to participate at the opening ceremony of a hospital in Yuksekova, one of Turkey’s poorest towns.

The South-Eastern region of Turkey has seen many violent acts lately, mostly caused by rebel attacks on Turkish soldiers and the military’s counteractions by bombing the Iraq based camps of the PKK (Party of Kurdistan Workers).

The Kurdish community feels discriminated and claims they do not have the same rights and facilities as all other Turkish citizens.

Sarah Palin

Marc Antoine Audette, a Canadian comedian, has decided to make a prank call to none other than the Republican candidate for vice-president, Sarah Palin.

He telephoned the Alaska Governor and pretended to be the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, calling to congratulate her for the campaign and wish her good luck at the elections.

The six-minute talk was then broadcast on a radio programme in Montreal, Canada.

During their chat, Mrs Palin and fake President Sarkozy talked about several issues, such as how beautiful Carla Bruni (the President’s wife) was, how nice it would be to be able to organize a hunting trip together; they even joked about the prospect of Mrs Palin running for presidency eight years from now.

Mrs Palin has made no comments on this call but one of her spokespersons has declared the governor was somewhat amused by it.

UN Escort

The on-going Congo crisis has made the EU and UN officials seek for fast and effective solutions.

David Miliband and Bernard Kouchenr, Foreign Ministers for UK and France, have drawn the alarm signal and declared something must be done as soon as possible.

During their meetings with the presidents of Congo and Rwanda they have managed to get them to agree to the organization of a regional summit meant to find the correct way out of this situation.

Over the past week, people have been leaving their homes because of the rebel troops loyal to General Laurent Nkunda who have now taken over even the areas surrounding Goma.

Thousands of refugees have been forced to live on minimum provisions of food and water and have even had to search the woods for plant roots and wild fruit.

On Monday, they should be receiving food and medical supplies sent by the UN.

Rupiah Banda

Ever since the death of President Levy Mwanawasa in August, Zambians have had to decide who will be their head of state for the next three years.

The winner of last week’s election is Rupiah Banda, and he has already been officially accepted as the new Zambian President until 2011.

He was a diplomat and also the vice-president of the country during President Mwanawasa’s mandate and he has based his campaign on promises to continue with what his predecessor had started.

Also running for the presidential chair was Mr. Michael Sata, but he came in second, with only 38.1% of the votes.

He was extremely displeased with the result and even wanted to demand an official recount, but the regional electoral monitors assured him the results would stay exactly the same.

Mr. Sata’s supporters have found the results as difficult to accept as their candidate, and there have been reports of violent confrontations between them and the riot police in the country’s capital, Lusaka.

Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State

A year after the peace talks held in Annapolis, Maryland, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has scheduled a four-day visit to several countries in the Middle East.

The purpose of this visit is to advance peace talks with the authorities of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Palestinian territories.

Rice will be leaving on the 5th of November, after knowing the results of the US elections. She will meet the EU, US, UN and Russia representatives in Egypt, at the Sharm el-Sheikh resort.

This trip comes as a consequence of recent reports that show the Middle East Quartet have been failing their mission of maintaining control over the peace process.

Last year, the peace talks that have been held in the US have been an effort to initiate a process of reconciling Israel and Palestinians. The meeting was not very successful then, and it doesn’t promise to bring great results this year either. The two sides have remained in deep conflict ever since.

Senator Barack Obama

Five days before the big day, the two potential presidents of the United States are endorsed by almost the same number of people.

That can only make them force things and try anything they can in order to get the voters on their side.

With that in mind, Senator Obama ventures on Republican territory, in Arizona, North Dakota and Georgia.

As McCain is campaigning strongly in Ohio, Obama is in Iowa and will also travel to Chicago to be with his daughters on Halloween.

While attending a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Obama announced his supporters that they should be ready for a series of attacks coming from his opponent. He stated that this can only go to prove how McCain sees competition and what his ways of acting are.

The two ads that will be seen in the Republican states are based on two main ideas: the great resemblance between McCain and Bush, and the most important principle of Obama’s campaign, which is “unity over division”.

Charles Mathias, Latest Republican to Endorse Obama

As the world’s most discussed presidential campaign is close to ending, American politicians start expressing their preferences.

The Republicans, for example, seem to go in favour of Senator Barack Obama. Following the example of Colin Powell (the former Secretary of State), are William Weld (former Massachusetts Governor), Scott McClellan (former Bush press secretary) and the latest, Charles Mathias (former Senator of Maryland).

The above mentioned politicians have different reasons for endorsing Obama; some dislike the thought of having Sarah Palin as vice-president, others mention America’s economy, and the true American spirit, which seems to have been lost during Bush’s mandate.

Polls done since this campaign has started show that so many Americans have not considered economy and financial issues as extremely important in the election since 1996, and that Republicans focused their attention on terrorism and moral values issues.

On the other side of the barricade is McCain who flashes a list with the names of his Republican supporters and the 200 retired Army generals.

These endorsements do well for their campaigns, but they do not guarantee their success; it all depends on the American citizens who will attend the voting stations on the 4th of November.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran

The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies being ill, and motivates the cancellation of several official events by saying that he is just exhausted.

Several members of his staff have declared that he is in good state of health, but he is just extremely tired and needs to rest for a few days. That is why he has canceled a few of the events he was supposed to attend these days.

In order to clear any doubt, the national Iranian television has broadcast footage with the president, while he was participating at several meetings during the past weekend.

The president’s political allies told the press that this is only a natural reaction, since he is known to work even 20 hours a day. They insist that he is completely healthy and that he will have no problems to finish his mandate or even to candidate for a new one, in June 2009.

General Laurent Nkunda

Hundreds of people have attacked the UN Congo office today. Apparently the protesters were damaging cars, and shattering the windows of the Goma-based office, in the East side of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

They were angry about the fact that they were not better protected from the attacks of the rebel forces. Over the weekend, the rebels took over an army camp at Rumangabo and Virunga National Park.

People are fleeing towards the city, as they do not want to get caught in the middle of armed confrontations between the rebel forces and the UN peacemakers.

The one leading the rebel troops is General Laurent Nkunda and they say he has threatened to take over the city of Goma as well. They have attacked it last December and many of them died, as UN forces were allowed to use helicopters in order to ensure the security of all the civilians who had sought refuge under their protective wing.

A deal was signed in January, but General Nkunda does not seem willing to respect it and he has never given up violence.

These violent attacks of the Rwandan Hutu rebels have driven 200,000 people away from their homes since August, and most of them are living in inhuman conditions.

Map of the Basque Region of Spain

The Basque region of Spain has always been causing problems to the authorities due to their strong desire to get recognition as an independent territory.

Yesterday, the region has witnessed the march of thousands of demonstrators who were demanding the right to independence. The government of the Basque region had initially agreed on allowing the referendum and had set Saturday as a voting day, but the Spanish Supreme Court declared it illegal and denied the proposal, also qualified as unconstitutional.

The referendum was proposed by the Basque Nationalist Party who hoped to obtain a positive result and the region’s independence starting two year from now.

About 20,000 people in six towns gathered to show their discontent, and there have also been reported several violent incidents: there were two explosions at Basque railway stations and several disputes between the demonstrators and a far-right party.

Spain’s Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, declared that severe punishments will be applied to the terrorists who organized the petrol bomb attacks at the train stations in the towns of Berriz and Amorebieta.

Sarah Palin at a Campaign Event in October

Less than two months ago, before being elected as John McCain’s vice-president candidate, Sarah Palin did not have the elegant clothing items she does now. When looking at one of her old photos, anyone can notice that all that remained the same are the rimless glasses. The rest has much improved since then.

The Alaska Governor has apparently received a look boost worth about $150,000, meant to give her the class and elegance of a potential US vice -president. Mrs. Palin, mother of five, can now be seen wearing stiletto shoes and high heeled boots, tailored suits, a new and more relaxed hairdo, and most importantly a very glamorous attitude.

Mrs. Palin’s latest achievement has been negatively perceived by the general public; in the storm of this US economy crisis, the last thing they want to see is a political candidate throwing money on expensive clothing and fashion advice. Not even the fact that all the clothes will be donated to charity after the campaign saves her from the voters’ disapproval.

The fact that she spent in approximately two months the double of a yearly income of an average American family is not in Sarah’s favor, as it wasn’t in Michelle Obama’s favor to order lobster, Iranian caviar and champagne when she was staying at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The difference is, in Michelle’s case, all was proven to be entirely false.