Politics

David Cameron, the leader of the main UK opposition party, the Conservative Party, has said that aid to Burma should be dispatched by air if the Burmese government does not improve access to the country for aid workers. David Cameron said this in a statement, which was released today. Below is part of the statement: However David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary and Labour Party member, told the BBC's Politics Show yesterday that air delivery is "not a very effective way of delivering aid" and that "humanitarian experts and aid workers wh

On May 11, President Kevin Baugh of the Republic of Molossia, a micronation located near Dayton, Nevada, inaugurated his country's first ever customs station near the border with the United States, in the capital city of Espera. It was built after Baugh noticed that the tiny nation had no welcoming spot for its visitors. Though the station is unmanned as of now, there are plans for a customs officer to be stationed there in the near future. A sign asks that foreigners leave their pocket change as an entry fee. Several items are banned in Molo

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has said today that he will be standing for the presidential run-off election against incumbent Robert Mugabe. "The MDC has decided that we will contest the run-off election," he told reporters at a conference in Pretoria, South Africa, where he has been staying for the last month. He said his supporters would feel "betrayed" if he didn't stand and that the people are "ready for the final round". Despite the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's

Bruce McCaffrey, who was formerly the vice-president in charge of freight operations in the United States for Australian flag carrier Qantas, has been sentenced to eight months imprisonment and fined US$21,000 by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for his involvement in a major air cargo price fixing cartel. McCaffrey is one of six past and present employees of the airline who have been charged over the arrangement, which is thought to have run for six years starting in 2000. He is also the first individual to be sentenced regarding the cartel

South African president Thabo Mbeki has arrived in Harare today to talk with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe about the upcoming presidential run-off election. This comes amid claims that violence has risen in the country over the last few days. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights claim there has been a "dramatic escalation in incidents of organised violence and torture" after the recent elections with "more than 900" documented as injured. The organization said in a statement that "the level of brutality and callousness exh

Tuesday, voters in Indiana and North Carolina of the United States cast their votes in the tightly contested presidential primaries of the Democratic Party. The Associated Press declared Barack Obama the winner in the North Carolina Democratic primary, based on exit-polling data, and CNN has also projected that Obama will win the North Carolina primary and take the majority of its 115 delegates. Reuters also reported Obama winning in North Carolina, and described his current national status as an "almost unassailable lead in pledged delegates

Silvio Berlusconi, 71, accepted the office of Italian Prime Minister, after two days of consultations led by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano. During a press conference, shortly after the talks with Napolitano, Berlusconi presented his cabinet: there will be 21 ministers, including four women. Among them, 12 will come from Forza Italia, Berlusconi's party, 4 from National Alliance, 4 from Lega Nord and 1 from Christian Democracy for the Autonomies. This will be Berlusconi's fourth term in office. According to Donato Ma

Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister, has asserted that the UK will provide Myanmar with aid after the recent cyclone. "I believe nearly a million people are now in need of food aid and we will have to help the families of those where people have died," he said. He continued by saying that the UK will cooperate with other countries. "I want to pledge on behalf of the British Government that we will work with the whole international community to make sure that food aid is available to the people of Burma." Government officials in Myanmar have

At least 10,000 people are dead and another 3,000 are missing after Cyclone Nargis hit the country of Myanmar, according to Foreign Minister Nyan Win, who spoke on state television. Just hours later Xinhua News Agency reported that government officials had told them that 15,000 were dead. The United Nations (UN) calls the report "alarming". Paul Risley, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme said, "The UN will begin preparing assistance now to be delivered and transported to Myanmar as quickly as possible." "The UN will do whatever it ca

On April 29 Microsoft Taiwan launched Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008 in Taipei. The event was also an occasion to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Microsoft Research Asia, with the president, Hsiao-wen Hung, who was praised by several media groups, IT executives, and academic units because of his background. On the same day of the product launch, Hung talked to Colley Huang (Founder and Chairman of DigiTimes) about "the past decade overview of IT industry" in an executive panel. Hung also invited several academic elites and exec

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism issued a statement Friday praising comments made Wednesday by Malaysian politician Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan on conversion to Islam. Malaysian Consultative Council president Datuk A. Vaithilingam said that Ong's views are shared by Malaysians from all religious faiths in the country. "Conversion to Islam should not be abused as a means to evade one's legal obligations to one’s family. A person's conversion to another religion should not cause pain and suff

George W. Bush, the President of the United States recently discussed Food Aid in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. He called for extra funds to be allocated by Congress to support food aid. "I am calling on Congress to provide an additional $770 million to support food aid and development programs. Together, this amounts to nearly $1 billion in new funds to bolster global food security," he said. His reasoning for asking for the increased funding was that the "funding will keep our [the US's] existing emergency food aid progra