The European Union parliament body is all set for electing its 736 members from all the member countries in the coming weeks. The elections are currently on in UK and Netherlands which will choose 72 members and 25 members respectively in the next few days.
Most of the other member countries are going into election in the next few days. Experts fear that with the ongoing economic turmoil there could be lesser voter turnout, which could change the election results for many candidates.
The UK Prime Minister has been facing tough challenge ever since he took charge , with the deepening economic crisis. Now he is faced with the resignations of many of his senior cabinet ministers, who were somehow trapped in the spending scam.
The opposition has asked for his resignation and immediate call for general elections, which Brown is trying to avoid. But with most of his strong supporters deserting him, it is only a question of time before he resigns. So UK is heading for political problem, on top of the economic problem it is already facing.
Last November, it was nightmare for Mumbai and nightmare had begun for India. During one of a ghastly attacks, suspected pakistan militants had killed more than 170 people in Mumbai (Bombay). This included nine gunmen. One Islamic charity is suspected of being the front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group which was responsible for the attacks. The leader of the charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa denies any links with militants. He has been released by a pakistani court. The court ruled that the continued house arrest of Jamaat-ud-Dawa founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed was unconstitutional.
Completely shocked on the developments, India has expressed its disappointment, calling the release “regrettable”.
The Pakistan army has claimed total regaining of the Swat valley from the Taleban militants, but the ground situation seems to be full of destruction. The Pakistan army has been able to flush out all the Taleban militants out, but as per reports, all the major buildings and facilities in the city have been totally destroyed in the fighting.
It seems that the entire area is not livable now for human beings, with no electricity or water or food available. It may take at least a month or two before full scale basic services are restored by the Pakistan government.
Fresh clashes erupted between Palestinian policemen and Hamas fighters during dawn time, which killed six palestinians. Three Palestinian policemen who went for arresting the Hamas fighters hiding in a house, were faced with gun fire.
By the time they retaliated, the Hamas fighters were successful in killing the three policemen and also the house owner who rented the house to them. Two public were also killed in the gunfire. The west bank has been seeing intermittent fighting between Hamas militants and the Palestinian policemen which has been leading to loss of innocent lives.
The Swat valley has been officially claimed back by the Pakistani army today, from the clutches of the terrorist outfit Taleban. Just two months back the Pakistan government formally acceded control of the Swat valley to the Taleban as part of a peace deal.
Subsequently due to enormous pressure from US, and also due to attrocities committed by the Taleban, the Pakistani army started fighting with the Taleban forces since the beginning of this month. Now, after killing over 2000 Taleban militants, Pakistan has claimed back the valley.
The shocking fact remains that the 2000 Taleban militants killed by the Pakistani army is just 3% of the 75000 strong Taleban terrorists. Thus the Taleban can be expected to retaliate anytime from anywhere. Or is this also an eyewash by Pakistan to satisfy the US for release of billions of dollars of financial aid ??? only time will tell.
The tension in the Korean region is shooting up with every passing day. Yesterday, South Korea joined the international group for identifying the movement of banned nuclear items, which it desisted for over a decade.
That move has been considered as a violation of the peace treaty with it by North Korea. Thus, North Korea has said that if any of its ship is stopped in the high seas for any reason, it will retaliate militarily against South Korea.
Also, satellite pictures show fume coming out of nuclear factory in North Korea, seen as a sign of resumption of weapon grade plotunium production.
The US has sternly warned North Korea for the nuclear tests and missile tests it carried out over the last week, saying that it will be made to pay the price for the arrogant act. The UN had banned nuclear testing by North Korea many years back, and North Korea just a month back, backed out of the five nation talks unilaterally, and now it has gone one step more of conducting under ground nuclear tests.
We need to see exactly as to how the new US administration under Barack Obama handles the delicate issue. In the meanwhile, South Korea has upped the ante by formally joining the nuclear proliferation protection group, which is expected to anger North Korea further.
North Korea continues to haunt the new US administration right from the day it took charge. Last month it conducted the long range nuclear capable missile test, in spite of warning from US and Japan.
Last week , it conducted two under ground nuclear tests, which has forced the US to severely condemn it, and initiate UN security council meeting on an urgent basis.
Today, it has conducted two missile tests, one surface to air missile, and another one surface to sea missile. These missiles are also said to be nuclear capable. The war mongering between South Korea and North Korea has once again been kindled by North Korea.
The Congress party of India, which has won over 200 seats and is in the process of forming the government tomorrow, has got into the first coalition power tussle with its key ally DMK party. There were many rounds of talks between the Congress Party and the DMK over the last few hours, all of which ended up with no result.
Now, the Congress party might not be able to count on support from the 18 Parliament Members of the DMK party.
Talks of ministry portfolio sharing with two other major allies are on and the Congress Party is hopeful of getting their support without any problem.
