Craigslist Under Pressure From 17 Attorney Generals Image via Wikipedia

Craigslist’s is back in the headlines as 17 Attorney Generals join forces to have them remove an advertising section that allows adult service advertising and is open to encouraging prostitution and child trafficking.

Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia Attorney Generals, a total of 17, have all signed the missive which has been sent to Craigslist owners and CEO.

The Attorney Generals say that the adult services section on Craigslist should be removed, due the organisations in ability to police the section properly to eradicate the “prolific” use of service ads for adult and child prostitution.

A recent open letter to the owners of Craigslist, published by the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle, is being used to back up the Attorney Generals case that women and children are being exploited via Craigslist’s classified ads section. The letter was from two girls who claim to have been exploited and trafficked via the Craigslist adult services section.

In response to the open letter Craigslist published a statement on their blog calling for Police to make available any information to allow them to investigate the allegations fully. They also stated that they had implemented a more rigorous manual screening process for ads placed in the adult services section and had rejected more than 700,000 ad applications since May 2009.

“your much-touted ‘manual review’ of Adult Services ads has failed to yield any discernible reduction in obvious solicitations.” said the Attorney Generals in their letter.

This weeks letter is an escalation in pressure after Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal issued a subpoena in May of this year requesting documented details of the ‘manual screening’ process along with revenue details pertaining to the adult services section.

The Attorney Generals letter states “No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution, and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist,”

Blackberry

There has been concern with the web and email services offered by the Blackberry in the UAE, and it was due to the fact that data from the Blackberry is exported offshore for management by  a third-party organization, according to a news agency in UAE.

According to Emirates News Agency, a state-run news agency, “Today’s decision is based on the fact that, in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE.”

The ban for the popular smartphone’s services will be initiated on October 11th, but it has been hoped that something could be done by Blackberry in order to derive a solution to the problem, with the pressure caused by the ban.

More than half a million Blackberry users will have their web services suspended until the security issues are addressed. Research in Motion, the company that produces the Blackberry, has not yet released any further statements.



Handmade-Jewelry

Hundreds of handmade and personally crafted items were submitted for judging at the Fayette County Fair this Friday, including handmade jewelry, bead work, ceramics, decorations, and more.

Entries were judged based on the quality of the work, as well as how much effort is put into creating the art works.

“You can really tell how much work is in something. It just has to be in your blood, I think,” said Janet Smith, judge for the needlework part of the event. In order to better display the items that were going to be presented for showing, the interior of the building was painted a bright shade of white.

The event was held in the Home Economics Building at the Fayette County Fair. Other events at the fair included a benefit auction that helped to raise money for 4-H. There were some interesting items being donated, including haunted hay ride packages, vacation packages to local lodges and destinations, animal semen, and more.

Florida-State-University

In order to reimburse the legal fees of media groups that sued Florida State University and National Collegiate Athletic Association, a sum of $325,000 is to be paid. FSU and NCAA got into trouble for attempting to block the release of documents related to an athletic cheating scandal.

FSU has agreed to pay $65,000 whereas the NCAA will be paying $260,000.

According to Carol LoCicero, the attorney who represented the group, “We hope that the attorneys’ fee payment here sends a strong message to government agencies and private entities seeking to impose secrecy — don’t mess with public records in Florida. We will fight for open government and hand you the tab.” More than 20 media outlets were represented by the law firm.

Athletes were found to be cheating in an online test, as well as receiving unauthorized assistance in their studies, resulting in the forced forfeit of 12 victories for FSU from the record of former football coach Bobby Bowden, as well as another nine sport.

Economic-Crisis

With the ongoing trend of the economic downturn, it understandable that Americans would look at the scenario in a negative light, even though the state of the economy might actually be getting better. In a poll conducted by Fox News that was released on Friday, confidence that the state of the economy and employment would go back to its original abundance was at a low.

Slightly over half of those voting in the poll, representing about 52% of voters, were with the thought that the economy was getting worse. In a similar fashion, about 56% of voters thought the the employment arena was getting worse too.

The previous week saw the passing of a $34 billion dollar package by the Congress in order to extend unemployment insurance, though not everyone thinks that the package would be helpful towards the economy. Though about 38% of voters thought that the package would be beneficial towards people who are seeking jobs, 46% thought otherwise, stating that the package would discourage individuals from trying to find jobs.

Real-Estate-Investment

In order to boost foreign investment in real-estate in the United Sates, a bill was passed by the House on Friday, and it went through quite smoothly. The voting went 402-11, with only one Democrat and 10 Republicans going against the grain.

The bill was first introduced by Rep. Joseph Crowley, and the aim for it was to help provide revenue streams for real estate investments, as the economic downturn is causing these areas to suffer.

Based on the present standing law, exemption from taxation for foreign investors came with investments of over 5% ownership in an REIT. The Real Estate Jobs and Investment Act allowed more investment by foreign citizen in the REIT before the incurring of strong capital gains tax.

According to an executive summary of the bill, “Under current U.S. tax law, foreign investors generally do not pay capital gains taxes when they sell stock in a U.S. corporation.” The summary further indicated that foreign investors with a stake in REIT were taxed more heavily.

Google

Earlier this month saw the making of a compromise between the Chinese government and Google. The result was that Google was able to continue the provision of its search services. However, it seems that those search and advertising services have been blocked once again, Google reports.

The Chinese government just renewed Google’s operating license a few weeks ago, and the recent incident may disrupt the successful achievement. However, it seems that several people in China have said that the services are working, indicating that the search company is not fully sure of the current situation. More recent news reports indicate Google announced that the web search service is not operating normally once again.

Though Google said that the images and news services were partially blocked, it seems that Gmail was still widely accessible. Conflict between the company and the Chinese government first erupted in early January due to Google refusing to self-censor search results and comply with government regulations.

Google shares seem to be down by twenty-two percent this year, falling up to 2.3 percent in extended trading.

France

Mrs Dominique Cottrez, a French woman “known to to be discreet, simple, and would not hurt a fly” has recently confessed to killing eight of her own babies. The reasons stated seem that it was due to memories of difficulty during her first pregnancy, but more details ensue in the case.

The case has become known as one of the biggest infanticide occurrences in the recent history of the country, and her husband has also been arrested for saying nothing of the killings. Mrs Cottrez insist that her husband was completely unaware of the pregnancies and the killings.

In spite of this becoming wide-spread news, it has been shown that the infanticide occurrence is not a new thing in France, and several cases has sprouted up since 1984. Earlier, in March, Celine Lesage, 34, was also sent to prison for the strangling of six of her newborns.

The occurrence of infant killings in France has been commented by experts as being a form of pregnancy denial, and it is estimated that 10 to 20 women suffer from such denial yearly.

Maggots

A 61-year-old Austrian retiree who had been paralyzed due to a stroke for several years was recently eaten to death by maggots. The man passed away while being taken by an ambulance to a hospital in Vienna, and his back side was shown to have been partly eaten away.

According to a police spokesman, “The man had not wanted to be washed for a long time.” The factor, along with the discovered extremely bad state of hygiene found in the man’s home might have been cause for the occurrence of the maggot infestation on the man’s body.

The man was sleeping in the same bed as his partner until his death, and the couple had been together for about a decade or so. The policed questioned his 34-year-old partner about his condition and the situation.

The ambulance was called after the lady phoned in to say that the elderly man was having problems breathing. But the paramedics got themselves a shock by seeing the maggots that were eating away at the man’s body.

The woman has since then been arrested in order to question further into the case regarding the man’s death.

Clean-Water

An overwhelming 122 nations voted in favor of a new determination put forward by the United Nations General Assembly that clean safe drinking water should be a basic human right. Based on the resolution, it was revealed that more than 800 million people do not have the access to safe water that is drinkable, clean, and affordable.

There were no votes against the resolution, though 41 nations had abstained from the voting. One of those countries that abstained from the votes was shown to be the United States, with the reason being that the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva is addressing the issue in a better way.

According to John Sammis, deputy representative of the US to the Economic and Social Council, “This resolution describes a right to water and sanitation in a way that is not reflective of existing international law; as there is no “right to water and sanitation” in an international legal sense as described by this resolution. The United States regrets that this resolution diverts us from the serious international efforts underway to promote greater coordination and cooperation on water and sanitation issues.”

Other countries that abstained from the voting include the UK, Canada, and Australia. Brazil, China, and France were some of the nations in favor of the resolution.

Oil-Spill-Solution

The X Prize foundation, known for giving away strong monetary incentives for the meeting of their challenges has just launched their latest challenge, known as the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge. Wendy Schmidt, president of the Schmidt Family Foundation, funded the prize money for the challenge personally.

The purpose for the challenge is to inspire people from all over the world to develop innovative solutions for conquering the effects of oil spillage. This challenge comes after one of the worst oil spills in history, the Deepwater Horizon. Previous challenges related to the development of spacecraft and fuel-efficient vehicles.

The Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge will initiate on the 1st of August and will be open for a year. According to the official challenge website, the prize money will go to “the team that demonstrates the ability to recover oil on the sea surface at the highest oil recovery rate and the highest recovery efficiency.”

Chairman of the X Prize foundation, Peter Diamandis, is expecting that there will be hundreds of entries to the competition in a bid to solve the problem of oil spillage. Other challenges are coming up as well, including challenges for sequencing the human genome and another for landing a robot on the moon.

'© BP p.l.c

Testing on the new cap to seal the leak on the MC252 well, in the Gulf of Mexico were delayed yesterday whilst a leak in a pipe on the side of the new cap was investigated.

Amid fears that the new cap, BPs best hope to date of stopping the Oil leak, may not be able to with stand the pressure of the Oil leak. The company comes under attack from another front with allegations that they lobbied the British government for the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Al-Megrahi with drilling rights off the coast of Libya in mind.

US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has pledged to consider congressional pressure to launch a full investigation into the matter.

BP have increased efforts to control and manage the Oil flow into the Gulf of Mexico including increasing Q4000 operations to reclaiming 20,000-25,000 barrels of oil per day and the drilling of 2 relief wells.

The Taste Of Buffalo, the annual celebration in the city of Buffalo, is happening this weekend, July 10th and 11th. Of course, each year, it has gained momentum and is now the largest food festival in the United States. Featuring foods from all over the world, there is cuisine for every taste. People from all over the North Eastern United States gather to join the celbration in downtown Buffalo, New York.

Several dozen restaurants and wineries will be on hand to serve up the food and beverages while guests enjoy the varied tastes. Wineries will be showcasing their vintages that have won award after award.

The event is a fantastic time for all involved and the proceeds go to a great cause, supporting 20 local charities and scholarships. There is also the 5th Annual Buffalo Book Fair in downtown Buffalo to add to the festivities of the weekend.

The event begins at 11:00 AM  Saturday at is expected to have a turnout of over 450,000 people from all over the region.

The use of fuels that are non-renewable sources of energy has proven to be somewhat of a hot topic is recent years.

However, in spite of the fact that many automobile companies are investing in the use of solar powered vehicles and cars, the mass use of such items is still not something that can be achieved that easily, or is it?

In the latest scientific event of the month, a plane that was powered by solar energy has successfully completed its first twenty four hour flight, showing that it can harness more than enough solar energy to keep flying at night after the setting of the sun.

“We achieved more than we wanted. Everybody is extremely happy,” pilot Andre Borschberg said after he had successfully landed the plane.

Borschberg  brought the plane, dubbed the Solar Impulse, through its first successful endeavor, landing itself on the runway of Payerne airfield at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

The plane brings hope for the widespread use of renewable energy vehicles.

July 1st marks the momentous occasion of the birth of the country known to many as Canada, and this year’s birthday saw Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip paying a royal visit.

Arriving at Parliament Hill in the capital of the country, the 84-year old monarch had much to be delighted in with the cheering crowd of over 75,000 Canadians present to celebrate the event.

The pair arrived in a horse-drawn carriage, accompanied by the country’s RCMP, and were greeted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and family.

The last time that the Queen had come to Ottawa for the celebration of Canada Day was in 1997.

In a speech to address the country’s 143rd birthday, the Queen wished the country a very happy birthday in both English and French.

“During my lifetime, I have been a witness to this country for more than half its history since Confederation. I have watched with enormous admiration how Canada has grown and matured while remaining true to its history, its distinctive character, and its values.

This nation has dedicated itself to being a caring home for its own, a sanctuary for others and an example to the world,” she said.

The annual fireworks display at Parliament Hill, marked another new year in the country’s history.

© BP p.l.c.

BP today announced that they have made the starting payment of $60 million towards the Barrier Islands Project. They have pledged to fund the whole $360 million project and will make the payments directly to Louisiana state.

The payments will be made at certified completion stages of 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and the final payment will be made on full completion.

“We are committed to doing everything we can to protect the coastline and reduce the impact of the oil and gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We understand that the United States Coast Guard and the State of Louisiana want this project to proceed with urgency, so we want to ensure that funding is immediately available to begin construction of the berms,” said Bob Dudley, Managing Director.

This announcement is the latest in BP’s ever increasing needs to respond to the current Oil and Gas Spill disaster.

In an address issued on Tuesday 1 June US Attorney General Eric Holder voiced his concerns over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

He acknowledged that efforts and priority’s should be directed in the first instance towards controlling the leak and managing the spill.

He also said “, we must also ensure that anyone found responsible for this spill is held accountable. That means enforcing the appropriate civil – and if warranted, criminal – authorities to the full extent of the law.”

He has assembled a team of attorneys that were dispatched to New Orleans during the early stages of this now escalating disaster some of the areas that they will be reviewing are

• The Clean Water Act, which carries civil penalties and fines as well as criminal penalties;

• The Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which can be used to hold parties liable for cleanup costs and reimbursement for government efforts;

• The Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Endangered Species Acts, which provide penalties for injury and death to wildlife and bird species; and,

• Other traditional criminal statutes.

In the statement he issued assurances that whilst it was the responsability of the Federal Government to ensure that practical matters pertaining to the spill are attended too.

It is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to ensure that the American Taxpayer does not foot the final bill for what is considered to be a problem or accident that is soley the responsibility of BP.

© BP p.l.c

As BP struggle to control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico President Obama is set to meet with the members of his probe panel today. They have been tasked with investigating the biggest oil spill since the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989.

The spill is rapidly closing in on 2 months now as well as reaching the shore lines of Mississippi and Alabama. Meanwhile the Louisiana National Guard are busy carrying out operations to inflate a Tiger Dam to protect the Grand Isle from oil being carried by the high tides.

With the Hurricane season now officially open the urgency with which this disaster must be controlled has heightened. Not only will Hurricanes help to spread the oil slick further up the US Gulf coast, possibly even as far as Florida, they will also hamper any efforts to control the flow of oil from the failed blowout protector.

In a statement released today from BP

“Preparations are ongoing for deployment of the lower marine riser package (LMRP) cap containment system”

“Deployment of the system will involve connecting the containment cap to a riser from the Discoverer Enterprise drillship and then placing it over the LMRP, with the intention of capturing most of the oil and gas flowing from the well and transporting it to the drillship on the surface.”

Meanwhile work continues on the 2 relief wells, an attempt to reduce the flow by extracting the oil and gas from these 2 well’s. Work is expected to take approximately 3 months to complete. The relief wells where started on May 2 and May 16 which means that the soonest they can be expected to be operational will be early to mid August.

There are over 1600 vessels involved in the response to this emergency and some 13.5 million gallons of oily liquid have so far been recovered.

To date the estimated cost of this oil spill is $990 million however it is far to early to begin to estimate the total cost of the incident as it continues to develope.

President Obama has been forced to admit that the US government and military do not have the requisite skills or equipment to deal with this situation and are therefore forced to let BP continue to manage the situation.

At least 70 are dead and around the same amount are wounded in a coordinated attack on mosques of a minority sect during Friday Prayer in Lahore, Islamabad Pakistan. This information was provided by the city coordinating officer.

The almost minute perfect timing of the two attacks took place at two mosques a few miles apart. The mosques are both part of the Ahmadi sect which pakistan does not recognise as part of Islam and is therefore discriminated against by Pakistani Law.

“Geo TV, a leading news channel in Pakistan, reported that members of the Punjab branch of the Pakistani Taliban were claiming responsibility for the attacks. The Punjab branch is composed mainly of formerly state-sponsored sectarian groups, including Lashkar-e-Jangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which have joined forces with the Taliban.”

It took the police more than three hours to gain control of the situation at one point one of the attackers fired on the police from atop the buildings.

It is most probable that the assaults where organised by extremists whom had previously issued threats. This had been going on for the last two years. With nearly 2 million Ahmadis who are forbidden by law to engage in Muslim practices and a government that refuses to acknowledge their sect and this was a melting pot waiting to happen.

Atlantis landed after a 4.9 million mile journey on Wednesday 8.48 EDT after it’s final planned flight, there is a pending supply flight for Atlantis next year.

There are only 2 more planned flights this year one for each of the other shuttles, Endeavour and Discovery. They will continue with the outfitting and assembly of the international space station. Which is a multi nation project costing $100 Billion. The space station project has been running for 12 years now and there are 16 nations involved.

NASA first began flying the shuttles in 1981 and there is speculation that they are to be retired due increasing maintainance costs with some safety concerns as well. There is also the fact that they are not able to go beyond the orbit of the space station.

Mike Moses a shuttle program manager says :

“The shuttles are not old. They’re in fantastic shape. They fly perfectly and they do exactly what we need them to. We just don’t have the budget to continue to keep doing that, plus more, plus expand beyond low-Earth orbit, so at some point you just have to balance your book and decide what to do next. That’s the reality,”

Controversially President Barack Obama is trying to push a proposal through congress that will see a program to develop capsules and rockets geared towards landing a US astronaut on the moon cancelled in favour of a program to develop technology to travel further.

Afghan insurgents have attacked a key NATO base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The airfield came under rocket and mortar fire, followed by a ground assault, during which the insurgents tried to breach the perimeter of the base but were repelled by security forces. Several NATO personnel were injured.

This is the second attack on a major base in the last few days. On Wednesday, the US base at Bagram was attacked by militants, during which an American contractor was killed.

Other attacks over the last few days have seen three NATO personnel killed, along with a civilian worker.

The attack has forced a last minute change in plan for three British cabinet ministers, led by Foreign Secretary William Hague, who were due to visit the Kandahar airfield but will no longer do so.

NATO said in a statement that “a number” of military and civilian personnel were wounded, but there were no confirmed fatalities.

On Tuesday, a taliban suicide bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, killing 18 people, including 6 NATO soldiers.

The taliban has recently declared a spring offensive against NATO and the Afghan government. Earler on Saturday, a cache of hundreds of rockets were found by Afghan police on the outskirts of Kabul.

The British Prime Minister is at the centre of security fears due to his habit of walking to the House of Commons and driving himself, even getting caught in London traffic jams with the rest of the general population.

He has rejected the advice of top security officials, demanding to keep his Blackberry smartphone and refusing motorcycle escorts. Officials are increasingly nervous, believing he is making himself vulnerable to attack. It has also been suggested that those around him are also more vulnerable because of this. Security officials have also expressed fears that his behaviour also undermines the governments message on national security. The threat assessment from MI5 is now at ‘severe’, which means an attack is ‘highly likely’.

A former police protection commander says “He can’t have it both ways. He’s walking around like he’s at a garden party yet the public endures tight security at airports, and the Houses of Parliament are ringed with bollards, barricades and armed police.”

Another source says “With iconic figures, like royalty or the PM, there are also the threats you cannot assess — the fixated and the obsessed.”

President Obama also insisted on hanging onto his own phone last year, but eventually gave in and accepted an ‘encrypted device’. David Cameron is being advised to do the same.

Friends of Mr Cameron say that he is feeling ‘constrained’ by the constant presence of security and wants to be able to step outside the bubble.

The Camerons have not moved into 10 Downing St, the traditional home of British Prime Ministers, and the Osbornes are resisting taking up residence in number 11. Sources say that if they do not move, then millions of pounds will have to be spent to install security in their current homes.

Courtesy of The Hindu

More than 150 people are dead in Indias worst air disaster in 14 years.

The plane came off the ‘tabletop’ runway at Bajpe airport, Mangalore, India, and crashed into a gorge. The airport is located 19 miles (31 kilometers) outside of Mangalore city and sits on top of a plateau surrounded by dense vegetation and hills. It is believed that cloudy conditions, causing reduced visibility, may be a contributing factor in the accident. Rescue workers are still at the scene, but say that the chances of finding any more survivors are ‘low’. The airport is currently closed.

Around 8 survivors are in hospital, with three of those suffering ‘serious injuries’. Witnesses have described the horror of trying to pull charred bodies from the wreckage. One survivor, Umer Farooq, speaking from his hospital bed, said the aircraft had just touched down when “the plane veered off toward some trees on the side and then the cabin filled with smoke. I got caught in some cables but managed to scramble out.” Most of the passengers were Indian nationals and so far, police say around 120 bodies have been recovered.

The accident is the worst in India since a mid-air collision between a Saudi airliner and a Kazakh cargo plane in 1996, which killed 349 people.

After much toing and froing over the weekend and the last few days David Cameron and Nick Clegg backed by their respective parties have formed a coalition government for the UK.

Rightly and honourably Gordan Brown has tendered his resignation and so begins the task of stabilizing and reconstructing the UK parliament.

Here is the full new Parliment line up.

David Cameron (con) Prime Minister

Nick Clegg (lib dem) Deputy Prime Minister

George Osborne (con) Chancellor of The Exchequer

Vince Cable (lib dem) Secretary of The Treasury

William Hague (con) Foriegn Secretary

Dr Liam Fox (con) Defence Secretary

Andrew Lansley (con) Health Secretary

Chris Huhne (lib dem) Environment Secretary (prospective unconfirmed at time of writing)

Danny Alexander (lib dem) Scottish Secretary

At the moment the position of Education Secretary is still in the balance between Micheal Gove and David Laws.

All this is a vast difference from the last coalition government between labour and the then Liberal Party in the 70′s where The Liberal Party where held outside of government. This time it is a full blown coalition government with both party’s hold key cabinet positions and a clear path of mandate amalgamation has been drawn up. Now we just need to see if this new government works…

Watch this space ….!

Well I said I would report back when the UK Election results were in and they are all but in now and I have to say that the predictions were almost exactly right.

The results as they stand show no clear winner by majority. David Cameron and the Conservative Party have at the time of writing 306 seats, Gordan Brown and the Labour Party have 254 seats and Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats have 54 seats. There still a few more constituencies to declare their results but not enough to change the over all standings and not enough to give David Cameron a majority.

So the UK now has a “Hung Parliament” and the horse trading has already begun. Gordan Brown has stated that the door is open for Nick Clegg to come and talk to him, whilst less than 40 minutes later in a televised statement David Cameron told the world that he was already in conversations with Nick Clegg. So now the games begin, it is widely speculated that ultimately David and Nick will join forces to form a majority government as long as some of the major manifesto differences can be ironed out and compromises reached.

The markets are not reflecting at the moment the unstable nature of this situation but this will only be the case for the short term until something solid is decided.

In the mean time because there is no majority government Gordan Brown as incumbent is entitled to stay put if he so wishes.

I’ll bring you more news as and when an outcome is reached.

The Polls are open and the day has begun. Today in the UK it’s eligible citizens will cast their vote’s in order to determine a new Prime Minister.

In the UK the system works very basically like this. The entire country is divided into constituency’s and each of them equates to a representative seat in parliment in all a total of 649 will be contested. The new prime minister is decided as the current leader of the Political party with the most seats.

However it is not in reality as simple as that in order for a party to acheive a majority government they must secure a minimum of 326 seats if this does not happen then a whole different system comes into play. If a majority governement is not achieved then a coalition must be formed this means that 2 or more parties will join forces in order to acheive a majority government.

As the polls were opened many political pundits are predicting a so called “Hung Parliment” this is the situation where no one party has a majority share of seats and then the negotiations start between parties to try and achieve a coalition government.

So the world awaits to see what the out come will be it is going to be a long day and night whilst the votes are cast and counted. We will not know the final outcome until later in the day tomorrow.

The main Contender are David Cameron (Conservative Party), Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat Party) and the encumbant Prime Minister Gordan Brown (Labour Party).

I will report back tomorrow with the results.

The Marshal Shaposhnikov, a Russian warship, is rushing to the aid of a tanker bound for China which has been hijacked by Somali Pirates. The Moscow University was attacked 560 miles (900km) off the Somali coast. The twenty three Russian crew are reported to have locked themselves in the ships radar room.

The oil tanker is a big prize for the pirates, who are likely to release the crew and cargo once a large ransom, most likely a multi million dollar one, has been paid.

Whilst international war ships on patrol in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden have helped to prevent some attacks, it’s widely felt that action on land, not sea, is the best way to end the piracy that abounds in these waters. Over the weekend, islamic insurgents took control of one of the main pirate bases. The pirates had already fled and have moved towards other bases along the coast, from which they continue their activities.

Various groups of pirates are currently holding more than 350 hostages and approximately 20 ships in various bases around the Somalian coastline.

Could this be one possible cause for higher fuel prices?

Roman Polanski, oscar winning film director, has spoken out to decry the US attempt to have him extradited from Switzerland on a child sex case from 33 years ago.

The 76 year old director, currently under house arrest, was convicted of unlawful sex with a 13 year old girl, and left America in 1978, before he could be sentenced. He has spoken out against prosecutors, saying they only want him to return so he can be served “on a platter to the media”. He claims that he “asks only to be treated fairly, like anyone else.”

He has made a 900 word statement in an online publication, run by French Philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, a prominant supporter. He says “I can no longer remain silent because the United States continues to demand my extradition, more to serve me on a platter to the media of the world than to pronounce a judgment concerning which an agreement was reached 33 years ago.”

When he was indicted on various sex charges, Polanski agreed to a plea deal that spared him further time in prison, but when it appeared that a Superior Court Judge may not honour the deal, he fled the country.