BY AMYWULFF
Cardinal Staff
Hello dear international news enthusiasts! As we begin another new year, we can only hope that we hear and see more positive than negative plots unfold on the world stage.
A piece of news that is impossible to stay away from and has hit shockingly close to home for some of our fellow students is the earthquake in Haiti. According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. troops arrived on Tuesday to “create the first major point for humanitarian supplies outside the capital’s overburdened airport.” In addition to the approximately 2,000 troops consisting of Coast Guard andMarines, the United Nations has pledged to send about 3,000 blue helmets and U.N. police “to help guard the distribution of aid.” In response to queries on why the military wasn’t moving more quickly to offer airdrops to help, Major General Daniel Allyn, who is in charge of U.S. operations in Haiti, replied, “Quite frankly, the earthquake did not take into account the location of drop zones.” Natural disasters hardly ever do. Thankfully, it looks like the world is working together to help Haitians as much and as quickly as possible.
Iran is back in the news, as it has “warned it will reassess its relations with Britain in a number of key areas,” according to Aljazeera.net. "Complaining that the UK, along with Western nations, was 'fomenting the post-election turmoil in Iran following presidential elections in June and of attempting to destabilize its nuclear program.'"
However, Iran is not the only one ready to do some wrist slapping, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to sanction Iran if it doesn’t change its nuclear program. In cahoots with Merkel is Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. According to Aljazeera.net, “Israel (…) sees Iran’s (nuclear) project as a threat to its existence.” Keep in mind, sanction after sanction has been presented to Iran about its nuclear program to no avail. Careful Merkel, you wouldn’t want to hurt Iran’s feelings.
In Afghanistan, just 24 hours after an attack paralyzed the city of Kabul, things were in full swing again, according to the New York Times. Shoemakers and shopkeepers whose stalls are at the site of the attack are back in business, both wary and jaded. In fact, one of the shoemakers is quoted as saying, “It does impress us. If they wanted to they could have killed everyone.” In general, many citizens questioned agreed that “the government was too weak to prevent such attacks and assaults.”Many are also wondering how the men got into the city and through many military safety checkpoints. Many people attribute it to the corruption that is actually “so pervasive that the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported on Tuesday that (they’ve been) led to the conclusion that the bribes people pay account for nearly a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product.” Wow.
Until next time, faithful reader, keep your eyes and mind open to the world we live in.
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