Friday, July 30th, 2010

Daily Verdict: October 21st, 2008

Dion resigns as leader of Liberal Party of Canada
Stephane Dion, leader of the Liberal Party, has officially stepped down as head of the party following last week’s disastrous election result. He will remain head of the party until another leader is chosen, most likely to happen in May at the next party convention. Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff, former university roommates, are the frontrunners for the position.

Obama to leave trail for sick grandmother, up in polls
Barack Obama will depart from the campaign trail for a short while to tend to his 85 year-old grandmother back in Hawaii who was fallen very ill over the last couple of days. The latest Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll has Obama up 8 points. Askmen.com also released the results of a poll where over 200 000 male voters elected Obama as the most influential man, behind Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Olympic hero Michael Phelps. Obama’s opponent, John McCain ranked 10th in the poll.

Stocks slightly down after yesterday’s surge, oil at $74
Most world markets opened the day down slightly after a big surge yesterday. The modest drop was to be expected after many indexes shot up to close the day before. However, Newsweek reports that investor anxiety appears to have lessened and Wall Street expects a stretch of back-and-forth sessions as markets recover. Oil also gained slightly as it is hovering around $74/barrel today with the scheduled OPEC meeting later this week expected to result in production cuts.

Thaksin gets two years after abusing power
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been officially sentenced to two years in prison for violating conflict of interest laws while in power when he helped his wife obtain land from the government. Thaksin, who recently fled his home country after his wife was accused of tax evasion, was ousted by a military coup in 2006 and political stability has yet to return to the troubled nation.

Iraq seeks new US deal
BBC reports that the Iraqi cabinet is attempting to change some of the provisions of a draft agreement with the United States that would allow American forces to remain in Iraq until 2011. The amended version of the draft will be given to the US negotiating team. One of the key issues seems to be immunity for US soldiers and civilian contractors.

Apple attacks Microsoft ad campaign
In its latest media ads, Apple takes a direct shot at the latest Microsoft ads. The “Mac vs PC” ads no longer focus its attacks on the Vista operating system but directly on the new advertising campaigns recently launched by Microsoft. The “Bean Counter” and “V-word” ads have become youtube hits but have received negative reviews from many critics who claim Apple is crossing the line by hitting below the belt. I guess they followed the example of the presidential elections.

Secret UFO files released
Britain’s Ministry of Defense has released a bundle of files relating to UFO sightings dating all the way back to 1978. The files stop at 1987 but news and media outlets have had a field day with this as many peculiar stories have already been reported with some of the mentioned parties providing riveting interviews.