Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua Health Creates Power Struggle

The health of Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has been hospitalised for two weeks in Saudi Arabia for a serious heart condition, has sparked a lively public debate in one of Africa's powerhouses. Amid growing calls for his resignation in the media and from some political quarters, the government has been on the defensive, while the latest official news on President Umaru Yar'Adua's condition is kept under wraps.

Since a veil of silence descended on the topic once officials divulged his ailment days after his hospitalisation, speculation has already been rife about what the post Yar'Adua era could look like. The focus has turned to the presidential election due in April 2011.

Obama New Spendings To Boost U.S. Economy

Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment. Despite Republican criticism concerning record federal deficits, Obama said the U.S. must continue to "spend our way out of this recession" as long as so many people are out of work. More than 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago, and the jobless rate stands at 10 percent, a statistic Obama called "staggering."

Congressional approval would be required for the new spending, the amount unspecified but sure to be at least tens of billions of dollars.

"We avoided the depression many feared," Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But, he added, "Our work is far from done."

Obama's Email To Americans: We Will Not Back Down

Earlier today, President Barack Obama sent the following email message, which states his case for US Health Care reform. Below is a copy of the email message sent to Seferm Post:

Bloodshed in Iran: More Than 200 Protesters Arrested (Video)

Tuesday after more than 200 were arrested during marches by tens of thousands at universities across the country, the biggest anti-government rallies in months. The warning suggested that Monday's unrest raised authorities' concern that the protest movement could pick up new steam. The protests Monday turned into fierce clashes between youths throwing stones and riot police and militiamen wielding batons and tear gas.

Perhaps more importantly, they also saw an increased fervor and boldness among demonstrators, who more openly broke the biggest taboo in Iran — burning pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and chanting slogans against him.

Vladimir Putin Slams Officials, Businessmen For Perm Nightclub Fire

Russia - Vladimir Putin on Tuesday lambasted officials and businessmen for irresponsibility in connection with the weekend nightclub fire in Perm that killed 118 people. The fire chief of the city of 1 million, some 1200 kilometers (700 miles) east of Moscow, was fired Tuesday, Russian news agencies cited the Emergencies Ministry as saying.

Insurgents Take Control Of Iraq: Death Across The Streets

A total of four attacks, which also included a suicide car bomb on a police patrol, showed the ability of insurgents to strike high-profile targets in the heart of Baghdad. It was another embarrassment to Iraqi forces in their expanding role as front-line security as U.S. forces plan their withdrawal.

The blasts came as Iraqi officials prepared to announced the date for next year's parliamentary elections — a move the security forces worry could bring an escalation in attacks seeking to discredit the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Daily Mood: Jokes, Oddly Enough (December 7 2009)

"There was some good news in the US. The unemployment rate actually went down slightly. I guess they hired a bunch of people to work at the unemployment office, which balanced it out."
- Jimmy Kimmel

Evo Morales Wins Bolivian Election

Morales easily won re-election, according to unofficial results, getting an overwhelming mandate for further revolutionary change on behalf of Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority. Morales' allies also won a convincing majority in both houses of Congress in Sunday's election. Opponents say they fear the coca-growers' union leader union will use his consolidated power not just to continue reversing racially based inequalities but also to trample human rights and deepen state influence over the economy.

Unofficial counts of 98 percent of the vote by two polling firms said Bolivia's first indigenous president won with 63 percent of the ballots — 36 points ahead of his closest challenger in a field of nine candidates. Jubilant supporters waving Bolivian flags jumped up and down in La Paz's central Murillo square after polls closed, chanting "Evo! Evo!"

U.N. 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference: THIS IS IT!

The largest and most important U.N. climate change conference in history opened Monday, with organizers warning diplomats from 192 nations that this could be the best, last chance for a deal to protect the world from calamitous global warming. The two-week conference, the climax of two years of contentious negotiations, convened in an upbeat mood after a series of promises by rich and emerging economies to curb their greenhouse gases, but with major issues yet to be resolved.

Conference president Connie Hedegaard said the key to an agreement is finding a way to raise and channel public and private financing to poor countries for years to come to help them fight the effects of climate change.

Hedegaard — Denmark's former climate minister — said if governments miss their chance at the Copenhagen summit, a better opportunity may never come.

"This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we got a new and better one. If we ever do," she said.

Pearl Harbor Survivor Ed Johann Takes Center Stage

Retired firefighter Ed Johann was a teenage apprentice seaman on Dec. 7, 1941, when he spotted Japanese planes coming in over Pearl Harbor. He thought they were U.S. aircraft conducting drills until explosions and flames erupted from stricken ships in the harbor. Then came screams of sailors; the stench of burning oil and flesh. The 86-year-old Oregonian is due to return Monday to Pearl Harbor for the first time since World War II to attend a ceremony marking the 68th anniversary of the attack.

"I really don't know how I'm going to handle it," said Johann, from his home in Oregon. "When I think about it, all I have is unpleasantness. I'm sure it's not like that now."

U.N. Says We're 'Within Few Gigatons Of Having Climate Deal'

Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official, said on the eve of the 192-nation conference that despite unprecedented unity and concessions, industrial countries and emerging nations need to dig deeper.

"Time is up," de Boer said. "Over the next two weeks governments have to deliver."

Finance — billions of dollars immediately and hundreds of billions of dollars annually within a decade — was emerging as the key to unblocking an agreement that would bind the global community to a sweeping plan to combat climate change. Nations also must need to commit to larger emission reductions, de Boer said.

10 Most Embarrassing US Political Moments of the 2000s

McCain Strikes Zombie Pose after Debate

In one of the most amusing images of the 2008 campaign, John McCain was caught on camera sticking out his tongue as he walked off stage the wrong way following the final presidential debate. Photoshoppers went wild mocking "Zombie McCain." In fairness, though, if you'd just been bashed and bludgeoned in in three successive debates and knew you were about to become political roadkill, you'd look like that, too.