News Update!

OPEC Meeting!
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has brought forward an emergency meeting from Nov 18 to Oct 24 because of the financial crisis affecting the oil markets (really?). With oil prices skydiving from $147 a barrel in July to below $67 a barrel. The oil companies hope to get the prices back up to at least $80 a barrel otherwise the way that the prices are going it could affect Saudi Arabia's budget. True story. Oh right I forgot to mention that this whole meeting is about price manipulation..obviously.

Wow We Do Have Friends
Germany is set to deploy another 1,000 troops to Afghanistan and extend their commitment by a further 14 months. After a vote of 442 to 96 the German Parliament decided to help us out and bring their troop levels in Afghanistan to 4,500. This is all part of the 50,000 strong NATO soldiers.

Azerbaijan
Bordered by Iran, Turkey and Armenia, just held their Presidential elections. Unfortunately for them the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), declared their elections failed to meet democratic standards. With accusations of the government "forcing" their people to vote (77% of the population turned out to vote which is more than we can say for ourselves). The opposition boycotted the elections and the media was severely censored. So who won? Well the son of the guy who was in power for the past 30 years. His name is Aliyev and he secured 90% of the vote (shocking.) And on a sidenote, Israel's been selling them arms which ironically has Armenia up in arms!

Talk About Drama
The former Mayor of the Afghan province of Herat, has turned taliban leader. He is the most powerful local commander at the moment. Ghullam Yahya Akbari will not negotiate with the government until foreign troops leave. The 20 mountain bases that he now controls are the same ones that were used to drive out the Russians back in the '80's. He has also threatened the Taliban leader, saying that if Mullah Omar (that is his name) would have peace talks with Americans- Akbari would turn his guns against him. They are now holding three young policeman hostage.

Not That It Really Matters, It Just Fascinates Me
Paul Krugman (a guy you've probably never heard of), has won the Nobel Prize on Economics. A Princeton University professor and columnist for the New York Times, has been an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration's economic policies that has led to whatever the hell's going on right now. We see where the world lies on the matter.

Joe The Plumber
Evoked by both presidential candidates last night in the final debate 25 times, was small business owner, Joe the Plumber. Although some interesting topics were discussed that had not been previously discussed in the last 2 debates (i.e. charter schools, abortion, abortion and abortion), they were affixed on the problems affecting Joe. So much were they trying to pander to Joe, I was left wondering why the hell am I watching this?? Anyways after an aggressive performance by McCain, it turns out it didn't help him...at all. I was actually surprised at how partisan he was. Insta-polls that were released right after the debate gave the debate to Obama by 13%-16%. So all in all the final debate of this loooooong Presidential campaign, was no game changer. Surprise, surprise.

SO those are the things I happened to be thinking/reading/musing about today. Oh one last note, as i'm watching Late Night w/Conan, the actor in Oliver Stone's new video W is on and I just remembered that the movie's being released tomorrow...I want to see it...the end :)