Growing Fears for Greek Exit of the Euro

The office of Greek President Karolos Papoulias has announced that his country will be forced to hold a second general election after the parties failed to agree on a plan to enter a coalition. Talks are currently being held in Athens to form an interim caretaker Government until the next vote likely to be held in the middle of next month.

Fears are growing across the Euro zone that the Greeks will be forced out of the euro following the increasing lack of stability in their political class. There is also an expectation that it will be the extreme-left parties that will benefit most from the forthcoming elections following 5 years of harsh austerity and rising unemployment. . These parties have to various degrees been threatening to undermine the austerity model imposed by the EU and IMF under the terms of the country's bail outs. The election of such leaders and subsequent disputes with the EU could likely precipitate a withdrawal of Greece from the Euro.

American Politics and the Word Rhetoric

The word rhetoric is one which I had never encountered in my life up until I first began to take a deep interest in American politics just over four years ago yet one cannot have a serious discussion about the role of the media in American politics without using it. At the time of writing this, Tuesday March 6th2012, the possible Republican presidential candidates are preparing for the most hyped night of their race for the nomination so far. From where I am in France watching the major news outlets in America covering the race is has it has always been fascinating.

While I have already covered this topic in an earlier post I feel like the time is right to re-visit this issue given the historically low approval ratings of the American people in their congress and the hype surrounding the Republican race at least in the news media, if not in the general public.

Kony 2012 and Social Media

My post today is not essentially going to cover anything particularly newsworthy but was instead inspired by the actions of my friends. They did nothing particularly outstanding or noteworthy today that I am aware of but they managed to aid  the film Kony 2012 created by the Invisible Children Group on its way to its current total of over 4,200,00 views in just two days.

The film deals with the crimes of Joseph Kony who has ordered the abduction of thousands of Ugandan children as head of the Ugandan guerrilla group the Lord's Resistance Army (or L.R.A. ) and forced many of the girls into sexual slavery and boys into working as combatants for his ends. He as indicted by the ICC in 2005.

Weekend Randomness: The Domino Mattress World Record

Usain Bolt is crazy jelly!

Since the dawn of time people have worshipped at the altar of their favourite sports stars, from the great legends of folklore to modern sporting icons such as Christiano Rinaldo or Usain Bolt. Every one probably has one moment in their lives where sport played a major roll, where you watched mouth open as the worlds most impressive athletes shaved a few precious seconds off of that world record, claiming a gold medal and glory for the nation. 

The people who I am writing about today are not those kind of people yet they did manage to smash a world record this past weekend in New Orleans. 850 Americans broke the world record (as approved by an on site adjudicator from the Guiness World Records Group) for the longest chain of mattress dominoes. The preious worldrecord was 550 which had been achieved by a group in Belgium last year. The donated mattresses will now be given to various charaties.  A video of the group can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCVi6JjVaaA . 

Disaster in Congo

Brazzaville- Republic of Congo

As chronicled last year in my article Hell in Congo few places on earth compare to the Democratic Republic of Congo in terms of its atrocious poverty and standards of living. The nation still feels the effects of a War which is said to have ended in 2003 which claimed the lives of more the 4.5million people, the largest death toll in a single war since World War 2.

However, today's post concerns the neighbour of the DRC the Republic of Congo. While the DRC or Democratic Republic of Congo was once a Belgian colony, the Republic of Congoonce belonged to the French and achieved its independence in 1960.

Russia Goes to the Polls

Mr Putin -Not to be Messed With 

Today the worlds largest nation elects its President. The hot favourite is the omnipresident Vladmir Putin who polls suggest is likely to romphome with over 65% in a 5 man race. The country is spread across 11 time zones and there are 110 million people eligible to vote. Mr Putin had been President from 2000-2008 however, constitutional rules meant he could not run for three consecutive terms.

In previous years Russian elections have been dogged by claims of corruption and it appears this year shall be no exception. By midday in Moscow there had already been 1,000 independent claims of corruption, including such claims as bussing groups of supporters to different polling stations so that they may vote a number of times.

Nuclear Freeze in North Korea?

Earlier this year one of the world's most despised dictators Kim Jong Il passed away leaving his son Kim Jong Un to take his place. Little is known of the country's new leader, he is thought to be in his late 20s and is the youngest son of the late Supreme Leader, who himself inherited the title from his own father in 1994.  The edited footage of the funeral ceremony viewed in the West was a rare glimpse into the seldom seen North Korean society, even if it was a highly staged and orchestrated one.

However, as the memory of the former Supreme Leader faded the world wondered how the young incumbent would deal with power and more importantly the perceived nuclear ambitions of his country. Having been inundated with fresh sanctions following nuclear tests in 2009 the country revealed its ambitions to enrich uranium to a visiting delegation of Americans in 2010.

Samoan Economics and Time Travel

Samoa - Not ugly

Samoa is a small nation in the Oceanic continent. In order to improve its Economic prospects in the future it has decided to travel back in time, quite literally. You see the Pacific Island nation currently lies in the time zone GMT-12 or WST meaning that if right now its 12 pm in London, Samoans are only beginning their day at 12 midnight, they are however, 21 hours behind their relatively speaking neighbours in Canberra.

Samoans haven't been free from major overhauls in recent history. In 2009 the law was changed to force civilians to drive on the left hand side of the road, the same as is done in key "neighbours" Japan and Australia.

EU imposes arms embargo in Syria

The 27 state European Union has imposed an arms embargo on the beleaguered Middle Eastern Nation of Syria. Part of the so-called Arab Spring Syria has seen numerous anti-Government protests in the past few weeks, many of which have seen increasingly shocking and violent repercussions from the regime of President Assad.

Amateur video captured around the country reports troops backed by armoured tanks entering the main cities and rounding up civilians and the regime continues to block the entrance of journalists into the state. In the past six weeks, unofficial reports have stated that 3000 have been jailed and hundreds more have sacrificed their lives in the hopes of independence.

Weekend Randomness: Playmate Found Mummified

Yvette Vickers

The body of Yvette Vickers, a former playboy playmate was found severely decomposed in her Beverly Hills home this week. A neighbour of her's had claimed that the B-Movie actress had not been seen outside her home since the Summer.

It was this neighbour (Susan Savage) who noticed cobwebs forming on the Ms Vickers' letterbox. There she found the cordless phone off the hook and the electric heater still on. She claimed the body of her neighbour was barely recognisable.

Weekend Randomness: The Case of Tokyo's Oldest Man

This story is one of the site's most popular Weekend Randomness post originally posted on the 31st of July last year. Its a genuinely bizarre story and one of my personal favourites. 

The current world life expectancy average is 67.5 years with the Japanese being the most long lived population in the world with average life expectancy of 82.6 years. This contrasts with the average in Swaziland of just 39.6 years. This weekends random news comes from Tokyo, a thriving metropolis of nearly 14,000,000 people.

 So in such a long lived population there is a lot of interest in just who is the most aged resident in the city. Up until this week the record was held by one Sogen Kato a man of 111 years. The record for world's oldest man is held by another Japanese person Tamoji Tanabe in the Southern City of Miyakonojo. He is also 111 years.

Racism and the French Football Federation

Laurent Blanc

In one of the most shocking stories I have happened upon since starting this blog, a tape was uncovered this week outlining plans held to introduce an ethnic quota in the French national football team. This has spurred the Football Federation into action organising an inquiry into the origins of such a tape.


The tape implicates people as high ranking as the French national coach Laurent Blanc and François Blaquart, National Technical Director in charge of  youth coaching strategies. The investigative website Mediapart initially broke the story and transcribed the story for the media.

Opinion: AV vote in Britain

Perhaps in my old (20) age I am becoming a little bit overly nationalistic as I've noticed that my last two strongly opinion driven pieces have been  tinged with a somewhat anti-British sentiment. I am in no way anti-British or indeed any nation in the world so if any of you feel this way I would like to open this piece with an apology.

However, the media's treatment of tomorrow's AV referendum has me somewhat baffled. For those of you not in the know about UK politics the country will go to the polls today to decide whether to keep the country's current first past the post electoral voting system or to adopt the Alternative Voting System. These will be explained after the page break.

The Death of Osama Bin Laden

Obama watches real time footage of the attack

The internet and media outlets will no doubt be abuzz with the aftermath of the death of Osama Bin Laden for the coming weeks and months. His killing on the night of Sunday the 1st of May in Abbottabad has been welcomed by massive celebrations at the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and by public representatives of all political denominations across the world. 

The death raises a number of questions. Firstly, there will be retaliation from Al Qaeda, it is a question of when, not if. It is up to security forces to foil attempts as successfully as they have many times in the past. Osama Bin Laden has undoubtedly become a martyr for the cause of Islamic Fundamentalism and indeed for many he had become a spiritual figurehead for many extremists in the Church. The second question is a little more complex.

Tornadoes Ravage the South of America

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

As the world *sigh* celebrated the Royal *sigh* wedding on Friday the people of the Southern states in America were dealing with the aftermath of a multitude of terrifying tornadoes in concentration across 6 states. As of today the lives of some 340 people were claimed by the extreme weather conditions, the majority of which some from the State of Alabama.

The city of Tuscaloosa was badly effected with officials reporting 1,600 people were treated by medical personnel. 31counties among the state's  67 were effected by the storms. President Obama signed the State's state of emergency act and has ordered the mobility of federal services to supplement the local efforts.

Weekend Randomness: The Tattoo and the Murder Conviction

Anthony Garcia

Tattoos are something that often polarizes opinion. While some consider them a beautiful form of body art, others consider them a  painful laser surgery waiting to happen ( or at least something to be regretted down the line). Few, I would be willing to bet, would consider them possible evidence in a murder trial.

This weeks Weekend Randomness deals with the case of one Anthony Garcia who hails from the city of Los Angeles, California. In 2004 Garcia was arrested regarding driving offenses and while in custody had his tattoos photographed by the police.  Fast forward 4 years and LA Sergent Kevin Lloyd was searching through a mugshot book when he happened on the picture of a bare chested Garcia.

President Obama's Birth Certificate

Barrack Obama

In the past few hours President Barack Obama has released the long form copy of his birth certificate confirming he is in fact an American Citizen. Perhaps the headline should have read "Hussein" in American birth shocker or maybe another obvious choice would have been "PresidentTtakes Bizarre Decision to Prove he is American".

Numerous people have questioned the President as to his nationality since he began the race for the White House as far back as the last Democratic Caucases.  One of the most notable of these critics is business tycoon and presenter of the US version of The Apprentice, Donald Trump. He has humbly stated his personal pride in "accomplishing someting no-one lese has accomplised. I am really honoured to have played such a big role in hopefuly getting rid of the issue". President Obama's comments on the issue were more dismissive of Mr. Trump's "achievement". He claimed, " We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We've got better stuff to do".

Reform in Cuba as Castro Steps Down?

Fidel Castro

Around the world there are few leaders as well known as Fidel Castro. The leader of the small Communist nation of Cuba has been a key figure in International Politics for decades, owing to his conflicts with US presidents and close ties with other Communist or Socialist regimes.  He has been awarded the" Golden Medal and the First Class Order of the National Flag" by everyone's favourite North Korean dictatorship in 2006 while in 1962 he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church by the then Pope John XXIII. These are just two of the many dubious accolades attained by Mr Castro in his long career spanning over 4 decades. However, in what had been suspected for months even years, he officially announced his resignation yesterday as leader of his country's Communist Party.

Political analysts are now pondering what ths may mean for the country. Perhaps the face at the top, Castro's brother Raul may not look so different but his policies do show the beginnings of a possibly bigger change for the small nation.  The country is currently suffering economically and those with the power in Cuba are fully aware of this. Just this past Monday a raft of legislation was introduced in order to aid the suffering of ordinary Cubans.

Gudhafi Remaining Defiant

Colonel Gudhafi

Over the course of the break in updates the world watched in amazement as rovolts began all across North Africa and the Middle East.  However, none as yet seem to have gone on as long or are as bloody as the continuing conflict in the North African nation of Libya.

No doubt spurred on by there neighbours the uprisings against Gudhafi began on the 11th of February 2011. Gudhafi responded with armed violence to these protests and made it known he had no intention of leaving power. Rebels moved eastward to the coastal city of Benghazi from where they were able to establish an coalition Government known as the Transitional National Council. In early March Gudhafi's forces began to rally to the East and have since reclaimed the rebel stronghlold of Benghazi and numerous other major cities along this coast. The final remaining stronghold of Misratah is currently undergoing an intense offensive by Gudhafi's troops. The situation is now subject to an international response.

Japanese Disaster- The Aftermath

For the return of Junction News I have chosen a story very close to my heart. I have written a number of stories about Japan on Junction News from the light hearted (Sumo Association) to the downright bizarre (Tokyo's Oldest Man) however, the world was collectively forced to look eastwards in March to witness the land of the rising sun sufferring its worst disaster since World War 2.

Of course as a self-confessed Japanophile and student of the Japanese language tit is strange not to feel some sort of  affinity with the Japanese people, even if I have never yet made the journey to Nihon and a great sadness at the complete levelling which ccurred at some of the Northern towns.  One of the most shocking pieces of footage filmed throughout the disaster was this one linked below taken at an airport in Sendai.