Daily News Channel
Since the earthquakes first struck Christchurch on September 4, 2010, our musicians have not only been rebuilding their lives, homes and rehearsal spaces, but they have sought to express themselves in many ways and, with a shortage of venues, in various creative places.
2010 was a tough year, not just for Barack Obama, not just for America, but for the West.
Even before Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced from New York’s Riker’s Island prison on Wednesday that he was stepping down as head of the International Monetary Fund , world powers were already jostling over who could replace him. Indeed, since Strauss-Kahn’s arrest last Saturday on charges of attempted rape, European officials have been swift to argue that Europe should maintain the hold it has had on the IMF’s top job ever since the Washington D.C.-based organization was created in 1945
In the depths of a freezing winter in 2005, European politicians anguished, as they do during many winters, about supplying heat to millions of homes and businesses.
Having been denied the right to puff in public buildings, workplaces and bars, staff and student smokers in Pennsylvania public colleges and universities now find themselves forced to leave campus property before lighting up.
While authorities in Japan work desperately to prevent a nuclear catastrophe, on the other side of the world in Germany, Angela Merkel is facing the political fallout.
It is not often you see Germans lose control. But late Sunday night at the party headquarters of the Christian Democratic Union Angela Merkel’s followers were dancing to tunes like “Sex Bomb,” by Tom Jones, many sporting black t-shirts saying, “We Will Remain Chancellor.” It was the victor herself, Angela Merkel, who called her party members to order.
Germans head to the polls Sunday to elect members who will form the country’s 17th Bundestag — the federal parliament. Two candidates — incumbent chancellor, Angela Merkel and her vice-chancellor and foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier — are vying to head up what has historically been a coalition government.
The German government raised its terrorism alert level after al Qaeda posted a video on the Internet threatening attacks in Germany if this month’s elections do not come out the way the terrorist organization wants. “The federal elections offer a special [opportunity] for propaganda and operative activity by terror groups,” the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
There’s a saying that the German peace movement has been using since the days of the Cold War that translates into something like this: “Imagine there’s a war and no one shows up.” Adapt that to German politics and you have a pretty good summary of Sunday’s pre-election TV debate between Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Union and her rival Frank Walter Steinmeier, of the Social Democratic Party, who is also this country’s Foreign Minister: “Imagine there’s an election and no one fights to win.” That is what viewers saw last night. With just two weeks to go until Germany goes to the polls, both candidates opened up by praising each other and saying how well they have been working together