The Week in News
By: Hope Wilkos, Writer/Blogger
Photographer: George Whylie
Videographer: Maxine Nolan
Photos Courtesy of A/P and Getty Images
Although we haven’t yet made it one month into the new year, many newsworthy stories took place over the last week.
The Republican candidates traveled to New Hampshire as the second stop of the primaries, all with aspirations to head to the White House. Former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, took the lead and his optimism will carry him to the finish line confident that he will be the overwhelming winner in the end.
Tensions are building between Iran and the United States. Iran has accused Israel and the U.S. of killing nuclear scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, in a bomb explosion. U.S. Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, vehemently denies the accusation. Iran has been urged to halt its quest for the nuclear bomb by U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Iran claims that its nuclear program is strictly in place for producing civilian energy. Later in the week, Iran convicted and sentenced an American to death who had been on trial for spying.
Standard and Poor’s has been keeping a watchful eye and has decided to downgrade many European governments based on their financial situations. Affected are the credit ratings of France and Austria now downgraded one notch. The credit rating of Italy, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus have also been downgraded by 2 notches. Also downgraded a notch were Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia. As a ripple effect, this resulted in the modest decline of stock markets around the world including the United States.
Just as former Presidential candidate, John Edwards, was set to go to trial on criminal corruption charges, it was announced that Edwards has a very serious heart condition that will need a medical procedure next month before it becomes life-threatening. This will once again delay the trial as he will not be able to travel and will need ample time to recuperate. If Edwards were found guilty, he could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine.
In a strange twist of fate, Natalee Holloway was officially declared dead this week just as Joran van der Sloot was found guilty in the brutal slaying of a 21 year-old girl in a Peruvian hotel. His sentence is 28 years in prison. He was tried in Peru and as the decision was announced, there was no remorse on his face , no expression.
Six and a half years after her disappearance in Aruba, Natalee has been legally declared dead although no body has been recovered. Holloway’s father has been continuing to pay her medical insurance but believes that she would want him to stop so that he may now concentrate on putting the funds into a college fund for her younger brother.
After years of turmoil and turbulence and much violence, the United States and the Taliban may be getting closer to beginning peace talks. If President Hamid Karzai is in agreement with the negotiations, we could be on the way. It is possible that Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, will head to Kabul this coming week to formulate the details. We are all hopeful but we must understand that there are pre-conditions that will need to be met during this peace process were it to take place.
The week ended with a horrible tragedy as the Italian luxury liner, Costa Concordia, hit a sandbar near the island of Giglio, off the coast of Tuscany and quickly began to go down in what has been compared to a modern day Titanic sinking. Although parent company, Carnival Corporation, stands convinced that the crew acted in the best interests of the passengers and were brave and quick to begin emergency procedures, many of the passengers disagree. Chaos created fear and panic and survivors tremble when they recount the series of events that led up to their rescue. At least five people are dead and many more are missing. The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, has been detained for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship while passengers were still on board.
It was certainly a big week but perhaps the coming week may prove to be even bigger. It has already been announced that Jon Huntsman’s campaign will announce that Huntsman will drop out of the GOP race this week and endorse Mitt Romney.
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