Really?

With the advance on time we many times ear US government saying that they will quit from Iraq FOR SURE, and the sooner the best!

This article shows what was not expected as Iraq proposes long-term US troop presence.

Iraq's government is preparing to grant the US a long-term troop presence in the country and preferential treatment for American investors in return for a guarantee on long-term security, it emerged today.

The proposals foresee a long-term presence of about 50,000 US troops, down from the current figure of more than 160,000.

The Iraqi target date for a bilateral agreement on the new relationship would be July, when the US intends to finish withdrawing the five combat brigades ordered to the country by the US president, George Bush, as part of the so-called "surge".

Dolars, oil and thanksgiving

Apparently it is very important to have the Oil hovers just below $100 especially for Thanksgiving!

World oil prices hit a new high yesterday above $99 a barrel, but just failed to break through the key $100 level. In another frantic day of trading, dealers pushed US light crude futures to a fresh peak of $99.29 a barrel, less than $2 below their record high, in inflation-adjusted terms, reached in 1980 after the Iranian revolution.
Trading was nervous ahead of weekly oil stock data in the US, which consumes a quarter of the world's oil.

Motorists in the UK have suffered as the average petrol price at the pump has moved beyond the £1 a litre mark. But the pain has not been as bad as in the US because the dollar, in which oil is priced, has been weakening against the pound.
The rise and rise of oil prices this year has led to growing speculation that supplies are starting to run out.

New on News

It was the other day in class when found out that The Guardian newspaper is dedicating for the first time in British newspapers a place to America.

Maybe because America has a lack of good information and perspective of what is actually happening internationally ... or maybe just because Europeans are good in their journalistic jobs and they appreciated over there. Either way, this a big event to newspaper and communication business!

gUSns

After such a high number of guns attacks in US, supreme court looks NOW to the law to check who should possess a gun at home or not.

As the article claims, the US supreme court is to rule next year on Americans' right to possess guns, the first time the country's highest judges have reviewed the law in almost 70 years. The nine judges are being asked to choose between Washington, which has had a handgun ban in place since 1976, and a courthouse security guard who claims the right to have a handgun in his home, in a high-crime area, to protect his family.

Warhol's painting in London

Art seen is an expensive business, even thou some might say that it is not a business because if you buy a piece of art with a perspective to sell it..well..things may don't work out as you wish! But this is not Hugh Grant's case.

Accordingly with the article, Hugh Grant made a well done business with Andy Warhol's Liz Taylor famous painting.

Reluctant actor, master of self-deprecation, tousle-haired English fop. Tonight a new description must be added to the list of Hugh Grant's qualities: modern art collector who has struck the jackpot.
An Andy Warhol work owned by the Four Weddings and a Funeral star will go on sale in New York as a centrepiece of Christie's auction of post-war and contemporary art. The portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, called Liz, from 1963, is expected to fetch up to $35m (£17m), 10 times the sum that Grant paid for it at a Sotheby's auction in 2001. Or to look at it another way, a profit of about $5m for every year he has owned the painting. Not bad work if you can get it.
How well the Warhol performs at auction tonight has ramifications that go far beyond the state of Grant's already healthy finances.

Extinction

Environmental perspective has been changing with the years, and people are now more concerned (or at least they should be) with species, pollution, fresh air or lack of it, and everything else related to a prevent the global warming increasement.

As we read in this article, there are more bear species threatened with extinction.

Six of the world's eight species of bear are threatened with extinction, according to a report from the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The smallest species of bear, the sun bear, has been included on the list for the first time, while the giant panda remains endangered, despite comprehensive conservation efforts in China.
The IUCN, which has updated the status of the seven species of terrestrial bear on its Red List of Threatened Species, said despite claims that panda populations were on the rise due to a ban on logging, the creation of panda reserves and reforestation programmes, it still considered the bear to be endangered.

Bhutto&Bans

Pakistani government will ban Benazir Bhutto rally, which will take part in a planned procession between Lahore and Islamabad, the Pakistani government said.

"All processions, rallies, political gatherings at present are outlawed," the deputy information minister, Tariq Azim, told the Associated Press. "So if she breaks the law, then obviously she will not be allowed to do it."
The opposition leader was due to set off for the capital from the eastern city of Lahor tomorrow morning. The journey was expected to take around three days, and thousands of supporters were thought likely to join her en route.