News flash

2004-03-01 7:10 p.m.

This is your Monday news report:

Global News: U.S. Marines land in Haiti as the spearhead of a multinational force. A few hundred Marines back with Humvees will participate in a multinational force augmented by troops from Canada and France. Security of the country is their main objective, but no doubt the troops will aim to care for the citizens of their own country. Given the composition of this force, it is most likely to remain as a peacekeeping force and not one like that of U.S. military interventions in South and Central America during the Cold War. Of course, the U.S. has known to take matters into their own hands.

2nd piece of world news: Israeli military forces killed two Palestinian members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in separate incidents Sunday in Balata, a refugee camp in Nablus. This is all too common in the Holy Land and will keep the deadlock between both sides. President Sharon and the Palestinians can still dream about any Middle East peace plan unless they can keep their agreements.

On the upcoming U.S. presidential election: The remaining four candidates for the Democratic nomination continued their attacks on President Bush before “Super Tuesday”, but there was still criticisms of each other. Senator Edwards yet again highlighted the sharp contrast between him and front runner Senator Kerry especially over the area of trade. Edwards is one known for his protectionist policy regarding American workers, but Kerr has noted loopholes in his line of thought. Economics in the real world. If the democrats win the next election, Singapore Free Trade Pact with the U.S. could be jeopardy. Even so, Kerry’s other policies sound more promising. Check out www.johnkerry.com.

Local news: The Asian Aerospace closed with a record of U.S. $3.5 Billion worth of deals signed and 63 000 more visitors than in 2002. Tight security turned away some aviation enthusiasts while the aerial display was one of the most spectacular so far. The crowd’s attention was centred upon the F-15 Eagle and France’s Rafale strike fighter and Europe’s Typhoon as all three were the choices to replace the RSAF’s aging A-4 Skyhawks. MINDEF’s decisions will only be finalized in 2005 but their choice will no doubt be influenced by strong political considerations. It is highly likely that they will choose the F-15 although my choice would be the Typhoon.

Other local news: The GCE ‘A’ Level results for the 2003 is likely to be released this week. This givens many 18 and 19 year olds (including me) anxiety attacks. The results are not like the O level results for this is one of the last hurdles which determines our future and no doubt the future of the nation.

My news: Had the day off as some of you already know. It’s is a well deserved reward after 15 days of madness. Oh damn, forgot to go back for Founder's day. I'm this bad in keeping promises, even to myself. Anyway, Happy 118th Founder's Day to all ACSians out there. Let's keep up the ACS spirit. Exchanged a couple of messages with the new friends I found this year and watched Lost in Translation. Love dominates the whole story but it also depicts a typical American who has never traveled outside his own country. This is true. I do believe that we Asians have more knowledge of the world that the average American, who can’t even tell whether Europe is to the east or west of their own country. Oops strong attacks.

Other snippets: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King swept almost all the titles in this year's Oscars. Of course this was expected. The thank yous were to the same group of New Zealanders.

I definitely can’t be a news caster. This is not objective at all.

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