Politics

Nick Clegg Gordon Brown David Cameron Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has been unofficially declared the winner of the first televised election debate in British history. The results of several early opinion polls concurred that Clegg's ratings surpassed those of Conservative Party leader David Cameron and Labour Party leader Gordon Brown: Populus for The Times—Nick Clegg 61%, David Cameron 22% and Gordon Brown 17% YouGov for The Sun—Nick Clegg 51%, David Cameron 29% and Gordon Brown 19% ComRes for ITV News—Nick Clegg 43%, Da

In a new setback to the Thai government's efforts to ease mounting political tensions, protest leaders escaped from their hotel Friday after security forces arrived to arrest them. One, Arisman Pongruangrong, climbed down three floors using a rope, and was rushed away by supporters thronging the building. The police say Arisman led recent rallies at the national parliament, the election commission, and satellite transmission bases. Officials earlier Friday said the government is preparing to arrest people linked to violent clashes with secur

Journalist, counselor, painter, and US 2012 Presidential candidate Joe Schriner of Cleveland, Ohio took some time to discuss his campaign with Wikinews in an interview. Schriner previously ran for president in 2000, 2004, and 2008, but failed to gain much traction in the races. He announced his candidacy for the 2012 race immediately following the 2008 election. Schriner refers to himself as the "Average Joe" candidate, and advocates a pro-life and pro-environmentalist platform. He has been the subject of numerous newspaper articles, and has

US President Barack Obama unveiled on Thursday plans for the future of American space exploration, committing to sending American astronauts to Mars by the mid-2030s. The president was speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a speech to lay out his plans for the future of American space agency NASA. His comments included assurances that America was not abandoning space exploration, contrary to claims he was doing so after he announced the US's budget for 2011, which would have ended most of NASA's current projects, including th

Current polls indicate that there is a high possibility that the general election of 2010 in the United Kingdom will result in a hung parliament. The polls, both independent and those conducted on behalf of political parties, predict that the Conservatives will win only 40% of constituencies, 10% short of that needed for a majority government. In the UK political system, each of the constituencies, whose number rose from 646 for the previous election to 650 for the May 6th poll, is represented by one Member of the House of Commons elected und

At least 31 people were killed by a cyclone in West Bengal, India, according to officials. The storm uprooted trees and destroyed several huts in the North Dinajpur district of the state. Civil defence Minister Srikumar Mukherjee reported that the storm hit the state late Tuesday in the North Dinajpur district of West Bengal. The storm snapped telephone and electric wires in the area. Mukherjee added that hundreds of people suffered injuries in the district, which is nearly 315 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of Kolkata, the capital of West B

The US Library of Congress plans to create an archive of every "tweet," or post made on Twitter. It announced the move via Twitter. Twitter's general counsel Alex MacGillivray told the BBC: "I think it shows the tweets are an interesting part of the historical record. This project however is not about us, it is about our users and the fact they use the service to chronicle these amazing events. President Obama actually tweeted after he was elected. That is a big deal and it's something he did. It is not something we imagined when we were formi

Kurmanbek Bakiyev left Kyrgyzstan today for Kazakhstan after large scale protest in the country forced him to flee from the Kyrgyz capital to his home village of Teyit. Kazhakstan's secretary of state and Foreign Minister called this "an important step" to stabilize Kyrgyzstan, thereby preventing conflicts in the country. The whereabouts of Bakiyev's brothers, whom Roza Otunbayeva, the interim President of Kyrgyzstan had refused security was not clear. The Interfax news agency of Russia mentioned witnesses claimed the deposed president had boa

The Vatican prime minister who made comments Monday linking homosexuality to paedophilia has been severely criticized by gay rights activists around the world. The official, Holy See secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said yesterday that instead of celibacy, homosexuality was responsible for recent allegations of child abuse by Catholic priests. He said, on a televised broadcast in Chile, that "Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have shown, I have

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Krakow objecting to plans to bury the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, at Wawel Castle. Kaczynski and his wife are set to be buried on Sunday. Burial spaces at Wawel castle are normally reserved for Polish kings and heroes. Groups of protesters arrived in front of the Archbishop’s of Krakow’s house on Tuesday evening, many of them holding banners with slogans such as “Are you sure he is equal of the Kings?” and “Not Krakow, Not Wawel”. A further 26,000 people joined a Facebook group titled “No

In a televised statement on Monday, Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva blamed the loss of life last Saturday in Bangkok on armed terrorists who had infiltrated the Red Shirt protesters. He added that the security forces had opened fire only when fired upon. The Prime Minister's statement came as he was suffering a double blow to his authority. As coffins draped in Thai flags paraded through Bangkok to symbolise the death of democracy, Thailand's electoral commission ruled that Vejjajiva's Democrat Party should disband. In addition, th

The bodies of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and first lady Maria Kaczynska are lying in state ahead of their funeral on Sunday. The couple died along with 94 other people when the plane they were travelling in crashed in Russia. They will be buried after a memorial to the crash victims. President Kaczynski’s body was repatriated from Russia on Sunday while the first lady’s was flown to Warsaw airport on Tuesday. Kaczynska’s coffin was driven to the Presidential Palace while draped in Poland’s flag. Thousands of mourners lined the six mile r