Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of States, disappointed at Cuba’s response.

The US Secretary of States, Hillary Clinton, showed disappointment when Cuba’s leaders responded no will to normalize the ties with the country. The relations between Washington and the communist government have been given hopes under the Obama administration regarding to its attempts to improve ties. However, the response of the Castros government has torn any expectations as neither political reform nor ending for sanctions was an incentive. Cuba’s leaders still keep their blames for U.S. trade embargo, and believe that the U.S. together with Europe and Western media are playing an act to “demonise Cuba and to destabilize the country.” Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton drew a deep breath as she said Cuba didn’t want to see normalization because “they would lose all of their excuses for what hasn't happened in Cuba in the last 50 years." Improvement of the relation between these two countries seems not to be reality any time soon.
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8612765.stm

by Yen Do.

Chinese currency to be depegged

Since 2008 the Chinese currency, yuan or renminbi, has been prevented from fluctuating. Now, the government is making plans to let the currency revalue gradually. The Chinese government will be largely in control of all aspects of the shift. Some think this change may be brought about by the U.S. suggesting that China was "manipulating currency". What we do know is that when the peg is removed, the relatively inexpensive Chinese goods that we have now will raise in price slowly. Similarly, U.S. goods exported to China will become more expensive. This will help lessen the large trade deficit between the two countries, which as been said to be an unfair and pointed action by the Chinese. China argues that the currency is not undervalued and that the trade deficit is due to their abundance of cheap labor. What do you think?

Submitted by: Mallory Neumann

http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/04/06/beijing.rmb.shift.ft/index.html

U.S. set to pay Taliban members to switch sides

"You can rent an Afghan but you can't buy him." This old saying implies just that. So with Obama signing a $680 billion defense appropriations bill to aid with military operations in assistance with the Taliban, we are attempting to purchase an Afghan. This is a temporary fix and does not seem to be a realistic way to diminish the ongoing problem. While it is beneficial because it separates the Taliban members from their leaders, which weakens the group, it will only last us so long. However, this short term plan is the only plan implemented that shows some effects. There is no simple long term plan which will eliminate the hatred and violence, hence there being no world peace. Plus with this program we are putting trust into an untrustworthy group so it really is a short term plan and cannot be trusted to alleviate all Taliban problems for the U.S. but it is a start.

By: Lindsay Weidling