1) CAMERON PLEDGE ON FREE NHS
- David Cameron today promised the NHS would remain free for everyone under a
Government.
- the new Conservative leader said he would never go down the route of a health
service based on medical insurance
- furthermore, he wanted to transform the NHS into a more efficient, effective and patient-
centred service
2) BROWN AIMS FOR EDUCATION FOR ALL
- Gordon Brown today urges the leadersof a world's wealthiest nations to join a $10 bn (GBP 6
bn) drive to bring free education to every child on the planet.
- the UK Lord Chancellor says the move would help children to break free from the vicious cycle of illiteracy, unemployment and poverty.
- he'll urge finance ministers from the most industrialised G8 countries at a meeting in Moscow
next month to draw up detailed plans by 2007 for achieving that goal.
3) THE MAN WHO BOUGHT OFF WASHINGTON
(lobbyist's guilty plea set to expose bribery scandal at the heart of US political system
- Jack Abramoff, the disgraced former Republican super-lobbyisy, has agreed a deal with US
Government Public Prosecutor, opening the way for what could be the digest political influence
pedding scandal in Washington for decades.
- also, he pleads guilty to separate fraud charges connected to the purchase in 2000 of a fleet of
casinos gambling beats in Florida
- the conviction could send the lobbyist for 5 years imprisonment or more.
4) RUSSIA RESTORES GAS SUPPLIERS TO THE WEST
- Europe gas supply was returned to normal yesterday as Russia limited the external fall out of
its price row with neighbouring Ukraine, but the political crisis appeared far from over and the
two countries showed no signs of reining in their incrisingly acerbic rhetoric
- the crisis erupted when Ukraine refused Russia's request to pay $230 (GBP130) (RM -sort it
urself,please aka kire sendiri!!) per 1000 cubic metres of gas, up from $ 50 (GBP30) last year,
and Moscow retaliated by cutiing off Ukraine's gas supply on New Year's Day
- Germany, Austria, and Italy, which rely heavily on Russian gas, felt the pinch as there was a
dramatic drop in the pressure in the pipelines that supply them in energy, which cross
Ukraine
5) WHITE HOUSE TO WITHDRAW FUNDING FOR REBUILDING IRAQ
- the US government is not planning to continue funding reconstruction projects in Iraq, in what
appears to be a major climbdown from the White House one time pledge to build the best
infrastructure in the region.
- according to officials cited yesterday's Washington Post, the Bush admin will not be adding
construction funds to the $18.4 bn (GBP10.7) it has allocated since the 2003 invasion
- sadly to say, in future, it will be up to other foreign donors and the Iraqi government to do
what it can to complete even basic tasks such as supplying reliable electricity and water to the
country's 20 million people.
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