DEBENEY

The United States and Asia will soon have a closer relationship in military and intelligence. The U.S. Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, met with leaders of Asia to discuss the new strategic plans of the United States. Panetta also called for “open and free commerce, and open access by all to their shared domains of sea and air.” Investments will also be made in the newest technologies for cyber, space, unmanned systems, and special forces operations. By 2020 approximately 60% of the U.S. Navy’s warships will be in the Pacific Ocean. Defense spending in Asia has been projected to surpass Europe’s this year, which makes people skeptical on the timing of this new plan by the United States. Some say that the regional shift is due to tension with China and the threat that China poses to the United States, a concept that Panetta and other U.S. officials are denying as truth.

Egypt’s former president, Hosni Mubarak, has been sentenced to life in prison for killing protesters before he was ousted in 2011. The Cairo courtroom acquitted six of Mubarak’s aides to the displeasure of many Egyptians, but the 84 year old Mubarak was not let off the hook. Anti-Mubarak crowds filled Tahrir Square after the ruling, calling for his execution and for judgement to be passed on his aides. Mubarak was also cleared of any corruption and misappropriation of funds during hi tenure as president. The judge, Ahmed Refaat, also cleared both of Mubarak’s sons of any wrongdoing. Though certain political ad reform groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood are not satisfied with the verdict, it ends a 30 year run of iron rule by General Hosni Muburak. Mubarak arrived to Tura prison in southern Cairo by helicopter, where he will serve out his life sentence.

A mistrial was declared in the John Edwards case, due to the jury’s inability to come to a decision on a majority of the counts held against Edwards. It was first reported that the jury had reached a verdict in the John Edwards case,  but later discovered that the jury had only reached a unanimous decision on one charge. Lawyers for John Edwards ask for mistrial after jurors announced they reached a verdict on only one of six counts. John Edwards was acquitted on one charge of campaign finance fraud and a deadlock was declared on the other five counts. The jury could not assess if Edwards illegally used money to hide his pregnant mistress while he ran for president in 2004. The judge for the case, per the request of Edwards’ lawyers, called a recess until further notice.

Egypt’s elections have gone through the first round, and the runoff elections are set to be June 16th-17th. There has been some protest about the results as the runoff elections will put former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik against Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi. Crowds gathered in Tahrir Square calling to disqualify Shafik as he was part of the ousted Hosni Mubarak Regime. Thirteen candidates appeared on the first-round ballot, and 46% of Egypt’s 50 million eligible voters came out to vote. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who led a delegation which observed the voting, and says that though there were some violation the integrity of the elections was not moved. The winner of this runoff election will become Egypt’s first freely elected president.

The United States has joined the list of nations that is expelling Syrian Diplomats from within its borders. After a massacre in the Syrian city of Houla, many nations started removing Syrian Ambassadors and Diplomats from their country in an effort to show the Syrian government their displeasure with the situation. Many are saying that the Syrian government was directly involved in the Houla Massacre which killed over 100 people, with 50% of those people being children. Syrian government officials have denied any involvement in the massacre, but the International Community is in high doubts of those words. Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan has been on-call to speak to Syrian officials about honoring a U.N. cease-fire. The lack of honoring any negotiations with the U.N. has put Syria in a position where many governments are refusing any engagement with Syria’s government until there is positive change. Due to splits in the Security Council, the U.N. currently has no Plan B for Syria.

Criticism has plagued Facebook since it opened itself up to the market, the company opened up to an 18% slump on the NASDAQ. The original offerings were $38 per share, but now analysts are saying the company has been overvalued. Morgan Stanley, a global financial services firm, has been accused of providing false projections before opening up the Facebook IPO to the public. Morgan Stanley has rejected any accusations of impropriety, saying that the same methods and procedures they use for all their IPOs was used for Facebook. Many are wondering if some investors received privileged information ahead of the offering. Regulators continue to look into this situation involving Facebook and Morgan Stanley. 

President Barack Obama met with NATO leaders to discuss an exit strategy out of Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Obama met in Chicago with these leaders and proposed a withdrawal of the international military by the end of 2014. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO’s secretary general, said that a new training and advising mission will come into effect in 2015. Afterwards, Afghan President Hamid Karzai stated that Afghan forces will  be ready to take over security by 2014. Obama urged NATO to commit long-term to supporting Afghanistan, something which Rasmussen says will be done. After the NATO mission ends, there are plans to contribute $4 billion a year in order to support Afghan forces. It seems that both sides are primed and ready for the U.S. and NATO to go from combat mission in Afghanistan to a supporting role.