Today's Update

- A new poll shows a dead heat in the Israeli election

Unfortunately there has been a series of explosions and bombings across the globe in the past 24 hours:
- A suicide bomber attacks a ministry building in Kabul
- 10 anti-government protesters were killed by a Grenade attack in Bangkok
- 17 Spanish students were wounded by an alleged ETA car bomb.
- At least 67 people died in attacks in the northeastern Indian state of Assam

The Return of the Update

- Syria becomes more confrontational in the face of US raids

- An earthquake in Pakistan kills 170 people.

- South Africa's ANC is slowly breaking apart.

- The Ukrainian parliament passes legislation that will secure loans from the IMF.

- Ethnic strife in India is intensifying a month before national elections.

- Rebels are closing to taking the Congolese city of Goma, the center for UN forces.

Weekend Update

- Newly elected Kadima leader Tzipi Livni will call for a snap election later today.

- In the midst of the global financial crisis, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director, was cleared of wrongdoing in a sex scandal by an outside panel.

- Yesterday, almost 500,000 members of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party protested against the upcoming visit of members of China's government.

- Before the financial crisis, there was the food crisis (the topic of an article in our first issue). Now, the new global crisis is exacerbating the old one.