Major Developments » 2008

Illicit Drug Use Among Americans in 2009

admin — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:41:41 +0000

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) included 9 categories of illicit drugs which includes use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, and inhalants and the non medical use of prescription type pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives. In this survey, hashish is included with marijuana, and crack is considered as a form of cocaine. LSD, PCP, peyote, mescaline, psilocybin mushrooms, and ecstasy are included under hallucinogens. Inhalants includes nitrous oxide, amyl nitrite, cleaning fluids, gasoline, spray paint, other aerosol sprays, and glue.

In United States an estimated 21.8 million Americans aged 12 or older were current users of illicit drugs in 2009. It means that 8.7 percent of the population aged 12 or older are users of illicit drugs. This rate was higher than the rate in 2008.

In 2009, marijuana was the most commonly abused illicit drug and was used by 76.6 percent of current illicit drug users. 42 percent of the illicit drug users abused drugs other than marijuana. Current use of other drugs but not marijuana was reported by 23.4 percent of illicit drug users, and 18.6 percent used both marijuana and other drugs. The estimated number and percentage of persons aged 12 or older who used cocaine in the past month in 2009 were similar to those in 2008. Hallucinogens were used in the past month by 1.3 million persons aged 12 or older in 2009, including 760,000 who had used Ecstasy.

Number of the non medical users of psycho therapeutic drugs in 2009 were higher than in 2008. Statistically significant increases in the percentage using stimulants and sedatives contributed to this increase. Number of non medical users of stimulants increased from 904,000 in 2008 to 1.3 million in 2009. The number of past month methamphetamine users increased from 314,000 in 2008 to 502,000 in 2009. Rates for any psycho therapeutic drug use in 2009 were similar to those in 2007.

Treatment Statistics of Drug Abuse

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:07:16 +0000

Year by year the usage of drugs has been increasing. Regardless of the age considerations, the usage has been improved. Many people are using different types of drugs for recreational purposes. The illicit usage may lead to addiction and in those cases, treatment is needed. The treatment centers are increasing and the number of people who attend the treatment programs are also increasing.

According to National Survey of Drug And Health(NSDUH), during the year 2008, 7.6 million people aged above 12 were treated for illicit drug usage, which is nearly 3.0% of the total population. During the past year, 1.2 million people, i.e., 0.5% of the total population and 16% of the people needed treatment took the treatment under the specialty facility for an illicit drug use problem. Remaining 6.4 million people did not receive the treatment. The statistics for the years 2007 and 2008 were almost same. When compared to the year 2002 the illicit drug usage has been decreased and the decrement is 0.3%.

Out of people who did not receive the treatment some said that they had put efforts for the treatment, but some of them said that they had not put any efforts to get treated.

Now coming to the statistics of youth, aged between 12 and 17, there were altogether 1.2 million people i.e. Around 4.8% people in need of the treatment for the illicit drugs usage in the year 2008. But out of this, only 111,000 received treatment under the specialty facility which is around 9.3% of the youth need treatment aged between 12 and 17. The rest 1.1 million youth did not receive treatment under specialty facility.

The people who did not take the treatment said so many reasons like not ready to stop using, no health coverage and cannot afford the cost of the treatment.

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Automobile Industry Suffers Recession

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:29:38 +0000

Recession started to effect on global scale economy from the mid of 2008. This resulted in declining automobile sales and triggered widespread automotive industry crisis. This recession majorly affected the US automotive car industry. Many US car manufacturers face the problem of bailout and restructuring.

As per the New York Times, recession occurred mainly to US car industry because of bad business practices by “Big Three” U.S. automakers. These are:

General Motors
Ford
Chrysler

This fact can be justified by the example of Asian car manufacturer. These foreign-owned car companies also manufacture automobile in US and experienced no such problems. They have deep pockets and ample credits.

Because of following reason the US Big Three suffered in the recession:

Expensive automobile fuels price in the 2003-2008 oil crisis led to turn from SUV’s (sport utility vehicles)
High labor costs and their other counterparts like salaries, benefits, healthcare, and pensions.
Uncompetitive cost structures

The year 2008 heavily destructed the US automobile industry.

Salt lake wins MLS cup in 2009

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:44:54 +0000

The 14^th season league is the 2009 Major Soccer League. The MLS cup is the Pinnacle of professional Soccer in the United States. This is the second major soccer Championship played in Qwest field. There was a gathering of 46,011, the forth highest in MLS cup history, and it was seventh highest crowd in Qwest field History. The final was played at Qwest field in Seattle, Washington, and Real Salt Lake. The Major Soccer League Season played on 22 November 2009. Eastern Conference Champion Real Salt Lake and Western Conference Champion Loss Angeles Galaxy contested the match. Real salt Lake and Loss Angeles met twice during the regular season. Real Salt Lake won the game.

Moreover, their first MLS cup after winning 5-4 in a penalty shootout in a following 1-1 draw. ESPN televised the match in English and Galavision in Spanish. This was the first time the MLS Championship televised in Cable network.

Explosions at Airports in Thailand Created Political Crisis

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:09:03 +0000

On November 26, 2008, the explosions at two Bangkok airports provoked the closure of its main international gateway, which is a major center in the region for travelers. These explosions in airport are done by thousands of anti-government protesters to object the return of Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from the APEC summit held in Peru. The PAD (People’s Alliance for Democracy), which is an anti-goverment group, has been conducting protests against the government, for being a reason for expelling former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Protesters surrounded the parliament building on Monday, forcing lawmakers to postpone their session. Incoming flights have been diverted to other airports around Thailand and the region and the helpless passengers are made to fly out by other means. The closing of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports from November 25 to December 4 stopped 3.4 million tourists from visiting Thailand. There is a huge loss in many sectors. There is loss of 120 billion baht (currency of Thailand) (4.75 billion dollars) in the service industry, 90 billion baht (3.56 billion dollars) in logistics and 60 billion baht (2.38 billion dollars) in industry (ANI). The continous political crisis has frustrated government from decision-making and weakened investor faith in Thailand’s economy.

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Somali Pirates Hijacked the Largest Oil Tanker

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:58:42 +0000

On November 17, 2008, the U.S. Navy announced that Somali pirates had hijacked the Sirius Star, a Saudi-owned supertanker loaded with crude oil. The attack occurred on November 15, approximately 450 miles off the coast of Kenya. It has 25 crew members boarded in the ship and was sailing under a Liberian flag. It is the largest ship that is ever captured by pirates. It is owned by Saudi oil company Aramco. It is 1,080 feet long – nearly equal to the length of an aircraft carrier – so it is considered as one of the largest ships to sail the seas. The capacity of Sirius Star ship is nearly 2 billions barrels of oil. Somali pirates have captured several ships off the Horn of Africa in the past, but the hijacking of a supertanker created sensational news. The pirates are trained fighters, usually dressed in military attire, using speedboats or racing boats provided with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are mostly armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets launchers and various types of grenades. They collected nearly 300 million dollars in the year 2008 by hijacking ships. The Ship consists of 25-member crew from various nations like Croatia, Britain, Philippines, Poland, and Saudi Arabia. The ship and crew members were released on January 9, 2009 only after paying of $3 million in bribe.

Finally, Kosovo was Declared Independent from Serbia

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:36:33 +0000

In February 2008, the parliament of Kosovo, Serbia’s southern province with racial Albanian majority was declared independence. The province has been under the administration of U.N. and protected by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) troops since a 1999. The independence of Kosovo is supported by United States and superior European nations, including France, Britain, and Germany but was reluctantly opposed by Serbia and Russia as they feared that this can encourage separatist movements by other countries. Serbia considered Kosovo as beginning of their civilization, so did not accept Kosovo’s independence on its neighborhood. But in Kosovo, majority of people are Albanian, they opposed the discrimination of serbs on them and wished to have separate democratic province. The Protesters in Serbia argued with police outside the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade after the release of declaration. In Pristina, capital of Kosovo thousands of people large masses of people gathered in streets earlier to Sunday’s parliamentary declaration and it is followed by singing, dancing after Prime minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci announced the independence. A 100-foot-long birthday cake was laid on Pristina’s main street. Hundreds of people celebrated this moment by waving Albanian flags in Times Square. Kosovo government has clearly announced its readiness and its desire to support rights of Serbian people in Kosovo.

Fall of Wall Street had Huge Impact on Economy

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:09:46 +0000

The most sensational two days in Wall Street’s history are, on July 28, 2008 when Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to reduce increasing financial crisis and on September 15, 2008 when another famous securities firm, Lehman Brothers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. These incidents affected the broader economy, which has been declining firmly as the financial crisis has aggravated over the last year, this led to the increase of unemployment and in turn slowed down nation’s growth rate. They ended up a weekend with distress and with continuous discussions, as Wall Street bankers gathered in meetings at the order of Bush administration officials to take decisions to avoid drop in the markets rising from a crisis of confidence. Because of the crisis, US government had requested the remaining two major investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to convert themselves to be commercial banks. The Bush administration rushed to pass a $700 billion rescue of financial firms. The consequences of Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers would not seem to be connected, Merrill has the nation’s largest brokerage force and its name is famous in towns across America, while Lehman’s main customers are big institutions. But during the credit prosperity both firms piled into insecure or sensitive real estate and ended up severely damaged, with inadequate capital and toxic assets.

Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is recorded as the largest one

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:07:28 +0000

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is considered as the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history with Lehman holding over 600 billion dollars of property. Lehman experienced an unusual loss due to the continuous real estate and financial crisis. The impact of Lehman’s bankruptcy is severe. It is expected to cause some reduction in the price of commercial real estate. Lehman experienced pressure to sell securities in commercial real estate to liquidate (to get cash) its properties. Several money funds or mutual funds and institutional cash funds had done serious hazard to Lehman as there is fall in the share value to below $1 for the banks like Bank of New York Mellon and the Primary Reserve Fund which are involved in institutional cash fund and money-market fund respectively. Apartment-building investors are also expected to experience pressure to sell properties, as Lehman discharges its debt and equity of $22 billion. The degraded moves which transformed the outlook of American finance marked the restless chapter in the year 2008. The once-proud financial institutions had been collapsed, as a result, loss of hundreds of billions of dollars is occurred because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments.

Rise in Food Prices Created imbalance in Poor and Developed Countries

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:08:07 +0000

The sudden increase in food prices in 2008 created global crisis causing political and economical imbalance and social disturbance in both poor and developed nations. The short term causes for the rise of food prices are untimely droughts in grain-producing nations, increase in oil prices which led to increase in costs of fertilizers, food transport, and industrial agriculture or modernized agriculture, increasing use of bio-fuels in several countries that is, diverting of farm lands to produce fuel, increase in demand for different diet products, decrease in world-food stock. The long term reasons for rise in food prices are fundamental changes in trade and agricultural production, risky marketing of goods, and climate change. Major rice exporters, such as China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt, have imposed strict export bans on rice in order to secure food remains for their internal populations. The emergency steps that should be taken to come out of this crisis is to improve productivity in the commercial food crop sector, in terms of production, processing and marketing or else people will suffer from lack of nutrition. Agricultural development should be given top most importance on the global agenda. Governments should allow farmers to access little more fertilizer, phytosanitary products, good roads, processing facilities, credit, advisory services, insurance and information on prices, cut police taxes on roads and the cost of diesel.

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iPhone Created Revolution in use of Mobile phones

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:07:45 +0000

Apple has revolutionized the way to approach mobile phones. Apple has inserted application and design into a single device. Sales of iphones reached half a billion turnover after its release in span of two months. It became so much popular because of its features. It is having a serious impact on the mobile and computing industries. Apple iphone is simply a greatest smart phone ever developed, as it is very easy to use. It became standard for all future cell phone developments. The touchscreen technology used in this is marvelous. Apple’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, launched iphone and called it as “magic”, “super-smart”, super-hyped device, which provides more ordinary functions of the traditional phone. The iPhone uses Apple’s OSX operating system and enables users to watch films, download songs, store photos, as well as provides facilities like emailing, seeing calendar, and contacts. The new iPhone 3G was introduced on June 9, 2008 combining all the advanced features of iPhone with 3G networking that is very fast. It is made available in 70 countries. As Apple, iphone has good rechargeable battery, which lasts for long time, as it looks very stylish and design is unique, and available in good colors, they became very popular.

Financial Crisis is supposed to be recovered by 2011

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:07:10 +0000

Popular economists have declared the financial crisis of 2007–2009, the worst financial crisis since the one pertained to the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is responsible for the failure of important businesses, downfall in consumer wealth that is evaluated in the trillions of U.S. Dollars, acquisition of important financial commitments by government, and critical decline in economic activity. There are many causes for the economic crisis with varying consequence. With the increase in loan losses and the fall of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, a big alarm broke out on the inter-bank loan market. The banks of United States and Europe experienced huge losses, faced bankruptcy and this resulted in massive public financial assistance. The effects of global recession are, sudden drop in the international trade, increasing unemployment and increase in prices of goods. Several economists have supposed that recovery from recession may not appear until 2011. Growth in financial or material demand, improper regulation and administration and increasing irregularity contributed to the economic crisis which in turn led to excessive increase of resource prices. It had a severe impact on the world. There is drop in the world stock markets, large financial institutions have collapsed, and even the wealthiest nations had introduced rescue packages to provide guarantee to their financial systems.

Large Hadron Collider Experiment is Successful

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:06:22 +0000

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is situated in a tunnel having the dimensions of 27kilometres (17mi) circumference, located at 175metres (570ft) underground in the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland and its cost of building is 10 billion dollars. Two rays of subatomic particles called ‘hadrons’ either protons or lead ions will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, acquiring energy when passing through each orbit. By colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy, Physicists assumed that they could recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang. The new particles created after many physicists around the world with many experiments study the collision. They expected that many theories will come into existence and new world of physics will be emerged as the Standard Model of particle physics could only explain the fundamental laws of Nature but working and emergence of world is not explained whereas LHC can provide solution to this. The main aim of this collider is to investigate questions on Universe like creation of new particles ‘Higgs Boson’ which do not exist before. The initial test on LHC was conducted on 10^th September 2008. This experiment’s opponents, who had taken its architects to court in the United States and France, believed that earth will disappear as it will create black holes. Some people argued on creating of black holes and some argued that everything will be swallowed by black holes with Large Hadron Collider. But LHC experiment is successful.

Terrorist Attack in Mumbai Drew World Wide Attention

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:53:06 +0000

The terrorist attacks occurred at seven places in South Mumbai at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, the Orthodox Jewish-owned Nariman House, the Metro Cinema theatre. The shooting and bombing attacks by more than ten people, began on 26 November 2008 and lasted until 29 November, killing nearly 173 people and wounding nearly 308 people. After the 9/11 (terrorist attack on World Trade Centers in US) incident in 2001, the 26/11 (the Mumbai terror attack on 26 November 2008) is the terror attack to which the world turned its attention with serious concern as the hotels on which attacks were made had British, US, Israeli and some other nation citizens. The world leaders confirmed their support for India and showed unity in blaming the act in positive terms. The degree of terror act intimated the long-term plan of the terrorists that are associated with organizations like Al Qaeda of Pakistan. The three demands put forth by India on Pakistan are that they should handover the criminals involved in the attack to allow legal proceedings in India, it should destroy the terror networks established in Pakistan to prevent attacks on India and it must accept bilateral, multilateral and international agreements against terrorism. Though Pakistan has started the process of investigation superficially under the pressure of US, the results demonstrate the negligent approach of Islamabad in destroying terrorist organizations.

Barack Obama wins Historic Election Victory in US

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:52:31 +0000

The 56th quadrennial United States presidential election was held on November 4, 2008. Democratic party member Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican Party member John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona. Barack Obama became the 44th president of United States. He is the first African-American president of the United States and the first person of color to govern a country with a white majority. The U.S. Presidential elections had world wide attention as the victory speech of Barack Obama’s inspired many people worldwide and won spontaneous applauses from the crowd. Obama is a person who prioritizes logic over sentiment, discussion over conflicts and awareness over blind belief, which were observed in his campaigning. No president had ever influenced the United States into both an unfair war and financial crisis of the uncontrolled magnitude as done by George W Bush. He did significant harm to his country and the World. So, people of US wished for positive change and elected Barack Obama as their president. The main slogan of his campaigning is ‘CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN’ which influenced people. His Environmental policy, Fuel efficiency policy, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) policies attracted public.

Beijing Olympics is Memorable

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:51:27 +0000

Beijing National Stadium also known as Bird’s nest stadium hosted the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, athletic events, and football final of the 29th Summer Olympics 2008, from 8 August to 24 August 2008. Beijing Olympics are the most memorable, as it had splendid opening and closing ceremonies. They were awesome and striking. They had conducted these events with heavenly drums, silver bell dancers, light wheels, and flying men who took center stage to greet guests at the National Stadium on Sunday for the closing celebration of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Beijing’s successful hosting of the Games and closing ceremony has drawn attention of world and received global applause. A display of numbers for the countdown using fireworks from 29 to indicate the 29th Olympiad initiated the Closing Ceremony with an audience of more than 90,000 present there. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) contested in 302 events in 28 sports. U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won a record of eight gold medals, while Jamaican runner Usain Bolt bagged the traditional title of “World’s Fastest Man” by making new world records in the 100metres (330ft) and 200 metres (660ft) sprints. However, the Beijing Olmpics is going to be a challenge for Germany, which is going to host 2012 Olympics.

Nepal Became Republic After Many Years of Monarchy Rule

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:10:15 +0000

Millions of people marched onto the streets demanding an end to the cruel monarchy and the creation of a new Constitution through a Constituent Assembly. The people finally forced the king to give up state control on April 24, 2006. The success of the People’s Movement II left king Gyanendra helpless. The political parties are then engaged in writing a Democratic Constitution through a Constituent Assembly elected by the people. The Maoists became a part of the Parliament. The responsibilities which are authorized to the King are transferred to the Prime Minister. Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Prachanda, chief of Maosits was declared Prime Minister on August 15, 2008. He defeated his opponent, Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba by 465 votes, against 113. He was sworn on August 18, 2008. Nepal’s first-ever Presidential poll is held on July 19 over political arguments. The country failed to reach the 67 percent turnout that was reached for the last general election in 1999. UK is the largest mutual donor to Nepal in 2007/08 as it contributed 86 million dollars. These elections has more importance, because it will be decided whether 240 years of monarchy will be continued or become republic country. The 601-member constituent assembly prepared a new constitution. International observers declared the elections a success, despite of violence that prevailed. Former US president Jimmy Carter along with human rights group helped to supervise the polls in Nepal.

Responses to Kosovo’s declaration of Independence

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:52:51 +0000

On 17^th February, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia by the members of the assembly, with no opposition, all 109 in favor. But all the 11 Serb representatives boycotted the proceedings which showed the International reactions towards Kosovo’s declaration of Independence. Among the 4 countries that lie in the borders of Kosovo only Serbia refuses to accept it. Serbia in October 2008 at the International Court of Justice wanted to prove the declaration of independence was illegal and the United Nations General Assembly considered the proposal of Serbia for ICJ advisory opinion on this matter.

Among the 192 sovereign united nations members, 62 have recognized Kosovo as an independent state by 11July 2009. Not only these, majority of European union (22 of 27), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 24 of 28 have accepted Kosovo as Independent state. Many of the countries recognized Kosovo as Independent in the months of February and March itself. But only some countries took time to respond on this issue.

State Politics Change In India

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:52:20 +0000

In 2008, 10 states went to the elections and in the early half of the year Left front formed government in Tripura, MPA (Meghalaya Progressive Alliance) came to power in Meghalaya, and DAN (Democratic Alliance of Nagaland) formed Government in Nagaland.

In the next few months Congress was expected to loose some power because of the anti-incumbency wave that resulted from the grown up prices, raging inflation, and also the terrorist attacks. But besides all these congress managed to regain power in Delhi, Rajasthan, and Mizoram.

On the other hand BJP could manage to retain power in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh but they lost Rajasthan to Congress. In the first half of the year BJP also established government in Karnataka.

On 22^nd July 2008, UPA government had to face trust vote that is vote of confidence. On 21^st July a resolution was passed and on the next day the voting procedure was conducted and UPA government managed to win the voting of confidence by getting 275 votes in favor from a total of 487 valid votes.

The election commission of India decided to conduct elections for the Loksabha and also some state elections in 2009 in 5 phases ranging from April 16^th to May 13^th. It also started making preparations from 2008.

Russia says Dmitry Medvedev as Putin’s successor

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:51:31 +0000

The result of the Presidential elections in Russia which were held on 2^nd March, 2008 favored Mr. Dmitry Medvedev and made him the Third President of Russia. Mr. Medvedev was supported by the former president Vladimir Putin and 5 political parties namely United Russia, Fair Russia, Agrarian Party, Civilian Power, and Russian Ecological Party. He got 71% of the total voting percent.

Though some of the official monitoring groups reported that only some candidates had the media coverage and some were treated unfair. But the European Election Monitoring Group (PACE) and Vladimir Churov, the Head of the Election Commission denoted the result as the will of the people.

One of the main reasons for Medvedev’s victory is the support of Putin. On 10^th December, 2007 Vladimir Putin announced that his preferred successor was Medvedev. So other parties that supported Putin came forward announcing Medvedev as their candidate for presidential elections on Dec 17^th 2007.

After registering his candidature with election commission on 20^th Dec, he started his election campaign in January 2008. In his first speech he declared that he would appoint Vladimir Putin as the Prime Minister after becoming President. Putin also accepted this saying that he would be the Prime Minister with Medvedev as President. “Together we will win”, was the slogan on the election posters with both of their photos side by side. The election polls also said Medvedev would be replacing Vladimir Putin.