Jonathan Lemnitzer

National: McCain pleas with conservative

Summary: McCain has never been a favorite among conservatives in his own party but on Thursday he reached out to them after Mitt Romney ended his presidential bid. In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C. he asked them to support him in the race for the President. He tried to assure them that despite his spotty voting record he was a conservative. Huckabee is trying to remind conservatives it is still a two man race and many conservatives have said publicly that McCain as the presidential nominee would ruin the Republican party.

Opinion: McCain has his work cut out for him even without having to worry about Mitt Romney. He has long been at odds with the conservative elements of his own party and this tension is coming to head as he has become the almost certain Republican Party nominee for president. This tension is exemplified by his speech to conservative yesterday in which he urged them to unite and was booed as he talked about immigration. He will definitely have a hard time winning over conservatives some of whom have said they would vote for Hillary Clinton before McCain.

International: East Timor President shot at home

Summary: The President of East Timor has undergone emergency surgery and was in stable condition after being shot in the stomach in a pre-dawn attack. Afredo Reinado, a renegade soldier who had previously threatened to use force against the government and was killed by presidential guards during the attack. There has been a tense peace in East Timor since a Australian-led UN force deployed to quell violent clashes between disgruntled military members and police. The president has spent 24 years in exile after Indonesian troops invaded East Timor in 1975 and led the country for independence from overseas winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

Opinion: East Timor has had a very turbulent history despite being an independent nation since only 2002. Since its independence it has undergone major unrest. It is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world and I believer that is where the problem starts. To often countries like East Timor are ignored until people start dying and then they are ignored some more after a few peace keepers arrive. People deride nation building as expensive and risky but the alternative is far less appealing.