The turnout has exceeded the 2007 numbers in what many predict will be the closest race for mayor in many years.

The predicted closeness of the election is due mainly to the withdrawal of Dave Bronconnier from the race.

Easy access to information is also believed to be having a positive impact on voter numbers due to various websites and social media sites.

Lineups started early at many polling booths and voter turnout is expected to surpass a 40% increase before the end of polling so voters were warned not to leave placing their vote until the last minute.

Despite the election resulting in a hung parliament the most significant gains were recorded by the opposition Liberal party leading many to believe a change of government was warranted.

After deals were made between Labor and the greens party along with 1 independent member it left the final decision up to the 3 key independent members who were widely expected to side with the Liberals. However late this afternoon only 1 of the independents chose to do so handing Labor leader Julie Gillard another stint at the top job.

This result left many Australians deflated wondering why they bothered voting in the first place. With Labor’s appalling track record regarding what many believe to be major issues facing the country one could hardly blame them.

The Labor have shown little if any strength in border protection against illegal immigration with boatloads of illegals arriving within Australian waters each week.

Add to this excessive, non-selective and unsustainable levels of immigration which pushed over 280,000 people last year leaving many Australians believing Labor do not have the national interest at heart.

Other largely unpopular policies such as the mining tax and negligible impact on health or the family budget and it’s easy to see why this election has been a let down for most Australians hoping for something better.

Douglas has a long list of movies to his name including Fatal Attraction, War of the Roses, Basic Instinct, Traffic, and Wall Street for which he received an academy award.

Information from the National Cancer Institute shows that stage 4 cancer of the the head and neck cancer usually undergo surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

Despite Douglas’s optomism stage 4 cancer is described as having spread beyond the original tumor and as such is typically impossible to cure completely. He will undergo eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatment and his doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

He joined Twitter on Wednesday, one day after going to the offices of Facebook, in Palo Alto, Calif., to preview some of his new material.

Videos of him rapping a cappella while standing on a conference table have been posted on YouTube. On his website afterward, West posted a letter to Facebook, thanking the staff for their support: “Your energy was a gift so electric, so genuine, that it really helped me give my best.”

An e-mail request for comment from Facebook was not immediately returned.

West’s new as-of-yet untitled album is expected to be released Sept. 14. — AP
Kanye West is now on Twitter, and if you’ve read his blog, don’t worry — the ALL CAPS style is nowhere to be seen. Even better news is that he’s already dishing scoops on his feed, telling fans his forthcoming album will no longer be called ‘Good Ass Job’ as once expected. “I’m bouncing a couple of titles around now,” the 33-year-old rapper tweeted.

Within hours of his first tweet, West had racked up nearly 40,000 followers. He started out the day with some grammatically fast-and-loose tweets — “Up early in the morning taking meetings in Silicone Valley” and a quick correction, “Lol I spelled Silicon wrong ( I guess I was still thinking about the other type of silicone ITS A PROCESS!! : ).”

Read on to see Kanye’s visit to Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, where he performed new raps a cappella on … a conference table?

Kanye, lookin’ slick as all get-out, visited Facebook’s headquarters (Why? Your guess is as good as ours) and spat a few new rhymes without the aid of a mic or beats.

Although Woods’s overall earnings only reached US$90 million, which is 10 percent lower than his earnings in the previous year, still he retained the prominent title for world’s top money makers in Sports, according to Forbes. Similarly, Sports Illustrated listed Woods as the highest earning US athlete. The lists are released annually by Forbes magazine and Sports Illustrated, respectively.

The total earnings of the world’s top ranked golfer dropped mainly because of his much-publicized sex scandals and extra-marital affairs, resulting in losing big endorsement contracts with giant companies, such as AT&T, Pepsi, Gilette, and Accenture Plc. In spite of this, Woods’s endorsement deals with Nike and Electronic Arts and his personal golf earnings amounting to US$20.5 million propelled him to the top of the list.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was ranked second in Forbes magazine’s 2010 list of the top 50 earning athletes. Mayweather’s $65-million income placed him on the list.  Kobe Bryant came in at third place with US$48 million earnings. Woods’s fellow golfer Phil Mickelson and football star David Beckman made it to the top five.

In Sports Illustrated’s “Fortunate 50” list, golfer Phil Mickelson placed second with a net income of $61.6 million. Just like Woods, 2009 for Mickelson’s was also tough, with his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer.  Mayweather was ranked third with $60.2 million earnings.

The latest in a number of match fixing scandals cricket has faced over recent years was revealed by Britain’s News of the World newspaper who claim they were given specific details of three “no balls” which were to be bowled at an exact order in separate overs and which later proved accurate.

The details of the fixing were claimed to have been revealed to the paper by a middle man at the cost of around 150,000 pounds and allegedly involved two of the Pakistan bowlers, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer.

England added to Pakistan’s match fixing woes in the fourth test by handing out their worst test defeat in history, even surpassing their 198 run thumping by Australia in 2002.

The fourth test was not an isolated outcome for Pakistan however as they were kept to low scores throughout the series by the determined English lineup. A combination of good bowling which restricted the Pakistan run rate and the record eighth wicked innings by Jonathan Trott and Broad which yielded 332 runs and put the game out of reach for Pakistan.

The assignment also asked the students to go into such details as their choice of victim, most ideal time for the attack and also the best location.

In addition to the widespread community outrage over the incident Australian Federal Police ahve warned that in setting the assignment the teacher exposed the students to anti-terror laws which carry a minimum 10 year jail terms. Collecting, planning or preparing documents for terror attacks is an offense under Australain anti-terror laws which carry a maximum life term in jail.

The teacher involved in the matter will not face any disciplinary action however has been counselled about the implications and inappropriatness of the assignment which was only withdrawn after a complaint by one of the students.

The government of India and some health experts have shunned media campaigns encouraging people to use ECPs, also known as “morning-after” pills, mainly for birth control as opposed to emergency use.

The use of these pills, which can be easily purchased from pharmacies in this Asian country, has surged radically over time despite India’s conservative mentality toward sex and sex education.

With ECP’s ability as birth control pills, a growing number of women are taking it to prevent pregnancy during unprotected sex. According to recent reports, over 8.2 million ECPs were purchased in 2009 alone. This figure showed 250 percent rise in ECP’s consumption as compared to 2008 and fueled criticisms from health workers who are worried about the misuse of the pills.
There is a growing rate of cases of abortion, which is taboo and illegal, in India. Many of these cases resulted from unwanted and extra-marital pregnancy. The media hype on the usage of ECPs to prevent women from turning to abortion boosted the sales of morning-after pills. Brands like “I-pill” and “Unwanted 72″ are among the most widely used ECPs in India.

A report of the Delhi-based Consortium on National Consensus for Medical Abortion in India revealed that there are 11 million cases of abortion reported in India every year and around 20,000 women die from complications after abortion yearly.

I-pill’s controversial ad, for instance, shows a fretful young, unwed lady crying outside an abortion clinic on a dark street after hastily leaving her parents’ place. The ad reflects the disgrace that an impregnated woman is subjected to and suggests that to avoid resorting to abortion, women should prevent pregnancy by taking I-pills.

India’s Health Ministry called for the banning of such ads and other similar campaigns about ECPs, claiming these fail to educate the public about the medical context of using these pills and these are only misleading the public.

The subjects of this probe are BP Plc, Transocean Ltd and Halliburton Co whose activities are believed to have triggered the Deepwater Horizon drilling explosion last April 20, resulting in an instant five-mile oil spill and death of 11 workers.

The oil slick occurred after Transocean Ltd-operated rig caught fire and exploded while drilling BP’s Macondo project in Louisiana. The rig, which cost over $560 million, sank in the waters afterwards, causing the massive oil spill.  The multi-billion dollar oil company BP Plc leased the rig and took charge of cleaning the oil leak.

A team composed of federal probers called ‘BP squad” is tasked to carry out the investigations starting from the top executives of the three giant oil firms down to a Federal agency. The probe is also expected to look into allegations of bribery or extortion.

Reports said that the inquiry would also focus on Minerals Management Service (MMS), which is responsible for the regulation of the oil industry, to find out any irregularities in federal monitoring. The BP squad will also try to verify claims that BP Plc executives received favors from the federal agency.

Just recently, US President Barack Obama has denounced MMS and blamed BP for the massive underwater leak. As Obama called for reform within MMS, he immediately ordered the government officials to use all available resources, such the U.S. armed forces, to contain the oil leak.

Environmentalists and other experts said that the oil spill poses risk for some of the richest fisheries and endangers delicate ecosystems.

According to the findings of a research released recently, half of the workforce in UK used social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkeIn, during working hours. A third of this figure or about six million devote their time to these online sites for over 30 minutes. At least two million workers declared that they access these social media sites more than one hour.

This lost time at work, which is generally spent on chatting and posting messages, could be translated to a £14 billion loss from UK economy.

The research also found that 14 percent of employees disclosed that their productivity decreased every time they log on to social media sites while 10 percent believed that accessing these sites helped them become productive.

More than two thirds or 68 percent said that using social media network sites must not be prohibited during office hours with just a third of the survey respondents said these sites must not be allowed at work. Such result reflected the increasing significance of social networking sites among British.