Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!
The Ukraine gets a belated but nevertheless important Christmas gift as Yushchenko appears to have won the Ukrainian elections by a landslide with nearly 80% turnout and a margin of victory around 15 points. Yushchenko puts the Ukrainian people on a course to independence and sovereignty rather than becoming a client state of Moscow.
In sadder news, over 11,000 are dead in Southeast Asia from a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The tsunami hit the popular Thai beach at Phuket, a vacation spot for many worldwide.
