Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, has been in discussions with the White House about stepping down from her foreign policy job next year to becoming head of the World Bank, it has been reported. Mrs Clinton, the former First Lady, Senator for New York and rival to Mr Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary race, is said to be eager to become the first female president of the World Bank should the post become vacant next year.”Hillary Clinton wants the job,” a source close to Mrs Clinton told Reuters, which broke the news of the possible move.

The administration of this blog encourages readers to click upon the hyperlinks above to learn more.

Issues associated with international banking have been making headlines in recent weeks. Such reports became more acute following the arrest of the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, in the sovereign State of New York on sexual assault charges. Readers are asked to keep in mind that Mr. Strauss-Kahn has not been convicted of any crime as of the time of this writing and therefore, in the eyes of American law, he is innocent until proven guilty.

Readers may note that leadership of the international banking community made news in the context of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after calls were made to consider an Asian candidate for the top IMF posting. Officials in China also have been reported to have made statements regarding the position of IMF head. It remains to be seen just how these issues will ultimately play out and who shall eventually be at the helm of international banking, but for observers of global relations, economics, finance, and politics this is certainly a very interesting time.

In rather unrelated news (but pertinent to this blogger), it was recently reported that the Great State of Kansas has experienced a very uncommon weather phenomenon. For further elucidation it may be best to quote directly from the official website  of KSN News, KSN.com:

WICHITA, Kansas — Last night Wichita experienced a very rare weather phenomenon known as a “Heat Burst.” At 12:22 a.m. the temperature at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport was 85 degrees. At 12:44 the temperature spiked to 102 degrees. This was a 17 degree increase in only 20 minutes. Winds also gusted between 50 and 60 MPH. The heat burst winds and temperatures rapidly dissipated as they spread across Sedgwick and Southern Butler Counties…

The administration of this web log strongly encourages readers to click upon the relevant hyperlinks noted above to read more from this insightful report.

Kansas is often the scene of incredible meteorological phenomenon, but an increase of 17 degrees in a time span of 20 minutes is tremendous by anyone’s estimation. Hopefully, such developments will not have an adverse impact upon the people, agriculture, and ecology of that jurisdiction.

For other relevant information please see: Department of State.

I am very pleased to announce a big step forward in the Obama Administration’s support of the Iranian people. Under our old visa policy, Iranian students and exchange visitors were eligible for visas that lasted for only three months and could be used to enter the country just one time. As of today, that has changed. They are now eligible for two-year, multiple entry visas. This gives young Iranians the opportunity to return home for family events, to participate in internships, to travel outside the United States—and they won’t need to get a new visa every time. I’ve heard from many Iranian students and Iranian Americans that you wanted this change. So I want you to know that we are listening to your concerns. We want more dialogue and more exchange with those of you who are shaping Iran’s future. We want to be able to share with you what we think is great about America…

The administration of this web log strongly encourages readers to click upon the hyperlinks above to learn more about this story.

The US Student Visa, also referred to by the categorical title of F-1 visa, is a very popular travel document among foreign nationals who wish to travel from their home country to the United States in order to undertake a course of study. This visa category is akin to the US tourist visa (B-2 visa) insofar as both visas require the adjudication of a visa application at a US Embassy or US Consulate abroad. The US student visa is also a non-immigrant visa. It is important to note this fact because it implies that any application for such a visa must survive scrutiny pursuant to section 214(b) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act. Not all non-immigrant visa applications are scrutinized pursuant to 214(b), most notably the L-1 visa, but many popular categories require such scrutiny.

Section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act creates the rebuttable presumption that a non-immigrant visa applicant is actually an undisclosed intending immigrant to the United States. This presumption can only be overcome by the applicant providing affirmative proof that they have a strong incentive to leave the United States rather than remain. For many, overcoming such a presumption can be difficult, but it should not be viewed as impossible as many US non-immigrant visas are issued each year.

For related information please see: J-1 visa.

From Thursday, April 14, 2011 to Saturday, April, 16, 2011, devastating tornadoes rampaged across communities of the southern United States. Cities and towns from Oklahoma to North Carolina were assaulted by the deadly twisters.

The tornado outbreak led to a total of 241 tornado reports in 14 states over the three-day period. This will likely rank this tornado outbreak among the largest in history.

The administration of this web log strongly encourages readers to click upon the hyperlinks above to learn more about this tragic situation.  Meanwhile, it would appear as though the situation in Japan continues to be traumatic for both the government of that country as well as the public-at-large. Bearing this in mind, the engineers at the Fukushima nuclear facility have noted that the process of recovery could be quite time consuming. To quote directly from NECN.com:

In Japan, engineers say they will need up to nine months to fully shut down the damaged reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. And government officials are heading to areas that are slated for evacuation — amid warnings of possible new radiation leaks.

The situation in Japan remains a concern for nations and individuals throughout Asia and the world due to both the human toll as well as the damage caused by what can only be described as a “perfect storm” of events which befell Japan on March 11, 2011. It would appear as though the situation is even becoming an increasingly serious cause of concern for the Department of State. In fact, Secretary Clinton was quoted by NECN.com as stating:

“After the Indian Ocean tsunami, after the hurricane Katrina, after the earthquake in Haiti, Japan sent aid and often aid workers,” she said. “In places unsettled by conflict from Somalia to the Golan Heights Japan sends peacekeepers. To help Pakistan meet its security and economic challenges, Japan organized a donors’ conference and pledged one billion dollars itself. Japan is one of the world’s most generous nations and the dozens of countries that have sent support in the past five weeks, are honoring Japan’s legacy of caring for others.”

NECN.com is not the only news outlet which is currently reporting on the situation in Japan as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been keeping up with this story as well. To quote directly from the BBC‘s official website BBC.co.uk:

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has said it expects to bring the crisis under control by the end of the year. Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) aims to reduce radiation leaks in three months and to cool the reactors within nine months. The utility said it also plans to cover the reactor building, which was hit by a huge quake and tsunami on 11 March… America has won Japanese admiration for sending scores of US ships and aircraft as well as 20,000 troops to help the relief effort. Operation Tomodachi, or Friend, was the biggest humanitarian mission the US has conducted in Japan.

The administration of this web log highly encourages readers to click upon the hyperlinks noted above in order to read these stories in full and thereby gain further insight into these developments.

All of the developments noted above could prove to be concerning to both local populations experiencing these tragedies in real time as well as the global community since problems arising from weather related events in one part of the world could have a significant economic and political impact upon nations and individuals in a different geographic location.

In the case of the Japanese Crisis, many feel as though the geopolitical and economic reverberations emanating from the situation in Japan are likely to cause a sort of “ripple effect” which will continue to impact business in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States of America. The exact nature and magnitude of these reverberations remains to be seen as it seems likely that the economies of the world will react in different ways to the unfolding situation in Japan.

For related information please see: business in China or US Visa Thailand.