Sky news have begun to look back at this years news stories, as they always do (give it a week or so then every half hour on sky news will be a look back on the years events).
On the sky news website they are showing the top 9 new stories, as judged by American news editors. Here are the 9, in the order that they were picked;

Right first off is the Massacre at Virginia Tech in April of this year. The shooting saw 32 people killed and many more injured in the worst ever shooting incident at American school.



The shooter Seung-Hui Cho suffered form an anxiety disorder, and despite this fact he was still able to buy a gun legally, and as a result go on to commit the massacre. As a result of the incident Virginian State law was changed so that people who were ‘mentally unsound’ were no longer able to buy guns. The incident also had an affect with national politics, with a new gun control bill passed by the federal congress.

Second in the top 9 list is the global financial crisis, caused by the collapse of the sub prime Housing market in America (I would say more but I have no idea what this is technically about, apart from the stock markets crashing)

Third on the list is the ongoing Iraq war, and the slow, but that said important, changing mood of the American people in their attitude towards the war. 2007 has seen the implementation of the US’s ‘Surge’ policy which saw over 21,500 additional troops sent to the country to stabilize the security nightmare. To date President Bush has agreed to bring back at least 5,700 personnel by Christmas. For its part the Surge did quell the amount of attacks by insurgents, it just remains to be seen if this can be maintained after the troops have left the country.

Fourth, is another Middle East related story – the rising price of oil. This year has seen unstable oil prices, which seem to be a yearly theme lately. The latest crisis has been caused by members of OPEC voicing concerns over the state of the US $. The price of oil is reaching, although it hasn’t hit, $100 a barrel.

Fifth place of the list of the top 9 (and for those wondering I don’t know why there are 9 on the list instead of 10) is the global issue (yes America cares about global issues) of global warming. The high profile campaign, led by former Vice-President Al Gore, including the academy award winning film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ (which won for best documentary and best original song, for ‘I need to wake up’) as well as the live earth concerts has raised the issue to become one of the most important in American politics.

Sixth place was the devastating collapse of the bridge crossing the Missippi River. Over 100 vehicles were on the bridge at the time of its collapse, but only 13 people were killed and 98 people were injured, and only a few vehicles were submerged.

Seventh on the list is the battle to be the Democrats nominee for President of the United States. The media seems to be deciding between two people; either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama, with Clinton winning in the polls, but Obama beginning to gain momentum as we finally enter primary season, after a nearly year long campaign just to get this far. The winner of the democratic primary will face the Republican’s nominee (who could at this point be any of the candidates) on 4th November 2008 (and the winner of that election will be sworn in on January 20th 2009 at 12.00pm EST)

Eight (nearly there!!!!) is President Bush’s immigration reform plan which failed to pass as the republicans in congress (along with some democrats) voted against the bill.

Ninth and the last story on the list is the growing tensions between the United States of America, and Iran which has been linked to Iran’s nuclear program. Whether or not Iran is the next target of the American military power remains to be seen but for now, the Bush administration is having trouble sustaining the Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts, so the thought of a third war seems doubtful.

So that is the end of the top 9 American new stories of the year, as chosen by American news editors.