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President Barack Obama said the United States would prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. 

According to the CBC, he said it would not hesitate to use force in order to do so. 

This could trigger an arms race in the region. Obama said such an attack would only be done if necessary. 

The statement came at a policy conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington on Sunday. 

Obama stressed the need to allow further sanctions against Iran to take hold first. 

The Israeli government has suggested it is considering launching a military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Obama said such talk has only helped Tehran and raised oil prices.

Flickr photo by: publik18

The Concordia Student Union election got off to an uncharacteristic start Sunday night. Only four candidates greeted Chief Electoral Officer Ismail Holoubi on the 7^th floor of the Henry F. Hall building for a lottery to determine where candidates can pin their campaign posters.

Elbows and fists marked the opening night for CSU elections of years past. The annual poster night, where students were unleashed through campus to get prime poster real estate, has been eliminated in favour of the lottery system.

“Teams” not slates

This year's CSU elections have also strayed from the familiar slate system. Executive candidates are free to run as a team, but must be elected individually. Meanwhile, councillors and representatives to senate must run completely unaffiliated. The name of the teams and who is affiliated will be announced Monday morning.

The Arts and Science Federation of Associations chose to adopt a similar unaffiliated system in 2010/2011, but suffered record low voter turnout, uncontested candidates and an incomplete executive. ASFA decided to go with a team system for their elections this year. Their elections will run this week from Mar 5 to 7. 

Campaigning for the CSU elections begin Tuesday at midnight. Polling will take place Mar 20 to 22. Meet this year's candidates: 

Executive:

President

Melanie Hotchkiss (Concordia Could Be)

Schubert Laforest (A Better Concordia)

VP Finance

Stephanie Beauregard (Concordia Could Be)

Keny Toto (A Better Concordia)

VP Academic & Advocacy

Chuck Wilson (Concordia Could Be)

Lucia Gallardo (A Better Concordia)

VP External Affairs

Simon-Pierre Lauzon (A Better Concordia)

Cameron Monagle (Concordia Could Be)

VP Clubs & Internal Affairs

Museb Abu-Thuraia (Concordia Could Be)

Nadine Attalah (A Better Concordia)

VP Student Life

Lina Saigol (Concordia Could Be)

Alexis Suzuki (A Better Concordia)

VP Sustainability

Iain Meyer-Macaulay (Concordia Could Be)

Andrew Roberts (A Better Concordia)

VP Loyola

Jonathan Braziller (Concordia Could Be)

Stefan Faina (A Better Concordia)

Council of Representatives:

Senate

Bella Giancotta 

Arts & Science

Hannah Hackney

April Underwood

Adriana Farias

Veryan Goodship

Juliana Ramos

Johnny Alexandar

Melissa Kate Wheelr

Carlotta Longo

Charlie Brenchley

Chris Webster

Chad Walcott

Gonzo Nieto

Ulyana Stefashkina

Hajar El Jahidi

Haneen Alatrash

Fine Arts

Laura Glover

Nicolas Martel

Michael Mercer

Engineering

Ali Talhouni

Rami Khoriarty

Fahd Ali Nasser

John Molson School of Business

Yassine Chaabi

Jordan Lindsay

Elena Porosnkenco

Vladimir Putin won Russia’s presidential elections with over sixty percent of the votes.

According to the BBC, he will be returning for a third term, as he has spent the last four years as Russia’s prime minister.

Many people reported fraud and said that some people have voted more than once.

But Putin said he has won in an open and honest manner.

Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the Kremlin where Putin lives to celebrate his victory.

There were indications that some supporters were forced to attend.

Voting results show that Putin won a sixty-four per cent victory over nearest rival Gennady Zyuganov who got only seventeen per cent.

The three other candidates all had less than ten per cent of the votes.

Zyuganov said the elections were unfair and unworthy.

Alleged fraud came despite the many web cameras and independent observers in the different polling stations.

Overall elections turnout was higher than fifty-eight per cent at 6pm, which is considerably higher than in the 2008 elections.

Hockey fans rejoice! A modern day Canadian hockey tale has come to cinemas and it will get your blood pumping and make you wonder if there is a hockey game playing tonight. I had the pleasure of attending the premiere in Montreal and got a chance to talk to the stars about their very Canadian oriented project. Director Michael Dowse was quite excited about premiering the film at the Amc Forum; it was a perfect fit for the night’s hockey theme.

The film is based on the novel Goon: The True Story of an Unlikely Journey into Minor League Hockey by Adam Frattasio and Doug Smith which tells the tale of Smith’s career as a hockey enforcer. Sean William Scott plays Doug Glatt, the uninspired bouncer who is very good at crowd control. Unfortunately he feels unfulfilled and bored with his life and wants to be a part of something where he feels wanted and important. Jay Baruchel, who also co-wrote the script, plays his vulgar and hilarious friend, Pat. Baruchel’s character brings him to a hockey game where Doug’s true talent comes out to shine. He gets into a fight with a hockey player and pretty much knocks him out cold within seconds. The coach notices his iron fists and offers him a chance to show him what he’s got on the ice.

A couple hilarious scenes later, Doug gets his footing down enough to start playing in games to help protect the more important players. He gets a gracious offer from the Halifax Highlanders to help protect their prime player Xavier Laflamme, played by the very talented and handsome Marc-André Grondin. He delivers his dialogue with humor and a ton of sex appeal; he definitely stirs up the hockey fantasy I have stored away. He makes it look like he belongs on the ice and feels comfortable leading the team to victory, but his career takes a nosedive because of drug use and the bad boy party animal he loves to release. The plot thickens when a crushing hit from Ross Rhea, played by the wonderful Liev Schreiber, injures Xavier. Laflamme has not been playing as well since the injuring and his performance is affected by his fear to be crushed against the boards again. Here comes the hero Glatt to protect the lesser confident Xavier. The story unfolds and Glatt becomes a part of the team and is destined to fight the legendary bone crushing Ross Rhea. They finally meet during playoffs and the payoff is a bloody good time.

There is nothing more exciting then when the players drop their gloves and it is on like Donkey Kong. Glatt fights his way to acceptance from the team and they become a hilarious dysfunctional family. The other team players are all characters on their own but they allow Grondin and Scott to shine through the vast amount of humor portrayed with some locker room shenanigans.

If you have ever enjoyed a hockey game then this film is for you. The dialogue is modern and vulgar, just like my own vocabulary during hockey games. The fights are realistic and fun to watch. The angles are closer than the ones we usually see during real hockey games, therefore we get to see the blood spatter much better, and a couple teeth are lost here and there, which is an image I associate with our love of the game.

The film was filmed in Winnipeg and should be very proud to be Canadian. I managed to catch an elevator ride with Baruchel and he mentioned how proud he was of this film; he was very excited and grinning from ear to ear. He mentioned his favorite hockey film was Slapshot and hopes that his own project will go down in hockey film history. I enjoyed it immensely and I laughed out loud more then twice, as I’m sure you will. Hockey is a huge part of our city and Goon made me want to lace up my skates on, grab a fluorescent orange puck and get to the rink with some buds and beer. See the film and have some fun!

3.5 out of 5 stars

-Andrea Boulet