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Page 37 of 48 |
| Author: | Madeline [ 01 Apr 08, 19:41 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Mugabe 'in talks with opposition over exit from power in Zimbabwe' Mail |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 01 Apr 08, 19:55 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
EU backs gay man's pension rights BBC |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 02 Apr 08, 15:21 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern resigns amid corruption probe Mail |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 03 Apr 08, 20:54 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Bertie Ahern - a successful politician, but a tarnished legacy Bertie Ahern, whose long and eventful political career has come to an abrupt halt, was always regarded as a likeable character, but his misfortune now seems to be that he will go down as a likeable rogue. For quite a while, it appeared that he had managed to flush out much of the roguery from his Fianna Fáil party. It needed flushing, for the former leader Charles Haughey was immersed in corruption on a grandiose scale and other senior ministers wound up in jail. Although Mr Ahern was a Haughey protégé, he seemed at first interested in power but not money. He presented himself as a man of plain and simple tastes, a happy workaholic content to run the country and let his own financial future look after itself. But that reputation has now gone – the result of the official tribunal which has devoted years to examining his finances. It produced questions to which, during hours in the witness box, he replied in great detail. Yet his answers were completely unconvincing and his credibility dropped like a stone. Most of the questions relate to the early 1990s. Maybe, it was whispered on his behalf, he was discreetly concealing money because of his messy divorce; maybe he needed cash to meet heavy election expenses; maybe it was just his chaotic way of doing business – for years, after all, he had no bank account. Maybe, it was said, he was completely blameless, but for various reasons he could not tell the full story. Scarcely anyone outside Fianna Fáil believed his accounts, and of late even the party faithful mostly fell silent. His problem was that even those who accepted he had done nothing illegal concluded that, for whatever reason, he was now locked into a cover-up. Although nobody ever thought he was remotely comparable to Haughey, the amount of known dodgy dealings and suspicious transactions mounted steadily, until it now exceeds, at today's values, more than half a million pounds sterling. Such sums fatally undermine the old Ahern image as a man who cares little about money. And the irony is that during the era of the Celtic Tiger his handling of the public purse, as Minister for Finance and later as Taoiseach, was generally thought of as deft and efficient. After its years of phenomenal growth, the Irish economy is no longer in full spate and house prices are falling. Yet there is no widespread sense that Mr Ahern made any huge strategic mistakes. That has certainly been the sustained verdict of the Irish electorate, which returned him to power in three successive elections. The suspicion of financial irregularities was always there, but for most of the Ahern era it was less focused than it has lately become, and in any event he was judged the most competent head of government. Part of that aura of competence came from his painstaking work in the peace process. He devoted countless hours to de-fanging the IRA and easing Sinn Fein into politics. That involved not just hundreds of meetings with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, but also countless contacts with Unionist leaders, including David Trimble and, more recently, the Rev Ian Paisley. When Mr Ahern came to power, many Unionists regarded the Irish Republic as a hostile entity ever poised to help their enemies and undermine their rights. But Mr Ahern's easy manner and diplomatic cuteness – he presented Mr Paisley with a bowl made from a tree at the scene of the Protestant victory at the Boyne river – immensely improved Unionist relations with the south. It was striking yesterday that warm tributes were paid to Mr Ahern by both Mr Trimble and Mr Paisley. His successes in the economy and in the peace process will long be remembered. He was one of those who removed the shadow of the gunman; but the issue of his finances will cast a less welcome shadow on his record. Independent |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 08 Apr 08, 20:25 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Tiny teenager from India is smallest girl in the world Mail |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 09 Apr 08, 9:01 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Hundreds of women and children in 19th Century clothing flee from Mormon 'polygamy' ranch of dark secrets |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 09 Apr 08, 9:03 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Zimbabwe: Mugabe's rivals beg Africa to step in and avert a bloodbath |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 10 Apr 08, 9:12 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Starving Haitians riot as food prices soar By Leonard Doyle in Washington Demonstrators have tried to storm the presidential palace in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, as protests over hunger and rising food prices spread across the developing world. Demanding the resignation of President René Préval, the protesters attempted to break through the palace gates before being driven back by a contingent of Brazilian United Nations peacekeepers who used tear gas and rubber bullets. The prices of basic foods such as rice, beans, condensed milk and fruit have risen by more than 50 per cent in Haiti, where the poor even rely on biscuits made of mud to get through the day. Even the price of this traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs has gone up to more than $5 (£2.50) for 100 biscuits. There is now a grave danger of a coup being triggered in what is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Rising costs of commodities and basic foodstuffs have brought immense hardship to the population, 80 per cent of whom survive on less than £1 a day and only a minority has paid full-time jobs. And it's not just in Haiti where unrest is growing. A combination of high fuel prices, booming consumption of food in increasingly wealthy Asia, the use of crops for biofuels, and speculation on futures markets have driven commodity prices to record levels. The rising food prices are causing waves of unrest around the world. In Manila, troops armed with M-16 rifles now oversee the sale of subsidised rice, the latest basic crop to see a spike in prices. In Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cameroon there have been protests in recent weeks all related to the food and fuel prices. Last night a desperate appeal by President Préval, who was elected in 2006, failed to restore order to the shattered capital. "The solution is not to go around destroying stores," he said. "I'm giving you orders to stop." His first public comments on the crisis came nearly a week into the protests. With his job on the line, he urged congress to cut taxes on imported food. But gunfire rang out around the palace after the speech, as peacekeepers tried to drive away people looting surrounding stores. Some of the world's most populous countries are now increasingly vulnerable to higher food prices, with the cost of rice now rising in line with that of other grains such as wheat and corn. As food insecurity spreads, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning of tense times ahead because the shortages of basic commodities and high prices are expected to continue. There are only eight to 12 weeks of cereal stocks in the world and grain supplies are at their lowest since the 1980s. Jacques Diouf, the director of the FAO, said: "There is a risk that this unrest will spread in countries where 50 to 60 per cent of income goes to food." The cause, he said, was "higher demand from countries like India and China, where GDP grows at 8 to 10 per cent and the increase in income is going to food". The UN fears that governments may be toppled and that food riots could spread, fanned by hunger, frustration and global television coverage. The UN is helpless in the face of the spreading crisis and it can only advise governments to improve crop irrigation, storage facilities as well as infrastructure. Since 2002 there has been a steady surge in global food prices. They rose 35 per cent in the year to the end of January, and since then prices have jumped by 65 per cent. According to the FAO's world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 per cent and grain 42 per cent last year. Worldwide wave of protest Morocco 34 people were jailed in January for rioting over the rise in food prices. Indonesia 10,000 demonstrated in Jakarta this week after soya bean prices rose 125 per cent in the past year. Cameroon 24 people died and 1,600 people were arrested during food riots in February. Tax cuts and wage increases followed. Egypt A wave of protests led to four deaths this month, after food prices rose 40 per cent. Pakistan Thousands of troops have been deployed to guard rice supplies after rationing was introduced in January. Independent |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 10 Apr 08, 9:14 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
54 migrants die in truck Thai police said 54 migrant workers from Burma, most of them women, suffocated to death in the back of a seafood truck in southern Thailand while being smuggled to the popular resort island of Phuket. Police Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai said the victims, along with 47 survivors, were crammed tightly into the truck's sweltering container and were about two hours into their trip late yesterday in Ranong province near Burma when some of them started dying. Mr Kraithong said survivors pounded on the walls to get the attention of the driver, who stopped the truck and opened the back but then fled. He said today that 21 of the survivors were taken to hospital and the rest held for questioning. Of the dead, 37 were women and 17 were men. Independent |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 13 Apr 08, 14:00 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Exclusive: Mugabe prepares for war Zimbabwe's leader defies the world to send in new wave of thugs By a Special Correspondent in Bulawayo Robert Mugabe is preparing to defy international pressure and launch a systematic crackdown in Zimbabwe aimed at reversing his defeat in the presidential election two weeks ago, according to dissident policemen who have been briefed on his plans. Through an intermediary, the policemen told The Independent on Sunday that they have been ordered to be ready to deploy today or tomorrow. With their ranks swollen by so-called "war veterans" given police uniforms, they would take over constituency "command centres" used in the 29 March elections. Two weeks ago the ruling Zanu-PF party not only lost its majority in the House of Assembly, but, in the presidential contest, Mr Mugabe is believed to have finished well behind Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The growing crisis over the government's failure to release the election results, coupled with rising violence in rural areas where the MDC did well, has reinforced fears of a crackdown. Mr Mugabe has also defied international pressure to declare the result, spurning a regional summit on Zimbabwe's problems called yesterday by the President of neighbouring Zambia. On Friday, police banned all political rallies, a move initially thought to be aimed at an MDC protest meeting in the capital Harare today. A police spokesman said the force did not have enough officers to handle rallies because many were still guarding ballot boxes or preventing post-election violence. But it appears the order may also have been issued to give the police time to move into position around the country. Once they are deployed, opposition parties believe, the government could announce the presidential result and the date of the second round, claiming no candidate won an overall majority. This would also forestall the MDC's High Court action demanding the immediate release of the results, on which a judge has promised to rule tomorrow. The dissident policemen said that "war veterans" – in reality Zanu-PF enforcers – would be given police uniforms, and, for the first time, police numbers, making it impossible to distinguish them from regular officers. In rural constituencies, the policemen said they had been told their role would be to campaign openly for Mr Mugabe. Some areas would be closed altogether to outsiders. "This is a national plan," they told the intermediary. They added that the "war veterans" had been recruited to act as watchdogs over any policemen reluctant to carry out orders. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa met Mr Mugabe in Harare yesterday before going on to Zambia, but said there was "no crisis" in Zimbabwe and called for patience. Yesterday, Gordon Brown called for the election results to be published "immediately". Independent |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 13 Apr 08, 14:15 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Five British women killed in horror bus crash in Ecuador |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 13 Apr 08, 20:59 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Five young British women killed in horror bus crash on South America trip of a lifetime |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 13 Apr 08, 21:08 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
'World peace' hitcher is murdered BBC |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 13 Apr 08, 21:10 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
Fighting for free speech in Turkey BBC |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 14 Apr 08, 16:12 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: World News |
US and Iran holding 'secret' talks on nuclear programme Independent |
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