11 killed in SL as Japanese envoy pushes peace bid
Agence France-Presse . Colombo
At least 11 people were killed in Sri Lankan factional fighting on Monday, defence officials said, as a Japanese envoy sought to salvage the island’s faltering peace process. A breakaway faction of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched a pre-dawn attack against a base of the main guerrilla group in northeastern Trincomalee district Monday, killing 11 and wounding four, defence sources said. There was no immediate word from the Tigers or the faction led by V Muralitharan, better known as colonel Karuna, but official sources said the attack appeared to be a retaliatory strike after an LTTE attack on Karuna’s forces last month. The defence ministry said they had no further details of the latest violence because the fighting occurred in rebel-held territory. The reports of violence emerged as Japanese envoy Yasushi Akashi met the president, Mahinda Rajapakse, Monday after the government imposed a curfew Sunday in the northern Jaffna peninsula. Defence ministry spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the curfew would be lifted later Monday. The main entry and exit points to rebel-held territory in the island’s north have also been closed since Sunday. ‘We hope to be able to open the entry and exit points very soon,’ Samarasinghe said without elaborating. On Sunday, security forces imposed the curfew in Jaffna ahead of protests over last week’s killing of seven men the army said were suspected Tamil Tigers, but rebels described as civilians. The security measures also followed reports that eight men were missing in Jaffna on Sunday. Following his talks with Rajapakse, Akashi was to meet Tuesday with the leader of the LTTE’s political wing, SP Thamilselvan, in a rebel-held northern town, the Tigers confirmed. Despite the truce signed in 2002, more than 200 people, mostly civilians, have died over the last month in tit-for-tat attacks by government and rebel forces. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that oversees the truce has said the violence is out of control and the only way to curb it is for the two sides to agree to talks. The political situation has stagnated since April 2003 after six rounds of face-to-face discussions that began in September 2002. In February the government and rebels held an initial round of discussions in Switzerland aimed at shoring up the ceasefire amid a surge in violence, but a follow-up round was postponed and killings have since escalated. In the most serious attack since the truce took hold, a female suicide bomber wounded army chief lieutenant general Sarath Fonseka and 30 others in an attack at army headquarters in Colombo on April 25. Eleven people including the bomber died.
Sonia set for landslide by-election win
Agence France-Presse . Rae Bareli
India’s Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi was all set for a landslide victory Monday in a by-election she provoked by resigning amid charges of wrongfully holding two salaried posts. The widow of India’s assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was contesting her Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency in the politically strategic northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The Italian-born 59-year-old is the standard-bearer for India’s political dynasty created by founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and continued by his daughter Indira Gandhi, mother of Rajiv. A Gandhi victory has always been considered a ‘foregone conclusion,’ said Rashid Kidwai, Sonia’s official biographer. ‘Of course she will win,’ her daughter Priyanka told reporters in the town that has been a Nehru-Gandhi electoral bastion for decades. ‘We hope it will be again by a record margin.’ Some 20 per cent of an estimated million eligible voters had cast their votes by early afternoon, a poll official said. Queues were seen outside some of the polling stations while others looked deserted due to temperatures about 40 degrees Celsius. Priyanka and brother Rahul, Gandhi’s political heir-apparent, spearheaded a publicity blitz for their mother who resigned on March 23 forcing the by-election. Gandhi’s resignation took the sting out of a political storm that had threatened to engulf Congress over senior figures holding multiple government posts. Only the margin of victory over her main challenger, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vinay Katiyar, has been open to debate. ‘It’s an open-and-shut case,’ said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan, a visiting professor at Cornell University in the United States. ‘What we have to see is the size of the majority—she won by 240,000 votes last time (2004) – we have to see if it goes up or down,’ Rangarajan said. Kidwai said, however, that the victory would be more a symbol for Congress. ‘A landslide win is not expected to put a stop to the Congress party’s declining fortunes’ in India’s most populous state, with 80 members of parliament, he said. India’s constitution disqualifies an MP ‘if he holds any office of profit under the federal government or government of any state, other than an office declared by the national legislature by law not to disqualify its holder’. The by-election coincides with millions of Indians voting in the final phase of elections to several state assemblies—seen as a referendum on the federal Congress-led government as it approaches two years in power. The Marxist bastion of West Bengal, the southern state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Pondicherry also went to the polls Monday. Voting in northeastern Assam and the southern state of Kerala is complete and results for all five states will be announced on May 11.
Nepal orders king’s envoys to return home
Reuters . Kathmandu
Nepal’s new multi-party cabinet has recalled ambassadors from 12 countries, including India and the United States, and cancelled appointments made by the king during his rule by royal decree. ‘The cabinet has decided to cancel appointments in corporations and other bodies made since October 4, 2002,’ the home minister, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, told reporters late on Sunday after a cabinet meeting. ‘It (the cabinet) has also decided to recall ambassadors from 12 countries,’ he added. King Gyanendra used his emergency powers and sacked a democratically-elected government in 2002. Last February he assumed chairmanship of the cabinet and assumed absolute power. Most of the ambassadors recalled were appointed after the king’s power seizure and include envoys to countries such as France, Thailand, Britain and Myanmar, Sitaula said. After a year or relentless street protests, the king finally gave in to last month’s often bloody demonstrations and handed power back to the political parties and reinstated parliament. At least 17 people were killed and thousands wounded in the anti-king protests launched by the seven main political parties, who were backed by the Maoist rebels fighting against the king. ‘The cabinet has also set up a panel to help those who were injured during the protests and make arrangements for their treatment,’ Sitaula said. Nepal’s new multi-party government last week matched a Maoist truce and called the rebels for talks to which the guerrillas agreed. No date has been fixed for the meeting. Nepal’s mainstream political parties and the Maoist rebels entered into a loose deal in November to oust the king.
Hamas PM vows to prevent civil war after three killed
Agence France-Presse . Gaza
The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, vowed Monday not to allow a civil war to break out after clashes between his Hamas movement and the rival Fatah faction left three dead and 11 wounded. The clashes, the worst since Hamas trounced the former ruling Fatah in January’s election, broke out near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis following a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings, police and witnesses told AFP. Two followers of Fatah and one Hamas activist, all in their 20s, were killed in the violence in the village of Abasan, according to hospital officials. A local security official was injured and in a serious condition in hospital. The sources said at least one anti-tank rocket was fired. Relations between the two groups have been strained for weeks, with about 30 people already injured in inter-faction clashes last month. Despite ending Fatah’s longstanding grip on power, Hamas does not control the security services which are the responsibility of Palestinian Authority president and de facto Fatah leader Mahmud Abbas. The overall leader of Hamas, the Damascus-based Khaled Meshaal, last month accused Abbas and Fatah of plotting against the movement which is under massive pressure after the West cut aid payments to the Palestinian Authority. But in a bid to pour oil on troubled waters, Haniya said it was vital that followers of both factions exercise ‘self-restraint’ and ‘preserve Palestinian blood’ in the aftermath of the deadly violence. ‘A civil war will never be allowed to be happen. We will fulfill our responsibilities in order to put an end to the tensions,’ Haniya told reporters before meeting with deputies in his office. ‘The situation in Khan Yunis is now calm and I hope that it will remain that way. We are in contact with all the factions to ensure that these tensions dissipate.’ Witnesses said the clashes in Abasan erupted after Hamas members attempted on Sunday to seize Salman Abu Mutlak, head of security in the Gaza Strip. A Fatah spokesman laid the full blame for the violence at the door of Hamas, saying two vehicles containing members of the security services and Fatah members had been attacked by Hamas gunmen.
Dome shape of Indonesia’s Merapi changing quickly
Agence France-Presse . Mount Merapi
A new dome at the peak of Indonesia's simmering Mount Merapi is changing quickly and more ominous lava oozed down its slopes but residents were not ordered to evacuate, a scientist said. ‘Although the morphology of the new dome is changing at a relatively fast pace, my superior has not yet seen the need to raise Merapi's alert status to its highest level,’ said Triyani from the volcanology office in Yogyakarta, 30 kilometres south of the volcano. Merapi, which towers over a fertile Central Java plain and provides livelihoods for thousands of people living around its slopes, was put on ‘standby’ alert status more than three weeks ago. If boosted to its highest level, residents face mandatory evacuation. Triyani said that 67 more lava flows were recorded flowing from the new dome at the peak of the 2,914-meter volcano since Sunday night. ‘We are still in the process of studying all scientific data that we have obtained before we can decide whether or not the alert status should be upgraded,’ Triyani said. More than 5,000 people have fled their homes around the volcano so far but many return to work near their homes during daylight hours. The new dome has been forming on Merapi for more than a week, signalling that the eruption would involve an outflow of lava and deadly heat clouds rather than a massive explosion, scientists have said. In its last large eruption in 1994, heat clouds known locally as ‘shaggy goats’ careened down the volcano at more than 100 kilometres per hour, reaching temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius. The clouds killed 66 people. Merapi's most deadly eruption occurred in 1930, when 1,369 people were killed. It also erupted in 1994, killing 66 people. Indonesia sits on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ noted for its volcanic and seismic activity. The country has more than 100 active volcanoes.
Myanmar democracy party rejects resignation reports
Agence France-Presse . Yangon
Myanmar’s opposition on Monday rejected claims in official media that over 60 of its members had resigned amid pressure from the ruling junta, which has accused the party of links to ‘terrorists.’ The New Light of Myanmar said Monday that 67 members of the National League for Democracy, headed by detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, sent resignation letters to the party’s headquarters and the government. The report in the state-run daily also repeated the junta’s claim last month that the NLD had links with ‘groups of exiles, insurgents and terrorists’. A party spokesman said it had not received any resignation letters. ‘We haven’t received any resignation letters yet. We also don’t acknowledge recent reports in the state media,’ party spokesman Nyan Win said. State media have claimed that a total of more than 240 NLD members have resigned since the junta’s terrorist accusation nearly two weeks ago. Neither the government nor the opposition party disclose the number of NLD members. Regional NLD officials have confirmed some resignations, saying the military had intimidated people into leaving the party. The NLD, which denounces violence, won a landslide victory in elections in 1990 but the military-led government has never allowed it to govern. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for more than 10 of the last 17 years.
Six N Korean refugees taken to US: report
Agence France-Presse . Los Angeles
The United States has quietly granted refugee status to six North Koreans, the first to be admitted to this country under a 2004 US law, a US newspaper said Sunday. The refugees, four women and two men who had been living clandestinely in China, arrived late Friday and were taken immediately to an undisclosed location for debriefing, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing activists. They are the first to be admitted in under the 2004 North Korean Human Rights Act, which directs US authorities to grant political asylum to refugees fleeing the Stalinist regime, the newspaper said. No one had been admitted until now partly due to objections from South Korea and China that it could hurt six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons drive, the Times said. ‘This is a very good and compassionate thing for the United States to be doing,’ Senator Sam Brownback, who helped get asylum for the refugees, told the California daily. The six refugees were smuggled out of China by Chun Ki-won, a Seoul-based pastor in Seoul who operates an underground railroad for North Korean refugees, to an unnamed Southeast Asian nation before going to the United States, it said. Some of the women had been forced into prostitution in China, the Times said, citing rights activists.
Philippine lawmakers end 2-month standoff
Associated Press . Manila
Five lawmakers who took refuge in the Philippine legislature for two months while facing coup accusations on Monday walked out of the building in triumph after a court dismissed the charges. Their fists raised in defiance, the left-wing lawmakers emerged from the House of Representatives to cheers from hundreds of supporters, ending a two-month standoff with the government of the president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The lawmakers sought refuge in the building in February to avoid being arrested by police on charges that they conspired to overthrow Arroyo. A Manila court on Thursday dismissed the rebellion charges against them and the former senator and more than 40 other left-wing activists, communist guerrillas and renegade soldiers who were also accused. Justice secretary Raul Gonzales at first insisted that the legislators still faced arrest because the case was dismissed on a technicality and could be revived. But he backed off Sunday and acknowledged that policemen could not arrest the five legislators unless the case is revived on appeal.
Eight killed in Thai disco fire
Agence France-Presse . Bangkok
At least eight people were killed and 54 injured after a fire engulfed a disco in the Thai seaside resort town of Pattaya, the police said Monday. The fire destroyed the Route 999 nightclub in Pattaya, 150 kilometers southeast of Bangkok, late Sunday shortly after the disco opened and as staff were in a meeting. ‘A technician was repairing the air conditioner, using a small welding torch to connect two strips of metal. But the torch accidentally fell and kept burning until the gas ran out,’ the police lieutenant general Jongrak Juthanon said. The technician was among the dead. The seven others were staff members. Police said seven of the 54 injured were in critical condition suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. The fire destroyed the 30-million-baht (800,000-dollar) disco which opened for business four months ago after expensive sound-proofing of the building, the police said.
Scuffle in Afghan parliament after woman MP slams warlords
Agence France-Presse . Kabul
Former warlords in Afghanistan's parliament hurled water bottles and rushed at a woman MP after she accused them of being involved in the deaths of thousands of people. Malalai Joya said bearded and turbaned MPs who were once warlords in the country's decades of conflict had to be restrained from physically attacking her after a heated session of the four-month-old parliament. The uproar, in which several MPs rose from their chairs shouting, was shown on television. A cameraman from a private television station said one of the MPs had slapped him across the face while he was filming the scuffle. Joya, who has had death threats against her after a similar outburst during a meeting to draw up a post-Taliban constitution in 2003, alleged that she had heard a prominent former warlord telling his men ‘to stab me with a knife’.
Taiwan denies planning to call off arms deal with US
Agence France-Presse . Taipei
Taiwan’s government on Monday dismissed reports it would cancel a planned huge US arms deal after Washington refused to let president Chen Shui-bian make a stopover in the continental United States en route to Latin America. ‘The defence ministry cannot possibly change the policy carelessly,’ the deputy defence minister, Chu Kai-sheng, said in response to questions in parliament. ‘The report is just speculation,’ he said, referring to a China Times report that an angry Chen is likely to scrap the arms procurement plan. The paper said Chen may also tighten controls on civilian exchanges with China.
Blair rejects timetable for his departure
Agence France-Presse . London
A defiant British prime minister, Tony Blair, on Monday rejected calls by rebels within his party to name the day he will stand down and hand power to his successor, saying it would ‘paralyze’ government. After one of the most bruising weeks of his nine years in power, Blair told his monthly news conference that he wanted to pursue controversial reforms on crunch sectors including health and education. He also confirmed that he saw ambitious chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, the finance minister who has been waiting impatiently in the wings, as his obvious successor. ‘To state a timetable now would simply paralyze the proper working of government, put at risk the necessary changes we’re making for Britain and therefore damage the country,’ he said. Blair announced after his Labour Party’s third election victory in May last year that he would serve a full third term in office but not run for a fourth when the next nationwide legislative vote takes place by 2010. But poor local election results last week revived pressure within the party for a timetable for his departure and transition of power to Brown. ‘Of course he is. When have I ever said anything different? That is why I suggest everyone calms down and lets us get on with the business of governing,’ he said. He said he would tell a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) — Labour lawmakers in parliament—later Monday that he would stay on to fulfill his election mandate for reform in health, pension, schools, and justice. ‘I will say to the PLP this evening, ‘I have said there will be a stable and orderly transition to a new leader. I will see that is done in the interests of the country but it is also in the interests of this country that in the meantime we get on with the business of governing’.’ Blair warned that setting out a departure date now would be exploited by traditional leftists who seek to turn the tide against reforms undertaken by a party that he had steered toward the center with massive electoral success. ‘That (leftist) way lies not a fourth-term victory but a defeat and a return to opposition, and I will fight that all the way,’ said Blair. However, critics claim the whole party is distracted by the looming change in leadership, with members either still supporting Blair or lining up behind Brown. Labour members say Blair will face a meeting Monday in which many are angry at his ‘ruthless’ reshuffle of the cabinet in the wake of Thursday’s municipal council results, Labour’s worst since it took power in 1997. The reshuffle, which followed ministerial scandals, saw the prime minister sack his home secretary, demote his foreign secretary, take powers off his deputy prime minister and juggle other key ministerial posts.
Young girls sexually exploited in Liberian refugee camps: NGO
Agence france-presse . London
Girls as young as eight are being sexually exploited in Liberian refugee camps, sometimes by the humanitarian workers and peacekeeping troops tasked with protecting them, a British aid organisation charged Monday. Save the Children UK found that such exploitation was widespread after interviewing people in temporary camps for those displaced by the civil war and among those repatriated to their towns and villages of origin after its end. ‘Camp officials, humanitarian workers, businessmen, peacekeepers, government employees and even teachers were frequently cited,’ the report said. Those interviewed said the girls, driven by chronic poverty, had sex with older men of status in exchange for food, money, clothing, cell phones, watches, perfume, and to get a passing grade or a ride in a vehicle, it said. ‘Some girls have had sex for a bottle of beer, or to be allowed to see a video,’ it added. ‘Parents reported feeling powerless to stop the children who were having sex in exchange for goods and services as they did not have the economic means to provide for their children,’ it added. It quoted one victim as saying: ‘I have been asked more than 20 times by men to go with them for money. All are NGO (non-governmental organisation) workers.’ According to the group, many girls aged 12 and up had regular sexual relations with men in the refugee camps and communities, but some girls as young as eight had also been involved. ‘This cannot continue. It must be tackled,’ said Save the Children UK chief executive Jasmine Whitbread.
13 killed in Iraq
Agence France-Presse . Baghdad
Thirteen people were killed in rebel attacks Monday as Iraqi leaders were holding last-minute talks to form a new government in the hope it will help curb raging sectarian bloodshed. Five people died in a car bomb attack in Baghdad’s central Zawr Park and another five were killed in a mortar attack in central Baghdad’s Al-Tehran square, an interior ministry official said. Three Iraqis were shot dead in separate rebel attacks. Against a backdrop of violence, representatives of the country’s parliamentary blocs met the president, Jalal Talabani, to finalise the line-up of the first permanent government of the post-Saddam Hussein era, almost five months after a landmark election. Although the details of Monday’s political meeting were not known immediately, a source close to the negotiations said that prime minister designate Nuri al-Maliki was expected to announce the new cabinet soon. Following his nomination, Maliki had said he would form the cabinet by May 10 and had pledged to appoint independent candidates to head the country’s important security posts. The leaders of the dominant Shia United Iraqi Alliance were in a meeting Monday to name its candidate for the crucial interior ministry, the source said. The Shia leaders were considering independent Shia MP Qassem Daoud to head the interior ministry or retaining the controversial incumbent Bayan Jabr Solagh, the source said. Daoud has close links with former prime minister Iyad Allawi. Sunni Arab politicians have strongly criticised Solagh and accused his ministry’s Shia-led forces of operating death squads that indulged in extra-judicial killings of Sunni Arabs. The United States sees a national unity government as the only way to curb the violence that has raged since the toppling of Saddam in 2003 and pave the way for the eventual withdrawal of its 132,000 troops. Since the February bombing of a revered Shia shrine in the northern town of Samarra, Iraq has been roiled by Shia-Sunni tit-for-tat sectarian killings that has left hundreds dead. Bodies of brutally murdered men have been found scattered across Iraq in sectarian-related violence, while 35,000 civilians have died in violence related to Iraq’s Sunni-led insurgency since the end of the US-led 2003 invasion, according to some estimates.
No agreement on Italy’s presidency ahead of vote
Agence France-Presse . Rome
Italy’s incoming centre-left government and the centre-right opposition were deadlocked Monday over the choice of the country’s next president, further delaying Romano Prodi’s accession to power a month after his coalition won national elections. The Outgoing prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition was set to reject Prodi’s candidate Giorgio Napolitano, an 80-year-old former member of the European Parliament, seeing him as too left wing. Napolitano emerged as Prodi’s compromise candidate late Sunday after a frenzied round of party meetings designed to break a deadlock.
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Family feud claims seven lives in Pakistan
Seven members of the same family, including four women, were shot dead early Monday by a rival clan in a remote village in eastern Pakistan, the police said. More than a dozen armed men attacked the house of a local farmer before dawn killing him and six other people in Madar, in eastern Punjab province, the police said. ‘The victims were asleep in the courtyard of their house when they were attacked,’ local police chief Pervaiz Rahim Rajput said. He said the killings were the result of an old rivalry between the families of the dead farmer, Allah Ditta, and another local man, Ghulam Farid. Ditta allegedly killed Farid in 2003. The police arrested eight of the alleged killers and recovered weapons from them, he said.
Suharto recovering from surgery
Ailing former Indonesian dictator Suharto was recovering Monday from surgery to halt intestinal bleeding, the head of his medical team said. ‘On the first day post-surgery, the conditions of Haji Muhammad Suharto are good. (He is) fully conscious and shows stable vital signs,’ said Mardjo Soebandiono, who heads the team of doctors treating the former leader. The 84-year-old underwent surgery Sunday evening until early Monday at state-run Pertamina hospital in south Jakarta, where he has been treated in the past. ‘There is no longer any bleeding found,’ he said. ‘The patient will remain under intensive care since the critical period is estimated at between five to seven days.’ He said earlier that ‘everything went smoothly as planned.’
Eleven buried in Sumatra mine collapse
Eleven gold miners remained missing and were feared dead after a mine collapsed in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra at the weekend, a report said Monday. The mine, about 10 to 15 meters deep on the bank of the Batang Hari river in Lubuk Ulang Aling village, collapsed Saturday while the men were inside, Media Indonesia quoted local district official Abdul Rahman as saying. The district police chief, Roem Taat, confirmed the accident but could not elaborate further as there was no telecommunications network in the area of the accident.
Annan to visit Japan next week
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, will visit Japan from May 16 to May 19 for talks on issues including Tokyo’s campaign for a permanent seat on the Security Council, the foreign ministry said Monday. Annan will meet the prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, and other leaders ‘to exchange views on various international issues including UN Security Council reform,’ the ministry said in a statement. Japan, the top contributor to the UN budget after the United States, has threatened to cut funding after failing last year to win a seat on the Security Council, partly due to strong opposition from China.
Suspected Kashmir militants kill three
Suspected Muslim rebels hanged a young woman and shot dead two former comrades, police said Monday, as the state capital made its annual summer move to the main city Srinagar. The police blamed rebels for hanging a 22-year-old Muslim woman in northern Baramulla district. ‘She was abducted some 20 days ago and later hanged by militants. Her body was recovered late Sunday,’ a police spokesman said. He said suspected rebels also shot dead two former colleagues in the district of Baramulla and Pulwama in the south, but gave no further details. No group claimed responsibility for the killings.
— AFP
Darfur aid at risk from warring
factions: HRW
Darfur’s warring factions must stop attacking humanitarian agencies and facilitate access to civilians in need of assistance, Human Rights Watch said late Sunday. In a new briefing paper, the rights group said over three million people in the troubled western Sudan region depend on aid, and that aid workers are struggling to reach civilians in dire need of help. ‘After three years of horrendous attacks, more than three million people in Darfur depend on international aid to survive,’ Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
— AFP
Four killed in Venezuelan
plane crash
Four Venezuelan military personnel were confirmed dead by authorities Sunday after rescue teams found the wreckage of a military plane which crashed north of Caracas. One survivor from Friday’s crash was being taken to a military hospital. ‘We are rushing him to a military hospital that’s ready to receive him and removing the dead to a morgue,’ General Marcos Rojas told Globovision television. It is not known what caused the plane to crash close to Maiquetia airport, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Caracas.
— AFP
Fiji election back on track after shaky start
Voting in Fiji’s racially charged election resumed on Monday as officials sought to assure voters opening day glitches would not affect the outcome, but observers feared that the real trouble may come after ballots are cast. Some minor problems were reported but there was no repeat of the chaotic start to the week-long poll on Saturday, when thousands of voters waited for hours because ballot boxes and papers were late arriving. Those problems added to a tense build-up to the election made worse by a public slanging match between the prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, and the South Pacific nation’s outspoken military chief.
— Reuters
Iran supreme leader vetoes
women in stadiums
Iran’s supreme leader has vetoed an order by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to end a 26-year-old ban on allowing women in stadiums for major sporting events, the government said Monday. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, ruled that ‘the top clergy’s opinion should be respected and this issue be reconsidered,’ government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters. ‘The president said he would act as the supreme leader said,’ Elham added.
— AFP
Cardinal urges legal action
against Da Vinci Code
In the latest Vatican broadside against ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded. Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year, made his strong comments in a documentary called ‘The Da Vinci Code-A Masterful Deception.’ Arinze’s appeal came some 10 days after another Vatican cardinal called for a boycott of the film. Both cardinals asserted that other religions would never stand for offences against their beliefs and that Christians should get tough. ‘Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and to forget,’ Arinze said in the documentary made by Rome film maker Mario Biasetti for Rome Reports, a Catholic film agency specialising in religious affairs.
— AFP
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