Archive for April, 2008.
DILI, East Timor (AP) — President Jose Ramos-Horta returned to his tiny troubled nation early Thursday after recuperating from wounds sustained in an assassination attempt more than two months ago.
East Timorese girls practice a show to welcome President Jose Ramos-Horta in Dili. Thousands of supporters cheered and clapped as the popular Nobel laureate stepped off the plane, accompanied by bodyguards, aides and his personal doctor. Some waved East Timorese flags and banners that said “Welcome home our beloved president! We love you!” Ramos-Horta hugged government ministers lining a red carpet on the tarmac and posed for pictures. The 58-year-old leader was shot twice by rebels in front of his house in the capital, Dili, on February 11 in a coordinated attack on the country’s leadership. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unharmed from an ambush on his motorcade the same day.
(Source:CNN)
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) — Kenya swore in a new Cabinet Thursday, split 50-50 between former bitter enemies from opposing parties.
Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki, left, and opposition leader Raila Odinga during negotiations last week. The swearing-in caps a long-negotiated power-sharing compromise between Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, and ends a dispute over December’s elections that led to widespread violence. Kibaki remains president, but he has tapped Odinga as prime minister — the first time Kenya’s government will have both. Under the power-sharing agreement, which Kibaki and Odinga signed on February 28, Cabinet positions were to be distributed equally, but the two sides disagreed on how they would be divided. Even as negotiators proposed an expansion of the Cabinet to 40 posts, the two sides had been unable to agree until Saturday.
(Source:CNN)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — An attacker wearing a suicide vest killed 42 people and injured others at a funeral for a tribal leader in a northern Iraqi Sunni village dominated by the American-backed awakening movement, police said.
Awakening movement members with U.S. troops in January: The Sunni group is fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq. Police believe the strike appears to be latest assault to intimidate members of the awakening — predominantly Sunnis Muslims who have joined forces with the U.S. and Iraqi governments. The attack took place in Albu Mohammed, where mourners attended the funeral of Sheikh Ibrahim Aref al-Azzawi, a tribal leader in the predominantly Sunni village, police in the Diyala town of Khalis said. Witnesses say the injured have been taken to hospitals in Salaheddin province and in Kirkuk. It is not clear in what province the village is located. The sheikh is not a member of the local Awakening Council, but police believe he and the mourners were targeted because of their sympathies to the movement, which is cutting into what has been the insurgents’ base of support.
(Source:CNN)
HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) — President Raúl Castro has moved quickly since taking the reins of power from his ailing brother, Fidel, last year to boost food production by putting more land into the hands of profit-earning farmers.
Cuban farmers pick tomatoes on a farm in Guira de Melena, 80 miles south of Havana, on Wednesday. Government officials hope that, with more land into production, the nation would need to import less food. Just east of the capital, Jose Luis Silva grows cabbage, corn and plantains on a small plot, one that he would like to see expanded. “I’d work it, and I’d work it well,” he said. “It would solve their problem, and it would solve mine.” When he says “their problem,” he is referring to Cuba’s disastrous state-run agriculture industry. Cuba imports about 80 percent of the food it rations to the public. Additionally, state-run television reports that half of the country’s state-owned land is either unused or underused. A thorny bush called marabu fills many of the unused fields and has become a symbol for the failure of agriculture. Last year, Raúl Castro himself bitterly joked about how much of it he could see along the highway. Now, changes are under way.
(Source:CNN)
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) — The Olympic torch arrived Thursday morning in India, the heart of the world’s largest Tibetan exile community, sparking the first of what officials fear may be a string of protests during the torch’s relay of the country.
Tibetan protesters shout anti China slogans, as they are detained by Indian police. Police dragged several protesters into vans as they chanted anti-China slogans outside a luxury hotel near Rajpath. Olympic officials are keeping the torch there before the start of the 4 p.m. (6:30 ET) relay. Officers detained another 32 protesters even before the torch touched down on Indian soil, according to a state-run news agency, the Press Trust of India. Tibetan exiles had blocked a road near an army hospital in southwest Delhi, the agency said. Tibet activists groups have said they will do what is necessary to get their voices heard during the torch’s stay in India.
(Source:CNN)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — An Iraqi photographer for The Associated Press has been freed after two years in U.S. military custody, an American military official said Wednesday.
Bilal Hussein calls his family shortly after being released Wednesday from a U.S. military prison in Baghdad, Iraq. Bilal Hussein, arrested two years ago on allegations of terrorist ties, was handed over to representatives of the news agency Wednesday, the official said. An Iraqi judicial committee dropped legal proceedings against Hussein last week, saying he should be freed unless other charges were pending. The U.S. military initially said it had more than enough evidence to hold him under a U.N. mandate. However, Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, deputy commanding general for detainee operations, signed an order Monday for Hussein’s release.
(Source:CNN)
The failure to release the results of last month’s Zimbabwe elections could cause the situation in that country to deteriorate further with “serious implications” for its people, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Wednesday. In unusually blunt remarks during a special U.N. Security Council session, Ban said he was deeply concerned about the uncertainty created by the failure to release the results of the March 29 elections. Tensions have risen and violence has broken out in Zimbabwe after opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai declared victory over incumbent President Robert Mugabe a few days after the voting, based, the opposition said, on results posted outside polling stations
(Source:CNN)
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) — In their last face-to-face meeting before a crucial primary showdown in Pennsylvania, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went back and forth over recent campaign-trail controversies before staking out differences on taxes and the economy.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama face off Wednesday in their final meet-up before the Pennsylvania primary. In the end, both conceded their opponent is capable of defeating Republican John McCain for the presidency in November while maintaining they would have the best chance of the two. Media reports have said Clinton and her campaign have been quietly courting support, chiefly from Democratic superdelegates who could decide a close race at the party’s convention, by arguing that Obama is not electable. Obama said Clinton could win, too. He also said he would support the New York senator and former first lady if she is the Democratic nominee, although both candidates declined to say whether they would consider naming the other as a running mate