The Swedish defense minister was forced to quit on Thursday after weeks of pressure over reports the government planned to help Saudi Arabia build a weapons plant. Arms sales to Saudi Arabia are controversial in a country which prides itself on standing up for human rights, and the reports about aid for the weapons plant sparked an uproar.
Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors survived initial reports in early March about plans for a state-run Defense research agency, FOI, to help Saudi Arabia build the plant by saying he had not known of them and that FOI had exceeded its authority. But reports of the details of the affair have continued to surface, steadily increasing pressure on him.
Roberta Alenius, spokeswoman for Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, said, "He (Tolgfors) has resigned at his own request."
The minority center-right government, which consists of four parties, has fallen behind in opinion polls after the largest opposition party the Social Democrats named a popular new leader.
Reinfeldt, head of the largest government party, the Moderates, has had to delay further income tax cuts due to a slowing economy. He has until the next election in 2014 to win back some popularity.
Continued on Page 47
MINSK, Belarus: Several thousand people have turned out for an anti-government rally in Belarus to call for the freeing of political prisoners and for the former Soviet republic to become a European-style democracy.
Sundays protest rally was the largest since authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko won another term in a December 2010 election and intensified his crackdown on the opposition.
The opposition has traditionally held rallies on March 25 to mark the anniversary of Belarus short-lived declaration of independence from Russia in 1918.
Lukashenkos government usually bans the rallies and sends police in to break them up. This year, the protesters were allowed to gather peacefully, but each one had to pass through security controls and be photographed.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
You murderous bunch in Belarus. To be an ass for the Russians. They do not even need you.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
