Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Saturday it feared its parliamentary election victory was being stolen, while former U.N. chief Kofi Annan urged African leaders to step in and resolve the country's election crisis. Zimbabweans are still awaiting results of the presidential election held three weeks ago alongside parliamentary voting. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claims he won outright and that the delay in reporting results is part of a fraud plot.
Now the opposition's landmark victory in the parliamentary vote is being called into question. Electoral officials on Saturday began recounting ballots for nearly two dozen legislative seats, which could overturn the Zimbabwean opposition's landmark majority win in the parliamentary poll. Most of the seats being recounted had been declared for opposition candidates, including in President Robert Mugabe's home district of Zvimba.
State-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. reported the recount would take as many as three days.
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said in a statement Saturday it had "learnt with disgust" that a number of ballot boxes arriving at recount centers were "without seals." It called the recount a "rogue and flawed process."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Big Joe: "It's not the votes that count-- it's who counts the votes that counts."
The former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has urged African leaders to do more to address the crisis in Zimbabwe. He said the situation was dangerous, and could have an impact beyond the country's borders. Three weeks after polls were held, the presidential result has yet to be declared. Some of the votes in the parliamentary race are being recounted. The parliamentary vote was won by the opposition, which insists its candidate defeated President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Annan made his comments to reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where he held talks with Zimbabwean opposition leaders on Friday. "On the question of Zimbabwe there has been substantial international attention. The question which has been posed is: where are the Africans? Where are their leaders and the countries in the region, what are they doing? It is a rather dangerous situation. It's a serious crisis with impact beyond Zimbabwe."
He said action by African leaders had helped resolve the post-election crisis in Kenya, where mediation led to the formation of a coalition government. "You've just been through a crisis here, and you've managed to solve it, and I must say the credit goes to the Kenyan people, to the African Union - it was an African solution to an African problem," Mr Annan said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2008 00:00 ||
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was an African solution to an African problem
I thought Whitey was the problem. Bob's not going to be happy with you messing with his act, Kofi.
#3
Doesn't he mean "piece of the action" for Kojo or some other ne're-do-well son?
Posted by: ed ||
04/20/2008 11:37 Comments ||
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#4
Maybe if food prices go high enough the world will see some value in having a viable agricultural economy there. One of the problems leading to this was the fact that the giant US grain surpluses of the past several decades gave agricultural economies little value. We could ship grain to countries for cheaper than they could buy seed and fertilizer.
That isn't true anymore now that we are burning up our food supply as fast as we can grow it.
#5
"That isn't true anymore now that we are will soon be burning up our food supply as fast as faster than we can grow it."
Fixed that for ya', cross.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/20/2008 14:22 Comments ||
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#6
Maybe I'm getting old and feeble, but I don't remember Kofi being too concerned about Zimbabwe back when he was El Supremo of the Villians, Thieves and Scoundrels Union.
A Chinese ship loaded with arms and ammunition sailed away from a South African waters and is on its way to Luanda, Angola to unload its cargo bound for Zimbabwe. And China wonders why they're having such a hard time with the Olympics!
South Africa's High Court ruled Friday the cargo could be offloaded in the Durban port, but it could not pass over South Africa roads to get to Zimbabwe, a country in crisis because of an election stalemate. Durban's dockworkers also said they would not handle the cargo, fearing the arms would be used by the Zimbabwean government against its own people.
A big salute to the dockworkers and their union. Outstanding. They understand far better what national leaders refuse to confront.
A South African government source told CNN the China-flagged An Yue Jiang had sailed away from Durban Friday evening before the High Court's order could be served to the ship's captain. The ship was headed to the port of Luanda, Angola, according to the South African Department of Transport.
"This union has a proud history of taking action against regimes which it disapproves of in the past, but this is certainly the first time it has gotten involved in an African regime like Zimbabwe," David Cockroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers Federation, said. "I don't think there's much doubt that the (dock) workers ... are very strongly against the Mugabe regime," he said.
Cockroft said that arms had almost certainly been shipped to Zimbabwe through Durban in the past, but the size of this shipment -- "more than a million pounds" and 3.5 million rounds of rifles, small arms, mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades -- made it more noteworthy.
Earlier, South African Revenue Service spokesman Adrian Lackay told CNN "that it is commonplace for landlocked neighboring states in southern Africa to use South African ports of entry for the transshipment of goods."
Lackay indicated that the ship had complied with South African regulations requiring it to disclose the contents of the cargo it is carrying. A government spokesman, Thembo Maseko, told CNN, "There were arms on the ship."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement in a fax to the Reuters news agency saying that China and Zimbabwe have normal trade relations, that the Chinese government takes a "prudent and responsible" position on arms deals and that it does not involve itself in the internal affairs of other countries. And for that very same reason, I think Taiwan needs nukes.
#2
No. China wants the stability. It also doesn't care how the nation it extracts the resources from is run, only that its access to resources is unimpeded.
#3
AFRICANCRISIS > claims that ARMED CHINESE TROOPS were observed and working alongside Mugabe's as per weapons ship-delivery incident - author fears Zimbabwe has become "A CHINESE COLONY" pro forma???
Protesters in several Chinese cities have gathered to demand a boycott of French products and denounce campaigns for Tibetan independence. Hundreds of people demonstrated in cities including Beijing, Wuhan, Hefei, Kunming, and Qingdao - often outside stores of the French chain Carrefour.
Passions ran high, but the protests were closely patrolled by police. Protesters say they are angry at the scale of protests that accompanied the Olympic torch relay in Paris. They have also denounced French President Nicolas Sarkozy's refusal to confirm whether he will attend the opening ceremony of the Games. Pictures from the central city of Wuhan showed large crowds congregating outside a Carrefour supermarket.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Feeling REALLY uncomfortable siding with the French.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's 'Mr Euro', has given the clearest warning to date that the world authorities may take action to halt the collapse of the dollar and undercut commodity speculation by hedge funds.
Momentum traders have blithely ignored last week's accord by the G7 powers, which described "sharp fluctuations in major currencies" as a threat to economic and financial stability. The euro has surged to fresh records this week, touching $1.5982 against the dollar and £0.8098 against sterling yesterday.
"I don't have the impression that financial markets and other actors have correctly and entirely understood the message of the G7 meeting," he said.
Mr Juncker, who doubles as Luxembourg premier and chair of eurozone financiers, told the Luxembourg press that he had been invited to the White House last week just before the G7 at the urgent request of President George Bush. The two leaders discussed the dangers of rising "protectionism" in Europe. Mr Juncker warned that matters could get out of hand unless America took steps to halt the slide in the dollar.
World central banks last intervened eight years ago - with mixed success - buying euros in September 2000 to support the fledgling currency through its worst crisis.
David Woo, currency chief at Barclays Capital, said the Europeans and Americans are talking past each other. Whatever the G7 wording, Washington is happy to watch the dollar slide. "They are not going to worry unless there is a knock-on effect on US equity or bond prices. So far that hasn't happened. There are no signs that the dollar decline has turned disorderly," he said.
European industry has managed to live with the high euro so far, but the damage of major currency shifts can take years to surface. "The moment will come where the exchange rate level will start to cause serious harm to the European economy," said Mr Juncker.
Louis Gallois, head of the Airbus group EADS, said his company is already taking dramatic steps to shift plant to the dollar-zone. "The euro at its current level is asphyxiating a large part of European industry by shaving export margins," he said.
The European Central Bank revealed in its monthly report that foreign direct investment (FDI) into the euro zone has contracted by 269bn over the last two years. Foreigners are gradually winding down operations. This will have powerful long-term effects.
George Soros, the hedge fund baron who "broke" Europe's exchange system in the early 1990s, said yesterday that the euro could never anchor of the global system. "I don't think the euro can replace the dollar as the main world currency. The euro is not a truly attractive alternative," he said.
Pence per euro
Mr Soros said the dollar would reclaim its crown eventually, but for now the financial crisis is leading to a flight from all paper currencies, causing a dash for gold, silver, and oil futures.
Otmar Issing, the ECB's former 'High Priest', said the single currency had started well but could face a "disastrous outcome" if the eurozone failed to embrace a flexible market system. "The 'single-size' monetary policy would simply not fit at all. In such a scenario, the single currency would risk straining cohesion " he warned in a new book, 'The Euro'.
This is already occurring. North and South have diverged further. While Germany and Holland have prospered under the strong euro, most of southern Europe and Ireland is in trouble. Current account deficits have reached 9.2pc of GDP in Spain and may touch 15pc in Greece. The European Commission's economists fear that the loss of competitiveness against Germany over the last decade may have passed the point of no return. At best, these countries face years of belt-tightening as their property booms deflate.
Dollars per euro
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's newly elected premier, has called for a change in the ECB's mandate, proposing a dual mission akin to the US Federal Reserve's mandate to promote growth as well as fighting inflation. He has the support of France's Nicolas Sarkozy.
A key reason for the 30pc rise in the euro agasint the dollar over the last two years has been the move by Asia central banks and Mid-East wealth funds to parking huge sums of newly acquired wealth in European bonds as an alternative to the dollar.
BNP Paribas said Asian surplus countries and commodity exporters have accumulated $1,160bn in reserves over the last year alone. US Treasury data shows that only 19pc of this was invested in dollar assets. This is a sharp break with past practice. A large chunk of the money was invested in euro-zone securities. The question is whether China, Saudi Arabia, and others, have now reached euro saturation.
#1
George Soros, the hedge fund baron who "broke" Europe's exchange system in the early 1990s, said yesterday that the euro could never anchor of the global system. "I don't think the euro can replace the dollar as the main world currency. The euro is not a truly attractive alternative," he said.
Pence per euro
Mr Soros said the dollar would reclaim its crown eventually, but for now the financial crisis is leading to a flight from all paper currencies, causing a dash for gold, silver, and oil futures.
#4
He hates the dollar, he loves the dollar, I wish Soros would make up his mind. He must have taken some Forex lots on the dollar if he is talking it up now.
#7
BP's dead on. I just got 9.50% P.A. on an FDIC-insured CD. Reminded me of when Jimmuh was POTUS. Bad, bad memory...
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
04/20/2008 18:29 Comments ||
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#8
There's that term again - "Eurozone". Is
"EUROPE" is no longer pertinent or PCorrect vv "the -ZONES"???
NICE OF THE POLITICOS AND OFFICIOS, etc. TO LET THE MAINSTREAM = ORDINARY CITIZENRY KNOW THE WOT > WAR FOR GLOBAL ZONES. CLEARLY SUCH COURAGE, OR LACK OF SAME, MUST BE REWARDED AT GOVT = NWO EXPENSE!
#11
GLOBALRESEARCH > US DOLLAR MELTDOWN BEGINS AS CHINA DUMPS THE CURRENCY, $1.4Trilyuuhn's worth into more preferred world currencies e.g. Euro, as CHINA reportedly favors STRONG CURRENCIES???
OTOH, RUMORMILLNEWS Poster > JEFF RENSE Radio SHow - Rense + Guest Pert opined that AMERS SHOULD PREPARE NOW FOR A VARIETY/NUMBER OF COMING, SIMULTANEOUS OR NEAR-SIMUL OCCURRING SEVERE NATIONAL + GLOBAL CRISES, including US-IRAN WAR after August???
Sen. John McCain charmed donors over fish pâté in London. Sen. Hillary Clinton sent her husband to Dublin and London to hug for dollars. Sen. Barack Obama rallied supporters in Beijing by teleconference and sent his wife to London to pan for campaign gold.
The U.S. presidential candidates have raised more than $3 million in campaign contributions from Americans who live overseas, an unprecedented courtship of a slice of the U.S. electorate that was largely ignored in previous elections.
"They've finally woken up, after years of banging and knocking on their door, to the fact that there's 6 million of us -- that's a big state," said Susan Donnell, a member of Republicans Abroad who has lived in London for 15 years.
The number of Americans living overseas is commonly estimated at about 6 million -- twice the population of Chicago and greater than that of 33 U.S. states. Britain is home to about 300,000 Americans, nearly the population of Pittsburgh.
The candidates' pursuit of expatriates is driven by a razor-thin-close, cash-guzzling campaign and aided by Web technology that makes it easy to donate online from any corner of the planet. "It's huge," said Jim McGregor, an American investment adviser in Beijing who has organized fundraisers for Obama (D-Ill.). "I've been here since 1990, and I've never seen anything like this before."
Only U.S. citizens and green card holders are permitted to contribute to U.S. campaigns. So at elegant cocktail receptions from London to Tokyo, donors paying up to $2,300 each (the maximum contribution allowed by law) don't get through the door without their passports or some other proof of citizenship or permanent resident status.
Through the end of February, nine months before the 2008 general election, donations from expatriate Americans already totaled $2.8 million, more than double the $1.1 million raised in the entire 2004 campaign, and nearly six times the amount raised in 2000, according to a Washington Post analysis of Federal Election Commission records.
Obama raised the most by far -- about $1.4 million, more than twice the $556,300 raised by Clinton (D-N.Y.). McCain (R-Ariz.) raised $127,000 through February, although he more than doubled that amount at another London fundraiser last month. The FEC's March fundraising figures have not yet been released.
The candidates have actually raised much more abroad than the records indicate. Many Americans who live overseas maintain U.S. addresses that appear in FEC contributor records. That makes it difficult to track all overseas contributions.
For example, former president Bill Clinton raised more than $700,000 for his wife's campaign at back-to-back parties in Dublin and London in November, according to the campaign. He also held another high-priced event in London in October. But FEC records show much less from contributors with overseas addresses.
Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) is widely believed to be the pioneer in overseas fundraising. His September fundraiser at London's Mandarin Oriental Hotel marked the first time a U.S. presidential candidate attended such an event outside the United States, according to Republicans in London and The Post's review of FEC records.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/20/2008 07:23 ||
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I bet Alec Baldwin alone gave a million dollars from his Paris home.
Hillary Clinton blamed her defeats by Barack Obama in caucuses around the country in part on MoveOn.org, the liberal activist group that was founded in 1998 to tell Congress to "move on" from its push to impeach Clinton's husband.
Clinton's comments were posted last night in audio form on the liberal political site Huffington Post, which would not say how, where or when it obtained the recording, beyond saying that it was after Super Tuesday.
"We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party," Clinton told donors in the audio clip. "MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me."
Barack Obama's controversial comments about small-town voters appeared on the Huffington Post last week, and the disclosure of Clinton's remarks seemed an attempt at payback, as users of the generally pro-Obama site throughout the week had posted quotes showing Hillary or Bill Clinton discussing the challenge of winning over white working-class voters.
MoveOn, which claims 3 million members, endorsed Obama in early February. It was one of the most prominent of the Democratic groups opposed to the war in Iraq, and the current executive director of its political action committee, Eli Pariser, had recommended in 2001 that the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 attacks be "moderate and restrained." Pariser was not running MoveOn at the time, but an online group called 9-11Peace.org, which called for "a nonmilitaristic response to the terrorist attacks." Pariser now says he supported the invasion of Afghanistan.
Clinton's campaign has long suggested Obama backers intimidate people at caucuses, a charge that has not been proven, but the former first lady had not previously laid the blame at the feet of MoveOn. "Senator Clinton's remarks attacking them are unfounded and categorically false," Pariser said.
But Clinton's focus on MoveOn illustrates a larger tension between the senator from New York and liberal internet activists in the party who are members of MoveOn or frequent visitors to sites like Huffington Post or Daily Kos. Many of the activists were opposed from the beginning to the Iraq War, which Clinton voted to authorize, and were skeptical of the centrist approach of her husband.
Such divisions have deepened during the primaries, even though Obama and Clinton have very similar plans to pull out troops from Iraq. I've had enough popcorn, really.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/20/2008 07:16 ||
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Karma can be damned ironic.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
04/20/2008 8:12 Comments ||
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#2
MoveOn.org, the liberal activist group that was founded in 1998 to tell Congress to "move on" from its push to impeach Clinton's husband.
They haven't accomplished a whole hell of a lot over the years, have they?
#4
"Very similar plans to pull out troops from Iraq" > IMO these alleged "plans" were broadly based on seemingly inevitable US-Coalition victory as long as the Islamists were staying and fighting in the ME = "Over There" only, and NOT resorting [yet] to using any "American Hiroshima" + "Mutual Destruction" MilPol options. WITH THE ISLAMIST REGIONAL-GLOBAL JIHAD SLOWLY BUT SURELY WEAKENING VV LOSS OF MEN, MATERIEL, POPUL SUPPORT, etc. + STILL FACING IMPLOSION OF THEIR -ISM, THEY [IRAN + MILITANT
GROUPS]NEED NUCLEAR- + WMD-WEAPONS NOW BOTH FOR DETERRENCE, CREDIBILITY, AS WELL AS WARFARE, AND TO INCLUDE NEW WILLINGNESS-RESOLVE TO ACTUALLY USE SUCH WEAPONS FOR JIHAD.
THE MOST DANGEROUS + POTENTIALLY GEOPOL DESTABILIZING-DESTRUC PHASE OF THE WOT/JIHAD IS DAWNING UPON THE US-WORLD, AND THE DEMS ANSWER IS VIETNAM-STYLE, UNILATER US "WITHDRAWAL/PEACE WITH HONOR", i.e. "IRAQIFICATION/IRAQIZATION OF THE WAR" INCLUDING REAL RISK OF ANOTHER "SAIGON 1975" [Fall of Saigon?]???
THE DEMS + MCCAIN MUST KNOW OR BE AWARE THAT OSAMA + ISLAMISTS ARE JUST GOING TO USE ANY US WITHDRAWAL + AFTERMATH TO MAKE NUCLEAR IRAN-TERROR-ISLAMIST SWORD THAT MUCH STRONGER.
PHILADELPHIA -- In her family's non-stop campaigning in Pennsylvania, Chelsea Clinton got the post-midnight duty on Friday night: stumping in Philadelphia's gay bars.
Hillary Clinton's big supporter in the state, Gov. Ed Rendell, always heads to four or five of the most popular of them before elections, and he invited the former first daughter along for the trip.
And so it was that, as she walked out of Tavern on Carmac after midnight, a crowd of men outside the bar shouted "We love your highlights!" and "You're gorgeous, baby."
Clinton turned around, saying "thank you, but that's not why you should vote for my mom."
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/20/2008 07:14 ||
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"So, Chealse walks into a gay bar in Philly..." Add punchline here:__________
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/20/2008 9:05 Comments ||
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#2
"You're gorgeous, baby." I knew she was adopted
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Barack Obama Gets Establishment Democrats' Backing as Hillary Clinton Attacks
Clintonesta said, visa vi
Sen Mrs Clinton vs Sen BO Plenty
"`Negative Politics'
`` I was appalled'' by Clinton's attack, Reich said in New York Magazine. ``I thought it represented the nadir of mean- spirited, negative politics.''
yea right
Former Senators Nunn, a Georgian who was chairman of the Armed Services Committee and Boren, an Oklahoman who led the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in their endorsement announcement that they would serve on Obama's foreign policy team.
#2
I wish Hillary would just go away... She should try landing her plane in שְׂדֵרוֹת Sderot, at least then she might be able to tell a "real" story about enemy fire ... lol
Several thousand Islamic hard-liners protested Sunday in Indonesia's capital calling for a ban on a Muslim sect they consider heretical. A crowd of white-clad woman, children and men chanted, "Disband Ahmadiyah!" at the downtown National Monument. Police estimated about 3,000 people participated in the noisy but peaceful demonstration.
Ahmadiyah was founded at the end of the 19th century in Pakistan, where it is banned, and conservative Muslims claim it was devised by British colonialists to divide Muslims. The protest came days after a team of prosecutors, religious scholars and government officials said the sect "had deviated from Islamic principles" and recommended Wednesday it be outlawed. Ahmadiyah, believed to have 200,000 followers in predominantly Muslim Indonesia, has also faced persecution in other Muslim countries. Its followers insist it should be considered part of Islam.
Cleric Cholil Ridwan told the crowd at the National Monument that Ahmadiyah recognizes an Indian prophet, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, in addition to Prophet Muhammad. He urged Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to disband the group. "We call on the government to seize their assets and ask all followers and members to disband and to return to Islam," he said.
Ahmadiyah spokesman Syamsir Ali said the group will resist attempts to break it up. The government should not get involved in religious matters and the president should not bend to "the demands of anarchists who merely want to turn this country into a Shariah state," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, referring to a country governed by Islamic law.
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.
Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Saturday it feared its parliamentary election victory was being stolen, while former U.N. chief Kofi Annan urged African leaders to step in and resolve the country's election crisis. Zimbabweans are still awaiting results of the presidential election held three weeks ago alongside parliamentary voting. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claims he won outright and that the delay in reporting results is part of a fraud plot.
The former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has urged African leaders to do more to address the crisis in Zimbabwe. He said the situation was dangerous, and could have an impact beyond the country's borders. Three weeks after polls were held, the presidential result has yet to be declared. Some of the votes in the parliamentary race are being recounted. The parliamentary vote was won by the opposition, which insists its candidate defeated President Robert Mugabe. 
Protesters in several Chinese cities have gathered to demand a boycott of French products and denounce campaigns for Tibetan independence. Hundreds of people demonstrated in cities including Beijing, Wuhan, Hefei, Kunming, and Qingdao - often outside stores of the French chain Carrefour. 
Hillary Clinton blamed her defeats by Barack Obama in caucuses around the country in part on MoveOn.org, the liberal activist group that was founded in 1998 to tell Congress to "move on" from its push to impeach Clinton's husband.
