MUGABE: SHARING POWER HUMILIATES
Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2008
PA
In the World
HARARE, Zimbabwe – President Robert Mugabe told his party yesterday
that sharing power with rivals is a "humiliation" but that it has to
be accepted because they lost the March elections.
Mugabe was shown on state television addressing a meeting of top
ZANU-PF party leaders called to prepare for dividing the cabinet with
two opposition factions as stipulated in a deal that was signed on
Monday. Mugabe loyalists will lose cabinet seats to make room for
the opposition.
The statement was a sign Mugabe would not abandon the accord, as some
feared, and should help calm fears his agreement to cede some power
for the first time in 28 years might founder. Mugabe aide Patrick
Chinamasa said the three parties involved would meet today and could
have a cabinet by the end of the day. – AP
Thai protesters target new leader BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand’s
new prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, showed determination to mend
political rifts by quickly shaking hands with the opposition leader
yesterday and appealing for national unity.
But the gestures did not appease antigovernment protesters, who called
him unfit for the job because of his familial ties to a disgraced
former leader.
Somchai, 61, a former judge, is known as a conciliator. His combative
predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, was the original target of the
protesters, for his ties to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra,
who was ousted in a 2006 coup. Samak was forced from office last week
by a court ruling for taking pay to host TV shows.
But Somchai carries heavy baggage. He is married to the sister
of Thaksin. "Blood is thicker than water," said Somsak Kosaisuk,
a leader of the protesters. – AP
Corruption case in S. Africa is on JOHANNESBURG, South Africa –
Prosecutors said yesterday that they plan to appeal a judge’s ruling
that set aside corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, the leader of the
governing party who is in line to become South Africa’s next president.
The decision by the National Prosecuting Authority restores, at least
for a while, the legal cloud that hangs above the Zuma candidacy. But
it further infuriates the many Zuma followers who think the prosecution
is a political vendetta against him by his chief rival and the man
who once fired him, South Africa President Thabo Mbeki.
After the announcement, Zet Luzipho, a trade union leader, said in
Durban that the decision is "a declaration of war on our people"
and threatened strikes. – AP
Elsewhere: Iranian rights groups and lawyers say they have stepped
up a campaign against execution of juvenile offenders, hoping to save
about 120 minors now on death row.
Armenia welcomed a new U.S. ambassador, career diplomat Marie
Yovanovitch. The last envoy was withdrawn in 2006 after referring to
the World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide, in defiance
of U.S. policy. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
