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USATODAY.com News - Top Stories
Obama calls on Europeans to help solve global woes
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:31:54 -0000
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, as he neared the end of his seven-country foreign trip, staged an unusual public ...
South Texas cleans up after Dolly
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:59:59 -0000
Residents across South Texas slogged through knee-deep muddy waters and dug through debris Thursday, but were thankful that Dolly ...
Australian couple loses suit over unexpected birth of twins
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:51:23 -0000
A lesbian couple has failed in an attempt to sue an obstetrician they blamed for twins born rather than a single baby as requested.
The Economist: News analysis
The pain in Panama
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:13:56 -0000
Inflation has reached a 28-year highPanama, with its dollarised economy, sophisticated financial sector and years of solid economic growth, is not used to dealing with the macroeconomic instability and inflationary woes typical of other Latin American countries in the past. But inflation in Panama, as in the rest of the region, has picked up sharply since 2007 and is now at a 28-year high--and this is having both social and political repercussions.Despite administrative measures, such as reduced import tariffs and indirect price subsidies, fuel and food prices continue to make an increasing contribution to Panamanian inflation and were the major cause of the spike in the annual rate to 9.6% in June. It looks likely that inflation will break into double digits in July. ...
Surprise presidential choice
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:16:55 -0000
A blow to the Maoist in NepalsNepal has elected its first president after abolishing the monarchy and declaring the country a republic. Surprisingly, however, the winner of the July 21st run-off vote was not the candidate backed by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), or CPN (M)--which won the most seats in the constituent-assembly election in April--but Ram Baran Yadav of the mainstream Nepali Congress (NC) party. The result is a blow to the Maoists' hopes of dictating the direction of constitutional reform, and the former rebels' reaction to this setback will be crucial to political stability.Mr Yadav won 308 out of 590 votes in the constituent assembly. Ramraja Prasad Singh, the candidate supported by the CPN (M), won only 282. Although the presidential post is largely ceremonial for the time being--the nature of the political system and future extent of presidential powers will be among many subjects to be wrangled over as the constituent assembly drafts a new constitution--the election result is nonetheless significant for a number of reasons. ...
India: India's government survives
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:33:44 -0000
A nuclear co-operation deal between America and India survives tooAFTER a rancorous two-day debate on its most contentious policy, a nuclear co-operation agreement with America, India's government won a parliamentary vote of confidence on Tuesday July 22nd. This does not guarantee the survival of the vexed agreement struck by America's George Bush and India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, in 2005. The deal needs approving by several foreign bodies, including the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But the government's victory, by 275 votes to 256, with 10 abstentions, has probably fireproofed it against opponents in India.The life of the government has also been prolonged, at least for a bit. The coalition led by Mr Singh's Congress party was reduced to a parliamentary minority earlier this month, when it was deserted by a group of Communist parties. They had provided vital support to the government while remaining outside it, but they objected to the nuclear deal, which would enable India to purchase nuclear fuel and technology despite its refusal to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. ...
Surveillance sweep
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:53:05 -0000
A new surveillance law causes a rumpus in SwedenRecently approved legislation in Sweden that allows for increased surveillance of crossborder telecommunications traffic has triggered the country's most heated political debate in years and sparked widespread protests from the public, media and business. The government appears determined to ride out the criticism, claiming the measures are a necessary response to the threat from global terrorism, but the affair could do lasting damage to its already fading re-election prospects. The extent to which wiretapping and surveillance measures are used in Sweden has become an increasingly divisive issue in recent years. Those advocating the need for increased surveillance point to the threat from international terrorism and organised crime and claim that additional measures are necessary to keep pace with changing technology, with communications increasingly transmitted through fibre-optic cable rather than via radio waves. ...
Zimbabwe: Serious talk?
Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:13:54 -0000
How seriously, or not, to take talks between Zimbabwe's rival claimants to the presidencyNEARLY four months after the first round of a presidential election in Zimbabwe, in March, which precipitated a frenzy of violence by pro-government militias and general political turmoil, President Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, are about to start talking. On Monday July 21st, reportedly for the first time in a decade or so, the two men met face-to-face and even shook hands. Along with the leader of a smaller opposition party, Arthur Mutambara, they signed an agreement paving the way for negotiations over the country's political future.The ruling party lost its majority in parliament for the first time since independence and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) came first in the presidential poll on March 29th, but following months of orchestrated state-sponsored violence Mr Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff in June. ...
Radovan Karadzic: Arrest of a strongman
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:47:15 -0000
Radovan Karadzic is arrested at last, in a big boost to Serbia's prospects of joining the European UnionRADOVAN KARADZIC, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, has, at last, been arrested in Serbia. He was indicted by the United Nations' Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague almost exactly 13 years ago for his alleged crimes during the Bosnian war, which raged from 1992 to 1995. The news is likely to have big political consequences throughout the Balkans. It will almost certainly transform Serbia's troubled relations with the European Union.His arrest was reported on Monday July 21st. Reportedly he was detained while riding a bus in Belgrade, the capital. Mr Karadzic had been rumoured to be moving between hiding places in remote corners of southern Serbia, eastern Bosnia and Montenegro. In fact it appears that he had been living and teaching in Belgrade recently. ...
