The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Suu Kyi to run for Myanmar parliament seat
- Spain's Rajoy triumphs with big election majority
- Arab League takes firm line with Syria on monitors
| Suu Kyi to run for Myanmar parliament seat Posted: 20 Nov 2011 09:33 PM PST YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will run in a parliamentary by-election expected by the end of the year, a top party official said on Monday, three days after her popular movement ended its boycott of the country's political system.
It will be the first time the Nobel Peace Prize laureate contests a seat herself having not stood as a candidate in her National League for Democracy's (NLD) 1990 election landslide, which was ignored by the then military regime and led to her lengthy incarceration. "Aung San Suu Kyi intends to stand for the by-election but it's a bit early to say from which constituency she will run," Nyan Win, a member of the NLD's executive committee, told Reuters. There are 48 seats available in Myanmar's new senate and lower house, which will be contested in polls expected by the end of the year. The NLD was officially dissolved by the military junta for refusing to take part in last year's parliamentary polls because of "unfair and unjust" laws that would have prevented hundreds of its members from becoming lawmakers. The legislature convened in February and is Myanmar's first since the late 1980s, when a unicameral "People's Assembly" controlled by the military's Burma Socialist Programme Party was scrapped. Suu Kyi is the daughter of late independence hero Aung San and was a staunch opponent of the military during its 49 years of totalitarian rule. However, she has shown willingness to work with the new civilian government approved by parliament in March, even though it is run by former junta generals. On Friday, the NLD voted unanimously to register the party and re-enter the political fray following an amendment to the constitution allowing those who have served sentences for crimes to take part in elections. Many NLD members, including Suu Kyi, are current or former political prisoners. Since the annulled 1990 polls, Suu Kyi, 66, has spent most of the time in detention. She was released a year ago and still chooses to live in the lakeside house that on and off was her prison for 15 years. U.S. ENDORSEMENT She had earlier given no indication she herself was interested in becoming a lawmaker. Her decision comes after Myanmar won a powerful endorsement on Friday, with U.S. President Barack Obama announcing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would visit the resource-rich country neighbouring China, citing "flickers of progress." Clinton will be the highest-ranking American to visit Myanmar since a 1962 military coup. She will go to Myanmar for two days early next month and plans to meet Suu Kyi. Clinton has said credible elections are one condition for ending U.S. sanctions, along with the release of more political prisoners and peace with ethnic minorities. Myanmar released 230 political prisoners last month and another amnesty is expected in the coming weeks and months. The NLD, Myanmar's biggest opposition force, would have dominated parliament had the 1990 result been accepted by the junta. The regime annulled the 1990 result only last year, arguing that the NLD's win could not be recognised because it was in breach of a constitution drafted 18 years later. Suu Kyi commands considerable influence over the party and Ko Ko Hlaing, a senior advisor to President Thein Sein, said on the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Bali last week that the NLD's decision to re-register was a "significant step." The presence of Suu Kyi in parliament would be another dramatic sign of openness that could give more legitimacy to the retired generals in control of the country, who are seeking acceptance, engagement, support and investment from the international community. Part of its plan was to expedite that process by lobbying to chair ASEAN in 2014, two years ahead of schedule. The new government has started dialogue with Suu Kyi, moves welcomed by the West, which has imposed sanctions on the country because of its poor human rights record. (Writing by Jason Szep and Martin Petty) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Spain's Rajoy triumphs with big election majority Posted: 20 Nov 2011 09:33 PM PST MADRID (Reuters) - Mariano Rajoy's centre-right People's Party stormed to a crushing election victory when voters punished the outgoing Socialist government for the worst economic crisis in generations.
Rajoy, who led his party to an absolute parliamentary majority in Sunday's election, is widely expected to push through drastic measures to try to prevent Spain being sucked deeper into a debt crisis threatening the whole euro zone. "Difficult times are coming," Rajoy, 56, told supporters in his victory speech, with financial markets hungry for details on how he will attack a steep public deficit threatening to push the euro zone's fourth economy towards a perilous bail-out. "Spain's voice must be respected again in Brussels and Frankfurt... We will stop being part of the problem and will be part of the solution," said Rajoy, who is not scheduled to take office for a month. Voters vented their rage on the Socialists, who led Spain from boom to bust in seven years in charge. With 5 million people out of work, the European Union's highest jobless rate, the country is heading into its second recession in four years. Spaniards were the fifth European nation to throw out their leaders because of the spreading euro zone crisis, following Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Italy. The People's Party (PP), formed from other rightist parties in the 1980s after Spain returned to democracy at the end of the Franco dictatorship, won the biggest majority for any party in three decades. The PP took 186 seats in the 350-seat lower house, according to official results with 99.95 percent of the vote counted. The Socialists slumped to 111 seats from 169 in the outgoing parliament, their worst showing in 30 years. MARKET FRIENDLY Spain's stock and bond prices may initially react positively to the vote because Rajoy, a former interior minister, is seen as market friendly and pro-business. Rajoy, who will not be sworn in until around December 20, will not get much breathing space. The nation's borrowing costs are at their highest since the euro zone was formed and yields on 10-year bonds soared last week to close to 7 percent, a level that forced other countries like Portugal and Greece to seek international bail-outs. The Spanish Treasury heads back to the markets with debt auctions on Tuesday and Thursday this week, which will test confidence in Rajoy's pending leadership "The fact the PP has won by a large majority is a very good sign for the markets. It means stability," said Teresa Sabada, professor of political communication at IESE business school in Madrid. "The best scenario now would be for Spain to announce some new emergency austerity measures but I am not sure whether this will happen or not." Economic gloom dominated the election campaign, with more than 40 percent of young Spaniards unable to find work and a million people at risk of losing their homes to the banks. "Being a civil servant I'm not optimistic," said Jose Vazquez, 45, after he voted in Madrid. "We can choose the sauce they will cook us in, but we're still going to be cooked." TREASURED INSTITUTIONS Many leftist voters are concerned Rajoy will cut back Spain's treasured national health and education systems. Too soured with the Socialists, they turned to smaller parties or stayed away from the polls. The abstention rate was higher than in the last election in 2008. The United Left, which includes the former communist party, won 11 seats in the lower house, its best showing since the mid-1990s and way up from the previous legislature when it had only two seats. Small parties doubled their presence in the lower house of parliament, taking 54 seats compared with 26 in the last legislature. Rajoy has been cagey about exactly where he will cut public spending, but he has pledged to meet the country's target to trim its public deficit to 4.4 percent of economic output next year, which implies drastic measures. But he risks pushing Spain back into its second recession in four years and provoking massive street protests. When the Socialists took power in 2004 Spain was riding a construction boom fuelled by cheap interest rates, infrastructure projects and foreign demand for vacation homes on the country's warm coastlines. Droves of young men dropped out of high school to take building jobs and bought flashy BMWs with their inflated wages. But the government, consumers and companies were engulfed in debt when the building sector collapsed in 2007, leaving the landscape dotted with vacant housing developments, empty airports and underused highways. "Something's got to change here in Spain, with 5 million people on the dole, this can't go on," said Juan Antonio Fernandez, 60, a jobless Madrid construction worker who switched to the PP from the Socialists. Pablo Cortes, 27, who can find only occasional restaurant work despite his degree in architecture, saw no reason for optimism from the result. "Does anyone really believe the PP is going to solve this? How, with more austerity for the have-nots and favours for the rich?" he said. (Additional reporting by Nigel Davies, Martin Roberts and; Carlos Ruano in Madrid; Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Ralph Gowling) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Arab League takes firm line with Syria on monitors Posted: 20 Nov 2011 08:32 PM PST AMMAN (Reuters) - The Arab League rejected a request by Damascus to amend plans for a 500-strong monitoring mission to Syria, and President Bashar al-Assad said he would not bow to international pressure to stop a crackdown against protesters.
Within hours of Assad ignoring a deadline to halt the bloody crackdown, residents said two rocket-propelled grenades hit a major ruling party building in Damascus on Sunday, the first such reported attack by insurgents inside the capital. Confronted since March by street demonstrations against 41 years of rule by his family, Assad said he had no choice but to pursue his crackdown on unrest because his foes were armed. "The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue. Syria will not bow down," he told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. The Arab League, alarmed at the mounting death toll in Syria, rejected Damascus's request to alter a plan for the fact-finding mission, which would include military personnel and human rights experts. "The additions requested by the Syrian counterpart affect the heart of the protocol and fundamentally change the nature of the mission," Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said in a letter to the Syrian government. Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said the plan as it stood compromised the country's sovereignty but Damascus had not rejected the mission Moualem said the proposed mission had "pervasive jurisdiction that reaches the level of ... violating Syrian sovereignty" and that he would send the Arab League a letter with questions about its role. "We will reply to the Arab League secretary general by responsibly presenting a number of queries," he told a televised news conference in the Syrian capital. ARAB LEAGUE DEADLINE The Cairo-based League had given Damascus three days from a meeting on November 16 to abide by a deal to withdraw military forces from restive cities, start talks between the government and opposition and pave the way for an observer team. It was not immediately clear what action the Arab League would take after the deadline passed unheeded by Damascus. The pan-Arab body had threatened sanctions for non-compliance, and it has already suspended Syria's membership. "Although the time-frame has ended, there have been no meetings or calls for meetings except at the level of delegations (to the League)," a representative of one Arab state at the League told Reuters. In a statement, the League said it remained committed to a peaceful, Arab-engineered solution to the Syrian upheaval, touched off by other Arab popular revolts that have overthrown the autocratic leaders of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya this year. Syrian authorities blame the violence on foreign-backed armed groups which they say have killed some 1,100 troops and police. By a United Nations account, more than 3,500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the unrest. Assad signalled no retreat from his iron-fist policy in a video released after his forces killed 17 more protesters on Saturday. "The only way is to search for the armed people, chase the armed gangs, prevent the entry of arms and weapons from neighbouring countries, prevent sabotage and enforce law and order," he said in footage published on the Sunday Times website. Assad said there would be elections in February or March when Syrians would vote for a parliament to create a new constitution and that would include provision for a presidential ballot. An opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said it envisaged a transitional period lasting up to one-and-a-half years if Assad was toppled. But some prominent Assad opponents said more work was needed on uniting the opposition to bring about his downfall. LATEST VIOLENCE On Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops manning roadblocks in Homs fired on residential areas and wounded three protesters. In the nearby town of Talbiseh, government forces delivered the bodies of two men arrested last month and in Idlib another two civilians were killed in military operations, the British-based group said. The Syrian Free Army, comprising army defectors and based in neighbouring Turkey, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Baath Party building in Damascus. There was no independent verification of the claim and Moualem denied that any attack had taken place. But a witness said security police blocked off the square where the building was located and reported seeing smoke rising from it and fire trucks in the area. "The attack was just before dawn and the building was mostly empty. It seems to have been intended as a message to the regime," said the witness, declining to be identified. Syrian authorities have barred most independent journalists from entering the country during the revolt, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials. It was the second reported hit on a high-profile target in a week, underscoring a growing challenge to Assad - who blames "armed terrorist acts" for the unrest - from a nascent insurgency alongside mostly peaceful protests that have persisted despite the intensifying crackdown. Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is a member of the Alawite minority community, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that dominates the state, the army and security apparatus in the majority Sunni Muslim country of 20 million. The Syrian Free Army said the attack was a response to the refusal of Damascus to release tens of thousands of political prisoners and return troops to barracks, as called for by the plan agreed between the Arab League and Damascus. Non-Arab Turkey, once an ally of Assad, is also taking an increasingly tough attitude to Damascus. Turkish newspapers said on Saturday Ankara had contingency plans to create no-fly or buffer zones to protect civilians in neighbouring Syria if the bloodshed worsens. (Additional reporting by Erika Solomon in Beirut and Dina Zayed, Ayman Samir and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Editing by Dominic Evans and Ralph Gowling) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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