The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Tunisian PM quits after failing to form new government
- At least 14 hurt in gas explosion, fire in Kansas City, Missouri
- Cuba's Raul Castro meets with U.S. congressional delegation
| Tunisian PM quits after failing to form new government Posted: 19 Feb 2013 08:23 PM PST TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned on Tuesday after failing to replace a government pulled apart by acrimony between his Islamist allies and their secular opponents.
Jebali had threatened to quit if his plan for a non-partisan cabinet of technocrats to lead the north African country into early elections foundered. In the end it was his own party, Ennahda, that rejected the proposal, prolonging the political stand-off that has cast a shadow over Tunisia's fledgling democracy and deepened an economic crisis. "I vowed that if my initiative did not succeed, I would resign and ... I have already done so," Jebali told a news conference after meeting with President Moncef Marzouki. Tunisia's deepest political crisis since the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali began when leading secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid was gunned down outside his home in Tunis on February 6. No one claimed responsibility for the killing, but it deepened the misgivings of secularists who believe Jebali's government has failed to deal firmly enough with religious extremists threatening the country's stability. Protesters poured onto the streets in the following days and Marzouki's secularist party threatened to quit the coalition government. Jebali said he would try to form a cabinet of apolitical technocrats to restore calm and take Tunisia to elections, but did not consult his Ennahda allies or their secular coalition partners before making the proposal. Several secular politicians backed the plan but Ennahda, winner of most parliamentary seats in elections that followed Ben Ali's overthrow, opposed the idea, fearing it would be sidelined from power. Jebali bet his own job on the outcome, saying he would quit if he was rebuffed, and lost. He quits 15 months into the job, although political experts said Marzouki was likely to re-appoint him as caretaker premier before a new leader is appointed. Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi has said he wants to see Jebali head a new coalition. President Marzouki was due to meet Ghannouchi on Wednesday to ask him to name a prime minister. But Jebali, announcing his resignation late on Tuesday, said he would not lead another government without assurances on the timing of fresh elections and a new constitution. No government would be viable without Ennahda's blessing given its strength in parliament. Ghannouchi has said it is essential that Islamists and secular parties share power now and in the future, and that his party was willing to compromise over control of important ministries such as foreign affairs, justice and interior. "Ennahda is in negotiations with political parties to form a national coalition government", said Fethi Ayadi, a senior Ennahda official. Iyed Dahmani, a leader of the secular Republican Party, said some kind of agreement was vital. "We are in real trouble, politically and economically," he said. The crisis has disrupted efforts to revitalise an economy hit hard by the disorder that followed the overthrow of veteran strongman Ben Ali. Tunisia has been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a $1.78 billion loan and politicians said Jebali's inability to re-establish a functioning government had slowed efforts to restore normality. Credit rating service Standard and Poor's said on Tuesday it had lowered its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit rating on Tunisia, citing "a risk that the political situation could deteriorate further amid a worsening fiscal, external and economic outlook".
Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| At least 14 hurt in gas explosion, fire in Kansas City, Missouri Posted: 19 Feb 2013 07:52 PM PST KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A fire triggered by a natural gas explosion that appeared to originate underground engulfed a restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday, injuring more than a dozen people, authorities and witnesses said.
The gas explosion shook the Country Club Plaza, an upscale shopping area about 30 blocks south of downtown Kansas City, around dinner time, just after 6 p.m. CST (0000 GMT), Kansas City Fire Department spokesman James Garrett told CNN. Mayor Sly James and Fire Chief Paul Berardi said 14 people were injured. Of those, nine were taken to area hospitals, including two with life-threatening injuries. No one was known to have been killed, the mayor said. "I am just keeping my fingers crossed that this turns out to be what it looks like on first blush - that this is a relatively low number of injuries compared to what it could be," he told reporters. "Hopefully, no fatalities will come out of it, but we don't know that at this point," he added. The precise cause of the explosion was not immediately known, officials said. However, an office building was under construction across the street from the fire scene. One witness, Bryce McElroy, who lives about two blocks away, said he heard a loud boom and headed toward the noise, arriving on the scene to see flames leaping from a manhole cover and advancing on the restaurant, a popular steakhouse and fine dining venue called JJ's. Jeff Hansen, who lives about four blocks away, said he went to the scene to offer assistance after hearing the blast and saw six to eight people visibly injured who were leaving the area. "Obviously there were multiple injuries," he said. "The question is if there is anybody still in there." Firefighters swarmed into the area to battle flames consuming the restaurant as police officers ordered bystanders to move two blocks back from the fire as a precaution. The smell of gas fumes permeated the air around the scene. The University of Kansas Hospital received six patients from the blast and fire, two of whom drove themselves from the scene and were treated and released, hospital spokesman Bob Hallinan told Reuters. Of the four patients transported to the hospital, one was listed in critical condition and two in serious condition, he said. The fourth was being transferred from another hospital. Local television station KCTV-5 reported at least three people were listed in critical condition at nearby St. Luke's Medical Center, suffering from burns and lacerations. Two more people were listed in good condition at Research Medical Center, spokeswoman Denise Charpentier said. Two JJ's employees who were away from the restaurant at the time of the blast said they were told later by fellow workers who were present that staff members were alerted to the smell of gas shortly before the blast and had begun to evacuate the building. One of those workers who relayed that account, Talley Saey, said she was told that several employees were among those taken to the hospital. (Additional reporting by David Bailey; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Eric Beech and Lisa Shumaker) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Cuba's Raul Castro meets with U.S. congressional delegation Posted: 19 Feb 2013 07:28 PM PST HAVANA (Reuters) - A seven-member U.S. congressional delegation met on Tuesday with Cuban President Raul Castro, official media reported, to improve relations that have been strained since U.S. government contractor Alan Gross was imprisoned there in 2009.
Members of the group, which arrived on Monday, also met with Gross, said a delegation member who asked not to be identified. A statement issued by the Cuban government on Tuesday said Castro and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met first with Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont to discuss "issues of interest for both countries," then held talks with other lawmakers. Leahy met with Castro, Rodriguez and Gross last year. The senator, who spoke with reporters on Monday, said Gross's fate and reforms under way in Cuba would top the group's agenda. The Cuban statement, released Tuesday with video of the meeting, said the U.S. delegation also held meetings with parliament president Ricardo Alarcon and Rodriguez. Leahy was expected to issue a statement on Wednesday. Other members of the delegation included Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Senators Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Democratic Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who represents Gross' district in Maryland. Gross, 63, was arrested in Havana in December 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for installing Internet networks under a secretive U.S. program the Cuban government considers subversive. The case halted a brief detente in long-hostile U.S.-Cuba relations. Cuba has linked Gross' fate to that of five agents imprisoned in the late 1990s for infiltrating Miami exile organizations and U.S. military bases. The agents, known as the Cuban Five, were sentenced to long terms, ranging from 15 years to life, and are considered heroes in Cuba. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, when he was a senator from Massachusetts, met with Rodriguez in New York in 2010 to discuss the Gross case, according to Foreign Affairs magazine. Former President Jimmy Carter also met with Raul Castro in Havana in 2011. The Obama administration has said relations will not improve while Gross remains in custody. Under the 1996 'Helms-Burton' law, U.S. sanctions cannot be lifted until Cuba's one-party Communist political system is changed, a demand rejected by the Cuban government. (Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta; Editing by Stacey Joyce) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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