The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Pakistan police arrest former president Musharraf
- Gunshots heard on Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus - school website
- Maduro looks for South American backing in Venezuela dispute
| Pakistan police arrest former president Musharraf Posted: 18 Apr 2013 08:50 PM PDT ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police arrested former president Pervez Musharraf at his residence on the outskirts of Islamabad on Friday and presented him in court in connection with allegations he committed treason while in office, television stations reported. Television footage showed Musharraf being escorted by uniformed police officers to an Islamabad court. A judge issued an arrest order for the former army chief on Thursday.
Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999-2008, returned to Pakistan last month from nearly four years of self-imposed exile in the hope of running in next month's general elections. But his bid to run for office has been rejected by election officials and he has instead found himself battling a host of legal challenges relating to his years in power. (Reporting By Matthew Green; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Gunshots heard on Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus - school website Posted: 18 Apr 2013 08:48 PM PDT (Reuters) - Gunshots were heard near a building on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, the school said on its website on Thursday. The shots "were reported near Building 32 ... which is currently surrounded by responding agencies," according to a statement on the MIT website for emergency information.
The university's Twitter page also warned students of an "active shooter incident" and told them to "stay indoors and away from the area." An MIT police officer was shot, CNN and WCVB-TV reported. A representative for the MIT Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, David Bailey in Minnesota and Kevin Gray in Miami; Editing by Stacey Joyce and Kevin Gray) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Maduro looks for South American backing in Venezuela dispute Posted: 18 Apr 2013 08:41 PM PDT LIMA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President-elect Nicolas Maduro was expected to get a collective show of support from South American leaders in Lima on Thursday, but also face calls to defuse tensions with his opponents over the disputed vote.
The last-minute meeting of the regional group Unasur was being held in Peru a day before he is to be sworn in on Friday. Protests erupted in Venezuela after Maduro won Sunday's election by about 2 percentage points, and at least eight people have been killed in violent clashes. Maduro blamed the United States for casting doubt on the result. He was named by late President Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer in March, as his chosen successor. "In Venezuela we don't have an opposition, we have a permanent conspiracy cheered on by the United States," he said in a televised speech before boarding a plane to Lima. He did not speak to reporters upon arrival. Fans and foes of Maduro banged pots and pans and waved Venezuelan flags in competing protests in Lima's Plaza San Martin. The governments of Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Argentina, among others, have already recognized Maduro's victory. But two of the more moderate countries - Peru and Brazil - are worried about growing polarization in Venezuela. Diplomatic sources said regional heavyweight Brazil is looking to encourage Maduro to calm tensions with the opposition to help governance in the OPEC nation. Peruvian lawmakers said they were told by their foreign minister that President Ollanta Humala would propose Maduro enter into a dialogue with the opposition and carry out an audit of the votes. Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was a close ally of Chavez, said Unasur aimed to "express our support for President-elect Maduro and the legality of the Venezuelan election." Morales said Washington had no right to question Maduro's victory because U.S. President George W. Bush was re-elected by a similarly narrow margin in 2004. "This is clearly meddling," Morales said earlier in the day. "We condemn this and repudiate it. We won't permit that Bolivia or Latin America be treated as the U.S. government's backyard." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday told lawmakers he favoured a recount because of possible voting irregularities. Washington has not recognized the result. The European Union has suggested Venezuelan authorities consider an audit of the vote. Maduro's supporters have defended the legitimacy of his win with repeated references to the 2000 U.S. election dispute, when the U.S. Supreme Court halted a recount in Florida and Bush was declared the winner in the state by just 537 votes. Peruvian Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, who was a fierce critic of Chavez, urged a recount overseen by international observers to "stop the authoritarian drift that seems to be underway." LEADERS TO ATTEND SWEARING-IN CEREMONY Peru holds the rotating presidency of Unasur and the group's election monitors have said Maduro's win was legitimate. Most of the leaders, including Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, will head to Venezuela for the swearing-in ceremony after the meeting in Lima. The outcome of Sunday's vote has been rejected by Maduro's rival, Henrique Capriles, who has alleged thousands of irregularities at polling centres and wants a full audit of the ballots. Maduro's allies have said a recount is unnecessary because the electoral council had already carried out a partial audit. On Thursday, Tibisay Lucena, the head of Venezuela's National Electoral Council, said the remaining 46 percent of the electronic votes cast would be audited. It had already audited 54 percent. While that is not the manual recount that Capriles has asked for, the move could constitute a concession to the opposition that may pave the way for a negotiated settlement of the standoff. (Additional reporting by Carlos Quiroga in La Paz,; Enrique Andres Pretel and Brian Ellsworth in Caracas, Patricia Velez in Lima, and Brian Winter and Alejandro Lifschitz in Buenos Aires; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Xavier Briand)
Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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