The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Vazquez set to win primary for Uruguay presidential nomination
- Thai army rulers prepare emergency economic measures
- Thai oil tanker recovered, cargo taken by hijackers - authorities
| Vazquez set to win primary for Uruguay presidential nomination Posted: 01 Jun 2014 09:20 PM PDT MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Tabare Vazquez looked set to win his party's primary by a landslide on Sunday, clearing the way for him to run again to be president of Uruguay, the country he led between 2005 and 2010. With 31 percent of votes counted, Vazquez, a doctor by profession, had received about 82 percent of the votes cast to choose the candidate for the left-wing Frente Amplio bloc, election authorities said. Vazquez's opponent, Senator Constanza Moreira, had won 18 percent of the votes. The official count tallied with earlier exit polls. The term of President Jose Mujica, also of Frente Amplio, ends in March 2015, with the election due to be held this October. Frente Amplio - which under Mujica has pursued radical policies such as marijuana legalization - is ahead in opinion polls with around 44 percent of support. Traditional center party the Partido Nacional has been polling around 26 percent, while the right-wing Colorado party has been scoring around 16 percent. Pedro Bordaberry, son of ex-dictator Juan Bordaberry, was on course to be chosen as the Colorado candidate on Sunday, while Luis Lacalle Pou, also the son of an ex-president, was ahead in the primary for the Partido Nacional, official data showed. Vazquez pursued a center-left agenda in his first term, combining social welfare reforms with conservative economic policies. Less radical in office than ex-guerrilla Mujica, Vazquez opposed Uruguay's recent legalization of abortion. In a speech on Sunday, he pledged to tackle high inflation, lower taxes, and give extra support to social and education programs. Less than 40 percent of voters participated in the primaries, a historic low. (Reporting by Malena Castaldi; Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Jeremy Laurence) |
| Thai army rulers prepare emergency economic measures Posted: 01 Jun 2014 08:45 PM PDT BANGKOK (Reuters) - The military junta running Thailand has drawn up a list of emergency measures such as price caps on fuel and loan guarantees for small firms to kick-start an economy threatened by recession after months of political turmoil. The plans, outlined by Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong late on Sunday after a meeting with officials at economic ministries, take in longer-term measures such as the development of special economic zones on the borders with Myanmar, Laos and Malaysia. The military toppled the remnants of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's administration on May 22 after months of protests that had forced government ministries to close, hurt business confidence and caused the economy to shrink. Yingluck herself was ordered to step down two weeks before the coup when a court found her guilty of abuse of power. As well as working to revive the economy, the military council has moved to suppress criticism of the coup and nip protests in the bud. Yingluck, as well as prominent supporters of her and her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have been briefly detained and warned against any anti-military activities. On Sunday, the army council sent 5,700 troops and police into central Bangkok to stop anti-coup protests, which were mostly limited to small gatherings held around shopping malls. The military has banned political gatherings of five or more people and protests that have taken place in Bangkok since the May 22 putsch have been small and brief. On Saturday, as on the two previous days, the authorities closed normally busy roads around Victory Monument, which was becoming a focal point for opposition to the coup. The area was flooded with police and troops but no protesters turned up. PRICE INSURANCE Thailand's deep political divide pits the Bangkok-based royalist establishment, dominated by the military, old-money families and the bureaucracy, against supporters of former telecommunications mogul Thaksin, who is adored by the poor in the north and northeast. Considered the power behind Yingluck's government, Thaksin was ousted as prime minister in a coup in 2006 and has lived in self-imposed exile since fleeing a 2008 conviction for abuse of power. Air Chief Marshal Prajin, who is overseeing economic matters for the junta, said 30 urgent proposals on the economy would be discussed with coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha on Tuesday and Wednesday. Among them, Prajin mentioned a form of price insurance for rice farmers. This would replace a costly buying scheme run under Yingluck that collapsed when her caretaker government was unable to find funding, leaving hundreds of thousands of farmers unpaid for months. The military rulers will tackle the problem of loan sharks, made worse by the hardship suffered by farmers because of the rice fiasco, and are also looking at low-cost home loans to be offered through the Government Housing Bank. Prajin says he has told the Finance Ministry to look at a complete overhaul of the tax structure and report to him next week. The Nation newspaper said state enterprises including Thai Airways International Pcl and the State Railway of Thailand would put investment plans to Prajin on Monday and these would also be discussed with Prayuth this week. In a televised address on Friday, Prayuth said the military would need time to reconcile Thailand's antagonistic political forces and push through reforms, indicating there would be no general election for 15 months at least. The United States, European Union countries and others have called for the military to restore democracy quickly, release political detainees and end censorship. (Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Robert Birsel and Alex Richardson) |
| Thai oil tanker recovered, cargo taken by hijackers - authorities Posted: 01 Jun 2014 08:05 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Thai oil tanker reported missing two days ago has been recovered with all of its crew members safe but pirates who hijacked the tanker took its cargo and damaged communications gear, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Monday. The MT Orapin 4 lost contact with authorities after departing for Indonesia from a terminal in Singapore on Friday, prompting the IMB to send an alert shortly after. The tanker arrived in Thailand's Sri Racha port on Sunday evening and Thai authorities will be investigating the incident, Noel Choong, the head of IMB's Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Center, told Reuters. Pirates raided a tanker off the coast of Malaysia in late April, taking 3 million litres of diesel. (Reporting By Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah; Editing by Paul Tait) |
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