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Grace Mugabe, Zimbabwe's First Shopper, can't get to Rome's luxury goods (World, 16 articles)
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HARARE, Zimbabwe - The leader of Zimbabwe's opposition was detained by police for about nine hours Wednesday amid ominous signs the government is tightening its grip on the country less than four weeks before a presidential runoff election. JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was held for nine hours by police Wednesday and formally warned for allegedly breaching a security law after a campaign visit to a small town in western Zimbabwe. The detention came as the government toughened a security crackdown on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, just weeks before the June 27 presidential runoff election. In recent days, CARE, one of the largest nonprofit groups working in the country, has been ordered by Zimbabwe's government to suspend all operations, which help 500,000 of the country's most vulnerable people. Tsvangirai and about 14 party officials were being held at a police station in Lupane, north of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, said George Sibotshiwe Shunned but tolerated in Rome, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe on Tuesday took the podium at a UN food security summit to accuse the west of manipulating commodity markets and plotting their countries' downfall.
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Leaders clash on biofuels at food summit (World, 16 articles)
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The UN is to provide an additional $1.2bn ($613m) of food aid for 75 million people in the 60 nations hardest hit by rising food prices. The United Nations food summit was heading towards deadlock on Wednesday night as countries remained divided over biofuel policies, agreeing only to continue "international ongoing dialogue", according to a draft of the summit's declaration. ROME - World powers must act quickly to control soaring food prices that threaten nearly 1 billion people with hunger and could trigger global social unrest, the United Nations said Tuesday.
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A Blame Game China Needs to Stop (World, 5 articles)
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Last month the International Energy Agency announced that China would probably surpass the United States as the world's largest contributor of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 2009, more than a full decade earlier than anticipated. Eight is a fortuitous number that symbolizes fortune and luck, according to Chinese traditions, but thus far, the Year of the Rat has been anything but lucky. Beginning with a devastating blizzard, hundreds of thousands of travelers were left stranded at train stations during the Chinese New Year holiday in January.
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Other stories about China, Chinese and BEIJING:
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Israeli warning over nuclear Iran (World, 5 articles)
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WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Mideast peace effort begun by President Bush must carry over to his successor, a note of caution yesterday amid a dire political crisis in Israel. The top US diplomat also accused Iran of continuing a covert nuclear weapons program, although a US intelligence assessment has said Tehran quit its active warhead program years ago. DENVER - Republican Sen. John McCain said yesterday that, as president, he would reach out to China and Russia in an effort to battle nuclear proliferation.
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Mahmoud Abbas willing to negotiate with rival Hamas (World, 7 articles)
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JERUSALEM Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that he would agree to talks with the militant Islamic group Hamas, an apparent about-face that reflects dwindling hope for a U.S.-brokered peace with Israel. Hamas embraced the offer to end a year-old breach, a move that could jeopardize the Israeli and Western support that props up Abbas' more secular administration. The Palestinian leader opened a televised speech from the West Bank city of Ramallah by defending peace talks with Israel that were revived in November.
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al-Qaeda behind Danish embassy bombing: web posting (World, 7 articles)
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A web posting late Wednesday purportedly by al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the suicide attack against Denmark's embassy in Pakistan that left six people dead. But Danish authorities said the terror network or one of its affiliates was likely behind the explosion, which came just weeks after the terrorist group threatened Denmark over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad reprinted earlier this year in newspapers in that country. The bombing was the first to occur in Islamabad in a little more than two months, and the second this year to target foreigners living and working in the Pakistani capital.
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Other stories about al, attack and qaeda:
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Three US soldiers shot dead in north Iraq, 16 die in Baghdad truck explosion (World, 6 articles)
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Up to 18 people were killed and many more wounded today when a truck exploded near the house of a police commander in Baghdad, while three US soldiers were shot dead in northern Iraq. June 1, 2008 Iraqi security forces notched two huge gains in the last month, as violence in the country declined to a level not seen in more than four years. A U.S. military spokesman said the blast appeared to have been an accident that occurred as Shiite militiamen were transporting the weapons through a densely populated neighborhood of northern Baghdad - possibly to fire at a nearby American base.
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Hong Kong lawmakers fear curbs on protests (World, 6 articles)
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June 4: Protesters hold candles during the candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in Hong Kong to remember China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters centered at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989. June 4: Chinese police officers watch visitors after the daily flag-raising ceremony in Beijing's Tiananmen Square at dawn, 19 years after the military crackdown on protesters. Such a waiver has only been awarded to one company, Sino Gold Mining, an Australian group developing China's second-biggest gold mine.
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News in brief: Sinn Fein lifts threat; Climbié worker wins (World, 4 articles)
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A threat by Sinn Fein to block the replacement today of Ian Paisley as Northern Ireland First Minister with his former deputy , Peter Robinson, was lifted last night (David Sharrock writes). Both Sinn Fein and their government partners, the Democratic Unionists, will attend a meeting in London tomorrow to deal with the outstanding issue of devolution of police and justice powers. London The new James Bond novel, Devil May Care has set a record for Penguin's fastest hardback fiction sales.
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Burma ‘needs food aid for a year’ (World, 10 articles)
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Having been denied permission by Burma's ruling military government to drop off aid for cyclone victims, U.S. warships are being pulled out of the area. YANGON, Myanmar Myanmar's most popular comedian, known for his jibes against the military regime and recently for helping cyclone victims, has been taken from his home by police, family members said Thursday. The USS Essex group, which includes four ships, 22 helicopters and 5,000 U.S. military personnel, had been positioned off the Myanmar coast for more than three weeks hoping for a green light to deliver aid to the survivors.
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Chinese police block parents at quake protest (World, 9 articles)
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Many of the children orphaned could end up being adopted by parents who lost children in the quake, according to guidelines issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the provincial government. Authorities cordoned off some schools that collapsed in last month's mighty earthquake, keeping out grieving parents and reporters Wednesday in a sign that Beijing was becoming increasingly nervous over accusations of shoddy construction. Parents whose children were crushed in their classrooms during the May 12 quake vowed to keep pushing the government for compensation, as well as for an explanation of why so many schools fell when other buildings remained standing.
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Irish EU referendum: Voters' views (World, 4 articles)
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European Union finance ministers struggled on Tuesday to forge a response to food and fuel price inflation, proposing remedies from windfall taxes on oil companies to the suspension of various food import tariffs. But the attack attracted little support and was omitted from a letter to EU heads of state and government, who will discuss food price inflation at a Brussels summit on June 19. The rising cost of products such as pasta, rice and petrol is a headache for EU governments worried about the political impact on their popularity and the financial impact on low-income citizens.
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A Profile of Cuba's Fidel Castro (World, 5 articles)
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The Bush administration is ruling out any changes in its Cuba policy - including lifting a five-decade trade embargo - deriding Fidel Castro's brother and heir apparent, Raul, as " dictator lite. Led by President Bush, a chorus of officials expressed hope that Castro's departure would spark fundamental changes for the Cuban people. When Cuban native Maria Elena Alvarez first heard the news that Fidel Castro had finally stepped from his post as Cuba's president, her reaction was " so what?.
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4 Canadian soldiers wounded in Afghanistan (World, 5 articles)
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Police in southern Afghanistan say what appears to have been a suicide car bomber attacked a Canadian military convoy near the border with Pakistan on Wednesday, injuring a 12-year-old boy. Lt. Al Blondin says the attack took place near the frontier town of Spin Boldak around midmorning local time. KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A Canadian platoon commander killed in a running battle with Taliban militants this week was remembered by his comrades Wednesday as a man with a fiery sense of humour and a passion to lead.
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Aid group: Somalia in worst crisis in 10 years (World, 4 articles)
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Parliament's lower house passed a nonbinding motion Tuesday allowing U.S. military deserters and their families to stay in Canada, but the Conservative government was likely to ignore the vote. In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Luis Moreno-Ocampo says evidence links "high officials" in the Sudanese government to many attacks in Darfur. NAIROBI, Kenya - Somalia is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in a decade, and the situation is deteriorating, an international aid agency said Wednesday.
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blaster@cs.columbia.edu
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