A sixty-one year medical doctor from the Dhanusha region of Nepal has been elected President by the Constituent Assemby. Dr. Ram Baran Yadav won 308 votes while his rival Ram Raja Prasad Singh, who was backed by the Maoists, ended up with 282 votes. Dr. Ram Baran Yadav is the former secretary general of the Nepali Congress Party, a center-left party. He becomes the first civilian head of state, a largely ceremononial post, in Nepal’s history. Madhesi Janadhikar Forum candidate Parmananda Jha was elected vice president in the previous voting.
Alaska’s U.S. Senate race between the incumbent Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, and the Democratic Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich has been close for several months now. Now polls show that the Democratic challenger Mark Begich is ahead by a nine point margin, 50% to 41%. When “leaners” are included, Begich leads 52% to 44%.
Begich began running his first television ads, seen above, of the campaign on July 8 and this survey by Rasmussen Reports was conducted on July 17. Senator Stevens, incidentally, is under Federal investigation for corruption.
For each of the last three months, the candidates have been within two points of each other. Last month, Stevens was up two, 46% to 44%. In May, it the incumbent trailed by two. The month before, Stevens had a statistically insignificant 46% to 45% lead. Begich’s current lead is the largest the race has seen since Rasmussen polling began.
The ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ Radovan Karadžić has been arrested today in Serbia. There was outstanding international arrest warrant against Karadžić for more than a decade following the Rule 61 of ICTY which concluded that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused has committed the crimes in question including genocide. In Srebrenica, some 8,000 Muslim Bosnians were slaughtered in the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since World War II.
He now faces trial in the Den Haag for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader under indictment for war crimes, spent years disguised behind a flowing white beard and long hair, living and working in Belgrade as a practitioner of alternative medicine, and “freely walking in the city,” the Serbian authorities said Tuesday.
But a combination of a new Serbian government friendly to the West, assurance from the European Union that the 2former pariah nation could be welcome as a member of the bloc and a methodical house-by-house search of a Belgrade neighborhood led to his dramatic arrest Monday as he was crossing Belgrade reportedly on a bus, officials said.
The arrest, which still leaves one of the most notorious operatives of the Balkan wars at liberty, Karadzic’s wartime ally, General Ratko Mladic, nevertheless brought a semblance of relief to the widows and surviving families of the 8,000 men and boys whose massacre in Srebrenica in 1995 Karadzic stands accused of helping to engineer.
Senior Serbian officials gave their version of his arrest, which was announced late Monday, at a televised news conference in Belgrade on Tuesday but took no questions.
Contrary to some reports, the officials indicated that the arrest took place Monday after officers followed Karadzic for several hours from mid-afternoon until evening.
Citizens United is a conservative group based in Washington DC and run by David Bossie. Bossie is the former chief investigator for the United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. During Bill Clinton’s two terms as president, he led investigations ranging from the Whitewater land deal to the illegal transfer of dual-use technology to China and the illegal foreign money schemes in the 1996 Clinton re-election campaign. Citizens United and the affiliated Citizens United Foundation’s stated mission is as follows:
Citizens United is an organization dedicated to restoring our government to citizens’ control. Through a combination of education, advocacy, and grass roots organization, Citizens United seeks to reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security. Citizens United’s goal is to restore the founding fathers’ vision of a free nation, guided by the honesty, common sense, and good will of its citizens.
In my view, the organization is a far-right wing group in the realm of Phyllis Schafly’s Eagle Forum. Both are fixated on combating what they perceive as threats to US sovereignty. For example, Citizens United runs the American Sovereignty Project. The American Sovereignty Project (ASP) is the grassroots lobbying arm of Citizens United that works to protect American sovereignty and security. ASP’s major objectives include complete U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations, defeat of the treaty to establish a permanent U.N.-controlled International Criminal Court, and rejection of one-world government. Not quite sure how influential they are in this regard. The other business line, if you will, is that Citizens United is a production company. They make short films and commercials on behalf of conservative causes.
A movement is sweeping the nation. Frenzied crowds gather in every state. Young people chant and sing. Women swoon. The result is record voter turn out and a rare political enthusiasm. At the head of this unprecedented phenomenon stands a charismatic figure intent on becoming the President of the United States.
“I’m asking you to believe.”
“We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
“Yes, we can!”
“Change.”
“Hope.”
These words, from Barack Obama, have inspired everything from outrageous videos to the largest campaign fundraising success in history. He has taken what was considered a sure bet Clinton machine and turned it on its head. His supporters claim he is the new Martin Luther King, Jr. He is hailed as this generation’s John F. Kennedy. This documentary explores the HYPE behind Barack Obama.
The movie is available for sale on DVD and according to their website will be released to theatres though they don’t have any signed up as yet.
I am posting this largely because I believe this to be the preview or coming attractions of attacks from the right on Obama. The other thought that I have is that after watching the commercial and the trailer, it doesn’t come off as either far-right lunacy or even vitrolic. Most of the interviewees are conservative African-Americans from the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution such as Shelby Steele. Get your popcorn ready!
This 30-second spot begins running today in the mid-west and southwest. The ad hits Obama over not allowing more US-based drilling and ends with the tag line “Don’t hope for more energy, vote for it.”
If this is the best that McCain has, he is in trouble.
Here is the Monday, July 21st, 2008 edition of interesting reads and events from around the world.
Manmohan Singh’s Government Faces Its Day of Reckoning
The future of India’s coalition government and a controversial nuclear deal with the United States were hanging in the balance Monday as parliament opened debate ahead of a key confidence vote. Allegations of vote-buying swirl as India’s Congress party is frantically lobbying key members of parliament to try to shore up support for its coalition government. It must be remembered that 10 years ago, the Hindu-nationalist and current leader of the oppositionBharatiya Janata Party(BJP) lost a no-confidence vote by one vote and they have no been in power since. Stories from the Financial Times, New Delhi’s The Hindu and the Washington Post.
Gordon Brown Addresses the Israeli Knesset
Gordon Brown has become the first British Prime Minister to address the Israeli parliament – using his speech to issue a fresh threat to Iran. More from the UK Guardian.
Inflation in East Asia
The Asia Sentinel looks at inflation in East Asia and how it is affecting daily life and at possible options for policy makers.
Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebels: Peace talks ‘impossible’
Sri Lankan rebels said Monday that a new round of peace talks on ending the country’s 25-year-old civil war is impossible as long as the government presses ahead with a military offensive. President Mahinda Rajapaksa said earlier this month he was prepared to restart long-dormant talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels if the group lays down its arms and ceases bombings and other attacks across the country. Balasingham Nadesan, the head of the rebels’ political wing, said Rajapaksa’s conditions were “naive” and “impractical” and there was no way the two sides could negotiate while the fighting continued to rage. More from the Associated Press.
Belgium Celebrates Its National Day
Belgium is celebrating its national day, even though the country may be more divided than ever before. The crisis between Belgium’s Dutch and French-speaking communities has once more brought it to the brink, with a recent poll suggesting almost half of Flemish voters now want a separate state. King Albert II has appointed a council of three ministers to broker talks on power-sharing,
and urged his people to pull together:
“We must find new ways to live together in our country. I uphold the beliefs of my brother Baudoin, the First, who was totally committed to the fundamental tenets of our society.” he said during a televised address.
EU’s One Billion Euro Aid Package to African Farmers
The European Commission has backed a plan to donate 1 billion euros to farmers in Africa next year to help combat high food prices and stimulate production. The money has been avaliable from unspent funds from the bloc’s massive agriculture budget. More from Euro News.
