The above reports, in Spanish, are from Venezuela’s Noticias 24.

At 6PM (local Caracas time -5:30 GMT), Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez sent troops to expropriate all of CEMEX’s (Cementos Mexicanos) operations in Venezuelan. The Venezuelan government did not agree to financial terms with the Mexican-owned CEMEX. Cemex SAB de CV (BMV: CEMEX, NYSE: CX) is the world’s largest building materials supplier and the world’s third largest cement producer. Venezuela’s largest cement company, VENCEMOS, was acquired by CEMEX in 1994.

The expropriation is part of a drive by socialist President Hugo Chavez to place key industries under state control. It is unlikely that he will be able to run them better and thus for Venezuela, a crisis in the construction industry, a sector already under pressure, looms. Officials said they had struck deals to buy majority stakes in the local operations of European cement makers Holcim and Lafarge but said CEMEX was asking for too much. These argeements were signed today in Caracas. From Reuters:

“We calculate the amount they are asking for to be way above its real value,” said Vice President Ramon Carrizalez, who said CEMEX had asked for $1.3 billion for its Venezuelan operations.

The government said it paid $552 million for an 85 percent stake in Switzerland’s Holcim’s local unit and $267 million for 89 percent of the shares in France’s Lafarge’s local unit.

“Lafarge is working to protect as best as it can the interests of its shareholders and of its staff on the ground,” a spokeswoman for Lafarge said earlier in the day, declining any further comment.

An expropriation differs from a nationalization in that an expropriation offers no compensation to the owners. Under decree powers granted to Chávez by Venezuela’s National Assembly, Chávez issued a series of 26 decrees two weeks ago and among those Chávez gave himself the right to seize private property without compensation. The expropriation is likely to sour Mexican-Venezuelan relations and further damage relations with Washington and Bogotá. Chávez has threatened to nationalize Colombian-owned construction companies that operate in Venezuela.

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In remarks over the weekend, Pope Benedict XVI set off a firestorm in Italy that set the right-wing government of Silvio Berlusconi scurrying for cover. Since taking office earlier this year, Prime Minister Berlusconi and his Northern League allies have waged an unrelenting war on Italy’s migrant communities and in particular on the Roma, the gypsy community in Italy. Yesterday, the Pontiff warned that racism is alive in modern society, and Pope Benedict XVI urged the Church to help overcome all forms of racial intolerance. He said racism today is often tied to economic and social problems. Although such problems may be real, they can never justify racial discrimination he added.

Today, Prime Minister Berlusconi moves to limit damage after Pope appears to back speculation over ‘return of fascism’. From the UK Guardian:

Silvio Berlusconi’s government was today engaged in a vigorous damage limitation exercise after Pope Benedict appeared to lend his immense moral authority to speculation that Italy was in danger of returning to fascism under the tycoon’s hardline, rightwing leadership.

In his customary midday Sunday address, the pontiff expressed concern at “recent examples of racism” and reminded Catholics it was their duty to steer others in society away from “racism, intolerance and [the] exclusion [of others]“.

On any other day, his remarks might have been seen as no more than a restatement of official Catholic doctrine. But they came instead in the midst of a furious dispute over an editorial published by Italy’s bestselling Catholic weekly, Famiglia Cristiana.

In an editorial on Friday, condemning recent government moves against immigrants and Roma, the magazine said it was to be hoped fascism was not “resurfacing in our country under another guise”. The jibe outraged Berlusconi’s supporters, many of whom are themselves pious Catholics.

The leader of his parliamentary group in the upper house, Maurizio Gasparri, announced he would personally sue the priest who is Famiglia Cristiana’s editor while the junior minister with responsibility for family affairs, Carlo Giovanardi, said the magazine was “possessed by ideological malice”.

In an effort to calm the row, the Vatican’s spokesman put out a statement stressing that Famiglia Cristiana was not authorised to speak on behalf of either the Holy See or the Italian bishops’ conference – something which, as the magazine’s editor noted, it had never anyway claimed to do.

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Yesterday, we had 15 leading Democratic leaders, a group that included Governors, Congressmen and party leaders, voicing “great concern” that Obama’s message of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ is not resonating with the voters and urging the very junior Senator from Illinois to get on with it and actually talk solutions. Today, Obama’s supporters in the netroots are either openly expressing “worry” or are grasping at straws to explain the shift in the polls and Senator Obama’s less than thrilling performance at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency in Orange County on Saturday night.

First the worried. Count Steve Soto of the Left Coaster as one who is worried. He finds that Obama is not just simply not connecting but more precisely unable to connect. There’s a huge difference between the former and the latter. The former implies only a temporary problem that can be remedied, the latter implies a condition that can’t be solved.

We may have to accept that Obama will never connect with everyday voters, as he doesn’t take ownership of pocketbook issues and hammer 3 to 4 main tangible reasons for his presidency. We will have to accept that he hasn’t defined major differences with John McCain on the economy, taxes, trade, global warming, health care, and the rest because he is fixated on running to the center. Unfortunately, because Obama refuses to run a Tier Two campaign through an effective surrogate operation, he finds that McCain already operates in the center after redefining himself as a moderate and not as a Republican without an effective effort by Obama to define him first. Why? Because Obama disdains the politics of the present and wants to get us all to that happy place of the politics of the future where everyone gets along and gets a pony.

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No wonder Ohio Governor Ted Strickland is one of those 15 very worried Democrats that I referenced yesterday in a post entitled Showing Greater Concern, Democrats Ask Obama to Specify ‘Hope’ and ‘Change’, Obama’s eight point lead in Ohio has vanished. The Public Policy Polling (PPP) (pdf) out yesterday now shows the race in the battleground Buckeye state tied at 45% apiece with 10% undecided.

Guess what Obama’s problem in Ohio is? Yup you guessed it. Clinton supporters not on board.

One factor causing Obama problems is that he’s not doing as good a job as McCain of getting folks in his party to vote for him. While McCain leads 89-7 among Republicans, Obama’s lead is a narrower 75-17 among Democrats. Obama has the 45-28 edge with independent voters.

The Democrats neglecting to choose Obama are disproportionately white, female, and middle aged, an indication that it could be former supporters of Hillary Clinton who are holding out.

The Democratic Party failed to take us at our word. Thirty percent of Hillary supporters are not voting for Obama. And it has nothing to do with Hillary and everything to do with Obama. He’s contemptible. As a human being, he is nothing but odious. As a politician, he’s neither a progressive nor a centrist nor even conservative. He’s nothing. He stands for the politics of expendiency. He has no principles other than his own political welfare. He will say and do anything to win and drag his opponents through the mud all the while pretending to be above it all. There is no there there in Obama. He’s the the ultimate empty suit and that’s why he is sagging in the polls. Sure it looks and sounds good at first glance, all that lofty rhetoric, but as people kick the tires and look under the hood, that engine has no horsepower and right now that campaign ain’t even a two-cylinder car. Sput-sput-sputtering.

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In a speech to the nation of Pakistan, President Pervez Musharaff resigned. The resignation is effective today. Pervez Musharaff took power in a bloodless coup in 1999. The resignation changes the political landscape of South Asia and leaves many questions as to what is next for Pakistan, a troubled country that has become the front line of the war on terror.

The BBC has a report with a video of Musharraf’s resignation speech (excerpts with English translation). More from the International Herald Tribune:

Under pressure over impending impeachment charges, President Pervez Musharraf announced he would resign Monday, ending nearly nine years as the head of one of the United States’ most important allies in the campaign against terrorism.

Speaking on television from his presidential office here at 1 p.m., Musharraf, dressed in a gray suit and tie, said that after consulting with his aides, “I have decided to resign today.” He said he was putting national interest above “personal bravado.”

“Whether I win or lose the impeachment, the nation will lose,” he said, adding that he was not prepared to put the office of the presidency through the impeachment process.

Musharraf said the governing coalition, which has pushed for impeachment, had tried to “turn lies into truths.”

“They don’t realize they can succeed against me but the country will undergo irreparable damage.”

In an emotional ending to a speech lasting more than an hour, Musharraf raised his clenched fists to chest height, and said, “Long live Pakistan!”

His resignation came after 10 days of intense political maneuvering in Pakistan, and cleared the way for the four-month-old coalition government to choose a new president by a vote of the Parliament and provincial assemblies. But there were intense concerns in Washington that Musharraf’s departure would open a new era of instability in the nuclear-armed country of 165 million people, as the fragile coalition jockeys for his share of power.

Musharraf, 65, will stay in Pakistan in the immediate future, a request he had insisted on, according to Nasir Ali Khan, a senior member of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, a partner in the coalition. The coalition, led by Asif Ali Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, and Nawaz Sharif, the chairman of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, were scheduled to meet here in the capital Monday afternoon to discuss the way forward, Khan said.

There were few indications of who the next president would be. According to the Constitution, a new president must be chosen within 30 days. American officials have said that Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister who was assassinated in December, would like the post. But Sharif, who maintains a barely civil relationship with Zardari, is strongly opposed to the elevation of Zardari.

Finally, the story in All Things Pakistan. The entire video of Musharraf’s hour long resignation speech is there, if you understand Urdu. The coverage, however, is in English.

“After viewing the situation and consulting legal advisers and political allies, with their advice I have decided to resign,” a grim-faced Musharraf, wearing a sober suit and tie, said in a televised address to the nation. “I leave my future in the hands of the people.”

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News from Africa

Zimbabwe Talks Update
Zimbabwe’s ruling party and opposition have yet to reach a power-sharing agreement at a summit of southern African leaders in Johannesburg. President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa had said that a deal was within reach.

More from the New York Times:

Mr. Mbeki, who took over as chairman of the Southern African Development Community, a regional bloc of 14 nations that ended its annual conference on Sunday, said that not only would talks continue, but that the negotiators for Zimbabwe’s governing party and the opposition already had a good basis for an agreement.

“It’s a matter that really, truly must come from the Zimbabwe parties because, of all of us, they know best what is good for Zimbabwe,” Mr. Mbeki said at a news conference here.

Somalia’s Curse of Anarchy and the Glory of Puntland
Actually, that is misleading. Somalia ceased to exist a over a decade ago, though it does have what passes for government that is currently being propped up by a contingent of Ethiopian troops. The southern two-thirds is in chaos but the northern third on the Horn of Africa is relatively calm and peaceful and two countries have broken off and declared their independence though no one recognizes either Puntland or the Republic of North Somaliland. In my view that’s a mistake. Both deserve diplomatic recognition. Africa’s borders are largely non-sensical and date from the 1885 Conference of Berlin where Europe carved up Africa into colonies. Only one person, Henry Stanley, at that Conference had actually ever been to Africa.

Of the two separatist Somali republics, Puntland is the more stable and boasts a functioning government unlike down in Mogadischu and prints its own money. The New York Times looks at Somalia’s agony. I would hope that they might soon write about Puntland. The video below might just dispel all your preconceptions about Somalia. Puntland is a functioning state at peace in a troubled region. That should be celebrated and certainly should be better known.

Puntland, A Nascent Country on the Horn of Africa

Below the fold reports on Rwanda, Chad and an opinion piece in the Kigali Times exploring what if Russia decides to make a return to Africa.
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Here is the Monday, August 18th, 2008 edition of what is making news and interesting reads from around the world.

Musharaff to Address the Nation As Resignation Rumours Swirl
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, facing impeachment, scheduled an address to the nation today, and it was widely speculated that he would resign. Reports from Los Angeles Times and the Financial Times. The Pakistan Tribune looks at Pakistan’s history of misrule.

Muslim Rebel Attacks in the Philippines Leave 16 Dead
Muslim separatist rebels left a trail of bloodied corpses and burning homes after a series of pre-dawn attacks Monday on towns in the southern Philippines. More from Manila’s Inquirer.

Italy’s GDP Shrinks in 2Q08
Italy’s economy contracted in the second quarter of the year according to new government data. The figures for Europe’s fourth largest economy were worse than expected. Gross domestic product in Italy was down by 0.3% from the first quarter. More from Euro News. The report includes a video.

Turkish Warplanes Hit Kurdish Targets in Iraq
Turkish warplanes hit a suspected Kurdish rebel target in northern Iraq, Turkey’s military said on Sunday. The cross-border air assault targeted a rebel shelter late on Saturday where a group of PKK Kurdish rebels were believed to have gathered before a planned attack in Turkey, the military said on its website. The report from the Times of India.

Severe Flooding in South East Asia Leaves Hundreds Dead
Torrential rains and overflowing rivers have brought some of the worst flooding in decades to Vietnam and its neighbors in the past week, flooding cities and farmlands in five nations. At least 160 have died in northern Vietnam alone. The details in the New York Times.

Mickey Mouse and Snow White et al Seek a Union
Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into police vans Thursday at the culmination of an unusual labor protest that brought a touch of reality to the Happiest Place on Earth. How can you cuff Snow White I ask? The arrested were not Disney employees but rather a union pressing to unionize at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

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