Self-made billionaire Silvio Berslusconi looked set to secure a third term as Italian prime minister on Monday, with exit polls predicting a narrow win for his conservative coalition in general elections. The exit polls, which came moments after voting ended, predicted the 71-year-old media magnate’s centre-right coalition would win.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blasted rival Barack Obama during a debate on Sunday, accusing him of being ”elitist” and ”patronising”. Clinton again seized on a controversy sparked off by Obama’s comments about working-class voters. Obama, she said, was ”elitist, out of touch, and frankly patronising”.
Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday appealed to Italian voters to give him a huge majority at the general election on Sunday and Monday. He said that ”to really govern” he needed a margin of at least 20 seats in the Senate, the Upper House of the Italian Parliament. That would allow him ”to take, if necessary, difficult and unpopular decisions”.
The top United States commander in Iraq told Congress on Tuesday he plans to stop US troop withdrawals in July due to fragile security gains and heard appeals for quicker action to find a way to end the war. Appearances by General David Petraeus and the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, drew US presidential candidates.
Schoolchildren in Bhutan are warned — one word of disrespect against their teacher, and they will be reborn as a dog, for the next 500 lives. Respect for authority is inculcated from an early age in the secluded Himalayan kingdom, where the king is revered as a Buddha and democracy seemed almost an experiment too far.
Free State Agriculture had to take the government to court to ensure the safety of farmers and farm workers because the government had failed them, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) said on Thursday. ”Safety is a constitutional right. A Constitution not being applied is not worth the paper it is written on,” said the ACDP.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday won the endorsement of Lee Hamilton, a former Indiana congressman who is a leading United States authority on foreign relations and national security. Hamilton said Obama offers American voters the best chance to create a new sense of national unity and transcend division.
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama assailed potential White House opponent John McCain on the economy on Tuesday, accusing the Republican of favoring the wealthy and turning his back on struggling workers and middle-class families.
The new president of Botswana pledged on Tuesday that there would be no radical change in policy as he took the oath of office at a ceremony in Gaborone. A former army chief whose father was the country’s first post-independence president, Seretse Khama Ian Khama promised to uphold democracy for which his country has been known since independence.
United States Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton faced increasing odds on Monday as a new opinion poll showed rival Barack Obama consolidating his nationwide support. A Gallup tracking survey indicated the Illinois senator extending his lead over Clinton among Democrats nationally to 52% versus 42%, Obama’s largest lead of the year so far.
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Friday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing. As pressure built for concerted Western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, European Union leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time on Saturday, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.
It is a matter of hours to go before voting stations open for Saturday’s elections in Zimbabwe. The Mail & Guardian Online spoke to South African political parties and NGOs ahead of the controversial poll. ”Mugabe will rule again. It would be a miracle if he didn’t,” said the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Musa Zondi.
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have vowed the Democratic Party will heal its wounds, whoever wins their toxic White House race, and unite to thwart Republican John McCain. The bitter rivals spoke up amid mounting concern among party leaders that the fiercely contested battle could scupper a golden chance to grab back the White House.
Gang warfare will return to Nigeria’s oil-producing south unless President Umaru Yar’Adua brings to justice politicians who have fuelled the unrest, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. Gangs behind kidnappings and oil theft in the Niger Delta were going unpunished partly because of their connections to politicians.
Some pundits are calling them the HillPublicans. They are hardcore Republicans who are going against their previous political beliefs and voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. The emergence of the HillPublicans now has many political observers poring over poll data and wondering what is going on.
Political parties and union leaders were outraged on Wednesday over Eskom’s proposed tariff hike of 53% and the devastating effect it would have on the country. The Congress of South African Trade Unions said it was absolutely horrified at the proposal and demanded an extended consultation process on Eskom’s latest plans.
Belgian political parties announced on Tuesday they had reached a deal to form a new national government, ending a nine-month political stalemate that had threatened to split the country apart. Prime Minister-designate Yves Leterme, whose Flemish Christian Democrats won elections in June, announced the deal after all-night talks.
Democrat Barack Obama easily beat rival Hillary Clinton in Mississippi on Tuesday, giving him new momentum in their heated presidential fight as they head to the next showdown in Pennsylvania in six weeks. Obama, who would be the first black United States president, rode a wave of heavy black support to victory and extended his lead over Clinton.
Barack Obama on Monday ridiculed rival Hillary Clinton’s repeated hints she would take him for the number two spot on her presidential ticket, accusing her of playing political games in their hard-fought Democratic nominating race. Obama, campaigning in Mississippi ahead of the state’s contest on Tuesday, said he has won more states than Clinton.
Villagers in Barack Obama’s ancestral Kenyan home expressed disappointment on Wednesday as his rival, Hillary Clinton, won key votes to revive her campaign for the White House. Victories for Clinton in Ohio and Texas snapped Obama’s winning streak and kept alive the New York senator’s campaign to win the Democratic Party nomination.
The council of the University of the Free State must ”go” because they do not want to transform, the African National Congress chairperson in the province, Ace Magashule, said on Tuesday. ”I cannot agree with those people who want to say everything at the University of the Free State was still fine,” Magashule said.
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With live video
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/ 25 February 2008
A Nigerian tribunal will rule on Tuesday whether the election of President Umaru Yar’Adua was valid, a decision that could entrench a disputed government or tip Africa’s most populous nation into turmoil. Yar’Adua won a landslide victory in last April’s elections but observers accused the party of widespread vote-rigging.
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/ 19 February 2008
Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton traded charges on Monday over Obama’s uncredited use of a friend’s lines in a speech, one day before the presidential contenders meet in a critical showdown in Wisconsin. Pointing toward Tuesday’s primary, the two camps battled over a recent Obama speech using words from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
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/ 18 February 2008
The public should attend the presentation of the National Prosecuting Authority’s annual report to Parliament this week to show their sense of betrayal at the dissolution of the Scorpions, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) said on Sunday.
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/ 16 February 2008
Acting National Prosecution Authority boss Moketedi Mpshe has defended President Thabo Mbeki against suggestions that he lied about not being informed about the probe on police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Friday.
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/ 13 February 2008
Barack Obama easily won three more Democratic nominating contests on Tuesday, extending his winning streak over rival Hillary Clinton and building momentum in a hard-fought United States presidential race. Obama rolled to decisive victories in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, running his hot streak to eight consecutive wins.
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/ 10 February 2008
Senator Barack Obama swept the board on Saturday, pummelling Hillary Clinton in three Democratic nominating contests as Republican Mike Huckabee gave John McCain a run for his money. Obama, who is locked in a battle with Clinton for the party’s nomination, won big in Washington state, Nebraska and Louisiana, outscoring the former first lady by two to one.
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/ 9 February 2008
Hillary Clinton’s campaign team is bracing for Barack Obama to take the lead later this month for the first time in the battle for the all-important delegates who will decide the Democratic nomination. The race looks poised to swing his way after a series of votes, beginning on Saturday with caucuses in Washington state, Nebraska and the Virgin Islands.
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/ 8 February 2008
John McCain effectively secured the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday when his main rival, Mitt Romney, near to tears, dropped out of the race. Only one person now stands between McCain and the United States presidency: the Democratic choice for the November election.
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/ 6 February 2008
Support widened on Wednesday for the African National Congress Youth League’s call for a ban on the sale of alcohol on Sundays as part of the fight against drug and substance abuse among youths. Both the African Christian Democratic Party and the Young Communist League said the idea should be given serious thought.
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/ 6 February 2008
Italy’s president dissolved Parliament on Wednesday and the caretaker government prepared to call a snap election, likely in mid-April, that could mark a return to power of media magnate Silvio Berlusconi. President Giorgio Napolitano’s bid for cross-party support to reform Italy’s messy voting rules before a fresh election met stiff resistance from Berlusconi.
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/ 6 February 2008
Funny, isn’t it, how we have come this far in the United States election campaign, reaching the milestone of results from 24 states in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and still a mystery remains. What, exactly, do these warring candidates stand for?