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Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday named lawyer Fernando Francisco Gomez Mont as his new interior minister to succeed Juan Camilo Mourino, killed in a plane crash six days earlier.
Gomez Mont, like Calderon, belongs to the National Action Party, in which he has served in a number of posts.
Under the Mexican constitution,...
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 The Amazonian states of Beni
and Pando voted overwhelmingly Sunday for autonomy from the central government.
The referendum came a month after voters in the State of Santa Cruz also cast
ballots in favour of autonomy. Both states passed autonomy measures by more
than 80 percent of the vote. The Bolivian government said the vote was...
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 One month after suffering a tough defeat in a referendum over a
socialist constitution, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez carried out a
comprehensive cabinet reshuffle, including the naming of a new vice
president.
On Friday, new Chief of Staff Jesse Chacon, until now at the helm
in the telecommunications ministry, revealed 12...
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 Venezuelan voters rejected constitutional reforms that would have
eliminated term limits for President Hugo Chavez, according to the
first preliminary official results in the early hours of Monday.
With an abstention rate of over 44 per cent and with over 88 per
cent of the ballots counted, 50.70 per cent of the voters rejected...
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 Venezuelans went to the polls Sunday to vote in a referendum on
amendments to the constitution, which if approved would allow a
socialist form of government and the unlimited re-election of the
president. At present, the president can be re-elected only once.
Government supporters roused Caracas residents at 4 am with
trumpets and...
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 On the eve of a critical referendum on the Venezuelan constitution,
President Hugo Chavez threatened Saturday to stop delivery of oil to
the United States if it does not accept the results of the vote.
Venezuelans are to vote Sunday on changes to the oil-rich nation's
constitution, which if approved would allow a socialist form...
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 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made public the new proposed constitution that permits the president to seek re-election indefinitely. It’s very likely he will be the only one to benefit from such a measure. As he talked to the nation last night from the National Assembly, the 53-year-old president summarized his plans to create a new...
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A Kremlin bill to extend the presidential term from four to six years was almost unanimously voted through its second reading Wednesday in Russia's lower house of parliament.
The proposed constitutional amendment now faces one final reading.
While President Dmitry Medvedev launched the draft law, constitutional experts say the law...
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As expected, lawmakers in both houses of the Algerian parliament on Wednesday voted by an overwhelming majority in favour of a constitutional amendment allowing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to serve a third term.
A total of 520 deputies voted yes on the five amendments presented - which would also severely limit the powers of the...
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Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the extension of his term in office to six years in his first state-of- the-nation address on Wednesday since succeeding Vladimir Putin.
Medvedev, 43, addressing the country's top political elite gathered in the Kremlin's most opulent St George Hall, said the proposed amendment was...
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Squabbling raged among Poland's leaders on the eve of a European Union summit, but they agreed on two points: they will both attend and they are both in charge.
For Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Lech Kaczynski, the spat over who sits at the table in Brussels on Wednesday was just the latest installment of a personal and...
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Germany's government is to mount a 480-billion-euro (650-billion-dollar) rescue plan for German banks, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced in Berlin Monday.
She aimed to secure passage of the legislation by Friday, when the law on a "new constitution for the financial markets" would take immediate effect, she told a news...
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Voting was underway Friday in parliamentary elections in Swaziland that have been branded farcical by political parties that are barred from contesting polls in Africa's last absolute monarchy.
Voters queued outside polling stations from early morning in the landlocked kingdom of around 1 million people to cast their ballot for 55...
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Lawyers of a Serb wanted by United States for a near-fatal beating of a fellow student baulked at a plea offer by US prosecutors, describing it as "arrogance," the Vecernje Novosti daily said Wednesday.
Miladin Kovacevic, 21, a student and basketball player, was offered to enter a guilty plea and receive a 12-year sentence...
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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday Russia would take action to protect its citizens under siege by Georgian troops driving to re-assert control over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Medvedev did not specify what action Moscow might take.
"We will not let the deaths of our citizens go unpunished, the guilty...
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The military junta which overthrew Mauritania's government must return that government to power for any future elections to count as valid, officials in Brussels said Thursday after coup leaders promised a poll.
The EU's executive, the European Commission, has "taken note" of the promise, but insists that "those...
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 Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in Wednesday as Russian president
by his powerful mentor, Vladimir Putin, AFP reports. The inauguration of Russia’s new
president took place at midday in the Andreyevsky hall of the Kremlin palace.
The question is whether the 55-year-old ex-KGB officer, who
led Russia
for eight years, is willing to...
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 NATO states's representatives will meet in the Romanian capital of Bucharest from April 2
to 4 and diplomats will focus on the issue of Afghanistan. They are expected to
work on a new strategy for Afghanistan.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday that France may send a few hundred troops to Afghanistan. France...
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 The girlfriend of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, pop singer Carla
Bruni, will not accompany him on his visit to India this week because
they are not married, the daily Liberation reported on Tuesday.
The former supermodel told the newspaper that, contrary to a recent
newspaper report, she was "not yet married" and...
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 Serbian ultra-nationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic would lead the
pro-European incumbent Boris Tadic into the presidential election
run-off on February 3 after winning the most votes in the first-round
vote Sunday.
According to early, unofficial figures, Nikolic won 39.4 per cent
of ballots cast amid record turnout in a Serbian...
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 The Serbian presidential election, pitting the incumbent, pro-European
Boris Tadic against the ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nikolic, started
Sunday at a slow pace.
Less than 9.5 per cent of the 6.7 million eligible voters had cast
their ballots at 10 am local time, three hours into the vote, the
central election commission...
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 French President Nicolas Sarkozy and pop singer and former supermodel
Carla Bruni tied the knot last Thursday at the Elysee Palace, the daily
L'Est Republicain reported Monday on its website, citing an anonymous
source with ties to a witness at the ceremony.
The weekly Le Journal du Dimanche had reported that Sarkozy, who
will...
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 The Kosovo parliament on Wednesday backed the new Prime Minister Hashim
Thaci, President Fatmir Sejdiu and their government built on promises
of independence and closer alignment with the West.
"We are ready to turn Kosovo into an independent, sovereign state
in the first part of the year," Thaci said before the vote....
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 Georgia votes for a new president on Saturday, just two months after
the end of a brief state of emergency in the former Soviet republic.
Mikhail Saakashvili, who in November stepped down as president
prior to the election in accordance with the country's constitution,
said Friday that he was optimistic he would receive the...
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 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he would become prime
minister if his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev was elected in
his stead - setting a blueprint for power when his term ends in 2008.
"If citizens give a vote of confidence to Medvedev and elect him
Russia's president, I will be ready to lead the...
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 The British government rejected speculation Wednesday that Prime
Minister Gordon Brown would miss the official signing ceremony for the
European Union reform treaty in Lisbon for reasons of political
expediency.
Brown's spokesman said that Brown would miss the official signing due to "long-standing diary commitments" in...
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 Russia's parliamentary elections on Sunday will be accompanied by an
unprecendented level of security by police and soldiers, reports said
Saturday.
The deployment of nearly half a million Interior Ministry staff and
the armed forces is being co-ordinated by the Russian secret service
for the first time, the Komersant daily...
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 Georgia's parliament on Friday voted to extend until November 22 a
state of emergency declared earlier in the week following several days
of anti-government protests, local media reported.
The decree - which restricts the right to protest and allows only
state media to broadcast - was declared by President Mikhail
Saakashvili on...
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 In a surprise development after declaring a state of emergency,
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Thursday announced a snap
presidential election for January 5 in response to mounting
anti-government protests.
"I am giving the opposition a chance to be elected by the people,"
the 39-year-old leader said in a...
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 Exiled dubious Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky was reportedly the target of a Russia-based assassination plot. The billionaire talked to BBC Radio and said he was informed that "someone who you know will come to Britain, he will try to connect to you, and when you meet him he will just kill you and will not try to...
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 As the EU summit kicked off Thursday in Brussels, a certain dose of incertitude regarding Poland’s position towards the “double majority” voting system was floating in the air.This is why the Czech Republic came with a compromise solution that would ensure Poland will back the new treaty establishing a constitution for Europe and will...
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 Ahead of the EU summit that will kick off in Brussels, British Premier Tony Blair said the establishment of a new constitution will definitely be a tough deal and it can only be reached through “hard discussion.”Blair was optimistic and said his team will manage to protect Britain’s interests even if they will “have to work hard.” “This...
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 After trying to persuade Polish President Lech Kaczynski to embrace the voting system for the new EU constitution on Saturday, German Chancellor Angel Merkel met with Czech premier Mirek Topolanek Sunday in order to discuss the EU treaty.With the Brussels summit approaching fast, Merkel wants to be certain the treaty establishing a...
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 After meeting with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday, Polish President Lech Kaczynski traveled to Germany Saturday and held a round of discussions with Angela Merkel regarding the controversies surrounding the new EU constitution.The German Chancellor stressed on numerous occasions the importance of a new treaty...
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 Poland still doesn’t agree with the voting system proposed by the European Union and again demanded its replacement with one that will provide equal power to all member countries.Polish President Lech Kaczynski told journalists Friday that his country will not agree with EU’s proposal to introduce a “double majority” voting system in the...
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 Litvinenko's widow, Marina Litvinenko, has rejected accusations that her late husband was a MI-6 agent. She called the allegations "nonsense." "Nobody could be happy with this," she says, quoted by BBC. She was talking about Russia's constitution which forbids it from extraditing its own citizens. "I am...
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 Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Spain
to discuss a future European constitution and along with Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged a quick solution to the matter.
France
and Spain had
opposite opinions when it came to the 2005 referendum, when the French voted
against the treaty, while...
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 Ukraine is on the brink of civil war after President Viktor Yushchenko decided to suspend the country’s Prosecutor General Sviatoslav Piskun, a supporter of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.The order given by Yushchenko was ignored and servicemen belonging to Berkut, a special forces unit loyal to Yanukovich took control over the...
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 Polls conducted among the people who exercised their voting right
showed that suspended Romanian President Traian Basescu will keep his chair for
the next years, media informed.
Citizens across the country casted their ballots Saturday,
after the government accused the president of impartiality and interfering in
several internal...
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 Ukraine’s capital was again the stage for protests against the sluggish negotiations between the opposition and the government.President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich tried Wednesday to reach a compromise solution for the parliamentary elections, but again failed. The main problem appears to be the correctitude...
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 British Prime Minister Tony Blair started his farewell tour and took a first trip to France. There he met with outgoing French President Jacques Chirac, but before that he expressed his support for Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to review the current EU constitution and replace it with a more simplified one.This proposal comes after the French...
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The foreign ministers of the two countries met Friday attempting to reach a common point regarding the installment of a missile shield in Europe by the United States.The Czech Republic’s Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg tries to convince the NATO members that a radar station located on Czech soil is in fact a good counterattack and...
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 Turkey made its first step towards democratic elections, as the parliament promoted a proposal for the reformation of the constitution in order to allow the people to elect their president. Most of the lawmakers agreed Thursday with the proposal that will radically change the election method and the period in which the president will be...
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Officials across the Arab World reacted with shock and outrage Monday at a US military raid that reportedly killed eight people - allegedly including children - in a small Syrian town Sunday.
The United States made no immediate official comment. A helicopter-borne commando raid was reported to have attacked the Syrian town of Abu...
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African National Congress (ANC) deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe was sworn in as South Africa's caretaker president Thursday after being elected in a landslide vote in the National Assembly in Cape Town.
Motlanthe easily defeated Joe Seremane, candidate of the official opposition Democratic Alliance, 269 votes to 50 votes out of 360...
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The top decision-making body of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party began a three- day meeting Friday that will decide the fate of President Thabo Mbeki.
Mbeki's neck has been on the ANC's chopping block since a court last week found evidence of political interference in the decision to prosecute ANC leader...
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Prosecutors in South Africa said Wednesday they would seek leave to appeal a court's ruling last week that corruption and fraud charges against African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma were invalid.
The National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) refusal to drop the case against Zuma is likely to add to tensions between supporters...
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The body of late Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa arrived back home from Paris Saturday in a gold coffin draped in a Zambian flag to a sombre ceremony at Lusaka International Airport.
The plane touched down in overcast conditions at 9 am (0800 GMT) to a 21-gun salute and a fly-past by Zambia Air Force jets.
The mood of sorrow that...
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The Zambian government announced Friday that the country's late president Levy Mwanawasa would be buried on September 3 after his body had been taken around the country for public viewing.
The date had been chosen to coincide with Mwanawasa's birthday, secretary to the cabinet Dr Joshua Kanganja said.
Mwanawasa would have turned 60...
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Zambia's vice-president Rupiah Banda, 71, who was poised Tuesday to become acting president following the death of Zambia's leader of seven years, Levy Mwanawasa, is a career diplomat with a sideline in business.
Under the Zambian constitution, when a sitting president dies, the vice president automatically becomes president but must...
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South Africa's ruling African National
Congress on Monday accused the state of persecuting party leader Jacob
Zuma by charging him with corruption and demanded that the case be
dropped.
Speaking outside the High Court in the southern city of
Pietermaritzburg, where hundreds of Zuma supporters demonstrated ahead
of a key hearing in...
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 The main faction of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party said Sunday it remained committed to talks with the
ruling ZANU-PF but hinted there were still sticking points.
The declaration came after claims in Zimbabwe's state-controlled
media that talks between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the...
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 Olusegun Obasanjo, the President of Nigeria will hand over the
power to Umaru Yar'Adua on Tuesday, but before that he made a last prediction
regarding the future of Nigeria
from the top seat.
After he rose the price of fuel sparking the anger of
Nigerians, Obasanjo thought it would be a right thing to express his opinion
towards...
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 Several members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are being investigated by the authorities, as one of the group’s top leaders received a interdiction to leave the country. The leader of the world-wide Sunni Islamist movement, Essam el-Erian was stopped at the Cairo airport by the police to embark in a plane that was heading for...
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The government and opposition agreed to hold a nationwide referendum Sunday on the new draft constitution proposed by the president, after he agreed to term limits, a senior official said.
Rural Development Minister Carlos Romero said on Monday the agreement moves up the next general election by one year, to January 2009, which...
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Pakistan's erstwhile strongman Pervez Musharraf resigned as president Monday, succumbing to pressure from the new ruling coalition to quit or face impeachment by parliament.
Born in Delhi on August 11, 1943 to educated parents, Musharraf came to Pakistan with his family after the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.
He...
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Ecuador has formally notified the United
States that it must vacate a base used to combat drug trafficking when
the lease expires next year, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Ecuadorian officials informed the US embassy of the plans, which
have long been a pledge by President Rafael Correa despite objections
from surrounding...
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Thai Foreign Minister Noppodon Pattama
announced his resignation Thursday after being accused of violating the
constitution for signing a communique last month with Cambodia to back
the listing of an ancient Hindu temple as a World Heritage Site. 'To show responsibility and spirit I resign,' Noppodon told a press conference. ...
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 A week of protests between pro- and anti-government
supporters in Bangkok ignited rumors
of a military coup and contributed to the ruination of a government minister
who quit the office last week.
Only five months after national elections determined the end
of military rule, tensions between supporters and opponents of the coup...
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 Despite their different opinions on important issues, Chinese
President Hu Jintao decided to continue the dialogue with the Dalai Lama. China’s latest accusation was that the Dalai Lama
was responsible for the protests over the Olympic torch and the incidents in Tibet, which China has governed since the 1950s.
The Tibetan spiritual...
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 According to Russian officials, President Vladimir Putin
will travel to Libya
Wednesday at the invitation of Lybian leader Moammar Gadhafi,
Voice of America reports. Their talks are expected to focus on gas exploration
deals with Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas company.
Putin’s visit comes as Russia’s
neighbor Ukraine is...
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 After in London police battled to keep pro-Tibet
demonstrators away from the Olympic flame and more that 20 men had been
arrested, and in Paris the final leg of the 27-kilometre tour from the capital
had to be cancelled because of the protests, Chinese authorities are also
expecting to see protests during the Tibetan stage of the...
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 In order to preserve Tibetan culture, the only thing that China has to do
is to apply existing laws on cultural autonomy. Formally, China’s
constitution guarantees minorities the freedom of thought, expression, assembly
and religion. All 55 of China’s
minoriy groups should have the same rights. Even though more than 150...
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A leading international human rights organization asked the Nepalese government Wednesday to take urgent steps to end what it called the widespread abuse and torture of children in police custody.
US-based Human Rights Watch said it had documented more than 200 cases of torture or abuse by Nepalese police against boys and girls...
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Senior bishops of the influential Philippine Roman Catholic Church on Friday warned that a proposed law that aims to curb the country's runaway population growth would be a threat to life and family.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged legislators not to pass the Reproductive Health bill without fixing...
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Senior bishops of the influential Philippine Roman Catholic Church on Friday warned that a proposed law that aims to curb the country's runaway population growth would be a threat to life and family.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) urged legislators not to pass the Reproductive Health bill without fixing...
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A young female journalist who attempted to cover a protest by a group of Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis victims was sentenced to two years in prison Friday, legal sources confirmed.
Eine Khaing Oo, 21, was arrested on June 10 when she tried to cover a rare protest in front of the head office of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)...
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Both houses of the Algerian parliament convened on Wednesday to vote on a constitutional amendment allowing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to serve a third term.
The five amendments up for vote - which would also severely limit the powers of the prime minister - must receive the support of at least three quarters of the 525 lawmakers...
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Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk on Thursday was crowned Bhutan's fifth dragon king in a lavish ceremony in the capital of the tiny Himalayan nation, becoming the world's youngest head of state.
Oxford-educated Jigme Kehsar, 28, took over the kingship from his father, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, 53, who placed the traditional raven crown...
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Many young women in Myanmar's (Burma's) Irrawaddy delta region have stopped wearing their hair traditionally long, word goes.
Too many of them died in the metre-high floods brought on by Cyclone Nargis, because their hair got entangled in tree branches, or were strangled by their own hair as it wrapped around their neck.
Whether...
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Japan's House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill to extend the military's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean for another year after January 15.
The bill proposed by the government enables the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Forces to continue refueling international warships involved in the US-led war in...
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Thai prime minister Somchai Wongsawat on Friday rebuffed intense pressure to resign following a violent police crackdown against anti-government protestors.
Somchai, elevated last month, rejected a strong suggestion on Thursday by army commander Anupong Paojinda that he step down.
"This government was produced by the...
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Thailand's Supreme Court said Thursday it would consider a request to seize 76 billion baht (2.1 billion dollars) in assets belonging to controversial former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The measure is potentially the most financially wounding of the many legal actions aimed against Thaksin since his ouster in a September...
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Thailand's Office of the Attorney General on Friday requested the Constitution Court accept a case seeking to dissolve the People Power Party (PPP), the lead party in the coalition government.
The case, if accepted, was expected to lead to the disbandment of the PPP because the same court already convicted former PPP deputy leader...
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An anti-government protest turned bloody Tuesday, claiming at least one dead and about a hundred injured as police confronted followers of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to help legislators first get in and then get out of Parliament.
Riot police early Tuesday scattered thousands of PAD followers who had laid siege...
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An anti-government protest turned bloody Tuesday, claiming at least one dead and about a hundred injured as police confronted followers of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to help legislators first get in and then get out of Parliament.
Riot police early Tuesday scattered thousands of PAD followers who had laid siege...
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Pablo Fierro came to Washington from Philadelphia for a rally against the proposed 700-billion-dollar financial bailout, which the House of Representatives could vote on Friday.
He held up an orange sign: "No to the bankers' coup d'etat."
Thursday's rally within shouting distance of the US Capitol was organized by a...
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The new Ecuadorian constitution, promoted by leftist President Rafael Correa, was approved by 64 per cent of votes cast, election authorities TSE said Monday after counting out roughly 80 per cent of the votes.
According to the figures, around 28 per cent of the 10 million voters had rejected the constitution with the remaining ballot...
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Somchai Wongsawat, the brother-in-law of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, on Tuesday secured the full backing of the People Power Party to become the country's next premier after a party rift failed to scuttle his nomination.
"The People Power Party has reached a consensus to nominate Somchai as the next prime...
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Thailand's largest political party on Monday nominated Somchai Wongsawat, the brother-in-law of coup-ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, as its candidate to be the kingdom's next prime minister, but the choice has split the party.
Somchai, who has been acting prime minister since September 9 when former premier Samak Sundaravej lost his post,...
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Thailand's Parliament on Friday postponed a vote on a new prime minister after a court sacked premier Samak Sundaravej this week for moonlighting as a television cooking show host.
Samak had been renominated for the job he lost Tuesday, but the failure by many of his own People Power Party (PPP) members to show up for Friday's vote...
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Nepal's Maoist-led government Wednesday unveiled its first policy goals since the abolition of the monarchy, aimed at social reconciliation and economic development.
The policy platform was read out by President Ram Baran Yadav in the constituent assembly, which also acts as an interim parliament.
"Taking the peace process to...
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