News from around the world 12 Jan 2005

London
Creepy e-mail hoax: A British man admitted this week that he sent fake death announcements to the families of British tourists missing in the tsunami. Christopher Pierson, 40, said that he was looking at a bulletin board site where people were asking for information about their relatives when a “moment of madness” came over him. He sent at least 35 of the posters e-mails purportedly from the Foreign Office, saying the British government “regrets to inform you that the missing person you were inquiring about has been confirmed dead.” Pierson has been charged with “malicious communication” and creating a public nuisance. The British government said it would never inform anyone of a death by e-mail.

Voxleo: Talk about a sick, sad world we live in. That's disgusting. You'd think people would have a bit more sympathy.

Madrid
Basques want out: The parliament of Spain’s autonomous Basque province voted last week to hold a referendum on secession, only to be promptly rebuffed by the Spanish government. Basque Prime Minister Juan Jose Ibarretxe said that giving Basques the chance to vote on independence would end the long campaign of bombings and shootings by Basque separatists. But Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero said secession was against Spain’s constitution and was not an option. “This proposal, which has no legal basis, is going nowhere,” Zapatero said. “And Ibarretxe knows that.”

Voxleo: Sigh. More violence to come in Spain. Now they also have Muslim terrorists to worry about.

Kiev, Ukraine
Democratic triumph: An ebullient president-elect Viktor Yushchenko said this week that he would use his democratic mandate to stamp out corruption in Ukraine. “Ukrainians have been independent for 13 years,” he said, referring to the country’s break from the Soviet Union, “but now they are free.” The pro-Western Yushchenko was elected in a re-vote, after widespread fraud in the first vote prompted a month-long series of mass demonstrations, in what is being called the Orange Revolution. The government-backed candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, stepped down from his current post of prime minister, but said he would file a lawsuit contesting the legality of the re-vote.

Voxleo: I wonder if this was widely reported in Singapore. The masses forcing democracy to really work for them. If I were a MIW this news would send a shiver down my spine.

Phnom Penh
Cambodia spared: The former king of Cambodia took credit this week for protecting his country from the tsunami. Norodom Sihanouk, who gave the throne to his son last year because of poor health, said on his Web site that an astrologer came to the queen mother last month warning of an “ultracatastrophic cataclysm.” The former king said that he and his wife spent millions of dollars to ward off the evil by having religious ceremonies performed at temples around Cambodia. The tsunami engulfed neighboring Thailand but caused practically no damage in Cambodia. The royal family sent condolences to the countries affected.

Voxleo: Now of course we should take into account that Cambodia doesn't really have much of a sea front with the Indian Ocean. But then again who am I to say if the old king's prayers didn't hold the tsunami off. Maybe Old Man also made prayers to the various gods to keep Singapore out of harms way. Or maybe it's just because we're geographically lucky. Crazy royals.

Islamabad
Musharraf keeps uniform: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has reneged on his pledge to step down as army chief of staff by the end of 2004. “Pakistan needs continuity of its internal and external policies, which can only be ensured if I stay as the army chief,” Musharraf said in a televised New Year’s Eve address. He said the war on terror and the conflict with India over Kashmir could only be managed if one person was making the political and military decisions. An opposition coalition of Islamic parties said it would hold mass rallies later this month to protest the move. “We cannot have diluted democracy,” said Makhdoom Amin Fahim, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party.

Voxleo: Yet another dictatorship waiting to happen. Why would anyone believe that a man who siezed power illegitmately would surrender it without worrying about repurcussions.

Khartoum, Sudan
Giving peace a chance: Sudan signed a peace agreement this week with rebel factions in the south, in the latest attempt to end a 22-year civil war. The war began in 1983, over oil rights, but morphed into a religious conflict pitting the Arab Muslim north, which controls the government and uses strict sharia law, against the Christian and animist south. Under the new power-sharing agreement, southern Sudan will be partly autonomous and field its own army. African diplomats were optimistic about the deal. “Africa begins the year 2005 on a very good footing,” said South African President Thabo Mbeki. “Let’s party!” But the peace agreement does not cover the bloody conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region, as that war involves different rebels.


Voxleo: Yay! Peace in one part of Sudan, maybe there'll be peace in Darfur too.

Kabul
Poppy crop conundrum: The Pentagon’s civilian and military officials are at odds over whether to destroy Afghanistan’s opium fields, the Financial Times reported this week. Civilian leaders agree with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who wants the heroin trade stopped before parliamentary elections. Karzai fears that warlords will use their heroin profits to influence the vote. But U.S. military leaders argue that disrupting the country’s main agricultural product would be even more destabilizing to the elections. “If you pull at the thread of counternarcotics the wrong way, because of the sheer proportion of the gross domestic product wrapped up in this business, you should be careful of unintended consequences,” said Gen. James Jones, the American commander of NATO.

Voxleo: America's war on drugs runs into its war on terror. Hmmmm... Tough call guys.