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YANGON: Over four million up-to-age population in Myanmar’s
biggest city of Yangon have been declared as being eligible voters
for the country’s constitutional referendum slated for May 10, the
leading local weekly Myanmar Times reported Thursday. Yangon has a
population of over six million out of Myanmar’s total of 56.5
million. Over 2,500 polling booths are being set up in the division
to ensure 100 to 3,000 voters in each polling booth to secretly cast
their ballots.
-- Xinhua
KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Maoists pledged Thursday
that the world’s last Hindu monarchy will be abolished swiftly
after final results from landmark polls gave the ultra-leftists a
resounding victory. “The first meeting of the constituent assembly
will definitely end the monarchy and there will not be any
compromise on this,” Maoist leader Prachanda told journalists. The
former rebel chief, who goes by one name, spoke after meeting
foreign ambassadors and UN officials as he prepared to take charge
of the new government.
-- AFP
PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares
Thursday to defend his record in a prime-time television interview,
hoping to claw back popularity after a tumultuous first year in
office. Only 28 percent of the French believe Sarkozy’s presidency
is going in the right direction, according to two new polls, by CSA
and IFOP, while a separate poll showed 79 percent feel their lives
have not improved in the past year. The 53-year-old president paid a
high political price for his divorce and celebrity romance with
former supermodel Carla Bruni.
-- AFP
PATTANI, Thailand: Suspected separatist rebels
on Thursday ambushed and killed five laborers outside a school in
southern Thailand, police said, while a bomb near a railway track
wounded two soldiers. The attacks came as Prime Minister Samak
Sundaravej was visiting neighboring Malaysia. The unrest, which has
killed more than 3,000 people, was expected to top the agenda of
talks with Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
-- AFP
SEOUL: North Korea will boycott a joint May Day
celebration with South Korea in protest at the Seoul government’s
new tougher stance on cross-border relations, organizers said
Thursday. The two countries have jointly marked May Day as a symbol
of rapprochement since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 ushered
in an era of warmer ties. Last year’s event was held for the first
time in South Korea. This year’s celebration was expected to be
held in the North’s capital Pyongyang.
-- AFP
QUITO: Leftist Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa
said Wednesday he was willing to recognize Colombia’s Marxist FARC
rebels as legitimate combatants if they stop acting like terrorists.
“To attain that status they would have to give up all activities
contrary to the rules of war, such as kidnappings, attacks that can
qualify as acts of terrorism, bombings, etcetera,” Correa told
Venezuelan television. “We say this categorically, they must give
up actions that go against human rights and free all the hostages
they are holding unconditionally.”
-- AFP
WASHINGTON: Palestinian Authority chief Mahmud
Abbas began talks here Wednesday with the US administration on peace
negotiations with Israel that remain stalled five months after
Washington-led attempts to jumpstart the peace process. Abbas told
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday it was crunch time
for Middle East peace talks and was hoping for intervention from
Washington to achieve a breakthrough.
-- AFP
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