Word: parliament
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Guinea-Bissau Assassination Tit for Tat Joćo Bernardo Vieira, the longtime President of this volatile West African nation, was assassinated by army troops on March 2 in apparent retaliation for the killing of a general hours before. The speaker of parliament, Raimundo Pereira, was sworn in as the state's interim President and is required to call elections within 60 days. Since winning independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has been racked by poverty and upheaval, becoming in recent years a key transit point for cartels smuggling drugs from South America to Europe...
Investigations are underway, with the prime minister revealing on the floor of the parliament that she has approached the U.S. government as well as the United Nations for assistance. The stakes are high in the search for those responsibile for the mutiny and their real motives. Sheikh Hasina's government was elected into office two months ago following two years of rule by an army-backed caretaker government, one that surprised many political observers by voluntarily relinquishing power. The army got good marks for the electoral transition and has been praised for suppressing the mutiny. But in everyone's mind...
...Prime Minister defended her choice to negotiate and wait out the rebels. Speaking on the floor of the parliament Sunday, she was categorical in response: "I opted for talks to save lives, to save the officers and their families." An error would have been unthinkable. "The PM had to take a decision in real time. If they had stormed the compound and it had gone wrong, it could have been an even worse catastrophe," says Brig. Gen. Shahedul Anam Khan, an ex-senior army officer and an authority on strategic affairs. Now, the Prime Minister has to hope that...
...about 5 a.m. "Everyone is shocked," the former Minister of Finance Isifou Sanha said by phone from Bissau. "There must be a call to respect the constitution." Military leaders said on Guinea-Bissau radio stations yesterday that they would follow the constitution, by allowing the head of the parliament to run the country until new elections, which are supposed to be held within 60 days. Yet with billions of dollars of illegal drug revenues in the impoverished country some political analysts predict that instability will continue. "Rivalries over control of narcotics trafficking may be at the heart of the schism...
...Kyrgyzstan BYE-BYE, BASE Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted to unilaterally terminate a U.S. lease on Manas Air Base (above), the only such facility left in central Asia, depriving Washington of a crucial staging point for troops, munitions and cargo destined for Afghanistan. Moscow, which has opposed America's presence in the region, pledged over $2 billion in loans to bolster Kyrgyzstan's faltering economy shortly before the decision was made, though both parties insist that the aid was not contingent on the base's closure. U.S. negotiators hope Manas will be reopened in the future, pending further financial discussions...