Word: parliament
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...conservatives completed their electoral sweep of power Sunday night with a a decisive victory in second round legislative polling but fell significantly short of the "tsunami" that had been expected to lift President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) a to a record majority in parliament. The Socialist Party (PS) blunted Sarkozy's expected tidal wave victory with a better than expected showing. Still, with conservatives dominating the presidency, legislature and government - and given Sarkozy's promise to swiftly push through sweeping reform - there's little doubt French society will soon will be prodded...
Sunday's run-off election confirmed the general thrust of the first round of voting - albeit without the landslide expected by the UMP. Riding the wake of Sarkozy's popularity, UMP and allied conservative candidates retained their domination of parliament, winning 344 seats of the legislature?s 577 total. But that victory also saw the UMP lose 46 of its outgoing seats to the Socialists, who surprisingly boosted their ranks from 148 to 186 seats. Though other leftist parties like the Greens and Communists wilted to around a collective 23, the overall result handed the opposition 227 seats. Sarkozy...
...anti-junta coalition has vowed no letup in their dissent. On Monday, 5,000 Buddhists thronged in front of the Thai parliament, some participating in a hunger strike to draw attention to their call for a state faith. It's unlikely, however, that the generals will bend to such wishes-or relinquish their own power so easily. On Wednesday, General Sonthi struck a defiant note, predicting that Thaksin would not dare return to Thailand because he could be killed by one of the many groups of people who oppose...
...Minister-to be unconstitutional. Many in Pakistan suggest that Musharraf's principal motive in dismissing Chaudhry may have stemmed from fears that the increasingly independent Chief Justice would obstruct the President's bid for another term, which requires a constitutional amendment ratified by the Supreme Court and approved by Parliament. Chaudhry in private conversations had expressed doubt that the President should also be head of the army, says Asan Iqbal, Secretary of Information for deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League. "It was after that that the government got very concerned," Iqbal says...
...four people for adultery. Towns in the northern provinces bordering Afghanistan are run by a Pakistani Taliban that has shut down barbershops, girls' schools and polio-vaccination programs. In Islamabad, students from the fundamentalist Jamia Hafsa seminary have occupied a children's library less than a mile from the Parliament building. Abdul Aziz, head of the Lal Masjid mosque where Jamia Hafsa is located, preaches against the government, calling for its overthrow if Islamic law is not implemented and claiming that he has 10,000 suicide bombers ready to be deployed. "What do you want us to do, storm...