Suu Kyi Makes Her Parliament Debut
NAYPYIDAW, (AFP) – Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi made her historic parliamentary debut on Monday, marking a new phase in her near quarter century struggle to bring democracy to her army-dominated homeland.
The veteran activist, whose unswerving campaigning saw her locked up for years by the former junta and earned her a Nobel Peace Prize, is due to take a seat as an elected politician for the first time in the capital Naypyidaw.
Suu Kyi's first taste of public office comes at a tentative time for Myanmar after recent communal violence and a series of student arrests cast a shadow over promising changes in the former pariah state.
But it also comes amid expectations that several senior hardliners are to be replaced by reformists in an imminent cabinet reshuffle that would mark the first major change of personnel in the top echelons of government since it replaced junta rule last year.
Suu Kyi will join fellow members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), as both the party and its iconic leader transform from dissident outsiders to mainstream political players.
The 67-year-old, one of the NLD's 37 lower house members of parliament, postponed her debut in the fledgling legislature last week to recover from a gruelling European tour and visit her constituency.
Slightly Cooler
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The heat that blanketed much of the U.S. began to ease up from unbearable to merely very hot Sunday as temperatures from the Midwest to the East Coast dropped from highs above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) down to the 90s F (low to mid 30s Celsius).
Cooler air swept southward in the eastern half of the country, bringing down some temperatures by 15 or more degrees from Saturday's highs, which topped 100 F (38 C) in cities including Philadelphia, Washington, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Louisville, Kentucky.
For many areas, the cooler temperatures were ushered in by thunderstorms that knocked out power to thousands. In New Jersey, a line of strong, fast-moving storms knocked out power to nearly 70,000 on Saturday night.
The heat of the past several days has also been blamed for at least 45 deaths across the country. In Chicago, the county medical examiner's office determined Sunday that eight more people died from heat-related causes, adding to the 10 deaths previously confirmed Saturday. The deaths included a 100-year-old woman, 65-year-old woman, a 53-year-old man, a 46-year-old woman and an unidentified man believed to be about 30 years old.
To stay cool, Americans tried familiar solutions; dipping into the pool, going to the movies and riding subways just to be in air conditioning.
Mystery Woman
SEOUL, (AFP) – A mystery woman pictured accompanying North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-Un to recent events has prompted speculation in Seoul about whether she is his partner or his younger sister.
The North's state television Sunday aired footage of the woman joining Jong-Un as he paid tribute to his late grandfather Kim Il-Sung on the anniversary of his death in 1994.
Top officials including ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-Nam and army chief Ri Yong-Ho accompanied the leader to Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace, where the embalmed body of the nation's first president lies in state.
The TV footage showed the woman, apparently in her twenties or thirties, walking next to the leader. She bowed with him before a portrait of Kim Il-Sung.
The short-haired woman, clad in a black suit, was also pictured sitting next to Jong-Un at a concert by a state orchestra on Friday.
Some South Korea media reports suggested she was Kim's younger sister Yo-Jong, who is believed to have studied in Switzerland along with him in the 1990s. Others suggested she may be Kim's wife or lover.
Mongolia Visit
ULAN BATOR, (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Mongolia Monday as part of an Asian tour aimed at promoting democracy, as local politicians were locked in dispute over recent elections.
Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj has called on all parties to agree on forming a ruling coalition, after official results showed the opposition Democratic Party won most seats, but not enough for a majority.
There have been days of unease since the June 28 elections in which some parties said a new automated voting system to elect the Great Hural, Mongolia's 76-member parliament, had failed.
''The secretary is going to be very clear that we celebrate a succession of successful elections in Mongolia,'' a former Soviet satellite, a top State Department official told reporters travelling with Clinton.
Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China. After ending Soviet-backed rule in 1990, it has undergone a relatively peaceful and successful transition into a stable democracy.
Clinton arrived in Ulan Bator from Tokyo, where she used a global forum on Sunday to make a powerful plea for the rights of women in Afghanistan.
Swiss Invited
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, (AFP) – The Palestinian president will call on Swiss experts who probed Yasser Arafat's death to take samples from his body for further tests, a Palestinian official said on Sunday.
The invitation comes after an investigation commissioned by Al-Jazeera news channel found elevated levels of the radioactive substance polonium on some of Arafat's belongings, suggesting the leader could have been poisoned.
''President (Mahmud) Abbas ordered one of his medical advisors to communicate immediately with the experts at the Swiss institute who tested Arafat's clothes and request they come immediately to Ramallah to take samples from Arafat's body,'' Saeb Erakat told AFP late Sunday evening.
He added that Abbas hoped further tests by the experts ''will reveal the real cause for Arafat's death.''
Polonium, which is highly toxic, was used to kill Russian former spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after drinking tea laced with the substance at a London restaurant.
The veteran activist, whose unswerving campaigning saw her locked up for years by the former junta and earned her a Nobel Peace Prize, is due to take a seat as an elected politician for the first time in the capital Naypyidaw.
Suu Kyi's first taste of public office comes at a tentative time for Myanmar after recent communal violence and a series of student arrests cast a shadow over promising changes in the former pariah state.
But it also comes amid expectations that several senior hardliners are to be replaced by reformists in an imminent cabinet reshuffle that would mark the first major change of personnel in the top echelons of government since it replaced junta rule last year.
Suu Kyi will join fellow members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), as both the party and its iconic leader transform from dissident outsiders to mainstream political players.
The 67-year-old, one of the NLD's 37 lower house members of parliament, postponed her debut in the fledgling legislature last week to recover from a gruelling European tour and visit her constituency.
Slightly Cooler
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The heat that blanketed much of the U.S. began to ease up from unbearable to merely very hot Sunday as temperatures from the Midwest to the East Coast dropped from highs above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) down to the 90s F (low to mid 30s Celsius).
Cooler air swept southward in the eastern half of the country, bringing down some temperatures by 15 or more degrees from Saturday's highs, which topped 100 F (38 C) in cities including Philadelphia, Washington, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Louisville, Kentucky.
For many areas, the cooler temperatures were ushered in by thunderstorms that knocked out power to thousands. In New Jersey, a line of strong, fast-moving storms knocked out power to nearly 70,000 on Saturday night.
The heat of the past several days has also been blamed for at least 45 deaths across the country. In Chicago, the county medical examiner's office determined Sunday that eight more people died from heat-related causes, adding to the 10 deaths previously confirmed Saturday. The deaths included a 100-year-old woman, 65-year-old woman, a 53-year-old man, a 46-year-old woman and an unidentified man believed to be about 30 years old.
To stay cool, Americans tried familiar solutions; dipping into the pool, going to the movies and riding subways just to be in air conditioning.
Mystery Woman
SEOUL, (AFP) – A mystery woman pictured accompanying North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-Un to recent events has prompted speculation in Seoul about whether she is his partner or his younger sister.
The North's state television Sunday aired footage of the woman joining Jong-Un as he paid tribute to his late grandfather Kim Il-Sung on the anniversary of his death in 1994.
Top officials including ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-Nam and army chief Ri Yong-Ho accompanied the leader to Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace, where the embalmed body of the nation's first president lies in state.
The TV footage showed the woman, apparently in her twenties or thirties, walking next to the leader. She bowed with him before a portrait of Kim Il-Sung.
The short-haired woman, clad in a black suit, was also pictured sitting next to Jong-Un at a concert by a state orchestra on Friday.
Some South Korea media reports suggested she was Kim's younger sister Yo-Jong, who is believed to have studied in Switzerland along with him in the 1990s. Others suggested she may be Kim's wife or lover.
Mongolia Visit
ULAN BATOR, (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Mongolia Monday as part of an Asian tour aimed at promoting democracy, as local politicians were locked in dispute over recent elections.
Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj has called on all parties to agree on forming a ruling coalition, after official results showed the opposition Democratic Party won most seats, but not enough for a majority.
There have been days of unease since the June 28 elections in which some parties said a new automated voting system to elect the Great Hural, Mongolia's 76-member parliament, had failed.
''The secretary is going to be very clear that we celebrate a succession of successful elections in Mongolia,'' a former Soviet satellite, a top State Department official told reporters travelling with Clinton.
Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia and China. After ending Soviet-backed rule in 1990, it has undergone a relatively peaceful and successful transition into a stable democracy.
Clinton arrived in Ulan Bator from Tokyo, where she used a global forum on Sunday to make a powerful plea for the rights of women in Afghanistan.
Swiss Invited
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, (AFP) – The Palestinian president will call on Swiss experts who probed Yasser Arafat's death to take samples from his body for further tests, a Palestinian official said on Sunday.
The invitation comes after an investigation commissioned by Al-Jazeera news channel found elevated levels of the radioactive substance polonium on some of Arafat's belongings, suggesting the leader could have been poisoned.
''President (Mahmud) Abbas ordered one of his medical advisors to communicate immediately with the experts at the Swiss institute who tested Arafat's clothes and request they come immediately to Ramallah to take samples from Arafat's body,'' Saeb Erakat told AFP late Sunday evening.
He added that Abbas hoped further tests by the experts ''will reveal the real cause for Arafat's death.''
Polonium, which is highly toxic, was used to kill Russian former spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after drinking tea laced with the substance at a London restaurant.
0 Response to "Suu Kyi Makes Her Parliament Debut"
Post a Comment