PRESIDENT Passion

Soekarno, the first President of Indonesia

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 08:38:00 +0000

Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was the first President of Indonesia. He helped the country win its independence from the Netherlands and was President from 1945 to 1967, presiding with mixed success over the country's turbulent transition to independence. Sukarno was forced out of power by one of his generals, Suharto, who formally became President in March 1967.
The son of a Javanese primary school teacher, an aristocrat named Raden Soekemi Sosrodihardjo and his Balinese wife named Ida Ayu Nyoman Rai from Buleleng regency, Sukarno was born as Kusno Sosrodihardjo in Blitar, East Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Following Javanese custom, he was renamed after a childhood illness. He was admitted into a Dutch-run school as a child. When his father sent him to Surabaya in 1916 to attend a secondary school, he met Tjokroaminoto, a future nationalist. In 1921 he began to study at the Technische Hogeschool (Technical Institute) in Bandung. He studied civil engineering and focused on architecture.
Atypically, even among the colony's small educated elite, Sukarno was fluent in several languages. In addition to the Javanese language of his childhood, he was a master of Sundanese, Balinese and of Indonesian, and especially strong in Dutch. He was also quite comfortable in German, English, French, Arabic, and Japanese, all of which were taught at his HBS. He was helped by his photographic memory and precocious mind. Sukarno once remarked that when he was studying in Surabaya, he often sat behind the screen in movie theaters reading the Dutch subtitles in reverse because the front seats were only for elite Dutch people.
In his studies, Sukarno was "intensely modern," both in architecture and in politics. Sukarno interpreted these ideas in his dress, in his urban planning for the capital (eventually Jakarta), and in his socialist politics, though he did not extend his taste for modern art to pop music; he had Koes Plus imprisoned for their allegedly decadent lyrics despite his reputation for womanising. For Sukarno, modernity was blind to race, neat and Western in style, and anti-imperialist.
In early 1929, during the so-called Indonesian National Revival, Sukarno and fellow Indonesian nationalist leader Mohammad Hatta (later Vice President), first foresaw a Pacific War and the opportunity that a Japanese advance on Indonesia might present for the Indonesian independence cause. In February 1942 Imperial Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies quickly overrunning outmatched Dutch forces who marched, bussed and trucked Sukarno three hundred kilometres to Padang, Sumatra. They intended keeping him prisoner, but abruptly abandoned him to save themselves.
The Japanese had their own files on Sukarno and approached him with respect wanting to use him to organise and pacify the Indonesians. Sukarno on the other hand wanted to use the Japanese to free Indonesia: "The Lord be praised, God showed me the way; in that valley of the Ngarai I said: Yes, Independent Indonesia can only be achieved with Dai Nippon...For the first time in all my life, I saw myself in the mirror of Asia."

Subsequently, indigenous forces across both Sumatra and Java aided the Japanese against the Dutch but would not cooperate in the supply of the aviation fuel which was essential for the Japanese war effort. Desperate for local support in supplying the volatile cargo, Japan now brought Sukarno back to Jakarta. He helped the Japanese in obtaining its aviation fuel and forced labor conscripts, called sukarela in Indonesian and Romusha in Japanese. Sukarno was lastingly ashamed of his role with the romusha. He also was involved with Peta and Heiho (Javanese volunteer army troops) via speeches broadcast on the Japanese radio and loud speaker networks across Java. By mid-1945 these units numbered around two million, and were preparing to defeat any Allied forces sent to re-take Java.
On November 10, 1943 Sukarno was decorated by the Emperor of Japan in Tokyo. He also became head of Badan Penyelidik Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (BPUPKI), the Japanese-organized committee through which Indonesian independence was later gained. On 7 September 1944, with the war going badly for the Japanese, Prime Minister Koiso promised independence for Indonesia, although no date was set. This announcement was seen, according to the U.S. official history, as immense vindication for Sukarno's apparent collaboration with the Japanese. The U.S. at the time considered Sukarno one of the "foremost collaborationist leaders."

Following the Japanese surrender, Sukarno, Mohammad Hatta, and Dr. Radjiman Wediodiningrat were summoned by Marshal Terauchi, Commander-in-Chief of Japan's Southern Expeditionary Forces in Saigon. Sukarno initially hesitated in declaring Indonesia's independence. He and Mohammad Hatta were kidnapped by Indonesian youth groups to Rengasdengklok, west of Jakarta. Finally Sukarno and Hatta declared the independence of the Republic of Indonesia on August 17, 1945. (wikipedia-dansite.files.wordpress.com-www.elshinta.com )

RIP former President Cory Aquino, January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:54:00 +0000

Maria Corazon "Cory" Cojuangco Aquino (January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a President of the Philippines and a world-renowned advocate of democracy, peace, women's empowerment, and religious piety. She served as the 11th president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. She was the first female president of the Philippines and was Asia's first female president. Mrs Aquino died on August 1, 2009 after suffering from colon cancer.
A self-proclaimed "plain housewife", Aquino was married to Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. (1932–1983), a leading figure in the political opposition against the autocratic rule of President Ferdinand Marcos. After her husband was assassinated upon his return from exile in the United States on August 21, 1983, Aquino, who had no prior political experience, became a focal point and unifying force of the opposition against Marcos. She was drafted to run against Marcos in the 1986 snap presidential elections. After Marcos was proclaimed the winner despite widespread reports of electoral fraud, Aquino was installed as President by the peaceful 1986 People Power Revolution.

Aquino participated in many of the mass actions that were staged in the two years following the assassination of her husband. In the last week of November 1985, Marcos unexpectedly announced a snap presidential election to be held in February 1986. Initially, Senator Salvador Laurel of Batangas, the son of a former president, was seen as the favorite presidential candidate of the opposition, under the United Nationalists Democratic Organizations. However, business tycoon Don Joaquin "Chino" Roces was not convinced that Laurel could defeat Marcos in the polls. Roces initiated the Cory Aquino for President Movement to gather one million signatures in one week for Aquino to run as president.
Aquino was reluctant at first to run for presidency, despite pleas that she was the one candidate who could unite the opposition against Marcos. She eventually was convinced following a ten-hour meditation session at a Catholic convent. Laurel did not immediately accede to calls for him to give way to Aquino, and offered her the vice-presidential slot under his UNIDO party. Aquino instead offered to give up her affiliation with her husband's political party, the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN), which had just merged with Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, and run under the UNIDO banner with Laurel sliding down to the vice-presidential slot. Laurel gave way to Aquino to run as President and ran as her running-mate under UNIDO as the main political umbrella of the opposition.
In the succeeding political campaign, Marcos charged that Aquino was being supported by communists and agreed to share power with them, to which she responded that she would not appoint one to her cabinet. Marcos also accused Aquino of playing "political football" with the United States with respect to the continued United States military presence in the Philippines at Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base. Marcos also derided Aquino as "just a woman" whose place was in the bedroom.

The elections held on February 7, 1986 were marred by the intimidation and mass disenfranchisement of voters. Election day itself and the days immediately after were marred by violence, including the murder of one of Aquino's top allies, Antique governor Evelio Javier. While the official tally of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) consistently showed Marcos in the lead, the unofficial tally of the National Movement for Free Elections indicated that Aquino was leading. Despite the job walkout of 30 COMELEC computer technicians alleging election-rigging in favor of Marcos, the Batasang Pambansa, controlled by Marcos allies, ratified the official count and proclaimed Marcos the winner on February 15, 1986. The country's Catholic bishops and the United States Senate condemned the election, and Aquino called for a general strike and a boycott of business enterprises controlled by Marcos allies. She also rejected a power-sharing agreement proposed by the American diplomat Philip Habib, who had been sent as an emissary by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to help defuse the tension. (wikipedia - www.filipinasoul.com - img.timeinc.net - archivos.zptweb.ne)

Nicolas Sarkozy

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:08:00 +0000

Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa on 28 January 1955 in the 17th arrondissement of Paris) is the 23rd President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier.
Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Under Jacques Chirac's presidency, he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-Pierre Raffarin's (UMP) first two governments (from May 2002 to March 2004), then was appointed Minister of Finances in Raffarin's last government (March 2004 to May 2005), and again Minister of the Interior in Dominique de Villepin's government (2005-2007).
Sarkozy was also president of the General council of the Hauts-de-Seine department from 2004 to 2007 and mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of France from 1983 to 2002. He was also Minister of the Budget in the government of Édouard Balladur (RPR, predecessor of the UMP) during François Mitterrand's last term.
Sarkozy is known for his strong stance on law and order issues and his desire to revitalise the French economy. In foreign affairs, he has promised a strengthening of the entente cordiale with the United Kingdom and closer cooperation with the United States. His nickname, "Sarko", is used by both supporters and opponents.
President Sarkozy was hospitalized in late July 2009 after he briefly fainted because of an incident of vasovagal syncope. Tests are being run on his cardiovascular system to make sure he remains in acceptable health.

Sarkozy was a likely candidate for the presidency in 2007; in an often-repeated comment made on television channel France 2, when asked by a journalist whether he thought about the presidential election when he shaved in the morning, Sarkozy commented, "not just when I shave".
On 14 January 2007, Sarkozy was chosen by the UMP to be its candidate in the 2007 presidential election. Sarkozy, who was running unopposed, won 98 percent of the votes. Of the 327,000 UMP members who could vote, 69 percent participated in the online ballot.
In February 2007 Sarkozy appeared on a televised debate on TF1 where he expressed his support for affirmative action and the freedom to work overtime. Despite his opposition to same-sex marriage, he advocated civil unions and the possibility for same-sex partners to inherit under the same regime as married couples. The law has been voted in July 2007.
On 7 February, Sarkozy decided in favour of a projected second, non-nuclear, aircraft carrier for the national Navy (adding to the nuclear Charles de Gaulle), during an official visit in Toulon with Defence Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie. "This would allow permanently having an operational ship, taking into account the constraints of maintenance", he explained.
On 21 March, President Jacques Chirac announced his support for Sarkozy. Chirac pointed out that Sarkozy had been chosen as presidential candidate for the ruling UMP party, and said: "So it is totally natural that I give him my vote and my support." To focus on his campaign, Sarkozy stepped down as interior minister on 26 March.
During the campaign, rival candidates had accused Sarkozy of being a "candidate for brutality" and of presenting hardline views about France's future. Opponents also accused him of courting conservative voters in policy-making in a bid to capitalise on right-wing sentiments among some communities. However, his popularity was sufficient to see him polling as the frontrunner throughout the later campaign period, consistently ahead of rival Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal.
The first round of the presidential election was held on 22 April 2007. Sarkozy came in first with 31.18 percent of the votes, ahead of Ségolène Royal of the Socialists with 25.87 percent. In the second round, Sarkozy came out on top to win the election with 53.06 percent of the votes ahead of Ségolène Royal with 46.94 percent. In his speech immediately following the announcement of the election results, Sarkozy stressed the need for France's modernisation, but also called for national unity, mentioning that Royal was in his thoughts. In that speech, he claimed "The French have chosen to break with the ideas, habits and behaviour of the past. I will restore the value of work, authority, merit and respect for the nation." (wikipedia -www.independent.co.uk - z.hubpages.com)

President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaitė

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:44:00 +0000

Dalia Grybauskaitė is a Lithuanian politician and the current President of Lithuania inaugurated on July 12, 2009. She was previously Lithuania's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance Minister, and European Commissioner for Financial Programming & the Budget. Often referred to as the "Iron Lady", Grybauskaitė is Lithuania's first female head of state.
Dalia Grybauskaitė was born on 1 March 1956 into a working-class family in Vilnius. Her mother, Vitalija Korsakaitė (1922-1989), born in the Biržai region, worked as a saleswoman; her father, Polikarpas Grybauskas (1928-2008) worked as an electrician and as a driver. Grybauskaitė attended Salomėja Nėris High School. She has described herself as not among the best of students, receiving mostly fours in a system where five was the highest grade. Her favorite subjects were history, geography and physics.
She began participating in sports at the age of eleven, and became a passionate basketball player. At the age of nineteen she worked for a year at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic as staff inspector. She then enrolled in Saint Petersburg State University, then known as Zhdanov University, as a student of political economy. At the same time she began working in a local factory. In 1983 Grybauskaitė graduated with a citation and returned to Vilnius, taking a secretarial position at the Academy of Sciences. Work in the Academy was scarce, however, and she moved to the Vilnius Party High School, where she lectured in political economy and global finance. In 1988 she defended her Ph.D thesis at Moscow Academy.

In 1990, soon after Lithuania re-established its independence from the Soviet Union, Grybauskaitė continued her studies at the Georgetown University (Washington DC) School of Foreign Service in the Special Program for senior executives.[3] Between 1991 and 1993 Grybauskaitė worked as Director of the European Department at the Ministry of International Economic Relations of the Republic of Lithuania. During 1993 she was employed in the Foreign Ministry as director of the Economic Relations Department, and represented Lithuania when it entered the European Union Free Trade Agreement. She also chaired the Aid Coordination Committee (PHARE and the G-24). Soon afterwords she was named Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister at the Lithuanian Mission to the EU. There she worked as the deputy chief negotiator for the EU Europe Agreement and as a representative of the National Aid Co-ordination in Brussels.
In 1996 Grybauskaitė was appointed Plenipotentiary Minister in the United States's Lithuanian embassy. She held this position until 1999, when she was appointed deputy Minister of Finance. As part of this role, she led Lithuanian negotiations with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. In 2000, Grybauskaitė became Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, going on in 2001 to become Minister of Finance in the Algirdas Brazauskas government. Lithuania joined the European Union on 1 May 2004, and Grybauskaitė was named a European Commissioner on the same day.
On 26 February 2009, Grybauskaitė officially announced her candidacy for the 2009 presidential election. In her declaration speech, she said:

I decided to return to Lithuania if the Lithuanian people decide I am needed there now. I think that we all long for the truth, transparency and responsibility for our country. We all want to live without fear, with confidence in ourselves, in each other, and in tomorrow.
I can and I want to contribute with my experience, knowledge and skills to expel shadows from morality, politics, and economics to create a citizen-ruled Lithuania - a state of citizens. Therefore, I will run for the Lithuanian presidency.
Opinion polls taken in February 2009 showed that Grybauskaitė was the undisputed leader in the race. She ran as an independent, although she was supported by the dominant Conservative Party as well as by NGOs, including Sąjūdis.
Her campaign was primarily focused on domestic issues. After years of strong economic growth, Lithuania faced a deep recession with double-digit declines in economic indicators. The unemployment rate rose to 15.5% in March, and a January street protest against the government's response to the recession turned violent. During the campaign, Grybauskaitė stressed the need to combat the financial troubles by protecting those with the lowest incomes, simplifying the Lithuanian bureaucratic apparatus, and reviewing the government's investment program. She also promised a more balanced approach in conducting foreign policy, the primary constitutional role of the Lithuanian presidency.
The election was held on 17 May 2009. Dalia Grybauskaitė won in a landslide, receiving 68.18% of the vote. The 51.6% turnout was just above the threshold needed to avoid a runoff election. In winning the election, Grybauskaitė became not only the first female president of Lithuania, but won by the largest margin recorded in presidential elections.
Political analysts attributed the easy victory to Grybauskaitė's financial competence and her ability to avoid domestic scandals. The international press was quick to dub her the "Lithuanian Iron Lady" for her outspoken speech and her black belt in karate. Grybauskaitė, who speaks Lithuanian, English, Russian, French and Polish, has mentioned Margaret Thatcher and Mahatma Gandhi as her political role models.
Grybauskaitė will assume presidential duties on 12 July 2009. At an 18 May news conference, she announced that she was considering replacing up to five Cabinet ministers, that the Euro could be adopted during her first term, and that she would accept no more than half of her presidential salary (312,000 litas). (wikipedia-www.ceegaag.com-www.stasys.igs.lt-medias.cafebabel.com)

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, born 28 October 1956, also Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad, is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became president on 6 August 2005, after winning the 2005 presidential election. Ahmadinejad became the first president of the Islamic Republic in twenty-four years who was not a religious cleric. Despite his title, he does not hold the highest constitutional office in Iran, which belongs to the Supreme Leader of Iran (Ali Khamenei), according to Article 113 of the Constitution of Iran. Prior to becoming president, Ahmadinejad was mayor of Tehran and governor general of Iran's Ardabil Province.

Ahmadinejad has been a critic of the US and Israel, and backs strengthening Iran's relations with Russia, Venezuela, Syria, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
On Iran's nuclear program, Ahmadinejad has said it is for peaceful purposes. For that stated reason and others, Iran has refused to end nuclear enrichment despite United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for it to do so. Ahmadinejad argues that the sanctions imposed by the West over Iran's nuclear enrichment are illegal and that Iran will continue to abide by International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring of its nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad has also called for the dissolution of the state of Israel, and calls for free elections in the region. He believes that the Palestinians need a stronger voice in the region's future.

One of Ahmadinejad's most controversial statements was one in which, according to the initial Islamic Republic News Agency translation, he called for the "occupying regime" to be "wiped off the map," though the translation and interpretation of the comment is disputed. He has also been condemned for describing the Holocaust as a myth, which has led to accusations of anti-semitism; the interpretation of this quote is also disputed. In response to these criticisms, Ahmadinejad said “No, I am not against Jews, I respect them very much.” Ahmadinejad also clarified, "I'm not saying that [the Holocaust] didn't happen at all. This is not the judgment that I'm passing here."
During his presidency, Ahmadinejad launched a gas rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption. He also instituted cuts in the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. He issued a directive, according to which the Management and Planning Organization should be affiliated to the government.

Ahmadinejad began his political career as governor to both Maku and Khoy in West Azarbaijan Province during the 1980s. He eventually became an advisor to the governor general of Kurdistan Province for two years and was appointed as the governor general of Ardabil Province in 1993. In 1997, Mohammad Khatami removed Ahmadinejad from his position in Ardabil, and Ahmadinejad returned to teaching. In 2003, however, Ahmadinejad returned to the political scene after the City Council of Tehran appointed him to the position of mayor, after a 12 percent turnout led to the election of Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran's conservative candidates in Tehran.
During his mayorship, he reversed many of the changes put into effect by previous moderate and reformist mayors, putting religious emphasis on the activities of the cultural centers founded by previous mayors, going on the record with the separation of elevators for men and women in the municipality offices, and suggesting that the bodies of those killed in the Iran–Iraq War be buried in major city squares of Tehran. Such actions were coupled with an emphasis on charity, such as distributing free soup to the poor.
After two years as mayor, Ahmadinejad was shortlisted in a list of 65 finalists for World Mayor in 2005 and was among 3 strong candidates for the top-10 list but became non-eligible because of his resignation. Out of the 550 nominated mayors, nine were from Asia.
He was not widely known when he entered the presidential election campaign, although he had already made his mark for rolling back earlier reforms. After his election to the presidency, Ahmadinejad resigned from his post as the mayor of Tehran. His resignation was accepted on 28 June 2005. He is a member of the Central Council of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but his key support is inside the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (Abadgaran). (wikipedia - zainuddinjambi.files.wordpress.com - vitalperspective.typepad.com - actdcmetro.files.wordpress.com)

Medvedev, President of Russia is Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:21:00 +0000

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, born 14 September 1965, is the third and current President of Russia, inaugurated on 7 May 2008. He won the presidential election held on 2 March 2008 with 71.25% of the popular vote.
Medvedev was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government on 14 November 2005. Formerly Vladimir Putin's Chief of Presidential Staff, he was also the Chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, a post he had held, for the second time, since 2000. Medvedev's candidacy was backed by then President Vladimir Putin. On 10 December 2007, he was informally endorsed as a candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections by the largest Russian political party, United Russia and several pro-presidential parties, and officially endorsed by United Russia on 17 December 2007. A technocrat and political appointee, Medvedev had never held elective office before 2008.
Medvedev was born to Professor of the Leningrad Institute of Technology Anatoly Afanasevich Medvedev (November 1926 — 2004) and Yulia Veniaminovna Medvedeva (née Shaposhnikova, born 21 Novermer 1939), and brought up in Kupchino district of Leningrad. He grew up in a 40-square-metre (430 sq ft) flat (which was considered quite large for a family of three in the Soviet Union at that time).
Medvedev was a B student at the secondary school. His future wife, Svetlana Linnik, was his classmate. Medvedev was fond of sports, in particular weightlifting. He was a fan of English bands Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
He graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987 (together with Ilya Yeliseyev, Anton Ivanov, Nikolay Vinnichenko and Konstantin Chuychenko) and in 1990 received his PhD in private law from the graduate school of the same university. Anatoly Sobchak, an early democratic politician of the 1980s and 1990s, was one of his professors, and Medvedev later participated in Sobchak's successful Saint Petersburg mayoral campaign. In 1990 he worked in Leningrad Municipal Soviet of People's Deputies under the supervision of Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Churov, later the head of the President election committee, also started under Putin at that time.
Between 1991 and 1999 Medvedev, in addition to his business activities and participation in the Saint Petersburg City Administration, held a position of docent at his alma mater university, now renamed to Saint Petersburg State University.

2008 presidential elections. Following his appointment as First Deputy Prime Minister, many political observers expected Medvedev to be nominated as Putin's successor for the 2008 presidential elections. There were other potential candidates, such as Sergey Ivanov and Viktor Zubkov, but on 10 December 2007, President Putin announced that Medvedev was his preferred successor. The announcement was staged on TV with four parties suggesting Medvedev's candidature to Putin, and Putin then giving his endorsement. The four pro-Kremlin parties were United Russia, Fair Russia, Agrarian Party of Russia and Civilian Power. United Russia held its party congress on 17 December 2007 where by secret ballot of the delegates, Medvedev was officially endorsed as their candidate in the 2008 presidential election. He formally registered his candidacy with the Central Election Commission on 20 December 2007 and said he would step down as chairman of Gazprom, since under the current laws, the president is not permitted to hold another post. His registration was formally accepted as valid by the Russian Central Election Commission on 21 January 2008.
Political analysts believed that Putin's choice of a successor would coast to an easy election-day victory, as pre-election opinion polls indicated that a substantial majority of potential voters would back Putin's chosen candidate for president. An opinion poll by Russia's independent polling organization, the Levada Center, conducted over the period 21–24 December 2007 indicated that when presented a list of potential candidates, 79% of Russians were ready to vote for Medvedev if the election were immediately held. In his first speech after being endorsed, Medvedev announced that, as President, he would appoint Vladimir Putin to the post of prime minister to head the Russian government. Although constitutionally barred from a third consecutive presidential term, such a role would allow Putin to continue as an influential figure in Russian politics.[35] The constitution allows him to return to the presidency later. Some analysts have been quick to point out that such a statement shows that Medvedev recognizes that he would only be a figurehead president. Putin pledged that he would accept the position of prime minister should Medvedev be elected president. Although Putin had pledged not to change the distribution of authority between president and prime minister, many analysts expected a shift in the center of power from the presidency to the prime minister post when Putin assumed the latter under a Medvedev presidency. Election posters have portrayed the pair side-by-side with the slogan "We Will Be Victorious Together".

In January 2008, Medvedev launched his presidential campaign with stops in the oblasts. With preliminary results showing he would probably win the 2 March 2008 presidential election by a landslide, Medvedev vowed to work closely with the man who chose him for the job, Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Churov, Chairman of the Presidential Election Committee, was the friend of both Putin and Medvedev with whom they started to work back in the 1990s in Sobchak's administration in St. Petersburg. The Committee denied participation in elections to the opposition leaders Kasparov and Kasyanov using technical formalities in the election law previously adjusted to hinder the opposition election campaign. The three candidates that were allowed to participate were not considered dangerous for Medvedev and did virtually nothing to challenge him. Medvedev declined to participate in political debates with the other candidates.
In a campaign speech, Medvedev advocated private property, economic deregulation, low taxes, an independent judiciary, anti-corruption, and defending personal freedoms. His phrase "Freedom is better than non-freedom" said in Krasnoyarsk during his election campaign was widely cited as a sign of liberal changes by some and ironically by others.
Taking the Presidential Oath in the Grand Kremlin Palace on 7 May 2008.
Medvedev was seen as generally more liberal than his predecessor, Vladimir Putin.
Medvedev was elected President of Russia on 2 March 2008. According to the final election results, he won 70.28% of votes with a turnout of over 69.78% of registered voters.
The fairness of the election was disputed by many western observers and officials. Andreas Gross, head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) mission stated that the elections was "neither free nor fair". Moreover the few western vote monitors bemoaned the inequality of candidate registration and the abuse of administrative resources by Medvedev allowing blanket television coverage.
Russian programmer Shpilkin analyzed the results of Medvedev's election and came to the conclusion that the results were falsified by the election committees. However, after the correction for the alleged falsification factor, Medvedev still came out as the winner, although with 63% of the vote instead of 70%.
Medvedev's election continued an alternating pattern of hairy and bald Russian leaders dating back at least to Alexander I of Russia. (wikipedia - aftermathnews.files.wordpress.com - www.globalvoicesonline.org - www.minnpost.com)

Mahmoud Abbas

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:22:00 +0000

Mahmoud Abbas, born 26 March 1935, also known by the kunya Abu Mazen, has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah (فتح Fataḥ) ticket. Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally extended his term for another year. Rival political party Hamas announced it would not recognise the extension. Abbas was chosen as the President of the "State of Palestine" by the Palestine Liberation Organisation's Central Council on 23 November 2008, a job he had held unofficially since 8 May 2005.
Abbas served as the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority from March to October 2003 when he resigned citing lack of support from Israel and the United States as well as "internal incitement" against his government. Before being named prime minister, Abbas led the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department.
Mahmoud Ridha Abbas was born in 1935 in Safed, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine. His family became refugees during the war of 1948 and settled in Syria. In Syria he attended school and graduated from the University of Damascus before going to Egypt where he studied law.
Later in his life, Abbas entered graduate studies at the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, where he earned a Candidate of Sciences degree[7] (the Soviet equivalent of a PhD).
He is married to Amina Abbas; they have three sons, including Yasser Abbas, who was named after former PA leader Yasser Arafat.
In the mid-1950s Abbas became heavily involved in underground Palestinian politics, joining a number of exiled Palestinians in Qatar, where he was Director of Personnel in the emirate's Civil Service. While there, he recruited a number of people who would become key figures in the Palestine Liberation Organization, and was one of the founding members of Fatah in 1957. Yasser Arafat was among the other key members.
At the same time he has performed diplomatic duties, presenting a moderating face for PLO policies. Abbas was the first PLO official to visit Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War in January 1993 to mend fences with the Gulf countries for the PLO's opposition to the US attack on Iraq during the crisis. At the 1993 peace accord with Israel, Abbas was the signatory for the PLO on 13 September 1993. He published a memoir, Through Secret Channels: The Road to Oslo (1995).

Abbas' CandSc thesis, completed in 1982 at the Patrice Lumumba University, and defended at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, was entitled Relations between the Zionism and Nazism, 1933 – 1945 (Russian: "Связи между сионизмом и нацизмом. 1933 – 1945"), (other translation of the title: The Secret Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement) and discussed topics such as the Haavara Agreement. The institute's director at the time, Yevgeny Primakov, appointed a Soviet-Palestine scholar, Vladimir Ivanovich Kisilev (Russian: Владимир Иванович Киселёв) as Abbas's dissertation adviser; he communicated with his student mostly in English and Arabic. In an interview with the Kommersant magazine twenty years later, Dr Kisilev remembers Abbas as well-prepared graduate student, who came to Moscow with an already chosen research topic and a large amount of already prepared material.
In 1984, a book based on Abbas's doctoral dissertation was published in Arabic by Dar Ibn Rushd publishers in Amman, Jordan. His doctoral thesis later became a book, The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, which, following his appointment as prime minister in 2003, was heavily criticised as an example of Holocaust denial. In his book, Abbas described the Nazi Holocaust as "The Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed." He also wrote: "It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure [of Holocaust deaths] so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand."
Additionally, he claimed that the much smaller number of Jews which he admitted that the Nazis did massacre were actually the victims of a Zionist-Nazi plot: "The Zionist movement led a broad campaign of incitement against the Jews living under Nazi rule to arouse the government's hatred of them, to fuel vengeance against them and to expand the mass extermination."
The California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center publicly called for Abbas to clarify his position on the Holocaust, but no clear statement was forthcoming. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Maariv in the mid 90's Abbas tried to frame the issue in terms of realpolitik. "When I wrote The Other Side…we were at war with Israel," Abbas said. "Today I would not have made such remarks…Today there is peace and what I write from now on must help advance the peace process."
As Abbas was appointed prime minister, the Israel Defense Forces discreetly deleted quotes from their website, providing excerpts from the their new partner’s book, questioning the use of gas chambers and talking of less than one million victims, along with statements supporting terrorism. The English translation of the book was also withdrawn by the Simon Wiesenthal Center prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, after a request from the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the American State Department, according to Member of the Knesset, Aryeh Eldad.
In his May 2003 interview with Haaretz, Abbas stated: "I wrote in detail about the Holocaust and said I did not want to discuss numbers. I quoted an argument between historians in which various numbers of casualties were mentioned. One wrote there were twelve million victims and another wrote there were 800,000. I have no desire to argue with the figures. The Holocaust was a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind. The Holocaust was a terrible thing and nobody can claim I denied it." (wikipedia - www.spiegel.de - therealbarackobama.files.wordpress.com)

Roh Moo-hyun dead

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:16:00 +0000

Former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun died on Saturday (May 23, 2009)after falling down a mountain while hiking with an aide, Yonhap news agency said, with police investigating whether he committed suicide.
Roh, at the centre of a corruption probe, received severe head injuries and died after being moved to a larger hospital in Busan from his hometown of Gimhae, Yonhap said.
Police are investigating whether Roh committed suicide, the report said.
The corruption probe centred around a payment worth one million US dollars to his wife from a wealthy shoemaker, and a payment by the same man worth five million US dollars to the husband of one of Roh's nieces, Yeon Cheol-Ho.

Roh, elected partly on an anti-corruption platform, served from 2003 to 2008.
He became the nation's third former president to be summoned by the prosecution after Chun Doo-Hwan and Roh Tae-Woo, who were both convicted in 1995 of receiving bribes and inciting mutiny.
Both were sentenced to death but were pardoned in 1997.

(news.theage.com.a-cache.daylife.com)

Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Afghanistan President signs law to 'legalise' rape. Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, has signed a law which "legalises" rape, women's groups and the United Nations warn. Critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease Islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in August.
In a massive blow for women's rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman's right to leave the home, according to UN papers seen by The Independent.
"It is one of the worst bills passed by the parliament this century," fumed Shinkai Karokhail, a woman MP who campaigned against the legislation. "It is totally against women's rights. This law makes women more vulnerable."
The law regulates personal matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance and sexual relations among Afghanistan's minority Shia community. "It's about votes," Ms Karokhail added. "Karzai is in a hurry to appease the Shia because the elections are on the way."
The provisions are reminiscent of the hardline Taliban regime, which banned women from leaving their homes without a male relative. But in a sign of Afghanistan's faltering steps towards gender equality, politicians who opposed it have been threatened.

"There are moderate views among the Shia, but unfortunately our MPs, the people who draft the laws, rely on extremists," Ms Karokhail said.
The bill lay dormant for more than a year, but in February it was rushed through parliament as President Karzai sought allies in a constitutional row over the upcoming election. Senator Humeira Namati claimed it wasn't even read out in the Upper House, let alone debated, before it was passed to the Supreme Court. "They accused me of being an unbeliever," she said.
Details of the law emerged after Mr Karzai was endorsed by Afghanistan's Supreme Court to stay in power until elections scheduled in August. Some MPs claimed President Karzai was under pressure from Iran, which maintains a close relationship with Afghanistan's Shias. The most controversial parts of the law deal explicitly with sexual relations. Article 132 requires women to obey their husband's sexual demands and stipulates that a man can expect to have sex with his wife at least "once every four nights" when travelling, unless they are ill. The law also gives men preferential inheritance rights, easier access to divorce, and priority in court.
A report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, Unifem, warned: "Article 132 legalises the rape of a wife by her husband".
Most of Afghanistan's Shias are ethnic Hazaras, descended from Genghis Khan's Mongol army which swept through the entire region around 700 years ago. They are Afghanistan's third largest ethnic group, and potential kingmakers, because their leaders will likely back a mainstream candidate.
Even the law's sponsors admit Mr Karzai rushed it through to win their votes. Ustad Mohammad Akbari, a prominent Shia political leader, said: "It's electioneering. Most of the Hazara people are unhappy with Mr Karzai."
A British Embassy spokesman said diplomats had raised concerns "at a senior level". (www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk-www.sepiamutiny.com-www.hizb.org.uk)

Evo Morales

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:15:00 +0000

Juan Evo Morales Ayma (born October 26, 1959 in Orinoca, Oruro), popularly known as Evo (pronounced [ˈeβo]), has been the President of Bolivia since 2006. He has been declared the country's first fully indigenous head of state in the 470 years since the Spanish Conquest.
Morales was first elected President of Bolivia on December 18, 2005, with 53.7% of the popular vote in an election that saw the participation of 84.5% of the national electorate. Two and a half years later he substantially increased this majority; in a recall referendum on August 14, 2008, more than two thirds of voters (67.4%) voted to keep him in power.
Morales is the leader of a political party called the Movement for Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, with the Spanish acronym MAS, meaning "more"). MAS was involved in social protests such as the gas conflict and the Cochabamba protests of 2000, along with many other groups, that are collectively referred to as "social movements" in Bolivia. The MAS aims at giving more power to the country's indigenous and poor communities by means of land reforms and redistribution of gas wealth.
Morales is also titular president of Bolivia's cocalero movement — a loose federation of coca growers' unions, made up of campesinos who are resisting the efforts of the United States government to eradicate coca in the province of Chapare in central Bolivia. Morales was born in the highlands of Orinoca, Oruro. He is of indigenous (Aymara) descent. He was one of seven children born to Dionisio Morales Choque and Maria Mamani; only Morales and two of his siblings survived past childhood. He grew up in an adobe house with a straw roof that was "no more than three by four meters." At age six, he traveled with his father to Argentina to work in the sugar cane harvest. As a result of his indigenous heritage, his parents made offerings of coca leaves and alcohol to mother earth, or Pachamama. At the age of 12, he accompanied his father in herding llamas from Oruro to the province of Independencia in Cochabamba. When he was 14, Morales showed his organizational skills by forming a football team with other youths; he continued herding llamas to pay the bills. Three ayllus (network of families) within the community elected him technical director of selection for the canton's team when he was only 16 years old. That same year, in order to attend high school, he moved to Oruro. There he worked as a bricklayer, a baker, and a trumpet player for the Royal Imperial Band (which allowed him to travel across Bolivia). He attended Beltrán Ávila High School but was not able to finish school, and fulfilled his mandatory military service in La Paz.
His behavior contrasts with the usual manners of dignitaries in Latin America. For example, in January 28, 2006 he cut his salary by 57% to $1,875 a month. He is single and, before the election, he shared a flat with other MAS officers. Consequently, his older sister Esther Morales Ayma fulfills the role of First Lady. He has two children from different women. He also aroused much interest in his choice of dress after being pictured often in his striped sweater with world leaders during his world tour. Some speculated that he would wear it to the official inauguration, where he actually dressed in a white shirt without tie (itself unheard of in Latin America in modern times for a head of state at their own inauguration) and a black jacket that was not a part of a conventional suit. The sweater (in Bolivian Spanish, a chompa, from the English word jumper) became his unofficial symbol and copies of it sold widely throughout Bolivia. Some accounts described Morales's signature sweater as alpaca-wool; others reported that it was actually made of common acrylic, because native materials had become too expensive for most Bolivians and were sold mostly in the tourist trade.
Evo Morales is a soccer enthusiast and plays the game frequently, often with local soccer teams. Morales is also a big admirer of Che Guevara and in 2007 held a memorial on the anniversary of Guevara's killing by the Bolivian army in 1967. (wikipedia - www.narconews.com - www.indymedia.ie - pwowfg.blu.livefilestore.com)

Sarkozy in action

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:59:00 +0000

www.worldbulletin.net

Mauricio Funes, President El Salvador

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:45:00 +0000

Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (born 18 October 1959 in San Salvador) is the President-elect of El Salvador. He won the 2009 presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing FMLN political party.
Funes was nominated to be the FMLN candidate on 28 September 2007 and competed against the Nationalist Republican Alliance's candidate Rodrigo Ávila, a former deputy director of the National Police. Funes won the Salvadoran presidential election, 2009 achieving an absolute majority with 51.23% of the popular vote. He is the first FMLN party leader not to have fought in the civil war. His presidential campaign was highlighted by statements endorsing moderate political policies.Political opponents stated that Funes' election would herald an era of Venezuelan influence but he insisted that "integration with central America and strengthening relations with the United States will be the priority of our foreign policy".

Prior to his involvement with politics, Funes was a journalist who hosted a popular interview show on television. He made appearances on Channel 12 and CNN en Español, and also hosted local news programs which were critical of previous governments. He was a reporter during the Salvadoran Civil War and interviewed leftist rebel leaders. It was during this time that he became more politically oriented and left-wing.

Funes is married to Dr. Vanda Pignato, who was involved in the Workers' Party in Brazil. They have three sons. He received his High School Diploma (Bachillerato) from the Externado San José and later went on to study literature at Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" (UCA) in San Salvador. In 1994 he was awarded the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University for promoting press freedom and inter-American understanding.
Funes' brother was killed during the civil war. His oldest son, who was 27 years old, died after being attacked by a Moroccan delinquent in Paris, France. He was studying photography.
wikipedia - 3.bp.blogspot.com - blogcindario.com - daylife.com - www.mauriciofunestv.com

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President Republic of Indonesia

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:07:00 +0000

General (Ret.) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born September 9, 1949), is an Indonesian retired military general and the sixth and current President of Indonesia. Yudhoyono won the 2004 Indonesian presidential election defeating incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri. He was sworn into office on October 20, 2004, together with Jusuf Kalla as Vice President.
The Democratic Party. Yudhoyono's supporters saw Yudhoyono's participation in the vice presidential election as a sign of his popularity and recognized Yudhoyono's potential as a possible leader for Indonesia. One of these supporters, Vence Rumangkang approached Yudhoyono with the idea of forming a political party to help shore up support for the 2004 Presidential Elections. Yudhoyono approved of the idea and after going through the basic concepts, left Rumangkang in charge of forming the Party.
From 12-19 August 2001, Rumangkang began holding a series meetings to discuss the formation of the party while holding consultations with Yudhoyono. Yudhoyono personally led the meetings on 19 August and 20 August 2001, and the basic outline of the Democratic Party was finalized. On 9 September 2001, the formation of the party was officially declared and on 10 September it was registered at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
The organizers behind Democratic Party's formation went to extreme lengths to make sure that PD was Yudhoyono's personal political party. The declaration of its formation was 9 September 2001, which was Yudhoyono's birthday and to start off with, the Party had 99 members.
wikipedia - makanyuk.files.wordpress.com

Guantanamo's Bush vs Guantanamo's Obama

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:50:00 +0000

The Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp is a prison operated by Joint Task Force Guantánamo of the United States government since 1987 in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, which is on the shore of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The detainment areas consists of three camps in the base: Camp Delta (which includes Camp Echo), Camp Iguana, and Camp X-Ray (which has been closed). The facility is often referred to as the Guantánamo, or Gitmo. The detainees currently held as of June 2008 have been classified by the United States as "enemy combatants". After the administration of President George W. Bush asserted that detainees were not entitled to any of the protections of the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on June 29, 2006 that they were entitled to the minimal protections listed under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Following this, on July 7, 2006, the Department of Defense issued an internal memo stating that prisoners would in the future be entitled to protection under Common Article 3.

On January 21, 2009 the White House announced that President Barack Obama had signed an order to suspend the proceedings of the Guantanamo military commission for 120 days and that the detention facility would be shut down within the year. On January 29, 2009 a military judge at Guantanamo rejected the White House request in the case of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, creating an unexpected challenge for the administration as it reviews how America puts Guantanamo detainees on trial.
wikipedia - rlv.zcache.co - www.andydavey.com - www.cubaheadlines.com

Andry Rajoelina, President of Madagascar

noreply@blogger.com (Danari Brothers) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Andry Nirina Rajoelina (born 1974) is a Malagasy politician. He is the current President of the High Transitional Authority of Madagascar (head of state), having been installed in that position by the military in March 2009 at the end of a political crisis. He was the Mayor of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, from December 2007 to February 2009; while serving as Mayor, he strongly opposed President Marc Ravalomanana, ultimately leading protests that, together with military intervention, forced Ravalomanana's resignation.
From 1994 to 2000 Andry Rajoelina worked as an organiser of live shows and events. He is also a former professional disc jockey, and owns the television and radio station VIVA.
As the head of the movement TGV - Tanora malaGasy Vonona (Determined Malagasy Youth), Andry Rajoelina decided to run for Mayor of Antananarivo, the national capital. He faced Hery Rafalimanana, presidential candidate and previous mayor of the city. He did so under the status of President of Special Delegation (PDS), appointed directly by President Marc Ravalomanana. Rajoelina was elected mayor on 12 December 2007 with 63.3% of the vote. He inherited a city heavily endebted.

On 4 January 2008, shortly after his election, the state-run company Jirama cut off water and electricity to the city, citing bad debts as the reason.
On 13 December 2008, the Government decided to close Viva TV owned by Andry Rajoelina. The decision followed the broadcast of an interview with the former head of state Didier Ratsiraka on Saturday 13 December 2008, which was "likely to disturb the peace and security". The programme by Viva TV, was also broadcast by other television channels in their news bulletins of 13 December 2008. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the 17 December 2008 closure of Viva TV and the government closure of other television and radio stations.
On 31 January 2009, Rajoelina announced that he was in charge of the entire Malagasy Republic, declaring at a rally, "Since the president and the government has not taken his responsibility, I therefore proclaim that I will run all national affairs as of today." He added that a request for President Ravalomanana to formally resign would shortly be filed with the Parliament of Madagascar. On 3 February, Rajoelina was dismissed as Mayor and a special delegation, headed by Guy Randrianarisoa, was appointed. Rajoelina denounced the decision, saying that there was "no valid reason" and that he was prepared to face arrest if necessary; he warned that the city would not accept the decision.
Sister project Wikinews has related news: Coup in Madagascar; opposition leader backs army
Rajoelina held another rally on 4 February, with about 1,500 people in attendance. On that occasion he described the appointment of Randrianarisoa as "an insult to the people of Madagascar"; he instead designated Michele Ratsivalaka to succeed him as mayor and gave her his mayoral scarf. By early February the political protests had turned increasingly aggressive and both rivals at the centre of the political storm continued to blame each other for the violence that had left some 130 people dead. On Saturday 7 February heavily armed security forces opened fire on anti-government demonstrators marching on the presidential palace.

Rajoelina was effectively handed the presidency on March 18, 2009, when the military handed over the executive power that was given to it by Ravalomanana upon his supposed resignation. Rajoelina, as head of the High Transitional Authority which he had created weeks before Ravalomanana's resignation, is expected to serve as head of state until the scheduled 2011 elections. He is also the youngest president in the country's history at 34 years of age. The current constitution requires presidential candidates to be a minimum of 40 years of age. Rajoelina has announced that, within 24 months, there will be a new constitution and elections.
On March 15, two days before Ravalomanana's resignation, Rajoelina announced after Sunday service at the main Antananarivo Roman Catholic cathedral that he would not mix religion with politics. After taking office, Rajoelina announced the cancellation of a land deal with Daewoo; he also announced the dissolution of parliament on March 19.
wikipedia - news.yahoo.com - www.laverite.mg - cdn.wn.com