Rome: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi`s choice of a senior judge as his presidential candidate appears to have unified his fractious party, but it may spell an end to a reform pact sealed with rival Silvio Berlusconi.
After an inconclusive first round ballot on Thursday, the 1,009 parliamentarians and regional officials eligible to pick the new president began a new round on Friday.
The result is likely to be same because a two-thirds majority is needed to seat a president until the fourth round, expected on Saturday, when a simple majority is enough and Renzi should be able to muster the numbers to win.
Renzi`s Democratic Party (PD) and a handful of allies pledged on Thursday to back Sergio Mattarella, 73, a constitutional court judge and a veteran centre-left politician.
The process of voting by secret ballot has a history of intrigue and unpredictability similar to a papal conclave. Just two years ago, two candidates ostensibly backed by the PD fell short because of anonymous defections from within party ranks.
Failure for Renzi, who has been in office less than a year, to seat Mattarella in the fourth or fifth round would mean his authority over his party is wavering, raising the spectre of an early national election.
With newly elected Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras facing tricky negotiations with German-led European partners on renegotiating Greece`s debt, a political crisis in Italy would compound uncertainty in the euro zone.
Adding to tension is Berlusconi`s anger at Renzi for betraying what the media tycoon said was a promise to give him a role in choosing the candidate as part of a pact the two leaders made last year to draft institutional reforms together.
“Renzi took Berlusconi off guard psychologically,” Clemente Mastella, a former justice minister politically close to Berlusconi, said in an interview on La7 television. “It will be hard for the centre-right to recompose itself.”
While Berlusconi told his party members to vote blank ballots through the fourth round, he could reverse his order at the last minute and back Mattarella, a former Christian Democrat who resigned as education minister in 1990 to protest a decree that favoured Berlusconi`s media empire.
That would keep institutional reforms on track and give Berlusconi a political role as he completes a tax-fraud sentence, for which he is doing public service, later this year.
Addis Ababa: The African Union called on Friday for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to defeat the “horrendous” rise of Nigeria`s Boko Haram Islamist militants.
The call for collective action came as leaders of the 54-member bloc opened their two-day annual summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where they are addressing a string of crises across the continent.
“Terrorism, in particular the brutality of Boko Haram against our people, are a threat to our collective safety, security and development. This has now spread to the region beyond Nigeria and requires a collective, effective and decisive response,” AU commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a speech opening the summit.
Conflict elsewhere, including civil war in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, as well as a new offensive launched Thursday by Democratic Republic of Congo against Rwandan ethnic Hutu rebels in the east of the country, are also expected to be discussed.
The AU Peace and Security Council called for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to deploy to stop the “horrendous” rise of the insurgents.
The proposed force will have the backing of the AU, and will ask for expected UN Security Council approval, plus a “Trust Fund” to pay for it, Dlamini-Zuma said.
More than 13,000 people have been killed and more than one million made homeless by Boko Haram violence since 2009.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told African leaders that Boko Haram was “a clear danger to national, regional and international peace and security”.
African leaders were meanwhile set to elect Zimbabwe`s President Robert Mugabe to the bloc`s one-year rotating chair, replacing Mauritania`s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
Mugabe, a former liberation war hero who aged 90 is Africa`s oldest president and the third-longest serving leader, is viewed with deep respect by many on the continent — but he is also subject to travel bans from both the United States and European Union in protest at political violence and intimidation.The leaders gathered in Ethiopia will also discuss the economic recovery of countries affected by the Ebola virus, the setting up a “solidarity fund” and planning a proposed African Centre for Disease Control.
The worst outbreak of the virus in history has seen nearly 9,000 deaths in a year — almost all of them in the west African nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone — and sparked a major health scare worldwide.
With over a dozen elections due to take place this year across Africa, the focus at the talks will also be on how to ensure peaceful polls — likely leaving little time for discussions on the official summit theme of women`s empowerment.
The Institute for Security Studies, an African think-tank, warns that many of these elections “are being held in a context that increases the risk of political violence”.
Ban Ki-moon also told African leaders they “cannot afford” to ignore the wishes of their citizens.
“People around the world have expressed their concern about leaders who refuse to leave office when their terms end. I share those concerns. Undemocratic constitutional changes and legal loopholes should never be used to cling to power,” Ban said.
South Sudan`s warring parties met on the sidelines of the AU talks on Thursday, in the latest push for a lasting peace deal. Six previous ceasefire commitments, however, have failed to end the 13-month-old civil war in the world`s youngest nation.
The South Sudan talks, which are being brokered by the regional East African bloc IGAD, are due to resume on Saturday.
Also topping the agenda is the question of financing regional forces, amid broader debates on funding the AU, a thorny issue for the bloc, once heavily bankrolled by toppled Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi.
AFP
Ghisingh, architect of Gorkhaland stir, dead
For almost 20 years since he quit the Army in 1966, Ghisingh moved from door to door explaining the need for a homeland and an Indian identity. He studied history, used it in his campaign, and sometimes even misinterpreted it to suit his argument. In the late sixties, he floated a party named “Neelo Jhanda” (Blue Flag) that exhorted people to identify themselves as “Nepali.” He despised the word Gorkha as a symbol of slavery. For some time, he flirted with the Labour Congress and after Emergency, he joined Jagjivan Ram’s Congress for Democracy.
It was in 1980 that Ghisingh, a Buddhist who worshipped Shiva more than any other deity, turned radical. On April 7 that year, he founded Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) with the slogan “We can forgive a snake but not a person who opposes Gorkhaland.” He banned the use of Nepali as the name of the community, saying it would blur their distinction from Nepali nationals.
In its initial years, GNLF confined its agitation to election boycotts and street corner meetings. Its campaign got a big boost when hundreds of Nepali families were expelled from Meghalaya in March 1986. Coinciding with Nepali New Year (April 13), Ghisingh launched an armed struggle to end the “genocide” of the Nepalis. “Just as there will be no morning until the stars are gone, there will be no Gorkhaland until we do not become martyrs,” he would often say as he plunged the picturesque Darjeeling hills and the Dooars into turmoil. Beheadings, kidnappings, ambushes and arson became the order of the day. He himself suffered serious injuries in an assassination bid on February 10, 2001. State terrorism under the garb of TADA added more to bloodletting.
As Bengal’s Marxist government armed its Nepali cadres, the hills witnessed fratricidal war that led to the killing of more than 1,200 people, burning of thousands of homes and uprooting of nearly 1,00,000 citizens. Normalcy returned after 28 months on August 22, 1988 when GNLF, the Bengal government and the Centre signed a pact on the formation of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. But reason and peace deserted Darjeeling for good. Parties that opposed him tooth and nail now uphold his controversial views on the statehood demand and the 1950 India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which, he claimed, dilutes the identity of Nepali-speaking Indians.
Like most Nepalis, Ghisingh loved and revered Darjeeling as “a war medal won by his brave forefathers.” This maybe because of the fact Darjeeling, like Garhwal, Kumaon and Kangra, was part of Nepal till the 1814-16 Anglo-Gorkha War. But he could never live in his beloved Gurkhathum (Gorkha bastion, another name for Darjeeling occasionally used by the British) after his former protege and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief, Bimal Gurung resumed the Gorkhaland agitation in the spring of 2007. He lived in forced exile in the plains for years and could not even take his wife, Dhanmaya, to Darjeeling, for her last rites.
Born into a family of tea garden workers at Manju near the Nepal border on June 22, 1936, Ghisingh was an accomplished novelist and painter.
New Delhi: AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal has decided to move the High Court after the Assembly polls challenging the Election Commission’s order directing him to desist from commenting on the issue of BJP and Congress allegedly distributing money to voters.
“We will move the High Court against the Election Commission after the election. But, at the moment, we will fully respect the EC order,” an AAP spokesperson said.
Taking “serious note” of Kejriwal’s repeated remarks asking voters to accept bribe from Congress and BJP but vote for his party, the Election Commission had on Tuesday directed him to desist from making such comments in future and warned of stern action in case of any violation.
A senior AAP functionary said the party will approach the HC because it believes his comments “were in the same spirit of the crusade against corruption waged by the party”.
Following the warning by the Election Commission, the AAP leader has stopped making controversial comments at his poll rallies.
The EC order had come in response to separate complaints made by BJP and Congress against the AAP Convener.
The commission had said the model code envisages that parties and candidates participating in the electoral process shall “avoid scrupulously all activities which are corrupt practices and offences under the election law, such as bribing of voters….”
It had on on January 23 censured Kejriwal for alleging that BJP incited communal violence in Delhi.
New Delhi: With an aim to encourage people to vote in February 7 Delhi polls, the Election Commission will carry out an awareness campaign targeting commuters in Metro stations and buses of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).
Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)’s office will launch a campaign at all DMRC stations and trains as well as DTC’s buses across the national capital on Saturday.
“In Metro and DTC buses, lakhs of people travel daily and this is one of the best modes to reach out to voters. At Metro stations, an appeal will be made to people through public announcement system to cast their voters.”
“Besides, we will also encourage passengers travelling in trains by displaying ‘Delhi Votes’ on LCD screens installed inside the Metro,” CEO Chandra Bhushan Kumar told a news agency.
Apart from DMRC stations and trains, a campaign will also be run in DTC buses, aiming at increasing voter turnout, he said.
“We will also appeal to people travelling in DTC buses by displaying ‘Delhi Votes’ on LCD screens installed inside the buses,” Bhushan also said.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Delhi had recorded around 64 percent polling in the battle for seven seats while in the 2013 Assembly poll, the national capital had recorded over 66 percent voting.
In the capital, over 1.33 crore voters are eligible to exercises their franchise in the February 7 election while a total of 11,763 polling stations will be set up for the exercise.
The Delhi CEO office has also roped in wrestler Sushil Kumar to encourage people, especially youths, to cast their votes in the upcoming Assembly Election.
According to the Commission, around one lakh government employees will be involved in the conduct of the poll.
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party Friday took a swipe at the BJP for its newspaper advertisement, in which Anna Hazare’s cartoon has been shown with a garland, prompting AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal to cheekily ask whether the saffron party had “killed” the veteran anti-corruption crusader.
In a series of tweets today, AAP chief Kejriwal said, “Nathuram Godse killed Gandhiji on this day in 1948. BJP has killed Anna in its ad today. Shudn’t BJP apologise?”
In the advertisement, BJP has also shown Kejriwal’s cartoon in which he is promising not to take support from Congress, but he has been shown to have done “marriage” with Congress.
In another tweet, Kejriwal asked his supporters to be vigilant, saying ‘To all AAP volunteers n supporters. Evil forces will try to divert ur (your) attention. But pl (please) stay focused on positive agenda for Delhi.”
“AAP is forming govt in Delhi. Get ready to serve Delhi and to make it safe for women,” Kejriwal said in another tweet.
Again he tweeted, “I will always pray for well being and good health of Annaji”.
New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will on Saturday release its manifesto for the Delhi Assembly Elections, a week before polling begins in the city.
The manifesto is expected to focus on the party`s agenda for ensuring development, women`s safety and water and electricity supply across the city.
Earlier on Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced that it will eschew a manifesto for the Delhi polls and will instead come up with a `vision document`.
The party also announced that it would ask Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal five questions everyday till February 6, provoking a strong reaction from AAP leaders.
Delhi goes to polls on February 7, with counting of votes set to take place on February 10.
Naomi Campbell has revealed that if she had to choose, she’d be a supermodel all over again rather than one of the industry’s new “Instagirls”.
The new generation of models – including Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss, Jourdan Dunn, Joan Smalls, Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner – have carved their careers in a new way, securing campaigns thanks, at least in part, to their massive social-media followings. But Campbell is glad she did things the old-fashioned way.
“It’s amazing,” Campbell told The Meredith Viera Show. “I mean, good luck to them. I just feel my generation of women, like Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Claudia (Schiffer), we had to earn our stripes and take our stepping stones to get to where we have gotten; to accomplish what we have achieved to this date. I kind of feel like, ‘My God, we’ve worked so hard and we are still working at it – then it just comes like that for them.’ But I sometimes believe easy come, easy go. So I am actually grateful for the way I had my career. I wouldn’t want it any other way. So that’s for them, this is me.”
The Screen Actors Guild Awards are like the Gettysburg Address of award shows—they’re a show of the actors, by the actors, for the actors.
So unless Jennifer Lawrence‘s dress looks like it’s ripping, that often doesn’t make for the most scintillating of entertainments for the non-voters watching at home.
But there were a handful of moments surrounding the 21st Annual SAG Awards last night that got our engines revved, for varying reasons. Here’s what stood out among yet more wins for Downton Abbey and Julianne Moore:
Birdman Out-Soars Boyhood: We have ourselves a real, honest-to-good Best Picture Oscar race now. Boyhood won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, Drama, often a clue of things to come on Oscar night; but combined with Saturday’s big win at the Producers Guild of America Awards, Birdman‘s upset win for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture at the SAGs gives the Alejandro González Iñárritu film all the momentum heading into the Academy Awards on Feb. 22. Minus, of course, the outcome of the DGA Awards on Feb. 7, though last year’s winner (Alfonso Cuarón) didn’t direct the ultimate Best Picture Oscar winner (12 Years a Slave). Hey, with Patricia Arquette, J.K. Simmons and Julianne Moore pretty much all locks, we’ll take the suspense where we can get it.
2. Emma Stone’s Face Says It All: If Naomi Watts hadn’t almost face-planted by tripping over Emma’s skirt during the Birdman cast’s group acceptance speech, the show would not have ended on such a literal high note.
3. An Even More Modern Family: The Modern Family reign is over. First-time ensemble nominee Orange Is the New Black toppled the previously unbeatable ABC sitcom in the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a TV Comedy, ending the Fam‘s four-year winning streak. Uzo Aduba added to the evening’s Netflix tallyy (House of Cards star Kevin Spacey was also a winner, but surprisingly was not there to chew his share of the scenery), topping the likes of Edie Falco and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, er, Actor. The statues are called Actors, remember?
4. Postcard From the Edge: Oh, these two. Even for those too young to really know about the history of animosity, rivalry, begrudging admiration and presumably fiercely protective love between Debbie Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher, the history of…something…was palpable. “Actually, she has been more than a mother to me,” Fisher started the roast, er, tribute. “Not much, but definitely more.” And the 82-year-old Reynolds zinged right back. Referencing the “big ugly bun” she wore in Singin’ in the Rain, she recalled an anecdote in which she told her daughter, who had just been cast in Star Wars at the time, to “‘be careful of any weird hairdos.’ So luckily George [Lucas] gave her two buns.”
5. She Said Shoes!: Sorry, other outlets who immediately speculated that Keira Knightley let slip the sex of her unborn child by telling E!’s Maria Menounoson Live From the Red Carpet that “she’s sitting high.” As in the stereotype that female babies ride higher on a woman’s body while in the womb. Alas, that’s not what Keira said. What the expectant Imitation Game star actually told Maria was “The shoes are quite high, they might come off later,” in reference to her footwear.
Los Angeles: Indian-origin Hollywood actress Freida Pinto-starrer ‘Desert Dancer’ has unveiled its first trailer.
The trailer sees Pinto, 30, and her friends practicing choreographed dance moves in suppressed society and risking their lives, reported Ace Showbiz.
The movie centers on a real-life dancer Afshin Ghaffarian (played by Reece Ritchie). The video first shows him as a kid who gets punished at school for dancing in class. Afshin’s passion, however, does not die. He learns dancing from videos of Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev, and later creates his own dance company alongside some friends, including Pinto’s Elaheh.
Directed by Richard Raymond, the movie kicks off the opening night of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival at the Arlington Theatre.
Also starring Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Cullen and Marmama Corlett, the film will open in select theatres in the US on April 10 before going wide on April 17.
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