QUOTE OF THE DAY
“All the politicians and provincial officials, whether Sunni or Shiite, are nothing but thieves and liars,”
Ali Farhan, a 35-year-old taxi driver in eastern Baghdad, explaining why he didn’t vote in Iraq’s Saturday elections Article, 9A
Electioneering kicks off in Malaysia
Campaigning in Malaysia’s general election got under way Saturday with Prime Minister Najib Razak’s coalition battling to extend its 55-year rule and the opposition pledging to stamp out graft and cut living costs.
“This is one of the closest elections ever in Malaysia’s history,” said Albert Leung, a Hong Kong-based fixed-income strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Candidates submitted nomination papers in their home constituencies Saturday morning for the May 5 poll, with Najib returning to Pekan, Pahang, for a campaign march. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is running in Penang.
Najib, facing the electorate for the first time as leader after taking over midterm four years ago, wants his own mandate to complete government and economic transformation programs started three years ago.
“The opposition has managed to get its act together and since 2008 has become a formidable rival,” said Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Will honor U.N. nuke pact, Iran insists
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the country is a committed signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and will continue cooperating with the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency.
Five major powers on Friday labeled Iran and North Korea as “serious challenges” to the world’s nuclear security, saying they have ignored U.N. sanctions. They cited Iran’s “continued pursuit of certain nuclear activities” as among the biggest threats to the treaty, the world’s most important pact on preventing the spread of nuclear arms.
In response, the semiofficial ISNA news agency on Saturday quoted Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying that Iran is “loyal” to its commitments under the treaty and will continue working with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Morsi ignored abuse report, panel says
CAIRO - Some members of a high-level commission that issued a report detailing security abuses and atrocities during and after Egypt’s 2011 uprising accused President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday of ignoring their findings.
The fact-finding commission, composed of judges, security officers, rights lawyers and families of victims, was formed last year by Morsi to investigate rights violations that took place from the beginning of the revolt that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak until the end of the nearly 17 months of military rule that followed.
The commission said its final 700-page report was presented to Morsi about three months ago.
However, an official in the president’s office said Morsi’s office never received the report and had instructed the commission to submit its findings directly to the state prosecutor’s office.
The rights group We Are After You for the Report, which includes some members of the investigative commission as well as rights advocates, said Morsi had failed to disclose the commission’s findings.
The group said the fact-finding commission’s recommendations could have placed Egypt on the right track to shift key institutions away from autocracy and impunity. The group noted that the fact-finding commission had proposed a draft transitional justice law.
Serbia plan spurs urgent Kosovo meeting
PRISTINA, Kosovo - Kosovo’s parliament will convene for an urgent session to back a potentially historic deal with Serbia brokered by the European Union, the prime minister said Saturday.
Hashim Thaci appealed to the 120-seat legislature to “make the right decision” and support an effort to normalize relations with Serbia. The session has been called for this evening.
Blerim Shala, a Kosovo negotiator, said by phone Saturday the draft agreement needs only formal approval by the assembly.
Shala said a formal agreement that could be signed next week would need to be ratified by parliament because it will contain an implementation plan. Serbia’s parliament also needs to ratify any final agreement.
Friday’s deal, announced in Brussels, came after months of tense negotiations between Thaci and Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic.
The agreement would allow Serbs to police and manage the north of Kosovo, which is inhabited predominantly by ethnic Serbs, in exchange for nominal recognition of the authority of the Kosovo government. It also calls for the two sides not to obstruct one another as they seek membership in the EU.
Front Section, Pages 10 on 04/21/2013