QUOTE OF THE DAY “Of course we have to comply.This is our
history to comply with every treaty we sign.” Syrian President Bashar Assad, on the United Nations resolution calling for the country’s chemical-weapons stockpile to be destroyed Article, 1ASudanese protest;
officials offer cash
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Thousands of Sudanese protesters took to the streets of the capital, Khartoum, late Sunday, chanting “freedom” and renewing calls for their longtime autocratic president to resign after dozens of protesters were killed in a week of demonstrations sparked by austerity measures.
The government, which has imposed a media blackout, moved to appease the rancor with cash, saying it would distribute money to half a million families to offset higher fuel and food prices.
The street demonstrations, which began after subsidies were lifted last week, have been the most widespread in Sudan since Omar al-Bashir seized power 24 years ago.
Waving pictures of slain protesters, thousands held a memorial for Salah al-Sanhouri, a demonstrator shot Friday during a protest in Burri, an old Khartoum district.
In a latest blow to freedom of the press, Sudanese authorities Sunday forced the country’s largest daily newspaper, Al-Intibaha, to stop printing, according to the paper’s website. Several dailies also reported coming under pressure to depict demonstrators as “saboteurs.”
Berlusconi shift
in strategy seen
ROME - Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi appeared to backpedal on Sunday in his strategy aimed at collapsing Italy’s fragile coalition government and triggering early elections, after some key supporters chafed at his order to quit the Cabinet.
Berlusconi had demanded those resignations in a show of solidarity ahead of a Senate vote to strip him of his seat because of his tax-fraud conviction and prison sentence.
But at least three of his five ministers in Premier Enrico Letta’s government, where Berlusconi’s Freedom People party is the main partner, said they would only reluctantly comply with that order because Berlusconi had picked them for their ministry posts.
The three ministers indicated they might help Letta survive the confidence vote he has called for Parliament to determine if the 5-month-old government can survive.
“I thoroughly understand his [Berlusconi’s] state of mind, but I cannot justify or share the strategy” that the ministers quit, said Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin.
Rightist party gains at polls in Austria
VIENNA - Hundreds of thousands of Austrians voted Sunday for a rightist opposition party championing anti-immigrant and European Union skeptic views, leaving the government barely holding on to the absolute majority it needs to stay in power for the next five years.
With all votes counted except for ballots cast by mail in the parliamentary elections, the governing Socialist Party had 27.1 percent backing and its centrist People’s Party partner 23.8 percent - a loss of more than 2 percentage points each and the worst result ever for their coalition, which has governed with few interruptions since the end of World War II.
Although the results gave the two parties nearly 51 percent of all votes cast Sunday, the real winner in terms of gains was the rightist Freedom Party. With 21.4 percent, its showing was nearly 4 percentage points better than at the last general elections.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/30/2013