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January 18, 2010
011810.01
Yushchenko Apparently Loses Ukrainian Presidency
Peter Fedynsky, Kyiv
An exit poll conducted by Kyiv's Razumkov Center shows Viktor
Yanukovych, who was accused of rigging the 2004 election, has
garnered more than 31 percent of the vote. Yulia Tymoshenko, the
current head of government, has more than 27 percent, a bit higher
than expected. Incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko is running
behind businessman Serhiy Tihipko and newcomer Arseniy Yatseniuk
with six percent.
After casting his ballot, President
Yushchenko, whose pre-election support
numbered in the single digits, pronounced
the election a success.
Mr. Yushchenko says he has no doubt this
election will once again demonstrate
Billboards for presidential
candidate Viktor Yushchenko
are seen as people wait at a
bus stop in Kiev, 13 Jan 2010
Ukraine is a democratic European country;
a free nation with free people and where
free elections are ensured.
Elections officials say about a million people, roughly three percent of
the electorate, cast their votes at home because they could not come to
polls for health reasons.
Early reports do not indicate systemic vote fraud. There are however,
numerous accounts of minor infractions in some polling stations - food
handed out as bribes, campaign material displayed after Friday's
midnight deadline to remove it, ballot shortages, electric blackouts, cell
phone pictures taken of ballots or residents of an entire building being
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left off of a voter list.
The Central Election Commission authorized about 3,000 international
observers from North America, Europe and former Soviet republics.
The Commission made no decision about 2,000 Georgians accused by
Viktor Yanukovych of seeking to disrupt the vote in his eastern
Ukrainian stronghold on behalf of rival Yulia Tymoshenko. Tbilisi says
its citizens came as neutral observers.
The legitimacy of the Election Commission itself could face a challenge
after one of its members reached the mandatory retirement age of 65.
This tips the 15-member group's political balance and could be a factor
in case of any post-election disputes.
The election included Ukrainian citizens abroad, with those in Australia
and the Russian Far East being the first to cast ballots. The last,
Ukrainians in California who are 10 times zones west of Ukraine.
Official results are not expected until January 27. But if exit polls hold
up, Viktor Yanukovych will face Yulia Tymoshenko in a runoff February
7. Analysts are predicting both candidates will mount more intense
campaigns than they ran in the first round.
011810.02
US Announces $100 Million Aid Package for Haiti
Meredith Buel, Washington
Speaking at the White House, President Obama says the emergency
relief effort is one of the largest in recent history and represents a
moment that calls out for American leadership.
Mr. Obama told key members of his national security team that Haiti
must be a top priority for the U.S. government.
The president says the $100 million in additional aid will mean more
life-saving equipment, food, water and medicine will be sent to the
devastated nation.
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VOA News
While Mr. Obama sought to reassure the
Haitian people that a huge humanitarian
effort is on the way, he conceded it will
take time to get all of the assets in place.
"Even as we move as quickly as possible,
it will take hours - and in many cases
President Barack Obama makes
a statement about the
earthquake in Haiti, 14 Jan 2010
days - to get all of our people and
resources on the ground," said President
Obama. "Right now in Haiti roads are
impassable, the main port is badly damaged, communications are just
beginning to come online, and aftershocks continue."
The United States is sending 3,500 soldiers and hundreds of medical
personnel to help with the disaster relief and security.
The Pentagon is also sending an aircraft carrier and amphibious ships,
including one that can carry 2,000 Marines. The Navy is also sending
the floating hospital ship Comfort, which is manned by hundreds of
doctors, nurses and medical technicians.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking on NBC's Today show,
says the Obama administration is committed to providing assistance to
Haiti now and in the future.
"This is going to be a long-term effort," she said. "We have the
immediate crisis of trying to save those lives that can be saved, to deal
with the injured and the dead, to try to provide food, water, medical
supplies, some semblance of shelter, and then to work with our Haitian
partners, the Government of Haiti, NGOs, others to begin the
rebuilding process."
The U.S. emergency response is being coordinated by the
administrator for the Agency for International Development, Rajiv
Shah. He says opening the airport in Port-au-Prince will rapidly
accelerate the delivery of aid.
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""We have more than 250 American relief workers actively engaged
that have been just a part of the recent deployment," he said. "That
number is increasing significantly as we speak as planes land at the
airport that has now been operationalized as a 24/7 airlift operation."
Shah says there are more than eight search and rescue teams actively
working to find people buried in the rubble. He says officials are now
activating a network of medical providers to offer trauma care and
services to the Haitian population.
Shah says critically needed commodities such as food, water and tarps
for shelter will soon arrive in Port-au-Prince.
Officials estimate as many as three million people, about a third of
Haiti's population, may have been affected by the quake.
011810.03
UN Chief Arrives in Haiti
Margaret Besheer, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Mr. Ban said he is going to Haiti with a "very heavy heart." "The
damage, the destruction, the loss of life, are just overwhelming.
Therefore, we need unprecedented international support to Haitian
people," he said.
The U.N. chief spoke to reporters aboard
his flight from New York. The plane carried
several of his senior advisors as well as
U.N. staff and aid supplies.
Mr. Ban says the United Nations has three
priorities now in Haiti.
A UN soldier patrols where
earthquake survivors line up
for food distributed by the UN
near Cite Soleil in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 16 Jan
2010
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"First, to save lives - as many lives as
possible. We are running against time.
This is already it the 4th day, but there is
hope that we can and we may save some
VOA News
more lives," he said.
The organization also hopes to provide urgently needed humanitarian
assistance, including tents, water, medical supplies and other services.
Mr. Ban said food distribution is improving and the U.N. is now feeding
at least 40,000 people a day.
The other U.N. priority is to coordinate the large outpouring of
international assistance.
"We should not waste even a single item, a single dollar," he added.
The Red Cross and the United Nations estimate more than 40,000
people have died as a result of the earthquake. Among them, more
than 40 U.N. peacekeeping and civilian staff members. Mr. Ban said for
the United Nations this is the "gravest and greatest single loss" to the
organization.
He said the organization has lost many "dear colleagues" including the
head of the Haiti mission, Hedi Annabi, a nearly 30-year veteran of the
United Nations and his deputy, Luis Carlos da Costa.
"There are many more, I fear, colleagues whose fates, we have to
prepare for the worst. But the United Nations will carry on," he said.
Mr. Ban plans to meet with President Rene Preval, U.N. staff and local
earthquake victims. He said he wants to assess first hand the extent of
the damage and humanitarian need.
011810.04
Red Cross Appeals For $100 Million For Haiti
Lisa Schlein, Geneva
The International Red Cross Federation says its most immediate
concern is to get lifesaving emergency aid to hundreds of thousands of
survivors of Haiti's catastrophic earthquake.
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But Red Cross spokesman, Matthew
Cochrane, tells VOA, the needs of people go
beyond the immediate emergency response
and that is what its $100 million appeal is
meant to address.
"Lives have been absolutely destroyed.
Earthquake survivors carry
buckets of water from a
water distribution truck in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 15 Jan
2010
Houses have been destroyed. Community
infrastructure has been absolutely
destroyed and we are very much committed
to being involved in the rebuilding of Haiti
once the relief operation winds down in six
to nine months," he said.
Cochrane says the Red Cross is making progress in getting together all
the elements needed to scale up its humanitarian operation. In the past
couple of days, he says two planes carrying 22 tons of aid landed in the
Haitian capital, Port au Prince.
He says a convoy of aid supplies, including a 50-bed field hospital, and
disaster experts arrived overland from the Dominican Republic.
He says the earthquake victims are in desperate need of food, water,
medical assistance and shelter. In the coming weeks, he says the Red
Cross will concentrate much of its effort on providing clean water. He
says this is crucial to reduce the risk of waterborne and water-related
diseases.
"Dysentery, diarrheal diseases. These were threats that were probably
with the Haitians even before the earthquake," he said. "Now that this
damage, that last bit of infrastructure, that last bit of social support,
there are huge concerns that we will see outbreaks of entirely treatable
and preventable, but nevertheless, very deadly illnesses. And, so that
has to be a focus," he said.
Up to now, international aid operations have been centered on the
capital, Port-au-Prince. But, little attention has been given to the
outlying areas because of the difficulty of reaching them.
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VOA News
Cochrane says the Red Cross has some preliminary assessments of the
severity of the damage caused by the earthquake in three places. He
says aid workers report between 80-90 percent of the town of Leogane
has been destroyed.
In Gressier, up to 50 percent of the town has been destroyed and in
Carrefour, he says there are reports of people still being trapped in
collapsed buildings.
011810.05
Pope's Planned Synagogue Visit Splits Jews
Sabina Castelfranco, Rome
Pope Benedict's planned visit to Rome's main Jewish synagogue on
Sunday has sharply divided Jews. Some have been angered by his
efforts to push World War II Pope Pius XII toward sainthood.
Pope Benedict has visited Jewish synagogues
before, but never the one in Rome. His
predecessor, Pope John Paul II, became the
first pontiff to set foot in a synagogue when
he visited the one in Rome in 1986.
A number of Jewish leaders from around the
world have traveled to the Italian capital for
the German-born Pope's third visit to a Jewish
Pope Benedict XVI
delivers address to the
faithful, during the weekly
general audience in the
Paul VI hall at The Vatican
(File)
house of worship. He has already visited the
Jewish synagogues in Cologne, Germany, and
New York.
But some Jewish rabbis and Holocaust
survivors have decided to boycott this visit. They are upset that the
pope recently praised the heroic virtues of wartime Pope Pius XII,
moving him a step closer to sainthood. Many Jews believe Pope Pius
turned a blind eye to the persecution of Jews during the second world
war.
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The Vatican maintains that Pope Pius worked quietly behind the scenes
because direct interventions might have worsened the situation for
both Jews and Catholics in Europe.
Pope Benedict will pause in front of a plaque at the synagague honoring
the more than one thousand Roman Jews deported by the Nazis to
concentration camps. He will be greeted by the chief rabbi of Rome,
Riccardo Di Segni.
Some Holocaust survivors and their families have asked the Rome
Rabbi to convey to the Pope their displeasure for his efforts to elevate
Pius to sainthood.
However, some Roman citizens think Pope Benedict's visit to the
synagogue is the right thing to do.
One man says it is another sign that Pope Benedict is trying to foster
unity with all the other religions.
Some Jews are also upset at the Pope's decision last year to start the
rehabilitation process of a traditionalist British bishop who denied the
extent of the holocaust. But despite these setbacks, efforts at
furthering dialogue between the two religions are set to continue.
011810.06
Political Opponents in Guinea Nominate 2 for PM
Scott Stearns, Dakar
Guinea's opposition coalition of political parties, civil society groups,
and trade unions nominated civil society spokesman Jean-Marie Dore
and labor leader Hadja Rabiatou Sérah Diallo to be the new civilian
prime minister.
Dore says it was not an easy debate but coalition leaders eventually
agreed on the two candidates by consensus, and it will now be up to
acting leader General Sekouba Konate to choose who will be the prime
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VOA News
minister in a transitional government.
Diallo says the next prime minister must ensure the neutrality of the
vote to follow in six months time by not favoring any of Guinea's
political parties. That, she says, will bring about real democracy.
Everyone in the 101-member transitional authority and the current
ruling military council will be barred from running in June elections to
restore Guinea to constitutional rule 13 months after the military coup
that brought Captain Moussa Dadis Camara to power.
Captain Camara agreed to this transitional
authority following talks with General
Konate and regional mediator Burkinabe
President Blaise Compaore. As part of the
plan, Captain Camara will, for the time
being, remain in Burkina Faso where he is
recovering from being shot in the head
more than one month ago.
Guinean junta chief Captain
Camara signs pact on 15 Jan
2010 in Ouagadougou during
a meeting with interim junta
chief General Sekouba Konate
and Burkina Faso President
Blaise Compaore
He was shot by the former chief of the
presidential guard who says Captain
Camara was trying to blame him for the
killing of more than 157 opposition
protesters in September. A U.N. inquiry
into that violence says there are sufficient
grounds for presuming direct criminal responsibility by Captain Camara
for that killing.
The African Union says the deal for a transitional
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