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ECONOMIST Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:03:13 GMT
Rahul in fly-blown corner THE famous speaker draws a hefty crowd, but little enthusiasm. Farmers and residents of Gorakhpur, a scruffy, fast-growing market town in eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP), have waited for hours in a wintry wind to hear him, weather-beaten old men huddling for warmth at the front. “I have no expectation,” says one of these. “I’ve only come to see.”Rahul Gandhi’s stump speech (brief and earnest) earns few cheers. The heir both to the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty and the ruling Congress Party pledges a state government for UP of all castes and tribes. Rolling up his sleeves and jabbing a finger in the air, he talks of fighting corruption. He gets a single chuckle by telling of an elephant that chomps government money meant for the poor—a blunt reference to Mayawati, the charismatic teacher-turned-chief minister, whose wealth has attracted as-yet unproven accusations of massive graft.It is hard-going for any politician in this fly-blown corner notorious for organised......
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ECONOMIST Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:03:13 GMT
They went quietly in the end A BUNGLED mutiny in Papua New Guinea was brought to an end on January 30th when 30 soldiers surrendered their weapons in exchange for an amnesty. Days earlier a larger group of rebels had seized control of barracks in the capital, Port Moresby, and briefly held the Commander of the PNG Defence Force, Brigadier-General Francis Agwi, under house arrest. They then retreated after failing to obtain broader support from senior officers. The rebels’ leader, Colonel Yaura Sasa, was arrested on January 28th, vehemently denying that he was responsible for a failed coup. He claimed instead to have been following government orders. He has since been released on bail.The question is who the government is. A Supreme Court ruling in December declared the government of the incumbent prime minister, Peter O’Neill, to be illegal and ordered the restoration of his predecessor, a 75-year-old veteran, Sir Michael Somare. The judges opined that Sir Michael’s removal in....
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GUARDIAN Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:41:27 GMT
Search teams battle rough seas and strong winds in search for further survivors of Rabaul Queen sinking
A day after rescuing nearly 250 survivors from a ferry that sank off Papua New Guinea's east coast, rescue teams searching for more than 110 others have so far been unsuccessful.
Many of the people missing are thought to be still be on board the vessel, which now lies at the bottom of the sea.
The MV Rabaul Queen sank on Thursday and large waves and strong winds continued to hamper rescue efforts. However, the rescue co-ordinator for Papua New Guinea's National Maritime Safety Authority, Captain Nurur Rahman, said he had not given up hope of finding more survivors.
The ferry was hit by three big waves before sinking. A survivor recovering in hospital, Alice Kakamara, said: "The sea was really rough, windy, big waves. The boat tilted once, then twice, then three times and it went over. There was oil everywhere."
The ferry's owners, Papua New Guinea-based Rabaul Shipping.......
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