FP morning brief 4/27

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bashir dominates in Sudan vote as stage is set for North-South split

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Top news: Sudan's incumbent president, Omar al-Bashir, won Sudan's first presidential election since 1986 in a landslide, according to official results released yesterday. Bashir, who has been charged with crimes against humanity in the country's Darfur region by the International Criminal Court, took 68 percent of the vote amid charges of voter intimidation, ballot-stuffing and gerrymandering.

In semiautonomous South Sudan's own presidential election, incumbent Salva Kiir also triumphed, taking 93 percent of the vote. South Sudan is expected to secede from the north next year. Two long civil wars between North and South Sudan left more than 2 million people dead.

A referendum on independence will be held next January, but the process is likely to be messy and possibly bloody. 82 to 95 percent of Sudan's oil -- the lifeblood of the Bashir regime -- lies in South Sudan, much of it along the unresolved border between the two halves.

Finance: Top Goldman Sachs executives, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, testify before a Senate panel today to defend their practices in the run-up to the U.S. housing crisis.

Asia and Pacific The United States has shut down its mission in Kandahar ahead of a planned military offensive. Kyrgyzstan's interim government charged former leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev with "mass killing" in the bloody uprising that led to his ouster. Australia's government has shelved plans for an ambitious emissions trading scheme until at least 2013. Middle East A mortar attack on a security station in North Baghdad killed two Iraqi soldiers. An Iraqi judicial panel threw out the candidacies of 52 substitute candidates from March's parliamentary elections. Two senior Israeli officers were reprimanded for a shooting incident in the West Bank that left four Palestinians dead last month. Americas Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega has been extradited to France where he will face money laundering charges. Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned Arizona's harsh new immigration law, saying it "opens the door to intolerance and hatred." Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rejected a U.S. report that alleges that Iran's Revolutionary Guard has a presence in his country. Europe Ukraine's government faced protests and brawling in parliament over a decision to allow Russia to extend its lease on a naval base in the Crimea. The king of Belgium accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme after his governing coalition fell apart last week. Former Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of late President Lech Kaczynski, is running for the presidency. Africa Kenya has angered the United Arab Emirates by expelling members of its royal family as terror suspects. The chairman of Nigeria's governing party has been charged with fraud. The International Criminal Court rejected a new prosecution attempt to put former Darfur rebel leader Bahar Idriss Abu Garda on trial.   -By Joshua Keating

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