Brazilian presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff of the ruling Workers’s Party (PT) is leading in the polls widely as the first round of presidential elections is coming on Oct. 3.
According to the latest survey released Friday by the Ibope institute, Rousseff was supported by 50 percent of the voters polled, 22 percentage points more than those of Jose Serra from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB).
The Green Party (PV)’s presidential candidate Marina Silva ranked third, with the support of 12 percent of the voters polled.
Such a large leading gap in the survey is likely to help Rousseff become the first female president in the history of Brazil.
Rousseff left the Democratic Workers Party in 2000 and joined President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Workers Party. She served for two years as the nation’s energy minister after Lula took office in 2003 and then became his chief of staff.
Rousseff was personally chosen by Lula as the candidate of the ruling party.
The elections this year are the first in two decades in which the incumbent Brazilian leader is not running, since he has served two consecutive terms, the maximum period allowed under Brazilia’s law.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel could announce by the end of the week whether he’s leaving the job, U.S. media reported Monday night, some quoting sources as saying he’s leaving.
White House officials are reported to be preparing for Emanuel’s announcement to take place Friday, as the Congress adjourns for recess. CNN and ABC both say he’s all but certain to leave his job in Washington to run for mayor of Chicago, while NBC and Fox news said no final decision has been made, but announcement is imminent.
There’s no secret that the Chicago-born Emanuel, who was a U.S. Representative from Illinois before he became White House chief of staff, covets the Chicago mayorship. The current mayor, Richard Daley, announced he’s not running for reelection in 2011. His term ends May 16 next year.
If he quits his White House job, Emanuel may return to Chicago to announce his decision to run, CNN quoted a Democratic source as saying. It also said longtime Obama adviser Pete Rouse may be tapped as interim chief of staff.
There’s no official confirmation at the moment, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier in the day that Emanuel was “in the process of thinking about what he’s going to do next.”
a xenophobia. How will you eat yours?
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday started a three-day visit to China. This is Medvedev’s second state visit to the country since he assumed presidency in May 2008.
Following is a brief introduction to the Russian president:
Medvedev was born on Sept. 14, 1965, in Russia’s second largest city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). He graduated from the law faculty of Leningrad State University in 1987 and completed his post-graduate studies in 1990. He holds a PhD in law.
From 1990 to 1999, Medvedev was an associate professor of civil law at the law faculty of Leningrad State University, and he also served as advisor to the Chairman of the Leningrad City Council and expert consultant to the St. Petersburg City Hall’s Committee for External Affairs.
In 1999, Medvedev was appointed deputy head of government administration. From 2000 to 2005, he was appointed deputy head, first deputy head and then head of the presidential administration.
In November 2005, Medvedev was appointed first deputy prime minister.
Medvedev was elected President of Russia in March 2008, and took office on May 7.
He paid a state visit to China in May 2008.
A Pakistan International Airlines plane has left Sweden and a suspect was released after no explosives were found on board on Saturday, police said.
The jetliner, a Boeing 777, was on its way from Canada to Pakistan with 273 people on board. It made a unscheduled landing earlier on Saturday at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport after police were alerted by a phone call by an anonymous woman that a man on the plane may have an explosive device with himself.
Swedish police evacuated all people from the plane and detained a passenger on suspicion of taking an explosive device on board.
However, no explosives were found on the man or on the plane. All passengers, except the suspect, were allowed back on the plane.
And the plane took off for Manchester, England, from where the passengers would continue their journey to Karachi, Pakistan, said Jan Lindqvist, a spokesman for airport operator Swedavia.
Half an hour later after the plane left, a 28-year-old Canadian citizen has also been released by the prosecutor’s office.
“The suspicions against the man were not sufficiently strong for an arrest order and he is therefore free to leave Sweden,” the office said in a statement.
Stockholm district police spokesman Ulf Lindgren said the man would get help with the practical details of how to reach his planned destination.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it was investigating whether the incident was a hoax, according to reports reaching here from Canada.
Round- the-clock curfew is in place Friday across most towns of Indian- controlled Kashmir, including capital city Srinagar, for the 13th straight day to stop anti-India protests and cut the influence of separatists, police said.
Thousands of policemen and India’s paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in full-riot gear have been deployed along the streets and roads of towns to enforce restrictions. These men have laid barricades and concertina on roads and intersections to restrict civilian movement.
Though authorities have been giving relaxations of few hours in strict curfew for the past four days, however, curfew has not be completely lifted from any of the towns.
“Until now situation across the region is by and large peaceful. We are relaxing the curfew to allow people to purchase essentials and help bringing the normalcy. Once situation improves completely, we will lift the curfew,” said a government official in Srinagar.
Authorities have imposed strict curfew to counter the writ of separatists, who had initiated a “Quit India movement” and were controlling the region’s life through their protest calendars issued on weekly basis.
The strict curfew has however, sabotaged the separatist plans.
“During the past three we saw separatist were calling shots through their protest calendars. When they called for a strike, it practically halted the life and their call for a normal day used to see markets opening and life resuming. But now by imposing the strict curfew, authorities are trying to impose their writ,” said Showkat Ali, a Srinagar based political analyst.
In the curfew bound areas locals have been complaining of dearth of eatables and medicines.
Police said the restrictions were imposed to contain anti- Indian protests and violence that resulted in killings of people mostly teenagers and young men. In the past more than three-and-a- half months unrest 109 people were killed in police and paramilitary action.
The sixth ASEAN People’s Forum (APF) opened here on Friday, drawing over 700 representatives from friendship organizations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.
In his opening speech, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said he expected representatives at the forum to have fruitful discussions to give recommendations to ASEAN governments as well as to figure out practical measures to enhance ties and coordination among ASEAN people.
The forum will help promote mutual understanding and friendly cooperation between Vietnam friendship organizations and other friendship organizations in the Southeast Asian region as well as in the world, said Nhan.
Vu Xuan Hong, President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations said at the opening ceremony that increasing solidarity and cooperative relations between friendship organizations in the Southeast Asian region is of great importance.
Vienam expected through the forum, ASEAN friendship organizations can closely cooperate with each other and further contribute to promote peace, equal and sustainable development, democracy and social progress in the region, said Hong.
According to the schedule of the three-day forum, representatives will discuss a variety of topics including integration, economic and trade cooperation, agriculture and rural development, climate change, natural resources, as well as the development of children, women and the handicapped.
Torrential rains in the northern Indian state Uttarakhand have cut off large parts of the Himalayan state and as many as 3,000 Hindu pilgrims have been stranded here because of floods, said local officials.
Apart from these, hundreds of pilgrims are also stuck along the Bedi-Kedarnath and Gangotri-Yamunotri routes of the hilly state, which has reported at least 80 deaths due to flood, cloudbursts and landslides over the past one week.
According to state government officials, the pilgrims do not have enough food or drinking water and most of them are forced to sleep by the roadside.
Getting out of the state of Uttarakhand is very difficult for these pilgrims as around 1,500 major and minor roads have been severely damaged.
Relief teams have been deployed by the district administration. However, some of the pilgrims are beyond the reach of the relief team.
“Many tourists are stranded but they would soon be rescued,” District Magistrate Hemlata said here.
The central government has provided four helicopters for transportation of tourists but they are now used exclusively for transporting relief material only.
Parliamentarians from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) called for an enhanced role and position of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) here on Friday.
The call was made at the closing ceremony of the 31st AIPA General Assembly held here Friday. The meeting drew parliamentarians or representatives from ASEAN members and AIPA observers.
The parliamentarians agreed that AIPA should continue enhancing the effectiveness of its activities to contribute actively to the development of the ASEAN Community by 2015, said Vietnamese Chairman of National Assembly Nguyen Phu Trong, Chair of the 31st AIPA here on Friday at a press briefing.
Parliamentarians held that rapid and diverse developments of the region and the world, and impacts of the global financial crisis require countries in the region to intensify cooperation for continued growth.
They agreed that solidarity was the foundation for shared sustainable development and serves as a key element in building an ASEAN Community of peace and prosperity of the people and for the people, said Trong.
Under the theme of “Solidarity for sustainable development of the ASEAN Community”, ASEAN legislators discussed a wide range of regional and international issues during this AIPA meeting.
They adopted 22 resolutions regarding politics, security, economic cooperation, culture, society, activities of women parliamentarians and organizational matters of AIPA, according to Trong.
The lawmakers stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation between ASEAN and AIPA, he said.
Around 100 stray dogs have been rounded up from the Commonwealth Games Village and other Games venues in the Indian capital by the city’s civic authority in coordination with an NGO, reported the Indo-Asian News Service Friday.
The stray dogs were having a free run of the Village and other areas, raising concerns among participating countries.
They were rounded up by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Friendicoes SECA (Society for the Eradication of Cruelty to Animals) and temporarily relocated to a dog sterilization center, said the report.
The Commonwealth Games Federation and some participating countries have severely criticized organizers for failing to present a standard games village, where they said the conditions are “filthy” and sanitary situation “unimaginable.”
Apparently appalled by reports of bad conditions at the village and security problems, a number of star athletes of Commonwealth countries have pulled out of the games, which are due to be held from Oct. 3 to 14.
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September 28, 2010 9:13 am | 
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