Democracy pledge denounced as sham
Rangoon The surprise announcement by Burma’s military rulers that they will hold a vote on a new constitution this May and a general election in 2010 was criticised as a sham by Australia, Britain and Japan.
Critics of the junta said that the so-called road map to democracy was designed to perpetuate military rule, and the process has so far excluded Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained opposition leader, and other independent political voices.
Ethnic minority groups that have been seeking more administrative and judicial autonomy in their home areas. complained that the new guidelines gave the Government even greater powers. (AP)
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Tsvangirai to stand
Harare Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main faction of Zimbabwe’s opposition, said that he would stand for the presidency in next month’s general elections, quashing rumours that he would step aside for Simba Makoni, the former Finance Minister. (AFP)
Oil-drum murderer
Melbourne Frederick Boyle, 58, a British expatriate, was found guilty of killing his wife, Edwina, in 1983 and hiding her body in an oil drum at their house. Boyle had told his children that their mother had run off with another man.
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Protest dispersed
Madrid Four people were arrested when police dispersed a protest in Bilbao by several thousand supporters of Basque separatist parties banned because they are linked to Batasuna, the political wing of Eta, the armed Basque separatist group. (AP)
Poisonous gift
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Vienna Hannes Hirtzberger, 56, mayor of the Austrian market town of Spitz an der Donau, lay in an induced coma after eating a chocolate laced with strychnine left on his windscreen. A note with it said: “You are someone very special to me.” (AFP)