Some 99 percent of South Sudanese voted to secede from the north, according to the first complete results of the region’s independence referendum.
A total of 99.57 percent of those polled voted for independence, according to the referendum commission.
How much do rich governments really worry about feeding the world?
LIKE national defence, securing food supplies usually counts as a core task of government. Hence, as prices surge, food security is rising to the top of the political agenda. Or so it sounds.
On January 24th the British government’s chief scientific officer said that “the case for urgent action in the global food system is now compelling.” He was presenting a report from hundreds of scientists that concluded with “a stark warning for both current and future decision-makers on the consequences of inaction—food production and the food system must assume a much higher priority in political agendas across the world.” …
Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) leader Isa Mustafa says that Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci should be held responsible for manipulating more than 20,000 votes.
He points out that Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) received 20,000 more votes in municipalities of Srbica and Glogovac on January 9 than on December 12, 2010.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government has narrowly won a crucial parliamentary confidence vote, RFE/RL reports.
In the second and most dramatic vote, deputies cheered loudly as Berlusconi survived a no-confidence motion by three votes in the lower chamber (314-311), where the 74-year-old leader’s government no longer holds a secure majorit.
Voting is underway in Turkey in a referendum on constitutional reform. The government wants to make changes that will bring it closer to standards across the European Union.
Ethiopians are voting in the first election since a 2005 poll was marred by protests that led to the deaths of 200 people. Long queues of voters had formed at some polling stations in the capital, Addis Ababa, before polls opened.
In a near-unanimous vote on Thursday, Belgium’s lower house of parliament voted to ban the burqa. The move could make the country the first in Europe to outlaw the practice.
A unanimous vote condemns recent cyber-attacks on Google.cn and other tech companies in China and calls on the Chinese government to provide a full and transparent explanation.
– The December cyber-attacks against Google and a
number of other tech companies originating from within China
has earned the unanimous condemnation of the U.S. Senate. In a Feb. 3
resolution, the Senate called on the Chinese government to conduct a thorough
review of the cyber-attacks and make th…
A source in Washington just emailed the following:Today, the FDIC voted 3-2 to accept comments on a proposed rule to link FDIC insurance premiums to executive compensation practices. The two no votes were Comptroller John Dugan and OTS Chief John Bowm…
A source in Washington just emailed the following:Today, the FDIC voted 3-2 to accept comments on a proposed rule to link FDIC insurance premiums to executive compensation practices. The two no votes were Comptroller John Dugan and OTS Chief John Bowm…
Switzerland on Sunday voted to impose a blanket ban on the building of minarets across the country, backing an initiative by far-right politicians. A clear majority of 57.5 per cent of the population and 22 out of 26 cantons voted to ban the towers or turrets attached on mosques from where
Congressman Watt tried to de-rail the bill to audit the Federal Reserve (H.R. 1207) with a fake alternate bill. See this, this, this and this.Fortunately, the House Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 1207 by 43-26, and rejected Watt’s bill.In a…
A glimmer of hope for corporate-governance reform
AMERICA’S system of elections for the boards of companies has long been a sort of Potemkin village: impressive, until you lean on it. Yes, there is one share, one vote. But only candidates proposed by the incumbent board make it on to the ballot that the firm sends to shareholders. Other candidates can seek votes only by circulating “proxies” of their own to shareholders, at the candidates’ own expense. The cost of this is usually enough to deter them, allowing the official slate of directors to retain their lucrative boardroom sinecures uncontested—even if only a tiny proportion of shareholders actually vote for them.
Several efforts to make it easier for shareholders to nominate directors have been frustrated by lobbying from corporate turkeys keen to postpone Christmas for as long as they can. Earlier this month the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced yet another year’s delay before it again considers proposals to ease outsiders’ access to proxies. Earlier attempts to bring reforms failed in 2003 and 2007, again due to furious corporate lobbying. …
Marking a significant policy shift by the Federal Communications Commission, the agency votes to begin consideration of expanded and codified network neutrality rules that Democratic FCC commissioners say will preserve an open Internet.
– A
split Federal Communications Commission voted Oct. 22 to begin consideration of
network neutrality rules that would apply to both wired and wireless networks.
The proposed rules would codify the agency’s four existing network neutrality
principles and add two more rules of the road for broadba…
The political crisis in Afghanistan that has been marred by possible rigging, come to a point of being pressured by the International community with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed for a word from the Afghan President Hamid Karzai on further situation on Tuesday.
As a UN-backed panel threw out nearly a third of [...]
Battles over money and power at the World Bank and IMF
“WE ARE into the world of politics”, said the World Bank’s president, Robert Zoellick, at the two-day annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, ending on Wednesday October 7th in Istanbul. Mr Zoellick was referring to the disagreements between richer and poorer countries over his institution’s pleas for more funding to cope with the aftermath of the financial crisis. But his statement held true for much of what went on at this year’s meetings.
It was easy to reach broad agreement that it was too early for governments and central banks to begin winding down their big stimulus packages. But opinions diverged over the need to boost the funding of the world’s main financial institutions, and even more so when it came to discussing demands by big developing countries such as China and India for more voting power on their boards. …
Opinion polls had predicted a tight result in the referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty. In the end the result was a landslide. The result not only increases the chances of the treaty coming into force, it also increases the credibility of the institutions that it’s set to reform.
European Union monitors believe that about one-third of the votes cast for President Hamid Karzai in the Aug. 20 election are suspicious and should be examined for fraud.
In a news conference just hours before the pre-audited results were released, the European Union monitors said they believed that the tally included 1.5 million suspicious ballots, or [...]
