| Iran's Economy Feels Sting of Sanctions Iranian traders and consumers say the country's economy is under increasing strain after the latest sanctions against Tehran, describing spreading pain from inflation, joblessness and mounting shortages. online.wsj.com |
US terror war in Yemen frustrated by politics By HAMZA HENDAWI 2010-10-16T17:14:35ZSAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- For nearly a year, the United States has waged a war against al-Qaida in Yemen, largely in deep secrecy. But the militants appear unfazed, and the fragile government of this poor Arab nation is pushing back against American pressure to escalate the fight.... hosted.ap.org |
Moscow announces new mayor Sergei Sobyanin, trusted Kremlin aide of Vladimir Putin, given city council rubberstamp to replace sacked Yuri LuzhkovA top Kremlin official dubbed a "faceless bureaucrat" by critics became the mayor of Moscow today, three weeks after his charismatic predecessor, Yuri Luzhkov, was unceremoniously sacked.Moscow's rubberstamp city council confirmed Sergei Sobyanin as the capital's mayor. Last week President Dmitry Medvedev selected Sobyanin – a trusted aide of the prime minister, Vladimir Putin – from a notional shortlist of four candidates.The appointment consolidates the Kremlin's takeover of Moscow and its prodigious resources, and marks the formal end of the Luzhkov era. The pugnacious Luzhkov, who ran Moscow from 1992, was dismissed after apparently growing too powerful and falling out with Russia's ruling Putin-Medvedev duumvirate.Sobyanin, 52, had been the Kremlin chief of staff since 2005, when Putin was president, and stayed with Putin when he became prime minister after steering Medvedev into the presidency in 2008. Born near the town of Khanty-Mansisk, he has spent most of his administrative career in Siberia and the Urals.In a Brezhnev-like speech, delivered in an uninspiring monotone, Sobyanin described his new job as a "great honour and responsibility". He hailed Moscow as one of the world's leading megalopolises: "A great deal of work has been done in Moscow over the past decades. The city has changed for the better."Sobyanin, however, laid into his predecessor's legacy, saying he would look again at the city's budget and development plan. He acknowledged there was "serious corruption" in the housing sector and said he wanted to make life more comfortable for the capital's 10.5 million citizens. He promised to keep social benefits for Moscow's pensioners.Critics were distinctly unimpressed. "He's a faceless bureaucrat. He's part of the Putin system," said Eduard Limonov, an opposition leader, dissident and writer who is frequently detained during anti-Kremlin rallies. "He has no distinctive threads. He's an obeying official. He will be boring and absolutely flat, square. Luzhkov at least was a picturesque guy."Asked why the Kremlin decided to sack Luzhkov, Limonov said: "Luzhkov became too powerful. He accumulated a lot of might, appointing himself to royal, almost feudal power. The other reason was Moscow's wealth. The federal government wanted all this wealth for itself."Others said Sobyanin would have a more progressive attitude on issues such as opposition rallies and gay rights. The European court of human rights today ruled that Luzhkov's repeated ban on gay parades in Moscow was illegal."He [Sobyanin] has to be completely different from the last mayor," a gay rights activist, Nikolai Alekseev, said. "He has no other choice."Asked what he thought of Sobyanin, Alekseev said: "I don't know who he is. I can't say anything about him."Moscow's city Duma confirmed Sobyanin as mayor in a 34-2 vote. (The council's two attending communists opposed, while another didn't turn up.) Deputies from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party dominate the council after last year's elections, which the opposition allege were rigged.Sobyanin was this afternoon inaugurated as mayor in a short ceremony attended by Medvedev, Russia's patriarch Kirill and other Kremlin luminaries.Medvedev told Sobyanin he faced a difficult job but his regional and federal experience made him the right man for the post. Sobyanin's most urgent tasks would be to sort out Moscow's traffic problems and improve its business climate, Medvedev said. "I have no doubt you will work round the clock to deal with Moscow's problems."Putin abolished gubernatorial elections, including those for the Moscow mayor, in 2004. He reappointed Luzhkov to the job in 2007. Moscow is now the only capital in Europe apart from Minsk, in next-door authoritarian Belarus, where citizens do not have a say in who leads their city.Since his sacking, Luzhkov has expressed his support for the return of direct elections and has – not very plausibly – reinvented himself as an opposition figure.Today, though, he made clear he doesn't intend to stand in elections for the federal Duma next year, or in the 2012 presidential poll. Journalists were barred from listening to a lecture delivered by Luzhkov, who has taken a job at a management university.In his speech Luzhkov bitterly attacked United Russia. He resigned from the party in disgust last month after an unprecedented Kremlin-ordered attack on him by Russia's TV channels. "I have always told the [United Russia] party chairman, Boris Gryzlov, that we don't have discussions or debates. We have always obeyed the [Kremlin] administration on everything," he said. "This is a servile party and I quit it."RussiaVladimir PutinDmitry MedvedevLuke Hardingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Wilkinson doubtful for NZ match England manager Martin Johnson says Jonny Wilkinson does not need shoulder surgery but is still a doubt for the first Test against New Zealand. news.bbc.co.uk |
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