Hezbollah praises Iran's nuclear program

Hezbollah says Iran's nuclear program is in the best interests of Muslim nations.

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Saturday that the United States is an oppressive and colonialist power in the region that has dealt numerous blows to the Mideast.

“The US administration seeks to deter Iran from its nuclear development program by means of pressure and tough sanctions. It calls on Tehran to give assurances that its nuclear activities are of a civilian nature, even though it has done so,” Qassem added.

He went on to say that even if Iran presents hundreds of pieces of evidence proving its nuclear program is peaceful, the US and other Western countries will reject it all.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=122974§ionid=351020203.

US suspends flights from base in Kyrgyzstan - Summary

Washington - The US military has suspended flights through an air force base in Kyrgyzstan following deadly fighting in the central Asian nation, a spokesman confirmed Saturday.

Flights to transport troops and weapons to Afghanistan will now go through another base rather than the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan, said Major John Redfield, a spokesman for US Central Command in Florida.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Saturday with Roza Otunbayeva, the former foreign minister appointed by the opposition to head the new government after an uprising toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Otunbayeva said the country would abide by existing agreements regarding the use of the base, the State Department said in a statement. Clinton offered humanitarian assistance and voiced US support for efforts to peacefully solve the country's political problems.

The decision on the flights was made late Friday and any move to resume flights would be made by US military personnel in the region based on developments in the country, Redfield said.

The move has not disrupted supplies into Afghanistan, he said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318041,us-suspends-flights-from-base-in-kyrgyzstan--summary.html.

Swing to the right expected as Hungary goes to the polls

Budapest - Hungarian voters headed to the polls at 0400 GMT Sunday for the first round of general elections that opinion polls suggest will produce a huge swing to the right.

The 46-year-old former prime minister Viktor Orban is expected to lead his center-right party Fidesz back to power after eight years of Socialist government.

However, a big question remains over how many Hungarians will back the far-right nationalist party Jobbik, which won a surprise 15 per cent of the vote in Hungary's European Parliament elections last June.

Around 60 per cent of decided voters support Fidesz, roughly three times the level of support enjoyed by the Socialists, according to recent opinion polls.

Most polls have placed Jobbik a few percentage points behind the Socialists, although a couple suggested support for the extreme right might even outstrip that for the left.

Polling stations are scheduled to close at 1700 GMT.

Hungary has one of the world's most complex electoral systems, with elections taking place in two rounds, the second to be held on April 25.

In the first round, 176 members of parliament are chosen via a straightforward majority vote in their local constituencies.

Voters also put a cross next to the name of a preferred party, and a further 152 seats in parliament are apportioned on a proportional representation basis.

Smaller parties, such as the new green-liberal Politics Can Be Different, are hoping to pass the 5 per cent threshold needed to enter parliament.

The remaining seats in the 386-seat parliament are shared out via a complex system to compensate parties for votes received that would otherwise have been "wasted".

Given the size of lead Fidesz has shown in opinion polls, however, for the party not to emerge the clear winner after the first round of voting would represent a major upset.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318053,swing-to-the-right-expected-as-hungary-goes-to-the-polls.html.

Six killed in road accident in Philippines

Manila - Six people were killed when a tricycle they were riding in slammed into a passenger bus in the Philippines, police said Sunday.

The victims were traveling to Ozamiz City in the southern province of Misamis Occidental when the accident occurred Saturday, a police report said.

Initial investigation showed the tricycle driver lost control of the vehicle and slammed into the bus on the opposite lane while trying to avoid a child crossing the highway.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318055,six-killed-in-road-accident-in-philippines.html.

Poll opens in Sudan elections

Nairobi/Khartoum (Earth Times) - Polling stations opened Sunday for the country's first parliamentary and presidential elections since the end of a bloody civil war five years ago, which pitted the north against the south.

Southern Sudan, which enjoys autonomy, also elects its own president and parliament.

Some 16.5 million voters have registered for the elections, which are overshadowed by a boycott of opposition parties over fears of vote-rigging and international criticism.

Polling stations in Sudan's 25 provinces are open from 8 am (0500 GMT) to 6 pm from Sunday to Tuesday, owing to the size and bad infrastructure in Africa's largest country. Results are expected for April 18.

The polls are to be the first multiparty elections since 1986 and are supposed to usher in a new era of democracy in Sudan, which is recovering from a decades-long civil war between the mainly Muslim north and Christian and Animist south, as well as conflict in the western province of Darfur.

The re-election of controversial President Omar al-Bashir seems almost certain after almost all opposition candidates pulled out.

Al-Bashir, who seized power in a bloodless 1989 coup, has repeatedly refused to give in to opposition demands for a delay and continues to claim the polls are credible.

Security has been a major concern and human rights groups reported attempts to harass and obstruct opposition campaigns.

Most of the estimated 2.6 million internally displaced living in camps in Darfur have not been registered to vote and many observers say the polls in the province have already been rigged in favor of al-Bashir and his ruling National Congress Party (NCP) through gerrymandering, bribery and manipulation of census figures.

US astronauts begin second spacewalk

Washington - Two US astronauts left the International Space Station Sunday on the second of three spacewalks to install a new ammonia tank that is part of the orbiting laboratory's cooling system.

Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson, who are visiting the ISS on a space shuttle Discovery mission, will remove an empty ammonia tank and install a new one during the planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk.

The astronauts started their spacewalk ahead of schedule, at 1:30 am (0530 GMT).

The multi-step process of installing the new tank with the aid of the station's robotic arm requires three spacewalks, the first of which was Friday.

The ammonia tank is part of a cooling system on the station and must be periodically changed.

The next spacewalk is set for Tuesday.

On Saturday, NASA extended Discovery's mission by one day to allow the crew to inspect the shuttle's heat shield while still docked at the ISS. Discovery is now slated to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 19 at 8:54 am (1254 GMT).

The US space agency is scheduled to retire the aging space shuttle fleet later this year after three remaining missions.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318063,us-astronauts-begin-second-spacewalk.html.

New US ambassador arrives in the Philippines

Manila - The new US ambassador to the Philippines has arrived in the country, one month before Filipinos were to hold crucial elections, airport officials said Sunday.

Ambassador Harry K Thomas Junior arrived late Saturday and was welcomed by embassy officials and staff at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

In his arrival statement, Thomas said he was "delighted" to take up his post as new envoy of the United States to the Philippines.

"America and the Philippines are long-standing free partners, we have great plans, and we have much to do together," he said. "I look forward to working with the people of the Philippines."

Thomas said his father, who was in the Philippines after World War II, "always told (him) that he had a great time with the people of the Philippines."

"I hope that I can live up to the work that he and his colleagues did here," he added.

Thomas arrived one month before national and local elections on May 10, when more than 50 million Filipinos were to vote for a new president, vice president, legislators and local officials.

The US has warned of possible violence before and after the elections and has urged its citizens to exercise extreme caution when traveling to the Philippines.

Thomas is a former director general of the US Foreign Service. He was US ambassador to Bangladesh from 2003 to 2005, and held other posts in India, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Peru.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318067,new-us-ambassador-arrives-in-the-philippines.html.