Zimbabwe Post, By Peta Thornycroft. In a desperate bid to remain in power, President Robert Mugabe, 82, will postpone the next presidential election until 2010. Nathan Shamuyarira, ruling Zanu-PF information secretary and one of Mugabe's closest lieutenants, spelled it out in the State-controlled Sunday News: "We want to combine the two, the presidential and parliamentary elections so that we do not have elections every two years."
Without setting a date, Mugabe has indicated repeatedly since he won the last disputed and violent presidential poll in 2002 that he would retire "soon". It was widely expected, even among younger Zanu-PF members, that he would stand down ahead of the next presidential poll due in March 2008. Shamuyarira said a constitutional amendment would be necessary to allow the postponement of the presidential poll and combine it with parliamentary elections in 2010.
Mugabe's former information minister Jonathan Moyo said on Monday: "The desire to postpone the presidential election under the pretext of amalgamating the two polls is really driven by the Charles Taylor factor, which has forced Mr Mugabe to want to stay in office rather than face the International Court of Justice for a range of crimes against humanity." Former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor was ordered out of Nigeria earlier this year and is now in The Hague, Netherlands, awaiting trial for war crimes.
Mugabe began seizing productive white-owned farms for his cronies in 2000 after a new political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, came close to defeating Zanu-PF in the 2000 general poll. The agricultural-based economy crumbled, and Zimbabwe has no foreign currency, is dependent on food aid, and has the highest inflation rate in the world at 1 200% per annum. The International Monetary Fund, due in Harare tomorrow, predicted last week inflation would hit 4 000% by the end of next year.
Arthur Mutambara, leader of a faction of the now bitterly divided MDC, reacted angrily yesterday: "We can't even wait until 2008 for an election as most Zimbabweans will have died by then." Three remaining Dutch farmers issue terse comments in protest saying. "Hy sal phueching wat? Kan jy dit glo?" Shocking, absorutely shocking... quick, run and check the surprise meter at once!
SANAA - Yemens opposition on Tuesday acknowledged President Ali Abdullah Saleh had been re-elected, dropping their accusations of vote-rigging and threats of protests.
A final vote count released on Saturday showed long-ruling Saleh as winning 77.2 percent of the vote, with the oppositions candidate Faisal Al Shamlan receiving 21.8 percent of the total 6 million ballots cast. The announced results are a reality and the coalition opposition is dealing with that, Shamlan told reporters.
A statement by the opposition said: We need to avoid a clash or confrontation with the authorities which (might) derail the process of change that has begun.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged on Tuesday afternoon to lead the Labor Party to a fourth-term election victory. "I will help build a unified party with a strong platform, for the only legacy that has ever mattered to me is a fourth term election victory that will allow us to keep changing Britain for the better," he said in his last speech as leader to the Labor Party conference here in Manchester.
Blair thanked the Labor party for giving him the "extraordinary privilege of leading you these past 12 years" in a farewell speech punctuated by loud applause and marked by standing ovations. Reflecting on past achievements and how politics had changed over the years, Blair said "We defied conventional political wisdom and thereby changed it."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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DALLAS Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.
The retailer said Wednesday it will purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, Calif., Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp. A spokeswoman for Dallas-based 7-Eleven said its 20-year contract with Citgo Petroleum Corp. ends next week. About 2,100 of 7-Eleven's 5,300 U.S. stores sell gasoline.
Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, and the foreign parent became a public-relations issue for 7-Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, "Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez." Chabris said a boycott of Citgo gasoline would hurt the 4,000 employees of the U.S. subsidiary, who have no connection to Venezuela.
7-Eleven had been considering creating its own brand of fuel since at least early last year. Company officials said at the time they had spoken with independent fuel distributors.
#4
...Ran some numbers - Hugo will be kissing goodbye approximately $5.4 BILLION with a capital BIL dollars...heh heh heh...
I don't care HOW much money he brings in, that's gonna get his attention.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/27/2006 16:22 Comments ||
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#5
well they'll just build more fuel stations and sell their gas to others until they have more retail outlets... what really hurts is the falling price of oil :)
Iva Toguri DAquino, the Japanese-American convicted of treason in 1949 for broadcasting propaganda from Japan to United States servicemen during World War II as the seductive but sinister Tokyo Rose, died Tuesday in Chicago. She was 90.
Her death, at a Chicago hospital, was confirmed by a nephew, William Toguri, who said only that Mrs. DAquino had died of natural causes, The Associated Press reported.
Tokyo Rose was a mythical figure. The persona, its origin murky, had been bestowed by American servicemen collectively on a dozen or so women who broadcast for Radio Tokyo, telling soldiers, sailors and marines in the Pacific that their cause was lost and that their sweethearts back home were betraying them.
The broadcasts did nothing to dim American morale. The servicemen enjoyed the recordings of American popular music, and the United States Navy bestowed a satirical citation on Tokyo Rose at wars end for her entertainment value.
#6
...Esteemed Moderators, I think I posted the same story just a few minutes after this one - please delete mine.
Now - the historical twist here is that although Mrs D'Aquino was certainly no angel in this matter (despite her arguments to the contrary), there's some evidence that she may have been the scapegoat for several US Army officers, captured in the Philippines, who did a lot of the writing and advising on the propaganda broadcasts. That's one of those things we'll never know for sure, however.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/27/2006 16:08 Comments ||
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#7
A North-Vietnamese general said, that after Tet they had been close to throw the towel but the visit of Hanoi Fonda was a major fact in making the North-Vietnamese to think America's will to fight was crumbling. Millions of dead Cambodians and Vietnamse were the result of Miss Fonda action.
Also let's rememeber how Jane Fonda was handled a message by American prisonners (telling they were being tortured), she didn't content on not transmiiting it, she gave it to the North-Vietnamese.
If Tokyo Rose went to jail, Jane Fonda should go to the gallows.
#10
I think that was Gen. Gaip. And it wasn't just Hanoi Jane but also Walter Cronkite declaring how the tet offensive was such a huge disaster for the Americans . (The way I heard it we suffered losses but virtually wiped out the Viet Cong as a force.) Not to excuse Jane - She, John, and Cronkite have a *lot* of blood on their hands.... not that they care who died for their 'cause'...
The current MSM and left (Murtha, Durbin, Kennedy, Kerry, Gore, etc...) are of the same cloth - who cares who dies in Afghanistan or Iraq (or Dafur or Thailand...) as long as they get into power....
I saw Run Silent, Run Deep a few years ago, and recall that she played up the quagmire angle some. It's déjà vu all over again. Except this time, Rosie and Haw Haw are in our own MSM.
Shinzo Abe, an advocate of tighter ties with Washington and a bigger say for Japan in world affairs, was elected Japan's prime minister by parliament on Tuesday, becoming at 52 the youngest Japanese leader since World War Two.
The hawkish Abe, a relative novice by Japanese political standards, faces the challenges of repairing ties with China - frayed by predecessor Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine - and keeping economic reforms on track while addressing voter concerns about widening social gaps. "We hope that the new Japanese leader will make efforts to improve China-Japan relations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference in Beijing.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"We hope that the new Japanese leader will make efforts to improve China-Japan relations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference in Beijing.
It might help if you would curb you're little dog Kimmy.
The US has reached agreement with Iceland on how to end its military presence in the country. The US Navy is due to leave the island by the end of this month, ending a military presence dating back to 1951.
The Keflavik naval and air base played a key role in the Cold War, monitoring Soviet submarines and housing aircraft that could be sent to destroy them. The US says that a new era - in which it is fighting a "war on terror" - means Keflavik is no longer needed. The Pentagon has now agreed the final details of the base's closure, which has been under way since March.
As Iceland has no army of its own, it will become one of the few countries with no military presence at all. The US says it will not be left unprotected, however. A spokesman insisted the pull-out would not affect the US commitment to defend Iceland as a Nato ally.
"In the height of the Cold War, this was the place to be to protect against Soviet submarines. And we were successful and the [Keflavik] team had a great deal to do with that," said Rear Adm Noel Preston, the navy's European region commander, in a ceremony earlier this month. "Now the world has changed, and we are facing a war on terrorism. We are changing how we plan and prepare for this war. But what will not change is our friendship and partnership with Iceland."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2006 08:27 ||
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#1
you are on your own, kids. You can stop complaining about mean old Uncle Sam and take care of yourselves now. Via con Dios.
#3
Rascists society. Heavy restrictions for most of the time our people were there on 'mixing' with the locals. Another example of how long it takes the Generals and Admirals to give up overseas outposts long after their missions have been overtaken by events.
#7
i wouldn't mind being assigne there if all the women are a spretty as what i have seen so far
They sure are pretty, and talented too! But, alas, they only go for guys that can spell, capitalize and punctuate! I guess that leaves you out! Sorry mate. Oh, I forgot, being able to construct a complete sentence is also helpful.
Posted by: Richard Cranium ||
09/27/2006 11:03 Comments ||
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#9
F-15s and P-3s in Iceland don't have a whole lot to do these days. The F-15s would come in handy in the ME, and the P-3s could be better used patrolling the Straits of Hormuz.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/27/2006 12:52 Comments ||
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#10
Wouldn't it be wise to keep a force there for preparations for the landing to take back Britainistan ?
#14
..The Icelanders did not like the US one tiny little bit - everyone I ever knew who was stationed there said that the hostility was only barely disguised and tempered solely by the fact that we were giving them huge chunks of money for the privlege. If you need proof of how much we were disliked (an Americans-only curfew was in place for decades)simply consider this: Everybody has seen American troops come home with wives from the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Panama, Korea, and the Phillipines.
Has anybody ever seen an Icelandic wife?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/27/2006 16:28 Comments ||
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#15
(an Americans-only curfew was in place for decades)
Yes, many decades. It was much more than a simple curfew. Study it further, (with an open mind - considering their roots) you'll understand their motivation and reasoning. For the gritty flipside, have a look at Malmo Sweden, Paris or The Hague today. They keep to themselves, threaten no one either verbally or otherwise. I respect that.
#16
Richard Cranium her's a questio for you. What crawled up your ass? I suppose you are British by the way you act like a snotty asshole. By the way they prob like good teth too so i guess i got you in that dept.
#17
My tax man was an Air Force reservist for 30+ years, and an F-106 pilot. He pulled quite a few 2-week assignments to Iceland. He also has an Icelandic wife - one of very few.
Remember, it was the British and Americans that took over Iceland in 1942, to keep the place from possibly falling into the hands of the Germans (plus giving us a base from which to place another part of the Atlantic under aerial surveillance. The Icelanders had no say in that decision, and it rankled. It wasn't until after they joined NATO that they had much say over military activities in the country. They have a right to be a bit stand-offish.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/27/2006 19:26 Comments ||
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#18
I invented the name Richard Cranium 20 years ago, but - alas - did not copyright it. Think about it - a four-letter nickname for Richard and another four-letter word for a cranium.....
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/27/2006 20:28 Comments ||
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#19
bah! Richard Cranium and a couple hundred other fake names were in the classic National Lampoon High School Yearbook parody in the early seventies. I still have my first edition copy. Famous for the twin sisters, Connie and Anna Lingus
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2006 20:56 Comments ||
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#20
Let's not forget the Rrhea sisters Dia and Gono!
#21
An aquaintance of mine from the Lab (LBNL) was from Iceland. Earned her doctorate in accelerator physics while here and returned to Iceland shortly thereafter to accept a position with the government.
She was gorgeous, vivacious, outgoing, and very attractive.
Did I say she was attractive (I forget when I'm thinking about here)?
She was legendary for the dance outfits she would wear up to the lab at nights when she was going out partying, but had to check on an experiment or something.
Unfortunately I never had the guts to ask her out for a beer myself.
#22
JERUSALEM POST/JPOST.com > RUSSIAN AIRFORCE to use approxi 50 bomber aircraft [BEARS-BACKFIRES-BLACKJACKS? combos]in AF tests-AirEx's over the Artic, Pacific, Atlantic, Black + Caspian Seas.
#23
50 aircraft over all that area doesn't sound like a big deal, prolly some kind of communications test, or attempt to pick up other reaction frequencies or radar.
Posted on the off-chance that Europe still matters.
STRASBOURG, France - Bulgaria and Romania received the green light on Tuesday to join the European Union in January, rather than a year later, but under the toughest terms imposed on any new entrants.
In a recommendation on what could be the EUs last expansion for years, the European Commission listed reforms the Balkan duo must complete to avoid being deprived early on of full membership benefits, including some of their huge EU aid. Accession of Bulgaria and Romania will mark a historic achievement ... which further pursues the reunification of our European family, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the European Parliament.
It will be the EUs second wave of enlargement into ex-communist eastern Europe, locking the Black Sea neighbours into the zone of stability and prosperity and promising a boost to their fast-growing economies. This is the genuine and final fall of the Berlin Wall for Bulgaria, said Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, referring to the 1989 fall of communism in eastern Europe.
The tough entry conditions reflected concern about the countries shortcomings, including rampant corruption, organised crime and food safety standards, and doubts over their ability to administer billions of euros in EU aid properly. Bulgaria and Romania will enrich the Union without compromising the proper functioning of EU policies and institutions. The interests of the EU and our citizens can be assured and EU taxpayers money protected, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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Seems your own globalists want to do their own version of the EU. That has worked so well for us! Bah, who needs sovereignty and identity anyway?
Government documents released by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal the Bush administration is running a "shadow government" with Mexico and Canada in which the U.S. is crafting a broad range of policy in conjunction with its neighbors to the north and south, asserts WND columnist and author Jerome R. Corsi.
The documents, a total of about 1,000 pages, are among the first to be released to Corsi through his FOIA request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, which describes itself as an initiative "to increase security and to enhance prosperity among the three countries through greater cooperation."
"The documents clearly reveal that SPP, working within the U.S. Department of Commerce, is far advanced in putting together a new regional infrastructure, creating a 'shadow' trilateral bureaucracy with Mexico and Canada that is aggressively rewriting a wide range of U.S. administrative law, all without congressional oversight or public disclosure," Corsi said.
Among the initial discoveries, said Corsi, is the existence of an internal Intranet website that never has been revealed to Congress or the public. "This private internal website," he claims, "undoubtedly contains a wealth of documentation that the FOIA request has so far intentionally excluded."
#1
This is what I was referring to a couple of days ago with reference to a closed border with Mexico. The Bush family is intimately involved. Their motives are always oil related. So I would suspect they ahve designs on Pemex reserves, which those incompetents can't seem to bring to production.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/27/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Reminds me of KILL BILL VOL. ONE > Sonny Chiba as HATTORI HANZO to Uma Thurman as BLACK MAMBA > "This is the finest sword I've ever made ... When this sword encounters God in the forest of Revenge, Hatred, Blood and Destruction, GOD WILL BE CUT - symbolic of yet another Oliver Stone production of almost a Penn State Undercover Nostradamus quatrain, NOT starring Kurt Cobain or the Battleship Oklahoma, etal which in Nostry's case is the FACE OF "GOD". Nostry and Madonna fans know of KILL BILL, didn't everybody??? Mankind will need Hanzo's Sword and better iff it hopes to cut the face of God. NO, JURASSIC PARK > "Man Destroys God" = T-REXes, Raptors, and Woman rules the earth???
#3
The media really is at fault. We have had an example in the last couple of days here in Oz.
Early bush fires in NSW produced all kinds of GW warnings and told you so's.
A severe and abnormal late frost in Victoria's fruit growing area wiped out most of the crop (far and away the biggest in Oz) was hardly reported and without comment.
#4
A Time editor has a choice: headline (with apprpriate graphic) "Death of a Planet" or "Earth in Pretty Good Shape". Guess which one sells more copy?
Posted by: john ||
09/27/2006 8:29 Comments ||
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#5
Question for the RBers. As a resident of the GWN, I am aware of the tremendous amount of energy, oil, NG, coal we consume either directly or indirectly to keep warm during the cold winter months (Electrical consumption can actually peak in January and February). So how do warmer winters that actually reduce our fossil fuel consumption not be a boon?
Prroblems with polar bears appears more related to their proclivaty to dumpster diving rather than climate change.
Posted by: john ||
09/27/2006 8:41 Comments ||
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#6
So how do warmer winters that actually reduce our fossil fuel consumption not be a boon?
#7
They all seem to forget that massive global warming 20,000 years ago moved back the massive ice sheets covering Europe and North America. If those were still in place, there'd be no Western Civilization, technology, medicine, the green [agricultural] revolution, etc. I'd say the consequences were for the better.
Its like the same old story of the Red/Greens who whine about what happened to the American Indians while they live and prosper in the resultant economy and civilization that makes their existance possible.
Bottom line is that it is all a power game to sell guilt and sin. For without guilt and sin they can have no power over you.
#8
Until someone explains how solar heating can be raising the temperature on Mars yet raising temperatures on Earth are all man-made I'll continue to blame the Sun for any increased temperatures.
#12
I could use a little "global warming" - or at least, some LOCALIZED warming. We've had "highs" in the mid'sixties for over a week. Today it got up to 74F... "Normal" for this time of year is the high 70's or low 80's. I expect my natural gas bill to be much higher this winter than last winter.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/27/2006 19:42 Comments ||
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#13
My favorite is the "Drowning Polar Bears" meme.
Last time I checked Polar Bears could swim faster than an ice floe could melt.
TIJUANA Two Mexican customs inspectors were among five people detained yesterday morning at the starting point of an unfinished cross-border tunnel, the region's top Customs official said.
The inspectors are responsible for guarding this area, said the official, José Márquez Padilla. They are now under investigation because they could have been helping. Sgt Schultz: "I see noooooothing!"
The tunnel's opening was in a dirt section of a junkyard that is owned by Mexican Customs, near the San Ysidro port of entry, but authorities said it did not enter into the United States. Four other cross-border tunnels or openings have been found in this area during the past year.
The frequent finds have raised questions about how drug or people smugglers could be digging and using tunnels in an area that is owned by the Mexican government.
Márquez said the investigation would determine whether the tunnels were dug by the same group. "they have tell-tale shovel marks"
Some of the other tunnels were dirt holes, while others had plastic cylinders for reinforcement. Tunnel diggers also appear to be using pieces of a concrete culvert on the U.S side to shore up their tunnels.
The tunnel found yesterday stretched about 55 feet, Márquez said. The opening is near a large pile of junk. It had been reinforced with wooden planks, and sandbags and a shovel lay nearby.
The identities of the five suspects hadn't been released by federal authorities yesterday afternoon. A spokesman with the Mexican Attorney General's Office in Tijuana, which is now handling the case, said they wouldn't be named unless charges are filed.
The discovery came after the Federal Preventive Police determined that something suspicious was going on in the area several days ago, Márquez said.
They contacted me to see if we could help with them in preparing their logistics . . . and we participated in this so that they could enter by surprise in the morning, he said.
Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the tunnel find was the result of a joint investigation by Mexican and U.S. authorities.
Márquez said his agency would assist in prosecuting any agents involved in tunnel-digging, and it would work with U.S. authorities to prevent more tunnels from being dug there.
He said the Customs area remains vacant while plans are developed to construct a larger border crossing though the junkyard. Until those plans are finalized, Márquez said, it would be impractical and costly to pave it over with concrete. how about monitoring it for fresh piles of dirt. You can do that, can't you?
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/27/2006 10:37 ||
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You didn't think I'd pass up this story, did you?
Thailand's coup leaders have banned go-go dancers from performing for troops on the streets of Bangkok, fearing soldiers may be distracted.
Photo at link. I'm distracted, and so's the guy in back.
A troupe of scantily-clad women danced for soldiers near the Royal Plaza on Monday, as part of entertainments paid for by a local radio station. But the coup's leaders - who had earlier told soldiers to keep smiling - have now banned all dancing near tanks. "We have to maintain the seriousness of the coup," a military spokesman said.
"How're we supposed to oppress people when they're waving titties in our faces?"
The bloodless coup, which ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has been broadly welcomed in Bangkok, where Mr Thaksin was increasingly unpopular. Once initial tensions subsided, residents and tourists gathered in front of troops to have their photos taken. Others took flowers and food to show their backing for the soldiers.
But the coup's leaders said Monday's go-go dancers - who appeared in skimpy camouflaged tops and pants - were the final straw. "I don't know what the organiser's intention was but this should be the first and last of this type of dance performance. It's totally inappropriate," said coup spokesman Lt Gen Palangoon Klaharn.
"Save it for the Officers Club, girls"
Posted by: Steve ||
09/27/2006 08:37 ||
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#1
"I don't know what the organiser's intention was
Well LTG Klaharn, two things make the world go around...., and the other one is money.
#5
"I don't know what the organiser's intention was but this should be the first and last of this type of dance performance. It's totally inappropriate," said coup spokesman Lt Gen Palangoon Klaharn.
He followed this with, "You're talking to a coupist whose every move's among the purest.
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine. I don't see you guys rating the kind of mate I'm contemplating. I'd let you watch, I would invite you, but the queens we use would not excite you."
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/27/2006 10:57 Comments ||
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#6
mojo - I give the ping-pong ball show a '7' but the egg-banana-egg show was a '10'.
Also, I'da bet money you couldn't pluck a twenty out of the neck of a beer bottle and fold it without using you hands.
#18
More likely couldn't pry them and the soldiers apart.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/27/2006 19:03 Comments ||
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#19
I'ma bettin' many of us got your pun, RC. In fact, even before I got to your post, I was tryin' to think of the words to that song (dad-gum 80's music). Now, where's my Go-Go's album?
Posted by: BA ||
09/27/2006 22:39 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
In a desperate bid to remain in power, President Robert Mugabe, 82, will postpone the next presidential election until 2010. Nathan Shamuyarira, ruling Zanu-PF information secretary and one of Mugabe's closest lieutenants, spelled it out in the State-controlled Sunday News: "We want to combine the two, the presidential and parliamentary elections so that we do not have elections every two years."
(Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged on Tuesday afternoon to lead the Labor Party to a fourth-term election victory. "I will help build a unified party with a strong platform, for the only legacy that has ever mattered to me is a fourth term election victory that will allow us to keep changing Britain for the better," he said in his last speech as leader to the Labor Party conference here in Manchester. 
DALLAS Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.
Shinzo Abe, an advocate of tighter ties with Washington and a bigger say for Japan in world affairs, was elected Japan's prime minister by parliament on Tuesday, becoming at 52 the youngest Japanese leader since World War Two. 
TIJUANA Two Mexican customs inspectors were among five people detained yesterday morning at the starting point of an unfinished cross-border tunnel, the region's top Customs official said. 
