Zimbabwe: Vote counting continues amid claims of rigging

voters in long cues

Vote counting and tallying by Zimbabwe’s electoral commission (ZEC) has entered the second day following Tuesday’s polls. Zim citizens yesterday voted in the country’s general election following the recent referendum which introduced presidential term limits.

Tuesday’s polls have been described as having been peaceful but largely compromised according to monitors. Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s challenger called the elections a "huge farce", just a day after his attempt to dislodge President Robert Mugabe from power.

The Movement for Democratic Change boss already cried foul on Thursday during a press conference saying that the election had been heavily manipulated and was below standards by any scale. Tsvangirai said "The shoddy manner in which it has been conducted and the consequent illegitimacy of the result will plunge this country into a serious crisis,”

"Its credibility has been marred by administrative and legal violations which affect the legitimacy of its outcome. It is a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people." He added.

Zimbabwe Election Support Network said on Thursday that Up to 1 million people was denied chance to vote due to their names missing from the register.

The spokesman for the Zanu-PF Rugare Gumbo, has however, dismissed claims of sham poll. He described the Zimbabwe Election Support Network as British and America’s sycophants. He asked "What do you expect from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network anyway?

"They are sponsored by the Americans and the British to destabilize our elections. As you could see for yourself yesterday's election was peaceful," Mr. Rugare said.

About information on Zanu PF twitter account claiming landslide victory in Wednesday's election, Gumbo said results were not official and that they were awaiting official results from ZEC who have the mandate to release electoral results by law. He further said "I am the national party spokesperson and I haven't said anything about election results. It's all hogwash”. "If it doesn't come out of my mouth, it is not credible." He added.

Another official from Zanu FP who did not want to reveal his identity said that Morgan Tsvangirai’s movement for Democratic change should accept the will of the people. He added that those were kicks of a dying horse and that MDC had been buried.

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Uruguay passes marijuana bill

House of representative majority members has passed a bill legalizing the use of marijuana. The controversial bill was first presented last year by Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro. It was passed by 50 lower house members out of the 96 MPs following a heated 13 hour long debate. The bill was also backed by the president and his government. Mr. Jose Mujica the president says “the measure will remove profits from drug dealers and also divert users from using harder drugs”. 

Other supporters of the measure argue that the fight against drug trafficking had become futile and the country had to devise alternative. Most of the backers belong to the ruling centre-left Frente Amplio coalition which dominates the parliament.

Uruguay is set to become the first country to legalize, control the production and distribution and sale of marijuana. If approved only the government would have the mandate to sell marijuana.

Under the arrangement, buyers above 18 will have to be registered in a database and would be limited to buy from licensed pharmacies up to 40 g each month and to grow a maximum of six plants at home. The measure excludes foreigners.

The bill was passed amid criticism from foreign powers and clerics. Recently the pope on his visit to Brazil appealed to Uruguay not to legalize what he called trading death.

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Manning to know fate by next week

Bradley Manning will know his sentence in the coming days after his sentence hearing commenced today Wednesday. Some laws experts have alluded that the 20 charges he is convicted of may earn him close to 136 years. Manning was yesterday not found guilty of aiding the enemy but pleaded guilty to 20 other charges including larceny and espionage.

the 25 year old was convicted of stealing classified information totaling 700 files among which were diplomatic cables, southern command and Afghanistan records. He is said to have leaked the information to Wikileaks which has never accepted or rejected that he was their source. The military also accused him of jeopardizing Americans, asserting that similar content had been recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound.

Prosecution however, failed to prove that Manning intended to serve al Qaeda the material and therefore the juror said he did not aid the enemy. In defense manning said he just wanted to inform the public what the US government was doing.

Mr. Assange backed him while talking to the media on Tuesday lambasting the convictions on the 20 counts saying “it was a dangerous precedent and an example of national security extremism." Assange implied that it would encourage cover-ups. Assange joined civil rights organizations that also condemned the convictions and eulogized Manning calling him a hero of free speech

  

Each of the convicted charges carries a maximum sentence of 10 years each in Jail. However, the Judge has the discretion to lighten or tighten the sentence for him.  There is even a possibility of him serving all time concurrently giving him to serve a total of 10 years.  

The former intelligence operative has already been incarcerated for three years.

Manning was convicted of stealing classified information and videos -- more than 700 U.S. Southern Command records, records pertaining to Afghanistan, State Department cables and classified Army documents.

Then he leaked them for publication on the Internet.

Authorities say he delivered three-quarters of a million pages of classified documents to the secret-sharing site WikiLeaks, which has never confirmed the soldier was the source of its information

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Heat wave devastates china's provinces-Hangzhou city is hottest city in China

At least 10 people have been confirmed dead from heatstroke in Shanghai city, as china continues to experience a scotching heat wave, reports say. The elderly, children are the most hit categories of people. In china the youth tend to travel to cities leaving their elderly parents in villages with no help. the government recently passed a law forcing the children to visit and care for their parents.

Nine provinces have been severely affected leading to a national heat alert. The Chinese authority declared the provinces which include; Anhui, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei and Shanghai. All the nine have had their temperatures sustained above 35⁰C in the month of July.

According to Shanghai’s chief service officer Mr Wu Rui, It is in July of this year that Shanghai city reached 40.6 degrees Celsius the highest temperature ever in its records. The heat is too much that plants have started wilting, soil cracking and leaves falling off trees.  

The public have been urged to take protective measures and avoid open-air activities.

There are other affected cities with Hangzhou city being China’s most sizzling city. The city recorded more than 400C for 6 consecutive days which is believed to be the hottest time ever recorded since the 50s when they started recording temperature.  Many people have been seen carrying umbrellas to shield them from direct heat from the sun. Also many abandon their houses during day to seek shelter from the cave by the mountain where it is 220C. Other places with air conditioners like libraries are getting more visitors. Reports from Hangzhou Library indicate that on Sunday it surpassed 2000 visitors, a number which is thrice their average number of visitors.  Although Hangzhou swanks of being heaven on earth due to their beautiful sceneries reports indicate that the number of tourists has significantly reduced.

According to most people it is impossible to for one leave in their house without air conditioners.

The authorities are now considering inducing artificial rain to cool the hot weather.

Meanwhile the heat wave which struck south Eastern Europe has also continued to for some time. The sternly affected countries are Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria and form the nucleus of the heat. Temperatures in the affected areas have ranged between 10-20 degrees higher than normal.

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Zimbwabe general election: I will leave if I lose says Mugabe

Zimbabweans cast their votes today Wednesday in Presidential, parliamentary and locals government elections as President Robert Mugabe battles with his Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.  The 89, has been in power for close to 34 years and seeks to extend his ZANU FP party dominance to 38 years in Zimbabwean politics.

The oldest president in Africa, Dr. Robert Matibire Karigamombe Mugabe in a rare twist has this time said he will relinquish power if he loses. He blamed the current economic crisis in Zimbabwe on the sanctions imposed on his government by western powers. Mugabe derided the West saying: "Keep your pink nose out of our affairs, please,” In the 2008 elections violence broke out after opposition leaders accused Mugabe of rigging the elections and he was later coerced to form a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change.

Voting started at 06:00 am and news reaching us indicates that people are cued up in long lines waiting to cast their ballots. Armed forces including the army and police voted early in a bid to beef-up security on the general day of elections. About 6.4 million Zimbabweans are eligible to vote according to ZEC.

The opposition has already indicated their mistrust for the electoral commission (ZEC) alleging that they are Mugabes allies ready to help him rig the elections.  Tsvangirai said: "There is clear evidence of manipulation," in poll preparations. He claimed ballot papers cast in his favor during early voting were discovered tossed in a bin. Tsvangirai also lambasted the ZEC saying that they had deliberately refused to display the final voter register having the actual number of voters. This he said would make it impossible for them to know the actual number of voters and also any tracking malpractices.

Rights groups have also accused the government of daunting and battering opposition supporters. The election comes after the referendum and the constitutional amendments that restored the presidential term limits. In this arrangement Mugabe is allowed to rule till when he is 99 at least theoretically.

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Spain train crash-The phone caused it all

It has emerged that the embattled driver of the Spanish train which derailed near Santiago de Compestela in northwestern Spain last week, killing 80 passenger pilgrims was on talking on phone, information from data recorders suggest. On Tuesday the Spanish court hearing the train crash case has announced that the 52 old was receiving instructions from his bosses while driving at double the recommended speed when the tragedy occurred. The train derailed when negotiating a curve between Madrid and Ferrol. It is said many of the passengers were pilgrims who had travelled to attend the St James festival.

The court said that Mr. Garzon received a call from one of Renfe staff members giving him instructions as he neared the bend. The statement further added that there was background noise which indicates that he was shuffling papers. According to Renfe spokeswoman, in their company both the command and control posts may exchange a few words with drivers at any time during a journey. She added that when the official phones are not working well the drivers are obliged to use their cell-phones. The revelation by the spokeswoman had left many flabbergasted especially in countries where it is illegal to talk on phone while driving.

Experts say the driver should have started applying brakes 2 to 3 miles before the curve. However reports indicate that he started braking minutes before the crash and that he was still on phone when the cabins left the tracks.

Mr. Francisco Jose Garzon, who survived with minor injuries was taken for questioning and later charged with 79 homicide related counts early this week were he admitted his recklessness. His travel documents together with his driving license have since been confiscated and he was ordered not to drive any sort of vehicle for six months.

Meanwhile on Monday a large memorial mass was held in remembrance of the victims at a Catholic cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Spain government officials and the royal family attended. Among the dead were 63 Spanish and others from Europe, US and Latin America United States.

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Swiss train head-on collision leaves one dead and dozens injured

Two passenger trains collided head on the evening of Monday in western Switzerland leaving several nursing wounds reports from officials say. The crash happened at 06:45 p.m. about 8 km south of Payerne in western Switzerland. One died on spot and at least 41 people were injured from with five critical cases. Information on which train suffered more causalities and exact figures about the number of passengers and the respective crews are not known. The cause of the accident is yet to be established. Schaerli said that the authorities did not have any information concerning the cause of the accident. He added that the two trains were on a road between payerne and Lausanne city when the incident happened. The train heads merged becoming inseparable and causing some occupants to be recovered from that which was not carrying them according to emergency workers.  Meanwhile one of the drivers of the collided trains went missing until when he was recovered from the wreckage according to police. An autopsy has been ordered to identify the identity of the fallen driver.  Search crews are busy trying to force open the trains wrecked cab in a bid to find his way about. Traffic has been halted on the affected route until at least mid night said Schaerli.

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