president – Page 54 – 4VF News

Report: Iran opposition candidate blasts ‘clear lies’

An opposition candidate in Iran’s disputed presidential election blasted what he called the "thoughtless and clear lies" of the country’s security forces Sunday, while students mounted new demonstrations at a university in Shiraz. Former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi, who ran last in the June 12 election, compared government claims that it had not attacked his supporters to the statements that came out of the Iranian monarchy in the days before the 1979 revolution that established the Islamic republic, according to Iran’s Aftab news agency.

Honduras’ interim government rejects Zelaya’s proposed return

Negotiations to resolve Honduras’ political crisis failed Sunday after representatives of its interim government and ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya were unable to reach a consensus. The interim Honduran government of Roberto Micheletti on Sunday rejected a proposal advanced by a mediator to resolve the crisis by reinstating Zelaya

Ecuador’s leader hotly denies FARC gave him money

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa denied Saturday that a Colombian guerrilla group donated money to his 2006 presidential campaign, asking his country’s civil commission to investigate the allegation. Colombian media broadcast a 2008 video Friday in which guerrilla leader Víctor Julio Suarez Rojas, better known as Mono Jojoy, said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia donated money to Correa’s campaign. The guerrilla group, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, also has had conversations with Correa’s emissaries and has reached “some accords, according to documents that we have,” Suarez said in a videotape

President Ortega vs. the Feminists

President Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s macho and mustachioed Sandinista commandante of the 1970s and ’80s, may claim the mantle of revolutionary “new man,” but Latin America’s feminists insist Ortega is a dirty old man. Throughout the continent, Ortega is being hounded by feminist groups over his alleged sexual abuse of stepdaughter Zoilamerica Narvaez during the 1980s

Mediator: Reinstalling Zelaya is essential to Honduran peace

Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya must be returned to power as the first step toward ending the political impasse gripping the Central American nation, a Latin-American leader heading negotiations said Saturday.

How ‘That’s the way it is’ became Cronkite’s tag line

Throughout his career as a television anchorman, Walter Cronkite had a few memorable run-ins with other powerful figures at CBS News, one of his producers told CNN. Sanford “Sandy” Socolow, who worked at CBS News for 32 years, more than four of them as Cronkite’s producer, said Cronkite ran into trouble soon after he took over for Douglas Edwards in the “CBS Evening News” anchor chair.

Group: Human rights lawyer detained as Iran unrest spirals

Government agents used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, and beat and kidnapped a human rights lawyer, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said Saturday, citing witnesses. The advocacy group said human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr, who was walking with friends to Friday prayers, was confronted by people dressed in civilian clothes. They pushed her into a car and drove off, the group said, citing witnesses.

Somali pirates release German ship

Somali pirates released a German cargo ship Saturday that they have held since May, the German Foreign Ministry said.

The Man with America’s Trust: Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

Newsman Walter Cronkite, who died at the age of 92, was so thoroughly and uniquely linked with the word “trust” that it is tempting to say that the word should be buried with him. In the generation since he left the anchor desk at the CBS Evening News, there have been other public figures who inspire passion, devotion, confidence, intensity and personal identification. But trust, that milder but deeper sentiment — Cronkite owned it.

France set to relax Sunday shopping ban

The French are in for a significant cultural shift next week if the Senate approves a new law from President Nicolas Sarkozy to allow more shops to open on Sundays. What seems routine in much of the Western world has been fiercely resisted in France, where Sundays have officially been set aside as a day of rest for more than a century and where a 35-hour workweek remains the norm.