TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2007
NEWS
》 WORLD
9A
Opposition leader wins Sierra Leone presidency
BY CLARENCE ROV-
MACAULAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Opposition leader Ernest Bai Koroma was sworn in as Sierra Leone's president Monday and vowed to adopt zero tolerance on corruption, after officials declared him the winner of a tense run-off election.
In choosing Koroma, the battleweary citizens of this West African country voted against the party that ushered them out of a devastating war in 2002 and for the promise of a better peace with less corruption and more jobs.
Hours after the swearing-in ceremony, hundreds of looters descended on the headquarters of the former president's party. They carried out desks and chairs, computer monitors and printers, posters and coat racks before police blanketed the neighborhood with tear gas.
Police also fired bullets into the air and arrested numerous people while regaining control of the area. At least one person was killed, according to footage taken by an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene.
tion officials declared him the winner with 55 percent of 1.7 million ballots cast, compared with 45 percent for the ruling party candidate. Vice President Solomon Berewa.
Koroma was sworn in after elec-
"I inherited a bankrupt, wac-torn and failing state. Today, I am wandering over to you a fully stable and functional state," outgoing president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah told Koroma in front of a crowd of cheering and clapping supporters.
Thousands of Koroma's supporters wearing red T-shirts and hats clogged the streets of the capital city of Freetown, singing and dancing through a heavy midday downpour.
Although ruling party officials had earlier decried the outcome on local radio, Berewa said he called Koroma with congratulations soon after the release of the results.
Supporters of opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma celebrate after Koroma, center, wins Sierra Leone's presidential run-off on Monday. Koroma won the election with 55 percent of the vote.
Both parties had complained of localized fraud and misconduct at some polling stations, but international observers said the poll went off generally smoothly and without major problems that would have invalidated the outcome.
wrought by a decade-long war. Tens of the asians of civilians died in the fighting, and rebels hacked off the limbs of countless others.
Peace was re-established in diamond-rich Sierra Leone with the help of U.N. forces in 2002, but most of its residents remain poor and unemployed, and corruption is rampant.
Koroma, 54, promised to root out corruption and create economic opportunities. A former insurance company executive, he also promised to run the government with the efficiency of a business, quickly rebuilding roads and infrastructure.
The election, the first presidential vote since U.N. peacekeepers withdrew two years ago, was seen as a test of whether the West African country has emerged from the chaos
"My government will spare no effort to adopt zero tolerance on corruption and mismanagement of state resources We know how high your expectations are and that you have suffered for too long," Koroma told the crowd of military officials, dignitaries and supporters at the ceremony.
Alieu Mansaray, an accountant and Koroma supporter, said in Freetown that he was looking forward "to having good roads, regular electricity and water supply, quality and affordable education for our children."
About 2.6 million of Sierra Leone's 5 million people registered to vote in the election. Kabbah was barred by term limits from running for a third
five-year term.
The governing party candidate was considered the front-runner before the first round of voting on Aug. 11. But Koroma won 44 percent of the
vote in the first round, compared with 38 percent for Berea. The margin was not large enough for him to win outright, forcing a runoff.
Koroma's win solidifies the return
of his All People's Congress to power for the first time since being ousted in a 1992 coup. The APC also won the majority of legislative seats in last month's vote.
VENEZUELA
Chavez makes new curriculum President may close schools that don't accept it
BY IAN JAMES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Genesis Barreto, 10, sings Venezuela's national anthem as she and her fourth grade class begin a school day at a Bolivian school in Caracas on Wednesday. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to close or take over any private school that refuses to submit to the oversight of his socialist government as it develops a new curriculum and textbooks.
CARACAS, Venezuela—President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to close or take over any private school that refuses to submit to the oversight of his socialist government as it develops a new curriculum and textbooks.
ASSOCIATAED PRESS
"Society cannot allow the private sector to do whatever it wants," said Chavez, speaking on the first day of classes.
All schools, public and private, must admit state inspectors and submit to the government's new educational system, or be closed and nationalized, with the state taking responsibility for the education of their children, Chavez said.
A new curriculum will be ready by the end of this school year, and new textbooks are being developed to help educate "the new citizen," said Chavez's brother and education minister Adan Chavez, who joined him a televised ceremony at the opening of a public school in the eastern town of El Tigre.
The president's opponents accuse him of aiming to indoctrinate young Venezuelans with socialist ideology. But the education minister said the aim is to develop "critical thinking," not to impose a single way of thought.
Just what the new curriculum will include and how it will be applied to all Venezuelan schools and universities remains unclear.
"We want to create our own ideology collectively — creative, diverse," the president said, adding that it would help develop values of "cooperation and solidarity."
All schools will be bound to
"subordinate themselves to the constitution" and comply with the "new Bolivarian educational system," he said, referring to his socialist movement named after South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.
Anticipating criticism, Chavez said the state's role in regulating education is internationally accepted and that it wouldn't be possible for a school administrator to insist on autonomy in countries like Germany or the United States.
Chavez also noted that previous Venezuelan educational systems carried their own ideology. Leafing through old grade school textbooks from the 1970s, he pointed out how they referred to Venezuela's "discovery" by Europeans.
"They taught us to admire Christopher Colombus and Superman," Chavez said, adding that education based on capitalist ideology had destroyed "the values of children."
Constitution Day Program at the Dole Institute
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
7:30 p.m.
The Roberts Court
Judge Steve Leben, Kansas Court of Appeals State Representative Pat Collton, Attorney Professor Burdett Loomis, Political Science Professor Steve McAllister, KU School of Law
Panelists:
The panel will discuss the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts. Questions will include: How much has the Supreme Court changed with the addition of the Chief Justice and Justice Alto? Who is/are the "swing" vote(s) on the Court now? Recent hot-button cases including affirmative action, campaign finance, freedom of speech and other constitutional topics will also be addressed.
ROBERT J. DOLE
INSTITUTE OF POLITICS
The University of Kansas
Then first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, holding a copy of the Clinton health care plan, tried and failed to reform health insurance during her husband's first term. In the years since the proposal, wary presidential candidates at first avoided the altogether, then only gingerly approached the subject. This year, no self-respecting presidential candidate, including Clinton, wants to be without a health-care reform plan, and widespread talk of universal coverage is back.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
www.doleinstitute.org
250 PETEFISH LA, WARENCE, KS 60645
KU SCHOOL OF LAW
The University of Kansas
>> PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Clinton proposes universal health care, says big government is not involved
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DESMOINES, Iowa — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton called for universal health care on Monday, plunging back into the bruising political battle she famously lost as first lady on an issue that looms large in the 2008 presidential race.
"This is not government-run," the party's front-runner said of her plan to extend coverage to an estimated 47 million Americans who now go without.
In unveiling her plan, she called for a requirement for businesses to obtain insurance for employees, and said the wealthy should pay higher taxes to help defray the cost for those less able to pay for it. She put the government's cost at $110 billion a year.
Her declaration was a clear message to Republicans, the insurance industry, businesses and millions of voters who nervously recall what sank her effort at health care reform 13 years ago — fear of a big-government takeover.
Mindful of the lessons of her failed attempt, Clinton said that anyone who was content with their health coverage could keep what they had. She insisted no new government bureaucracy would be created even as it sought to cover tens of millions uninsured.
"I know my Republican opponents will try to equate health care for all Americans with government-run health care," Clinton said. "Don't let them fool us again. This is not government-run."
The New York senator said her
plan would require every American to purchase insurance, either through their jobs or a program modeled on Medicare or the federal employee health plan. Businesses would have to offer insurance or contribute to a pool to expand coverage. Individuals and small businesses would receive tax credits to make insurance more affordable.
Then, the Clinton health care task force met in secret and tried to drive legislation through Congress. Now, Clinton, a senator for seven years, spoke of compromise, although she vowed to accomplish her goal in her first term if elected.
"I believe everyone — every man, woman and child — should have quality, affordable health care in America," Clinton told an audience at a medical center in Iowa, where the nomination process starts.
As the front-runner, Clinton drew swift criticism from rivals, including party foes Bill Richardson
and John Edwards who argued she was merely following their lead in offering a similar plan.
Clinton framed her quest as a moral imperative in which individuals, businesses, the insurance industry and the federal government each had a role to play. She said her plan would be bipartisan and would only be successful through negotiation — a sharp departure from her earlier effort.