THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2008
NEWS
5A
Free swim
A hooded seal is released by the University of New England's Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center in Biddeford, Maine, on Sunday. The center released five seals that were treated after being found stranded in February and March.
WORLD
Opposition leader insists victory
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition party in Zimbabwe, addresses a press conference in Harare, Tuesday. Tsvangirai said that according to the results they collected throughout the country he had won the presidency and was waiting for the confirmation from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. He was flanked by Thokozile Khupe, left, the party's deputy president and Tendai Biti, Secretary General.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARARE, Zimbabwe — The main opposition leader insisted Tuesday he has won Zimbabwe's presidential election outright and denied persistent reports he was negotiating to ease out President Robert Mugabe, who has led the country from liberation to ruin.
In his first public comments since Saturday's election, Morgan Tvangirai said he was waiting for an official announcement of the results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission before he would enter any talks with Mugabe.
A businessman close to the state electoral commission and a lawyer close to the opposition said earlier the two men's aides were negotiating a graceful exit for Mugabe, the country's leader of 28 years. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Several diplomats said they had heard similar reports of secret negotiations but could not confirm talks were under way.
"There are no discussions," Tsvangirai said. "Let's wait for ZEC to complete its work, then we can discuss the circumstances that will affect the people."
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matanga also denied it, telling the British Broadcasting Corp. "There are no negotiations whatsoever, because we are waiting for the presidential results, so why do we need to hold any secret talks?"
Tensions rose as people stayed away from work to await results. A senior police officer, Wayne Bvudzijena, went on state radio to say: "Our forces are more than ready to deal with perpetrators of violence."
Paramilitary police have stepped
up patrols in Harare and Bulawayo, the second-largest city, and several roadblocks have been set up at strategic entries to the capital. The opposition has most of its support in urban centers.
Tsangirai said he had won more than the 50 percent simple majority needed for victory. Mugabe has made no statement about the election.
The businessman said Mugabe has been told he is far behind Tsvangirai in preliminary results and that he might have to face a runoff. He said the prospect was too humiliating for the 84-year-old Mugabe, and that was why the president was considering ceding power in this Montana-sized country in southern Africa.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a coalition of 38 Zimbabwe civil society organizations, said its random representative sample of polling stations showed Tsvangirai won just over 49 percent of the vote and Mugabe 42 percent. Simba Makoni, a former Mugabe loyalist, trailed at about 8 percent.
In Washington, Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council, said "it's clear the people of Zimbabwe have voted for change. It's time for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to confirm the results we have all seen from the local polling stations and respected NGOs."
At his news conference, Tsvangiral spoke as if he already had been declared president:
"For years we have trod a journey of hunger, pain, torture and brutality," he said. "Today we face a new challenge of governing and rehabilitating our beloved country, the challenge of giving birth to a new Zimbabwe founded on restoration not retribution, on love not war."
The commission has offered no results in the presidential race.
Zimbabweans still fear that Mugabe may declare himself winner, as he has in previous elections that observers said were marked by rigging, violence and intimidation.
NATION
Ventura says he is done with politics
ASSOCIATED PRESS
THEN- Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura reacts to the projected shortfall expected to hit $4.56 billion over the next two and a half years during a news conference on Dec. 4, 2002, at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, the former Reform Party governor and professional wrestler said there was not anything that could get him back into politics.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ventura not pleased with either candidate
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota already has a comedian running for Senate. So why not its most famous former pro wrestler?
In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, former Reform Party Gov. Jesse Ventura said there's nothing that could get him back into politics. But then he kept talking:
"I've learned after 56 years you never say never. I have no
attention at this point in time, but who knows, that could change?" He said that he's watching the Senate race with interest, and that "I'm not very pleased with either candidate."
he just finished shooting an independent movie, "Woodshop," in which he plays a shop teacher. And the pro former wrestler and one-term governor just wrote "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!"
The book is constructed as a loose travelogue of his and wife Terry's drive from Minnesota to Baja California, Mexico, where they now spend more than half their time, as Ventura put it, more than an hour from pavement and
"I would think we certainly could do a whole lot better in the state of Minnesota."
"I would think we certainly could do a whole lot better in the state of Minnesota." Ventura said.
JESSE VENTURA Former Minnesota governor
They would be Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, who suffered his only electoral defeat when Ventura beat him for the governorship in 1998, and Al Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" comedian running as a Democrat.
Ventura has been busy. He called from Boulder, Colo., where
an hour from electricity.
In the book, Ventura digresses into his obsessions, at one point laying out a scenario in which he ends up running for president, including a campaign
kickoff at a Wrestlemania event.
"Am I going to run for president this year? No," he said.
In between talking about leaving the gold standard and the virtues of Mexican property taxes, Ventura declared himself "the most powerful man in America." Why? Because, he said, Republicans and Democrats had to work together to stop him when he was governor.
"I'm the only one that could get them in bed together," he said.