Zimbabwe denounced the G8 yesterday for planning sanctions on its top officials, saying it was part of a colonial and racist move led by Britain and the US to install a puppet government.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the G8 summit in Japan that a draft UN resolution calling for sanctions on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government would include an arms embargo and financial and travel restrictions on 14 officials.
“We condemn this colonial and racist campaign against our country and government, but we are also very cognizant that it is Britain and the United States who are leading this campaign whose ultimate goal is to have their puppets in power,” Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said.
The two Western allies successfully lobbied their G8 partners at the summit to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leadership for holding a violent June 27 presidential poll boycotted by opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai.
They say Mugabe’s re-election was a sham and want the UN Security Council to follow their lead in punishing the 84-year-old ruler. Washington and other Western countries are pushing for the council to vote for sanctions this week.
Ndlovu said the issue did not belong in the UN Security Council because Zimbabwe was not a threat to world peace and security.
However, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev emphasized yesterday that the G8 statement would not necessarily lead to sanctions.
Medvedev told a news conference after the G8 summit that the statement “reflects our concerns ... But there are as yet no concrete decisions on how the United Nations should act in this situation.”
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS