■ Bolivia
President will be `practical'
President-elect Evo Morales, further distancing himself from his fiery campaign rhetoric, said on Saturday he learned from a 10-day world tour that he needs to be pragmatic and do "good business" for Bolivia. "I understand perfectly that it's important to be practical," he told a news conference. "Now I am much more convinced that the work of the government, the work of the president, is to do good business for the Bolivian people." Morales, who campaigned on a platform of nationalizing the country's energy resources and ending US-backed efforts to halt coca cultivation, takes office on Jan. 22.
■ United States
Politicians eat raccoon
In most places, a politician has to kiss babies in order to succeed. Arkansas politicians have to eat raccoon. At the small east Arkansas town of Gillett every year, candidates and political junkies gather for its annual Coon Supper. The event is the ultimate meet-and-greet for the state's politicians. US Representative Marion Berry hosts a party at his farm before the annual dinner. He credits the gathering with his own political fortune. ``If it weren't for the Coon Supper, I probably wouldn't be in public life today," Berry said.
■ United States
Man sentenced to church
A judge sentenced a suburban Cincinnati man to attend services for six weeks at a predominantly black church for threatening to punch a black cab driver and using racial slurs.Brett Haines, 36, of Anderson Township, Ohio, picked church over spending 30 days in jail. Judge William Mallory offered Haines the choice on Friday after he was convicted of disorderly conduct. Haines was arrested in November for threatening cab driver David Wilson and Wilson's wife and telling them he hated black people. "It seems readily apparent to me that you don't like black people," Mallory told Haines. "That's OK with me. But you have to understand that you are at the whim and authority of a black judge."
■ United States
Family discredits testimony
An Indiana truck driver who claims that his identical twin brother, not he, tried to sell the names of US agents to Iraq's government, found his defense undermined by his own family. Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban's older brother testified on Friday in federal court in Indianapolis that no such twin exists. Meanwhile, Shaaban's 29-year-old son, Russian-born Ahmed Shaaban, testified that his father maintained several different passports and identities.The government alleges Shaaban traveled to Baghdad in late 2002 and agreed to sell the names of US agents and operatives to Iraq for US$3 million.
RSS