■ China
Kerry wins duck vote
John Kerry won the duck vote by a landslide. A Chinese restaurant owner who put duck dishes named for the major US presidential candidates on his menu said yesterday that 60 percent of diners ordered "Kerry Duck" over "Bush Duck." The mock election at the Chuxuanlu Restaurant in Foshan, a city near Hong Kong, began on Oct. 23 and ended yesterday. "Most of our guests support [Senator John] Kerry, because [President George W.] Bush is a tough guy and ... wants control over the world," the owner, who would give only his surname, Nie, said by phone from Foshan.
■ United States
Execution on election eve
In the midst of the US election on Tuesday, Texas, the leading death penalty state, took time out to execute a man for a 1990 murder. Lorenzo Morris, 52, received a lethal injection in Houston shortly after 6pm in the state's 19th execution this year. He was the 332nd person put to death in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. Morris was condemned for killing Jesse Fields, 70, after breaking into his Houston home and demanding money. A prison spokeswoman said Morris did not vote in the presidential election because Texas law forbids jailed felons from casting a ballot.
■ Australia
Downer favors Bush for win
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday that US President George W. Bush appeared on track for a second term and said Australia's government could build on its already strong relationship with the Bush administration. "It does look as though President Bush is more likely than not to be re-elected and obviously from our point of view the Bush administration is a known quantity," Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. "But frankly if Senator [John] Kerry somehow miraculous-ly comes through here, or any case had been elected, we would have worked pretty well with them as well," Downer added.
■ United States
TV treads warily
Mindful of the spectacular failure of their blown calls four years ago, television networks proceeded with caution as election results came in on Tuesday. There were concerns, however, that the early exit polls they commissioned had indicated John Kerry would do better than he appeared to be faring as actual vote counts came in. Five TV news organizat-ions and The Associated Press formed the National Election Pool to conduct exit polls of voters, while the AP was supplying actual vote counts from across the nation. The networks blamed bad information from an old system for twice prematurely declaring a winner in Florida in 2000.
■ Congress
Jindal coasts into Congress
Republican Bobby Jindal coasted to an easy and expected victory, taking over the vacant US House seat for suburban New Orleans and becoming the only Indian-American in the US Congress. Jindal, 33, raised US$2 million more than his closest opponent in Tuesday's election. The five men running against the son of immigrants from India never jeopardized his huge lead, and most didn't bother to raise any cash to oppose him.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
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