Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party and allies took 10 percentage points more votes than opposition rivals in Sunday’s election for mayors that was a test of strength for President Nicolas Maduro, final results showed on Friday.
Congolese troops and the U.N. peacekeeping mission – which includes a unique Intervention Brigade mandated to eliminate armed groups – last month defeated M23, which signed a peace deal with the Congo government on Thursday.
“It was a lukewarm triumph for ‘Chavismo’, spoilt by the opposition’s win in symbolic cities,” local pollster Luis Vicente Leon said, nike free run 4.0 referring to the movement named for Chavez.
The Tutsi-led M23 rebel group ended its 20-month rebellion, the most serious in Congo in the last decade, after Congolese soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers, known as MONUSCO, captured its last hilltop strongholds in Chanzu, near the Rwandan border.
Venezuela’s inflation rate of 54 percent annually is the highest in the Americas and was weighing on Maduro’s popularity. But the measures reversed his ratings dips and seem to have won his candidates votes last weekend, even though some economists believe they will worsen the structural economic problems.
“I have a clear message to all who would commit atrocities and crimes against humanity. The world is watching. You will be held to account,” nike free run 4.0 he added. The International Criminal Court has said all parties could be investigated.
Rwanda has repeatedly intervened in Congo, saying it had to hunt down the Hutu militia who fled after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda and Congo have fought two wars over the past two decades in Congo’s resource-rich east.
Though the ballot for mayors in the South American nation was a symbolic victory for Maduro’s sometimes shaky-looking presidency, it also underlined the strength of his opponents in urban centers and the deep divisions of Venezuelan society.
After four elections in just over a year – two presidential votes, one governors’ election and the municipal polls – Venezuelan voters now have a respite until the end of 2015 when they will elect a new parliament.
French troops, who number 1,600 in the country, nike barefoot shoes say disarmament in the capital is drawing to an end and troops have begun disarming gunmen in other towns. But the Bohong killings point to the scale of the task in a country the size of France.
“Too many people are scared and the country is on the brink of ruin … The bloodshed must stop,” Ban said in a radio address to the nation.
Residents in Miskine said it was a Seleka stronghold and urged the French army and African peacekeepers to step up their intelligence operations in a bid to bring calm.
BANGUI CLASHES
Several people died in clashes in the Miskine neighborhood of northwest Bangui overnight and Friday morning, according to witnesses, nike free run on clearance a sign the capital itself remains unstable.
The fighting started when Christians on Thursday looted the motorbike shop of a man linked to the Seleka, and escalated into reprisal killings. French troops, backed by a helicopter, restored calm on Friday, they said.
“The tension is still high in the neighborhood despite the presence of the French,” said Chancella Cazalima, a student.
Growth has slowed, the local bolivar currency is trading on the black market at 10 times its official rate, and there are scarcities of basic goods from flour to toilet paper because importers say they cannot access enough foreign currency.
“By contrast, in political terms the 8 December result has handed President Maduro a temporary reprieve … the chances of a near-term challenge to his leadership have diminished.”
Passion for the sport 