Election and ethics

Opinion polls suggested that
Dilma Rousse , the ruling
party’s candidate, is on track to
win Brazil’s presidential election
on October 3rd despite an
ethics scandal. Erenice Guerra,
who replaced Ms Rousse as
chief of sta to Luiz Inácio Lula
da Silva, the outgoing president,
resigned over claims that
she was complicit in a scheme
of her son’s to extract kickbacks
in return for help with
public contracts and loans. Ms
Guerra denies wrongdoing.
In a front-page editorial addressed
to drug-tra cking
gangs, the main newspaper in
Ciudad Juárez, on Mexico’s
border with the United States,
asked for guidance on what it
could and could not publish
without su ering violent
reprisals. The editorial followed
the murder of an intern
at the paper. It also complained
of the lack of government
protection.
Argentina’s government
stepped up its campaign
against the country’s two main
newspapers, ling a lawsuit
accusing them of complicity in
crimes against humanity
when they bought a newsprint
business during the country’s
military dictatorship of the
1970s. The papers say the
charges are bogus.
In a continuing shake-up of his
economic team, Cuba’s president,
Raúl Castro, sacked the

Territorial talks

Territorial talks
An international summit
convened in Moscow to discuss
competing territorial
claims to the Arctic Ocean.
Russia, Canada, Denmark,
Norway and the United States
have all made claims in the
resource-rich region, which
some believe could hold up to
a quarter of the world’s oil and
gas reserves.
Sweden’s four-party centreright
alliance was returned in a
general election, but provisional
results suggested it was
short of an overall majority.
The far-right Sweden Democrats
entered parliament for
the rst time, winning 20 seats.
Ireland raised 1.5 billion ($2
billion) through a bond issue,
slightly easing fears that it may
be forced to tap EU bail-out
funds. The auction was good
news for Brian Cowen, the
prime minister, whose leadership
is under scrutiny after a
recent allegedly drunken radio
interview.
France raised its terror alert
after receiving a tip-o from a
foreign intelligence service
about an imminent threat of
attack by a female suicidebomber
on the public transport
system. The alert came a
week after the Senate, the
upper house, voted to ban full
Islamic veils.
In Germany’s biggest antinuclear
demonstrations for
decades, tens of thousands
took to the streets of Berlin to
protest against the government’s
plans to extend the
lifespan of Germany’s nuclear
reactors. More

politic

American diplomats pressed
Israel’s government to extend
a moratorium, due to expire on
September 26th, on the building
and expansion of Jewish
settlements in the West Bank.
Acompromise should allow
direct peace talks between
Israelis and Palestinians,
which resumed only this
month, to continue.
South Africa’s president,
Jacob Zuma, appeared, for
now, to have fended o critics
within his ruling African
National Congress and among
his trade union allies at a party
conference of 2,000 members.
Somalia’s prime minister,
Omar Sharmarke, who has
been criticised for failing to
defeat the Shabab jihadist
movement, resigned amid
feuds within the beleaguered
transitional government,
whose writ barely runs beyond
the capital, Mogadishu.
Thousands of civilians ed the
south Yemeni town of Hawta,
which has been besieged by
government forces trying to
ush out a jihadist rebel group
said to be linked to al-Qaeda.
At least ten people were killed
when a bomb went o during
a military parade in Mahabad,
the main town in Iran’s Kurdish
north-western region. The
Iranian branch of the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party, which
operates mainly in Turkey, fell
under suspicion.