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Rice urges Haiti toward elections
Associated Press
Published September 29, 2005
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that Haitian authorities must move more quickly to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections set for Nov. 20.
Rice called the elections a potential "new start" for Haiti as the country tries to overcome two decades of democratic failure accompanied by widespread political violence.
She met with Haiti's interim leadership, President Bonaface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, at the presidential palace after a helicopter trip over the area, where she could see row after row of ramshackle housing.
"Elections can be a very important and precious step along the road to democracy," Rice said at a news conference with Latortue at her side. Calling the vote a "powerful weapon," she urged Haitians to exercise it in November.
The elections are the first since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced from office in February 2004.
Canadian workers, GM avoid a strike
TORONTO - The Canadian Auto Workers union reached a tentative agreement with General Motors Corp. just minutes before a strike deadline late Tuesday, averting a walkout by 17,000 members and capping weeks of heated negotiations with the Big Three automakers.
The three-year contract with the world's largest automaker, which comes on the heels of agreements with Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG, was reached after General Motors withdrew a demand for shorter worker breaks at its Oshawa assembly complex outside of Toronto.
U.S. will leave its base in Uzbekistan
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - A senior State Department official said Tuesday the president of Uzbekistan made it clear that American forces must leave their air base in the Central Asian country, and the U.S. intends to do so "without further discussion."
The demand came as relations soured following U.S. criticism of Uzbekistan's crackdown on anti-government protesters in May in the eastern city of Andijan.
Typhoon strikes Vietnam after killing at least 31
THANH HOA, Vietnam - After killing at least 31 people in China and the Philippines, Typhoon Damrey slammed ashore Tuesday in Vietnam, forcing the evacuation of nearly 300,000 people along the coastal region.
The most powerful typhoon to hit northern Vietnam in a decade injured nine people after it landed in Thanh Hoa province, packing winds of up to 60 mph.
Thanh Hoa is 100 miles south of Hanoi.
[Last modified September 29, 2005, 01:20:09]
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