Yearbook 2008 Zambia. The government announced in May that bank accounts, real estate and other assets at a estimated value equivalent to at least SEK 350 million were seized from senior officials who were members of the former President Frederick Chiluba’s circle. The confiscated assets would be used to build new hospitals. Ex-President Chiluba has…
Author: payhelpcenter
Yemen 2008
Yearbook 2008 The Yemeni government was crowded during the year by both Shia and Sunni Muslim extremists. The ceasefire entered into in 2007 between the government and Shiite Muslim militants from the al-Huthi clan was broken in January, when at least 25 rebels and 18 government soldiers were killed in fighting in the northern Sada…
Western Sahara 2008
Yearbook 2008 Western Sahara. Representatives of the Western Sahara Independence Movement Polisario as well as for Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania met for talks in January and March outside New York. The goal was to reach a solution to the question of Morocco’s occupation of V., but no progress was achieved. The United Nations Security Council…
Vietnam 2008
Yearbook 2008 Vietnam. A series of strikes were carried out at the beginning of the year by industrial workers protesting that their wages did not keep pace with inflation. As a result, the government decided that the workers who participated in an illegal strike could be ordered to pay damages to their employers for up…
Venezuela 2008
Yearbook 2008 Venezuela. In the November 23 regional elections, President Hugo Chávez’s Party of Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) won a convincing victory in most elections for governor positions. Only 5 out of 22 states are won by the opposition. PSUV also won big in the municipal elections with 267, or 81 percent, of…
Vatican City 2008
Yearbook 2008 Vatican City. The Vatican’s intentions to sanctify the disputed Pope Pius XII were met by criticism from several quarters, including from Israel. Pius, who was pope in 1939–58, has been criticized for not openly renouncing Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews. In 2007, a decree came from the Vatican acknowledging Pius’ “heroic…
Vanuatu 2008
Yearbook 2008 Vanuatu. A total of 341 candidates – some of them from the country’s 29 different parties, others independent – competed for the 52 seats in parliament when elections were held in Vanuatu on September 2. One reason for the record number of candidates was widespread dissatisfaction with the incumbent government and with Prime…
Uzbekistan 2008
Yearbook 2008 Uzbekistan. In January, President Islam Karimov was sworn in for a third term, despite the president being allowed to run for re-election only once. Uzbekistan’s security service was identified at the beginning of the year as guilty of the murder of regime-critical Uzbek journalist Alisjer Saipov in Kyrgyzstan in 2007. According to a…
Uruguay 2008
Yearbook 2008 Uruguay. As has already happened in most Latin American countries, attempts were also made in Uruguay to change the constitution so that the incumbent president can be re-elected. President Tabaré Vázquez had previously opposed a constitutional change in that direction. But after some of his supporters started a campaign to get 250,000 voter…
United States 2008
Yearbook 2008 USA. Shortly after the New Year, the primary elections for the autumn presidential elections began. Among Republicans, Arizona senator John McCain soon became the leading candidate, and in March, his nomination was formally secured. In the Democratic Party, a bitter battle was going on between the first-favorite Hillary Clinton, New York senator from…