KATHMANDU (AFP) - - The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal was set for historic change on Wednesday with an assembly expected to abolish the country's 240-year-old monarchy, in a key victory for former Maoist rebels.
Security was tight around the venue for the assembly, which is set to dissolve the monarchy and sack the unpopular King Gyanendra when it holds its first session later Wednesday.
Scores of police ringed the conference centre in Kathmandu after a series of bomb blasts in the runup to the meet by suspected "anti-republicans" supporting Gyanendra, who ascended the throne seven years ago after a palace massacre.
A homemade bomb exploded in a Kathmandu park on Tuesday shortly after Constituent Assembly members were sworn in, injuring two people.
The lawmakers, elected in last month's polls to draft a new constitution, were set to begin proceedings at 11:00 am (0545 GMT) at the convention centre.
"This is an epoch-making day," Maoist leader Prachanda, who is expected to head the country's next government, told reporters on Tuesday.
"For the past 50 years people have been fighting for this. The institution of the monarchy will formally come to an end."
The Maoists, who have long vowed to remove the king and create a republic, emerged as surprise winners in the April polls, taking a third of the assembly's 601 seats.
The Maoists signed a landmark peace deal in 2006 that brought them into the political mainstream, ending a decade-long insurgency that killed thousands of people and crippled the already impoverished nation's economy.
Gyanendra was crowned following the 2001 killing of his popular brother Birendra and most of the royal family by a drink-and-drug-fuelled crown prince who later killed himself.
Although seen by loyalists as the reincarnation of a Hindu god, he remained at the centre of conspiracy theories linking him to the killings.
He still enjoys some support from Hindu hardliners and powerful elements in the armed forces and ruling elite, but observers of the royal house said Wednesday's meet appeared to be the end of the Shah dynasty.
"He has been isolated and he has a very slim chance of making a comeback," said Surendra Khatri Chhetri, a history professor at Tribhuvan University.
"The strength of republican sentiment has cornered the king."
Kishore Shrestha, editor of a weekly newspaper that regularly runs scoops from palace staff on the dynnasty said the king appeared to be preparing for life as a commoner.
"Palace sources have told me he has started laying off large numbers of staff, and has been renovating two of his private properties," Shrestha said.
"My sources tell me that he will vacate the main palace very soon."
Gyanendra's whereabouts were unknown late Tuesday, after he was seen leaving Narayanhiti palace, a sprawling complex in the heart of Kathmandu, driving himself and Queen Komal in a Mercedes car and part of a small convoy.
The palace press secretariat said it did not know where the king was going, or if he was leaving for good -- in line with Maoist demands that he vacate his royal home and bow out gracefully.
Last month's vote appeared to vindicate the Maoist demand for a republic, with the former rebels winning more than a third of the new assembly's seats.
But less than a day before the assembly was to begin, the mainstream parties and Maoists were still wrangling Tuesday over the make up of a new government.
Maoists insist they have the right to lead the nation after their win, but the other parties fear the former rebels will now have too much power.
Gyanendra sealed his fate in early 2005, when he dismissed the government and took direct control, galvanising public sentiment against him.
The rebel Maoists and political parties launched mass protests that forced the king to back down a year later.
In the process the once bitter foes drew closer together, forging the 2006 peace agreement, ending a decade of civil war that killed 13,000 people, and completely sidelining the king.
"The doors to a republic were opened by the king himself," said historian Khatri Chhetri. "The palace is no more a central figure of politics."
KATHMANDU (AFP) - - Nepal's Maoists, on track for victory in landmark elections, on Wednesday called on the country's embattled king to step down "gracefully" or else face a humiliating eviction from his palace.
The call came as the former rebels maintained a strong lead in the count from last Thursday's vote on the impoverished country's political future.
The Maoists so far look set to dominate a 601-seat assembly that will rewrite Nepal's constitution, and have said their first act will be to sack King Gyanendra and abolish his 240-year-old monarchy.
"The best thing for the king would be to bow out gracefully to pave the way for a democratic republic," Baburam Bhattarai, the Maoists' second-in-command, told AFP.
The process of getting rid of the monarchy, he said, was now unstoppable.
"In the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly we will declare the country a republic, then we will notify the king to leave the palace," Bhattarai said in an interview.
"As an ordinary citizen, he will have to abide by the law."
Gyanendra ascended the throne in 2001 when his brother and predecessor, King Birendra, was shot dead along with eight other family members by a drunk and lovelorn crown prince, who in turn killed himself.
In 2005 he seized absolute power to fight the Maoists, but instead fuelled a wave of republican sentiment that led to a historic 2006 peace deal culminating in last week's polls.
In his first meeting with business leaders in the capital, Maoist leader Prachanda -- whose nom-de-guerre means "the fierce one" -- promised "economic miracles" for the aid-dependent Himalayan country.
"We have been given a chance to lead the government and we now think that this responsibility is to bring economic miracles in the country," he said late Wednesday.
"People might not believe that we can bring economic miracles, but we will prove it," said the former school teacher.
With the vote count ongoing in the dual first-past-the-post and proportional representation system, election officials said out of a total of 217 seats already allocated, the Maoists have won 116. Their nearest rival, the centrist Nepali Congress, has won just 32 seats.
Officials said counting for the 335 seats to be awarded by proportional representation was under way, with the results -- based on roughly 40 percent of returns -- so far showing the Maoists in the lead with a 31 percent share of the tallied votes.
"The Maoists have the highest percentage of votes so far, but we cannot know the number of seats they will be allocated until we have counted all the votes," election official Dilliram Bastola told AFP.
Counting in the proportional representation section of the vote will be finished by Tuesday or Wednesday next week, he said. The proportional representation leg of the counting was expected to give the Maoists an even greater boost, analysts said.
The Maoists' showing at the ballot box confounded analysts and diplomats who predicted the former rebels would do well to finish third.
"We have fought with the people for democratic change, and we know the masses," Bhattarai said. "We are more aware than the other parties about the problems Nepal faces."
Bhattarai however said that his party would continue to work with Nepal's mainstream parties in a new coalition government.
"We are confident we can work with other parties. There is no alternative as this was not a general election -- it was an election to make a new constitution," he said.
Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said the ultra-leftists -- who remain on a US list of terrorist organisations -- could be trusted to run the country.
"We are not here today because of strength of arms -- we are here because the people sent us here," said Mahara.
"We are committed to the peace process, we are committed to democracy and I want to appeal to all sceptics not to doubt our commitment towards this people's verdict."
The Maoists launched an armed insurgency in 1996 with the aim of toppling the monarchy and establishing a communist republic. The conflict left at least 13,000 people dead, and came to an end with the 2006 peace deal.
ASUNCION (AFP) - - Leftist former bishop Fernando Lugo won a historic presidential election in Paraguay on Sunday as he defeated ruling party candidate Blanca Ovelar to end 61 years of Colorado Party domination.
Lugo was declared the winner by the Electoral Tribunal with 41 percent of the vote compared to 31 percent for Ovelar, crushing her dream of becoming the South American country's first woman president.
"Today we can dream of a different country," Lugo, 56, told reporters. "Paraguay will simply not be remembered for its corruption and poverty, but for its honesty."
Ovelar, whose party has been in power since 1947, conceded defeat before the final results were released.
"I recognize the triumph of Fernando Lugo," she said. "We acknowledge with dignity that the results for the presidential badge are at this point irreversible."
Another candidate, Lino Oviedo, 64, a retired army chief who helped stage a coup that ended the 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), trailed far behind in third place.
Lugo earlier addressed jubilant supporters of his leftist Patriotic Alliance for Change coalition at his campaign headquarters, saying the election showed that "the little people can also win."
"You are responsible for the happiness of the majority of the Paraguayan people today," he said as supporters chanted his name.
"This is the Paraguay I dream about, with many colors, many faces, the Paraguay of everyone," said Lugo, who was suspended from his religious order by the Vatican in late 2006 for his entry into politics.
His supporters began celebrating their anticipated victory setting off fireworks even before polls closed.
The Colorado Party has been in power for 61 years, including Stroessner rule. Paraguay chose its first democratically-elected president in 1993.
There is no runoff vote in Paraguay. Outgoing President Nicanor Duarte constitutionally could not seek re-election after serving a five-year term.
Former Colombian President Alfredo Pastrana, one of the election observers, said turnout among the 2.9 million elegible voters was high: "it's going to reach 60, 65 and hopefully even 70 percent."
Lugo's coalition earlier had feared fraud would mar Sunday's vote, but as 70 observers from the Organization of American States monitored ballot stations, electoral court chief Rafael Dendia said voting went smoothly.
International Transparency, an organization monitoring for voter fraud, reported some cases of corruption.
"We've seen voting cards being bought and money going around in some polling booths," one of the group's observers, Pilar Callizo, told Channel 4.
"We also saw Colorado Party teams inside and outside some polling stations creating an atmosphere of intimidation," she added.
Lugo's opponents have said he is in line with leftwing presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.
But Lugo, while championing the rights of the poor, says he is more centrist as he seeks to overhaul a country with a per-capita income of just 1,900 dollars.
While Paraguay's formal economy relies on agriculture, corruption is pervasive.
Duarte made little headway in stamping out graft, which also sullied his own administration. Paraguay is a prime source of contraband electronics and cigarettes, most smuggled into neighboring Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia.
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 20 minutes ago
HAVANA - Raul Castro, Cuba's first new president in nearly half a century, crushed hopes that a new generation would shape the country's future by promising to defer to his ailing brother Fidel and the Communist Party's old guard on major matters.
Shunning younger candidates, the island's parliament tapped 77-year-old revolutionary leader Jose Ramon Machado for the government's No. 2 spot, meaning Raul Castro's constitutional successor is even older than he is, by a year.
The retirement of 81-year-old Fidel Castro capped a career in which he frustrated efforts by 10 U.S. presidents to oust him. But despite finally emerging from his brother's shadow, Raul made it clear that Fidel will continue to play a key role in running Cuba.
"Fidel is Fidel, we all know it very well," the younger Castro told parliament after lawmakers unanimously approved the succession with a show of hands. "Fidel is irreplaceable and the people will continue his work when he is no longer physically with us."
He suggested that no quick or major economic or political overhauls are in Cuba's future, and that the Communist Party collectively would take over the role long held by his brother, who still has the important position of party head.
Fidel's power in government has eroded since July 31, 2006, when he announced he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was provisionally ceding his powers to Raul. The younger Castro has headed Cuba's caretaker government in the 19 months since then, and Fidel Castro has not appeared in public.
The parliament vote ended the elder Castro's 49 years as ruler of the communist state in America's backyard, but kept many of the oldest leaders in key positions. It also represented a triumph for a carefully managed campaign to smoothly transfer power from Fidel, even as the U.S. lobbied for a quick "transition to democracy."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized the Castros' succession, saying Cubans have a right "to choose their leaders in democratic elections."
She also urged the Cuban government to "to begin a process of peaceful, democratic change by releasing all political prisoners, respecting human rights and creating a clear pathway toward free and fair elections."
Though the succession was not likely to bring a major shift in the communist policies that have put Cuba at odds with the U.S., many Cubans had hoped it would open the door to modest economic reforms that might improve their daily lives. Many had also hoped younger leaders would assume more important roles.
On Sunday, some Cubans appeared dejected.
"I guess nothing's going to change then," said Yuniel, a 22-year-old waiter in a restaurant near Havana's Central Park. Like many Cubans, he declined to give his last name when criticizing the government. "There's no reason people should hope for anything."
Marleen Rodriguez, a 25-year-old store clerk in the central city of Santa Clara, said she had hoped Cuba's 42-year-old foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, would be chosen president.
"Fidel talked about young people, and then they choose Raul," she said.
But others said they had gotten used to Raul as head of state, and the country has been calm with him at the helm.
"I'm very content," Luis Cuevas, a 43-year-old locksmith in the central city of Ciego de Avila, said of Raul's presidency. "This is what was expected."
Raul Castro had called for debate on how to shape Cuba's economic future and even endorsed unspecified "structural changes" to the communist system. But he said Sunday that anyone hoping for radical change "overlooked the fact that it was debate and criticism within socialism."
He indicated that at least one change is being contemplated: the re-valuation of the Cuban peso, the currency most people use to pay for government services and the small amount charged for their monthly food ration. But he also noted that the government spends too much money maintaining the ration program, saying that it was "irrational and unsustainable."
The overwhelming majority of Cubans work for the state, and many complain that the government pays them in Cuban pesos but sells goods in government-run grocery and retail stores in Cuban Convertible Pesos — largely available only to tourists and foreigners, and worth 24 times more.
Reinaldo Garcia, a 49-year-old mechanic, said he could live without a ration card if the regular peso gets stronger.
"If there were only one currency instead of two, Cuban money would be strong enough and the ration card wouldn't matter," Garcia said.
The new No. 2, Machado, fought alongside the Castro brothers in Cuba's eastern mountains in the late 1950s.
New members on the governing Council of State also include two top generals close to Raul and another aging revolutionary commander. The head of the military's economics ministry will replace Raul Castro as defense minister.
Cuba's young guard apparently will have to wait a little longer.
Cabinet secretary Carlos Lage, 56, who is associated with the modest economic reforms of the 1990s, had been among the most visible Cuban officials since Fidel Castro fell ill. He will continue as a regular vice president.
Raul's rise caused little sensation Sunday on the sweaty streets of Havana, where children continued to play baseball with improvised bats and gloves. During his speech, military reservists in olive-green uniforms were stationed on major street corners, but many were later recalled.
AP Photo: Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, center, speaks with journalists upon arrival for a meeting with the relatives of three Colombian hostages kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, in Barinas, Venezuela, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008.
AP
Chavez Threatens to Halt Oil Sales to US
Sunday February 10, 6:23 pm ET
By Sandra Sierra, Associated Press Writer
Venezuelan President Threatens to Cut Off Oil Sales to US, Calls Exxon Mobil 'Outlaws'
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar oil project by Chavez's government.
A British court has issued an injunction "freezing" as much as $12 billion in assets.
"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to harm you," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello, President." "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States. Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."
Chavez has repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States, which is Venezuela's No. 1 client, if Washington tries to oust him. Chavez's warnings on Sunday appeared to extend that threat to attempts by oil companies to challenge his government's nationalization drive through lawsuits.
"I speak to the U.S. empire, because that's the master: continue and you will see that we won't sent one drop of oil to the empire of the United States," Chavez said Sunday.
"The outlaws of Exxon Mobil will never again rob us," Chavez said, accusing the Irving, Texas-based oil company of acting in concert with Washington.
Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said the company had no comment. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Caracas did not return a call.
Venezuela accounted for about 12 percent of U.S. crude oil imports in November, the latest figures available from the U.S. Energy Department. The 1.23 million barrels a day from Venezuela makes that country the U.S.'s fourth-biggest oil importer behind Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez has argued that court orders won by Exxon Mobil have "no effect" on the state oil company PDVSA and are merely "transitory measures" while Venezuela presents its case in courts in New York and London.
Exxon Mobil is also taking its claims to international arbitration, disputing the terms it was granted under Chavez's nationalization last year of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world's richest oil deposits.
Other major oil companies including U.S.-based Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC, and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA have negotiated deals with Venezuela to continue on as minority partners in the Orinoco oil project.
ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, however, balked at the tougher terms and have been in compensation talks with PDVSA.
Associated Press writer John Porretto in Houston contributed to this report.
