Portal:Current events/2008 April 12

Current events of April 12, 2008 (2008-04-12) (Saturday)

The National Assembly of Haiti removes the Prime Minister of Haiti Jacques-Edouard Alexis following a week of food riots in which six deaths had occurred. (Los Angeles Times) The President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao meets with the Vice-President-elect of Republic of China (Taiwan) Vincent Siew in the highest level talks between the two sides since 1949. (BBC News) The Herald, a government-run newspaper, reports that Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, will not attend the regional crisis meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, to discuss the crisis over the 2008 presidential election. (AP via Google News) International reaction to the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence: Russia threatens to block Ban Ki Moon from serving a second term as United Nations Secretary-General because of his stance on Kosovo's recent independence. The Kremlin is pressing Ban to ignore, or at least prolong, a proposed 120-day transition period to Kosovo independence from Serbia that expires on 16 June. Renewal of Serbia-Kosovo talks is possible. (Makfax) A Sudanese cargo plane crashes in Moldova, killing eight people. (Reuters) A call to boycott French hypermart Carrefour from 1 May began spreading through mobile text messaging and online chat rooms amongst the Chinese over the weekend from 12 April, accusing the company's major shareholder, the LVMH Group, of donating funds to the Dalai Lama. There were also calls to extend the boycott to include French luxury goods and cosmetic products. According to the Washington Times on April 15, however, the Chinese government was attempting to "calm the situation" through censorship: "All comments posted on popular Internet forum Sohu.com relating to a boycott of Carrefour have been deleted."