Fancy News

Polls have closed across Venezuela Sunday. The polls will elect mayors, governors and legislators across the country, and are considered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s opponents and supporters as a potentially important political gain or loss since Chavez’s failed constitutional referendums last year.

One of the year-old referenda would have allowed the President of Venezuela to be re-elected indefinitely, which was narrowly defeated in late 2007. So it comes as no surprise that Chávez’s supporters and opponents alike regard the new poll as a test of the President’s standing within the citizenry.

Among his supporters, he is regarded as a populist for turning the nation’s massive oil wealth into capital for schools, hospitals, and subsidized food. Among his opponents, he is regarded as a dictatorial and ineffective leader.

The UK Government has announced that it is cutting the rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) by 2.5%, to 15%, in a move to get consumers spending again.

This move, along other tax cuts, is going to require the government to increase borrowing to record levels, according to experts cited by BBC News.

Gordon Brown: “I don’t see this as a gamble, I see this as necessary, responsible action, that any sensible government would want to take.”
Image: Andy Mettler.

Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister, has stated, “I don’t see this as a gamble, I see this as necessary, responsible action, that any sensible government would want to take.”

“Those people who say do nothing now, would leave people, as in the 1980s and 1990s, without hope that their mortgage problems could be sorted out, or their jobs problems could be sorted out,” he continued in a discussion on BBC television programme “The Politics Show“. “It would be lacking in compassion, as well as irresponsible, in my view.”

A compilation of brief news reports for Wednesday, November 26, 2008: Large drop in US consumer spending, Thai Prime Minister rejects calls to step down, and Europe announces €200 billion rescue plan.

In the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, floods have left 84 people dead and another 53,000 homeless. Heavy rainfall in recent days caused landslides that have blocked roads and destroyed homes in the region. Eight towns have been cut off by flood waters, and some 160,000 people were left without electricity.

Protests and disruption by Thailand’s People’s Alliance for Democracy entered their third day with an invasion and forced shutdown of Bangkok’s main international airport. The yellow-shirted demonstrators are reportedly in full control of Suvarnabhumi Airport, leaving between 3,000 and 4,000 travellers stranded and incoming flights diverted.