Random News from the Rest of the World

Brazilian Drug Trafficker Tries To Escape Prison Disguised As His Daughter

A poor showing for Argentina's President Mauricio Macri and a surge for his leftist opponent sparked fears of a possible default on the country's IMF loans, sending the peso to its lowest level in nearly two decades and causing a massive sell-off in the country's stock market.

The child halted his trip after beginning to feel unwell. Police said no one was hurt by the boy's 140 kilometer/hour trip down an autobahn near Dortmund.

An 8-year-old boy went for a 140 km/h (87 mph) joyride on a German autobahn in the early hours of Wednesday morning, police confirmed.

Authorities were alerted by the child's mother at about 12:25 a.m. local time, before she found her son, unscathed, in a lay-by, an hour later. He had put the hazard lights on and placed a warning triangle behind the parked vehicle.

When police arrived on the scene the tearful boy said: "I just wanted to drive a little."

The child was found on the A44 heading in the direction of Dortmund having driven off in an automatic Volkswagen Golf from the family home in the western town of Soest, Germany's dpa news agency reported.

He abandoned his journey eight kilometers in as he began to feel unwell, despite having experience of bumper cars and go-karts.

No one was injured by the boy's trip and no damage to the family's or other vehicles or property was reported.

First lady Rula Ghani at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. Earlier this year, she helped free more than 190 Afghan women and girls imprisoned for failing the virginity test after reproductive rights activist Farhad Javid brought it to her attention in October.

Outgoing PM accepts 'with reservations' for M5S-PD majority
ANSA, 29 August 2019

Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday handed outgoing Premier Giuseppe Conte a mandate to form a government, presidency secretary general Ugo Zampetti said after the two men met at the Quirinal Palace.

Conte, as is the usual practice, reserved the right to accept the mandate pending talks with the two parties supporting the government bid, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

The M5S-PD government would replace the M5S-League administration which nationalist League leader Matteo Salvini brought down earlier this month, citing M5S inaction.

Premier-designate Conte will try to form a government on the basis of an existing agreement, certified by consultations with Mattarella, between former fierce foes the M5S and the PD.

Among the chief hurdles, aside form a programme between parties with very different stances on many issues, is the role of M5S leader Luigi Di Maio who appears bent on trying to remain as deputy premier.

Another sticking point is the M5S's determination to put any government deal to its rank-and-file members on its online Rousseau platform where it has always ratified major policy decisions.

PD leader Nicola Zingaretti said "we need the courage to try to end the season of hatred".

Conte, once portrayed as a puppet of Di Maio and Salvini's, came into his own with a resignation speech to the Senate in which he made a blistering attack on "the irresponsible opportunist" Salvini, accusing the nationalist leader of trying to capitalise on surging poll numbers in trying to go to the country in a snap election.

Conte blasted Salvini's "obsession" with migrants and his cavalier and "offensive" use of religious symbols, among other things.

The speech, which put Conte firmly in the M5S camp, also won widespread plaudits from the left.

Conte, 15 months ago a political neophyte plucked from an academic career in law to act as "guarantor" of the M5S-League government, Italy's first all-populist coalition, was seen as eloquently condemning Salvini's alleged act of hubris.

It will now be up to him to bring together the widely divergent M5S and PD stances.


http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2019/08/29/mattarella-gives-conte-mandate_de5c7f54-978c-4ac7-88e8-bae156d12cba.html

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says he is in a position to form a new government, according to an Italian President's office announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

The newly formed coalition government will be sworn in on Thursday.

The coalition is finally being shaped after the 5-Star Movement approved a pact with their former political foes, the Democratic Party. In an online poll on Tuesday, nearly 80 percent of the 5-Star's grassroots members voted in favour of forming a new coalition with their leftist rivals.

Euronews’s correspondent in Rome Elena Cavallone reported earlier on Wednesday that:

“The new coalition was given the blessing by the 5-Star Movement yesterday, There is still work to do. Negotiations went on all night and they are still happening today… There are reports that the 5-Star Movement leader Luigi di Maio is expected to get the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the former Italian Prime-Minister Paolo Gentiloni, from the Democratic Party, is expected to get the role of European Commissioner.”