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The Socialists in the Madrid parliament have staged the unprecedented move of allowing a reprobation of Ombudsman Enrique Mugica to be heard in a debate. However, the Socialists did not vote in favour of the resolution. The problem appears to be that Mr. Mugica has presented a case before the Constitutional Court against the new Catalan Autonomy Statutes. Partido popular spokesman Eduardo Zaplana stated that it was obvious the Mr. Mugica ‘had not bent to Socialist demands in this matter’.
The United Nations General Assembly yesterday elected Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms starting 1 January 2007. A fifth non-permanent seat, to be awarded to a member of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, remains in contention after neither Guatemala nor Venezuela obtained the needed two-thirds majority during the first two rounds of voting. The four new members will take the seats currently occupied by Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania when their terms on the Council end on 31 December. The members were elected according to an agreed geographic allocation, which awards two seats to African and Asian countries, two to Western European and Other States, and one to Latin America and the Caribbean during this year’s round of elections. Council elections are held by secret ballot, and a winning candidate requires a two-thirds majority of ballots of members present and voting. Formal balloting takes place even in those regions where there is only one candidate per available seat. Belgium and Italy were the only contenders in the Western European and Other States category, and they received 180 and 186 votes respectively, ensuring their election. South Africa, the only candidate in the African group, was elected after picking up 186 votes. In Asia, where there were two contenders, Indonesia received 158 votes and Nepal received 28. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Guatemala received 109 votes in the first round of voting and Venezuela picked up 76. In the second round, when 126 votes were needed for a two-thirds majority, Guatemala won 114 votes and Venezuela received 74. Meanwhile, after 22 rounds of voting, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela received the necessary two-thirds majority, and balloting will continue until a State from Latin America receives the required majority, with no limit to the number of rounds. In 1979, there was a record 155 sessions before Mexico was admitted to the Security Council for a two-year term.
Film Actor Wesley Snipes (“Rising Sun”, “Blade”) was indicted yesterday by a Florida court on eight charges of tax fraud, accusing the actor of attempting to cheat the government out of $12 million in false refund claims. The 44-year-old actor also apparently failed to file income tax returns for eight years.
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