Long time Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland will resign next month. Ahern’s 11 years in office, somewhat marred by accusations of corruption in the 1990s when he as finance minister, will come to a close on May 6. He publicly stated that the upcoming results of a tribunal investigating Irish politicians who have received payments would vindicate him of all charges.
Official election results in Zimbabwe show that the opposition party of Morgan Tsvangirai narrowly defeated President Robert G. Mugabe and his party in this week’s contentious national election. Police officers loyal to Mugabe responded to the victory by raiding opposition party offices and arresting two foreign journalists.
ATA Airlines cancelled all flights on Thursday after filing for bankruptcy. The company stated they could not honor any tickets or reservations, and asked other airlines to assist potentially stranded travelers. Most of ATA’s 2,230 employees have been let go by the company.
A Chinese court sentenced human rights advocate Hu Jia to three and a half years in prison for his comments and writings critical of the country’s Communist party. After recent conflicts with protesting Tibetan monks, some foreign critics see the sentencing as yet another example of the Chinese government cracking down on internal dissension as they prepare to host the Summer Olympics in August.
Plans by the U.S. government to utilize handheld computers in the 2010 census have been scraped due to technical issues. Commerce security Carlos Gutierrez told a House subcommittee Thursday that planning and budgeting issues will leave census workers once again collecting information from those who fail to mail their census data with pen and paper.
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