| Surrounded
by bodyguards |
| Mexico's
Calderon takes power as fists fly |
agencies
Felipe
Calderon took power as Mexico's president on
Friday despite fist fights in Congress and angry
protests from leftists who say he stole July's
election and had vowed to prevent him from taking
office.
Surrounded by bodyguards, the conservative Calderon
slipped into Congress through a back door, quickly
declaring the oath of office and putting on the
presidential sash as left-wing lawmakers screamed "Get
out! Get out!"
He was then rushed out again. The lightning-fast
ceremony lasted just four minutes, including
the singing of Mexico's national anthem, and
Calderon was unable to deliver the traditional
speech.
Conservative lawmakers cheered and chanted slogans,
while the left-wing opposition blew whistles
and jeered.
Dozens of rival deputies earlier threw punches
and chairs at each other and leftists built barricades
to block the main doors and try to prevent Calderon
from entering the building.
Although Calderon's security team outwitted his
political foes, the chaotic scenes underlined
Mexico's deep political divide, and cast doubt
on how successful Calderon can be in ending months
of unrest following his razor-thin election victory.
Calderon, 44, wants to push pro-business reforms
through Congress, where his ruling National Action
Party holds just 40 percent of seats and needs
opposition support.
Calderon replaced outgoing President Vicente
Fox, an ally and fellow conservative, in a solemn
midnight ceremony at the presidential residence
in Mexico City. The later swearing-in sealed
his taking of office.
STREET PROTESTS
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the fiery anti-poverty
campaigner who was Calderon's election rival,
led tens of thousands of protesters in a march
across the capital to its main concert hall,
where the president was to speak later on Friday.
"
They violated the constitution and trampled on
Mexicans' dignity. They imposed him with a coup,
and we are living with the consequences," Lopez
Obrador told thousands of supporters in Mexico
City's vast central square.
Although Mexico's financial markets were closed
on Friday, the peso currency dropped in trading
abroad as fights broke out in Congress but
partially recovered when Calderon was sworn
in.
Former U.S. President George Bush, father of
the current U.S. president, and Spain's Crown
Prince Felipe were among the few prominent
foreign dignitaries to see the chaotic inauguration
ceremony.
"
It's good action," California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, best known for his Hollywood
action movies, said dryly when asked about the
brawls on the floor of Congress.
Calderon will be a key ally of the United
States in Latin America, which has turned
away from
Washington in recent years with a string
of left-wing gains in presidential elections.
A career politician who has an iron will
but little charisma, he will also push
for tax,
energy and labor reforms and keep a tight
rein on government
spending even as he promises to cut the
vast gap between rich and poor.
Calderon, a Harvard graduate and former
energy minister in Fox's government,
faces other
serious challenges in trying to assert
control over
an increasingly violent country.
A vicious war between rival drug-smuggling
gangs has killed nearly 3,000 people
in the last two
years, and the popular tourist city
of Oaxaca has been wrecked by six
months of violent
street protests against a state governor.
In Calderon's home state of Michoacan,
more than 500 people have been
killed this year
in a turf
war over drugs.
Mexico won full democracy in 2000,
when Fox swept to power in an
election that
ended
seven decades
of one-party rule.
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| America’s
sweetheart |
| Britney
ditches her panties, raises eyebrows |
agencies
Her
necklines have plunged, she's plying the all-night
party circuit with new best pal Paris Hilton,
and she has even ditched her panties.
As if to prove, as she once sang, that she really
is "not that innocent," newly separated
pop star and mother of two Britney Spears is
letting it all hang out -- shocking her fans,
causing concern among friends and making herself
the butt of jokes on late-night TV.
"
Girls Gone Wild!" Us Weekly magazine blared
in its cover story this week, charting a manic
two weeks in which Spears was seen gambling all
night in Las Vegas, spent time nightclubbing
and shopping with "celebutante" Hilton,
and was photographed on several occasions climbing
in and out of cars without panties.
The latest media frenzy over Spears comes two
years after she put her recording career on
hold for motherhood and three weeks after filing
for
divorce from husband Kevin Federline.
"
Lately, I hear things and see things, and I'm
just wondering, 'girl, WHAT IS UP?' Please stop
acting like someone you're not. WEAR UNDERWEAR!!" pleaded
one longtime fan on Spears' Web site on Thursday.
Talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell, who has jokingly
offered to adopt Spears and her two baby
sons, on Thursday offered her a gift -- a
pair of
red panties inscribed "No Peeking."
But celebrity watchers say the singer, who
shot to fame with her debut 1998 single, "...
Baby One More Time," and the accompanying
video in which she dressed provocatively in a
Catholic schoolgirl's uniform, appears to be
enjoying the limelight.
"
Britney is succeeding in getting us to talk about
her. From the beginning, Britney has made her
career out of shocking us, and she ultimately
will win because of it," Ken Baker, West
Coast editor for Us Weekly, told Reuters.
With Federline -- now dubbed Fed-Ex by
the tabloid media -- out of the picture,
Spears
has been
inseparable from Hilton for the past
two weeks.
On one occasion, Spears and the hotel
heiress split a pair of fishnet stockings
and each
wore a leg. On another, they were pictured
in coordinated
leopard-skin outfits -- Spears wearing
a thigh-hugging, cleavage-baring mini-dress.
Spears, who turns 25 on Saturday, was
seen this week shopping for thongs
and corsets
at a Hollywood
lingerie boutique. Celebrity Web
site TMZ.com said she spent more than $3,000
at the
store. But the following day, she
was
photographed again -- in another
open-leg crotch shot.
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