Online Reporter
Museveni re-elected in landslide win
KAMPALA – President Yoweri Museveni was declared the landslide winner of Uganda’s presidential election yesterday, extending his rule into a fifth decade.
The result hands the 81-year-old Museveni the decisive victory he sought to bolster his political position as speculation mounts about his eventual succession.
Uganda’s electoral commission said at a ceremony in the capital Kampala yesterday that Museveni had received just under 72% of the vote.
His main challenger, the pop singer-turned-politician, Bobi Wine, was credited with 24%.
Museveni has won gratitude from Western powers for sending troops to regional hotspots such as Somalia and taking in millions of refugees.
Many Ugandans also appreciate the relative stability his tenure has seen, and he campaigned on a slogan of “protecting the gains”.
Economic growth is expected to jump into double digits this year when crude oil production starts. – Reuters
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Maduro abduction: US kills nearly 50 Venezuelan soldiers
Nine women soldiers were among 47 Venezuelan troops killed earlier this month when the United States attacked the capital Caracas and abducted President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said.
Revising the number of Venezuelan forces killed upward from an initial report of 23, the defence minister said on Friday that a total of 83 people were killed in the January 3 raid by US forces.
Those killed included 32 Cuban soldiers, some of whom had been assigned to President Maduro’s personal protection team.
“What have the men and women of our Bolivarian National Armed Forces done in the face of military aggression? They have given their lives, they have honoured history and the homeland,” Padrino said at a ceremony to honour those killed in the attack.
The minister also said that a site will be located for the construction of a memorial to those killed.
Cuba on Thursday last week received the remains of the 32 soldiers it said were killed in combat in the early hours of January 3.
More than 112 people were reported injured in the US raid that began with the bombing of military targets and culminated with US troops landing in helicopters and abducting Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their residence in Caracas.
The full extent of civilian casualties from the US raid has yet to be determined by authorities in Venezuela.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said earlier this week that experts needed to use DNA testing to identify victims, as some were blown to “little pieces” in the US attack.
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who has decreed seven days of mourning for those killed in the US attack, met on Thursday in Caracas with CIA director John Ratcliffe, whose agency played a key role in Maduro’s abduction, The Associated Press news agency reports.
A US official told the AP that Ratcliffe discussed potential economic collaboration between the two countries and warned that Venezuela can never again allow the presence of US adversaries, including drug traffickers, on its soil. – Wires
