Other world news in brief
Sarkozy ratings still near record low
PARIS – French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s approval ratings remain near record lows, a poll showed yesterday, as he prepared to outline his reform plans to a sceptical public in a primetime TV appearance.
The Ifop poll in Journal du Dimanche showed Sarkozy’s approval at 38 per cent, up one point since December, partly because swift aid for quake-hit Haiti from the government was seen as positive.
A row over the salary of the head of state electricity group EDF continued to weigh on ratings ahead of regional elections in March, making it more difficult for Sarkozy to sell his contested reform policies. Another poll showed the electorate want him to talk about unemployment and pensions during the TV appearance. – (Reuters)
One killed in Polish electric plant blast
WARSAW – One person was killed and three injured when an explosion rocked a thermo-electric plant near Poland’s northwestern city of Gryfino, PAP news agency said yesterday.
Provincial police spokesman Przemyslaw Kimon said the explosion occurred in the boiler house to which coal is transported by conveyor.
Two buildings in the compound collapsed and a third was damaged by the explosion, but power output has not decreased, the agency said.
“The accident has not influenced power deliveries, and the grid has not felt any change,” PAP quoted Jaroslaw Dobryznski, spokesman for power supplier Enea Operator, as saying. – (Reuters)
Afghan poll delay to appease allies
KABUL – Afghanistan has postponed parliamentary elections from May to September 22nd, a move that will appease western allies anxious to avoid a repeat of the fraud that marred last year’s presidential polls.
Western powers want President Hamid Karzai to commit to electoral reforms as part of pledges he will make at a London conference this week in return for renewed international aid in the face of a spreading Taliban insurgency.
The conference will be Mr Karzai’s first appearance on the western stage since his tainted re-election, and both sides hope to use the meeting to relaunch his image, dented among the home electorates of countries with 110,000 troops in Afghanistan. – (Financial Times/Reuters)