Referendum

After decades of war, ruin and dashed aspirations, southern Sudan moved a step closer to independence Monday as thousands registered to vote in a referendum that early next year could split Africa's largest country in two. The voter registration drive, marred by delays and political wrangling, began at about 2,700 centers around Sudan. The bulk of the turnout was in the semiautonomous south, dominated by animists and Christians, which on Jan. 9 is expected to secede from the mostly Muslim government in the north controlled by President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir.

Cheers rang out in the marble hallway of the Maryland State House as Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a gay marriage law, before handing off the pens to gay members of the General Assembly gathered around him. "For a free and diverse people, for a people of many faiths, for a people committed to the principle of religious freedom, the way forward is always found for the greater respect of the equal rights of all, for the human dignity of all," the...

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has cleared the last legislative hurdle to running for a third term, a prospect that his U.S. allies look upon with ambivalence. By a vote of 85 to 5, the lower house of Congress late Tuesday greenlighted a voter referendum early next year that could pave the way for Uribe to be on the May presidential ballot. The Senate approved the measure last month. If so, it would be the second time Uribe has circumvented a constitutional ban on reelection, a measure many Latin American countries put into law to prevent the ascension of caudillos , or political leaders who have kept themselves in power.

Aid agencies were unable to evacuate any people Saturday from a battle-scarred neighborhood in the central Syrian city of Homs, one day after the United States and other nations demanded that President Bashar Assad allow humanitarian aid into strife-ridden Syria. Among the injured still stranded in Homs' Baba Amr district were a pair of Western journalists, Edith Bouvier of the French daily Le Figaro and Paul Conroy of the Sunday Times of London. Both suffered leg injuries in a shelling attack Wednesday that killed two other Western journalists.

Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), the House Republican leader, returned to the campaign trail Friday with a speech that attempted to frame the November election as a referendum on the Obama administration's agenda ? rather than simply a choice between candidates. The speech represented the return of a defiant Boehner who delivered what is becoming his signature cry of "Hell, no!" as he takes on President Obama and congressional Democrats. "Ladies and gentlemen, your government hasn't been listening," Boehner said at a small manufacturing firm in West Chester, Ohio, a community in his home district.

Plans to hold a referendum that could have accelerated the withdrawal of American forces have quietly been shelved, as even those Iraqi politicians who were pushing for the poll conclude that it would no longer be a useful exercise. Sunni Muslim politicians had wanted the referendum on the U.S.-Iraqi security pact to be held in January, at the same time as national elections. But with the clock ticking on preparations for the elections and parliament still deadlocked over a new election law, there is now not enough time to also draft and approve the legislation required to simultaneously hold a referendum, legislators say. Perhaps more significant, the political will to hold a referendum appears to have evaporated amid the realization that U.S. troops are leaving anyway, and that it may not be in Iraq's interests to have them pull out even sooner.

Europe's latest plan to claw its way out of a monumental debt crisis lies in grave doubt less than a week after being cobbled together, following a shocking move to put the accord to a popular vote in Greece that threw both the government there and financial markets around the world into turmoil. Confounded officials, analysts and investors were left struggling to divine what they saw as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou lobbing a grenade into Europe's attempts to keep his country afloat by calling for a referendum on the new rescue package.

A close aide to President Boris N. Yeltsin said Thursday that the Russian leader has dropped a plan to hold his own national vote of confidence and ignore the referendum called by the Congress of People's Deputies. The Congress, locked in a power struggle with Yeltsin, voted Monday to call a popular vote of confidence in the president April 25.

Myth: Dana Point will cease to function if the General Plan is stopped by the referendum. Fact: Dana Point has managed to function for 2 1/2 years on the Orange County Specific Plan and, in fact, is still doing so. Myth: All building will cease, including building of a fence, in Dana Point if the General Plan is stopped by the referendum. Fact: The city staff has hassled and harassed people in Dana Point about building everything from a fence to an addition to their home to building a new home for the past 2 1/2 years.

President Corazon Aquino backed away from a confrontation with the Senate over U.S. bases in the Philippines. Aquino, facing mounting opposition to her efforts to keep U.S. forces here in defiance of a Senate decision to evict them, said in a statement that she will abandon her plan for a referendum on retaining American forces if it fails to win public support.

Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles -- California voters will decide in November whether to repeal new voting districts for the state Senate, drawn last year by a citizens panel they created. Republican activists on Friday qualified a referendum on the issue. Elections officials determined that the group Fairness and Accountability In Redistricting (FAIR) turned in 511,457 valid signatures of registered voters, about 6,000 more than needed to put the question on the Nov. 6 ballot.

A chance shake-up of Maryland House of Delegates seating assignments brought Republican Wade Kach face to face with gay couples who had come to make the case for a gay marriage law, and might have proved decisive in its final passage through the state's General Assembly on Thursday. In an effort to get the bill onto the House floor, a special joint committee was formed and legislators were left scrambling for seats. Kach, who had previously backed attempts to define marriage as between one man and one woman, found a space right next to the witness table.

This castled city where highlands and lowlands meet has been fought over many times by the Scots and the English, never more bloodily than in the 13th century battle depicted in the Oscar-winning movie "Braveheart. " Now Alasdair MacPherson hopes to see this former capital of the kingdom of Scotland back in his countrymen's hands without a single shot fired. In the biggest test of British unity in decades, Scotland is on the verge of being granted the right to hold a referendum on whether to secede from the United Kingdom, putting asunder more than 300 years of marriage to England and Wales.

The California Supreme Court expressed concern Tuesday that there might be too little time to redraw new voter maps for this year's state Senate elections even though the existing political boundaries could be put on hold pending a November referendum. During a special session, the state high court grappled with which alternative election maps to use should the court determine that a proposed referendum on the issue is likely to qualify for the November ballot. "There simply in this particular case isn't sufficient time to come up with a so-called model plan," said Justice Joyce L. Kennard.

Even Greeks themselves had trouble tracking everything that happened on a day of whipsaw political swings in their country. Less than 24 hours earlier, they watched their prime minister stick up for their democratic right to a referendum before hostile European officials at a summit in France. But as soon as he returned home, George Papandreou called off his incendiary plan to let his people vote on Europe's latest rescue strategy for their debt-racked nation. One moment, the Greek leader commanded the "full backing" of his Cabinet; the next, he didn't.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will keep his job, for the moment. Papandreou squeaked through a confidence vote in Parliament early Saturday, but only by indicating he would step down if necessary to allow formation of a unity government that would carry out Europe's latest plan to combat a raging debt crisis. Papandreou's narrow win, on a 153-145 vote, capped a roller-coaster week that saw him wreak international havoc by calling a referendum on that same bailout plan, a move he later retracted under heavy pressure at home and abroad.

A voter referendum on whether to build a new city hall that had qualified for the November ballot was ruled illegal by an Orange County Superior Court judge on Tuesday. The decision by Judge Robert C. Jameson negated a petition signed by more than 5,000 citizens seeking to block the City Council's plans to build an $18-million city hall. The ruling was in response to a city lawsuit against the Citizens Action Committee, which had sought to put the city hall question on the November ballot.

Egyptians moved further beyond the legacy of former President Hosni Mubarak's strongman rule by voting overwhelmingly to amend the nation's constitution and head swiftly toward parliamentary and presidential elections, according to results of a referendum announced Sunday. The referendum, which calls for judicial oversight of elections and limited presidential terms, was the first step to bring Egypt closer to a democracy after decades of corrupt one-party rule. The outcome is expected to spur chaotic, if exciting, races for parliament and president in coming months.

Europe's latest plan to claw its way out of a monumental debt crisis lies in grave doubt less than a week after being cobbled together, following a shocking move to put the accord to a popular vote in Greece that threw both the government there and financial markets around the world into turmoil. Confounded officials, analysts and investors were left struggling to divine what they saw as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou lobbing a grenade into Europe's attempts to keep his country afloat by calling for a referendum on the new rescue package.

The latest turn in Europe's financial crisis may dash any hope of taming the stock market's extreme volatility soon. Share prices took another tumble worldwide after the Greek government called for a voter referendum on the terms of the country's bailout by the rest of Europe. The unexpected announcement raised the risk of a thumbs-down by austerity-weary Greek voters. That could mean the end of Greece's membership in the Eurozone, and a disastrous default on the country's heavy debt obligations to the rest of the continent.