the news in brief

(MCT) MOSCOW – With the apparent election of Vladimir Putin’s chosen successor, Dmitry… (MCT) MOSCOW – With the apparent election of Vladimir Putin’s chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, as Russia’s new president Sunday, the country wades into uncharted waters as it reconciles the emergence of a new leader with the reluctance of its popular, czar-like ruler to fully relinquish power.

Russia’s tumultuous history has always been grounded by one constant – that czars, general secretaries and presidents never shared the helm. That is expected to change when Medvedev is inaugurated in May and names Putin his prime minister.

Putin has made it clear he will use the post of premier as a means of maintaining oversight of the country he has ruled as president for the last eight years, and the economic and geopolitical resurrection he has stewarded.

Putin has stated repeatedly that Medvedev will carry out a course for Russia that Putin’s Kremlin has established, rather than any agenda for change that Medvedev might propose. For his part, Medvedev, a longtime protege of Putin’s and one of his closest allies, has dutifully agreed to comply.

What unsettles many in Russia is the potential for a moment in time when Medvedev steps out of Putin’s shadow and begins asserting his own leadership. How will Putin, a leader known for his unyielding style of governance, accept the necessity of stepping offstage?

“There’s this feeling in Russia that, sooner or later, there will be bickering and squabbles between the two camps, and what we may end up with is paralysis of executive power,” says Lilia Shevtsova, an expert on Putin’s presidency and an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center. “The Kremlin elites will not know who to obey, and whose decisions are more important.”

Medvedev, 42,would step into the job without ever holding elected office before, and without any power base of his own.

Though considered to be more moderate than Putin, analysts do not expect the Kremlin’s icy relations with the U.S. and Western Europe to improve under Medvedev. He isn’t likely to veer from Putin’s strong opposition to U.S. plans for a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland, and he has already spoken out against U.S. support for Kosovo independence.

Exit polls had Medvedev scoring a landslide win, with between 67 to 70 percent of the vote. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov trailed far behind with 19 percent. Early returns reflected the exit polls, with Medvedev way ahead. – Alex Rodriguez, Chicago Tribune

(MCT) JERUSALEM – Palestinian negotiators threatened Saturday to suspend already- sluggish peace talks with Israel after more than 50 Gaza Strip residents, including at least six children, were killed in Israeli attacks.

It was the deadliest day in years as the Israeli military launched a campaign of air strikes, artillery fire and ground attacks aimed at Palestinian militants who launch rockets from Gaza into southern Israel. By nightfall, more than 50 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers had been killed.

The escalating clashes in Gaza are likely to set a sour tone when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Jerusalem later this week as part of the Bush administration’s attempt to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by year’s end.

On Saturday, Palestinian negotiators warned that the Israeli military actions were poisoning the well of goodwill and could kill the fragile peace talks.

“I don’t think Abu Ala and I can meet with the Israelis under these kind of circumstances,” said veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is leading peace talks with Ahmed Qureia, also known as Abu Ala.

Qureia said he urged Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to cut off talks with the Israelis, even though the two sides are not scheduled to meet again until after Rice’s visit.

Israeli leaders said suspending peace talks would be counter-productive and only embolden the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, in its ongoing attempts to torpedo the Bush administration’s Middle East diplomacy.

Israel launched the weekend operation after a Palestinian rocket killed an Israeli college student on Wednesday and more advanced rockets hit Askhelon, the largest city close to the Gaza border.

Palestinian militants struck Ashkelon again on Saturday with at least seven rockets that injured six Israelis. Another 30 rockets were fired at smaller communities near the Gaza borders that caused no serious injuries. – Dion Nissenbaum, McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT) KIGALI, Rwanda – When President Bush went to Rwanda last month on his five-nation Africa tour, he paid a solemn visit to the site where 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide are buried, laying a wreath and strolling quietly along a row of concrete slabs marking mass graves.

But government officials here say Bush’s more important act that day was something else: He signed a deal to promote bilateral U.S.-Rwandan investment.

Rwanda hasn’t forgotten the genocide but is moving forward, and 14 years later this tiny central African nation boasts one of the most stable and rapidly expanding economies in the region. Poverty and illiteracy are declining, immunization rates are up, HIV and malaria have been dramatically curtailed, and new industries from coffee to information technology are experiencing sudden booms.

The country’s rebirth under President Paul Kagame – a bookish former rebel leader – was noted last year by the Ibrahim Index, a scale that rates African countries on political and economic freedoms. It called Rwanda the most improved country over the past five years.

Under Kagame, the government has pumped money into the country’s roads and electricity networks and slashed red tape on businesses in a bid to lure foreign investors. Since 1994, the country’s economy has grown at a robust 6 percent clip annually.

Lured perhaps in part by its tragedy-to-triumph story, American corporate giants have been drawn to this tiny, hilly nation, where 8 million people are crammed into a space smaller than Maryland.

Starbucks and Costco have signed exclusive deals with Rwandan coffee growers to sell their beans in U.S. stores. Government officials say Microsoft has floated a plan to equip the country’s Senate chamber so that lawmakers can draft and edit legislation electronically. – Shashank Bengali, McClatchy Newspapers