NAIROBI, Kenya (AP):
All is not well in Kenya. Millions are at risk of hunger, while politicians accused of inciting violence are collecting fat perks and a bloated cabinet is trading blame over a series of financial scandals.
Most Kenyans say the troubles show their coalition government, created a year ago by a power-sharing agreement that ended weeks of postelection riots, is not doing enough to tackle some of the key causes of the clashes.
Failure to do so could doom the east African nation to a bloody repeat of the violence that left more than 1,000 people dead in the weeks after the disputed December 2007 election.
Man ignites himself outside Parliament
LONDON (AP):
A man who apparently set himself on fire outside Britain's Parliament yesterday, was taken to hospital with superficial burns, authorities said.
Police said the man was on fire "for a short time" in Parliament Square in the heart of London. Without saying specifically that the man attempted self-immolation, police said they did not believe anyone else was involved.
A police spokesman said the man's burns were superficial and "certainly not critical." He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.
There was no immediate word on who the man was or why he would set himself on fire. But it follows two attempts at self-immolation by men who have been reported to be ethnic Tamils based in Britain.
Obama, Sarkozy could get peace prize
OSLO (AP):
President Barack Obama and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy are believed to be among a record 205 nominations for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
The secretive five-member awards committee, which released its final nominations count on Friday, keeps the names of candidates secret for 50 years. But some of the thousands of people with nominating rights do announce their nominees.
"It is very easy to be nominated for the peace prize, but that is in no way an endorsement by the committee," said Geir Lundestad, the Norwegian awards committee's nonvoting secretary.
The committee said 172 individuals and 33 organizations were on the list by this week's final deadline. The previous record was 199, in 2005.