Thai premier survives no-confidence vote

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Thailand’s prime minister survived a no-confidence vote Friday, fending off opposition accusations of incompetence, mismanagement and yielding national sovereignty.

The parliamentary opposition’s motion against Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was rejected Friday in the 470-member lower house of Parliament by a vote of 280-162, with the rest of the lawmakers abstaining or absent. The lawmakers also rejected no-confidence motions against seven other Cabinet members.

The voting results were largely expected because Samak’s six-party coalition, led by his People’s Power Party, controls two-thirds of the seats in the lower house.

Despite the victory, Samak and his government continue to face political hurdles including street protests that have hounded his government for the past month.

Critics accuse Samak’s government, which took office in February, of mismanaging the ailing Thai economy and of being a proxy for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. He has angrily denied all the allegations.

IBM Using Chocolate to Capture African Market

Lured by the sweet taste of chocolate, IBM hopes to use the cocoa plant as an avenue to improve its business prospects in the emerging economies of Africa.

The company views Africa as a growing region, where it recently invested US$120 million to build the region’s infrastructure over two years. It also opened a cloud-computing center in Johannesburg this week, the first such center in Africa.

The company’s scientists are now going after the heart of Africa’s economic problems, launching an effort to crack the genome of cocoa, a plant that forms the livelihood for many people, especially in parts of West Africa. The scientists are trying to understand the genetic makeup of the cocoa genome that could make it more resistant to droughts and pests, which could lead to a steady crop and contribute to Africa’s economies.

“Cocoa is an important crop in Africa. If you can increase the yield, you generate more product and you can increase the income of farmers,” said Isidore Rigoutsos, manager of the bioinformatics and pattern discovery group at IBM Research.

Toxic pesticide on Philippine ferry halts search

By Romeo Ranoco

SIBUYAN ISLAND, Philippines (Reuters) – The Philippines halted the search for hundreds of bodies feared trapped on a capsized ferry on Friday after salvage divers discovered 10 tonnes of toxic pesticide on board.

“We are in touch with experts,” said Elena Bautista, the head of a taskforce dealing with the aftermath of the disaster.

“They will check the condition of the vessel and make a recommendation as to where best to bore a hole so we can safely remove the chemical.”

Sulpicio Lines, the owner of Princess of the Stars, said it did not know it was carrying 400 boxes of endosulfan bound for a Del Monte pineapple plantation in the southern Philippines.

French newsmagazine Paris Match launches Quebec-themed issue

Leading French newsmagazine Paris Match is celebrating Quebec, shining a spotlight on La Belle Province for its French readers around the world.

The new issue of the flashy weekly magazine is a bit softer and more personal than typical hard-news issues, editor in chief Olivier Royan said.

The goal was to shed light on some remarkable people and achievements in the province, Royan — in Montreal to promote the issue — told CBC News on Thursday.

“French people know quite a few things about Quebec,” he said. “There is the dream about Quebec. There is this enthusiasm about the energy of the people. [The French] see sometimes actors, they see singers on French television, but the rest is quite unknown.”

About 35 pages are dedicated to Quebec stories. They include a portrait of a French doctor living in northern Quebec with the Inuit and an examination of the province’s successful post-secondary schools, which are drawing an increasing number of students from France, currently grappling with education reform.