Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych yesterday called on his opponent and longtime rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, to concede defeat in Sunday’s presidential runoff after he secured a slim victory at the polls. With more than 98 percent of the ballots counted as of Monday evening, Yanukovych had captured 48.5 percent of the vote, with Tymoshenko garnering 45.9 percent, according to Ukraine’s Central Election Commission. Tymoshenko and her supporters had previously said they were prepared to challenge the results in court. Her campaign said Monday morning that results from Yanukovych’s Russian-speaking strongholds in southern and eastern Ukraine were distorted because of mass falsifications, and that they were “ready to do everything possible” to ensure a fair election. Tymoshenko herself, however, gave no indication of her immediate plans.

Western election observers, meanwhile, praised the poll and suggested that Tymoshenko should concede. ”Yesterday’s vote was an impressive display of democratic elections. For everyone in Ukraine, this election was a victory. It is now time for the country’s political leaders to listen to the people’s verdict and make sure that the transition of power is peaceful and constructive,” Joao Soares, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and head of a group of OSCE observers, said in a statement.? The election capped a remarkable political comeback for Yanukovych, a pro-Russian candidate who won the 2004 presidential elections in a fraud-tainted vote that was overturned amid mass protests in the Orange Revolution. After weeks of demonstrations led by Tymoshenko and outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko, the Supreme Court threw out the results and ordered a new election that Yushchenko went on to win. The new Ukrainian president will have to restore the relations undermined during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, which was plagued by disputes over gas supplies and Yushchenko’s drives to integrate with Western institutions, such as NATO, that angered Moscow. According to a survey released Monday by state pollster VTsIOM, 44 percent of Russians believe that Russian-Ukrainian relations will improve, but that the two countries will never be as friendly as they once were. It has been no secret that amidst political turmoil, a devastating cholera epidemic and continued hyperinflation Zimbabwe has been seeking a lift of heavy economic sanctions and indeed an increase in foreign investment. Today’s actions further the will of President Robert Mugabe and effectively halt any further investment. Today in Harare, a law was passed that compels all businesses with assets worth more than $500,000 to be 51 percent black-owned within five years, according to a copy of the law distributed by Harare-based Veritas Trust. The law was published in the Government Gazette, a public document. It comes into effect March 1 and stipulates prison sentences of up to five years for non-compliance. Veritas is a Harare-based non-governmental organization that monitors the passage of laws through parliament and their publication. The new law may affect numerous companies doing business in the nation, including Anglo Platinum Ltd., Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. and Aquarius Platinum Ltd., three of the world’s four biggest producers of the metal, which all own mines in Zimbabwe. Old Mutual Plc, Africa’s biggest insurer, owns properties and a life-insurance operation in the country. “The news is very grim,” John Robertson, a Harare-based economist, said in a phone interview today from the capital. “It will effectively freeze any further investment in Zimbabwe, ironically just as the country is calling for investment.” Philippine politicians launched their campaigns today in a wide-open race for the presidency, with poverty, corruption and unemployment the top issues for the impoverished Southeast Asian archipelago. The latest opinion poll shows two opposition lawmakers are neck-and-neck in the presidential polls, but analysts say it is too early to establish a clear trend in the race. It is in the spirit of curbing such corruption and indeed amidst the dynamic atmosphere that upcoming elections bring in the region that the current administration sought to punish those who hindered the democratic process the last time around. Authorities today in the Philippines have filed murder charges against the former governor of southern Maguindanao province, Andal Ampatuan Sr.and 196 others in connection with last year’s election-related massacre there. Considered the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history, the November 23 attack targeted and killed the wife and sister of political candidate Ismael “Toto” Mangudadatu, who had sent them to file paperwork allowing him to run for governor of Maguindanao. Thirty journalists were also among the 57 people killed in the attack. Andal’s son and namesake, who is a mayor in the province, was charged with murder earlier. An eight-member commission of the justice department said its investigation revealed a well-planned conspiracy, in which members of the Philippine police and army also were involved. “The confluence of events before and immediately after the massacre took place led us to conclude that (the governor, his son and others) connived with the actual perpetrators,” the commission said, according to the state-run Philippines News Agency. Authorities recommended that all the suspects be held without bail. Before the November attack, candidate Mangudadatu said he had received threats from allies of Ampatuan Sr., saying he would be kidnapped if he filed the papers himself. Maguindanao is part of an autonomous region in predominantly Muslim Mindanao, which was set up in the 1990s to quell armed uprisings by people seeking an independent Muslim homeland in the predominantly Christian Asian nation.