TMCnet News
China picks Chavez as one of 2005's top 10 newsmakers(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Beijing, Jan 2 (EFE).- The energetic "anti-imperialism" of Hugo Chavez has gained the Venezuelan president renown far beyond the Americas, with China's state-controlled press naming him Monday one of the 10 most noteworthy personalities of 2005. "Chavez spent a large part of 2005 dishing out criticism of U.S. foreign policy, which he regards as 'imperialist,'" the English-language China Daily said. Also making the list of top 10 newsmakers were Angela Merkel, Germany's first female chancellor, and Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who made history by becoming Africa's first woman head of state. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who battled health problems and pulled out of Gaza, new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Nobel laureate and International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei were among the other personalities making the list. Others outside the world of politics also made the list, including 40-year-old Naqsha Bibi, a Pakistani woman who survived 63 days buried in the rubble after the October earthquake, and South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk, who admitted that he falsified the results of his work with embryonic stem cells. American Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died fighting in Iraq, made the list for becoming "a leading light in the U.S. anti-war movement" following her protest near President George W. Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch. EFE abc/hv |