NADER OFFERS TO LEAD UKRAINESeeks to Heal Bitterly Divided Nation


Plans for a rerun of Ukraine’s controversial presidential election were thrown into turmoil today as perennial third-party candidate Ralph Nader threw his hat into the ring, saying that he and only he was qualified to heal the bitterly divided nation.

In Washington and Moscow, where officials had been hoping for an orderly solution to the roiling crisis, Mr. Nader’s decision to run for election in Ukraine, a country he has never visited, raised more than a few eyebrows.

But Mr. Nader showed no sign of backing down, even amid concerns that by siphoning off as little as one percent of the vote he could thrust Ukraine into another electoral catastrophe.

Arriving today in downtown Kiev, whose streets have been clogged with angry protesters since the disputed election, Mr. Nader blasted his two opponents, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leader Viktor Yuschenko.

“There’s not a hyrvna’s worth of difference between these two guys,” Mr. Nader told the massive crowd. “For starters, their names are both Viktor and their last names both begin with a ‘Y.’”

But after Mr. Nader launched into a forty-five-minute speech urging Ukraine to adopt stricter fuel-economy standards for its cars, the protesters started to drift away, many of them going home for the first time in weeks.

Prime Minister Yanukovich later said that Ukrainian security forces had tape-recorded Mr. Nader’s speech and will use it in the future to disperse unruly crowds.

Elsewhere, under increasing pressure to explain why she named her twins Phinnaeus and Hazel, actress Julia Roberts said that she “wanted to give schoolyard sadists a head start.”

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I have to say I thought the funniest part was: "Elsewhere, under increasing pressure to explain why she named her twins Phinnaeus and Hazel, actress Julia Roberts said that she “wanted to give schoolyard sadists a head start."



Those poor children

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