Darwinian Struggle: A Poet Felled by Scandal

“I hope wounds will start to heal,” said Ruth Padel, blinking earnestly as flashbulbs popped. Her statement may not have contained the startlingly original imagery that propelled the poetess to prominence, but to her critics it represented a kind of poetry — poetic justice.

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Pakistan’s top court allows Nawaz Sharif to run for political office

Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned its ban on opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother, allowing both men to run for political office, a court representative told CNN Tuesday. British poet Ruth Padel resigned as the University of Oxford’s Professor of Poetry Monday, only days after being elected to the 300-year old title. But rival poet Derek Walcott, who won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1992, pulled out of the race earlier this month amid allegations about his private life.

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