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/ 27 September 2004
Iran announced this week that it had resumed producing uranium gas for enrichment as a nuclear fuel, three days after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told it to freeze all operations connected with uranium enrichment or face possible retaliation.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is playing the anti-Iraq war card strongly in the hope of resurrecting a flagging European election campaign for his Social Democratic Party (SPD). In a move that recalls his tactics in the German general election almost two years ago, Schröder and his senior colleagues appear confident that the peace-mongering will pay dividends at the ballot box.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is playing the anti-Iraq war card strongly in the hope of resurrecting a flagging European election campaign for his Social Democratic Party (SPD). In a move that recalls his tactics in the German general election almost two years ago, Schröder and his senior colleagues appear confident that the peace-mongering will pay dividends at the ballot box.
President George W Bush’s staunchest ally in continental Europe on Wednesday signalled it was getting cold feet over its military presence in Iraq. Poland’s Prime Minister, Leszek Miller, said he was considering a retreat from Iraq and conceded that the decision by the new Spanish government to pull out was a problem — a view echoed by the conservative Australian Prime Minister, John Howard.
Five years after 60 000 Nato troops poured into Kosovo, expelling the Milosevic regime and returning the Albanians to their homes, the international mission in Kosovo has hit a crunch point, its credibility sapped, denounced for complacency by both Serbs and Albanians. Partition is the only acceptable solution for Serbs and Albanians, but the implications for the rest of the Balkans would be horrific.
The worst ethnic violence in Kosovo since the end of the 1999 conflict erupted in the partitioned town of Kosovska Mitrovica this week, leaving hundreds wounded and at least six people dead as United Nations peacekeepers and Nato troops scrambled to defuse a raging gun battle between Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
The United States and the big European countries buried their deep differences over Iran’s nuclear projects this week, drafting a tough statement that comes close to having the United Nations accuse Tehran of pursuing a secret bomb programme. Iran is urged to undertake proactive cooperation to ‘resolve all outstanding issues on an urgent basis’.
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/ 13 February 2004
A Middle East-based British businessman has emerged as a key suspect in a secret network supplying Libya, Iran and North Korea with equipment to build nuclear bombs. Speaking for the first time this week, Paul Griffin denied that his company played any part in shipping prohibited material from the Far East.
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/ 17 December 2003
From the war zones of Iraq to the diplomatic battlefields of Brussels, one country is rapidly gaining a reputation for being the new bad boy on the European bloc. As the EU struggles with its Constitution and declining public confidence, a future member is adding to the organisation’s woes.
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/ 16 December 2003
Private corporations have penetrated Western warfare so deeply that they are now the second-biggest contributor to coalition forces in Iraq after the Pentagon, a Guardian investigation has established. Of the -billion earmarked for the broader Iraqi campaign, nearly -billion will be spent on contracts to non-military companies.