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/ 21 November 2007
Condoleezza Rice taught crisis management at Stanford University but experts say the top United States diplomat will need more than academic prowess to mediate an end to six decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ”The question is, will she have that diplomatic skill to pull it off?” asked Daniel Levy, a former Israeli mediator.
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/ 20 November 2007
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned that Moscow would not remain indifferent to Nato’s ”muscle-flexing” and said Russia’s nuclear forces would be ready for an adequate response to any aggressor. Putin said the Nato military alliance had built up its forces close to Russia’s borders.
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/ 20 November 2007
No prizes for guessing the least popular and most hassled men at Camp Striker near Baghdad. That would be the staff at Magic Island Technologies, who last week switched off the camp’s free wi-fi internet access. It may surprise to some to know that there is any internet access at an army camp inside a warzone.
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/ 19 November 2007
The momentum towards regional integration in East Africa received encouragement from the United States this week, with US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saying that it should boost economic growth in the five-member East Africa bloc. "This is a region that has showed great economic growth over the last couple of years," he said.
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/ 19 November 2007
Africa is the ”forgotten continent” in the fight against climate change and needs help to cope with projected water shortages and declining crop yields, the United Nations’s top climate change official said on Sunday. Yvo de Boer said that damage projected for Africa by the UN climate panel would justify tougher world action to slow global warming.
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/ 18 November 2007
Grieving survivors and rescuers picked through the rubble left in the wake of a cyclone that battered Bangladesh as the death toll reached over 2Â 200 on Sunday. Mohammad Abdur Rob, chairperson of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, said the overall death toll from the cyclone could reach 10Â 000.
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/ 17 November 2007
Japan’s whaling fleet is set to depart on Sunday for an annual hunt that this year for the first time will take humpback whales — a perennial favourite among whale-watchers — sparking protests from activists. Japan abandoned commercial whaling in accordance with an international moratorium in 1986, but began the next year to conduct what it calls scientific research whaling.
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/ 14 November 2007
A roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded two on Wednesday just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone compound in Baghdad that houses the United States embassy and government ministries, police said. They said the bomb targeted a passing US military convoy.
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/ 14 November 2007
A loud explosion rocked central Baghdad on Wednesday, shaking buildings inside the heavily fortified Green Zone compound that houses the United States embassy and Iraqi government ministries, witnesses said. Some witnesses said a car bomb had exploded near a police station not far from the Green Zone.
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/ 13 November 2007
Detained Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto called on Tuesday for military leader Pervez Musharraf to step down as president, isolating him in the run-up to a general election. Britain stepped up pressure on Musharraf, who imposed emergency rule on November 3, backing a 10-day Commonwealth ultimatum for him to end the emergency.
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/ 13 November 2007
Pakistani police put opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for a week on Tuesday to thwart a protest procession as President Pervez Musharraf came under growing international pressure to end emergency rule. Military ruler Musharraf set off a storm of criticism when he imposed emergency rule on November 3.
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/ 12 November 2007
The United States could unleash vastly superior firepower if it attacked Iran but Tehran could strike back against its forces in Iraq and threaten oil supplies crucial to the world economy. Speculation is growing that President George Bush could launch military action before he leaves office in January 2009 even though Washington says it is committed to resolving the crisis.
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/ 12 November 2007
The leaders of Germany and France meet on Monday to compare notes on dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme, fresh from discussing tougher sanctions during separate visits to United States President George Bush last week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin for the talks a week before an expected meeting of world powers.
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/ 11 November 2007
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday a general election will be held by January 9 — but under a state of emergency he imposed eight days ago. Musharraf, under pressure to put Pakistan back on a path to democracy, said the National Assembly and provincial assemblies will be dissolved in coming days.
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/ 11 November 2007
He is a former governor of Arkansas from a town called Hope. He has a nice line in campaign humour and speaks like a Deep South preacher. He is also running for president. But this is not Bill Clinton of 1992. This is Mike Huckabee, a long-shot Republican contender for the 2008 White House who has burst into the leading pack of the race.
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/ 10 November 2007
Rudy Giuliani’s bid to become Republican candidate for United States president faces months of questioning on the campaign trail, after his friend and protégé Bernard Kerik was on Friday charged with corruption and lying to cover up his misdeeds.
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/ 9 November 2007
A divided United States Senate confirmed retired judge Michael Mukasey as Attorney General on Thursday, setting aside concerns he might support interrogation methods decried worldwide as torture. On a largely party-line vote of 53-40, the Senate approved his nomination to succeed Alberto Gonzales.
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/ 8 November 2007
The United States and French presidents forged a common front against Iran’s nuclear ambitions on Wednesday, signalling a further warming of once-chilly relations between Washington and Paris. US President George Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to keep the pressure on Tehran, which has defied demands to halt uranium enrichment.
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/ 8 November 2007
Pakistani national elections will take place before February 15, President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday, after Western allies and opponents had demanded polls be held on time and emergency rule scrapped. Pakistan had been scheduled to hold elections by mid-January until the general imposed emergency powers on Saturday.
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/ 6 November 2007
Pakistan’s opposition grappled for a united response on Tuesday to President Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of emergency rule, leaving lawyers to protest alone for a second day and bear the brunt of a police crackdown. Ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said ”the people should rise up and restore the Constitution”.
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/ 6 November 2007
Rescue officials were searching for more than a dozen missing people on Tuesday after a landslide slammed into a rain-swollen river, wiping out a tiny hamlet in southern Mexico. At least 16 people were reported missing in the village.
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/ 6 November 2007
Pakistani police beat and arrested lawyers protesting for a second day on Tuesday against President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule, while officials under United States pressure said an election would be held in early 2008. Opposition politicians, including Benazir Bhutto, have spoken out but there has been no real action on their part so far.
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/ 6 November 2007
A huge wall of mud and water engulfed a remote village in flood-ravaged southern Mexico on Monday and the government said at least 16 people were missing. Mexican media reported as many as 30 people could be missing in the landslide.
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/ 3 November 2007
Turkey stepped up pressure on the United States to help curb attacks by Kurdish rebels from northern Iraq as a conference on Saturday of Iraq’s neighbours and major powers sought to lower cross-border tensions. The ”neighbours’ conference”, hosted by Turkey, was meant to focus on security inside Iraq but instead it is overshadowed by tensions between Turkey and Iraq.
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/ 3 November 2007
Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.
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/ 2 November 2007
Turkey wants action and not words in dealing with Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Friday during a joint press conference with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ”We are where words have come to an end and action must begin,” Babacan said following talks with Rice on the threat posed by fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
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/ 2 November 2007
The United States on Thursday took a first step towards mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions, in direct defiance of the Bush administration’s policy on climate change. The vote in a Senate subcommittee marks the first US move towards European-style policies.
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/ 1 November 2007
At least 887 Iraqis were killed in Iraq in October, ministry data showed on Thursday, slightly higher than September, which saw a total of 840 people killed across the nation. Data from Iraq’s interior, defence and health ministries showed that 758 civilians, 116 policemen and 13 soldiers were killed in attacks across Iraq in October.
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/ 1 November 2007
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets Israeli and Palestinian leaders this weekend to craft a joint document ahead of a peace conference but she has intentionally set expectations low. US officials expect Rice’s visit will result in a document filled with principles to kick off negotiations on a Palestinian state.
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/ 1 November 2007
Japan ordered its naval ships on Thursday to withdraw from a refuelling mission in support of United States-led operations in Afghanistan as a political deadlock kept the government from meeting a deadline to extend the activities. The Pentagon said that Japan’s withdrawal would not affect its patrolling of the Indian Ocean.
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/ 1 November 2007
Turkey on Thursday stepped up pressure on northern Iraq, imposing economic sanctions over the safe haven Kurdish rebels enjoy, as Washington said it was supplying Ankara with intelligence on the separatists’ positions. "We have prepared a list of economic measures targeting the financial resources of the terrorist organisation," Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said.
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/ 1 November 2007
A decision by the European Union to allow Robert Mugabe to a summit is a rare diplomatic coup for Zimbabwe’s leader whose relations with the West have plummeted almost as fast as his country’s economy. In power since the former British colony won independence in 1980, Mugabe has shown no sign of mellowing in his old age.