Wednesday News Bucket – Mid-day Edition

8 Comments

1. 

   ask on October 31, 2007 at 1:56 pm

   
   Iran warns U.S. of “quagmire” as Russia urges diplomacy
   

   TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran warned the United States on Wednesday it would find itself in a “quagmire deeper than Iraq” if it attacked the Islamic state, and Russia stepped up efforts for a diplomatic solution to Tehran’s nuclear row with the West.

   The warning by the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, a target of new U.S. sanctions announced last week, added to angry rhetoric between the two old foes that has prompted speculation of possible U.S. military action.

   U.S. President George W. Bush has suggested a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War Three. Washington insists it wants a diplomatic solution but a U.S. official said on Wednesday more “tough-minded diplomacy” was needed to make this route work.

   […]

   Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, says dialogue rather than punishment or talk of military action offers the best way to ease tension. It says the IAEA process should be given time to run its course.

   Speaking after talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday evening, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to a transcript from his ministry:

   “We encouraged the Iranian leadership to undertake further — and preferably more active — work with the IAEA to clear up those questions which have been raised by the agency with regard to the Iranian nuclear programme’s past.”

   Lavrov, visiting two weeks after a trip to Tehran by President Vladimir Putin, said he “underlined the importance of closing these questions as soon as possible, in order to restore trust in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s activities.”

2. 

   ask on October 31, 2007 at 2:00 pm

   Russia warns against meddling

   MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin warned foreign organisations on Wednesday against trying to interfere in Russia’s December parliamentary elections, as Moscow cut sharply the number of Western observers permitted to view the polls.

   “No country will accept any attempts from abroad to try to influence it,” Kremlin deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference. “It’s a matter of sovereignty of the country.”

   Peskov was speaking after Europe’s main democracy watchdog, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said Moscow had imposed “unprecedented” restrictions on its observation mission to the December 2 elections.

   The vote is widely viewed as a referendum on President Vladimir Putin’s almost eight years in power. Polls suggest his United Russia bloc will win an overwhelming majority of seats but the opposition has complained that Putin’s backing gives the party an unfair advantage.

   OSCE spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said Russia had invited a maximum of 70 observers for a short-term mission to December’s vote — less than a quarter of the number sent for the last such elections in 2003, and for a shorter period.

   “We now need to consider the implications of those restrictions, as they may seriously limit the possibility for a meaningful observation according to our standard methodology for full-scale election observation missions,” she said.

   […]

   The Russians aren’t exactly shy these days…

3. 

   ask on October 31, 2007 at 2:22 pm

   U.N. again urges U.S. to end Cuba embargo

   UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to urge the United States to end its 46-year-old trade embargo against Cuba after its foreign minister accused the U.S. of stepping up its “brutal economic war” to new heights and vowed to “never surrender.”

   “The blockade had never been enforced with such viciousness as over the last year,” Felipe Perez Roque told the assembly Tuesday. He accused U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration of adopting “new measures bordering on madness and fanaticism” that have not only hurt Cuba but interfered with its relations with at least 30 countries.

   It was the 16th straight year that the 192-member world body approved a resolution calling for the U.S. economic and commercial embargo against Cuba to be repealed “as soon as possible.”

   Delegates in the 192-member General Assembly chamber burst into applause when the vote in favor of the resolution flashed on the screen — 184 to 4 with 1 abstention. That was a one-vote improvement over last year’s vote of 183 to 4 with 1 abstention.

   • 

     chocolate ink on October 31, 2007 at 5:39 pm

     One of the linchpins of the insanity of US foreign policy(under dem or rethug president)are the continuing sanctions against Cuba.

4. 

   ask on October 31, 2007 at 2:24 pm

   ‘Orphan’ debacle in Chad raises risk to aid efforts

   Paris – The ongoing Zoe’s Ark incident, involving the removal of 103 children from Chad to Europe, may be a case of French volunteer gallantry run amok. It also could be a story of avaricious individuals, looking to make a quick buck by grabbing unattended children.

   But certainly the 16 Europeans charged in Chad with attempting to smuggle children they say were orphans from Sudan’s troubled Darfur region – underscores the sensitivities involved when new or inexperienced groups insert themselves in dangerous places, presumably to do good.

   Zoe’s Ark is a nongovernmental organization founded by Eric Breteau, a volunteer fireman from Paris. Mr. Breteau’s group vowed in April to save some 10,000 children in Darfur from starving.

   But instead, the group’s effort has created a diplomatic incident, angered Chadians, and – in the process – raised concerns among established international aid groups that their efforts will now be viewed with suspicion.

   “We’re very unhappy about what happened,” says Niko Wolswijk, the interim head of Médecins sans Frontièrs-Holland’s mission to Chad. “It has a clear impact on [other aid groups] here. Local people are saying: ‘Hey, what are [the aid groups] doing here? Can we trust them?’ ”

   […]

5. 

   dada on October 31, 2007 at 3:43 pm

   seems the state department is suffering as much disarray as the doj…only this forced assignment might get you killed:

   US diplomats angry over Iraq posts

   WASHINGTON – Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department’s decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a “potential death sentence.”

   In a contentious hour-long “town hall meeting” called to explain the step, these workers peppered the official who signed the order with often hostile complaints about the largest diplomatic call-up since Vietnam. Announced last week, it will require some diplomats – under threat of dismissal — to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and in so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams in outlying provinces.

   Many expressed serious concern about the ethics of sending diplomats against their will to serve in a war zone…
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   “It’s one thing if someone believes in what’s going on over there and volunteers, but it’s another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment,” Crotty said. “I’m sorry, but basically that’s a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or seriously wounded?”

   “You know that at any other (country) in the world, the embassy would be closed at this point,

   ” Crotty said to loud and sustained applause from the about 300 diplomats who attended the meeting in a large State Department auditorium.
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   link

   CONdi, btw, couldn’t be bothered to attend…some about a sale on manolo blahnik’s at barneys.

   lTMF’sA

   

   • 

     cruz del sur on October 31, 2007 at 6:35 pm

     Condi should lead by example and go there herself.

   • 

     on October 31, 2007 at 8:12 pm

     They best stay indoors and wear those nifty depleted uranium filter mask thingies.