World News Thursday, 09 Mar. 2006
Posted by Salim M on Friday, 10 March, 2006
Iraqi Shiite leaders threaten to block the opening session of Iraq’s new parliament in protest over requests that their PM candidate Ibrahim al-Jaafari be withdrawn. Meanwhile, soldiers discover the bodies of 24 excecuted Iraqis in Baghdad streets.
In a recently published human rights report, the US harshly critisices China and Iran as being the ‘most systematic’ human rights violators. China releases its own report critical of US human rights abuse. An interesting conclusion of the US report is that democracy does not guarantee human rights.
The US say that North Korea fired two short-range missiles in testing earlier during the week which, it is claimed, is further proof that N. Korea is a real security threat. Independent analysts, however, disagree. N. Korea, meanwhile, announce their terms for more nuclear talks with the US.
Russian announces that it will not support sanctions against Iran, sighting that sanctions don’t really work. The US call for Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council right away. Iran says that the West will suffer more than it.
Germany announces that it is behind Israel all the way with regards to its stance on Hamas. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas seeminlgy throws his weight behind Israeli PM Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party in upcoming elections, which damages the party’s standings.
It is argued that Australia’s refusal to sell uranium to India demonstrates that India must still do a lot of work before the benefits of the recent US-India nuclear deal become apparent.
US CENTCOM Commander General John Abizaid meets with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in an attempt to calm increasing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Kofi Annan’s planned UN restructuring outrages staff and many Third World countires. Part of the plan includes 1000 redundancies.
