World News Saturday, 11 Mar. 2006 & Sunday, 12 Mar. 2006
Posted by Salim M on Sunday, 12 March, 2006
Preliminary meetings of the UN Security Councuil over the Iran nuclear issue have taken place between Britain, China, France, Russia, and the USA. The nations discussed putting more pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear enrichment and reactor plans. The push is spearheaded by the USA who want to issue Iran a two week deadline to end their nuclear program. George Bush calls Iran a “grave national security concern” but commits to a diplomatic approach for the time being. Condoleezza Rice urges the entire Security Council to convene on the matter immediately.
A Hamas senior cheif has called interim Isreali PM Ehud Olmert’s plans to establish a permanent border by 2010 a ‘declaration of war‘. People wonder which direction the new Hamas Palestinain PM will take the party and the nation. Hamas has yet to finalise its policy program, but does give information about its basic principles.
The EU threatens to cut aid to Palestine unless Hamas commits to a peace plan and Former US Pres. Jimmy Carter writes that Israel’s colonisation of Palestine is the major inhibitor of peace in the region.
The US rejects the notion that by signing the India-USA nuclear deal it is infact recognising India as a nuclear power. Pres. Bush, meanwhile, pushes a change in laws to enable the deal’s enactment.
Chile has a new President, Michelle Bachelet. Bachelet, the nation’s first female leader, is a former exile who was tortured during Chile’s dictatorship days under the rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Despite comdenation from doctors worldwide, the US defends the force-feeding of Guantanamo Bay inmates on a hungerstrike.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s proposed reforms of the organisation have been met with a vote of no confidence by UN staff.
Former Pres. of Serbia and, later, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević dies in jail in The Hague as his trail nears an end. Prosecutors are upset that he will never be punished for his war crimes.
George Bush says that he is confident there will be no civil war in Iraq.
India and China hold talks to sort out their ongoing border dispute.
