The.Economist-2006-03-11.pdf

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Politics this week

Mar 9th 2006

From The Economist print edition

Iran threatened the United States with “harm and pain” after a meeting of the

International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna decided that Iran's referral to the UN

Security Council should go ahead. America and its allies accuse Iran of trying to develop

nuclear weapons. The nuclear agency's boss, Mohamed El Baradei, said he was unable to

confirm that Iran was not building nuclear weapons. See article

Sectarian killings in Iraq continued apace, slowing the formation of a unity government

and prompting the American ambassador to warn of civil war. Gunmen dressed as police

raided a security firm's office in Baghdad and seized 50 workers. Earlier, 18 bodies had

been found strangled or shot in a minibus. Insurgents failed to assassinate the interior

minister, Bayan Jaber, a Shia who has been accused of links with death squads.

The Libyan government, which has been opening to the West, freed some 130 political prisoners, most of them

Islamists. But the country's reform-minded prime minister, Shukri Ghanem, was sacked. See article

Thousands took to the streets of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, to back the government in its opposition to the UN

taking over peacekeeping from the African Union in Darfur, where the government particularly dislikes the prospect

of outside troops.

The head of the UN's World Food Programme warned that at least 20m people face famine in the Horn of Africa .

Some 3.5m people in north-eastern Kenya have already run out of food and water. See article

Votes were being counted in a presidential election in Benin . The constitution rules that those aged over 70 cannot

run, so neither the incumbent, President Mathieu Kérékou, nor his main rival did so.

Underground protest

Mexico's 250,000-strong union of miners and metalworkers held a two-day strike in protest at the government's

recognition of a dissident leader of the union, which has campaigned against Grupo Mexico, a big mining company

that owns a coal mine in the north of the country where 65 workers were killed in a gas explosion last month.

In Argentina , the judicial committee of the Buenos Aires city council voted to sack the city's mayor, Aníbal Ibarra.

He was accused of complicity in the deaths of 194 people in a fire at a nightclub in December 2004 because of his

alleged failure to root out bribery and inefficiency. See article

After talks in London, Britain's Tony Blair and Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called for a summit of

world leaders to be held to put more muscle into the Doha round of world-trade talks.

Short sessions

China's National People's Congress, its highest legislative body, met in Beijing for its annual ten-day session. The

government presented a budget that calls for big increases in military and rural spending. See article

Two bombs in the holy Indian city of Varanasi, one of them at a Hindu temple, left at

least 14 people dead. But there was no immediate sign of reprisal. See article

Japan turned down an offer from China to develop gas fields jointly in a disputed area of

the East China sea. Tension increased further after China's foreign minister called

Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, “stupid” and “amoral” for visiting the Yasukuni

shrine, which honours Japan's war dead.

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Security measures

An important panel in the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to block the takeover by DP World of

operations in six American ports . George Bush, who insists the Dubai-based company is not a threat to security,

has vowed to veto any attempt to stop the deal. See article

After twice extending its expiration deadline, Congress renewed the Patriot Act and sent it to Mr Bush to sign.

Some extra civil-liberties protections were added, but critics maintain the legislation, passed shortly after the

September 11th attacks, still gives too much power to the executive branch.

Following a contentious period of selecting a jury, the trial to determine if Zacarias Moussaoui should be

executed for his role in September 11th got under way in northern Virginia. Mr Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to

conspiracy; his defence argues he should be given a life sentence as he did not actually participate in the attacks.

South Dakota's governor signed a controversial measure that bans abortion in the state (except where the mother

is at risk). The law should eventually force the Supreme Court to give a definitive ruling on abortion. See article

A mixed week for Republicans. In Washington, DC, Bill Thomas announced his retirement as chairman of the

powerful House ways and means committee. In Texas, Tom DeLay won the Republican primary in his

congressional district (he faces a tougher challenge in November's mid-term elections). And a former congressman

from Southern California, Randy “Duke” Cunningham , received a prison sentence of more than eight years for

taking bribes from defence contractors.

The youth on the street

Some 100,000 demonstrators protested in France against a new temporary youth-employment contract. Critics

say it will create job insecurity for young people. France has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in

Europe.

A Croatian Serb convicted of war crimes killed himself in jail in The Hague. Milan Babic was briefly president of

the Serbs' breakaway state of Krajina. But in The Hague he turned into an important prosecution witness in war-

crimes trials of other leading Serbs.

The European Commission called for a stronger common European Union energy

policy . In a green paper, it suggested a single Europe-wide power grid and a shared

approach to energy security. But several EU countries are still pursuing their dreams of

national energy champions. See article

AFP

The commission started legal proceedings against Poland for opposing a big Italian-

German banking merger that involves two Polish banks. The move is seen as a test case

for getting the newest EU members to comply with competition rules.

The EU is to lift its ban on British beef exports , including of live animals, ten years

after it was imposed following the outbreak of mad-cow disease.

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