Weekly Round Up: Tony Admits Iraq Disaster, Olmert congratulates US on War, British Pakistani Survives But Ex-Russian On The Brink Of Death

It has been another interesting week in the world of politics. It all started with Tony Blair conceding that the US and UK need to get Iran and Syria to help with the Iraq Issue. Condoleezza Rice disagreed; Israeli Prime Minister Olmert on his visit to the US publicly praised the American operation in Iraq, which he said brought stability to the Middle East, President George W. Bush, called for the world to unite in isolating Iran until it "gives up its nuclear ambitions." Ironically Media reports have said that former U.S. secretary of state James Baker's report on Iraq policy will recommend that the Bush administration engage Syria and Iran in discussions over Iraq. Today Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem arrived in Baghdad for a landmark visit to Iraq, Damascus was reportedly set to demand that Washington press Israel over the issue of return of the Golan Heights, as the price of its cooperation with the Bush administration on Iraq. It will be interesting to see what happens next. The main news is of the ex-Russian spy who had been allegedly poisoned by the current Russian secret service in a London restaurant. He is currently in a critical condition with a 50% chance for survival – it will be interesting to see how this unveils.

Here are all the other news from around the world…

North America
'Pollard gave info to Pakistan, Australia'
According to new evidence released by the FBI on Monday, Jonathan Pollard not only passed classified information on to Israel, but also to Pakistan and Australia. Pollard was a civilian American Naval intelligence analyst.

In a presentation given by FBI agent Ronald Olive, it was also revealed that Pollard was illegally involved in arms sales to Taiwan, France, Kenya, Afghanistan, and Argentina. In his report, Olive made no mention of what type of information Pollard passed to Australia and Pakistan, nor of how it was transferred.

Olive also said the FBI had initially believed Pollard was spying for the Russians, and that they'd had no idea at the time that Israel was involved or that Pollard was even Jewish.

This latest information was an addendum to a last Sunday night airing of Olive's presentation, which showed footage of Jonathan Pollard stealing the classified documents that resulted in his imprisonment 21 years ago. In the presentation, Olive detailed how Pollard stole classified documents and transferred them to his Israeli handlers.

The incident was described by Olive as "an absolute failure for the American security establishment," because "there wasn't one data collecting agency" which was immune to the affair. The size of the files made it difficult for Pollard to close his suitcase, which he repeatedly attempted to do while leaning underneath his desk. All of this took place under the eye of surveillance cameras.

Ex-newspaper GM slain in Mexico City
A former general manager of one of Mexico's oldest newspapers was found slain in his apartment in the capital Thursday, officials said, a week after he went public with his book criticizing the federal government, the business community and newspaper employees.

Jose Manuel Nava, 53, who was the last top administrator and editor of the Excelsior newspaper when it was still being run as a cooperative, was found by a cleaning lady who entered his apartment, said Mexico City Police Department spokeswoman Patricia Espinoza.

It appeared that Nava had been stabbed to death, said authorities at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record to the media. Espinoza said Nava's death was being considered a homicide, but she could not say immediately how he was killed.

One of Mexico's oldest newspapers, Excelsior was founded on March 18, 1917. The glory days of the cooperative owned by its employees came in the 1960s and 1970s, when it criticized the government despite official and business-interest pressures.

Nava worked for the newspaper for 30 years, including 16 years as a correspondent in Washington, and rose to director and general manager, said Lidia Maldonado, his former secretary.

Mexican ex-presidents blasted in report
The Mexican government on Saturday released a long-awaited report that for the first time officially blamed "the highest command levels" of three former presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of leftists from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The report ends a five-year investigation by a special prosecutor named by President Vicente Fox to shed light on past crimes, including a 1968 student massacre and the disappearance of hundreds of leftist activists in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The authoritarian regime, at the highest command levels, broke the law and committed "crimes against humanity" that resulted in "massacres, forced disappearances, systematic torture and genocide to try to destroy a sector of society that it considered ideologically to be its enemy," said the report, based partly on declassified Mexican military documents.

Special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo, who was appointed in November 2001, handed his report to the Attorney General's Office late Friday. It was later posted on the Internet for the public, and Carrillo said it would presented at a ceremony with Fox before he leaves office Dec. 1.

The incidents occurred during the administrations of Presidents Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Jose Lopez Portillo and Luis Echeverria. Asked by The Associated Press if the presidents knew of the atrocities but did nothing, Carrillo replied, "Yes." Carrillo said the report is only the beginning — that the Mexican government must prosecute those responsible if it is to prevent such atrocities from occurring in the future. The state also must compensate victims' families, he said.

South America
Shots fired at anti-U.N. rally in Haiti
Gunfire rang out Saturday during a street protest by university students demanding the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers from Haiti, and witnesses said two demonstrators were wounded.

About 100 protesters were marching through Port-au-Prince's downtown when gunfire erupted, scattering demonstrators. Witnesses said a security guard at a nearby bank fired the shots and was later arrested by police after protesters threatened to lynch him. It was not clear what prompted the shooting.

Two students were wounded by bullets, one in the leg and the other in the back, witnesses said.

Shortly after the shooting, protesters regrouped and came upon three U.N. civilian police officers. Associated Press journalists saw protesters chase after the Filipino officers and throw rocks. U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaze said one Filipino police officer was slightly injured but could not give details.

Protesters accuse the blue-helmeted troops of failing to curb violence and of firing indiscriminately during slum raids, wounding and killing civilians. The U.N. says it only fires when attacked.

The 8,800-strong U.N. mission has beefed up patrols in the capital since two Jordanian peacekeepers were shot to death on Nov. 10. The soldiers were returning to base when they were surprised by unknown gunmen.

U.S.: Castro's health is deteriorating
The US government believes Fidel Castro's health is deteriorating and that the Cuban dictator is unlikely to live through 2007.

That dire view was reinforced last week when Cuba's foreign minister backed away from his prediction the ailing Castro would return to power by early December. "It's a subject on which I don't want to speculate," Felipe Perez Roque told The Associated Press in Havana.

U.S. government officials say there is still some mystery about Castro's diagnosis, his treatment and how he is responding. But these officials believe the 80-year-old leader has cancer of the stomach, colon or pancreas.

He was seen weakened and thinner in official state photos released late last month, and it is considered unlikely that he will return to power or survive through the end of next year, said the U.S. government and defense officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the politically sensitive topic.

With chemotherapy, Castro may live up to 18 months, said the defense official. Without it, expected survival would drop to three months to eight months. American officials will not talk publicly about how they glean clues to Castro's health. But U.S. spy agencies include physicians who study pictures, video, public statements and other information coming out of Cuba.

A planned celebration of Castro's 80th birthday next month is expected to draw international attention. The Cuban leader had planned to attend the public event, which already had been postponed once from his Aug. 13 birthday.

Lawyers try to stop Gitmo med procedure
An attorney for a Guantanamo Bay detainee has asked a judge to block a planned medical procedure on the prisoner's heart, saying that performing it at the U.S. base puts his life at risk.

Saifullah A. Paracha, a 59-year-old multimillionaire businessman from Karachi, Pakistan, already had one heart attack while in U.S. custody and in recent days has suffered chest pains, his lawyers said. Doctors plan to perform a cardiac catheterization on Paracha this month at the isolated Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in southeast Cuba.

Gaillard T. Hunt, one of Paracha's attorneys, asked a federal court in Washington Tuesday to block it, saying Guantanamo lacks the medical facilities for the procedure and sufficient backup in case anything goes wrong. Hunt said it should be carried out in a hospital in the United States or Pakistan.

Transferring Paracha to a hospital in the United States could present legal complications for the Bush administration, which has maintained that because the Guantanamo detainees were picked up overseas and are being held on foreign land, they may be detained indefinitely without charges or trial. A new law strips foreign "enemy combatants" held anywhere by the United States of their right to contest their detention in court. That law is being challenged.

Paracha's legal team has no ulterior motives, said another of his lawyers, Zachary Philip Katznelson. "Our goal here is not anything duplicitous or underhanded to get court jurisdiction," he said in a telephone interview. "It is to get decent medical care."

DNA test rebuts claim of Peron paternity
A privately commissioned DNA test found no relation between late Argentine strongman Juan Peron and a 72-year-old woman claiming to be his daughter, a lawyer for Peron's former wife said Tuesday.

The test was commissioned by Maria Estela Martinez de Peron — Juan Peron's third wife — in response to claims by Martha Holgado that she is the product of an affair between Peron and her mother.

Martinez de Peron's lawyer, Humberto Linares Fontaine, said on Argentine television Tuesday that the test did not pinpoint any biological link between Peron and Holgado.

But Holgado told The Associated Press she was awaiting the results of a court-ordered DNA test. Her lawyer, Santos Cifuentes, added that any independent testing "isn't valid until it can be compared with the analysis ordered by the judge."

Under court instructions, forensic experts extracted DNA samples from Peron's remains on Oct. 13 ahead of the reburial of Peron's body at a new mausoleum southwest of Buenos Aires.

Europe
Vatican steps into veil debate
The Vatican has stepped into the debate about Muslim women wearing veils, with a cardinal saying 'guests' must follow the laws of their host countries, including any bans on such face-coverings.

Cardinal Renato Martino, a former Vatican envoy to the UN, heads the papal office on issues concerning migrants, itinerant workers and refugees.

Martino was speaking at a news conference to present Pope Benedict XVI's annual message on migrant issues. He said countries: "Must require that guests who arrive from a different culture must respect the traditions, the symbols, the culture, the religion of the countries they go to."

Vatican Radio reiterated the stance, saying that "the question of the veil for Islamic women" should be "considered in the context of respect for the laws of the countries which welcome them". Martino's comments come two weeks before the pope begins a visit to Turkey.

Poland veto unacceptable to Russia
Poland has threatened to veto talks on a co-operation pact between Russia and the EU unless Moscow guarantees secure energy supplies and lifts its ban on Polish food imports.

Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the EU envoy to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, called Poland's threat unacceptable. "There are partners who are trying to bring their purely domestic problems to the European level and to drag the EU into settling scores ... which is unacceptable for us," he said.

The EU summit with Putin, due to take place on November 24, would cover energy, trade and human rights issues. Yastrzhembsky said Russia hoped that the EU would resolve the row with Poland but would not be overly concerned if it failed to do so before next week's summit.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU external relations commissioner, called on Poland to lift its objections to the talks with Russia, saying that the summit would go ahead regardless.

Diplomats say Moscow is well aware of how badly the EU needs its oil and gas. Recently, a Nato economic committee said that a Russian-backed "Opec for gas" was possible, suggesting that Russia might be aiming to draw Algeria, Libya, Qatar, the countries of central Asia and possibly also Iran into an energy cartel.

Russia supplies a quarter of Europe's gas and Nato sources sees such an association as strengthening Moscow's hand in its relations with Europe and particularly with its neighbours, Ukraine and Georgia.

Some sick babies must be allowed to die, says Church
Church of England leaders want doctors to be given the right to withhold treatment from seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances. The move is expected to spark massive controversy.

The church leaders' call for some children to be allowed to die - overriding the presumption that life should be preserved at any cost - comes in response to an independent inquiry, which is to be published this week, into the ethics of resuscitating and treating extremely premature babies.

The decision by religious leaders to accept that in some rare cases it may be better to end life than to artificially prolong it is a landmark for the church.

The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark and vice chair of public affairs of the Mission and Public Affairs Council, states in the church's submission to the inquiry, that 'it may in some circumstances be right to choose to withhold or withdraw treatment, knowing it will possibly, probably, or even certainly result in death'.

The church's report does not spell out which medical conditions might justify a decision to allow babies to die but they are likely to be those agonising dilemmas such as the one faced by the parents of Charlotte Wyatt, who was born three months prematurely, weighing only 1lb and with severe brain and lung damage.

The report also suggests the enormous cost implications to the NHS of keeping very premature and sick babies alive with invasive medical care and the burden on the parents should also be taken into consideration.

Middle East
Israel is holding 710 Palestinians without trial
Some 710 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails under administrative detention without trial, the Knesset Legislative Committee said Tuesday.

Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan said the detainees are being held as a preventative action, to keep them from committing future crimes.

The committee also said 16 settlers have been issued restraining orders preventing them from reentering their homes in settlements slated for evacuation. MK Yitzhak Levy said the government has not told the settler detainees why they were issued restraining orders, adding they were given no legal recourse for contending with the accusations against them.

MK Uri Ariel, who initiated the discussion in the committee, said that lawmakers across the political spectrum are opposed to the use of restraining orders and administrative detentions. He accused the government of carrying out these orders in a reckless and deviant way.

MK Zahava Gal-On argued that the use of administrative detentions can be applied only to Israelis and not to Palestinians. She said that if there is enough evidence proving the detention unlawful, it should be brought to trial without delay to give the detainees an opportunity to defend themselves in a fair trial.

Deputy State Prosecutor Nitzan said any person under consideration for a restraining order is given the right to a legal hearing. He added that while most of the evidence is confidential, the suspects and their attorneys are given a basic summary of the suspicions against them.

Arab states to end financial boycott of Hamas-led PA
Arab League foreign ministers meeting in an emergency session in Egypt on Sunday decided to stop participating in the international financial blockade on the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

"We decided not to cooperate with it (the blockade). There will no longer be an international siege," said Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

The U.S.-led blockade was imposed on the PA following the election of Hamas in January. The international community has demanded that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept prior agreements signed between Israel and the PA, before lifting the blockade.

The ministers also called for a fresh international peace conference to resolve the Arab-Israeli dispute based on the principle of land for peace, to which the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Israel, and Arab parties would be invited to attend the peace conference.

Arab states want Hamas to endorse a 2002 Arab initiative that trades peace with Israel for the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

Asia
British man freed from death row in Pakistan returns home
A Briton who spent 18 years on death row in Pakistan arrived back in Britain, after the country's President Pervez Musharraf declared his sentence would be commuted.

Mirza Tahir Hussain, from Leeds, arrived at Heathrow for an emotional reunion with his family after being released. Mr Hussain told reporters at Heathrow: "I am glad to be back home."

In a statement read on his behalf by MEP Sajjad Haider Karim, he said: " It has been a tremendous strain to be separated from my family and loved ones. I thank God for giving me the faith and strength to persevere. Freedom is a great gift. I want to use this freedom to get to know my family again, to adjust back to living here and to come to terms with my ordeal.

Mr Hussain was 18 when he was convicted for the murder of Jamshed Khan, in 1988. He has never swerved from his insistence that he was innocent of murder, and that he had killed Mr Khan in self-defence after the taxi-driver tried to sexually assault him. He had been due to be hanged on 31 December but was given a reprieve after President Musharraf bowed to international pressure for clemency. Mr Hussain was released from prison almost immediately after President Musharraf commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. That sentence carries a term of 14 years in Pakistan, which he has already served.

AIDS, heroin two-pronged problem for Afghanistan
With eight HIV positive cases in 2001 and 61 today, Afghanistan is worried a growing use of heroin will add the spread of AIDS to its long list of problems inherited from decades of war.

The Central Asian country is better known as the world's top producer of opium, the raw ingredient of heroin: about 92 percent of opium comes from Afghanistan's poppies, the United Nations says.

But the fall of the Taliban in 2001 has led to the return of refugees initiated into drug use in camps in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran.

A domestic market has developed, with heroin of good quality made in secret laboratories inside the country and costing relatively little -- at about 300 afghani (six dollars) a gramme compared to 50 afghani for bread.

Counternarcotics Minister Mohammad Zafar said the number of heroin users in Kabul jumped from 7,000 in 2003 to 14,000 last year. "Forty to 50 percent of refugees use heroin and 20 to 30 percent hashish," he said, putting the total number of drug users in Afghanistan at about one million of its roughly 30 million inhabitants.

"There is a problem because production is always rising. The drug mafia, which could not be operating without protection at a high level, is everywhere and always wants to produce and sell more," Zafar said.

AIDS could follow the rising drug use, mainly because needles were being shared. Farid Zama, of the Nejat detox centre, said up to 10 people sometimes used a single syringe. There were 61 confirmed cases of AIDS in Afghanistan today, of which 18 were women and 15 drug users, Health Minister Saifour Rehman said.

"There are between 1,500 and 2,000 suspected cases," he added, with the majority of them using drugs. The shared needles and also the time they spent with sex workers meant they were more likely to get HIV and AIDS, he said.

Iran nears nuclear completion
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, says that Iran will soon have mastered the production of nuclear fuel.

As the president made the comments at a press conference in Tehran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had discovered unexplained uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran.

While Ahmadinejad stated that the world had finally accepted Iran as a nuclear power, the UN agency has claimed that the country is not co-operating over its atomic programme.

Russia and China, which trade extensively with Iran, have rejected sanctions against the country.

Ahmadinejad said that US and EU powers wanted to monopolise nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations. He said: "Initially, they were very angry. Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing the [whole] nuclear fuel cycle."

Philippine coup chief arrested
A former colonel and senator has been arrested in connection with a plot to overthrow Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippine president.

Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan has been implicated in nearly all of a dozen or more coups attempted in the Philippines over the last two decades. Honasan has been in hiding since February 23, the eve of the planned uprising against Arroyo. He was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday after weeks of police tracking phone calls.

He was being treated at hospital for injuries after he tried to elude arrest by jumping over a fence. State prosecutors have charged 45 people in connection with the coup attempt, including 20 military and police officers, a state university president and former ambassador.

Arroyo survived two impeachment attempts over allegations of vote-rigging and corruption.

Honasan, 58, gained fame and notoriety in 1986 when, as a young officer advocating military reform, he led a failed plot to topple Ferdinand Marcos, the then president. The next year he tried to topple Corazon Aquino, Marcos's successor.

He was imprisoned but escaped and led another coup attempt in 1989. He was later granted amnesty and gained a senate seat in 1995. The government is to pay an informant a five million peso ($98,000) reward for the arrest.

Thai Muslim teachers held for rebellion
A Thai court on Wednesday sentenced three Muslim teachers to 10 years each in prison for rebellion and criminal conspiracy charges related to their membership in an Islamic separatist group, but acquitted them of murder charges in a 2004 bombing, their lawyer said.

The provincial court of Pattani, in southern Thailand, found Aduenan Seng, 26, Abhisit Mahama, 23, and Abdullah Dueramae, 31, guilty of the charges in connection with actions planned while members of the New Pattani United Liberation Organization, or New PULO, their lawyer Anukul Awaeputeh said.

However, the three were acquitted of murder charges connected with a bomb planted near a market in the city of Pattani on Jan. 5, 2004, that killed two police explosive experts trying to defuse it.

The court found insufficient evidence to prove the three men were involved in planting the bomb, Anukul said, adding that all three would appeal their convictions.

More than 1,800 people have died in violence in Thailand's three southernmost, Muslim-majority provinces — Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat — since an Islamic insurgency flared in January 2004.

Southern Muslims have long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Buddhist majority, especially in jobs and education.

Saudis plan Iraq security fence
Saudi Arabia will press ahead with the construction of a security fence to seal off the border with Iraq, the interior minister has said. Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz said it would prevent the entry of Islamic militants and illegal immigrants.

The 900-km (560 mile) fence is part of the larger electronic shield which the kingdom plans to build to secure its northern, western and southern borders.

The $12bn project will use devices such as remote sensors and thermal cameras.

The Saudis want to control their vast desert borders and seal off Iraq, ensuring that the chaos there does not spill over into the kingdom. The Saudi interior minister said the war in Iraq was affecting all its neighbours and that a border fence had become essential for the security of the kingdom.

Africa
Mubarak: Amend 2005 constitution
Egypt's long-serving president asked parliament Sunday to amend an article of the constitution that critics say was tailored to allow his son to succeed him.

President Hosni Mubarak told parliament the article should be changed to make it easier for candidates from registered political parties to run for president. He did not provide details. Mubarak, 78, also dismissed speculation that he would step down before his term ends in 2011. He has been in power since 1981.

"I will carry on with you, crossing to the future, shouldering the responsibility, as long as my heart is beating and I'm breathing," Mubarak told parliament in a speech marking the beginning of the new session.

The opposition claims the article, which was rewritten last year to permit Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential election, opens the way for Gamal Mubarak, the president's youngest son, to become Egypt's next leader by making it impossible for anyone to compete against the ruling party in the 2011 election.

The article requires that independent candidates obtain 250 recommendations from members of parliament or city councils to be eligible to run. Those offices are overwhelmingly held by members of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party, or NDP.

The article also stipulates that only political parties representing at least 5 percent of parliament can put forward a presidential candidate — a requirement no political party achieved in last year's legislative elections.

Egypt's largest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which holds nearly 20 percent of parliament, is officially banned. Its lawmakers ran as independents.

South Africa approves gay marriage
South Africa has become the first African country to legalise gay marriage after the nation's parliament approved the legislation.

A total of 230 MPs voted for the civil union bill after a stormy debate at the parliament in Cape Town, while another 41 opposed the measure and three abstained.

The bill, which allows for civil unions to be solemnised by way of either a marriage or a civil partnership, has been widely opposed by religious groups, conservatives and traditionalists.

The government has said the new legislation forms part of a wider commitment to battle discrimination.

"We need to fight and resist all forms of discrimination and prejudice, including homophobia," Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the home affairs minister, said before the vote on Tuesday. The measure was also warmly welcomed as an historic step by the Joint Working Group, a national network of 17 gay, bisexual and transgender organisations.

Australasia
Murdoch urges Australians not to turn on US over Iraq
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has urged Australians not to allow resentment over the war on Iraq and doubts about the administration of US President George W. Bush to poison their view of the United States.

The US press baron, who was born in Australia, said that while many Australians were worried about US policy on Iraq, they should not allow the concerns to fester into an "irrational antipathy" against his adopted homeland.

"First and foremost, Australians must resist and reject the facile, reflexive, unthinking anti-Americanism that has gripped much of Europe," Murdoch told the newly-founded American Australian Association late Tuesday.

"I am well aware that the Iraq war was and is unpopular among many Australians. But wars end. Administrations come and go," said the chairman and chief executive of News Corp. who is visiting the land of his birth.

"The Australian people must not allow their perfectly legitimate doubts about one policy or one American administration to cloud their long term judgement."

The call came as polls showed that most Australians oppose the US-led war in Iraq to which Canberra, under the leadership of key Bush ally Prime Minister John Howard, has contributed around 400 troops.