Politics this week: 9th - 14th December 2006

A stalemate continued between the Lebanese government and the opposition, whose supporters, more than 1m-strong, thronged the streets of central Beirut, demanding the removal of the prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and the creation of a national unity government in which Hezbullah, the main Shia party, would have a veto. See article

Leading Iraqi politicians criticized the report published last week by the Iraq Study Group co-chaired by James Baker, a former secretary of state. Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said it undermined Iraq's sovereignty. The White House said George Bush would not unveil his new strategy until sometime in January. Sectarian violence continued with one lorry bomb in Baghdad killing at least 70 Shia laborers on December 12th. See article

Iran held a long-heralded conference questioning whether the Holocaust ever happened. One of the guests was David Duke, a former grand wizard of America's Ku Klux Klan. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressed the meeting and repeated his statement that the “Zionist regime” would soon disappear. See article

Fears grew that the Palestinians' volatile mix of political and clan feuds could ignite an internecine conflict in Gaza. Gunmen shot dead a judge affiliated to Hamas, the ruling Islamist movement, two days after the killing of three young sons of a senior official of Fatah, the rival secular group.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, a long-time former head of the Saudi intelligence service, resigned abruptly as ambassador to the United States, prompting speculation that, among other possibilities, he might replace his ailing brother, Prince Saud al-Faisal, as foreign minister.

Islamist leaders who control Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and most of the southern and central parts of the country, said they would soon launch a “major attack” against Ethiopian soldiers who have been massing in the west.

A court in Ethiopia decided that Mengistu Haile Mariam, a Marxist dictator who ruled ruthlessly for 17 years until 1991, was guilty of genocide. Over 70 people were convicted with him, in a trial lasting 12 years. He was tried in absentia.

At arm's length

General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973-90 and who came to personify an era of brutal military dictatorship in South America, died of complications from a heart attack. His funeral took place at a military academy; there was no official mourning. See article

The outgoing United States Congress offered a crumb of comfort to four Andean countries on trade, renewing existing preferences for six months. Before ratifying free-trade agreements with Peru and Colombia, leaders of the new Democratic-controlled Congress have said they want extra labor-rights provisions attached to them.

Canada's Parliament rejected by 175 votes to 123 a motion by the Conservative minority government that would have allowed legislation to ban gay marriage.

The Arctic could see the complete disappearance of all-year-round ice in a few decades, American scientists have said. Data presented to the American Geophysical Union showed that ice was recovering poorly from the summer melt.

Remember him?

The ethics committee of America's House of Representatives issued its findings on the Mark Foley scandal. The report criticized Republicans in the chamber for failing to “exercise appropriate diligence”, but did not single out any individual for disciplinary action. Mr Foley's resignation, over his lurid contacts with teenage pages in Congress, was no help to the Republicans during the recent mid-term elections.

The Democrats completed their rout of the Republicans in the mid-term elections by defeating a seven-term congressman in a run-off election in a Texas district. Meanwhile, William Jefferson, a congressman who is being investigated for bribery, won his run-off election in New Orleans.

Must try harder

Ahead of a European Union summit, EU foreign ministers agreed to suspend a large part of Turkey's membership negotiations. This is punishment for Turkey's failure to fulfill its obligation to open its ports and airports to (Greek) Cyprus. The Turks fumed about injustice, noting that the Europeans had not fulfilled on their promise to lift a trade embargo on northern Cyprus. See article

Investigations into the Litvinenko affair continued to broaden. British and Russian detectives interviewed two Russians who met Alexander Litvinenko on the day he died. Traces of polonium, the substance used to kill the former Russian agent, were found to have contaminated four people in Hamburg. See article

Voters in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, opted overwhelmingly for a constitution declaring their own sovereignty. But Azerbaijan continues to reject any notion of independence.

Transdniestria, a breakaway part of Moldova that is backed by Russia, re-elected its “president” to a fourth term.

Scolding averted

In mayoral elections in Taiwan's biggest cities, Kaohsiung and Taipei, voters failed to give the stinging rebuke many expected to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of President Chen Shui-bian. Although the DPP's candidate lost the mayorship of Taipei to the opposition Kuomintang, the ruling party narrowly held on to Kaohsiung.

The electorate in the Indonesian province of Aceh had its first chance to vote directly for a governor and other officials. It was a landmark in the effort to bring an end to 29 years of secessionist war. Polls suggested that former independence activists had done well. See article

In Bangladesh, the president, Iajuddin Ahmed, who is also head of a caretaker government, ordered the army on to the streets of Dhaka and other cities to keep order ahead of elections due next month. Four members of his administration resigned in protest.

America's Congress passed legislation allowing nuclear co-operation with India. The governments in Delhi and Washington, DC, declared it a great day for bilateral relations. But India's main opposition party continued to object, as did its Communists and some nuclear scientists. See article

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