Summary: U.S./Top News Russian and China said they will not support a draft U.N. resolution imposing tough sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt its nuclear enrichment program, AP reports. The comments by Russia's foreign minister and China's U.N. ambassador were their strongest reactions yet to the draft.
Writing in Public Citizen's blog on the lame duck session, Just Foreign Policy agrees with former US "diplomat" Roger Noriega that the extension of U.S. trade preferences to Bolivia and Ecuador would be good, though we take issue with his reasons.
A substantial majority of Americans expect Democrats to reduce or end US military involvement in Iraq if they win control of Congress and say Republicans will maintain or increase troop levels if they hold on to power, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. A majority of Republicans said they want a change in appoach.
61% of US respondents think the US government should establish a timetable for withdrawal of military forces from Iraq, according to a poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates released by Newsweek.
Combat veterans are being dismissed from the Marines without the medical benefits needed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, USA Today reports. "The Marine Corps has created these mental health issues" in combat veterans, a Marine lawyer says, "and then we just kind of kick them out into the streets."
Civilians, a quarter of them children, make up almost all the victims of cluster bombs over the last three decades, Handicap International said Thursday.
Officially, the Bush administration is "pleased" that North Korea has agreed to resume talks on nuclear disarmament, the New York Times reports. But behind closed doors at the White House and the State Department, some are less happy, saying the country's nuclear test should be answered with isolation.
Press reports out of Mexico indicate the gunmen suspected of murdering New York journalist Brad Will are missing and not in police custody, Democracy Now reports. Initially a local mayor said five men had been detained. But the Mexican papers Milenio and Noticias de Oaxaca are now reporting that no arrests have been made.
Iran Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards test-fired dozen of missiles, including the long-range Shahab-3, during the first hours of new military maneuvers, Iranian state-run television said Thursday.
Iraq Iraqi leaders have drawn up a set of changes to a UN agreement that provides some of the legal basis for the presence American troops, the New York Times reports. The changes could give the Iraqi government more control over its own armed forces.
Almost a third of the 102 U.S. troops killed in Iraq in October were on extended, second or third tours, the Chicago Tribune reports. The deaths of soldiers on extended or repeat tours of duty has added to anxiety about the war.
Israel Israeli volunteers are helping to protect the Palestinian olive harvest from marauding Jewish settlers, AFP reports in an article carried by the Washington Times. The effort is led by the Israeli peace group Rabbis for Human Rights.
Ecuador The right in Latin America, allied with Washington, believes it has discovered a winning formula to stop the spread of populist governments. It's all about fear, writes Mark Weisbrot on Huffington Post. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, the US polling firm whose activities in Bolivia are depicted in the documentary "Our Brand is Crisis," is now working against Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.
Venezeuela Venezuela will provide heavily discounted heating oil to about 37,000 low-income families in Maryland, Virginia and the District this winter, Venezuela's ambassador to the US said yesterday, the Washington Times reports. The program will assist more than 400,000 families in 16 U.S. states and the District. Oil provided under the expanded program will be offered at 40 percent below the market price.
Guatemala and Venezuela agreed to withdraw from the race for a seat on the U.N. Security Council and support Panama as a consensus candidate, Ecuador's U.N. ambassador said. Panama's election to a two-year term on the Security Council is virtually certain.
Contents: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/
- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org