Summary: U.S./Top News Opponents of US foreign policy around the world rejoiced over the defeat of President Bush in the Congressional elections. Democrats regained the House and were poised to regain the Senate, with 50 confirmed seats in the Senate and a tentative victory in Virginia, pending a possible recount. More than 200 Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results as "the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world" and gloated that they left the Bush administration "seriously weakened."
A majority of voters in Champaign-Urbana supported referenda in favor of withdrawing from Iraq and impeaching Bush and Cheney. Several other Illinois cities passed referenda supporting US withdrawal from Iraq. Republican Rep. Tim Johnson (IL-15) conceded that US involvement in Iraq had become a "quagmire" and that Americans would not tolerate another two years of the status quo.
Voters in more than one-third of Massachusetts' cities and towns delivered a resounding protest against the Iraq war, the Boston Globe reports. With 52 percent of the votes counted in the 36 House districts where an anti war question appeared, voters instructed their state representatives, 147,202 to 99,140, to approve a resolution calling on President Bush and Congress to end the war immediately and bring the troops home.
Defense Secretary resigned Wednesday, after opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican Party losses. President Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld.
Over 20 Congressional supporters of the controversial School of the Americas were defeated yesterday, SOA Watch reports, suggesting improved prospects for shutting down the military training school, widely reviled for its role in promoting torture, assassination, and military coups in Latin America.
CNN and AP called the Montana Senate race for Democrats, giving them 50 seats. Democrats led in Virginia as well, giving them 51 seats, but a recount was expected there.
A meeting of six nations working on a resolution to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions broke up Tuesday evening with the ambassadors reporting widening disagreements and lessening prospects of a swift accord, the New York Times reports.
Daniel Ortega's (Nicaraguan) opponent in Nicaragua's presidential election conceded defeat. Ortega promised to keep the country open to foreign investment and to seek consensus with his political opponents to battle poverty, the New York Times reports.
Congressional scandals have damaged America's standing on a global list that ranks freedom from corruption. The US ranked 20th least corrupt among 163 countries, down from 17th last year, according to Transparency International. In more bad news for the US, Iraq was next-to-last on the list, Bloomberg reports.
Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Wednesday the US was wrong to think the world opposed Tehran's nuclear program. "The majority of countries of the world believe that nuclear energy should be freed from the monopoly of a few self-proclaimed powers," he said.
Israel Israel fired artillery shells containing white phosphorus in Lebanon, according to an investigation by the UN. White phosphorus is banned under the Geneva Convention when used against civilians or in civilian areas, although Israel insists that the shells were directed against solely military targets, reports the Independent.
Palestine Israeli tank shells ripped through a residential neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip Wednesday, killing at least 18 members of an extended family, including eight children, and wounding dozens of others, AP reports.
Cyprus The European Commission gave Turkey a December deadline Wednesday to open its ports to shipping from Cyprus or face consequences for its troubled European Union membership bid. But Ankara rejected any linkage between the Cyprus issue and its accession process, Reuters reports, in an article carried by the New York Times. Reuters recounts that Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 and does not recognize what Reuters calls the "Greek Cypriot" government, referring to the internationally recognized government, which represents Cyprus not only in the EU, but also in the United Nations. The Reuters article refers to the island as "divided" without mentioning that the northern third of it is occupied by thousands of Turkish troops. It also fails to note that the Turkish invasion in 1974 was backed by the United States.
Indonesia Human rights activists were alarmed by the early parole in Indonesia of Tommy Suharto, son of the former dictator, who had been jailed for paying hit men to kill a Supreme Court justice, the Washington Post reports.
Contents: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/ - Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org