ELECTIONS

UNESCO - Bulgarian wins race to lead UNESCO after bitter contest - Intense political pressure marks five rounds of voting; Egyptian is defeated.

In a fifth and final round of voting, the Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova, 57, was elected Tuesday night as the new director-general of UNESCO.

She defeated the Egyptian culture minister, Farouk Hosny, by a vote of 31 to 27, diplomats said, in a bitterly fought contest that saw intense political pressure and accusations of bribery as Egypt tried to secure victory for Mr. Hosny….

GERMANY

Merkel is the great winner - There will no longer be any great coalition. She intends to govern with the liberals and without the socialists

ISRAEL

Haaretz, Sept.15 - Mitchell, Netanyahu fail to agree on settlement halt - Washington would like to arrange a tripartite summit meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian has been adamant in demanding an Israel settlement freeze as a precondition for the resumption of peace negotiations.

Economist, Sept 15 - A UN mission concludes that war crimes were committed in Gaza - Israel is reeling from the accusations of a UN fact-finding mission that it deliberately sowed death and destruction among civilians in the Gaza Strip during a three- week militarily operation ending in January...

The mission recommends international legal action not only against Israel, but also against Hamas, for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. It has recommended that the findings are handed to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.....

The report notes that the mission found no evidence of the Palestinians firing from mosques, hospitals or UN facilities, although” this might have occured”....

The Israelis dismiss the mission’s ostensible evenhandedness in recommending that the Palestinians, too, be held to account for firing rockets at Israeli civilians and for acts of brutality and repression against their own people. ..

AMERICA

Economist, Sept 17 - Pie in the sky. Missile defence in Europe - America calls off plans for missile defence in Europe, pleasing peaceniks but worrying hawks.

Maybe some jam tomorrow, but none today. That is the American message to its most stalwart allies in the ex-communist world as Obama’s administration shelves plans to deploy ten interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic.

The timing of the announcement is poor, coming in September 17th, the anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland in 1939. In a country highly tuned to symbolic snubs, it matters that nobody in Washington seemed to know or care about that….

America’s new plan is different….The administration has tried to sweeten the pill by reiterating a promise to place a battery of Patriot short-range missiles to defend Warsaw. Poles expect that these will be American-financed, part of NATO’s commitment to the country’s defence, and fully integrated with Poland’s own air-defence system…Russia has welcomed the decision to shelve the existing scheme…

But the big task for America now is to reassure the Poles and other twitchy ex-communist countries such as the Baltic states, that it remains committed to their defence…The question is what will really be on  offer in these discussions. The east European countries, squeezed between an increasingly close Russian-German friendships, look anxiously toward America to safeguard their interests. But is America looking at them?

OBAMA AND THE G.2O

The New York Times, Sept.26 - In good will, few benefits for Obama - President Obama, who welcomed world leaders to the US last week, has gone a long way toward meeting his goal of restoring America’s international standing.

Foreign counterparts flock to meet with him and polls show that people in many countries feel much better about the US…But European allies still refuse to send significantly more troops to Afghanistan. The Saudis basically ignored Mr. Obama’s request for concessions to Israel, while Israel rebuffed his demand to stop settlement expansion.

North Corea defied him by testing a nuclear weapon. Japan elected a party less friendly to the US. Cuba has done little to liberalize in response to modest relaxation of sanctions. India and China are resisting a climate change deal. And Russia has rejected new sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program, though on Wednesday at the United Nations they agreed to consider them....Russia gave permission for American troops to fly to Afghanistan through its airspace.

Le Monde, Sept.26 - New rules but few limits were registered for the traders. China, Korea and Turkey are members of the FMI - In Pittsburg, new rules are programmed for the whole planet. Emergent countries are particularly taken into account by the FMI. The G20’s attention is focused on Iran.

IRAN

Figaro, Aug. 24 - Sarkozy said that if Iran gets the bomb it will be attacked immediately.

Le Monde, Sept.25 - Intense relation draws Paris and Teheran apart - Sarkozy is adamant: he will not exchange the French Clotilde Reiss against Ali Vakili Rad who has been condemned in 1994 after murdering the Shah of Iran’s first Minister.

Economist, Sep. 25th  - Accusing Iran - World leaders say that Iran has built a second, and secret, nuclear-enrichment plant - Ever since Iran’s nuclear-enrichment plant at Natanz was publicly revealed by an Iranian dissident group in 2002, experts have wondered whether the clerical regime had other facilities operating secretly, away from the prying eyes of international inspectors.

On Friday September 25th, it seems, Iran was caught out: America, France and Britain said they had evidence that Iran had been building a secret enrichment site for years in a mountain near to the holy city of Qom. “The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful [nuclear] programme,” said President Barack Obama at a G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

He added that America was still ready for dialogue, and that Iran had the right to nuclear energy for civilian use, but that Iran had to come clean immediately about its suspected nuclear-weapons programme……

American officials say that Mr Obama shared intelligence about the plant with Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting this week on the margins of the UN General Assembly. This may help to explain Mr Medvedev’s greater willingness to consider sanctions. “Russia's position is simple,” he said on September 24th, “Sanctions are seldom productive but they are sometimes inevitable.”

Western diplomats hope that if Russia agrees to more punitive measures, China would not oppose them alone. But for the moment Beijing is wary. China imports much of its crude oil from Iran and recently signed a deal to sell back refined fuel. Its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, said the issue of Iran's nuclear programme should be resolved through “peaceful negotiations”.

Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under pressure at home over allegations that his re-election in June was rigged, has championed the nuclear programme as evidence that the Islamic republic had joined the ranks of the world's most scientifically advanced nations.

He says Iran has no intention of acquiring an atomic bomb; it is only making low-enriched uranium to fuel nuclear-power stations. But the fear is that the same centrifuges could be reconfigured to make high-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. A series of discoveries by inspectors suggests that Iran has, at the least, been experimenting with components for nuclear warheads.

A secret annex to an IAEA report last month said Iran had, for instance, developed a warhead with a chamber that seemed designed to carry a nuclear bomb.

The underground plant at Natanz, filled mostly with early models of IR-1 centrifuges and monitored by the IAEA, has already produced enough low-enriched uranium which, if diverted, could make several nuclear bombs. The plant in Qom, only modest in size, may have two possible functions. It could be an alternative plant to be used in case Natanz were destroyed by America or Israel.

Or it could be used secretly with more sophisticated machines quickly to turn Iran’s legal stockpile of low-enriched uranium into high-enriched uranium for weapons, for example if Iran were to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Either way, the Iranian regime has a lot of explaining to do.

CROATIA

Arutz Sheva - Neo-Nazi Songs, ’Heil Hitler’ Salutes at Croatian Soccer Matches - September 10, 2009 - By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz - Croatian soccer teams are cheered on the field with popular songs glorifying World War II-era genocide played over the loudspeakers and Nazi salutes in the stands. The United Kingdom’s The Sun newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Croatian Football Association is apparently behind the fascist rabble-rousing.

According to The Sun, some of the most inflammatory songs by neo-Nazi rocker Marko Perkovic as well as World War II slogans of the Nazi-allied Ustashe regime are chanted by soccer fans at Croatian home games.

The national team’s manager was said by The Sun to have played Perkovic’s music "in the dressing room to fire up his players." Croatian soccer hooligans often wear Ustashe uniforms and give the Seig Heil Nazi salute, with thousands of other fans joining in for fascist Ustashe and Perkovic chants.

The Ustashe murdered over a million people from 1941-1945, most of them Serbs. Others rounded up and killed by Ustashe forces included at least 30,000 Jews and Roma (Gypsies).

According to The Sun, Perkovic is "a cult figure on white supremacist website Stormfront" for his glorification of the Nazi puppet regime of World War II Croatia and its genocide of Serbs, Jews and Roma.

The newspaper added that a Perkovic song in honor of a commander of Croatia’s Nazi SS unit, the Black Legion, was omitted at one game in 2007 — when the Coat footballers faced off against Israel.

…..As TENC shows repeatedly, fascist fan-led chants are only one aspect of genocide-glorification at Perkovic concerts. The singer himself declares in one song, "I am Ustasha and so was my father." In another song, he honors the Ustashe’s roving murder squads with original words and music. In a song called "Jasenovac and Gradiška Stara", he praises the "craft" carried out at the Jasenovac death camp. The latter song, since downplayed or denied by Perkovic’s handlers, includes the lyrics :

HUNGARY

AFP/Expatica   Hungarian police probes alleged neo-Nazi camp - The German daily Junge Welt reported Saturday that German neo-Nazis trained at a paramilitary camp organised by the far-right Hungarian National Frontline in Bony, a village in western Hungary, between July 10 and 14.

Budapest -- Hungarian police said Tuesday they are investigating whether German neo-Nazi groups held a training camp in western Hungary in July, following a report by a German newspaper.

"The National Investigation Office is looking into the case and is checking whether the information published in the media is true," police spokesman Laszlo Bartha told AFP. "We haven't received any information about the gathering yet," he added.

The German daily Junge Welt reported Saturday that German neo-Nazis trained at a paramilitary camp organised by the far-right Hungarian National Frontline in Bony, a village in western Hungary, between July 10 and 14.

The programme included shooting practice and combat training, according to an online brochure for the event.

On Monday, Hungarian state television m1 showed footage of the camp, which had house rules like "No entrance to gays, Jews and gypsies" posted on advertising boards.

In August, Hungarian police banned a planned march in Budapest by fascist groups to mark the anniversary of the death of Rudolf Hess, the deputy to German wartime Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

TURKEY AND ARMENIA

New York Times, Sept. 1 - Turkey and Armenia, whose centuries of hostilities constitutes one of the world’s most enduring and acrimonious international rivalries, have agreed to establish diplomatic relations, the two countries announced Monday - ...The two countries have never had diplomatic relations and their border has been closed since 1993, when Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics, went to war over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. At the border, soldiers of Turkey, a NATO country, face Russian ones, called in by Armenia, across a mini-Iron Curtain.

Turkey supported Azerbaijan in the dispute, but Russia’s military action in Georgia last year shifted the security calculus in the region. After the war in Georgia, Turkey sought to improve ties with its neighbors in the Caucasus, and Armenia elected a new government interested in reciprocating.

Both countries hope an eventual opening of the border will benefit their struggling economies. Currently, there are limited charter flights between the countries but no real trade.

For Turkey, better relations with Armenia could improve its chances for admission to the European Union, where the genocide issue remains one of the main obstacles, and remove a bone of contention over the same issue with the US, which has a large Armenian community.

... Last September, President Abdullah Gul of Turkey attended a Turkey-Armenia soccer match in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, the first visit by a Turkish leader in the two nations’ history.

The central dispute is the genocide, about which there is little dispute among historians. Turkey has resisted the label, arguing that the Armenians were killed in warfare.

The next round of talks is scheduled to last six weeks, ending about the time of a World Cup match between Turkey and Armenia in Istanbul.

TAIWAN  AND  CHINA

Economist, Aug.6 - A plethora of free-trade deals is driving Taiwan closer to China - Free-Trade agreements (FTAs) are often contentious but rarely would once have as much strategic significance as that proposed between China and Taiwan.

On July 29th, Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, elected last year on a platform of liberalizing business restrictions and easing militarily tensions with the mainland, said a China-Taiwan trade pact should be signed as soon as possible. The two sides have quietly concluded months of unofficial negotiations to start in October. The island is in a hurry….

Many Taiwanese, including the pro-independence opposition party fear that the proposed accord is really a ploy by China to bring about the unification by stealth… “It is a suicidal policy that makes Taiwan locked into China” says the chairman of the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union….

In the long run, China hopes that economic interdependency and goodwill will eventually encourage the island to return to the fold. The trade pact will be a test of whether that hope can be fulfilled.

VENEZUELA

Economist, Sept.15 - Venezuelua’s foreign policy : friends in low places. Hugo Chavez dreams of forging a new world order - …Venezuela’s increasingly autocratic leader returned on Friday from a trip that took him to Libya, Iran, Algeria, Syria, Turkmenistan, Belarus and Russia, though he also found time for a visit to Spain and the Venice film festival. On his way, he was decorated by Libya’s leader, Muammar Quaddafi, and embraced by Alexander Lukashenka, president of Belarus.

Apart from discussing weapons and oil with the Russians, he also courted condemnation by inviting Sudan’s pariah president Omar al-Bashir, to Caracas, and breezily announced a nuclear co-operation deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad……..

In pursuit of his goal to “break North American imperialist hegemony”, the Venezuelan president has deployed to the full his prime asset- the country’s oil reserves.

…Mr. Chavez is determined to play in the big leagues…He wants to bring about the collapse of “the empire”…This time the world should start to take him a little more seriously.

A COVETED PASSAGE OPENS AS THE ARCTIC ICE RETREATS

The New York Times, Sept.19 - For hundreds of years, mariners have dreamed of an Arctic shortcut that would allow them to speed trade between Asia and the West - Two German ships are navigating that transit for the first time this month, aided by the retreat of Arctic ice that scientific have linked to global warming

The ships started their voyage in South Korea in late July and began the last leg of the trip on September 12, leaving Siberian port carrying 3,175 metric tons of construction materials. They are due to arrive in Rotterdam in late September…..

It is global warming that enables us to think about using that route…A once-elusive Siberian route may one day rival the Suez Canal.