World News

Promoting Islamic apocalyptic themes, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein marked the Gulf War’s 10th anniversary on Wednesday by declaring the conflict a glorious moment in Iraqi history while ignoring the economic plight his brutal regime has imposed on his countrymen. In addition, Iraqi media is reporting that Saddam used the Gulf War anniversary to threaten Israel once again.

The unofficial three-way race for prime minister is also a three-way rumor mill, as conspiracy charges swirled in recent days between the rival camps of Labor nominee Ehud Barak, Likud’s Ariel Sharon and virtual candidate Shimon Peres.

The campaign of front-runner Ariel Sharon hit a few bumps in Israeli high schools in recent days, but among the country’s adult electorate, he still looks on course to survive his opponents scare tactics and complete a remarkable political comeback.

In a decision reflecting its left-of-center political bent, Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a series of five petitions asking that resigned Prime Minister Ehud Barak be barred from continuing fateful peace negotiations with the Palestinians in Taba so close to an election.

In a welcome development, the United Kingdom will hold its first-ever Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday, the 56th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Auschwitz, but the event is not without controversy.

Following the very sort of zig-zag pattern that has brought him into such disfavor with Israeli voters, Prime Minister Ehud Barak has reversed course and said he is now open to a possible meeting with PLO chief Yasser Arafat before the Israeli election next Tuesday.

Trailing badly going into the final week of the election, the campaign of incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Barak stooped to new lows, as activists had to be restrained on Tuesday from distributing fake call-up orders for IDF duty meant to scare voters against rival Likud candidate Ariel Sharon.

In the final days of the snap Israeli election for prime minister, incumbent Ehud Barak courted the Arab and Russian immigrant blocs, but had little chance of catching the surging Likud candidate Ariel Sharon, especially after the ultra-Orthodox jumped on his bandwagon.

Though widely expected, Likud candidate Ariel Sharon’s lopsided victory in Tuesday’s special election for prime minister was so potent, it drove incumbent Ehud Barak into political retirement and has left the Labor party in turmoil.

Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon is pressing on with his bid to persuade vanquished Israeli leader Ehud Barak and the Labor party to join a national unity government, but differences still remain over the coalition’s policy guidelines and the distribution of cabinet portfolios.

While Western envoys are pressing Israel to help alleviate raging Palestinian poverty caused by their own violent uprising, Arab states are withholding the bulk of $1 billion pledged towards the renewed intifada because they do not trust PLO chief Yasser Arafat with their money.

Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo over the weekend and demanded that Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon stick to the land-for-peace script laid out in UN resolutions and the Madrid and Oslo peace talks or else.

Palestinian rioters and terrorists escalated the renewed intifada in recent days throughout Gaza and Judea/Samaria, including Jerusalem, in a move meant to “test” Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon even before he formally assumes office.

Likud leader Ariel Sharon’s decisive win in last week’s election and the subsequent escalation in Palestinian violence have spurred calls for Labor to hurry up and join a unity coalition.

In what appears to be a growing divide between US and European approaches to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the European Union this week expressed support for the Palestinian position that Israeli concessions made since the Camp David talks should serve as the starting point for future negotiations.

Britain’s security services have discovered a plot by an unidentified “Middle East group” to perpetrate a terrorist attack on London’s Underground rail network using the highly lethal sarin gas.

LAGOS, Nigeria (Compass) — Disturbed by some northern Nigeria states’ widespread declaration that they are Islamic states and have adopted Islam as the state religion, Nigerian Christian churches have resolved to go to court to challenge what they see as an onslaught on their rights.

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (Compass) — In late June, the government of Peru initiated a special task force, the National Human Rights Council, which is charged with freeing persons wrongfully imprisoned as terrorists.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (BP)–Pro-life activists in the Netherlands are facing an uphill struggle as they mobilize opposition to a government proposal to legalize euthanasia and “assisted suicide” — even for children as young as 12.

“The emergence of a civilization in which knowledge moves freely and almost instantaneously throughout the world… has spurred a renewed investigation of the wisdom distilled by all faiths. This panreligious perspective may prove especially important where our global civilization’s responsibility for the earth is concerned. Native American religions, for instance, offer a rich tapestry of ideas about our relationship to the earth.”[1] Al Gore, Earth in the Balance