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IRAQ: Confessions From 'Beyond the Grave' Deflate Bush Obsessions
BY ERNEST COREA
WASHINGTON D.C. (IDN) - The theory held dear by assorted intelligence experts that Saddam Hussein protected himself against assassination by using "doubles" as front men is "movie magic, not reality". However, Saddam Hussein rarely used a phone, which can be an instrument of sudden death, and he regularly changed the places where he slept. Where does all this come from? Speculation? Analysis? Fiction? Actually, it comes from Saddam Hussein himself. |
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DISARMEMENT: Anti-Nuclear Japanese To Lead Atomic Agency
BY BAHER KAMAL
VIENNA (IDN) - Japan, the sole country that has been suffering, for over half a century now, the abject consequences of the United States' nuclear bombs during the II World War, will soon be leading international efforts towards a world free of nuclear weapons.
In fact, subsequent to a highly disputed selection process, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) appointed on July 3 Yukiya Amano, the Japanese ambassador and expert on disarmament, non-proliferation and nuclear energy policy, as its new Director General. |
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MIGRATION: Greener Pastures Slipping Away
BY JAYA RAMACHANDRAN
PARIS (IDN) - An ever-increasing number of foreigners in most of the world's rich countries are being thrown out of jobs that they hoped would lead them to greener pastures. They are falling prey to the impact of global economic downturn that is catapulting natives out of work -- a situation that creates a vicious circle governments do not find easy to break. |
DISARMAMENT: Germany Has No Nuclear Weapons, Just Shares Them
BY WOLFGANG KERLER
BERLIN - Most Germans support nuclear abolition, but the country may still not give up its policy of nuclear sharing.
"The government is divided on the question of nuclear sharing," says Otfried Nassauer, director of the Berlin Information Centre for Transatlantic Security (BITS).. The centre researches foreign and security policy issues. |
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MIDDLE EAST: Key Player HAMAS Has A Say
BY FAREED MAHDY
(IDN Middle East Special Correspondent) - In a moderate but firm wording, HAMAS has welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama's "new language" towards the Middle East conflict and his vision of "two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security". At the same time, HAMAS refused Israeli prime minister's conditions that leave no room for a viable solution. |
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UNITED NATIONS: Onto the New Multilateralism Bandwagon
BY RAÚL DE SAGASTIZABAL*
MONTEVIDEO (IDN) - The international financial agencies’ reform bids have now been supplemented by an United Nations overhauling initiative. Additional resources, tougher powers for the organization, are the scheme’s mainstay.
Strikingly enough, the idea stepped to the fore in a context where the developing countries were wondering whether it made any sense for them to keep making contributions to international political organizations, such as the UN. . . |
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT: Tributes Abound As King Of Pop Dies
BY S. CHANDLER
LOS ANGELES (IDN) - An unusual array of people are paying tributes to Michael Jackson, who died at the age of 50 on June 25. They range from Lisa-Marie Presley to Bollywood giant Amitabh Bachchan and from self-help guru Deepak Chopra to Hindu nationalist Bal Thackeray.
Michael suffered what is believed to have been a cardiac arrest at his home. Rumours abound about the cause of his death, many seem to be linked to the use of pain killers. Life & Style reports that Michael Jackson was taking a cocktail of up to seven prescription drugs in the months before his death. |
UNDER-REPORTED: BRIC and SCO May Usher In A New World
AN ANALYSIS BY ERIC WALBERG
CAIRO (IDN) - The world would appear to be discarding its sixty-year old framework, though the two historic summits, BRIC and SCO, in Yekaterinburg that marks the geographical beginning of Russian Asia, elicited only a collective yawn from most media, says Eric Walberg adding that in case Obama hasn’t noticed, Eurasia is coalescing, not around littler Georgia and big brother Poland, with their pretensions as forward bases for the mighty U.S. empire, but around China, Russia and India. |
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MIDDLE EAST: Also Medvedev Has A Vision
BY FAREED MAHDY
(IDN Middle East Special Correspondent) - It seems that all big actors are willing to jump to the Middle East stage, each wanting to impress the world with his performance. At first it was the U.S. president in Cairo on June 4; then it was the Israeli prime minister in Tel Aviv on June 14 and later the Egyptian president through a U.S. newspaper on June 19: Now it is the Russian president eager to show his own vision. |
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CORRUPTION: The Big Fish Slips Away
BY KARINA BOECKMANN
BERLIN (IDN) - If you thought bribery was a synonym for under-development, you had better read a new report* by Transparency International (TI), the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption.
The majority of the world’s major exporting countries, nearly all of which belong to the developed world, are failing to fully enforce a ban on foreign bribery, according to a report published June 23. |
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