Politics this week

The world this weekOct 16th 2003 edition


Resolution on Iraq

After months of wrangling, the UN Security Council passed a resolution authorising the presence of an American-led force in Iraq and requiring the American-appointed Governing Council to produce, by mid-December, a timetable for drawing up a constitution and holding elections. Sporadic violence continued to bedevil the country.

See article: America, Iraq and the UN

Bloodshed continued in Palestine. Israeli troops attacking arms-smuggling tunnels in a refugee camp near the town of Rafah, in the Gaza strip, killed eight Palestinians, including two children. A few days later, a roadside bomb killed three American officials, the first time Palestinians conducting their intifada had directed violence against America. Yasser Arafat called the attack “an awful crime”.

See article: Palestinians and the United States

A lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, who has campaigned for human and especially women's rights in Iran, won the Nobel peace prize, the first Muslim woman to do so. The Iranian government's reaction was muted.

See article: Women in Iran

Saudi Arabia's royal rulers said that local elections—the first-ever in the kingdom—would be held within a year, though it was unclear how much power local councils would have or how controlled the selection of candidates would be.

See article: A first step towards democracy in Saudi Arabia

The Sudanese government freed a leading Islamist, Hassan al-Turabi, in an effort to widen support in its renewed effort to end a 20-year-old civil war in the country's south.

Gyude Bryant took office in war-devastated Liberia as prime minister of an interim government meant to disarm fighters and prepare the country for elections.

Getting a fix

The United States Supreme Court let stand a ruling allowing doctors to recommend that their patients use marijuana on medical grounds. It also said it would decide next year whether the words “under God” should remain in the Pledge of Allegiance.

After six months of legislative wrangling, Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, signed a controversial redistricting map into state law. The revised boundaries are expected to result in up to seven more congressional seats for Republicans in the 2004 election. Democrats vowed to take the matter to court.

See article: Gerrymandering in Texas


Police in New York were waiting to question the pilot of a Staten Island ferry boat that crashed into a pier on docking, killing ten people and injuring more than 30 others.

See article: A crash on the Staten Island ferry

A study by RAND found that the number of severely obese Americans has quadrupled since 1986. Around 1 adult in 50 is now at least 100 pounds overweight.

In an effort to woo voters in Florida, George Bush announced measures both to make it more difficult for Americans to visit Cuba and to intensify propaganda against Fidel Castro's Communist government.

Facing off

Talks took place between officials from Serbian and Kosovan officials in Vienna, the first face-to-face meeting since NATO drove the Serbian army out of Kosovo in 1999. The UN-sponsored talks were meant to be uncontentious, but Kosovo's president, Ibrahim Rugova, said breaking away from Serbia was still a top priority.

See article: Kosovo and Serbia

Russia has delayed plans to complete a nuclear reactor in Iran by one year. It claims this is due to technical reasons, not because of political pressure from the Americans.

In Azerbaijan, the president's son, Ilham Aliyev, won the presidential election, as expected. The ex-Soviet republic, ruled by Mr Aliyev's father for 34 years, is not renowned for the strength of its democratic institutions.

See article: Azerbaijan's election

In a sign of the strength of the Franco-German relationship, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany asked President Jacques Chirac of France to represent him for part of this week's European Union summit. Mr Schröder wanted to be back in Berlin for a Bundestag vote on economic reforms.

See article: Reforming Europe's sclerotic economies

A Greek court rejected a request by the Russian government that Vladimir Gusinsky, a former media magnate who has been in exile, be extradited to Russia where he faces a charge of embezzlement.

Gambling man

China's first astronaut returned safely after a 21-hour flight aboard the Shenzhou 5. Only the third country to put a man in space, China now plans space walks and a modest space station.

See article: China's success in space

South Korea's president, Roh Moo-hyun, called a referendum on his leadership. He said he will resign if he loses. Mr Roh's approval rating has plummeted since assuming the presidency just eight months ago.

See article: Roh's woes

Afghanistan introduced a law banning armed factions from politics. The law reportedly also prohibits political parties which are against Islam, or which promote racial, religious or sectarian hatred and violence.

See article: ISAF's expansion

Close to 100 people have died since Maoist rebels tried to storm a police training centre in western Nepal on October 12th. The Maoists have been fighting since 1996 to set up a communist republic.

Pakistan conducted its third nuclear-capable missile test in less than two weeks, launching a medium-range missile capable of hitting many targets inside India.

Roads blocked


At least 53 and perhaps more than 70 people were killed when Bolivia's president, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, ordered the army to clear roadblocks and protesters who brought the capital, La Paz, to a halt. The president was defying calls for his resignation, from the opposition and some allies.

See article: Bolivia's troubled democracy

Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, met Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, in Tokyo, but did not sign a hoped-for free-trade agreement. Important details remained unresolved despite last-minute talks.

See article: Mexico's talks trade with Japan

Under pressure from the United States, Ecuador became the fifth Latin American country to pull out of a third-world trade block set up last month by Brazil, India and China. That has left Brazil looking increasingly isolated ahead of next month's ministerial meeting on the proposed Free-Trade Area of the Americas.

See article: The stormy prospects for pan-American trade


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