25 Sep Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, September 25, 2012
25.09.12
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1 Comment
- As Ken already pointed out in his post, the UN General Assembly meeting officially opens today in New York.
- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi have met in New York to improve US-Egypt relations and to discuss embassy security following the riots after the controversial anti-Islam video.
- It’s getting busy around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, with Taiwanese fishermen and the Coast Guard briefly entering the 12 nautical mile zone around the islands, before being chased away by the Japanese Coast Guard’s water cannons.
- After three years of waiting, Canada will ask the WTO to establish a Panel to examine the 2009 EU ban on trade in seal products.
- A federal court in Australia has found Lehman Brothers liable for damages in a class-action lawsuit relation to the sale of mortgage-backed securities, launched by a collective of non-profits that had invested based on the incorrect AAA-rating of the investment products.
- The UK and Canada have concluded an agreement to share embassy facilities abroad. The move creates questions about the UK’s commitment to the EU’s efforts on an External Action Service.
- Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, said Israel should consider a unilateral pullback from Gaza even if peace negotiations are out of reach, a standpoint quickly shot down by President Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Germany seeks the extradition of an 87-year-old man living in Philadelphia for his alleged involvement as an SS officer at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War.
- The European Court of Human Rights has rejected UK-based Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri’s appeal to stop his extradition to the United States.
- In light of the removal of MEK from the United States’ list of foreign terrorist organizations, Foreign Policy offers some clarification on when a terrorist no longer is a terrorist.
- The United Nations has launched an online platform that will allow countries to share their post-conflict transition experiences, and learn from policies and peacebuilding strategies put in place by nations who have undergone similar changes.
You note that Netanyahu “quickly shot down” Ehud Barak’s propose unilateral withdrawal.
It would be fair to note that it was also shot down by Arabs:
“Fatah and the Palestinian leadership reject Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s proposal for a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, party leader Nabil Shaath said Tuesday, according to Ma’an (http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=523478).
The previous day PLO executive committee member Wasel Abu Yousef said Barak had regurgitated an old plan proposed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and that the proposal would be rejected by the Palestinian people and their leaders. (http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=58386).
Someone named Bassam al-Salhi who claims to be Secretary-General of the Palestinian People’s Party also rejected it.