Washington— Barack Obama has a simple message
for Republicans looking for a target: “lay off
my wife.” The Democrat who each day strides
closer to his party’s White House nomination
showed a flash of steel , in trying to shield
Michelle Obama from the campaign trail
crossfire.
United Nations— Sparks are set to fly Wednesday
when 15 seats on the UN Human Rights Council
come up for election, with European nations
vying for influence and NGOs warning some
candidates are unfit to take part. All of the
United Nations’ 192 members have a say in
Wednesday’s vote at the UN General Assembly in
New York, where candidate nations need an
absolute majority, or 97 votes, to be elected.
United Nations— The UN Emergency Relief
Coordinator has decided to reserve $100 million
from the world body’s Central Emergency Response
Fund (CERF) to address immediate issues stemming
from the food crisis triggered by the recent
surge in global food prices.
Rome— Silvio Berlusconi’s new Italian government
has sought to deflect criticism over its
hardline stance on immigrant illegality ahead of
new rules being announced on Wednesday. The
plans have brought a fiery attack from Spain,
triggering a war of words between Rome and
Madrid, but also worried Italians fearful of
seeing household employees summarily deported.
OVER the past five years the name Mohammed Al-Qahtani
— detainee 063 at Guant?namo — has been
indelibly associated with the Bush
administration’s efforts to justify extreme
measures in the “war on terror”. This Saudi was
apprehended in Afghanistan in late 2001 and
taken to Guantanamo in early 2002, included in a
group labeled as the “worst of the worst”. His
identity got a full airing in June 2004, as the
administration struggled to contain the fallout
from the Abu Ghraib pictures.
