NATO Struggles to Name New Secretary General

Turkey blocks Denmark's Nato hopes Aljazeera — Turkey has blocked Europe's candidate to head Nato, souring a summit marking the military alliance's 60th anniversary and opening a new rift between Ankara and its Western European allies. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, had been the frontrunner to head the alliance, but Turkey objected on Friday, criticising his handling of a row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. click to read complete article

Image fears complicate NATO quest for new chief Reuters UK — NATO wants to name a new secretary-general at a summit starting on Friday, but concerns over its image in the Muslim world and elsewhere are hampering the quest for the right candidate. Front-runner is Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, but Turkey is unhappy with his handling of a 2006 row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad and other allies privately wonder how his appointment would go down in the Muslim world. click to read complete article

Turkey expected to lift veto on Danish PM becoming Nato chief Times UK — Frantic behind-the-scenes efforts appeared to have saved Nato from the embarrassment of failing to find a new Secretary-General to take over just as the alliance turns 60. The favoured candidate, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, had been blackballed by the Turks because of his handling of the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad more than three years ago. click to read complete article

Mexican Drug Cartel Violence

Mexico says death toll from drug war is falling Reuters UK — The death toll from Mexico's drug war has dropped by about 25 percent in the first three months of this year from the last quarter of 2008, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said on Thursday. Medina Mora told reporters after meeting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder in the city of Cuernavaca that drug violence killed 1,600 people from January to March. click to read complete article

As Mexico battles cartels, army becomes law Arizona Central — President Felipe Calderon is rapidly escalating the Mexican army's role in the war against drug traffickers, deploying nearly 50 percent of its combat-ready troops along the U.S-Mexico border and throughout the country, while retired army officers take command of local police and the military supplies civilian authorities with automatic weapons and grenades. U.S. and Mexican officials describe the drug cartels as a widening narco-insurgency. The four major drug states average a total of 12 murders a day, characterized by ambushes, gun battles, executions and decapitated bodies left by the side of the road. In the villages and cities where the traffickers hold sway, daily life now takes place against a martial backdrop of round-the-clock patrols, pre-dawn raids and roadblocks manned by masked young soldiers. click to read complete article

Bodies Hang From Mexico Overpass As Warning to Rival Drug Traffickers Fox News — Prosecutors say two bodies were hung from an overpass in a Mexican Pacific coast city as an apparent warning to rival drug traffickers, and that one corpse fell and was run over repeatedly. Fox News The Michoacan state attorney general's office says the bodies were hung from the bridge Thursday morning in the port city of Lazaro Cardenas. click to read complete article

Karzai Playing Politics With Women's Rights?

Court Favors Karzai Term Until Election New York Times — The Afghan Supreme Court said Sunday that President Hamid Karzai may lawfully remain in power until presidential elections in August, saying that it was in the national interest to maintain stability and continuity of government. The opinion, which is not binding, was the latest step in a constitutional wrangle between Mr. Karzai and his political rivals over a three-month gap between the end of his presidential term on May 21 and the elections that have been delayed for security and logistical reasons until Aug. 20. click to read complete article

Karzai govt. under fire over anti-women rights law The Hindu — The U.N. joined several rights groups in slamming Afghanistan for adopting a new law which curtails women's rights, describing it as a "huge step in the wrong direction." Several organisations saw in it an attempt by President Hamid Karzai to win votes in the upcoming elections. click to read complete article

Afghan presidential hopeful sees post-poll vacuum Reuters — Afghanistan will face a power vacuum after Aug. 20 polls despite a Supreme Court ruling allowing President Hamid Karzai to stay in office after his term officially ends on May 21, a rival candidate said on Thursday. The presidential election will be the defining test of progress this year in Afghanistan, where violence is surging despite the presence of 70,000 foreign forces, expected to rise to some 90,000 by the time the polls are held. click to read complete article

Thai Government Desperate to End Protests

Thai Deputy PM: gov't ready to talk with Thaksin to stop mass anti-gov't rally Xinhua — Amid the growing anti-government rally, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said Wednesday the government is ready to talk with ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in order to bring peace back to the country. Thaksin has been widely perceived as the real leader of the anti-government protest in Thailand's capital Bangkok as Thaksin has made a phone-in to address his red-shirted supporters every night since the mass rally has debuted from last week. click to read complete article

Thai protesters reject talks offer Aljazeera — Supporters of the ousted Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, have rejected the government's offer of talks and refused to end their blockade of ministers' offices. Thousands of so-called "red shirts" defied a court order to end their blockade of Government House as their protest entered its eighth day on Thursday. click to read complete article

Thai court grants injunction against protesters Reuters — A court ordered protesters on Tuesday to stop blocking entrances to Thailand's seat of government where a siege to oust Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has dragged on for six days. "The court issued the injunction after the Prime Minister's Office filed a lawsuit against the protesters," the Nation newspaper said on its website. click to read complete article

Chavez: No Desire to Talk to Israel

Chavez Has No Plan to Restore Ties With Israel Fox News — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his government isn't considering restoring diplomatic ties with Israel. Chavez told the pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera that he would only reconsider if Israel's leaders stop being a "genocidal elite subordinated to the United States." click to read complete article

Op-Ed: Venezuela should repair its ties to Jewish community JTA — Venezuelan Jews historically have enjoyed positive relations with the Venezuelan government. It is precisely because of the embracing nature of Venezuelan society toward the Jewish people that the recent anti-Semitism cloaked in anti-Israel and anti-Zionist terms is so disturbing. Jews for hundreds of years have lived in Venezuela, which once served as a safe haven for Holocaust survivors and still is home to a significant Jewish community. So it is troubling that the leadership of the Latin American country has taken a wrong turn into fostering hatred, prejudice and bigotry against Jews and supports countries and terrorist groups that call for Israel's destruction. click to read complete article

President Chávez terms Israel "murderous government" El Universal — President Hugo Chávez described Israel as a "genocidal and murderous government" for its operations against the Palestinian people, in an interview with the pan-Arab Qatari TV station Al-Jazeera Live, in Doha, where he responded phone calls from Arab viewers. "We have broken relations with Israel and we have no plans to restore ties, at least for now," Chávez said in response to a TV viewer who identified himself as a spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas in Damascus, who thanked Chávez for his solidarity during the Israeli military offensive on Gaza, AFP reported. click to read complete article

Sebelius Begins Confirmation Hearings

Sebelius becomes latest Obama Cabinet pick with tax troubles Miami Herald — Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday joined a list of Cabinet nominees who were forced to pay back taxes because of errors in their returns. In a letter to the Senate Finance Committee, Sebelius, President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department, said she repaid nearly $8,000, including interest, because of "unintentional errors." click to read complete article

Sebelius vows to act on health care Washington Times — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer, on Tuesday urged quick action on a health care overhaul when opening the confirmation hearing for the person President Obama picked to tackle the daunting task, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. "I've benefited from the best of medicine, but we have too many uninsured Americans," the Massachusetts Democrat said. "We have sickness care and not health care. We have too much paperwork and bureaucracy." click to read complete article

Kennedy pushes Sebelius nomination Boston Globe — Senator Edward M. Kennedy, citing his own battle with brain cancer, came out forcefully yesterday for Kathleen Sebelius's nomination as health and human services secretary. "Few debates in Congress touch our lives as profoundly and personally as healthcare. Over the past 10 months, I've seen our healthcare system up close," Kennedy said, his hands shaking slightly. click to read complete article

US and Iran Meet at the Hague

Iran diplomatically criticizes Obama troop plan San Francisco Chronicle — Iran's representative to an international conference here on Afghanistan criticized President Obama's plan to boost U.S. troops there but said Iran is "fully prepared" to participate in Afghan reconstruction projects and efforts to halt drug trafficking. "The people of Afghanistan know their country better than anybody else does," Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhundzadeh said, speaking in English Tuesday before a group of diplomats that included Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country, and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective, too." click to read complete article

Iran's offer of help to rebuild Afghanistan heralds new age of diplomacy with the US Guardian UK — Senior western officials yesterday heralded a new spring in relations with Iran, after the Islamic regime made an historic offer to help US-led efforts in Afghanistan. For the first time since Barack Obama came to office, US and Iranian officials met at an international conference in The Hague, with diplomats saying a possible turning point may have been reached between the US and the country it labelled part of the axis of evil seven years ago. click to read complete article

Clinton Calls US-Iranian Meeting 'Promising' Voice of America — Senior U.S. and Iranian leaders met Tuesday on the sidelines of an international conference in The Hague aimed at re-energizing international commitments for war-torn Afghanistan. Participants agreed to boost security and development in the central Asian nation. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the meeting that took place between U.S. special representative Richard Holbrooke and Iran's deputy foreign minister Mehdi Akhundzadeh as brief but cordial. She said the two sides had agreed to stay in touch. click to read complete article