That's the Way of the World
14 Nov Edition

It's been a few days since I took a swing, so let's see what's happening in global news today. First off, someone's talking Iraq exit strategy and timetables, and it's not Russ Feingold:

BBC - Iraq exit talk reasonable - Blair
Tony Blair says it is "entirely reasonable" to talk about the possibility of British troops starting to leave Iraq next year.

But he said UK soldiers would not pull out until the job is done and Iraqi security services could take over.
[...]
Defence Secretary John Reid said the whole process of troop withdrawal "could start within the next 12 months".

Heading off to Israel next:

Christian Science Monitor (CSM) - Labour threat to Sharon emerges
What the Bush administration thought might be an opportune moment to lead Israelis and Palestinians back to the road map for Middle East peace is instead shaping into a period of uncertainty. Israel is waking up to the reality of having a feisty new opposition leader, Amir Peretz, who may force early elections that could potentially unseat Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
[...]
With the exception of the year-plus rule of Ehud Barak, no Labour Party leader since Rabin has been able to convince a critical mass of Israelis to choose the party that is most eager to make territorial concessions in return for peace.
[...]
Peretz says he embraces Oslo and would happily include Israeli-Arab political parties in a coalition government run by him in order to stay in power. The Likud Party seized on that comment, portraying him as a radical leftist who would make historical territorial concessions on behalf of the Jewish state without a "Jewish majority." "The Arabs are not ruled out of any coalition," Peretz said. "I think that if an Arab agrees to be a minister in the government, it would decrease tensions in the country."

As Facade Friend AR pointed out in an email to me: "This could be big trouble for Sharon (hopefully!), and if so spell trouble for Bush Co.'s Mideast policy if a dove ends up with the Prime Ministership." But it still looks like an uphill climb at this point.

Next up, suspects in two recent international bombings have been taken into custody:

WaPo - The Amman Bomber Who Failed
In a televised confession broadcast on state-run Jordanian television Sunday, Sajida Rishawi, 35, an Iraqi from the city of Fallujah, described how her husband pushed her out of a ballroom at the Radisson SAS Hotel in the Jordanian capital when her contraption failed to explode. His vest detonated, and a ball of flames ripped through the crowded hall.

Rishawi modeled the suicide vest she allegedly wore to carry out the attack. She spun around, showing how it should have worked. At times, the camera focused on her hands, which she wrung as she spoke to an unidentified interviewer, presumably an interrogator.
[...]
Jordanian intelligence had been tracking Rishawi since the night of the bombing, officials said, when an alert was issued that a potential suspect wearing a black dress was seen running from the scene of the Radisson bombing, where 200 people had gathered for a wedding.

WaPo - Suspect in New Delhi Bombings Is Arrested
Indian police said Sunday that they had arrested a Kashmiri man accused of being the main financier and planner of bombings last month in New Delhi that killed more than 60 people.

New Delhi's police commissioner, K.K. Paul, said at a news conference that the suspect, Tariq Ahmad Dar, was alleged to be a member of Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant group based in Pakistan, the Press Trust of India reported. Dar, a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company, was arrested last week in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian part of Kashmir, and brought to New Delhi for questioning, Paul said.

Dar has not been formally charged, but police have obtained court permission to detain him for two weeks to question him about the bombings and other suspects, Paul said. At least seven other people are believed to have been involved in the conspiracy

Over to France:

Reuters - France to extend anti-riot powers
The French cabinet agreed to ask parliament for a 3-month extension to emergency powers and President Jacques Chirac prepared to address the nation on Monday over the worst urban violence in almost 40 years.

Although the violence dropped again overnight, police said youths destroyed 284 vehicles in petrol bomb attacks in the 18th straight night of unrest in poor suburbs in the Paris region and major provincial cities.

In the Middle East, some gamesmanship:

Reuters - Iran lends support to Syria over US pressure
Iran backed Syria on Monday in its rift with the United Nations over cooperation with an inquiry into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister and called for confronting U.S. "dubious moves" in the Middle East.

"We declare our support for uncovering the truth vis-a-vis the assassination of Mr. Rafik al-Hariri and I have seen that the officials in Syria support this issue in a good way," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said after talks with President Bashar al Assad in Damascus.

Off to Africa:

CSM - Liberia's presidential wait
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf stands on the doorstep of history - as Liberia's president and Africa's first elected female head of state.

But her entrance could be at least temporarily sidetracked by allegations of fraud by her disgruntled opponent, former soccer star George Weah.

With more than 99 percent of the vote counted, Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated former World Bank official leads the race with 59.6 percent of the vote while Weah trails with 40.4 percent. International observers say the vote was fair. But Weah has lodged a formal complaint.

And to Central Asia:

BBC - Azerbaijan protest draws 20,000
About 20,000 people have attended a protest in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, a week after a parliamentary election they say were rigged. It was the second protest this week, aimed, the opposition says, at sparking a movement like the Orange Revolution that forced regime change in Ukraine.

President Ilham Aliyev, whose New Azerbaijan Party won the election, says he will not allow that to happen. International observers said the poll did not meet democratic standards.

And finally, this fits in nicely with my own personal war against Wal-Mart:

London Observer - Polish 'moral revolution' targets Tesco
After deriding homosexuals and backing the death penalty on the way to winning last month's general election, Poland's new conservative, staunchly Catholic government has a new target in its sights: Tesco.

The Law and Justice Party, which is prescribing 'moral revolution' for a Poland sickened by political sleaze and 18 per cent unemployment, is threatening to halt the construction of big supermarkets and stop existing ones opening on Sundays.

The plan, intended to help smaller businesses, has alarmed investors worried by the government's lack of enthusiasm for adopting the euro and its pledges to boost welfare spending and the state role in the economy.