World Where You Live (31 Jan 06)

What's happening outside the confined media borders of the U.S. today? Let's take a spin 'round the globe, starting with... the fallout of Iran's referral to the UN Security Council.

Reuters - Iran says recourse to UN kills nuclear diplomacy
Iran reacted angrily to the new pressure and said even reporting its case to the council would kill off diplomatic efforts to resolve the row over a nuclear program that Tehran says is purely peaceful, not military as the West suspects.

"We consider any referral or report of Iran to the Security Council as the end of diplomacy," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and its chief nuclear negotiator, told state television.
[...]
Libyan Energy Minister Fathi Omar Bin Shatwan said referral of Iran's case to the council would have a serious effect on world oil prices, already just shy of record highs.

But Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri eased concerns that the world's fourth biggest crude oil producer could curb oil exports in reprisal, as Tehran has previously hinted it may do.

It's looking like there's some solid reasoning behind this UN referral:

NYTimes/Agence France Presse - Iran Hands Over Guide to Making Nuclear Bomb Parts
The Iranian government has handed over to the International Atomic Energy Agency a document whose only use would be in making nuclear weapons parts, the IAEA said in a confidential report obtained Tuesday by AFP.
[...]
The 15-page document describes "the procedures for the reduction of UF6 (uranium hexafluoride gas) to metal in small quantities, and the casting of enriched and depleted uranium metal into hemispheres, related to the fabrication of nuclear weapons components," the report said.

Iran claims not to have used the information for weapons work as it says it was given the document without asking for it by an international nuclear smuggling network which offered it technology and parts in 1987 and the mid-1990's.
[...]
The IAEA has also "shared with Iran" new information it has that Iran may have taken deliveries of sophisticated P-2 centrifuges, despite Tehran saying this is not true.

Moving to Chile, where leftist democracy is flowering again:

CSM - Bachelet era begins with change
Michelle Bachelet made history Jan. 15 by becoming Chile's first female president. Monday, she chalked up yet another precedent: naming a cabinet of 10 female and 10 male ministers. It's the first of its kind in the entire western hemisphere - and one of few examples in the world.

"This Cabinet reflects the new style of government I've proposed," Ms. Bachelet said, as she announced her choices. They included women in the key portfolios of economy and mining, as well as in her own two former ministries: health and defense.
[...]
Beyond gender parity in the cabinet, Bachelet made several promises to women during her campaign, including free preschool care for working moms in the poorest 40 percent of the population, and a Non-Discrimination and Good Labor Practices Code for the public sector, with voluntary adoption for the private sector.

She also promised to put an end to discrimination against women of childbearing age in private healthcare plans, and to create one million new jobs in the next four years with employment subsidies and job training programs, some targeted specifically to women and single mothers. Bachelet also called for stricter laws against domestic abuse, more protection for victims, and more victims-attention resources.

Staying in South America, some details on fellow newly elected leftist leader Evo Morales in Bolivia:

Economist - Evo ready or not: Radical cabinet, ambiguous message
EVO MORALES, who took office on January 22nd as Bolivia's first elected president of indigenous descent, is still trying to be all things to all men. In a long and rambling inauguration speech, he saluted Che Guevara, denounced “neo-liberalism” and coca eradication, called for the nationalisation of natural resources and the setting up of state-owned industries, and thanked Venezuela's Hugo Chávez for his support.
[...]
The cabinet he has formed consists mainly of activists from the social movements that vaulted him to power and their intellectual allies. Nearly all have as little experience of government as Mr Morales, who led a coca growers' union.
[...]
The new hydrocarbons minister, Andrés Soliz Rada, a left-wing journalist, will lead negotiations with foreign gas companies. He must try to reconcile Mr Morales's demand for nationalisation of gas with his promise to protect investors' right to profits. Abel Mamani, who led a rebellion to expel a privatised water firm from El Alto, a poor township near La Paz, is the water minister. He has a pragmatic streak.

Speaking of elections, there's a name that conspicuously missing from the coming elections ballot in Israel:

Reuters - Sharon's name absent from Israel election list
Ariel Sharon's departure from Israel's political scene was made official on Tuesday by the absence of his name from the list of candidates for the March parliamentary election unveiled by the party he founded.

Sharon, incapacitated by a January 4 stroke, cannot run in the ballot because he could not sign a form to confirm his candidacy for the centrist Kadima, a party spokeswoman said. It will be the first election in three decades in which Sharon, 77, has not run.

In Iraq, the Saddam trial is in shambles. Helena Cobban of the Just World News blog points to an AP report as well as one from the London Daily Telegraph

AP/Yahoo! News
A new judge cracked down Sunday in a chaotic session of Saddam Hussein's trial, ordering a co-defendant and a lawyer expelled from the courtroom. The entire defense team left in protest and Saddam was escorted out after a shouting match in which he yelled, "Down with America!"

Despite the turmoil, chief judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman pushed ahead, replacing the defense lawyers with court-appointed attorneys and hearing three prosecution witnesses before adjourning the trial until later this week.

It was Abdel-Rahman's first session at the helm, replacing a jurist who stepped down amid criticism that he was not doing enough to stop Saddam and his half brother, co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim, from dominating the trial with frequent outbursts and disruptions.

Daily Telegraph
Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half brother and the former head of intelligence, ended a lengthy statement about his health by calling the court "the daughter of a whore".

When he refused to leave, two guards grabbed him and the three men started pushing and shoving. Still fighting and egged on by Saddam, who was shouting "Long live Iraq" and waving his fist, al-Tikriti was then dragged from the room.

That led to further scenes as the defence team protested at what it called his mistreatment.

Mr Abdel-Rahman ordered one lawyer to be evicted after he refused to stop shouting complaints. The rest of the defence team walked out in protest despite warnings from the bench that "any lawyer who walks out will not be allowed back into this courtroom".

After lawyers appointed by the court arrived in their place, Saddam refused to accept them, saying that he had the right to leave if he did not recognise his legal representatives. As he stood up, a guard pushed him back into his chair.

"You do not leave; I allow you to leave when I want to," Mr Abdel-Rahman said, before ordering his removal.

Vancouver, our neighbor to the north (neighbor to Seattle, Cracks' home base, that is), has also suffered an incredibly rainy month:

CBC - Vancouver sets wet, wet, wet record
After a month of rainy weather, Vancouverites can at least console themselves by boasting about breaking a record. The British Columbia city endured 29 days of rain over the 31 days in January, the most for the month since weather watchers began keeping records in 1937.

Speaking of rain (something I'm sure my grandfather is busily tracking from his home in Minneapolis), Seattle has had 11.3 inches of rain during the month of January--only the fourth time we've had over 11 inches in one month.