IRANIAN DEMANDS HOLDS UP BUSHEHR/Moscow Times--New WMW

[Gloria]

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR SEPTEMBER 12, 2003

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--PART 2: THE ROADMAP OF HUMAN FOLLY ("I wonder whether there can be a future for the UN in Iraq," asks an European diplomat. Some Iraqis recognize that the United Nations' humanitarian aid, in the shape of the oil for food program, may have saved lives during the embargo. But many hate the UN exactly because of the embargo: for them, the UN just enforces what Washington decides… European diplomats are keen to point out that if there is a choice in the Middle East, it is not a choice between secular dictatorship and secular democracy - but between secular dictatorship and Islamic democracy. The difference between what people living in the Middle East want and what the Bush administration says they want is abysmal. A solution will come only when America - and regional autocratic regimes - allow those people to decide by themselves. Obviously, this will only happen when Middle Eastern oil runs out.)

2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--ASSAD ACCEPTS MIRO’S RESIGNATION (The resignation of the government headed by Miro had been expected since Assad's announcement in early August that a new government would soon be formed to accelerate political and economic reforms.
The announcement was made amid mounting demands by the media and from members of parliament to speed up reforms, especially of the administration and of the centralised socialist-leaning economy, in the light of the changed situation in the Middle East since the US invasion of neighbouring Iraq.)

3//The Moscow Times, Russia--IRANIAN DEMANDS HOLDS UP BUSHEHR (To address concerns that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, Russia has said it will freeze construction on the $1 billion plant and will refuse to supply fuel unless Iran agrees to return all of the spent fuel. Both sides in recent weeks have said that an agreement was close to being signed. On Wednesday, however, Deputy Nuclear Power Minister Valery Govorukhin said Iran is now demanding that Russia pay for the spent fuel, Itar-Tass reported. Usually it is the other way around; countries get paid for receiving and storing spent fuel, he said.)

4//Inter Press Service, Italy--AFGHANISTAN: TWO YEARS AFTER, COUNTRY’S BIGGEST WOES NEGLECTED (War-weary Afghanistan continues to suffer from stereotypical images about its political problems, but its biggest woes have to do with livelihood and economic issues that remain ignored, says a Japanese doctor who is a winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award, Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize, this year…”Drought is the biggest problem now facing the people in Afghanistan and the international community must be more concerned about this than the political images of war,” he explained in an interview with IPS…”Western countries and Japan are aiding violence in Afghanistan by ignoring these urgent needs,'' he argued. ''The solution is to share the local concerns and uplift the lives of 20 million Afghans by pouring money into stopping the drought and saving lives if they want to eradicate the Taliban,” he said in the interview.)

5//Pravda, Russia--GEORGE BUSH SENIOR ARRIVES IN SAINT PETERSBURG (Former US President George Bush arrived in Saint Petersburg yesterday with his wife Barbara, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani… After visiting Saint Petersburg Mr and Mrs Bush will travel to Sochi to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and then to Moscow where they will meet former president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev.)
RELATED: Interfax, Russia--GORBACHEV TO MEET WITH FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH IN RUSSIA

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