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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR SEPTEMBER 17, 2003
1//The Independent, UK--BLAIR, SCHRODER AND CHIRAC TO SET NEW COURSE FOR EU (The leaders of Britain, France and Germany will stage a highly symbolic summit this weekend to try to reach agreement on a new direction for the European Union and finally bury their bitter differences over Iraq…The UK, France and Germany are members of the UN Security Council and France is now backing away from threats to veto a new resolution that would pave the way for troops from other nations to join the peace-keeping effort in Iraq. Paris wants political control of Iraq to be transferred to the UN, although it has suggested that this might be "symbolic", rather than real. Mr Blair will come under pressure to ensure the UN gets a bigger role in Iraq than the US has proposed, and a more speedy transfer of power to the Iraqi people.)
2//The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea--U.S. REQUESTS COMBAT TROOPS (The United States has requested that South Korea contribute to coalition forces in Iraq a light infantry unit capable of independent operations and comparable in size to the Polish division now serving in the Middle Eastern country. Three U.S. officials who attended meetings in Seoul early this month - Richard Lawless, from the Defense Department, Christopher LaFleur, from the State Department and Thomas Hubbard, the American ambassador - reportedly made the request Sept. 4, when they went to Cheong Wa Dae and met with high-ranking officials.)
Related Article: ROH MUTE ABOUT DISPATCH DECISION
3//The Moscow Times, Russia--U.S. SAYS RUSSIA SOLD ARMS TO IRAN (The United States on Tuesday accused Russia of supplying arms to "state sponsors of terrorism," chiefly Iran, and slapped sanctions on a Russian defense company. The charges -- which mirror U.S. accusations concerning Baghdad after the Iraq war started -- appear to be an attempt to pressure Moscow over its cooperation with Tehran, analysts said. "The United States government has determined that the government of Russia transferred lethal military equipment to countries determined by the secretary of state to be state sponsors of terrorism," the U.S. State Department said in a notice published in the Federal Register…KBP Tula said Tuesday that the sanctions were meaningless since it has no business in the United States and suggested that they were a warning to Moscow.)
4//Deutsche Welle/dw.world.de, Germany--NEO-NAZI BOMB PLOTS SPARK CRITICISM OF TERROR FOCUS (After uncovering a planned neo-Nazi attack, security experts in Germany have begun talking of a new dimension in right-wing terror. Many fear the homegrown violence has been overlooked in the focus on foreign terrorism… Critics contend the plots show Germany has neglected its own homegrown terrorist threat from the right wing, as authorities have focused their energies on rooting out Islamic extremists in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.)
5//Inter Press Service, Italy--GROUP OUTRAGED AT COLOMBIA PLAN TO AMNESTY PARAMILITARIES (A Colombian proposal to amnesty leaders of right-wing paramilitary groups responsible for some of the worst massacres of the country's decades-long civil war has been strongly assailed by a major U.S. human-rights researcher. In a release issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Robin Kirk, the author of 'More Terrible Than Death: Massacres, Drugs and America's War in Colombia', called on the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to cut off aid to the South American country if the proposal is adopted…Aside from granting immunity to perpetrators of atrocities, observers have also expressed concern that drug traffickers will associate themselves directly with the paramilitaries in order to qualify for amnesty.)
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