Geopolitics Weekly

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will push for "crippling sanctions" against Iran over its nuclear programme in Moscow on Monday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Israel, seeing a mortal threat, has hinted it could attack Iran's nuclear facilities pre-emptively if it deems international diplomacy a dead end. That possibility drew cautionary words from Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. "I worry a great deal about the unintended consequences of a strike," he told reporters during a visit to Tel Aviv, referring to Iran's threats to retaliate against Israel and U.S. sites in the Gulf. "I think the Iranians are very difficult to predict."

Asked what Netanyahu meant by "crippling sanctions," an aide said: "Sanctions that target Iran's refined petroleum imports." While it is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, Iran lacks domestic refineries and imports some 40 percent of its gasoline.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has suspended his chief of staff, Rafiq al-Husseini (pictured), after a video was released showing Husseini allegedly soliciting sex from a job applicant

Speaking to reporters in Ramallah, he said he had falled "victim to a trap set by members of a gang linked to Israeli intelligence."

The PA has been up in arms over the report, with the attorney general threatening to sue Israel's Channel 10 for "circulating lies and false claims."

Two Nato rockets aimed at Taliban insurgents in Helmand missed their target today, killing 12 civilians sheltering in their home and dealing a sharp blow to hopes that civilian casualties would be avoided in the largest western-led operation of the nine-year Afghan war.

The incident occurred in Nad Ali, an insurgent-infested area where British troops are operating. A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said the rockets, which were fired by a sophisticated missile system, were a "US responsibility".

Operation Moshtarak (meaning "together") involves 15,000 troops, mostly US, British and Afghan

"I want to clearly state: Yanukovych is not our president," Ms Tymoshenko said in a live televised broadcast.

But she said she would not call people on to the streets to protest, as she had done after the 2004 presidential election. "I will not call another Maidan [Independence Square demonstration] and will not allow public protests," she said.

Mrs Clinton would press Saudi Arabia to help persuade China to support a tougher stand against Iran's nuclear ambitions.

US wanted Saudi Arabia, which has growing trade relations with China, to persuade Beijing to abandon opposition to a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions.

Beijing fears a major loss of revenue from investments in Iran, and disruption of oil supplies from a country providing it with 400,000 barrels a day.

The emphasis on economic development indicates that Chinese leaders still see the solution to the problem of Tibet as one of supplying creature comforts. If the region can develop fast enough, the reasoning goes, then Tibetans will buy into Chinese rule.

A sign of the importance of the conference was the attendee list: besides Mr. Hu, it included Wen Jiabao, the prime minister; Xi Jinping, the vice president who is the favorite to succeed Mr. Hu; and Li Keqiang, Mr. Xi’s main rival for the top leadership position in China.

"My decision to support military action in respect of Iraq was the most difficult decision I have ever faced in my life," he wrote. "I was also fully aware that my support for military action was critical. If I had refused that, the UK's participation in the military action would not, in practice, have been possible. There almost certainly would have been no majority either in cabinet or in the Commons."He went on to say he had made a choice to support Blair, adding: "I have never backed away from it, and I do not intend to do so, and fully accept the responsibilities which flow from that. I believed at the time, and I still believe, that we made the best judgments we could have done in the circumstances."

During his oral evidence to the inquiry, Straw said the "psyche" of decision-makers had been influenced by past conflicts. "The lesson of Suez was to stay close to the Americans, and the lesson of the Falklands was to take note of the intelligence," he said

Straw said one of his aims before the invasion was to get the George Bush administration to "go down the UN route. A key part of our approach was to ... try to get to a point where the US objective was not regime change but the disarmament of Iraq," he added.

He said he would never have "been a party" to such a policy: "I regarded it [the policy of regime change] as improper and self-evidently unlawful."

Before that meeting Mr Straw wrote to Mr Blair - in a letter subsequently leaked - that "regime change per se is no justification for military action: it could form part of the method of any strategy, but not a goal". Asked whether No 10 had "pre-empted" the Foreign Office over Iraqi policy, Mr Straw said Mr Blair was "aware" that regime change could not be a basis for acting against Iraq nor could it be "disguised" as such.

The Invention of the Jewish People.

Sand's hands are depicting how most Jews are descended from converts who never set foot in the Holy Land.

according to Sand there was no exile, and as he seeks to prove by dense forensic archaeological and historical analysis, it is meaningless to talk today about a "people of Israel". At least not if by that you mean the Jews.

A veteran politician from Belgium's Flemish Christian Democrat party, he has been outspoken in the past in opposition to Turkey joining the EU. He warned it could dilute Europe's Christian heritage. "Turkey is not a part of Europe and will never be part of Europe," he said as an opposition politician five years ago.

There is the increase focus on training the Afghan army and policy, but then we are also hearing talks of sending more U.S. soldiers. This shows that we are not meeting the goal of training Afghans.