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Turkish riot police have used batons and tear gas to break up a demonstration in Istanbul marking the upcoming International Women’s Day. Hundreds of demonstrators, calling for equal labour rights for women ahead of Women’s Day on March 8th, gathered in one of Istanbul's tourist squares

Interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari was chosen as his Shiite ticket’s candidate for Iraq’s next prime minister on Tuesday, after Ahmad Chalabi dropped his bid, senior alliance officials said. Al-Jaafari was most likely to be approved by two-thirds of the newly elected 275-member National Assembly when the parliament convenes. A date for that has not been set. The only other likely opponent for the post would be interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who was nominated for the job by his group. The Iraqi List got only 14 per cent of the vote - or 40 seats.

Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation on Dec. 28 into the death of Transportation Minister Heorhiy Kirpa, a supporter of Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych. The investigation will determine whether Kirpa was driven to suicide, an offense punishable by seven to 10 years in prison. Kirpa's body was found in his country home near Kyiv on Dec. 27, the same day opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko took an unassailable lead in the third round of the country's presidential election. Deputy Interior Minister Mykhailo Manin is overseeing the investigation. Korrespondent.net, a Russian-language news website, reported that Kirpa met with one of...

Two years ago Russia's Vladimir Putin was a celebrated champion of democracy. Twenty-four months later, it looks like he has chosen a different, authoritarian path. A new set of laws consolidates power in Putin's hands and the tax police continue their rampage through Russian industry. Is Putin's rule the birth of a modern-day czar? AP Russian President Vladimir Putin is consolidating power in Moscow. Democracy in Russia may be in danger. It's only 10-years old, but the December 12 holiday has become one of Russia's most important. Introduced by former Russian President Boris Yeltsin 10 years ago, the day commemorates...

Continuing his demand that the weekend’s repeat presidential election be conducted fairly, Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has warned forces were planning to disrupt the poll. Speaking before tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in the capital Kiev, he predicted Sunday’s vote “will not be an easy political walk". Mr Yushchenko said "there are some forces preparing to disrupt and they are preparing brigades, groups who are preparing to come to Kiev."

The challenge for any country clandestinely seeking to become a nuclear power is how to acquire enough fissile material for such weapons. Most countries begin by starting a commercial nuclear program, a right to which any state that has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is entitled. The commercial program can then provide a cover for engaging in so-called dual-use activities, which can have either peaceful or military uses. In Part 2 of our series on the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, looks at the progress Tehran is believed to have made along two separate routes to making a nuclear...

After four months in captivity, two French journalists were finally let go on Tuesday. But why? Also, a new survey shows that the British like to booze over the holidays, and yet another scandal hits Germany's beleaguered opposition party. French Journalists Freed A pair of French journalists held hostage in Iraq since August 20 were finally freed by their captors on Tuesday and are scheduled to arrive back home in France on Wednesday afternoon. Christian Chesnot of Radio France International and Georges Malbrunot of the daily Le Figaro spent four months in the hands of a group calling itself the...

Ukraine Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has warned that Sunday’s presidential revote might not be considered fair because election law reforms aimed at preventing fraud could deprive millions of Ukrainians of their votes. In Yanukovych’s eastern stronghold of Donetsk, meanwhile, supporters of the prime minister blocked an orange-draped convoy of opposition protesters from entering the industrial city, refusing to let the backers of his rival – Viktor Yushchenko – continue their campaign to rally support. With four days to go until the Boxing Day court-ordered rerun, tensions are running high in this ex-Soviet republic of 48 million, located between the expanding...

The United States has done its share of nasty things in this world. Support Ukrainian democracy isn’t one of them. It has become fashionable in the media to examine the so-called “American sources” of the money behind the “Orange Revolution.” This trend was initiated by left-wingers of the anti-globalist stripe, for whom any U.S. involvement in anything is “neo-liberalism” or something else demonic. It was picked up by right-wingers like U.S. troglodyte Pat Buchanan, and by some in Ukrainian ruling circles. Finally it was adopted by the mainstream media. For example, The Associated Press ran a thorough story on Dec....

Does Turkey belong in the European Union? It's the question of the year in Europe and comes to a head this week as everyone gears up for Friday's historic European Union summit where, presumably, the question will be answered. Today, German commentators weigh in. The vote in Brussels on Friday is vital to Turkey's EU hopes. But it's not the final hurdle. At issue is whether to open accession negotiations with Turkey that could possibly end up with the country's joining the EU in 10, 15 or 20 years. The vote is the major issue in German papers on Wednesday...

Daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported today that Danish Muslims are preparing to mobilize in protest against the integration policy of the government and Danish People's Party The call to protest was issued by Det Islamiske Trossamfund, the national organisation representing Denmark's Muslim population, under the leadership of imam Ahmad Abu-Laan. The group will assemble the country's most prominent Muslim groups to vie for media airtime in hopes of preventing the re-election of the sitting Liberal-Conservative government. The chairman of Det Islamiske Trossamfund's media and political committee, Kasem Ahmad, told Berlingske Tidende that Danish Muslims would adopt a new strategy in...

The German chancellor's Thursday demand for veto powers in an enlarged United Nations Security Council is proving a tough sell. German papers call him everything from stupid to conniving. All, however, agree that he has no chance of success. It's amazing that one simple sentence from German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder can cause so much ink to be spilled. Here's the sentence: "New permanent members of an expanded United Nations Security Council should have the same veto rights as those who currently hold seats." Seems innocuous enough, right? It's not. It was the first time that Schroeder had mentioned the idea...

he state must be able to fulfill its protective role without having to buy protection from Mafioso elements.” Would anyone disagree with this statement? Chancellor Gerhard Schröder recently said this in defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was being accused of installing an authoritarian regime in Russia. Schröder has repeatedly pointed out this autumn that Putin is restoring order in Russia, a necessary measure after the chaos of the transition years. Really? Schröder has adopted the arguments of Western experts, which are based on outdated analyses. When Putin first came to office, he took on the oligarchs who had...

The elder President Bush's most memorable foreign-policy blunder took place in Kiev in 1991, then under Communist rule. With the Soviet Union coming apart, the U.S. president -- badly advised by the stability-obsessed "realist" Brent Scowcroft -- made a speech urging Ukrainians yearning for independence to beware of "suicidal nationalism." His speech, which he now insists meant only "not so fast," was widely taken as advice to remain loyal to Moscow's empire. I dubbed this the "Chicken Kiev speech." That so infuriated Bush, who mistakenly saw the phrase as imputing cowardice rather than charging colossal misjudgment, that he has not...

An analysis of voter records by the Chicago Tribune newspaper suggests that more than 181,000 dead people were listed on the rolls in the six swing states in last month's US election. According to the report, published on Sunday, thousands more voters were registered to vote in two places, which could have allowed them to cast more than one ballot. However it is not known whether any people registered in two places voted more than once. But observers agree that this election was a vast improvement over the 2000 vote. Legislation passed after that election was designed to fix some...

United Nations observers have sighted about 100 Rwandan troops inside the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thousands of civilians have reportedly begun to flee the area. The Congolese say more than 6,000 Rwandans have crossed the border and are attacking and burning villages. From the eastern town of Beni, Congolese regional cooperation minister Mbusa Nyamwisi said villages were being targeted nearby. "We are being attacked by the Rwandan troops," he said. The apparent incursion comes after threats last week by Rwanda's president Paul Kagame to send troops across the border to engage Hutu rebels inside Congolese territory. President Kagame said any...

ABIDJAN, Dec 3 (AFP) - The leader of a group of hard line backers of Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo on Friday called for a "huge march" next week to "demand the French army leave Ivory Coast." "In memory of our comrades who fell under the bullets of the French army and to give moral support to the many wounded who are still in hospital, we call for a huge, peaceful march on December 11 at the Place de la Republique," said Charles Ble Goude, head of the Young Patriots, at a press conference. The aim of the march would...

Putin believes in the rule of a grim elite who will protect Russia from the corrupt West TWO YEARS ago who had heard of Fallujah? Twelve years ago what resonance did Srebrenica have? Two weeks ago how many of us had a view on the relative merits of Viktor Yushchenko or Viktor Yanukovych? Its in the nature of international crises that they tend to occur in parts of the globe that have escaped the world’s close attention. A hundred years ago crises in Fashoda and Port Arthur, flashpoints on the fringes of empire, dominated the thoughts of statesmen. Today, our...

As of mid-afternoon on Nov. 29, it remained unclear whether Ukraine’s Supreme Court would accept appeals from opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who insists vote fraud robbed him of the Nov. 21 run-off election. Signs are emerging, however, that factions in Ukraine’s political and business elite who previously supported the candidacy of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych are switching sides and putting their chips on Yushchenko. Citing a statement issued by President Leonid Kuchma’s son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk, opposition television station Channel 5 reported on Nov. 29 that the deputy and business mogul opposes separatist movements in eastern Ukraine that are being...

In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, German feminist publisher Alice Schwarzer discusses the difficulties Germany has in dealing with its Muslim women and the growing influence of Islam in Europe. DPA Alice Schwarzer: "The multicultural ideology is untruthful." SPIEGEL: For decades, people have looked on without doing anything as some of Germany's Turkish women were stripped of their rights. Why has this stirred so little resistance in German society? Schwarzer: Because every denunciation of this abuse is immediately branded as racism. But common sense is never wrong: A women, who stumbles about beneath a mountain of cloth while her husband...