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HAVANA, September 17 —In less than 24 hours more than 1,000 intellectuals from Latin America, the United States, Europe and Africa have signed an appeal circulated by their Cuban colleagues, expressing solidarity and demanding an end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. The message, which is circulating on the Internet, notes that Cuba was dramatically impacted by two powerful hurricanes recently, and that its people are demanding an immediate halt to the odious blockade that has been maintained against Cuba by successive U.S. administrations for almost 50 years. The appeal to the world from a large group of Cuban artists...

Help please! I belong to a forum devoted to gems and gemology. Members there, 99% ultra-liberal, are going into a tizzy because Bush signed a bill that outlaws certain gem imports from Burma. It's silly feel-good legislation that accomplishes nothing toward toppling the junta but makes it appear our Congress-critters are "doing something." It's named the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act of 2008. Forum members there are trying to rewrite history by saying Bush and Cheney are responsible instead of the Democrats who wrote it and pushed it through Congress. They're really incensed because the bill blocks certain gem...

ON June 4, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented her annual report on human trafficking for 2008, in which, for the sixth consecutive year, the United States government included Cuba among the countries it accuses of not making significant efforts to confront the alleged trafficking of women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and described our country as a sexual tourism destination, among other serious and unfounded accusations. For the first time, the imperial power also decided to include in this report several recommendations to the Cuban government as to how to confront the phenomenon. At the...

US tracking 'suspicious ship' from N Korea Oct. 20, 2006 WASHINGTON — The United States is tracking a suspicious vessel that left a North Korean port, a US official said yesterday, adding it was uncertain what it was carrying. . The CBS news network reported that US intelligence suspects that the vessel is carrying military equipment banned under an embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council in response to North Korea's nuclear test on Oct 9. The resolution calls on North Korea to return to negotiations over its nuclear programme and imposes a range of financial, trade and military...

Former President Fidel Castro says Sen. Barack Obama's plan to maintain Washington's trade embargo against Cuba will cause hunger and suffering on the island. In a column published Monday by government-run newspapers, Castro said Obama was "the most-advanced candidate in the presidential race," but noted that he has not dared to call for altering U.S. policy toward Cuba. "Obama's speech can be translated as a formula for hunger for the country," Castro wrote, referring to Obama's remarks last week to the influential Cuban American National Foundation in Miami. Obama said he would maintain the nearly fifty-year-old trade sanctions against Cuba...

Barack Obama: "I think its time for us to end the embargo of Cuba..." Barack Obama, speaking at the University of Southern Illinois, 1/20/2004 "I am no fan of the Cuban embargo, but removing it now - or announcing a presidential trip to meet with Raul Castro - would indicate that America views this familial transfer of power as real change, rather than what it is: a maneuver meant to leave the brutal Castro legacy intact." Benny Avni, Op-Ed, "Obama Vs. Bad Guys: To Talk Or Not To Talk?" The New York Sun, 2/25/08 "I believe that normalization of relations...

** EXCERPT ** With a large charitable donation in hand, Indonesian businessman Mochtar Riady flew to Little Rock to dine with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at a 1993 gala honoring her as an "Arkansan of the Year" at a time his company, a multibillion dollar banking conglomerate, was seeking an end to a 30-year trade embargo with Vietnam. Five days after the March 4, 1993, dinner at the Excelsior Hotel, Mr. Riady took the embargo question directly to President Clinton, saying in a four-page letter that its demise would bring political reforms in that communist country. By that time,...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel has decided to impose an official embargo of the Arabic Al Jazeera satellite TV network due to the Foreign Ministry's assessment that the station function as a propaganda arm in the Arab war against the Jewish state. "After discussions on the issue, the Foreign Ministry has decided to embargo the station," Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahabe told Army Radio Wednesday. "[Al Jazeera’s] reports are untrustworthy and they hurt us. They incite people to terrorist activities." The Foreign Ministry intends to demand that Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based, investigate specific allegations regarding coverage of recent events in Gaza...

On Dec. 29, 1962, 11 months before he was murdered by an advocate for Fidel Castro’s regime (Lee Harvey Oswald had distributed propaganda on a New Orleans street for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee), President John Kennedy, speaking in Miami’s Orange Bowl to veterans of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, received from them a Cuban flag and vowed, “I can assure you that this flag will be returned to this brigade in a free Havana.” In Cuba, too, regime change has turned out to be more problematic than American policymakers imagined.

Are we seeing the first indications that a Raul Castro-led Cuba will want warmer relations with the US? Yesterday, Brazil's Folha de Sao Paulo reported that Raul thanked Hugo Chavez for assisting Cuba, but thinks that US-friendly Brazil makes a better dance partner for the future (via Brian Faughnan): The newspaper reports that during the January Brazilian presidential visit to Havana, Raul Castro praised Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez for having helped Cuba “in a particularly tough moment of the ongoing confrontation with the United States George W Bush administration”. Nevertheless Fidel Castro brother is quoted saying that Brazil “is a...

Update 10:18am. State Dept “has indicated” the trade embargo with Cuba will remain in place. ***Don’t ask me why I’m up, but I am. And the AP has just put out a news alert that many have been awaiting for years: Fidel Castro has announced he will be resigning. Just a single line so far: “HAVANA (AP) — Official media quotes Fidel Castro saying he will not seek new presidential term.”Time to reinstitute the Fidel Castro Death Watch?Stand by for more…Val Prieto at Babalu Blog posted the Castro zombie doll yesterday as the “perfect symbol of The Revolution.” Behold the...

TEHERAN, 19/02/08 - Iran has suggested that it will boycott Dutch products if MP Geert Wilders shows his Koran film in March as planned. The Iranian parliament yesterday urged "the Dutch and Danish governments not to let the Zionism materialize its satanic objectives in the name of honourable nations of Holland and Denmark," according to Iranian press agency IRNA. This apparently was a reference to republication of controversial cartoons b a Danish newspaper and to Wilders' film plans. "We, the representatives of parliament, condemn the satanic act, and call on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to show strong reaction to such sacrilege...

For four years, a list of alleged Republican positions -- "What You Have To Believe To Be a Republican Today" -- has been circulating on the Internet and forwarded in countless e-mails. In this presidential election year, it is important to respond to these charges. If people want to vote for a Democratic president, they should not do so based on falsehoods about Republicans. Given space limitations, I cannot respond to all of them. I have decided to respond to the 13 most significant. "What you have to believe to be a Republican today": 1. "Saddam was a good guy...

"United States policy must continue to stand with the Cuban people and against those who have oppressed, terrorized, and murdered so many Cubans over the past half-century. This was my position when I served in the Senate; it is my position today; it will be my position as President. Fidel and Raul Castro are unaccountable dictators who can serve no role in Cuba’s future. We must continue supporting the growing internal opposition in Cuba while also denying the regime any source of funding that could prop up this cruel, illegitimate government. This means keeping current sanctions in place, and increasing...

(snip) But the Fred Thompson campaign just sent out a reminder to reporters about Mike Huckabee’s more lenient attitude toward Fidel Castro. (snip) Huckabee: Mr. President, Lift the Cuban Embargo Summary: In 2002, Governor Huckabee strongly advocated lifting the embargo against Cuba saying it “harm[s] our own agricultural and business interests,” “has not helped the people of Cuba” and has “provided Castro with a convenient excuse for his own failed system of government.” (snip) “‘The United States’ policy of unilateral embargo against Cuba continues to harm our own agricultural and business interests here at home and has certainly not helped...

"Water, water every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water every where, Nor a drop to drink." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ----------------------------------------------------- Iran isn’t an energy-independent country. I’m well aware that Iran produces more than 4 million barrels of oil per day, the fourth-highest production in the world. And with the near-constant reporting about Iranian crude reserves during the past six months, I find it difficult to believe that anyone could be unaware that Iran has 132 billion barrels in proven reserves--or, at least, they claim to. But what’s often ignored is that...

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release. Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to...

Based on a complaint lodged by Cuba’s foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, the United Nations may declare that the United States’ long running embargo of the island nation is illegal. “The Cuban complaint makes a persuasive case that the US embargo has contributed to human rights abuses in Cuba,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. “Because of the embargo, the Cuban government has been unable to acquire supplies from America to upgrade their facilities. As a result, political prisoners are being housed in filthy and decrepit buildings, locked up in rusted manacles and beaten with cracked and splintered clubs. So...

(CBS4) CORAL GABLES -- Presidential hopeful Christopher Dodd would end a decades-old trade embargo with Cuba and lift travel restrictions to the island if elected, he said Saturday in Coral Gables. The Democratic senator from Connecticut also said he would open an embassy in Havana and shut down TV Marti, a U.S. government-run television station that broadcasts to Cuba. "Other than the war in Iraq, no other American policy is more broadly unpopular internationally," Dodd said of the United States' policy toward Cuba. Dodd said as president he would seek a repeal of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which strengthened the...

WASHINGTON – In the latest scare involving products imported from China, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled millions of toys believed to contain dangerous amounts of lead paint. The biggest single recall by the CPSC this month was for 1.5 million Thomas and Friends wooden railway toys containing lead paint that poses special hazards to children. The toys are wooden vehicles, buildings and other parts for a train set that bears the logo "Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway" in the top left-hand corner of the package. The toys that could contain poisonous amounts of lead in their surface paint...

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The United States strengthened its offer of support for President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, telling him an international aid embargo against the Palestinians would end as soon as he forms a new government without Hamas, aides to Abbas and a Western diplomat said. Elsewhere in the West Bank, hundreds of Fatah gunmen stormed Hamas-controlled institutions, seeking revenge for the Islamic group's takeover of the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, Hamas forces blew up the home of a prominent pro-Fatah family and deployed at strategic locations to solidify their control of Gaza. Hundreds of Gaza residents converged on...

There's really only one problem for Cuba: those yanqui imperialists and the embargo they slapped on the country. Just ask Andrea Mitchell. The NBC correspondent is in Cuba today for the May Day festivities. Here's an excerpt from her conversation on MSNBC at 9:07 EDT this morning with host Contessa Brewer. MSNBC HOST CONTESSA BREWER: Is there an expectation among the crowd there, a sense that Castro will return to power at some point? NBC CORRESPONDENT ANDREA MITCHELL: Officials are pointing out, and it's certainly true from my visits here that the government runs, it's business as usual, that...

The Law: A Manhattan high school's openly illegal class trip to Cuba showed more than just brazen disregard for the U.S. ban on tourism to Cuba. It amounted to aiding and abetting a malevolent regime. That needs scrutiny. On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, "alternative" public schools don't usually follow a lot of rules. But a high school teacher at the elite Beacon School, Nathan Turner, took that to a new level when he organized a class trip to communist Cuba in early April. Fidel Castro's regime has been under a U.S. trade embargo since 1963 for, among other...

For nearly 50 years the US has blindly followed a policy whose end result is the strengthening of communism in Cuba and by extension, in much of Latin and South America. The embargo, imposed in 1963, is backfiring big time, as the Cuban government uses it to blame its own shortcomings on none other than the evil Americans. On a recent sojourn to Fidel’s island nation it occurred to me how proud a people the Cubans really are and how they appear to stoically accept their pathetic poverty as the price of retaining their independence. Few Cubans realize that in...

On the eve of the EU summit in Brussels, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution stressing the importance of solidarity between the Member States with regard to trade relations with Russia. The resolution passed yesterday by the EU parliament "stresses the importance of unity and solidarity among the Member States" in its trade relations with Russia. It also insists "that the European Union show the necessary solidarity with all Member States, in particular Poland, which is suffering discrimination under Russia's trade policy." Therefore, the MEPs admitted that Poland has been subjected to discriminatory practices in trade relations with Russia....

HOW do you get the attention of North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong Il? Stop him getting hold of iPods, plasma televisions and Harley Davidson motorbikes, it would appear.The United States government's first effort to use trade sanctions to aggravate a foreign leader personally is targeting items believed to be favoured by Mr Kim or to have been given by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyal families who run the Communist government. Mr Kim, who engineered a secret nuclear weapons programme, has other ways of obtaining the high-end consumer electronics and other items he wants. But the list of...

ETAJIMA ? The only special squad of the Maritime Self-Defense Force has engaged in secret drills to prepare for Japan's possible inspections of North Korea-related ships under a U.N. Security Council resolution following Pyongyang's nuclear test last month, Kyodo News learned Thursday. The MSDF is carrying out the drills every day at its base in Etajima, a Seto Inland Sea island in Hiroshima Prefecture even though the Japanese government has yet to decide its position on the issue due to legal sensitivities. The government has left various questions unanswered, such as whether it can apply the law on Japan's...

MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers on Friday called for international condemnation of the United States' economic blockade of Cuba, calling it a "massive human rights violation." Members of the State Duma, the Russian parliament's lower house controlled by Kremlin's loyalists, unanimously voted in favor of an appeal to parliaments worldwide to condemn the sanctions and urge the U.S. to end the blockade. "The United States ... in recent years has further strengthened its policy of interfering with the affairs of a sovereign state with the aim of a forcible change of the constitution regime of the Republic of Cuba," the statement...

Israel rejects Syria's arms embargo pledge By Patrick Bishop in Beirut and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 02/09/2006) Israel last night rejected Syria's pledge to Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, that it would prevent weapons being smuggled to Hizbollah across its border with Lebanon. Syrian soldiers on parade at Riyyak airbase President Bashar al-Assad of Syria told Mr Annan during talks in Damascus that he was prepared to deploy his military forces along the Lebanese border to enforce the arms embargo on Hizbollah demanded by security council resolution 1701. Mr Assad has previously warned that Damascus would take...

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, said today that Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had promised to enforce an arms embargo on Hizbollah under a UN resolution that halted Israel's war with the Lebanese group. "The president informed me that Syria supports the Security Council Resolution 1701 and will help in its implementation," Annan told reporters after talks with Assad in Damascus. "While stating Syrian objections to the presence of foreign forces along the Syrian-Lebanese border, the president committed to me that Syria will take all necessary measures to implement in full paragraph 15 of the resolution," Annan added, referring to...

Venezuela's U.N. ambassador tells NewsMax that President Hugo Chavez will not use oil exports as a weapon against the Bush White House for support of Israel's confrontation with Hezbollah. More than 60 percent of Venezuela's oil income comes from U.S. sales. Its also America's largest single source of imported oil. Rumors about a possible reduction in Venezuelan oil exports to the U.S. had been circulating in commodities markets since Israel's confrontation with Hezbollah began on July 12. "No, we are not considering any oil embargo, Venezuela believes in a laissez-faire market," proclaimed Francisco Javier Arias-Cardenas, Venezuela's new U.N. representative

Executive Summary The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been almost uniformly embraced by politicians and energy economists as one of the best means to protect the nation against oil supply shocks. This study finds little evidence for the proposition that government inventories are necessary to protect the country against supply disruptions. Absent concrete market failures, government intervention in oil markets is unlikely to enhance economic welfare. A conservative estimate finds that the SPR has cost taxpayers at least $41.2–$50.8 billion (in 2004 dollars), or $64.64–$79.58 per barrel of oil deposited therein. Accordingly, the "premium" associated with the insurance provided by the...

Ukraine will ban the import of animal production from Russia. Agricultural Policy Minister Oleksander Baranovskiy claimed this at a meeting with journalists in Nemishayevo town of the Kyiv Oblast today. According to an UNIAN correspondent, he stressed: “The other day the Russia will be closed. We have already prepared all the necessary documents”. At the same time, the Minister stressed that the ban will cover all the animal production, including meat and dairy products. Asked about the reasons of the ban, O.Baranovskiy put it short: “Low-quality”.

Pluck and luck save smuggled photos Banned images taken by Czech beauty queen to go on display in Prague By Sarah Schaschek and Jeffrey White Staff Writers, The Prague Post February 15, 2006 Helena Houdová Cuban police were intent on preventing these less-than-flattering images of the country's impoverished and regimented people from leaving the island. As a supermodel and 1999's Miss Czech Republic, Helena Houdová has been on the receiving end of a camera's attention. But the 26-year-old now finds herself on the other side of the lens. After an unpleasant arrest in Cuba Jan. 23 — during which she...

MEXICO CITY - Cuban officials invited U.S. corporations Friday to lobby against the U.S. trade embargo and invest in the communist nation's energy sector, as they announced plans to double their drilling capacity and explore for oil in the island's Caribbean waters. In the first private-sector oil summit between the two countries, executives from U.S. giants like ExxonMobil Corp., Caterpillar Inc. and Valero Energy Corp. were meeting with Cuban government officials in Mexico City this week to learn about Cuba's potentially lucrative oil reserves. "We would be happy if North American companies also participated in future projects," said Raul Perez...

Two of the world's most successful investors say oil will be in short supply in the coming months. DAVOS, Switzerland (FORTUNE) - Be afraid. Be very afraid. That's the message from two of the world's most successful investors on the topic of high oil prices. One of them, Hermitage Capital's Bill Browder, has outlined six scenarios that could take oil up to a downright terrifying $262 a barrel. The other, billionaire investor George Soros, wouldn't make any specific predictions about prices. But as a legendary commodities player, it's worth paying heed to the words of the man who once took...

A group of Cuban major leaguers will meet tomorrow with Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart to discuss forming a team to play in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March. Diaz-Balart, Florida Republican and a native of Cuba, declined to identify the players but said they have enough for every position, plus a manager. "Cuban players have rights, too," Diaz-Balart said. "They are organizing and want to play together as a team." The issue of Cuban players in the tournament -- a World Cup-style competition that is being heavily promoted by Major League Baseball and the players union as a historic event...

Lawmakers split over the reversal of a Clinton-era deal, and Texas farmers lose a big customer WASHINGTON - With some Republican lawmakers from Texas taking opposite sides, a clause that could have revived sales of Texas rice to Cuba was abruptly removed from a spending bill Tuesday.President Bush, whose administration is steadfastly opposed to expanding trade with the communist country and dictator Fidel Castro, had threatened to veto the measure if House and Senate negotiators let the clause remain.U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, whose district includes most of the 41,500 acres of rice farms in Southeast Texas, said the removal...

Chairman of the Shell companies in Iran, Yves Merer, said here Sunday the Anglo-Dutch oil giant would make an investment worth billions of dollars in the Islamic Republic's industry. Merer, who talked to Fars News Agency, added the demand for energy, including oil, would soar in the future but oil prices would keep fluctuating. He reiterated, The Shell will inject billions of dollars into Iran's industry if the country pays more heed to investment. The Shell Companies Group has allotted some 15 billion dollars for development of complicated oilfields across the world. The task is faced with two main problems...

One permanently ends its ban on Iranian authors, another installs a new one for students Two American academic societies have reversed their policies toward Iranian scientists. One, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), has decided to no longer prohibit Iranian authors from publishing in its journals, while the American Concrete Institute (ACI) has decided to install a new ban barring Iranian students from taking part in an annual engineering competition they routinely enter each year. Last month, the AIAA board of directors decided to permanently rescind the ban on publishing Iranian authors it had enacted in May. The...

The European Union announced yesterday the embargo for the sale of weapons to Uzbekistan and said it will prohibit high ranking Uzbek officials from enter EU countries. The sanctions were imposed for "indiscriminate use of force" during the suppression of the uprising in Andijan and prevention of independent investigation of the events. In fact, it is a beginning of international process to isolate Islam Karimov regime. Russia intends to use this situation to its advantage and turn Uzbekistan in Moscow's main geopolitical partner in the region.Regime Non GrataYesterday the countries of European Union lost the right to supply Uzbekistan weapons,...

A Pakistani, convicted of exporting missile parts to Iran almost 20 years ago, is being accused in a San Diego court of conspiring to smuggle jet engine components from the United States to Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Belgium (and IRAN). Arif Ali Durrani, 55, was initially accused of illegally exporting through his defunct California-based company called Lonestar Aerospace, 110 compressor blades for the General Electric J-85 military aircraft engine to Jordan. Those charges were dropped on Sept 23 after the US Attorney?s Office determined that the Jordan government had a license to receive the goods. The same day,...

President George W. Bush on Wednesday waived some defense export restrictions on Libya to allow U.S. companies to participate in destroying Tripoli's chemical weapons and to refurbish eight transport planes. It was another step in improving ties after Libya decided in December 2003 to abandon its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. In a memorandum to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush said he was waiving some restrictions under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act because it was in the national security interest of the United States. The law restricts defense exports to Libya because the State Department has designated...

HAVANA Sep 28, 2005 — The number of Americans traveling to Cuba has fallen dramatically since 2003, and those who do visit the island without their government's permission are more likely to be fined, Cuba said as it lashed out against a decades-old U.S. embargo. Vice Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla lamented the effects of the embargo, which has been steadily strengthened under President Bush and prohibits virtually all trade between the two countries except for the sale of some U.S. food and medicine to the communist-run island. "We are talking about an economic war against our country," Rodriguez said...

The US placed an embargo on selling helicopter parts to Israel from the start of the Oslo War until the 9/11 attacks according to the former Shabak (General Security Services) head Avi Dichter. Dichter revealed the existence of the embargo in a speech delivered last Thursday at the Saban Center for Middle East Studies at the Brookings Institution, where Dichter is now a fellow. He said that the embargo was imposed because the of the Israeli policy of "targeted killings" by the Israeli air-force using US-made helicopters. "The embargo was lifted after the 9/11 attacks", Dichter said in his speech,...

The best way to confront the US and EU3 dictatorship is to "impose an embargo on oil sales to those countries, said an English-language paper here Sunday commenting on last Thursday "unfair" resolution of the UN nuclear watchdog against Iran. The 'Tehran Times' suggested in its editorial that the world oil-rich states should form a united front in order to confront "Western neocolonialist countries." Criticizing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution against Iran, the paper said that it was ratified "to meet the objectives of the Zionist regime and the United States." It added that the resolution, issued under...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2005 – The European Union lifting its arms embargo against China would bring "serious and numerous" consequences, according to a Defense Department report released this week. The European Union has embargoed arms sales to China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. In the past year China has run an intense lobbying effort to have the ban lifted, a move strongly opposed by U.S. officials. "We think the Chinese would be able to obtain in Europe a lot of military or dual-use technologies that would be of great qualitative benefit to them," a senior DoD official said July...

In an unusual move, Sen. Clinton's staff immediately and publicly condemned the book. Quietly, they also have been contacting television programs to keep Klein off major shows. So far, the TV censorship effort has worked, with major networks such as Fox, MSNBC, NBC and others canceling scheduled appearances with Klein. For example, after Fox News canceled three scheduled appearances with Klein on its top-rated shows, Fox spokeswoman Irena Briganti claimed to the New York Times that interest in Klein's book at her network had "been tepid at best." She also said that after Klein's interview on "Hannity & Colmes," the...

LONDON (BBC) -- The EU has agreed to lift its embargo on the sale of arms to Libya, after pressure from the Italian government. Italy wants Libya to patrol its coastline more effectively and catch the hundreds of illegal migrants who try to reach Europe by sea each month. The United States lifted its trade embargo on Libya earlier this week. EU officials say a formal decision to lift the embargo, which was imposed 18 years ago, would be taken by the union's ministers next month. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini "has expressed his great satisfaction with the agreement reached...

The French government is pressing on with its campaign to end the European Union arms embargo on China, despite opposition from the U.S., Japan, European lawmakers, and human rights campaigners. The E.U. recently began to back away from a plan to lift the 16-year-old ban by the middle of this year, prompted in part by unhappiness over a new Chinese law permitting the use of force to prevent Taiwan's breakaway. An informal meeting of E.U. foreign ministers last Friday ended with representatives expressing doubts that the embargo could be lifted soon. Shortly beforehand, the European Parliament voted 431 to 85...