Iraq’s presidential council approved a law Wednesday that paves the way for provincial elections, giving a major boost to U.S.-backed efforts to promote national reconciliation on the fifth anniversary of the war. The move came two days after Vice President Dick Cheney visited Baghdad to press Iraqi leaders to overcome their differences and take advantage of a lull in violence to make political progress. Many Sunnis boycotted the January 2005 election in which Iraqis chose a parliament and provincial councils. The vote ushered in representational government, but it also gave majority Shiites and minority Kurds the bulk of power, including at the provincial level.
China’s premier told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday that he is prepared to hold discussions on Tibet with the Dalai Lama, Brown said. Brown, who has been working to strengthen Britain’s ties with China, said he spoke with Premier Wen Jiabao to call for restraint after violent protests last week in Tibet. The turmoil poses the biggest challenge to Chinese rule in Tibet in almost two decades, and comes as China prepares to host this summer’s Beijing Olympics.
The United Nations accused Serbian officials Tuesday of complicity in the violence in northern Kosovo that left a U.N. policeman from Ukraine dead and dozens of people hurt. Larry Rossin, the deputy U.N. administrator for Kosovo, told reporters in Pristina that “it is clear to us that the violence ... was orchestrated.” At the very least, Rossin said, Serbia’s government failed to use its influence to prevent ethnic Serbs in Kosovo from launching the attacks, which left more than 60 U.N. and NATO forces and 70 Kosovo Serb protesters wounded.
Pakistan’s new parliament elected the country’s first female speaker Wednesday from the party of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Fehmida Mirza, a businesswoman and medical doctor elected to parliament three times, won 249 of the 324 votes in a ballot in the National Assembly, or lower house. Her only challenger received 70. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party came in on top in Feb. 18 elections and is preparing to lead a new coalition government united against U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf, whose supporters were routed in the polls.
Japan has created an unusual government post to promote animation, and named a perfect figure Wednesday to the position: a popular cartoon robot cat named Doraemon. Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura appointed the cat an “anime ambassador,” handing a human-sized Doraemon doll an official certificate at an inauguration ceremony, along with dozens of “dorayaki” red bean pancakes – his favorite dessert – piled on a huge plate. Komura told the doll, with an unidentified person inside, that he hoped he would widely promote Japanese animated cartoons, or “anime.”
Stocks pulled back sharply Wednesday, erasing most of the previous session’s big gains as investors grew concerned about the possibility that banks remain vulnerable to further problems from soured debt. The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 300 points after rising 420 on Tuesday. Some retrenchment was to be expected after the previous day’s huge advance. But the decline also reflects investors’ continuing uneasiness about the world’s financial system and the U.S. economy.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton bluntly challenged Sen. Barack Obama to agree to new primaries in Michigan and Florida on Wednesday and said it was “wrong, and frankly un-American” not to have the two delegations seated at the Democratic National Convention. “Senator Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people,” said the former first lady, who trails her rival in delegates won to date. “Today I am asking him to match those words with actions.” Obama has yet to declare his support or opposition, although his campaign has raised a number of procedural and legal questions about the most recent proposal for an early June primary in Michigan.
