Weekly News Roundup: October 2nd - October 7th

This week debuted with an impressive number of countries conducting either legislative elections such as Hungary and Austria, or presidential ones, such as Brazil, Zambia and Bosnia, plus recorded new developments in Thailand, Hungary and the Palestinian territories, some of which continue to be extremely challenging from the international community's point of view. The situation of the Georgian-Russian diplomatic political row becomes more critical, while the nuclear international standoffs regarding both North Korea and Iran become altogether insurmountable, prompting the imminent involvement of the United Nations Security Council in order to elaborate upon a harsh series of sanctions against both countries.

On Monday, it was reported that Brazilian electoral authorities had issued a formal statement on Sunday evening announcing that current leftist President Silva faces a runoff for his second term, following Sunday's presidential elections, and accusations that his party had been involved in acts of electoral corruption and fraud, as far as cast ballots were concerned.
After 98 per cent of the votes had been counted, preliminary results displayed the fact that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva got 48.8 percent of the votes, while the former governor of Sao Paulo state, center-right Geraldo Alckmin got 41.4 percent. Many political analysts labeled the results as an utter defeat for President Silva, since electoral polls a week before showed the fact that he would top Alckmin by 59 percent of the votes, which is more than 50 percent plus one votes needed to end the elections in one round.
Although Silva displayed confidence with regard to the outcome of the results early Sunday morning, his new campaign manager, Marco Aurelio Garcia, highlighted that both he and all the campaign personnel "always prepared ourselves for a two-round election". Political and electoral analysts believe that the reason why Silva was challenged by a sudden drop in the election results and consequently faces a runoff on October 28th , was due to the fact that his Workers' Party had been accused by opposition officials of involvement in a corruption scandal, which included buying a dossier that had allegedly contained some important information which would compromise one mysterious political rival.

As expected for a few days now, retired General Surayud Chulanont, currently one of the top advisers of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, has been appointed the new interim Prime Minister of Thailand, replacing controversial former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, now in exile in London after being ousted from his office by a military coup two weeks ago. The General's appointment by the Thai military junta has also been approved by the Thai king.
In spite of the fact that Chulanont was reported to have declined the Prime Minister's office offer, he did accept in the end, warning that should Thaksin return to Thailand, the country could plunge into a dangerous state of violence again, threatening the "national unity" of the country.
"Frankly speaking, I was assigned to do the job even though I don't want to. I just feel it's necessary in a time like this to help out the country.... I received the mandate from His Majesty the King, so I have to take the responsibility", Chulanont highlighted during a press conference, upon receiving news of the Prime Minister's office.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered quite a virulent speech against Georgia and its chief, accusing them of performing state terrorism, while employing tactics that remind everyone of the political police of Stalin, following the arrest of four Russian intelligence officers by Georgian authorities last week on espionage charges, an act which triggered an acid diplomatic row between the two states that had been involved in political conflicts before.
During a meeting of the Russian Security Council in Moscow, Putin labeled the arrests as "an act of state terrorism involving hostage-taking", as reported on the presidential website. In addition to this, in Putin's opinion, the Georgian President and his entourage are like "the successors of Lavrenti Beria", an obvious reference to the leader of Stalin's secret police, which arrested and executed thousands of Russian citizens based on false allegations that they had spied for foreign states, against the Soviet republic.
He also added that the reason why the Georgian leadership acted in such a vicious way, yet in a carefree fashion, was because of the country's alleged "foreign sponsors", referring to the United States, which had been providing military equipment and training for the Georgian army department since 2002, as part of the fight-against-terrorism war campaign.

Israeli military officials announced that they had managed to finally complete troop withdrawal operations from southern Lebanon yesterday, in compliance with one of the main provisions of UN-sponsored resolution 1707 that had been approved more than a month and a half ago.
The Israeli pullout, only a few hours before the beginning of the Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish religious celebration, was replaced by the occupation of the respective zone, once among the main strongholds of the Hezbollah movement, by the international peacekeeping troops and by units of the Lebanese army, putting an end to what many have labeled as an extremely painful time span for both Israel and for Lebanon, ever since July 12th, which marked the beginning of the Israeli military offensive following the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military department also highlighted the fact that from then on, the Lebanese government would be responsible for ensuring security and stability in the area, while Israeli troops would remain stationed in the northern border town of Gajar, through which the so called "blue line" passes, the physical geographical security separation between the two states.

The seemingly never ending street riots and political shakeups triggered by the leaked videotape showing Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany admitting to having lied to the Hungarian people regarding drastic economic reforms the country needs, before the Socialist Party meeting, have finally reflected in Sunday's local elections, when the Prime Minister's party scored a defeat, just like many political analysts and diplomats forecast, in favor of the opposition coalition.
The results showed that the opposition had won 18 out of 19 counties and 15 of 23 cities in the local polls, which mark the best result the opposition had ever scored in an election of that magnitude. Opposition leaders highlighted the fact that such an impressive result on their part can be interpreted as a way for the population to officially vote Gyurcsany out of the Prime Minister's office, in spite of the latter's denials of resigning from his post.
In addition to this, political analysts view such a poll result as a failure of the political endurance test for Gyurcsany and his coalition.

Zambian officials have announced that tensions are increasing in the country's capital Lusaka, as the entire nation is feverishly awaiting the results of last Thursday's presidential elections, with supporters of the opposition nationalist Patriotic Front allegedly looting shops, setting vehicles ablaze and clashing in street riots on Sunday afternoon.
According to preliminary results issued by the Electoral Commission of Zambia on Sunday afternoon, current President Levy Mwanawasa, aged 58 and his ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy, had won 952,650 of the 2,261,308 valid votes cast in 120 from the 150 electoral constituencies, or 42 percent of them, as opposed to the Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata, who had led by 20 percent in earlier polls, yet dramatically dropped to the third place with only 27 percent of the valid votes cast. Hakainde Hichilema from the United Democratic Alliance scored the second place, with 641,109 votes, or 28 percent.
The recent acts of violence by the PF supporters come amid serious accusations facing Mwanawasa and his party of allegedly conspiring to commit fraud in the elections, with more than 400,000 votes being either spoiled or stolen, both PF and UDA officials highlighted. Both Sata and Hichilema stated that last Thursday's polls have experienced sudden mysterious delays and the like: "We need verification before a winner is declared", Hichilema stated on Zambian state television.

After falling in the population's preferences in March, 46 year old Alfred Gusenbauer's Social Democratic Party recorded a victory in Sunday's presidential elections, taking 35.7 percent of the votes, or 68 seats in the lower house of the Parliament, as opposed to the 34.2 percent, or 66 seats, of current Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and his People's Party, by vowing to reduce unemployment rates, cut down on taxes for families who live by middle incomes and invest more in the educational field.
Other parliamentarian organizations such as the Freedom Party, which took 11.2 percent of the votes, or 21 seats, the Green Party, which took 10.5 percent or 20 seats and the Alliance for Austria's Future, Schuessel's coalition partner, 4.2 percent of 8 seats, have scored third, fourth and fifth places, respectively.
Gusenbauer issued an official statement on Monday, in order to announce that his party has already started consultations with regard to the establishment of a coalition government with a parliamentary majority, which would basically put an end to Chancellor Schuessel's 6 and half years of mandate.
Many political analysts believe that the best option for Gusenbauer at the moment is what they have labeled as a "grand coalition", with the People's Party. "Realistically, a grand coalition is the only real outcome. There's also the possibility of a three- way coalition but that is naturally more unstable", Peter Hajek from the OGM polling institute in Vienna, highlighted during an interview.

Political analysts highlighted the fact that Sunday's elections in Bosnia have revealed a worrisome political trend running through the Bosnian population's preferences in its attempt to farther itself away from the ongoing ethnic and religious grievances acquired following the 1992-1995 war, and commit itself to the road of the European Union.
After no less than 50 percent of the votes counted, election observers highlighted the fact that Muslim Bosnians and Catholic Croats support lawmakers who intend to unify the country, while Serbs still want someone whose party promotes ethnic division in Bosnia. Thus, it appears that Nebojsa Radmanovic, whose main political platform rests upon the idea of awarding the Serbs the right to secede, is the man elected to represent the interests of the Orthodox Serbs in the tripartite presidency political framework, which is specific to Bosnia. On the other hand, Haris Silajdzic, a man who supports the unification of Bosnia, would represent the Muslim Bosnian seat, while Ivo Miro Jovic would be the representative of the Croats.
If in the first two cases, the candidates had fairly and easily won their seats, in the case of the Croat candidate, the race was extremely close. Jovic and his party, the Croat Democratic Union's victory, with 11.84 percent of the votes, had come narrowly close to that of Zeljko Komsic, from the Social Democratic Party, who took 11.41 percent. "I will be Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency, or that Presidency will not exist", Jovic stated, arguing that Komsic should not be allowed to win the seat for the Croat Bosnian presidency, given the fact that both Serbs and Bosnians in the cities belonging to the federation were awarded the right to vote for him, and in turn, their votes could actually decide in his favor and would give him an unlawful gain.

On Tuesday, it was announced that upon officially withdrawing from the race for the United Nations Secretary General's office, given South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon's victory in the fourth consecutive straw poll, Shashi Tharoor, the Indian candidate insisted on expressing his gratitude for the immense support provided by the Indian government, highlighting the fact that he had nothing to complain about the efforts pressed by the New Delhi administration.
"We have nothing to reproach...speaking for me and the government of India. We did our best... we came second", he stated during a press conference, after he sent his congratulations to the South Korean official.
Regarding his plans for the future, Tharoor declared that he had none, given that he had placed all his efforts into winning the UN top office job. However, he assumed that all he could do for the time being is to continue with his present job, that of Under-Secretary General for publicity and communication department. "All options are open including going back to India", he concluded.
As far as the South Korean Foreign Minister was concerned, according to UN top representatives, he had fairly and easily won the fourth so called straw poll, amassing 14 encouragement votes, plus acknowledged support from all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. As expected, Tharoor came in second again, winning only 10 encouragement votes, three discouragement votes, among which, one is believed to have come from a Security Council permanent member, specifically United States, and one "no opinion" vote.

Upon Monday evening's final confirmation by the Brazilian Electoral Court of the first round of voting's results, which displayed incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 48 percent of the votes and his powerful political counter-candidate, former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin's 41.4 percent of the valid votes cast, the former insisted on highlighting his confidence that he would be the one the Brazilian people would choose as President in the already scheduled October 28th runoff session, the BBC informs.
"Obviously, every candidate would like to win an election in the first round. But the wisdom of the people doesn't always allow that. So now, we're going to see a fairer, truer campaign with two candidates head to head", he stated during a press conference on Monday evening. He added that the results of the second round would not bring any new and unpleasant surprises for him, even though victory could not be secured through the first voting round: "Victory will just take a little longer, that's all", he asserted.

In what may be viewed as a truly worrisome political and social trend unfolding in the Gaza Strip at the moment, with increased violent clashes between factions of Fatah and Hamas, respectively, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, issued an official statement on Tuesday morning, warning that all Hamas lawmakers, including political chief in exile Khaled Mashaal, would become targets of their assassination attempts.
Political analysts view such an outspoken threat as a major escalation of internal political struggles between Fatah and government-leading Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank in the past two days of fighting, which in turn led to the death of 12 Palestinians and the injury of 100 more.
Apart from the warning, which was included within an official statement that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades sent to Reuters, the armed militant group added that they consider senior Interior Ministry official Youssef al-Zahar, leader Khaled Mashaal and Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, guilty of the above mentioned peoples' deaths, as well as for the destruction that has occurred in both Gaza and the West Bank in the past days.

Georgian officials announced that they had decided to release the four Russian intelligence officers, who had been detained last week on espionage charges, a series of arrests which have sparked quite a diplomatic controversy for the past few days, prompting the international community to call for an end to political hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the row.
In spite of the fact that the four Russian officers were handed over to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe within the premises of Georgia's Prosecutor-General's office on Monday, Russian officials have not displayed any signs of appeasement, on the contrary, they proceeded in suspending bank transfers, postal, air, land and sea links with the former Soviet republic.
Karel De Gucht, the Belgian Fm and OSCE chairman, who was present at the official transfer, which was preceded by an official statement that reiterated the espionage accusations and barred the men from ever re-entering the country, declared: "I believe that the basic principles of the international law should be respected and I call on both sides to abstain from future provocations and threats of force". The four boarded a Russian plane which took them to Moscow, where they were met by Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Ivanov, who thanked them for their "courage and the honor, characteristic of Russian officers".

North Korean officials issued a formal statement on Tuesday, in order to announce a series of contradictory foreign policy measures with regard to nuclear issues: on the one hand, it declared that it would continue to conduct nuclear tests in order to strengthen "its war deterrent for self-defense" claiming that the main reason for such tests is represented by the United States' sanctions and pressures.
On the other, it stressed upon the idea that it would continue to enforce denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, assuring the safety of the nuclear tests and providing guarantees of not using the atomic weapons first.
"The US daily increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure have caused a grave situation on the Korean peninsula in which the supreme interests and security of our state are seriously infringed upon and the Korean nation stands at the crossroads of life and death", part of the official statement, released by the Pyongyang administration, read.
Many have already speculated upon the fact that through such a decision, which is meant to draw the attention of the international community towards the deadlocked nuclear issue and force some kind of involvement of the United States into direct talks, the Pyongyang administration continues to blame Washington for pursuing its alleged crackdown on the financial department of the country and thus, topple the regime.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued an official statement during a press conference in Baghdad, in which he presented what he labeled as the "Ramadan Agreement", a four point plan, whose name makes an obvious reference to the Muslim faith's one month holy celebration and whose main objective is the appeasement of religious and ethnic clashes, as well as the recent spiraling violence, through the creation of the neighborhood committees that would monitor and provide aid to the activities of security forces.
The agreement was reached after an important conference that reunited both the Shiite and Sunni leaders of the Iraqi national unity government and represents an attempt by Maliki's cabinet of infirming rumors that the Prime Minister along with his government are incapable of contending the level of violence displayed by death squads, militias, factions and insurgents.
The main highlights of the document specifically pinpoint to the formation of local security committees that would be made up of political party representatives, tribal, religious and military personalities, elected from every neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, which would come under the authority of a central governing organization, the Central Committee for Peace and Security, whose main responsibility would be the coordination of all these local centers' activities. The size of these local committees would be according to the local population of the neighborhoods.

Iranian officials have initiated quite a daring nuclear plan that envisioned the establishment of a consortium led by French nuclear energy group Areva, whose main objective would have been the monitoring of uranium enrichment production in Iran, as a compromise solution for the long-stalled international standoff with regard to the Iranian nuclear schedule.
"The best solution to dispel the worries about Iran's nuclear activities is not to demand a suspension of enrichment. We have an idea that technically and legally is the best solution. It is that France creates a consortium with Eurodif and Areva to carry out enrichment in Iran and thus they can closely monitor our nuclear program", deputy director of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammad Saeedi declared during an interview with the AFP.
In spite of the seemingly positive tone of the deal, which was presented earlier today, French diplomats and other officials declined the offer for the time being, stating that it should first be presented to European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana.

Deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra, ousted from office following the September 19th military coup, led by Army Commander General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, issued a handwritten letter from London, his new place of exile since the bloodless coup, on Tuesday, announcing that he resigns from the leadership of his 2000-founded Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) Party, a decision which many political analysts deemed as the crumbling down of an almost invincible political machine, that counted more than 14 million members, Reuters informs.
Deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra, ousted from office following the September 19th military coup, led by Army Commander General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, issued a handwritten letter from London, his new place of exile since the bloodless coup, on Tuesday, announcing that he resigns from the leadership of his 2000-founded Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) Party, a decision which many political analysts deemed as the crumbling down of an almost invincible political machine, that counted more than 14 million members, Reuters informs.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry called upon North Korea to suspend all potential nuclear tests and attend six-party talks. The diplomat added that should North Korea not comply with such requests, it would suffer all consequences that would derive from it.
Apart from the South Korean response, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Canada, Alain Cacchione, highlighted the same ideas, regarding the fact that North Korea's interests would be best served through six-nation mediation talks and that conducting such tests on nuclear missiles may very well be considered a "provocative act" through which North Korea challenges the international community: "Canada would consider any nuclear test a provocative act, severely destabilizing to the region and which would only serve to further isolate North Korea".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the spokesperson of the United States regarding North Korea's nuclear announcement, labeling it the same way as their Canadian neighbors, as a truly challenging act, while Australia described them as "imprudent and offensive".
In addition to this, according to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, officials from the Canberra administration stated that they were seeking a meeting with the North Korean Ambassador Chon Jae Hong in order to receive an explanation of Tuesday's worrisome declaration.

Following France's official announcement on Tuesday, that it declines Iran's idea concerning a French-led consortium that would monitor all nuclear activities performed on Iranian soil, for the time being, British officials issued a formal statement yesterday, in order to stress that the country considers the latest round of negotiations between the European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana and the Islamic republic as failed ones, which is why it would start pursuing the implementation of targeted UN sanctions on Iran in the next two weeks.
The British government official, who announced the sanctions decision under anonymous status, revealed that Solana had talked to all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council during the weekend, and told them that the final conclusion, following the last round of discussions, was that Iran had ultimately failed in complying with the United Nations nuclear demands. However, he did stress that whatever sanctions Britain supports, "these steps should be incremental, they should be proportionate and they should be reversible if the Iranians do take the steps that are required of them".

The Independent Monitoring Commission, a panel made up of four members, including the former directors of the US Central Intelligence Agency and the anti-terrorist branch of the Scotland Yard, issued an official report on Wednesday about the latest developments that had taken place within the Irish Republican Army paramilitary organization, stressing upon the fact that the world famous group has completely shut down all of its recruiting, bomb-making and weapons smuggling departments' activities, which in turn, could mark new hopes for the cooperation between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
Specifically, the report declared that the IRA had actually stayed committed to last year's pledge to end all of its important branches' activities which had claimed many lives and disfigured even more for no less than 27 years. "It has disbanded military structures. And it has stood down volunteers (rank-and-file members)", part of the official statement read. The report added that the IRA no longer collects information and data regarding British law enforcement units or British soldiers.
The positive findings have been welcomed by officials from both sides, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair stating that the results "lay the basis for the final settlement of the conflict in Northern Ireland", while the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern highlighting that these "are of the utmost importance and significance".

On Thursday, it was reported that US spy satellites have reported a series of data which regard several suspected North Korean nuclear test sites that had been recording an unusually high amount of activity.
The data prompted US officials to speculate upon the fact that the Pyongyang administration may indeed be on the verge of carrying out a nuclear test that would involve the underground explosion of an atomic device.
"We have seen some activity in the area - personnel, vehicles, materials, things of that nature", one US diplomat highlighted, referring to the sites which have been monitored by the United States. However, the official added that the data revealed by the Pentagon report cannot be considered conclusive for the moment, thus more information on this matter being needed.
Nevertheless, the assessment is sure to trigger a massive wave of tension, not only in the US, but also in North Korea's closer neighbors, like China, Japan and South Korea, which have all expressed their condemnation of Pyongyang's announcement and urged North Korean officials to suspend all potential nuclear tests. China demanded North Korean President Kimg Jong Il and his staff to "keep calm and restrained on the nuclear test issue", while the US Assistant Secretary of State, Christopher Hill, highlighted last night that he had already requested North Korea to stop all nuclear tests: "We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea", he warned.

On the background of the intense diplomatic row sparked last week by the arrest of four Russian intelligence officers in Tbilisi, Georgia over espionage charges, and their debated release this week, to which one might add the endless count of accusations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Georgian counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili, the 3.2 million Georgian registered voters are expected to take part in Thursday's local municipal polls, to elect the 1,700 future members of municipal and regional administrative bodies, who will subsequently vote for the mayors and chiefs of the regional councils.
As expected, the closest and most fierce electoral battle concerns the capital city of Tbilisi itself, where the mayor is considered to be an extremely important official, given that Saakashivili used to act in such an office. This race is sustained by two candidates, Shalva Natelashvili, the leader of the opposition Labor Party and the ally of the President, Gigi Ugulava, the leader of the United National Movement. Both Labor and Conservative parties - that form the main stronghold of the opposition - are counting to win the electoral race based upon the fact that the Georgian population would promptly respond to the latest dramatic 20 percent price increases in meat, grains and sugar.
The only party who will not attend today's polls is the Justice Party, a pro-Russian organization, just like the Communist Party, given the fact that no less than twelve of its members have been detained on charges of high treason.

Iranian President's latest string of statements on Wednesday, related to the fact that no obstacle would come between his country and uranium enrichment activities, have been considered by many United Nations top diplomats as the last straw in almost two years of intermittent negotiations that have marked quite a little progress and lot of delays and defiant acts represented by Iran's repeated breaking of imposed deadlines.
During a series of interviews with the Associated Press on Tuesday, these diplomats, who have maintained their anonymity status given the sensitivity of the issue, highlighted that the final countdown for considering the much debated United Nations Security Council resolution, which would place extremely strict economic and technology-related sanctions upon the Islamic republic, has already started.
During a formal address to the European Parliament, the European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana stressed upon the idea that Iran has made "no commitment to suspend", although some "common ground" between the two parties has been found. However, "we have not agreed in what is the key point, which is the question of suspension of activities before the start of the negotiations". Solana also warned that the European Union cannot keep communication channels open "forever" and that it was up to the Tehran administration to "decide whether its time has come to an end".

During an elaborate ceremony held in Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul on Thursday, NATO military officials of the International Security Assistance Force took control over the 12,000 troops stationed in eastern provinces of the country from the US-led coalition forces, thus, expanding their authority in the entire state, given that it already commanded troops deployed in the northern, southern and western provinces, including Kabul.
"This is a momentous day that again signifies the absolutely unshakable commitment of NATO to Afghanistan, both militarily and politically", an important NATO civilian official in Afghanistan, Daan Everts, stated during a press conference that followed the ceremony. Afghani President Hamid Karzai also attended the transfer of authority ceremony and took the opportunity to thank his political and military allies for the continuous support they provided in the war against terrorism.
"There will be no loss of capability. Indeed, by bringing the residual U.S operation into the NATO one, it clearly strengthens the NATO one considerably", the commander of NATO's Afghan Force, General David Richards, highlighted during the news conference, stressing upon the idea that such authority take-over is going to provide an enormous strength and cohesion to the entire series of operations that the military organization is going to conduct in Afghanistan in the future.

Israeli government officials, led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, announced through an emailed statement that Defense Minister Amir Peretz would consider discussing the possibility of opening the Karni Gaza border crossing, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday, in an attempt to provide some sort of contribution to peace and humanitarian efforts in the Palestinian territories region.
According to a World Bank reported, dated September 3rd, the Karni crossing has only been opened for two days ever since its shutdown at the end of June, when the powerful Israeli military intervention in Gaza, began, following the abduction of Israeli tank gunner Cpl Gilad Shalit by three armed Palestinian factions. Thus, the movement of people and goods has been completely severed, which in turn contributed even more to the collapse of the Palestinian economy.
The reason invoked by the Israelis in closing Gaza borders with Egypt was because they might ultimately be used by Palestinian militants to smuggle weapons and people they had kidnapped. However it has been suggested to them that such an issue could be solved by allowing Gaza borders such as Karni open yet employing scanners and other types of technology in order to detect any potential dubious activity.

On Friday, it was reported that the United Nations Security Council issued an official statement, announcing that all its permanent members had agreed to draft a joint statement, in order to warn North Korea regarding the fact that it would face impending broad-ranging, yet unspecified sanctions, should it continue with its nuclear missile tests, Reuters informs.
The United Nations document, which was sent to all six countries involved in the decision-making process to operate potential changes before another round of discussions on Friday, demands North Korea to halt all nuclear tests and asks the Pyongyang administration to return to negotiations, which ultimately target to persuade the Asian country to withdraw from the nuclear weapons production system.
Although the United States stopped short of using its once fairly aggressive language against North Korea and its scheduled nuclear engagement, by stressing that it does not intend to threaten the country with "lethal" action, the Japanese UN Ambassador Kenzo Oshima highlighted that North Korea must become aware of the fact that its defiance of the international community would ultimately cost the Communist state very dearly.

Diplomats from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia issued a joint statement, in order to announce that senior officials representing these countries, would attend a very important meeting in London on Friday at 5 p.m. in order review the latest developments that occurred in Iran with regard to its nuclear program and the defiant responses the Tehran administration delivered, as far as the international community's pleas for the suspension of uranium enrichment were concerned.
According to the British Foreign Office and the French Foreign Ministry, among the high-level representatives that would attend the London meeting, there would be US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, French Foreign Minister Phillipe Douste-Blazy and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. In addition to this, the United States announced through State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey that the country would also be represented by Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.
Inside diplomatic sources highlighted the fact that the officials' main discussion agenda for today would probably consist of a formal broad agreement on the fact that the European-Iranian talks have come to a standstill and a statement through which the Iranian nuclear issue is to be referred back to the United Nations Security Council, probably next week, so that the body is able to draft a series of sanctions against the Islamic republic.

Hamas officials issued a formal statement, warning that they would demand their supporters both in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere to join and organize a series of massive rallies immediately after Friday prayers in support of the militant movement and against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his alleged attempt to undermine the authority of the government, by his decision to dissolve it.
The demonstrations would be conducted under the title of "No to the Conspiracies of Evils", Hamas representatives added, highlighting that they expect hundreds of thousands of supporters to flood the streets of the Palestinian territories just like they did upon being summoned on the last series of demonstrations in support of the organization.
The venue for the protests would be the Yarmouk soccer field in Gaza, where Hamas leaders would address their followers. "We will show Abbas the real power of Hamas. This will be a kind of a referendum in which the people will express their opinion about Abbas's attempts to topple the Hamas government, which came to power in free and democratic elections", one Hamas official stressed.

In yet another episode marking the diplomatic row saga between Georgia and Russia, following last week's arrest of four Russian intelligence officers over espionage charges and their subsequent release, the Moscow police issued an official statement on Friday, announcing that they have closed down a series of restaurants in the Russian capital, which were owned by Georgian citizens, RIA Novosti news agency informs.
The Moscow police based their decision to shut down the Tiflissky Dvorik and Genatsvale VIP restaurants in downtown Moscow on the fact that the authorities need to verify all the owners' documents in terms of finance, sanitary-epidemiology and paid taxes and see if they are legal and in order.
The police raid of Georgian-owned restaurants, casinos and cafes in Moscow had been announced both on Thursday, during an interview of police representatives by the Russian news agency, and even earlier in the week, when the Russian Interior Ministry chose to close down two casinos owned by Georgian nationals, the Kristal and the Golden Palace, while a third, the Golden Palace Weekend casino was shut down on Thursday, in what the Russian authorities labeled as tightened measures of cracking down alleged gambling performed by the Georgian mafia who owned all three of them.
According to the Moscow police spokesman, law enforcement officers are currently performing financial checks on the Bakkara casino as well, which faces potential shutdown too.

On Saturday, it was reported that Russian authorities decided on Friday to begin deporting Georgian citizens that it allegedly deemed of staying illegally in the country.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili denounced such a "xenophobic" decision, as he labeled it, and urged Western powers to do the same. In his opinion, the international community must be deeply concerned about the heightened escalation of the dispute between Georgian officials and their Russian counterparts.
In addition to deciding the deportation of at least 150 Georgian immigrants, Russian authorities requested schools to provide additional lists of children who have Georgian surnames, which may be an indication that the sudden wave of expulsions could significantly widen. The situation is all the more critical given the fact that hundreds of thousands of Georgians live in Russia.
From Saakashvili's point of view, the latest decision of the Russian officials went beyond what could be perceived as acceptable.

The current situation of the Palestinian territories, as well as its political and economic future, including the establishment of the national unity government, for which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been striving so much, seemed to be hopelessly lost for good during Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's speech in front of an impressive crowd of supporters, all taking part in a massive rally called upon to prove the strength of the organization that now leads the Palestinian government.
The Hamas leader dismissed the proposal made by members of his own cabinet, as well as Mahmoud Abbas, which consisted of the sacking of the entire government and the election of another, a technocratic one, or the acceptance of a political compromise, represented by early elections, in order to recognize Israel, and thus become legitimate in the eyes of the international community and end the economic collapse of the country, brought upon by seven months of lack of any internationally-provided funds or aid.
"There are new scenarios, such as an emergency government, a technocrat government, or early elections. They all aim at one thing, getting Hamas out of the government", Haniyeh stated. "We say we will be in every government, we will stay in the government. We will not recognize Israel", he shouted in front of the people-packed stadium in Gaza.

US officials confirmed that their Indian counterparts had begun sharing an impressive amount of evidence related to Pakistan's involvement in the tragic July 11th Bombay's eight near-simultaneous blasts in a series of commuter trains that killed hundreds of people and injured just as much.
The news was confirmed by the US Ambassador in India, David C. Mulford, who stressed upon the fact that the nailing evidence provided by India does indeed point to the fact that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency and Lashkar-e-Taiba terorist group were also involved in the blasts: "Yes, we have had discussion on this matter. That's all I can say at the moment because it is our policy not to go public on issues of counter-terrorism. I am being as straight forward as I can", Mulford stated during a press conference in New Delhi, when asked about whether or not Indian authorities provided evidence on this subject.
The diplomat added that India is on the verge of completing the evidence dossier, which indicates the fact that 11 Pakistani citizens have played an important role in the Bombay explosions, a piece of information which was also confirmed by the Bombay Police Commissioner A.N. Roy.