The World
Time for Tea, but No Sympathy
They talked and sipped tea in the office of Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. Despite a 27-year estrangement, the United States and Iran last week sent diplomats to discuss the Iraqi security mess. But there was no sign that U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, made headway on U.S. complaints about Iranian weapons and other aid for anti-American fighters-or on Iran's call for a U.S. withdrawal.
Kazemi said he extended an Iranian offer to help train and equip Iraq's Army and police, something that Washington seems unlikely to eagerly embrace. And the diplomatic background music was discordant: Four Iranian-Americans have been jailed in recent weeks, including a respected scholar accused of spying, and Iranian leaders continue to balk at U.N. demands that Iran freeze operations at its uranium enrichment plant that could fuel nuclear weapons.
The meeting was being widely talked about in the streets and cafes of the Iranian capital. And major newspapers there portrayed the session as a positive sign and a victory for Iran.
Seeking Justice for a Slain Politician
Lebanon's pro-western government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora didn't gloat when the U.N. Security Council last week authorized an international criminal tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Still, the council's action could be seen as a hard slap at the Hezbollah-led opposition in the Lebanese parliament, which has bitterly blocked formation of a Lebanese tribunal because prosecutions are likely to target Syria's intelligence services that are key Hezbollah allies. The Bush administration-which sponsored the U.N. action along with Britain and France-has pushed for the tribunal to build pressure on Syria to cut support for radicals in Lebanon and Iraq, as well as to bring justice after the assassination of a key reformist politician.
Putting further strain on Lebanon's stability, Army forces launched a new assault against Fatah al-Islam militants barricaded among civilians in a Palestinian refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli.
Sanctions for Sudan Over Darfur
President Bush ordered economic sanctions against 30 Sudanese companies and individuals and threatened additional United Nations actions to pressure Sudan to end the bloodshed in its Darfur region. "I promise this to the people of Darfur," the president said last week, "the United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world." The Save Darfur Coalition called the action positive but insufficient. "Because the international community and the Bush administration have been barking at the Sudanese regime for so long, it is reassuring to see that at least the U.S. has finally started to bite," says the coalition's executive director, David Rubenstein.
Meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency rushed aid to some 1,500 Darfur women and children who survived a 125-mile journey on foot and donkey to safety in the neighboring Central African Republic after their town was attacked by the Janjaweed militia and by planes and helicopters.
When Is a Christian a Christian?
In a much anticipated test of religious freedom in multiethnic Malaysia, the country's top civil court rejected by a vote of 2 to 1 a woman's appeal to have her government identity card changed to show that she converted from Islam to Christianity. "She cannot simply at her own whims enter or leave her religion," said Judge Ahmad Fairuz. "She must follow the rules."
Judge Richard Malanjum, the only non-Muslim on the panel, dissented. He asserted that the ruling was "unreasonable" for telling the woman, Lina Joy, to go instead to the Islamic sharia courts, where she could face criminal prosecution for apostasy. The sharia courts handle personal and family cases involving Malay Muslims, about 60 percent of the nation's population, while civil courts serve minority populations of Chinese, Indians, and others. The Constitution is unclear which has authority when their jurisdiction is in dispute.
Europeans Loosen Their Belts a Bit
Italians are famous for their embrace of la dolce vita, the sweet life. Too sweet, it turns out, and too fatty. More than half of adults in the European Union now are obese or overweight because of bad diets and lack of exercise, according to EU Health Commissioner Karkos Kyprianou. What about the famed Mediterranean diet- based on consumption of fruits, veggies, and healthy olive oil-in countries like Italy and Greece? "Now," says Kyprianou, "the biggest problem of obesity is the southern member states [where people] have abandoned the Mediterranean diet and go for the same kind of nutrition of fast food as elsewhere."
With Aamir Latif in Lebanon, Mitchell Prothero and Associated Press
This story appears in the June 11, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.