US Envoy Ends Big Chill with Lathan/SMH--New World Media Watch

[Gloria]

Up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JULY 14, 2004

1//The Jordan Times, Jordan--NEW UN ENVOY TO IRAQ SKILFUL NEGOTIATOR (Seasoned Pakistani diplomat Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, named as the UN's most senior officer in Iraq, is a skilful negotiator and good communicator who could handle any crisis, a colleague said Tuesday. Qazi replaces Sergio Vieira de Mello as the world body's special envoy. De Mello was among 22 people killed in a bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad last year…Muslim Pakistan, though a key ally in the US war against terror, did not support the US-led invasion of Iraq. Islamabad has said it may contribute troops to a stabilisation force. Khan, however, said Qazi's appointment and Pakistan's Iraq policy were “not interlinked.” “The issue of sending troops to Iraq would depend on the situation in Iraq and if the people of Iraq consider it comfortable for them,” he said.)


2//The Daily Star, Lebanon--ARABIC BBC CHANNEL REGARDED WITH SKEPTICISM IN MIDDLE EAST (The BBC announced last month that it intends to set up an Arabic television station backed by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) with a $50 million a year budget. This has been met with skepticism in the Middle East, coming so soon after the US-led war on Iraq, and hot on the heels of a US-government backed Arabic channel…Opening a channel in a region suspicious of British motivations after military involvement in Iraq is made more difficult by the last February's start up of Al-Hurra - "The Free One" - by the US State Department. Al-Hurra has not been well-received in the region, generally considered a form of US soft propaganda. The feeling in the Middle East, according to Jihad Ballout, a spokesman for the Qatar-based pan-Arab satellite Al-Jazeera, is that the BBC would be seen as complementing Al-Hurra.)



3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--US ENVOY ENDS BIG CHILL WITH LATHAM (A substantial and positive shift in relations between the ALP and the US is under way, after the American ambassador yesterday offered rare praise for the Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, and said policy differences between the two had narrowed. The rapprochement follows two months of condemnation and complaint from Washington about Labor's stand on Iraq and Mr Latham's criticism of President George Bush as the most dangerous and incompetent US leader in living memory…he US ambassador, Tom Schieffer, said he welcomed Kim Beazley's promotion to Labor's defence spokesman and Mr Latham's speech on Monday in which he outlined a policy of humanitarian and non-combat help for Iraq…Mr Schieffer, a former business partner of Mr Bush, said Mr Beazley was a man of "great substance".)



4//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--JAPANESE DELIVER VERDICT ON KOIZUMI’S TROOP DECISION (Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's humiliating blow in Sunday's House of Councillors election could have a fallout effect on his controversial decision to keep troops in Iraq, say analysts. ''The election results reflected people's anger. Koizumi had too easily followed the United States in drawing up policies on Iraq's reconstruction,'' Toshihiro Shimizu, the secretary-general of the Japan International Volunteer Center told IPS…Last month, Koizumi said Japanese troops would join a United Nations-led multinational force in Iraq as long as their role is limited to humanitarian missions. He made the commitment at the end of the annual two-day gathering of leaders from the Group of Eight countries in the U.S. state of Georgia. But on Sunday, the Japanese people delivered their verdict against Koizumi's decision.)



5//The Independent, UK--BLAIR ACCUSED OF CRONYISM OVER PUBLIC POSTS(Tony Blair was accused yesterday of presiding over a "culture of cronyism" after reports that ministers have defied the rules on public appointments. Dame Rennie Fritchie, the Commissioner for Public Appointments, revealed that four ministries have refused to obey the rules on appointments to public posts, drawn up to avoid the jobs being awarded to political allies of ministers…The commissioner, who revealed the problems in her annual report, said she "had been under pressure for some months" to drop her objections.)