Former US President Bill Clinton was welcomed to Pristina on Sunday (November 1st) by thousands of people waving banners with the slogan “Kosovo honours a hero!”

Clinton, who is celebrated in Kosovo for the role he played in stopping the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic more than ten years ago, asked the Kosovo people to continue building tolerance and working for the integration of minority groups, reports the SE Times.

“What we have to decide is something simple: are we going to focus our hearts and minds in the past or in the future,” Clinton said.

“What you have done in the last ten years is to build something good,” Clinton said. “The power of your example remains the same. You should be very proud of what you have achieved,” he said, noting the recent consolidation of the democratic institutions, the free press, civil society and political parties working together.

Clinton also reiterated US backing for the former Serb province. “President [Barack] Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are with you today and will be with you in the future, as you build a better future tomorrow.”

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said the United States is involved in the abduction of several Iranian nationals in Europe and the Middle East, reports Press TV.

“The US should be accountable as it is directly and indirectly responsible for causing problems for Shahram Amiri, Alireza Asgari and Ardebili,” Mottaki said on Wednesday.

Amiri was kidnapped in Saudi Arabia, Asgari went missing in Turkey and Ardebili was abducted in Georgia, the foreign minister said.

Amiri, a researcher at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University, went missing after he traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah Hajj (a shortened version of the major hajj pilgrimage) in June.

Mottaki further referred to the illegal detention of Iranian diplomats in Iraq by the US for a lengthy period of time.

“The United States has a very bad and indefensible record in its relations with Iran,” the Iranian foreign minister added.

In January 2007, US troops stormed the Iranian consulate in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil, seizing the consulate’s computers, documents and staff, including five diplomats.

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Business magnate Mo Ibrahim, founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, has announced that the Foundation will not be awarding prize money to any former African leaders for good governance this year, reports All Africa.

The annual Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership awards the recipient with U.S.$5 million dollars to be paid out over 10 years and thereafter U.S.$200,000 a year for life.

The Prize Committee said in a statement that there were “some credible candidates” but they “could not select a winner”. Ibrahim, said that the prize committee is independent of the Board.

“It is the Prize Committee’s decision not to award a prize this year and we entirely respect it,” said Ibrahim. “We made clear at the launch of the Foundation that there may be years when there is no winner.”

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Nearly four months after the disappearance of an Iranian Umrah pilgrim in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh still refuses to take an official stance on the issue.

In June, Shahram Amiri, a researcher at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University, went missing on the third day of his trip to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah Hajj.

According to his wife, the missing pilgrim has not contacted his family except for a few phone calls he made at the beginning of his trip.

Despite Iran’s call on the Saudi government to provide a ‘clear’ response, Riyadh is yet to officially adopt a stance on the issue.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said in September that ‘according to consulate conventions, Saudi Arabia is responsible for the fate of the Iranian pilgrim.’

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said the US is also accountable for the disappearance of the pilgrim.

“We have found documents that prove US interference in the disappearance of the Iranian pilgrim Shahram Amiri in Saudi Arabia,” Mottaki told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey D. Feltman denied any US involvement in the disappearance of the Iranian pilgrim.

Media reports concerning the disappearance of the researcher  cite Amiri’s cooperation with Iran’s nuclear work as the reason behind the disappearance.

Read more here.

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US troops boarded a German-owned freighter in early October and found eight containers full of ammunition, allegedly headed to Syria from Iran. The shipment is in violation of a UN weapons embargo and has become a source of chagrin in Berlin.

An “embarrassing affair,” is how one German diplomat described it. The official could also have added: potentially damaging to trans-Atlantic relations.

In an operation reported on by Der Spiegel over the weekend, US soldiers entered the freighter Hansa India in the Gulf of Suez at the beginning of October and discovered seven containers full of 7.62 millimeter ammunition suitable for Kalashnikov rifles. An eighth container was full of cartridges suitable for the manufacture of additional rounds. The incident is particularly awkward for Berlin as the Hansa India is registered to the Hamburg-based shipping company Leonhardt & Blumberg.
Investigators suspect that the arms were part of an Iranian shipment bound for either the Syrian army or for Hezbollah, the militant Islamist group. US officials have pointed out that the delivery is in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747, which prohibits arms shipments either into or out of Iran.

According to Leonhardt & Blumberg, the 243-meter-long (297-foot-long) ship has for years been under charter to the state-owned shipping company Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. Two US warships halted the Hansa India after receiving a tip-off from intelligence services.

Following an intervention by the German government, the US allowed the ship to continue on to its destination in Malta, where the containers were secured.

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of an Iranian scientist, said to be involved in Tehran’s nuclear programme, has deepened with speculation that he may have defected to the US.

Washington has denied any involvement, with reports on Thursday quoting Ian Kelly, the US state department spokesman, as saying the US had no information on Shahram Amiri.

“We saw that wire story, and we looked into it. We just basically don’t have any information on this individual,” he said.

Amiri, who is said to be a researcher at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University, disappeared after he went on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June.

Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s foreign minister, on Wednesday accused the US of involvement in Amiri’s disappearance.

“We have found documents that prove US interference in the disappearance of the Iranian pilgrim Shahram Amiri in Saudi Arabia,” he told reporters, according to the website of state Press TV.

Meir Javedanfar, an Iran analyst based in Tel Aviv, said the most likely scenario was that Amiri had defected.

Read more here.

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Pakistan’s powerful military rejected U.S. attempts to link billions of dollars in foreign aid to increased monitoring of its anti-terror efforts, complicating American attempts to strike al-Qaida and Taliban fighters on the Afghan border, says The Associated Press.

Although the U.S.-backed government of President Asif Ali Zardari has the final say on whether to accept the money, the unusual public criticism threatens to force its hand and undermine military cooperation with the Americans just as the Pakistani army prepares for what could be its most important offensive against extremists since the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign began exactly eight years ago.

The army’s objections mainly related to the clauses about the country’s nuclear programme, suggestions of Pakistan’s support for cross-border militancy and civilian government’s role in military promotions and appointments.

Although it was nearly impossible to find out what really transpired at the closed-door meeting of the corps commanders, or who said what during the debate on the US aid bill, the statement issued by the Inter-services Public Relations (ISPR) captured to some extent the essence of what might have been discussed by the high command. But even before a formal reaction from the military, a number of opposition politicians and some analysts had started targeting the aid package. A number of critics, e.g. Chaudhry Shujaat, describe it as a ‘sell-out’. A few others from the main opposition PML-N, e.g. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said the conditions amounted to a compromise on national sovereignty.

Sources told Dawn that during a late-night meeting at the Aiwan-i-Sadr, President Zardari once again told the participants, including Prime Minister Gilani, that the bill was a ‘pro-democracy aid package’ which needed to be defended in parliament and at other public forums.

It was not clear to what extent the government would be willing to go to defend the bill, or whether a compromise would be reached through parliament to defuse the situation. But until then, many seasoned analysts believe that tension will continue to mount between the civilian government and the military leadership on ways of tackling the controversial issue.

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Terming as “inaccurate” reports that Barack Obama has postponed his talks with the Dalai Lama, the White House has said the US President holds the Tibetan leader in great esteem and insisted that a meeting was never on the cards during the Nobel laureate’s current trip here, says Tibetan web portal Phayul.com.

It also said that a strong Sino-US relationship will help the cause of the Tibetan people.

“Tibetan people know that our strong relationship with China helps them,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, as the mainstream US media tried to corner him on the issue of Obama postponing his meeting with the Dalai.

It has been a tradition since 1991 that the Tibetan spiritual leader meets the US President, whenever he visits Washington. This is for the first time since then that the US President is not meeting the Dalai during his Washington trip.

The US media has interpreted this as a change in the American policy towards Tibet and accused the Obama Administration of trying to appease the Chinese Government.

China Daily, in fact, confirms that the Chinese government will flex its diplomatic muscles towards any country that accepts the Tibetan spiritual leader in an official visit.

“We firmly oppose any country having official contact with him,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu yesterday.

A Chinese analyst yesterday played down any significance of Obama’s decision, saying it was only “postponement”, not “refusal”, to meet the Dalai Lama.

It would have a “very negative” effect on Obama’s China visit scheduled for November if he met the Dalai Lama now, said Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at the Renmin University of China.

However, Jin said such a meeting would not affect the general development of Sino-US ties.

“China will certainly complain (when Obama and the Dalai Lama meet), but the two countries will continue with their cooperation in other areas,” he said.

While Daily Babel’s intrepid Sports contributor Federico Farcomeni dug into the specifics of Rio’s successful 2016 Olympic bid, on the US side of the globe, Chicagoans have been left to lick their wounds, swallow their pride and listen to the media’s endless hypothesizing on why and how the IOC so blatantly rejected (how dare they!) the Chicago bid. Is it anti-US sentiment? After all, the US has only held the Olympic games 8 times while South America has never hosted the competition. One media analyst on MSNBC complained that Madrid was still in the running despite Barcelona having hosted the 1992 games. What a gross injustice! Obviously, the fact that the US hosted the 1996 games in Atlanta went completely ignored.

But now a new argument for Chicago’s rejection has entered the debate. From Boing Boing is the following:

Chicago may have lost its Olympic bid due to the insane fingerprints-and-photos regime at the US border: the Chicago bid team was questioned by an IOC member who called the US border “a rather harrowing experience.” I’ve actually found the O’Hare border procedure pretty painless, but God help the foreigner who lands in Texas. At DFW, I was told by a border guard that I wasn’t allowed to listen to headphones in the (two-hour-long) line; at Houston, we once stood in line for three hours just to change planes between Honduras and the UK.

Boing Boing is looking to a NY Times blog piece citing airport security issues as a reason for the Chicago bid’s failure.

Among the toughest questions posed to the Chicago bid team this week in Copenhagen was one that raised the issue of what kind of welcome foreigners would get from airport officials when they arrived in this country to attend the Games. Syed Shahid Ali, an I.O.C. member from Pakistan, in the question-and-answer session following Chicago’s official presentation, pointed out that entering the United States can be “a rather harrowing experience.”

But really, could this be a reason? Weren’t the last Olympic Games held in China, a country with a dubious human rights record and equally difficult visa policies (many visitors were denied entry visas due to their associations with human rights organizations and pro-Tibet movements)?

At the end of the day, the Olympics is about global unity and sharing. The Rio bid was the most intriguing because it will bring one of the world’s most important sporting events to a country of growing international political and economic importance, of proven athletic success (albeit in soccer), and with a fascinating and diverse culture. And the fact that they have never hosted the Olympics doesn’t hurt either.

Sending the Olympics to Rio is an acknowledgment that the world also has a Southern Hemisphere and that that hemisphere counts…

And after all, the Copacabana beach is an added plus. So let’s stop our whining and pack our bikinis.

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