EU's Incoming Chief Wants to Help U.S.--New World Media Watch

[Gloria]

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

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR AUGUST 23, 2004

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--IRANIAN ATOMIC POWER PLANT FACES MORE DELAYS (Iran on Sunday announced a further substantial delay in the long overdue project to complete its first nuclear power plant, part of a programme which Washington says could be used to make atomic arms. But the delay to the Bushehr reactor in southwestern Iran, now due to come onstream in October 2006, will do little to allay international concerns about Iran's atomic ambitions which focus more on its uranium enrichment efforts… While fuel for the first Bushehr reactor will be provided by Russia under a 10-year supply agreement, it is Iran's plans to produce its own nuclear fuel though sophisticated uranium enrichment plants that has proven most controversial.)



2//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--PM WAS TOLD WAR WOULD SPUR TERRORISM(The Federal Government was warned repeatedly by intelligence analysts before the Iraq war that the conflict would harm the war on terrorism by fanning Islamic extremism and spurring terrorist recruiting. An investigation by the Herald, which has included interviews with several serving and retired intelligence figures, has uncovered that John Howard and his senior colleagues were briefed on the dangers, verbally and in written reports. Yet the Prime Minister told Australians on the eve of the conflict that the war would lessen the terrorist threat, contradicting his intelligence advice. The revelation raises serious questions about the inquiry into the intelligence services commissioned by the Government and conducted by Philip Flood. The inquiry never mentioned the warnings about an increased terrorist threat.)



3//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--IRAQ: DEPRESSION SPREADS TO THE MARKET (Seventeen months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, many Iraqi traders say the economy is stagnating…Traders and merchants blame primarily the worsening security situation for the economic slowdown…Another major factor for the booming economy earlier was that the U.S. forces and administration bought a lot of goods locally. The transitional government of appointed prime minister Iyad Allawi has not produced that kind of shopping spree. The government has said instead that it will reinforce taxes and customs duties on many goods. That would make them even less affordable.)

4//The Daily Times, Pakistan--EU’S INCOMING CHIEF WANTS TO HELP US (“Some people in Europe may think that it is good that things are going badly for the US” in Iraq, European Commission President-designate Jose Manuel Barroso said in an interview with five European newspapers published on Friday. “I really think that is an irrational and a bad policy.”As Portugal’s prime minister, Barroso supported the US-led invasion, hosting a pre-war summit with the leaders of the United States, Britain and Spain in the Azores Islands. The country has about 120 police officers stationed near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq.)

5//The Daily Yomiuri, Japan--DEBATE OVER ARMS EXPORTS INTENSIFYING (The debate over the country's self-imposed rules on arms exports is expected to intensify because of the need to develop technology jointly with the United States to build a missile defense system to counter the threat presented by North Korea's ballistic missiles…When the research phase of the missile defense system advances to the production stage, Japan will have to export components to the United States. The existing rules prohibit such shipments…Government officials and members of the ruling parties want the missile defense system exempted from the rules because, they claim, the system comprises defensive equipment, not offensive weapons that the rules prohibit from being exported.)