Peak of Erudition

While the US President Barack Obama says he is “deeply troubled” by violence in Iran following last week’s disputed presidential elections, he studiously avoided making any comments on the vote fraud issue.

Obama called on Iran’s leaders to respect free speech and the democratic process, and said he would continue pursuing tough dialogue with Iran. His comments came after hundreds of thousands defied a government ban and attended an opposition rally in Tehran.

“I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability for folks to peacefully dissent, all those are universal values and need to be respected.”

For the first time ever, european union has recognized the hezbollah movement as official. Though it is seen as a terrorist outfit by the US, a senior EU official has for the first time held talks with a politician from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana met Hezbollah official Hussein Hajj Hassan at the Lebanese parliament building in Beirut. Mr Hajj Hassan is one of Hezbollah’s 11 members of parliament, following recent elections which were won by a rival Western-backed alliance.

The EU has previously rejected public contacts with Hezbollah, which also controls Lebanon’s most powerful military force.

A suicide bomb attack on a luxury hotel in the north-west Pakistani city of Peshawar, has killed 11 people and injured at least 52. Reports say gunmen stormed the outer security barrier at the Pearl Continental Hotel before blowing up a vehicle in the car park.

One foreign citizen – a UN employee – was killed and several were injured. A series of bombs have hit cities including Peshawar since a government crackdown on Taliban militants.

These suicide attacks are becoming everyday affairs in Pakistan these days. This very clearly demonstrates the inability of the current government to rein in the Taliban elements and how the Taliban would not stop at anything to get what they want.

The Sweden’s Pirate Party has won a seat in the European Parliament. The group – which campaigned on reformation of copyright and patent law – secured 7.1% of the Swedish vote. The result puts the Pirate Party in fifth place, behind the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the Moderate Party.

Rickard Falkvinge, the party leader, told the BBC the win was “gigantic” and that they were now negotiating with four different EU Parliamentary groups. “Last night, we gained political credibility,” said Mr Falkvinge. “People were not taken in by the establishment and we got political trust from the citizens.”

The profile of the Pirate Party and issues surrounding copyright law have dominated headlines in Sweden over the past few months. In April, a court in Sweden sentenced the four men behind The Pirate Bay, the world’s most high-profile file-sharing website, to a year in jail and ordered them to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages. Mr Falkvinge said it had played a significant role in getting them the vote.

The problem is that most people just don’t see illegal file-sharing as a crime, however hard the media industries try to persuade the public that it’s just as bad as shoplifting

A former US official and his wife have been charged with spying for the Cuban government over a 30-year period.Washington DC residents Walter Myers, 72, and Gwendolyn Myers, 71, are accused of acting as illegal agents for Cuba and wire fraud. The couple could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. The arrest follows a sting operation by the FBI, in which an agent posing as a Cuban spy persuaded the couple to give him information about their activities.

The only surprising thing about this whole development is that this is coming to light at a time when US is trying to include Cuba in the main stream!!

The Foreign ministers of the Organization of American States have voted to lift Cuba’s suspension, which would pave the way for it to rejoin the group. To recap a bit of the history, Cuba was suspended from the 34-member OAS in 1962 over its “incompatible” adherence to Marxism-Leninism. The US secretary of state, who left Honduras before the vote, had urged democratic reforms as a condition. The move came hours after former president Fidel Castro again said Cuba had no interest in rejoining the OAS.

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Fander Falconi, said the decision was made “without conditions” but that it set mechanisms for Cuba’s return including its agreement to comply with OAS conventions on human rights and other issues.

The Tiananmen protests’ 20th anniversary is coming up. Thursday 4 June is the 20th anniversary of the crackdown, when troops quelled weeks of protest by students and workers. And, promptly, China has blocked several websites ahead of the anniversary. China has never released a death toll from the suppression on what it says was a counter-revolutionary conspiracy. Hundreds are believed to have died in and around the square. Meanwhile veteran dissident Wu Gaoxing, who was jailed for his part in the 1989 pro-democracy movement, was held at the weekend, a fellow activist said.

China has banned discussion of the events in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989. Chinese internet users were unable to connect to the social networking service Twitter, their Hotmail accounts and the photo-sharing service Flickr.

China’s military rule is quelling the freedom of speech and whatever other freedom that we have always taken for granted.

Can we ban the chinese goods and wage a war on china economically?

When they met last summer in Ramallah, on the West Bank, Barack Obama promised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he would be an active partner for peace, if he made it into the White House.

A year later, President Obama is sitting in the Oval Office, keeping his promise to tackle the Middle East conflict from the start of his term, but he is probably wondering whether Mr Abbas is the partner he was hoping for.

When the two men sit down for talks, Mr Obama will find the leader of a divided people, with limited legitimacy, with political authority over only part of the Palestinian territories and with a presidential term that some consider to have already expired in January.

With Hamas still in control of Gaza, many are wondering whether there is any point in starting peace talks with Mr Abbas if there are no guarantees he can bring all the Palestinians on board.

But Washington does not talk to Hamas (which it lists as a terrorist organisation) and if the Obama administration wants to start any process, Mr Abbas is the only Palestinian interlocutor available.

With some effort, it might start a dynamic that could have an impact on internal Palestinian politics.

Pakistan’s government has blamed Taliban fighters for a bomb attack in Lahore which killed 23 people and left hundreds more injured.

A group of men shot at police officers before detonating a powerful car bomb, damaging buildings belonging to the police and intelligence agency the ISI. Rescuers are searching the rubble and warn that the death toll could rise. Officials said the Taliban carried out the attack in revenge for a military offensive against them in Swat valley.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters: “Enemies of Pakistan who want to destabilise the country are coming here after their defeat in Swat. “There is a war, and this is a war for our survival.”

A group calling itself Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab claimed responsibility for the bombing in a Turkish-language statement posted on jihadist websites, the SITE monitoring group said.

Pope Benedict XVI has said the suffering of Holocaust victims must never be denied. He was visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. “May the names of these victims never perish. May their suffering never be denied, belittled or forgotten,” he said in the midst of survivors. He also voiced support for the Palestinians’ right to a homeland.

Pope’s condemnation of anti semitism of any form must have made the israeli hosts very happy.