June 7, 2006

World Media Watch

edited by Gloria R. Lalumia

BuzzFlash Note: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JUNE 7, 2006

1//The Independent, UK--‘CAMERON EFFECT’ GIVES TORIES SEVEN-POINT LEAD (David Cameron's rejuvenated Conservative Party has opened a seven-point lead over Labour, according to The Independent's latest "poll of polls". … The figures will deepen the gloom among Labour MPs as they contemplate how long Tony Blair should carry on as Prime Minister. They suggest that the "Cameron effect" has revived the Tories' fortunes because the party has swapped places with Labour in the polls since he took over as leader in December. In the previous month, Labour had a six-point advantage. "It looks as though we may have entered a new political era," said John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, who compiled the weighted average of the polls conducted by ICM, MORI, Populus and YouGov.)

2//The Telegraph, UK--RUSSIA: ‘ERA OF CHEAP FUEL IS OVER’ (Russia has served a double warning over the price of oil and intervention to block attempts by its energy firms to move into EU markets. Viktor Khristenko, Russian's energy minister and guardian of 5pc of the world's oil reserves, declared that motorists and business would have to learn to live with expensive fuel because "the era of cheap hydrocarbons is over". He also made it clear that any intervention by EU states if Russian firms sought to buy their European rivals would be regarded as unfriendly. He was speaking shortly after the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, indicated that any bid by Gazprom, the Russian gas giant, for Centrica, the British Gas parent, would be treated as a political rather than commercial move.)

3//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--NO CLAMPDOWN YET, SAY WOMEN ACTIVISTS (Some women's rights advocates in Iran say they have not seen the rollback of rights they expected since the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president last August. They do not, however, predict radical change for the better during his presidency. … Indeed, instead of rolling back women's rights, it appears Ahmadinejad has been trying to show he wants to relax some restrictions on them. For example, after news reports surfaced this spring that the police of greater Tehran would be cracking down on women who don't observe what the Islamic Republic considers proper Islamic clothing, Ahmadinejad said he saw no need to put more pressure on women. … Some women's rights activists think Ahmadinejad's moves were politically motivated and that he wanted to garner women's support at a time when Iran is facing increasing international pressure over its disputed nuclear programme. And they add that even if his government would want to reduce women's rights in the future, it would have a tough time because women these days are more aware of their abilities and expect more rights. In recent years, women have become more active in society and in the workplace. They now make up around 65 percent of students entering university. Women also serve in the parliament and local government.)

4//WatchingAmerica.com, US/Al-Seyassah, Kuwait--AYATOLLAH KHOMENI’S GRANDSON CALLS ON BUSH TO ‘OCCUPY’ IRAN (Ayatollah Hossein Khomeini, grandson of Ruhollah Al Khomeini, the founder of the Iranian Republic, has said that his country is living under a religious dictatorship, governed by the mullahs. He also defended his call for President Bush to invade Iran! During an interview with the news Web site alarabiya.net, Hossein Khomeini called for the liberation of Iran from religious rule and Al-Fakih [rule by the most learned of Islam] and said that the revolution, which was led by his grandfather against the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979, had devoured its children. … About his call for U.S President George W. Bush to occupy Iran, Hossein Khomeini clarified: "freedom should be promoted in Iran in any way possible, and it is irrelevant whether this freedom comes as the result of domestic or foreign developments. If I were imprisoned, what does it matter? It is in my interests that someone come and break me out of that prison.")

5//Gulf Times, Qatar--OPPONENT SAYS ‘PEOPLE POWER’ CAN OUST ASSAD (Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president and a founder of the opposition National Salvation Front [NSF], is counting on civil disobedience to peacefully topple the government in Damascus. In an interview in London during a two-day meeting of the NSF, Khaddam said that grassroots opposition could topple President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as have “people power” movements elsewhere in the world. “In Syria, the people have had enough,” Khaddam said. … The NSF’s role is to channel such discontent into “civil disobedience and thus overthrow the regime peacefully,” said the leading member of the NSF, which also includes the Muslim Brotherhood. “We are not calling for violence. ... We do not want the regime to be overthrown in a military coup, because we believe that coup d’etats have created many problems in Syria and other Arab countries,” Khaddam said.)

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1//The Independent, UK Published: 07 June 2006

‘CAMERON EFFECT’ GIVES TORIES SEVEN-POINT LEAD
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor

David Cameron's rejuvenated Conservative Party has opened a seven-point lead over Labour, according to The Independent's latest "poll of polls".

As the Tory leader completed six months in his post, the analysis of the opinion surveys taken in May put his party on 39 per cent (up four points on April), Labour 32 per cent (down one point) and the Liberal Democrats on 19 (down two points).

The figures will deepen the gloom among Labour MPs as they contemplate how long Tony Blair should carry on as Prime Minister. They suggest that the "Cameron effect" has revived the Tories' fortunes because the party has swapped places with Labour in the polls since he took over as leader in December. In the previous month, Labour had a six-point advantage.

"It looks as though we may have entered a new political era," said John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, who compiled the weighted average of the polls conducted by ICM, MORI, Populus and YouGov.

All eight surveys taken since Labour's "Black Wednesday" in April have put the Tories three or more points ahead of Labour. It is the first time since the Conservatives' own "Black Wednesday" in 1992 that there has been such a long run of polls showing them ahead of Labour. The previous longest run was at the time of the 2000 fuel crisis.

Professor Curtice said: "While individual polls have sometimes put the Conservatives ahead in recent years, this is the first time that all the pollsters have agreed that the Tories are in the lead."
If a general election were held now, on a uniform swing the "poll of polls" would give the Tories 295 seats, Labour 276, the Liberal Democrats 43 and others 32. That would leave Labour short of an overall majority even if it could secure the support of the Liberal Democrats.

(SNIP)

Professor Curtice said: "The challenge for the Conservatives now will be to maintain their lead through June and into the summer, once the bloom of the local elections has passed. If they do, then Labour's 14-year-long dominance of the electoral scene will clearly finally be over."

Yesterday Mr Cameron made a further invasion into Labour's natural territory of public services, when he urged his own party to abandon "knee-jerk" hostility to the public sector and admit that private companies did not have a monopoly on good service.

(MORE)

2//The Telegraph, UK (Filed: 06/06/2006)

RUSSIA: ‘ERA OF CHEAP FUEL IS OVER’
By Christopher Hope in Amsterdam

Russia has served a double warning over the price of oil and intervention to block attempts by its energy firms to move into EU markets.

Viktor Khristenko, Russian's energy minister and guardian of 5pc of the world's oil reserves, declared that motorists and business would have to learn to live with expensive fuel because "the era of cheap hydrocarbons is over". He also made it clear that any intervention by EU states if Russian firms sought to buy their European rivals would be regarded as unfriendly.

He was speaking shortly after the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, indicated that any bid by Gazprom, the Russian gas giant, for Centrica, the British Gas parent, would be treated as a political rather than commercial move.

Russia with its huge oil and gas reserves has been one of the main beneficiaries of soaring oil price and shares the industry consensus that there is little prospect of relief. Mr Khristenko said: "Forecasting is a thankless task in hydrocarbons, but one can say with certainty that the era of cheap hydrocarbons is over."

Mr Khristenko, appointed energy minister by President Putin in 2004, said EU governments should stand back from the merger and acquisition activity in the energy sector which is sweeping Europe.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph yesterday, he said: "The less political issues there are in this area, the easier and calmer it will be for suppliers and consumers and businesses." In today's global market, a firm's nationality was increasingly irrelevant, he said.

"We have global companies - it can be hard to pinpoint where a company comes from. BP is considered a British company and in America it is an American company. There is nothing contradictory in that because its assets are spread all over the world." Russia was intent on "the expansion of our own participation in others' assets".

He understood the nervousness about Russia's increasing influence - by 2030 nearly two thirds of the EU's gas needs will come from Russia. "If dependency on Russia is not good then one needs to move out of this dependency," he said. "So it is legitimate to encourage Russian participation in other markets like China, Japan and the USA."

(MORE)

3//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy June 6, 2006
[BuzzFlash Note: Story possibly deleted: link not good Wednesday morning]

NO CLAMPDOWN YET, SAY WOMEN ACTIVISTS
Majid Darinoush

TEHRAN, Jun 6 (IPS) - Some women's rights advocates in Iran say they have not seen the rollback of rights they expected since the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president last August. They do not, however, predict radical change for the better during his presidency.

"It's better to say the changes for the worse that we thought might happen have not yet happened," said Shadi Sadr, a lawyer, human rights activist and member of the Women's Centre, a non-governmental organisation in Iran. "It appears that the most important issue that has arisen since Ahmadinejad came to office is that he wants to return women to the home and family, while the policy of [the previous, Reformist president] Mohammad Khatami was to increase the power and participation of women."

(SNIP)

Indeed, instead of rolling back women's rights, it appears Ahmadinejad has been trying to show he wants to relax some restrictions on them.

For example, after news reports surfaced this spring that the police of greater Tehran would be cracking down on women who don't observe what the Islamic Republic considers proper Islamic clothing, Ahmadinejad said he saw no need to put more pressure on women.

He later called for women to be allowed to watch men's soccer games in stadiums. Since Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979, usually the only women who have been able to attend men's soccer matches are foreigners and certain women athletes, government employees and journalists.

Four grand ayatollahs objected to Ahmadinejad's decision, but he backed down only when the Supreme Leader advised him to reverse it. Even then, the president defended his proposal in a way that made him sound more like a Reformist.

"Unfortunately, whenever there is talk of social corruption, fingers are pointed at women," he said. "Shouldn't men be blamed for the problems, too?"

Some women's rights activists think Ahmadinejad's moves were politically motivated and that he wanted to garner women's support at a time when Iran is facing increasing international pressure over its disputed nuclear programme.

And they add that even if his government would want to reduce women's rights in the future, it would have a tough time because women these days are more aware of their abilities and expect more rights.

In recent years, women have become more active in society and in the workplace. They now make up around 65 percent of students entering university. Women also serve in the parliament and local government.

But women's rights activists like Faride Gheirat say Iranian women still have fewer rights than men in the Islamic Republic. She points out that women have not been able to run for president or to serve as judges.

Women also cannot have full guardianship over their children after divorce, and they get half as much inheritance as men.

"Women's presence in society has become a lot higher since the Revolution [of 1979]," said Gheirat, a lawyer and member of the board of directors of the Iranian Bar Association. "In my own field, women won more votes than men in the most recent election for the Iranian Bar Association."

But, she added, "The laws about women have not progressed at all since the Revolution, and actually their development has been very slow and unacceptable. There has been very little change in the family law. In courts, the right of divorce still rests mostly with the men, but we are trying to help women before marriage to write in their marriage contracts that they have the right to divorce under certain conditions."

"And women still can't go out of the country without their husband's permission."

Iranian women activists like Gheirat believe in the compatibility of Islam and human rights. They say that legal reform, supported by an enlightened approach to Islam, can help solve Iran's problems.

But critics of this approach say the whole legal superstructure should be recreated instead of "working within the system".

(SNIP)

Other women, like Roya Mohseni, say women's status in Iran's society has greatly improved since Iran's Islamic Revolution.

The 34-year-old is a manager in a factory in Qom, a holy city about 80 miles (128 km) southeast of Tehran.

"Before the revolution, women's image in society was very low -- they looked at a woman as an object whose body was to be used," said Mohseni, who wears a black, head-to-toe chador. "Look at satellite television now. See how they use women to advertise a TV or a fridge? Look at the pornography channels."

"Unfortunately in the United States and Europe, they talk about democracy and improving women's positions," she said. "But you can see it's not like that. I'm not saying everything is great for women in Iran now, but it's much better than before."

4//WatchingAmerica.com, US June 2, 2006

Original article from Kuwait's Arabic-language Al-Seyassah
http://www.alseyassah.com/alseyassah/june02_06.asp

AYATOLLAH KHOMENI’S GRANDSON CALLS ON BUSH TO ‘OCCUPY’ IRAN
Translated By Nicolas Dagher

Ayatollah Hossein Khomeini, grandson of Ruhollah Al Khomeini, the founder of the Iranian Republic, has said that his country is living under a religious dictatorship, governed by the mullahs. He also defended his call for President Bush to invade Iran!

During an interview with the news Web site alarabiya.net, Hossein Khomeini called for the liberation of Iran from religious rule and Al-Fakih [rule by the most learned of Islam] and said that the revolution, which was led by his grandfather against the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979, had devoured its children.

[Editor's Note: Al-Faqih is the doctrine of The Guardianship of the Jurists, which means that those most knowledgeable about Islamic law should assume a leading political role in society.].

This was a rare interview with Hossein Khomeini, who has avoided the media since touring Iran three years ago and annoying the Iranian government with some of his comments. Khomeini said that he knows that his contacts and movements are under surveillance.

In view of the heated confrontation between his country and the international community over the nuclear issue, Khomeini said that Iran, "would be powerful if freedom and a democratic society were being developed there, rather than weapons and the bomb."

Khomeini also said that he opposes the Al-Fakih rule and would never accept the authority of a ruler under Al-Fakih. He added that if he came to power, the first law that he would implement would make wearing of hijab [headscarf] a personal decision for women.

He said, "by forcing women to wear the strictest, black-colored hajibs, instead of allowing those of different colors, the religious authorities in Iran are unduly restricting women. Even though I personally support the wearing of some form of hijab, when female students come out of schools and colleges covered in black, it just makes your heart sick. The hijab issue is a personal matter. If a woman wants it she can wear it, and if she refuses it, she doesn't have to. My grandfather Khomeini had lots of relatives that didn't wear the hijab."

Hossein Khomeini observed that, "my grandfather's revolution devoured its sons and lost its way." He said that when the revolution took place it did not intend to install the Fakih rule, but that all this changed because of the religious thinking that was predominant in religious societies and schools.

(SNIP)

About his call for U.S President George W. Bush to occupy Iran, Hossein Khomeini clarified: "freedom should be promoted in Iran in any way possible, and it is irrelevant whether this freedom comes as the result of domestic or foreign developments. If I were imprisoned, what does it matter? It is in my interests that someone come and break me out of that prison."

In regard to his meeting with the son of the deposed Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, Khomeini said it was an ordinary meeting between two people who share the suffering over a singular problem, which is tyranny, even though each of us comes at it from a different angle."

5//Gulf Times, Qatar Published: Tuesday, 6 June, 2006, 11:46 AM Doha Time

OPPONENT SAYS ‘PEOPLE POWER’ CAN OUST ASSAD

LONDON (AFP) -- Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president and a founder of the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF), is counting on civil disobedience to peacefully topple the government in Damascus.

In an interview in London during a two-day meeting of the NSF, Khaddam said that grassroots opposition could topple President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as have “people power” movements elsewhere in the world.

“In Syria, the people have had enough,” Khaddam said.

“They are suffering from injustice, poverty, hunger, and the country’s serious economic problems. There are millions of unemployed, there are hundreds of thousands of university and school graduates who can’t find work related to their diplomas,” Khaddam said.

The regime is afraid of the people’s growing discontent, which is why it is using the security forces to arrest people, including writers and other intellectuals,” the 73-year-old former vice president said.

Khaddam said the “rumble of disenchantment” against Assad could “turn rapidly into a popular movement which leads to (his) fall.”

The NSF’s role is to channel such discontent into “civil disobedience and thus overthrow the regime peacefully,” said the leading member of the NSF, which also includes the Muslim Brotherhood.

“We are not calling for violence. ... We do not want the regime to be overthrown in a military coup, because we believe that coup d’etats have created many problems in Syria and other Arab countries,” Khaddam said.

He said the meeting in London aims to work out a plan of action for establishing a democratic government in Syria.

The NSF, he added, seeks to establish links with the various opposition movements that exist inside Syria in order to co-ordinate a movement for change.

(MORE)