WASHINGTON, June 15 (UPI) -- Insider notes from United Press International for June 15:
Syria is planning on erasing a clause from its national convention that forbids recognition of Israel. The convention, which explicitly forbids recognition, negotiations and peace with Israel, dates from the 1970s and is reflective of Arab policy towards Israel. The convention will be reportedly will be changed to call instead for the implementation of U.N. and Security Council resolutions to achieve an equitable settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Syrian Vice Presidents Abd el Halim Khaddam reportedly will shortly resign his post. The 72-year-old Khaddam worked with President Hafez Assad for many years and helped President Bashar Assad in the initial phase of his presidency. The national convention articulates the policy of the Progressive National Front. The Progressive National Front, led by the ruling Ba'ath Party, incorporates eight Syrian political parties. In another reference to changing global political realities, the new convention will also reference the collapse of the Soviet Union, removing references to the socialist bloc of nations. Many attribute the slow ideological compromise with Israel as largely due to American pressure.
The FBI will open a permanent office in Bulgaria later in 2004. The U.S. Secret Service will also expand its number of personnel in the capital, Sofia. A regional legal attaché in Athens, Greece, currently oversees FBI programs and investigations in Bulgaria. The new FBI office is intended to increase existing programs and strengthen FBI cooperation with Bulgarian officials battling trans-border crime, trafficking and terrorism. The new FBI legal attaché will be based in the new U.S. Embassy complex in Sofia's Lozenets district when it opens later in 2004. The FBI office, like all U.S. law enforcement agencies currently working in Bulgaria, will coordinate its activities with local law enforcement agencies and will not conduct independent operations. The U.S. Secret Service will also increase its presence in Bulgaria when the new U.S. Embassy opens. A U.S. Secret Service agent has already been assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Sofia and will be joined by additional staff and resources later in the summer.
While Muslims and Jews agree on very little, both groups abhor pork as coming from an animal labeled by scripture as unclean. On June 14 the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on a petition brought by secular politicians and a pork distribution company; the court unanimously struck down bylaws in Israeli municipalities that prohibited the sale of porcine products. Even worse, the Supreme Court ordered local authorities to make a "re-evaluation" regarding selling "the other white meat" in keeping with the wishes of their residents. Secularized Jews from the former Soviet Union were less stringent about keeping kosher, and secular Israelis during travel abroad sometimes acquired a taste for pork products. The Old Testament book of Leviticus is the source for the prohibition. The only ray of sunshine for the Orthodox in yesterday's ruling is that in neighborhoods where the majority of residents find pork sales offensive, its sale can be banned. Where most residents want the product available, it must be legal to sell it. In a truly Solomonic judgment, the Supreme Court ruled in areas with a mix of religious and secular residents, pork could be banned only if there is a "near and accessible" place selling it.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whose political appropriations of white farmland for distribution to supporters has turned the once prosperous nation into a basket case, is too busy to see U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for humanitarian needs in southern Africa. James Morris, executive director of the U.N.'s World Food Program, canceled his visit on June 15 after being told that neither Mugabe nor any of his top officials was available to see him because of "prior commitments." United Nations crop forecasts estimate Zimbabwe will produce only half its food needs this year, but Mugabe insists the nation no longer needs emergency food aid. Morris altered his schedule to visit Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Namibia on a seven-day regional tour. Morris's intention is to assess the needs of countries affected by the "triple threat of food insecurity, weakened capacity for governance and AIDS." The expropriation of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to Mugabe's supporters, combined with sporadic rains, has caused agricultural output to plummet. At the height of the 2003 droughts, the WFP was feeding nearly 6 million people, nearly half the population. WFP still feeds about 650,000 a month.
