China missiles of two faces
Most eyes are on China's expected space launch, but they are also casting a nervous glance at Taiwan which wants to develop long-range missiles.
In Washington and Taipei, fingernails are being nibbled as officials await Beijing's reaction to the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense's proposed development of a long-distance missile capable of destroying targets deep inside China.
The plan was tucked in the small print of the ministry's planning document for the five-year period to 2009, presented to Taiwan's legislature last week.
This will come as little secret to Beijing, which has kept a close eye on missile developments at Taiwan's Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology. Taiwan's Hsiung Feng-II anti-ship missile has already been modified and developed into a functional cruise missile, and has already reached ranges of 700 miles in flight tests. This would be more than enough to attack Chinese missile sites that were trying to impose a blockade on Taiwanese ports, as China's 1996 'missile tests' threatened to do.
But knowing what Taiwan is developing, and seeing the proposals spelled out in a formal report to the Taiwanese parliament are - to Beijing eyes - two very different things. The Bush administration in Washington, needing Chinese support on North Korea, does not relish the prospect of a new confrontation across the Taiwan Straits.
Palestinian militants back new peace plan
Israeli leaders may not like the new peace plan called the Geneva Accord but there are signs militant Palestinians may be signing on.
The Geneva Accord is that informal peace plan agreed over the weekend by Israeli opposition leaders and mid-ranking Palestinians.
It may have been slammed hard by Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and his predecessor Ehud Barak, but there are some impressive Palestinian names lining up behind it, They are among the younger generation of militants-turned-politicians who have emerged from the al-Aqsa Intifada.
Two new members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Kadura Fares and Muhammed Hurani, turned up for the talks in Jordan, with the backing of Fatah and the Tanzim militia and also of Marwan Barghouti, still in an Israeli prison. These young hard-liners' support for the Geneva plan is the first hopeful sign that they can countenance any settlement at all.
The accords are to be formally signed next Month in Switzerland and Belgium is pressing the EU, as a sponsor of the Road Map to Middle East Peace, to attend. Jordan, Egypt, Norway, Japan and Canada will send delegates. Britain may, depending on what Washington says.
One possible downside for the White House is that ex-President (and Nobel peace prize laureate) Jimmy Carter has agreed to fly to Geneva for the signing.
Still, the Americans are well-informed about the whole Geneva Accord process. The U.S. deputy consul in Jerusalem, Jeff Fletman, "just happened" to be taking a brief weekend vacation with his family at the Movenpick Hotel on the shores of Dead Sea where Israel's former justice minister Yossi Beilin and the PA's information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo signed the Accord.
Euro lawmakers query Berlusconi holdings
The European Parliament is questioning whether the media empire of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi violates the treaty that founded the EU.
The last foray by German Socialist members provoked the former cruise ship crooner to suggest that one of the Germans should audition for a role as a concentration camp guard -- which led to a nasty Italo-German spat. This time the Parliament has drafted a report suggesting that Berlusconi's virtual monopoly over the Italian media is in breach of Article 7 of the EU founding treaties, which say freedom of access to the media is a fundamental right.
The European Commission is trying to find a way to duck it by saying that the legal procedures under Article 7 are unclear -- but commission President Romano Prodi is Berlusconi's most bitter foe, and his likely rival in the next Italian elections.
