US Elections 2012 Opinion: A "Poisoned Kiss" for Europe in Obama's Victory

Barack Obama and Angela MerkelDespite euphoria for Obama and the sense of stability for Europe, the second Obama term brings more perils than prizes. There will be renewed disagreement between European leaders and the Democrats on how to deal with the Eurozone Crisis, while the American focus shifts further east.

This re-election is a poisoned kiss.

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US Military Feature: An Appeal to Germany --- Let Us Shoot Pigs For "Real-Life" Battlefield Training

German protesters demonstrate against proposed shooting and stabbing of pigs for US "battlefield training"

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And now the latest news on Pigs, Medical Practice, and the US Military...

The US company Deployment Medicine International (DMI), which has branches across Europe, wants changes in Germany's animal rights laws so it can conduct medical training with live pigs as subjects.

DMI is a contractor for the US military, training the majority of army medics in Operational Medicine courses. These include “live tissue training” which requires pigs --- selected for their closeness to human flesh --- to be deliberately wounded to recreate battlefield trauma on which the medics gain "real-life" experience.

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The Latest from Iran (29 October): The Economy, Propaganda, and the IMF

See also The Latest from Iran (28 October): "Our Prisons Are Full"

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1720 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalists Ali Akrami, Mehdi Afsharnik, Mohammad Heydari, and Mohsen Hakimi have been released on bail.

The reporters were detained during a regime crackdown last month on the Freedom Movement of Iran.

1715 GMT: Parliament v. President. The New York Times has now joined the flutter, started by a speech of the Supreme Leader last week, that Iran might replace an elected President with a Prime Minister chosen by Parliament.

Meanwhile, Aty News --- close to Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf --- quotes MP Mohammad Dehghan that there will be no more Presidential elections.

On another front, Khabar Online, linked to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, suggested that there may be a move this week towards interrogation of the President, as the number of MPs demanding the session is on the rise.

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Europe Watch: Hundreds of Thousands in Protests in Britain and Germany (Guardian and Deutsche Welle)

Photo: John Stillwell (PA)On Saturday, the biggest demonstration in London since the 2003 Iraq War denounced Governments cuts in funding and social services, while more than 200,000 took to the streets in German cities urging the Government to abandon nuclear power.

The Guardian reports on the London protest, while Deutsche Welle brings news from Germany:

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Belarus Updates: A Cancelled Press Conference and Possible Sanctions

2045 GMT: More searches and interrogations by the security services today: Anastasia Loiko of the human rights group Vyasna, Alexander Makayev of the Businessmen's Movement, human rights activist and journalist Vladimir Khilmanovich, and activists Andrei Presnyakov and Alexander Petkevich.

1725 GMT: Presidential candidate Vitaly Rymashevsky, who was released yesterday from detention but then cancelled a press conference to avoid re-arrest (see 0940 GMT), has given a cautious interview.

Rymashevsky said he had written President Lukashenko but it was not possible to reveal the contents of the letters. He added that his first priority was to secure the freedom of other detainees.

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Belarus Updates: OSCE Supervision Office Shut Down; Poland and Germany Make a Move

Belarussian authorities have shut down the local office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which was monitoring the Presidential election.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said, without referring to the election, that there were "no objective reasons for retaining" the OSCE's mission.

The OSCE had said that many counts in the balloting had been "very bad". The European Union had warned Belarus that billions in economic aid rested on a positive report by the OSCE on the vote. 

Meanwhile, the heads of the Polish and German Parlaiment's Foreign Affairs Committees have issued a joint declaration that the presidential elections in Belarus showed a “complete lack of respect for European values and standards".

The declaration appeals to other foreign ministers in the European Union to hold a meeting of the European Council to decide on a response.

The head of the Polish Foreign Affairs Committee, Andrzej Halicki, said  a meeting is planned with the head of the International Affairs Committee in the Russian Duma, Konstantin Kosachev.

Israel-Palestine Analysis: Washington Blocks the UN and the Palestinians

On Friday, the UN General Assembly voted to hold a summit for the 10th anniversary of the World Conference Against Racism, also known as the Durban Conference.

In 2001, the declaration from Durban singled out Israel for criticism, likening Zionism to racism and referring to "the plight of the Palestinians." In April 2009, there was a follow-up conference, but the US, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and Australia did not participate. The conference report had no language accusing Israel of racism and no reference to the recent Gaza War. 

Washington continues its opposition to any gathering. US Ambassador Susan Rice said Washington voted against Friday's resolution "because the Durban declaration process has included ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism, and we do not want to see that commemorated".

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WikiLeaks War-on-Terror Special: How the US Pressured Germany To Drop the Khaled al-Masri "Rendition" Case

At the end of 2003 Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen,was abducted in Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan, and interrogated and allegedly tortured by the CIA for several months. He was released in May 2004 after high-level officials concluded he had been detained in error, probably because of the similarity of his name to that of an al-Qa'eda operative. 

In February 2007, amidst growing pressure for legal action against those responsible for the abduction and abuse of el-Masri, the Deputy Chief of the US Mission approached Germany's Deputy National Security Advisor: "Our intention was not to threaten Germany, but rather to urge that the German Government weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the U.S."

Yesterday, almost four years after that meeting, a German court rejected el-Masri's lawsuit seeking to force the German government to prosecute the American operatives involved in his kidnap and interrogation.

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The Latest from Iran (29 November): Politics and Assassination

2045 GMT: Picture of Day. Cleric Ahmad-Reza Ahmedpour, released (see 1905 GMT) after eight months in prison.

1940 GMT: Today's Assassination. In his press conference,President Ahmadinejad said, "Undoubtedly the hand of the Zionist regime and Western governments is involved" in this morning's assassination (see 0730 and 1010 GMT) of one Iranian nuclear scientist and wounding of another.

Dr Majid Shahriari was killed and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi and his wife were wounded in separate car bombings in Tehran.

Mohammad Reza Rahimi, the 1st Vice-President, also blamed Israel, saying it had "picked up the weapon of terror". Speaking at a joint conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Rahimi added, "We will remove this mask and devilish cover from their face and reveal their identity."

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Turkey in the Axis of Radicalism? An Alternative View of Europe (Dedeoglu)

If cooperation between France and the UK compels Germany to reinforce ties with Russia, then we will witness a real axis shift within the EU. If that happens, the debates on Turkey will also change as the “non à la Turquie” front collapses. The EU member countries may start competing with each other through Turkey, and some countries may stop refusing Turkey’s accession and while others increase their level of opposition.

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