Current Event for Students

Thursday November 16, 2006

UN Secretary General Kofi Anan led a UN conference in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on the situation in Dafur Sudan. Anan was pressing to enlarge the peacekeeping forces trying to end the genocide in Dafur. The Sudanese government has been opposing the sending of UN troops, agreeing only to keeping the under funded and under equipped African force in Dafur. At the conference the Sudanese agreed reluctantly to add UN troops to the African troops. No dates or deadlines were agreed to.

Wednesday November 15, 2006

General John Abizaid the commander of US troops in Iraq testified in Congress today. In his testimony he stated he opposed the call of some democrats for a timetable for US withdrawal from Iraq. He also opposed the call by Senator John McCain for additional forces in Iraq. Abizaid stated that he believed the answer was to increase the number of trained Iraqis. That answered was received with frustration by many of the Senators present, most of who felt that more of the same was not an answer.

Tuesday November 14, 2006

President Ahmadinejad of Iran announced today that Iran would be fully nuclear by February. In the meantime the UN�s International Nuclear Regulatory Agency (the agency responsible for limiting the spread of nuclear weapons) announced that it could not be sure that Iran was planning to use nuclear technology only for peaceful purposes. It also announced that it had found unexplained plutonium and enriched uranium at a nuclear waste facility. All of this came one day after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Washington and discussed with President Bush the looming Iranian threat to Israel.

Monday November 13, 2006

President Bush met with the member of the Iraq Study group on Monday. The study group that had been mandated by Congress before the elections is examining what the US options are in Iraq. The group is headed by James �Baker who had been Secretary of State to President Bush father when he was in the White House. It is widely expected that the study group will recommend a change in US policy in Iraq.

Sunday November 12, 2006

I raq continued to dominate the news both on the ground there and in the United States. In Iraq Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Malki announced that he was going to undertake a major change in his cabinet. He claimed that he was forced to accept cabinet members who were not able to do a good job- due to political pressure. As the same time, bombs went off in Baghdad killing over 35 potential police recruits. In Washington all eyes are toward the new democratic majority in congress. The question on everyone�s minds, what impact would they have on US policy in Iraq.