BLAIR HINTS AT 1ST PRESIDENT OF EU

All options on the table in facing Iran: Israel's Deputy PM Sat Nov 10, 6:09 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli deputy prime minister said on Saturday after a US visit that all options are on the table to halt Iran's nuclear drive , which Israel considers a threat to its existence. The strategy for now is one of sanctions, of a united front of nations in that context, and the strategy of declaring without any doubt that all options are on the table, Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told public radio.Israel and the United States accuse Iran of pursuing atomic weapons under the guise of a peaceful nuclear energy programme, charges Tehran has repeatedly denied.I think like others that the option of using military force is the last resort, Mofaz said.But it's clear that the opportunity for a negotiated solution is diminishing if by the diplomatic path we should not succeed to stop the advancement of the Iranian nuclear programme, he added.Israel and the United States agreed to appoint two working committees to hone a joint strategy against Iran's nuclear ambitions, public radio reported on Friday, following the talks which Mofaz held in Washington this week.
Israel -- the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power -- has been pressing the UN Security Council for tougher sanctions ahead of a new and widely anticipated report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

GLOBAL INSECURITY
Gunmen storm high-security nuclear facility
Worker shot as 4 armed men gain access to sealed control room
November 9, 2007 - 9:50 p.m. Eastern

Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center

An early morning attack by four gunmen who stormed and reached the emergency-response control room of a secured nuclear facility in South Africa has left one of the plant's operational officers hospitalized and officials with the country's nuclear agency threatening a newspaper with charges of violating national security laws for publishing an account of the intrusion. The attack at the Pelindaba nuclear facility took place early Thursday morning, reported the Pretoria News. According to Anton Gerber, an emergency services operational officer working for the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa, he was in the control room with his fiancée Ria Meiring, who is also the control room supervisor, when he heard a loud bang and saw the men coming into the facility's eastern block. Gerber pushed Meiring beneath a desk for safety and attempted to stop the intruders from entering the electronically sealed control room. Two forced their way through the door and ran straight for the control panel. I did not know what they were going to do. I just kept on hitting them even when one of them attacked me with a screwdriver, Gerber said from his hospital bed. I knew that if I stopped they would attack Ria or do something to the panel. I could not let anything like that happen.

Investigators at the Pelindaba plant believe the attackers gained access to the building by using a ladder belonging to the facility's fire department to scale a wall, then forced open a window by pulling out several louvers. The facility is meant to be safe. There are security guards, electric fences and security control points. These things are not meant to happen, Gerber said.
During the struggle, Gerber was shot in the chest by one of the attackers, the bullet narrowly missing his heart and spine but hitting his lung and breaking a rib. A NESCA spokeswoman confirmed the attack but would not say how the intruders gained entry to one of the country's most secure sites or whether anything was taken in the attack. NESCA, she said, was conducting its own internal investigation and would publicize its findings after police finished their work. Prior to publication, Pretoria News was contacted by a man identifying himself as a legal adviser to NESCA who warned the paper would be violating South Africa's National Keypoints Act and said the agency might obtain a court order to prevent publication. A police spokesman told Pretoria News there had been no arrests in the attack. Reports make no mention of terrorism as a possible motive. A case of armed robbery and attempted murder are being investigated, the spokesman said. The attack came a day after authorities arrested two men in connection with the murder of the general manager of NESCA during a carjacking earlier this year.

Abbas vows to continue path for statehood By Wafa Amr
NOV 10,07

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday inaugurated a mausoleum built over Yasser Arafat's grave and vowed to continue on his iconic predecessor's path in seeking statehood. Abbas said he hoped Arafat's wish to be buried in Jerusalem could still be fulfilled, along with Palestinians' dream of making the disputed city the capital of their future state.We will continue on the path to set up the independent Palestinian state with (Jerusalem) as its capital, God willing, Abbas said at an unveiling ceremony in the occupied West Bank.Arafat, founder of the secular Fatah movement in the 1960s, spearheaded the Arab fight against Israel before signing an interim peace deal in 1993. That agreement broke down in botched talks over a final accord, leading to a 2000 Palestinian revolt.

The Palestinian Authority under Abbas, having broken with Hamas Islamists who seized control of the Gaza Strip in June, has sought rapprochement with Israel. Abbas expects to discuss Palestinian statehood at an upcoming U.S.-hosted conference.Ahead of the talks in Annapolis, Maryland, Palestinian forces have deployed in Nablus, a tinderbox West Bank city seen as the proving ground for a vow by Abbas to curb militants. On Saturday, police reported a significant arms haul in Nablus.The police and other security forces have seized dozens of suspicious objects and home-made explosive devices ... we found more than 100 devices and suspect objects hidden in various places and we have detonated many of them, Ahmad Sharqawi, the chief of Palestinian police in Nablus, told Reuters.Israel, which is trying to bolster Abbas against Hamas rivals who seized the Gaza Strip in June, approved the Nablus deployment. If it is successful, Palestinian forces could assume control in other West Bank towns, Israeli officials say.

PINING FOR ARAFAT

Though Arafat failed to deliver them a state in territory occupied by Israel in a 1967 Middle East war, many Palestinians miss the charisma, cunning and street clout with which he cobbled together a national consensus among rival factions.Arafat died in a French hospital on November 11, 2004 after being shunned by Israel and the United States as an obstacle to peace. Abbas enjoys broad foreign support yet his domestic mandate is in doubt given the rift with Hamas and Israel's West Bank grip.Yasser Arafat has departed, but he left you, President Abbas, with a heavy burden and a difficult legacy, Mohammed Ishtayeh, a former Palestinian cabinet minister who supervised the construction of the mausoleum, told Abbas in a speech.The new structure, built of marble and Jerusalem stone adorned with Koranic verses, features a mosque and a minaret as well as an ornamental pool. The Palestinians also plan to open an Arafat memorial museum in the nearby government headquarters.Israel seized control of West Bank cities, handed to the Palestinian Authority under the 1993 interim Oslo peace deal, after the outbreak of the uprising and had barred Palestinian security forces from operating in them until recently.Israel also launches frequent raids against Palestinian militants in Nablus and controls entry to the city through checkpoints, which it says are needed to stop suicide bombers.In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian ambulance workers said they recovered the bodies of two teenagers who were shot dead on Friday by Israeli troops close to the border fence in the northern part of the territory.An Israeli army spokesman said the two men had been spotted crawling towards the fence and were shot by troops.(Additional reporting by Atef Saad in Nablus and Haitham Tamimi in Hebron; Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Palestinian Authority accepts US mechanism to implement road map Posted : Sat, 10 Nov 2007 08:50:03 GMT DPA

Ramallah - The Palestinian Authority (PA) has accepted a US mechanism to implement the road map peace plan and the first phase is supposed to start immediately, chief negotiator Ahmed Qurei said on Saturday. The so-called Mideast Quartet - the US, the EU, the UN and Russia - was supposed to follow up the applying of the plan since it was finalized in 2003 but Israel refused to stick to its obligations. We have accepted the American offer which stipulates that the US administration be the judge, Qurei told Ramallah-based al-Ayyam daily. It would be the first time the US has taken this role. According to Qurei, a three-way Palestinian, Israeli and US committee is being formed to be responsible for supporting the plan's implementation. In exchange for statehood, the road map plan requires the PA to make constitutional reforms and abandon violence. Israel is also required to stop settlement activities in the West Bank. Reports say that acting Palestinian Premier Salam Fayyad, who was appointed after the Islamic Hamas movement took over the Gaza Strip in June, would represent the PA at the trilateral committee while Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak would represent Israel.

US President George W Bush has called for an international peace conference as part of efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It is expected late this month in Annapolis, Maryland. Qurei described the current talks with Israel as serious but hard, focusing on all issues, mainly a timetabled mechanism for the negotiations that will follow the Annapolis meetings.

US, EU to reduce trade barriers
Associated Press Saturday, November 10, 2007 (Washington):

The United States and the European Union said on Friday that they had made progress in reducing regulatory barriers to trade.Among other issues, financial regulators on both sides of the Atlantic were nearing an agreement for mutual recognition of accounting standards. The move would remove requirements for companies operating in both markets to produce two sets of accounting records.The progress was made in talks of the Transatlantic Economic Council launched by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President George W. Bush in April. EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen and Allan Hubbard, chief of the White House National Economic Council, who chair the forum for the EU and US to discuss strategic economic issues, said they were optimistic it would help significantly boost trans-Atlantic trade over time.

But Hubbard said that the United States remained frustrated by a poultry matter. We were able to accomplish just about everything we set out to accomplish in this first six months except for one item which has to do with the ability of American producers of chickens to export those chickens to Europe, he said. It is an extraordinary frustration to America.On biofuels, the two sides were more successful, reaching a preliminary agreement on compatibility of regulatory standards.Business people told us today that they believe that non-tarriff barriers cost businesses on both sides of the Atlantic three per cent of (the economies), Verheugen said.Annual EU-US trade totals ($909.3 billion) and accounts for 40 per cent of world trade. Two-way investments provide 14 million jobs, according to EU data.

Blair hints at top EU job
5:00AM Sunday November 11, 2007

Tony Blair

Tony Blair has hinted he might become president of the European Union. Following a speech at the National University of Singapore, Blair sleekly sidestepped questions about his interest in the job. In relation to [the] question about the presidency of the European Union we will move swiftly on, he joked. It's a pity, but that's the way it is. A shortage of time, you know! He then spoke for five minutes about the Middle East peace process and the challenges of global leadership.French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently suggested the job of EU president - a key element of the planned constitution - would be a smart move for Blair.Diplomatic and political convention means that no one has formally declared themselves for the EU presidency, a job which looks set to be in place for June 2009.But jockeying for position has begun. Candidates include former Polish President, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Irish leader Bertie Ahern and Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Blair arrived in Singapore on Friday from China, where he was accused of gold digging and money sucking by local media after charging NZ$654,000 for a single speech. It is thought he might have earned as much as NZ$2.7 million from several speeches during his Asia tour.But Singapore University dean Professor Kishore Mahbubani said Blair was not paid for his campus speech.In a country where protesting is illegal and the ruling party holds 97 per cent of the seats in Parliament, several people were impressed by Blair's openness. He actually answers questions, said one.