Morning Brief, Monday, December 3
Venezuelan Referendum RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP/Getty Images Venezuelan voters narrowly rejected Hugo Chávez’s bid to become president for life, handing the Venezuelan leader his first major electoral defeat. (Now may be a good time to revisit the idea that Chávez “has virtually eliminated the contradiction between autocracy and political competitiveness.”) Asia A judge deemed former PM Nawaz ...
Venezuelan Referendum
Venezuelan Referendum
Venezuelan voters narrowly rejected Hugo Chávez’s bid to become president for life, handing the Venezuelan leader his first major electoral defeat. (Now may be a good time to revisit the idea that Chávez “has virtually eliminated the contradiction between autocracy and political competitiveness.”)
Asia
A judge deemed former PM Nawaz Sharif ineligible to run for the Pakistani presidency.
Eighty percent of “major cyber attacks on government targets” this year were perpetrated by hackers in China, according to a new report by Internet security firm McAfee.
A popular democracy advocate has won a seat in Hong Kong’s legislature.
Europe
As expected, President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party dominated Sunday’s Russian parliamentary elections, but European monitors said it was “not a fair election.”
Belgium’s political stalemate deepens.
A giant white truffle sold for $330,000 at an auction.
Middle East
China signaled its support for fresh U.N. sanctions on Iran after Iran’s new nuclear negotiator told EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana bluntly, “None of your proposals has any standing.”
Israel released 429 Palestinian prisoners in an effort to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But Israeli President Ehud Olmert’s announcement that 2008 is not a hard and fast deadline for concluding a peace agreement probably undercuts that move.
Lebanon’s factions have appeared to have settled on the head of the army as a compromise candidate for president.
A British judiciary body has declared that the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, which seeks the overthrow of the regime in Tehran, is not a terrorist organization.
Elsewhere
The first thing Australia’s new PM Kevin Rudd did upon assuming office? Ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
President Omar Bashir of Sudan pardoned a British teacher who was jailed for naming a teddy bear “Mohammed” at the behest of her students.
Cuban President Fidel Castro may be looking to return to power, if his nomination for the National Assembly is any indication.
Today’s Agenda
- International climate talks have begun in Bali and will continue through Dec. 14. Negotiators hope that countries can agree on a “road map” toward getting “Kyoto II” approved by 2009.
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hobnobbing with Gulf leaders at the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Qatar.
- U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is inspecting Task Force Horn of Africa in Djibouti.
- French President Nicolas Sarkozy is visiting Algeria.
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