Global briefs

GUADALOUPE: Christian Celeste, General Secretary of the 
Communist Party of Guadaloupe, has sent the Cuban people a 
message of solidarity from his party in the face of US aggression 
and the consequences of the hurricanes that recently swept the 
island. "We condemn all the aggressions and particularly those of 
your most obdurate adversaries, US reactionaries, and are in 
solidarity with the people over the damage caused by natural 
phenomena like cyclones", says the message. "We ratify our active 
solidarity in any circumstances, because Cuba is an example that 
allows the people of our America and the world to sustain hope in 
the reaffirmation of their sovereignty and the search for 
alternative solutions to the exploitation of human beings and the 
natural wealth of the planet."

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UNITED NATIONS: Preceded by a special summit against 
hunger and poverty, the 59th session of the UN General Assembly 
opened last week with those two terrible scourges in its sights. 
A commission on the social dimension of globalisation concluded 
that this process has accentuated the gap between the rich and 
poor. Initiatives were set in motion by Brazilian President Luis 
Lula da Silva to fund the reduction of hunger and poverty on the 
planet. The agenda covers peace and security, combating 
terrorism, conflict prevention, AIDS, the external debt and 
discrimination in trade, among 35 listed points. US President 
Bush used his speech to try to justify the Iraq war. Opening the 
session, Secretary General Kofi Annan emphasised the rule of law 
in the international arena, violated by the invasion of Iraq in 
contravention of the UN Charter.

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IRAN: Iran has reiterated its right to produce uranium 
fuel for nuclear energy, seizing on a rift between nuclear-weapon 
nations that want to slow the spread of such technology and 
developing countries that see the technology as the entitlement 
of every signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. "This 
right is enshrined in the non-proliferation treaty and we will 
not give it up", Iran's President, Mohammad Khatami, told 
reporters in Tehran. He promised full cooperation with the non-
proliferation program if that right is internationally 
recognised. "There is clearly a double standard", said Hossein 
Mousavian, an official at Iran's Supreme National Security 
Council, pointing out that Iran was being unfairly penalised 
while Israel, which has nuclear weapons, had never signed the 
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty or accepted inspections.

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USA: The US military has dropped spy charges against a 
Syrian-American airman who worked as a translator at the 
detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the latest setback 
to the Bush administration's terror war. The government had 
alleged that a spy ring was at work at the base where about 600 
prisoners captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 
other terrorism suspects are being held. In a plea deal, the 
government dropped the spying charges after Senior Airman Ahmad 
al Halabi, 25, pleaded guilty to four lesser charges.