James Sturcke and agencies
Monday November 26, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2217387,00.html Iraq's government is preparing to grant the US a long-term troop presence in the country and preferential treatment for American investors in return for guaranteed security, it emerged today.
Iraqi officials said that, under the proposed formula, Iraq would get full responsibility for internal security and American troops would relocate to bases outside cities. The proposals foresee a long-term presence of about 50,000 US troops, down from the current figure of more than160,000.

Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, the Bush administration's adviser on Iraq, confirmed the proposal, calling it "a set of principles from which to begin formal negotiations".

"Think of today's agreement as setting the agenda for the formal bilateral negotiations," said Lute.

Those negotiations will take place during the first half of next year. As part of the package, Iraqi authorities want an end to the UN-mandated multinational forces mission.

Preferential treatment for US investors could provide a huge windfall if Iraq can achieve enough stability to exploit its vast oil resources.

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: November 26, 2007
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/world/asia/26bangladesh.html?ref=world DHAKA, Bangladesh, Nov. 24 — The political storm that preceded nature's latest assault on this country still swirls overhead.

Nearly a year into an army-backed state of emergency, basic freedoms remain suspended, a sweeping anticorruption drive has stuffed the jails with some of Bangladesh's most influential business leaders and politicians, and a fragile economy is tottering under the pressure of floods at home and rising oil prices abroad.
The soaring cost of food is potentially the most explosive challenge facing the military-backed government that has run this country since Jan. 11, when, after debilitating political protests, scheduled elections were scrapped and emergency law was imposed. Climbing inflation was compounded by an unusually harsh monsoon, which destroyed food crops along the flood plains in July.

Then, the Nov. 15 cyclone destroyed acres of rice paddy, ruined the shrimp farms that dot the southern coast, and, according to the World Food Program, left roughly 2.3 million people in need of urgent food aid.

Storm relief is now the government's most pressing test, including averting famine and disease outbreaks, and ensuring that aid distribution is perceived to be fair and without corruption. The government estimates that six million people were affected by the storm.

The Monitor (Kampala)

25 November 2007
Posted to the web 25 November 2007

http://allafrica.com/stories/200711250001.html 

Grace Matsiko & Agencies
Kampala

COMMONWEALTH leaders said yesterday that climate change threatened the survival of small island members but failed to agree on any binding commitments to combat it.

A "Climate Action Plan", issued on the second day of the Commonwealth Summit in Kampala, contained only vague language on the way forward in the battle against global warming.

The organisation's secretary-general, Mr Don McKinnon, called the agreement "quite a leap forward" but it appeared to stop short of the major statement which many members, led by Britain, had wanted ahead of a world environment summit in Bali next month.

Host President Museveni was not happy with the statement's call for increased financial flows for adaptation.

"I am not for adaptation, to adapt like the beaver adapts to winter in Australia," President Museveni said at the news briefing with Mr McKninnon. "I think climate changes can be reversed."