U.S. Appeals to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote on Statehood
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and MARK LANDLER
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats.The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in the hopes of persuading the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly beginning Sept. 20.
The hunt for Gaddafi – and his victims – goes on
Samia Nakhoul and Mohammed Abbas in Tripoli and David Randall report on the search for the former dictator and for the disappeared
Sunday, 4 September 2011There are two desperate searches going on in Libya this weekend. One is the hunt for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the other for tens of thousands of his victims. Many of these victims will be dead, some may be wounded but alive; but their relatives won’t know which until they can trace them or their bodies. And so, across the country, at hospitals and burial grounds, relatives arrive to ask questions, show photographs, and hope for answers. Many will never be given them.
‘It Is Possible to Pull the Plug’
The Internet and Iran
SPIEGEL: Iran has announced its intention to completely cut itself off from the Internet. Is such a thing realistic?Howard: The government in Tehran has already shown itself to be capable of such a thing. Following the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009, the country was cut off for about 24 hours. But when a regime shuts down the Internet, it is usually also a last, desperate measure.
SPIEGEL: Even in 2009, the country wasn’t completely offline.
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