UN Secretary General in Libya to urge new leaders to get weapons stashes under control. Italy becomes the first EU country to resume commercial flights to post-Gadhafi Libya.
Syria's Assad must step down, US demands again.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has "indicated a readiness" to empower his deputy to manage a political transition to a new leadership for the country, and the killing continues.
Israel debates their response to UNESCO ascribing membership to Palestinians.
Turkey takes strong stand against Kurdish PKK. The US strongly supports.
Iran seeks to extend their influence into Tajikistan, but Russia remains dominant power.
Details after the break.
Libya
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has used a previously unannounced visit to Libya to urge the country's new leaders to secure weapons stockpiled by the former Gadhafi government.
Ban says he raised the issue Wednesday during a meeting in Tripoli with Libya's transitional leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil. The secretary-general says it is particularly important to secure stocks of shoulder-fired missiles and chemical and biological weapons.
Some of those arsenals were left unguarded during the chaotic outcome of the popular uprising this year that resulted in long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi's death last month. The U.N. Security Council warned in a resolution Monday of the risk that terrorists and other armed groups in the region could gain access to the former regime's weapons.
Ban, visiting Libya for the first time since the uprising began in March, told Jalil the U.N. will support the Libyan people in their transition to democracy. He offered U.N. help to Libya in preparing for its first free elections, in drafting a new constitution and in safeguarding human rights and improving public security.
From Tripoli, the U.N. chief goes to the French city of Cannes to attend a summit of the Group of 20 economic powers.
Libya's National Transitional Council on Monday appointed Abdurrahim el-Keib as its new interim prime minister. The American-educated engineering professor said he protecting human rights will be a priority for his interim government, expected to remain in power until elections next year.
Human-rights groups have expressed concern about the NTC's treatment of pro-Gadhafi fighters and African migrants during the eight-month uprising.
In another development, Italy on Wednesday became the first EU nation to resume commercial flights to post-Gadhafi Libya. An Alitalia plane left Rome for Tripoli carrying more than 100 people, mostly Libyan citizens.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini praised the resumption of flights as an "important signal" of the depth of Italy's involvement in Libya, a former Italian colony. Italy was one of several NATO member states that took part in an aerial bombing campaign in support of the anti-Gadhafi uprising.
Syria
The Obama Administration has again called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, despite an Arab League announcement that Syria agreed to a plan Wednesday to stop a violent crackdown on Syrian protesters.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Mr. Assad has lost his legitimacy to rule. But he added the U.S. supports all international efforts aimed at convincing the Syrian government to stop attacking its own citizens.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Libya that he supported the Arab League agreement. He urged Syria to comply with the plan as soon as possible.
The United Nations says the number of people killed in the seven-month-old uprising has surpassed 3,000. The Syrian government says terrorists have killed hundreds of security personnel during that period.
Yemen
A European Union diplomat says that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has "indicated a readiness" to empower his deputy to manage a political transition to a new leadership for the country.
The news comes as Yemeni medics and activists say fighting between government forces and opposition fighters in the country's third-largest city has killed at least nine people.
EU ambassador to Yemen Michele Cervone D'Urso said Wednesday he believes the government and opposition can finalize details of that transition as soon as Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi returns to the country from the United States on Thursday.
D'Urso says both sides "could be near to a deal" but need to demonstrate a political will to reach it. His comments to VOA came via e-mail amid reports in the Yemeni media of Saleh's intention to strike a transition deal.
President Saleh has faced nine months of peaceful protests and armed rebellion aimed at ending his 33-year autocratic rule. He has repeatedly refused to sign a U.N.-backed plan to hand power to a deputy within 30 days in return for immunity from prosecution. Instead, he has demanded international guarantees about a timetable for implementing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) proposal.
In the latest violence, activists say troops loyal to President Saleh fired tank and mortar shells at several neighborhoods in Taiz, which has a hub of the opposition uprising. Witnesses say several civilians were among those killed, while more than 40 people were wounded.
Yemen's state news agency Saba says government troops were responding to the seizure of buildings in Taiz by opposition fighters. It says the governor of Taiz later ordered all security forces to withdraw from the streets of the city as part of a cease-fire mediated by local officials.
The French news agency says Yemeni government troops also battled fighters loyal to an opposition tribal chief in the capital, Sana'a late Tuesday. It says three people were killed in the fighting.
Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with top advisers Tuesday to weigh a possible response to the U.N. cultural agency's decision to grant Palestinians full membership.
Officials said the discussion will include possible punitive measures against the Palestinians, who hailed the UNESCO vote as a historic moment.
UNESCO is the first U.N. agency the Palestinians have sought to join since President Mahmoud Abbas applied in September for full recognition of Palestinian statehood by the U.N. General Assembly.
Repercussions
The vote Monday to accept the Palestinians cost UNESCO nearly a quarter of its funding and drew criticism from U.S. and Israeli officials who said the move will hurt Middle East peace chances.
The U.S. State Department said Washington will not make a $60 million November payment to UNESCO because of a longstanding U.S. law that prohibits American support for any U.N.-affiliated body that accepts Palestinian membership.
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said after the vote she is concerned about the financial stability of the agency.
Washington is UNESCO's biggest funding source, supplying 22 percent of the agency's budget. The U.S. has reduced its involvement in the agency before, leaving in the 1980s under then-president Ronald Reagan and returning in 2003.
The White House called the UNESCO decision "premature," saying it undermines the international community's goal of a comprehensive Middle East peace plan.
Spokesman Jay Carney said the vote is a distraction from efforts to restarting direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, which the Obama administration says is the only way to achieve peace.
Reaction in Israel
Israel's Foreign Ministry described the move as a "unilateral Palestinian maneuver" that would further harm efforts to secure a peace agreement.
The ministry thanked countries that opposed the measure and said it was "disappointing" that the European Union could not reach a unified position to prevent the decision.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said the admission is "not an alternative, not a substitute for something else."
Palestinian officials say they will call on UNESCO to recognize key monuments in the occupied Palestinian territories as world heritage sites. These include the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built over the place where many Christians say Jesus is believed to have been born.
The Paris-based UNESCO voted to approve the Palestinian membership bid by a vote of 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions.
France voted for the motion, along with almost all Arab, African, Latin American and Asian nations, including China and India. Israel, the United States, Canada and Germany voted against it. Japan and Britain abstained. A two-thirds vote was required by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's 193 members.
Turkey
Turkey's recent military operations against the Kurdish rebel PKK - reportedly was one of the largest in the past decade - is the latest step in Ankara's battle against the terrorist group, which has bases in neighboring northern Iraq. Previous operations have proved to have limited effect, however, and Turkey is now considering its options in ending the violent insurgency.
Thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and helicopters spent a week tracking down rebels, who killed 24 soldiers and led a series of cross-border raids earlier this month. The PKK has been battling the Turkish state for greater minority rights and local autonomy since 1984.
Metehan Demir, who reports on defense issues for the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, said that like the previous 30 or so military operations since the 1990's, the latest military response will have limited results. He said Turkey is considering the idea of creating a buffer zone in Iraq to prevent future rebel incursions, but there are problems with this idea.
"Turkey has been thinking this solution for a long time, but it has not been that easy for Turkey [to] establish a buffer zone, because the Iraqi administration will not accept it, as well," said Demir. "If you look at today's condition, they don't even accept Turkey's current cross-border operation. Also, behind the scenes the U.S. will not allow Turkey to establish a buffer zone."
Controlling mountain passes on the Iraqi side of the border has long been seen as the only way of curtailing PKK insurgents entering Turkey from their bases in Iraq. Turkey has had a military presence in the Iraqi border region for more than a decade. But observers say that expanding that presence and establishing a buffer zone will meet with resistance from the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish administration, which controls the region.
Turkey's increasingly strong stance against the PKK rebel threat is backed by Washington. Former Turkish Brigadier General Haldun Solmazturk, a veteran of previous Iraqi incursions, said Ankara would only have attempted such an operation with tacit U.S. support.
"Now we understand there is a common understanding reached by both sides, Turks and Americans, on which such operations could be conducted," said Solmazturk.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the recent attacks by the PKK and expressed the United States' continued cooperation with Turkey to combat violent extremism.
Washington offered no criticism of Turkey's latest operations, despite increasing concern from Baghdad and the local Iraqi Kurdish leadership.
Iran
Iran is competing with Russia as it seeks to forge closer ties with Tajikistan, the one Persian-speaking nation of the former Soviet Central Asia.
The capitals of Iran and Tajikistan are 1,000 kilometers apart, but when their presidents meet, they don’t need interpreters.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke in Dushanbe, with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon. They lead the world’s two majority Persian-speaking nations.
Twenty years ago, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Iran was the first nation to recognize an independent Tajikistan. Iran’s red, white and green tricolor flag served as a model for Tajikistan’s flag.
Muhiddin Kabiri is head of Tajikistan’s Islamic Renewal Party:
Kabiri notes that Iranians are Shi'ite Muslims and Tajiks are Sunni Muslims. Otherwise, he says the two peoples are united by a common history, literature, and language.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad has called the relationship “one spirit in two bodies.”
The Iranian president was here in September to inaugurate a hydroelectric plant and sign an agreement for a second one. Iran is to operate both plants until it has recouped its investments through electricity sales.
Sayfullo Safarov is deputy director of Tajikistan’s Center for Strategic Studies, a government-affiliated think tank:
He says that the two nations’ interests align in energy, trade and culture.
Iran is the second largest foreign investor in Tajikistan after China. Now, China and Iran are planning to build a connecting rail line through Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
But Russia is still the dominant power here. Kabiri’s Islamic Party works closely with Tajik migrant workers in Russia.
He says Iran will never replace Russia. He notes that one million Tajik men now support their families by working in Russia.
But Moscow’s rule of Tajikistan lasted only one century, compared to Tajikistan’s 2,500 years of common history with the ancient Persian Empire.
Zafar Abdullayev, a pro-democracy blogger here, believes that Iran and Tajikistan will eventually form a visa-free common market.
He says that for Tajikistan, an officially largely secular nation, keys to closer ties will be more democracy and more tolerance in Iran.
Two decades after the collapse of Soviet power in Central Asia, Abdullayev and others say that now it is Iran’s turn to liberalize.
All content based on VOA News reports.
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