Weekly Review

By Benjamin Austen

Ukraine's Supreme Court ordered a second presidential run-off to be held by December 26 after it ruled last month's fraud-plagued election invalid.¹ Supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, the winner in the November 21 run-off, threatened to form a separate nation in the country's east; the² opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who promises to increase Ukraine's ties to the West, celebrated the court's decision with thousands of protesters in Kiev's Independence Square. Stricken by a mysterious illness that has left his face a mask of puffy, red cysts and lesions, Yushchenko said to the crowd, "This is the face of today's Ukraine."³ At a Moscow airport Vladimir Putin told Ukraine's outgoing president that new run-off elections were unnecessary, and⁴ Russia blocked all exports from a breakaway region of Georgia because it did not support the candidate whom the region elected.⁵ Hours before a registration deadline, Marwan Barghouti gave word from his prison cell in Israel, where he is serving five life sentences, that he would run for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. Barghouti's popularity among Palestinian youths has caused fears that he could siphon votes from PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas and cause a split in the Fatah Party; Palestinian leaders urged Barghouti to withdraw his candidacy, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak endorsed Abbas, and Ariel Sharon said Barghouti would be able to campaign only from behind bars.⁶ A French court reduced a political ban on former Prime Minister Alain Juppé for illegal party financing from ten years to one, making him eligible to succeed Jacques Chirac in the 2007 presidential election, and⁷ Colombia's congress voted to overturn a rule that restricts presidents from running for reelection, allowing Alvaro Uribe, an ally of George W. Bush, to run again in 2006.⁸ Jesse Jackson and candidates from the Green and Libertarian parties, citing numerous voting irregularities in Ohio, demanded a recount in the state, whose voting results John Kerry conceded on the morning of November 3.⁹ A report filed with the Federal Election Commission last week revealed that Kerry did not spend $14 million of his campaign funds, money he kept in reserve in case legal challenges or recounts became necessary.¹⁰ The number of jobs created in November was half of what analysts expected, the¹¹ dollar continued to fall, and¹² retail sales during the Thanksgiving weekend disappointed.¹³ President Bush, on his first official visit to Canada, ate local beef and announced that he was "still standing," but he¹⁴ did not say when he would lift a U.S. ban on Canadian beef or end tariffs on the country's timber.¹⁵ Canada announced that it would no longer grant temporary work permits to foreign strippers.¹⁶

A team from the Red Cross that spent much of last June at the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, accused the U.S. military of physically and psychologically torturing its detainees there, and more¹⁷ photos documenting the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq were acquired by American news sources. The pictures, many taken in the aftermath of raids, show Navy Seals abusing hooded and handcuffed men by sitting on them, holding guns to their heads, and stepping on their chests. A woman whose husband had served in Iraq had posted the pictures on a photo-sharing website, and an AP reporter found them through a Google search.¹⁸ Former head of the CIA George Tenet said it might be necessary to limit access to the Internet because terrorists could use it to attack the United States.¹⁹ Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson became the eighth member of Bush's fifteen-member cabinet to resign since Election Day. At a press conference, Thompson expressed concern about the FDA's flawed drug approval process, a possible global flu pandemic, and the vulnerability of the nation's food supply. "For the life of me," Thompson said, "I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply, because it's so easy to do."²⁰ Tom Ridge, who raised the color-coded terror alert to orange six times, announced that he would step down as secretary of homeland security. There were no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil during his tenure.²¹ President Bush selected former bodyguard, undercover cop, corrections officer, and New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik to replace Ridge; Kerik has made millions of dollars in partnership with Rudolph Giuliani in a post-9/11 security consulting firm and recently has been in Iraq training its police officers.²² In attacks this weekend in and around Baghdad, Mosul, and Tikrit, insurgents killed more than eighty Iraqis, mostly security officers and those working with American authorities, and 135²³ American soldiers died in Iraq in November, tying last April as the deadliest month for U.S. forces during the war.²⁴ The U.S. ordered more than 10,000 troops to extend their tours, raising the number of soldiers in Iraq to its highest levels since last year's invasion. "It's mainly to provide security for the election," a military spokesman said.²⁵ Representatives from forty Iraqi political parties called for the January 30 elections to be delayed.²⁶ President Bush announced that he would be awarding the Medal of Freedom to George Tenet, retired Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, and former Iraq viceroy L. Paul Bremer.²⁷ The State Department was discouraging smiles on passport photos.²⁸

In testimony before a federal grand jury that was leaked to the press, several professional baseball players confessed to using performance-enhancing steroids. Barry Bonds, who has hit more home runs in a season than any other player, told the court that his steroid use was accidental; he believed he was rubbing flaxseed oil and arthritis ointment on his aching muscles.²⁹ The International Atomic Energy Agency voted to accept Iran's promises that it was halting its nuclear weapons program, and cocaine³⁰ and heroin prices hit a twenty year low.³¹ Four people who received Botox injections in south Florida were hospitalized for botulism poisoning.³² Brian Williams replaced Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News.³³ Sheriff's deputies searched the Neverland estate for two days and took a DNA sample from inside Michael Jackson's mouth, and³⁴ Sotheby's announced it would auction off items from five Kennedy family homes; items to be sold include Mason jars, broken china, used records, and old magazines.³⁵ Po'ouli birds took another step toward extinction, and the³⁶ U.S. government refused to protect sage grouse and salmon.³⁷ A British artist publicly ate a fox to protest all the attention being paid to a ban on fox hunting. "Everyone gets really worked up about a furry animal," the performance artist said after his meal, "but no one cares about each other."³⁸ The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, resigned in order to spend more time with his wife of forty-seven years.³⁹ Thailand was planning to drop origami birds on three restive provinces, and the prime minister called on each of the sixty-three million Thais to make at least one paper bird; television stations showed troops busily constructing flocks of doves, cranes, and pigeons.⁴⁰ Mudslides killed more than 1,100 in the Philippines.⁴¹ It was revealed that a Hmong who recently shot five hunters in Wisconsin is a shaman.⁴² A twenty-four-year-old man was killed in his trailer home by an exploding lava lamp.⁴³