Italy has once again retreated from a repeated pledge to return to Ethiopia a third-century 75-foot obelisk from the ancient city of Axum which fascist dictator Benito Mussolini brought to Rome as a prize of conquest after his invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in 1936. Italy initially pledged to return the obelisk in 1947, but never acted to fulfill the pledge. Last year, during a state visit by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a date was finally set--but has been repeatedly put off by Italy, citing technical difficulties. Most recently, on April 13, Italy cancelled a scheduled flight to deliver the first section of the obelisk, with the Italian Culture Ministry citing the lack of radar to ensure a safe landing of the cargo plane at Axum's airport .

From the AP, April 14:

Reluctance by Italian investigators to accept the U.S. version of the killing of an Italian security agent [Nicola Calipari] by American troops in Iraq last month is holding up the conclusion of a joint inquiry into the shooting, Italian newspapers said Thursday... The commission, ordered by Washington, includes two Italian members and is led by a U.S. brigadier general. It is expected to release its findings by mid-April. Members of Italy's center-left opposition have demanded the government inform the country about the commission's work, while newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Stampa reported Thursday that a final conclusion by the commission is being delayed by the reluctance of the Italian members to accept all the aspects of the U.S. version of events. According to the Italian papers, a point of contention is American authorities' refusal to allow Italian investigators to examine the car in which Calipari was traveling when he was shot. Italy agrees that the shooting was an accident, but disputes key elements of the U.S. account. It has denied a U.S. claim that the car was speeding and refused to stop following warnings from the U.S. patrol.

The imbroglio comes just as Italy's ruling coalition appears to be unravelling. From VOA, April 15:

Following the conviction of Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian immigrant who had been denied an asylum plea, of plotting ricin attacks in London, Britain's Labor government is under attack for supposedly lax immigration policies. The Tory opposition is charging that Bourgass should have been deported immediately upon denial of his asylum claim. Labor, in turn, says its plan to issue national ID cards will prevent such future failures to snare would-be terrorists. Bourgass is already serving time for killing a police detective during his arrest in Manchester in 2003. His north London apartment was simulatenously raided. Authorities say the seemingly innocent items found there--like cherry stones and castor beans--are sinister in light of ricin-making recipies also found. (CNN, April 14)

There is a sleazy underside to what is being protrayed as an important step towards peace in Asia. Visiting New Delhi, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signed an agreement with India to resolve border disputes dating to the Sino-Indian war of 1962, in which China seized a contested stretch of the Himalayas known as Aksai Chin. Geographically a part of Kashmir (itself contested by India and Pakistan), Aksai Chin is strategic to China not only because it controls a pass through the mountains which could serve as an invasion route, but (perhaps more importantly) because it straddles both of western China's restive internal colonies: Tibet and Xinkiang. Delhi and Beijing have remained at odds over the territory since the brief war, and only restored direct air links in 2002. (See CNN, May 24, 2002)

"Crouching Tiger, Swimming Dragon," an op-ed in the April 11 NY Times by Nayan Chanda, former editor of Far Eastern Economic Review, notes with alarm that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao last week signed a deal in Islamabad for construction of a deep-sea facility at Pakistan's Indian Ocean port of Gwadar. Although it is ostensibly to be built for trade, Chanda fears "a permanent Chinese naval presence near the Srait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world's oil passes." It all gives the historically astute Chanda an uneasy sense of deja vu.

Synchronicity? Just days after WW4 REPORT cited a rare news report on persecution of the Yazidis (also rendered Yezidis or Ezidis), an obscure and ancient religious sect in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq, the Washington Post actually runs a story on them.

The most prominent separatists in Italy have long been the right-wing Lega Nord, who want to create an independent state called "Padania" in the prosperous Po Valley (yet are, ironically, part of Italy's ruling coalition). But now word comes of a separatist movement in an impoverished (by European standards) corner of Italy, with an apparent ecological sensitivity as well as an antipathy to the ruling oligarchy.

In response to a high-profile petition by historians, C-SPAN canceled its planned broadcast of a speech by David Irving; instead it aired a program (on April 3 and April 4) in which Book TV executive producer Connie Doebele admitted it was wrong to plan to "balance" Deborah Lipstadt's lecture with Irving, and expressed regret; and presented brief excerpts of Irving's remarks with a commentator describing him as a Holocaust-denier, rather than uncritically presenting his speech, as it had originally planned. (US Newswire, April 4)