Word: parliament
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This was hardly the end of it. Lellouche also faulted Cameron's decision earlier this year to withdraw the Tories from the ruling center-right European Peoples' Party group in the European Parliament in favor of right-wing partners who are accused of being anti-Semitic and homophobic. He also warned that if a new Conservative government in Britain fulfilled its anti-European campaign promises next year, it would weaken and isolate Britain, not reinforce it. "They have essentially castrated your U.K. influence in the European Parliament," Lellouche said in the interview. "Go away for two to three years...
Behind-the-scenes U.S. pressure has finally forced Iraq's leaders to accept a political compromise, with Sunday's vote in the Iraqi parliament to adopt an electoral law setting rules for national elections in January - and potentially clearing the path to withdrawal for tens of thousands of U.S. troops. (See a photo-essay of six years with U.S. troops in Iraq...
...been a potential flash point in the uneasy relationship between the Kurdish autonomous region and Baghdad. Sunday's compromise, which allows recent Kurdish returnees (much of the city's Kurdish population had been expelled by Saddam Hussein, precisely to cement Arab control there) to vote in Kirkuk but gives parliament the authority to investigate any suspicious voting patterns, came only after strong pressure from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who made personal phone calls to top Kurdish leaders while the U.S. ambassador counted Arab votes in Baghdad. But while it smooths the way for January's elections, the deal does...
...other countries have learned - not least my own, which in June elected two far-right members to the European Parliament - pride and exceptionalism can easily morph into isolationism and xenophobia. The country's most popular political group is the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP). It won nearly 29% of the vote in the 2007 election with anti-immigration posters showing white sheep kicking black sheep off a flag-clad outline of Switzerland. The SVP is also driving a Nov. 29 referendum to ban the construction of new minarets. Listen to its leaders, and you would assume that...
...Kenyan attitudes toward homosexuality are considered more liberal than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa, gays say they still face overwhelming hostility in the country. The law banning sex between men is a holdover from colonial times but won't be repealed soon; one member of parliament, asked if a draft constitution in the works would enshrine gay rights, said recently that doing so would destroy the document's chances of passing...