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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

It's been a good week for...

By: Staff Writer

7/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Hamid Karzai

... confirmed as president of Afghanistan after his election rival bowed out. To the relief of the U.S. and the rest of NATO, there will be no corruption-ridden and bullet-ridden election to cast further focus on the failings of their man in Kabul. Karzai, for his part, will pay lip-service to demands for cleaner politics. He's betting the U.S. will not pull out and leave him to his enemies, which was the fate of his predecessor, the Soviet puppet Najibullah.

Aung San Suu Kyi

... the Nobel laureate imprisoned for her opposition to Burma's ruling military junta. She met U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell at his lakeside hotel on one of the rare times she has been allowed to leave her house in years. The U.S. is taking a new tack with Burma, acknowledging that the previous policy of political and economic sanctions has been ineffective. The high-level meeting with Suu Kyi is a hint that the generals will have to become less thuggish with their opponents if they are to get the hand Washington is extending.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

... the U.S. secretary of state. On a visit to Islamabad, Clinton voiced disbelief that the Pakistani government can't find and strike al Qaida operatives. Pakistan's coziness with the Taliban in Afghanistan has long been an irritant to Washington, but Pakistan has never heard the exasperation so clearly expressed by so high-placed an official. The Obama administration has been drawing criticism for wheel-spinning of late, and Clinton's laying down of the law to the Pakistanis may serve to upgrade the image.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 7, 2009 H4

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