Factions

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- After two years of difficult negotiations, the four Cambodian factions agreed yesterday on a United Nations framework for a comprehensive peace settlement, the Indonesian foreign minister said here last night."

I had to respond to Peter Jensen 's vituperative diatribe "Don't Save the Planet" about conservatives supposedly going out of their way to avoid protecting the planet (May 3). Since when did a question limited to specially marked light bulbs measure anyone's environmental consciousness? Based on our voting record, I guess you could label us conservatives. Like most people I know, we use both tubular and CFL fluorescent bulbs (where practical - show me one that works in freezers, variable intensity lamps, outdoor flood lights, desk lamps that take small bulbs, garage trouble light, etc.)

Control of Towson, Baltimore County's seat of government, is divided among several sometimes hostile factions. But a group of civic and government leaders wants to change that.Towson Partnership Inc., a combination of older business and residential groups bolstered by county government, ended a three-day conference yesterday as part of a plan to unify the factions and help improve the old Towson business district.Participants agreed that Towson could be friendlier place for pedestrians and parked vehicles and that it needs more entertainment and "infotainment" businesses such as the Borders bookstore in Towson Commons, less vehicular traffic and easier access to liquor licenses for upscale restaurants and cafes.

Having vowed that any use of chemical weapons by Syria would cross a U.S. "red line" and provoke a strong American response "with enormous consequences," President Barack Obama now finds himself under increasing pressure to act, following reports by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies that the regime of President Bashar Assad used deadly sarin gas against opponents last year. The problem for Mr. Obama is that the military options for enforcing his promise range from bad to very bad - while the risks of doing nothing may be even worse.

HOUSTON -- We used to wonder how the Democrats could reconcile their diverse factions -- blacks, Southern whites, union members, academics, farmers, Jewish voters. These days it is more relevant to ask how President Bush can reconcile the very different constituencies he needs to win the election Nov. 3.The most obvious difference is between Bush's original base, generally moderate Republicans, and the group that he inherited from Ronald Reagan, the religious right. The only thing they seem to have in common is that both groups are overwhelmingly white.

BEIJING -- Three of four Cambodian factions pledged yesterday to press ahead with plans for their nation's first free elections in decades -- despite an ominous boycott of the meeting by the fourth group, the Khmer Rouge.The Khmer Rouge, radical Communists accused of killing 2 million of their countrymen in the 1970s, have recently launched a new round of attacks threatening to plunge Cambodia back into civil war.They are refusing to participate in the Cambodian vote May 23-28, claiming that it will be rigged in favor of the nation's current, Vietnamese-installed government.

NABLUS, Israeli-Occupied West Bank -- The struggles at al-Ittihad hospital reflect the tensions that plague the Palestinian community as it confronts the prospect of peace negotiations.The troubles began with a squabble between supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its greatest rival, the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement. The dispute was over which of them had the right to run the hospital cafeteria, much as they dispute the control of city neighborhoods.A PLO activist claimed the cafeteria should be his. A Hamas man responded by taking over another hospital room and saying he would turn it into a competing restaurant.

KOENIGSWINTER, Germany - The former king of Afghanistan has emerged as the first choice to lead an interim government for that war-torn country, but his role is likely to be limited and there would be no re-establishment of the monarchy, officials monitoring talks here among four Afghan factions said yesterday. "Everyone sees the king as a rallying point and hopes he is willing and able to fill that role," said James Dobbins, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, summarizing the talks' first day. But the king would primarily be a symbol and not a ruler, said a U.S. official who asked that he not be identified.

BEIJING -- Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk predicted yesterday that his country's four warring factions probably would reach a formal peace agreement next month, but large disagreements remain to be bridged.The prince also declared that Cambodia -- devastated by more than a decade of civil war following three years of genocidal rule by the Communist Khmer Rouge in the 1970s -- would adopt a parliamentary system with a strong presidency, much as in France.And the prince, the ruler of Cambodia from 1941 to 1970, expressed no doubts that he would be elected to that presidency.

JERUSALEM - The senior Palestinian security official, who has been negotiating with Israel on a cease-fire, denounced suicide attacks in an interview with an Israeli newspaper as "murders for no reason" and said he was demanding that militant organizations abandon them. Abdel Razak Yehiyeh, who was appointed Palestinian interior minister in June, said he had told all Palestinian factions: "Stop the suicide bombings, stop the murders for no reason. Return to the legitimate struggle against the occupation, without violence and following international norms and legitimacy."

By the time anyone gets around to asking another person how he or she would like to be remembered, the answer is, almost assuredly, destined to be a footnote. The query makes sense only if that man or woman's legacy is already shrouded in nuance and of some particular public interest. And it's not like the answer will tilt the scales; not in the cacophony of chatter that crowds the internet. Yet when they erected a statue of Joe Paterno outside of Beaver Stadium on Nov. 2, 2001, they included the following quote: "They ask me what I'd like written about me when I'm gone.

With provincial elections scheduled for the end of January, Iraq's political troubles seem closer to Shakespearean drama than to nascent democracy. There is talk of a coup to oust the prime minister. The speaker of the parliament has abruptly resigned, making angry accusations on his way out the door. And there have been sweeping arrests of people believed to be conspiring against the government, both in Baghdad and Diyala province. Beneath the swirl of accusations and rumors is a power play in which different factions within the government - and some outside it - are struggling to gain ground as American influence in the country wanes and elections approach that could begin to reshape the political landscape in Iraq.

BAGHDAD - Followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets yesterday in a demonstration against the proposed security agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments, now being reviewed by Iraqi political leaders. In a message to the assembled marchers, one of al-Sadr's senior clerics read a statement from him warning that "whoever tells you that this pact gives us sovereignty is lying," according to news services. A leading Sadrist cleric at the rally, Hazim al-Arraji, said: "This is the voice of the Iraqi people from all over Iraq: We need the invaders to leave our country; no one wants them to stay.

Before Ric Flair and Mick Foley departed from WWE, they participated in a round-table discussion about wrestling factions on WWE 24/7's Legends of Wrestling . The show is worth watching because Flair holds nothing back. He had some interesting things to say about the nWo, Shane Douglas and some former members of the Four Horsemen. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ringposts)

BAGHDAD -- Several Shiite and Sunni political factions united yesterday to pressure the Kurds over control of oil and the future of the city of Kirkuk, which Kurdistan wishes to annex to its self-ruling region in the north. The budding front, which include one-time enemies such as Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular faction, says the country should have a strong central government. In contrast, the Kurds and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a major Shiite party, have championed a federal system that would give a limited role for the national government and greater powers to the regions.

Beirut -- Lebanon's shaky government veered into uncertain political terrain early this morning as midnight struck and its president's term expired without the naming of a successor. Faced with a constitutional crisis, both the pro-Western government and the Syrian- and Iranian-backed opposition made competing claims to power, but both sides also ruled out the possibility of violence to resolve differences in the months-long dispute. The outgoing president declared a state of emergency, but the order was derided by many as having no practical effect.

BAGHDAD -- Several Shiite and Sunni political factions united yesterday to pressure the Kurds over control of oil and the future of the city of Kirkuk, which Kurdistan wishes to annex to its self-ruling region in the north. The budding front, which include one-time enemies such as Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular faction, says the country should have a strong central government. In contrast, the Kurds and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a major Shiite party, have championed a federal system that would give a limited role for the national government and greater powers to the regions.

WHEELING, W.Va. -- President Bush publicly pressured the quarreling Iraqi political factions yesterday to put aside their differences and establish a government. "It's time for a government to get stood up," he said in the latest of a series of appearances bolstering his Iraq policy. "There's time for the elected representatives - or those who represent the voters, the political parties - to come together and form a unity government," Bush said. "That's what the people want. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone to the polls, would they have?"

When Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed a voter referendum on legalizing slot machine gambling, freshman Del. Craig L. Rice opposed it because he thought the General Assembly should decide major policy decisions and not send them to the ballot box. But Rice changed his mind when fellow legislators who represent the proposed sites for slots parlors asked him to vote for the referendum. "Slots are not proposed for my district, so I deferred to them," said Rice, a Democrat who represents Montgomery County.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- At least six Palestinians were killed and more than a hundred wounded yesterday when a mass rally marking the third anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, ended in armed clashes between the rival factions of Hamas and Fatah. All of the dead and most of the wounded were Fatah supporters who had been taking part in the rally, according to doctors at two Gaza hospitals. Tens of thousands of Gaza residents had turned out to honor Arafat, the founder of the Fatah movement, in the largest show of support for the mainstream Palestinian organization since the Islamic group Hamas seized control of the territory last June.