Prime Minister

WARSAW, Poland -- President Lech Walesa nominated yesterday Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, a little-known 39-year-old economist with a background in private business, for the post of prime minister.The selection underscored Mr. Walesa's commitment to Poland's ambitious program for fostering a free-market economy.Mr. Bielecki, a member of Parliament who once worked in the Solidarity underground, is said by associates to support the fastest possible privatization of the country's businesses and industries.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a Baltimore audience Tuesday night that the world's challenges have never been greater, nor come with such speed, and he advocated intervention in struggling countries by powers such as Great Britain and the United States. "I don't think there's been a more difficult time to be a political leader than now," Blair, who left office in 2007, told an audience of 2,800 at Loyola University Maryland. He described challenges posed by globalization and ever-evolving technology and said that "often the best short-term politics is in collision with the best long-term policy.

OTTAWA, Canada -- Kim Campbell, a 46-year-old lawyer with a sharp tongue and an unconventional life, became Canada's first female prime minister yesterday by winning the leadership of the country's ruling Progressive Conservative Party.Ms. Campbell, the current minister of defense who came into the leadership conference as a heavy favorite, won on a second ballot with 1,817 votes to 1,630 for her major challenger, Quebec lawyer and fellow Mulroney Cabinet minister Jean Charest who, at 34, was bidding to become the country's youngest prime minister.

As President Barack Obama begins his second term, he faces a series of Middle East challenges far more daunting than when he began his presidency in 2009. These problems include: •what to do about the Arab-Israeli conflict, with peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority still frozen; •whether to intervene in the civil war in Syria, which has now claimed more than 60,000 lives, with the opposition to the Assad regime becoming more Islamist; •how to manage relations with an increasingly Islamist regime in Egypt in such a way that the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty is not endangered; •how to handle an Iraq on the verge of multiple civil wars, one between the Arabs and the Kurds and the other between Sunnis and Shiites; •how to deal with al-Qaida activity in both Yemen and North Africa (Mali and Algeria)

BENJAMIN Netanyahu has a direct mandate from the electorate, which no previous prime minister of Israel had.His Likud Party heritage, past opposition to peace talks and campaign promises clash with U.S. policy. They differ on a land-for-peace swap with Syria, West Bank settlements, redeployment from Hebron, possible statehood for Palestine and the eventual status of Jerusalem.Were Mr. Netanyahu to cave in to Washington, he would be selling out the people who elected him. The collision is between the tradition of Likud and Revisionist Zionism for a Greater Israel in defiance of its neighbors, and broad American support for the founding vision of a lesser Israel in harmony with its neighbors.

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, plans to make his first visit to President Bush in Washington July 25, to press for Israeli concessions to advance the Middle East peace plan, Palestinian officials said yesterday. The announcement, accepting a long-standing invitation from the White House, came after Abbas reached a power-sharing agreement with Yasser Arafat, the pre-eminent Palestinian leader, at least temporarily easing tension between them. The visit, as well as one around that time by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, is likely to step up pressure on Bush to arbitrate the competing claims of the two sides personally.

WARSAW -- Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Poland's new prime minister, presented his Cabinet yesterday and outlined an economic program for the nation.Mr. Bielecki, a provincial businessman whom President Lech Walesa appointed after others refused the post, kept only four of the outgoing ministers in a government that he said was composed of experts regardless of their political affiliation.His program differed little from that of the previous government and, in any case, he will scarcely have time to implement it. As he himself told the Sejm, or parliament, the new government is to last only until general elections, expected in the spring.

MOSCOW -- Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev took a step toward dismantling the central Soviet bureaucracy yesterday by effectively stripping Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov of power and announcing that he would manage the government himself, along with a council of republican representatives.His plan, endorsed in a 316-19 vote last night by a crisis session of the Soviet parliament, replaced the Council of Ministers headed by Mr. Ryzhkov with a Cabinet reporting to Mr. Gorbachev and to the Federation Council, which consists of the leaders of the 15 republics.

TOKYO -- A suspected right-wing extremist fired a shot yards away from former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa yesterday in apparent protest over Mr. Hosokowa's open apologies for Japan's actions in World War II.Mr. Hosokawa was not harmed. The bullet hit the ceiling of a Tokyo hotel, where he had spoken at a political party meeting.Security guards quickly tackled the gunman, who was identified as Masakatsu Nozoe, 52. He later told police that he was upset with Mr. Hosokawa's statements on Japan's role during World War II and his economic policies, Japanese news reports said.

LONDON -- "How Was It for You?" complete with a picture of the prime minister and his wife in bed under the Union Jack, was the cover of The Sunday Times magazine a couple of weeks ago. The actual title of the story inside was in small type in the corner: "Blair's first year."The author, Philip Norman, was not impressed. The Tony Blair he described made Bill Clinton look almost Lincolnian. The key moment of the Blair year, in this account, was the death of Princess Diana and the prime minister's immediate characterization of her as the "People's Princess."

Distracted by the deadly violence in Mali and Algeria, no one seems to be paying adequate attention to the tragicomedy under way in Pakistan. This matters because recent events demonstrate without equivocation that Pakistan is an utterly failed state -- but one that possesses nuclear weapons. The country is tumbling down the abyss. Where else could a fundamentalist Muslim cleric who lives in Canada draw tens of thousands of fans to a rally calling for dissolution of the government -- speaking from inside a shipping container with a bulletproof window?

From a statement issued by the office of the mayor of Baltimore: "Baltimore is fortunate to be home to some of Maryland's premiere art museums and performing arts centers, as well as thriving communities of young and independent artists that attract people from throughout the region and world.”            Premier  is an adjective meaning "foremost" or a noun meaning "prime minister....

As Israel's settlement moratorium ended Sept. 26, the Obama administration sought a way to extend it so as to continue the direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, which the U.S. had so painfully arranged and which had only begun Sept. 2. Mr. Abbas was unwilling to resume direct talks until Israel pledged to once again stop settlement construction, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was under intense pressure from his settler constituency to refuse any more moratoriums.

Next week, India's prime minister will be the first international leader to make an official state visit to the United States since President Barack Obama's inauguration. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit affirms that, while Washington is preoccupied with other countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea - the strategic partnership with India furthers several U.S. foreign policy objectives. First, India is an emerging economic partner for the United States.

Car bomb kills at least 27 in crowded Iraq market BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded in a crowded outdoor market in the northern city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, killing at least 27 people, police said, a deadly reminder of the challenges facing the Iraqi government even as it celebrated the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from cities. The bombing marred what had otherwise been a festive day as Iraqis commemorated the newly declared National Sovereignty Day. It also came hours after four U.S. soldiers were killed in combat Monday in Baghdad.

LONDON -British military operations in Iraq ended Thursday, a month ahead of schedule, closing a six-year mission that cost the lives of 179 British soldiers and was unpopular in Britain. "Today Iraq is a success story. We owe much of that to the efforts of British troops," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at his 10 Downing St. offices Thursday morning. "Our mission has not always been an easy one, many have said that we would fail," Brown said.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Gunmen killed former Prime Minister Kasdi Merbah of Algeria yesterday, and the authorities blamed Muslim fundamentalists who are trying to replace Algeria's secular society with an Iranian-style Islamic republic.Mr. Merbah, 55, was killed along with his son, brother, bodyguard and chauffeur as they were returning from a beach house in a coastal resort east of Algiers.He was known as a vehement opponent of Muslim fundamentalism, and his assassination reflects the rift in Algerian society that has turned into a near civil war since January 1992.

MOSCOW -- If Viktor S. Chernomyrdin's rise to prime minister of Russia were to become a movie, it might be titled, "The Old Guard Rides Again."The 54-year-old former Soviet minister of the gas industry looked distressingly familiar as he made his brief, gruff acceptance speech at the Russian Congress of People's Deputies yesterday. The ugly brown flowered tie with the steely blue suit; the official, formal style . . .The "apparatchik" is back.Actually, it is unfair to lump Mr. Chernomyrdin (pronounced Chair-noh-MIR-din)

JERUSALEM -Benjamin Netanyahu, taking office as Israeli prime minister Tuesday amid heckling by leftist and Arab lawmakers, offered to seek a "permanent arrangement" for limited Palestinian self-rule. "We do not wish to rule another people," the conservative leader declared in a speech to the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Without endorsing the goal of sovereignty for the Palestinians, he said he favored an accord giving them "all the powers necessary to rule themselves, except those that would threaten Israel's existence and security."