Kosovo Albanians wave an Albanian flag in celebration of the expected declaration of independence in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica on February 15.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Feb. 16--The European Union gave the final approval Saturday for the deployment of a 1,800-strong policing and administration mission for Kosovo.
The decision comes just before the province’s ethnic Albanian leadership is expected to declare independence from Serbia, possibly on Sunday, AP said.
No EU nations objected to the mission, which will take four months to put in place, and is designed to help build a police, justice and customs system for Kosovo free of political interference.
The force will include 700 police officers for patrols and who are trained in crowd and riot control. Judges, prosecutors and other legal experts would be sent to offer training and for administrative work.
Although Kosovo is technically part of Serbia, the impoverished province of two million people has been administered by the United Nations since a brief war in 1999. The EU force will replace the UN mission now in Kosovo.
Officials said earlier this week that the EU force could grow to more than 2,000 people besides 1,000 other non-EU experts from the United States and other countries.
Serbia and Russia are against the EU mission, arguing it has no legal authority from the United Nations to deploy. The two also oppose independence for Kosovo, saying international borders can only be changed with the agreement of all parties involved.
Cyprus lifted its threat to block the mission last week but along with other EU nations like Spain, Romania, Greece, remains opposed to recognizing the independence of Kosovo.
EU Foreign ministers will hold talks on Monday to try to forge a common stance on Kosovo. Bigger states like Britain, France and Germany are expected to move quickly alongside the United States to recognize Pristina’s sovereignty.

COTONOU, Benin, Feb. 16--US President George W. Bush arrived in Benin Saturday, the first stop on a five-country African tour to highlight US aid to battle malaria and HIV/AIDS and efforts to resolve regional conflicts.
Bush, looking to polish a legacy tarnished by the Iraq war, was also to travel to Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia on what was expected to be his final trip to the continent before leaving office in January 2009, AFP reported.
Bush and Yayi were to discuss the fight against malaria in Benin, a small west African country that launched a US-backed campaign against the disease in October, as well as UN Millennium Development Goals.
The MDGs, which world leaders embraced at a summit in New York in 2000, include cutting global poverty in half by 2015.
The United States has provided Benin with $307 million under a “Millennium Challenge Account“ deal. The MCA aims to reward democratic and free-market reforms.
Since democracy returned to Benin in 1990, Washington has also provided about 250 million dollars to cover education, health, and anti-corruption drives.
Bush was last in Africa in 2003, when he visited Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda, and Nigeria.

Gaza is facing a new wave of crisis with the Israeli army again intensifying its blockade. This time in addition to military strikes, the Zionist regime has cut energy, fuel and power supplies to the Gazans. The aim of the Zionist regime is apparently aimed at destroying a million lives on the strip. The Hamas government is now in a dilemma: to accept truce with Israel or to be witness to the gradual annihilation of the people of Gaza.
Therefore the main question remains: Were the Arab countries aware of Israel’s plan to strike Gaza?
Some regional pundits believe that the plan to strike Gaza was finalized when US President George Bush gave the green light to the Zionist regime during his eight-day visit to the region last month. The reality is that Bush held secret meetings in Tel Aviv and some Arab capitals to seek support for the Israeli strike. It seems revolutionary forces in Palestine and Lebanon had prior information about the aftermath of Bush’s vicious trip to the Middle East.
It has also been proved that Ehud Barak, Israeli defense minister, who was the mastermind of strikes on Gaza and the weakening of the Hamas government, finalized the conspiracy after meeting Bush.
However, we should not ignore the role of some Arab states in facilitating strikes on Gaza. Although no report has been published on meetings between Bush and Arab leaders, media and diplomatic sources say the warmonger president was aiming to invite Arab leaders to a joint politico-security plan in the region. Bush’s proposal can only be guessed. However before answering this question, it seems necessary to mention that White House spokespersons have described Bush’s proposal as ’a long-term strategy for the Middle East’. They use such a phrase to remind the Arabs that Bush’s Middle East visit is a part of the Greater Middle East Initiative and the road map puzzles--the brainchild of high-ranking US politicians including former secretary of state Colin Powell.
The reality however is that Bush was seeking to gain support for the destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Bush will be out of office in 48 weeks, so it is hardly logical for him to devise a ’long-term strategy for the region’. So, Bush’s visit to the Middle East is not a long-term strategy but a tactical policy which will expire in less than a year.
As the neo-cons in the White House believe, at a time when Bush’s administration has failed in three important foreign policy fronts (Iraq war, Iran’s nuclear issue and two-state solution in occupied Palestinian territories), an agreement, or better to say, a collusion with old-age allies can save their foreign policy from further failures.
Evidence has it that Bush’s Middle East trip was more than anything else aimed at reaching a deal over two territories: Lebanon and Palestine.
During his visit, Bush spoke about isolating two Islamic resistance movements, Palestine’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as weakening them in political and military terms. The manner in which Bush is going to achieve his objectives is that the Israeli war machine should do its best to suppress Hamas’ social and popular bases. On the other hand, by directing a series of terrorist operations in Lebanon and assassination of key figures in the Lebanese army as witnessed in recent terrorist acts in Lebanon, US plans to weaken Hezbollah and its domestic and foreign allies.
However, will a tactical cooperation or a new deal between Arabs and the US materialize?
Irrespective of experiences gained from agreements between the US and its allies throughout the Middle East history, new agreements reached between the US and Arab states has made the region face new realities as follows:
Arab states have been grappling with a new wave of radicalism.
In fact, the political scene in the Arab world has undergone a revolution since September 11, 2001. According to estimates by American research centers, public opinion in the Arab world is currently at the peak of pessimism towards Bush administration. Each step taken by conservative Arab governments to compromise with the White House can irk their domestic dissidents as they reacted to Bush’s recent Middle East tour.
Recent unrest in Gaza Strip and the support shown by the revolutionary circles of Arab states, particularly Egyptians is a clear evidence of this.
Hence, some political analysts have said that if Arab states sign a compromise deal with the US on Palestine or they had accepted US demands on Iran’s nuclear case, they will be considered traitors. The Arab states, particularly in the course of seven years since September 11, 2001 have realized that the anti-US movements have been set up by those whose ideal is to end the humiliation of the Arabs.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark,
Feb. 16--Six people were arrested in Copenhagen overnight after small groups of youths torched cars and dumpsters across the city for the sixth night in a row, police said on Saturday.
Up to eight others were arrested in towns across the country, media reported.
“In Copenhagen there were 28 cars set on fire, 35 dumpsters and 14 garbage fires in the streets,“ Copenhagen police chief inspector, Lau Thytesen told AFP.
Of the six people arrested in the capital, five were to be charged with arson while the sixth had been released, he said.
Other violence was reported in Denmark’s second biggest city Aarhus, as well as Odense and North Zealand.
The cause of the troubles was not known. The youth, who have acted in small groups with no apparent organization, have not spoken out about their motive.
One of the organizers of a peaceful anti-racism demonstration held in Copenhagen on Friday, Rasmus Lingnau Amossen, told daily Politiken that many youngsters felt harassed by police and believed the police were racist.
New regulations allow police to search people at random for weapons, even without suspicion, in certain areas of Copenhagen, including the heavily immigrant areas of Noerrebro and Vesterbro where the troubles began last weekend.

DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 16--Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jaber Al Thani will open the Muslim world’s first Brookings Institution center in Doha tomorrow.
The Brookings Center is to offer public policy research and current affairs programming and is a project of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, Thepeninsulaqatar.com wrote.
The center will also undertake research on the socio-economic and geopolitical issues facing the Muslim world, and encourage more understanding between US and Muslim policy-makers.
The new center will offer scholarship to aspiring students besides promoting dialogue between the United States and the Muslim world through a partnership between one of America’s oldest and largest think tanks, Brookings, and Qatar.
“Through the Brookings Doha Center, we will continue to expand the Brookings tradition of independent, in-depth research and quality public policy programs to Doha,“ said Strobe Talbott, President of Brookings, adding: “At the same time, it further establishes Brookings as a truly global think tank.“

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 16--Pakistani election candidates launched a final push for votes on Saturday, after a US lawmaker warned that Washington could cut military aid if next week’s polls are not free and fair.
Campaigning ends at midnight on Saturday and all meetings and processions are banned from then until after Monday’s landmark vote, seen as decisive for the political future of President Pervez Musharraf, reported AFP.
Musharraf’s allies--the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q--as well as the opposition party of slain ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto and supporters of two-time premier Nawaz Sharif are all set to rally.
Key US ally Musharraf, who is regarded by many Western governments as a bulwark against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, faces possible impeachment if the election installs a hostile parliament.
Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, will be in the eastern city of Lahore and is likely to attend a seminar by a regional media association before meeting party delegations, senior party official Naveed Qamar told AFP.
Sharif has not planned any public meetings but may address a rally in Lahore, his spokesman Zaem Qadir also told AFP.

Thousands of protesters rally at the Manila's financial district demanding the ouster of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, Feb. 15.

MANILA, Philippines, Feb. 16--Thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of the Philippine president marched through Manila, undeterred by heavy security after officials revealed an alleged plot to assassinate her by Al-Qaeda-linked militants, AP wrote.
An estimated 10,000 people, including left-wing and Roman Catholic Church-backed groups, carried streamers reading “Gloria resign!“ at Friday’s rally in Makati, the capital’s financial district.
The rally was triggered by corruption allegations linking top officials and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s husband in a brewing kickback scandal.
“These are telling signs that the people are again roused and are ready to take political action,“ said Renato Reyes, secretary general of the left-wing Bayan, one of the organizers.
The protest came a day after the military said intelligence reports indicated communist rebels may infiltrate the rally.