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16. juli 2007
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Hamas definitely kicked Fatah's butt in the streets of Gaza, but don't do very well on the hearts and minds thing.
The poll of Gaza residents shows a backlash. Hamas got only 23 percent support, down from 29 percent in the previous survey last month, while Fatah climbed from 31 percent to 43 percent.
The poll, the first major survey since the Hamas takeover, also showed that 66 percent of Hamas supporters said they would vote Fatah if it undertook reforms.
The poll, released by Near East Consulting, interviewed 450 residents of the Gaza Strip. It quoted a margin of error of 3.05 percentage points.
This may indicate that the vast majority of Palestinians don't share Hamas' extremist ideology, but voted more against the immensely corrupt Fatah than for Hamas. Hamas may not need to worry these poll numbers are ever converted to an electoral defeat. If Hamas is like the rest of the apparently pro-democracy fraction of the Muslim Brotherhood, its democratic ideal can be summed up in the slogan "one man, one vote, one time."
3:24:55 PM 
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Is it too early to be optimistic about North Korea? Probably, but this is good.
U.N. inspectors have verified that North Korea shut down its nuclear reactor, the watchdog agency's chief said Monday, the first on-the-ground achievement toward scaling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions since the international standoff began in late 2002. [...]
The shutdown over the weekend was confirmed by a 10-member team of IAEA inspectors, said Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The process has been going quite well and we have had good cooperation from North Korea. It's a good step in the right direction," ElBaradei said, speaking in Bangkok ahead of an event sponsored by Thailand's Science Ministry.
The Yongbyon reactor, about 60 miles north of the capital, generates plutonium for atomic bombs; North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion in October.
Nevermind that the regime has been bribed into shutting it down. At least the economic leverage is paying off, sort of.
2:27:41 PM
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© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.08.2007; 18:25:55.
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