WORLD IN BRIEF
WORLD IN BRIEF
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GERMANY
Obama Switches Sites
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will deliver a long-planned speech later this week in Berlin at the Victory Column in the city's huge Tiergarten Park, not the Brandenburg Gate, which had been under consideration.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had frowned upon using the gate, a symbol of German unity, calling it an inappropriate place for "electioneering." But Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who officially holds final approval authority, said the candidate would be free to speak at whichever venue he chose.
The 230-foot-high Victory Column was built to celebrate 19th-century Prussian military victories over Denmark, France and Austria and was moved to its present site by dictator Adolf Hitler. In recent years, however, it has shed much of its associations with war and nationalism.
The choice did not end the controversy. Andreas Schockenhoff, a foreign policy expert with Merkel's Christian Democrats, told the newsmagazine Der Spiegel that the site is "dedicated to a victory over neighbors who are today our European friends and allies. It is a problematic symbol."
Berlin authorities are preparing for a large turnout. Obama is popular in Europe and an opinion poll published last week in the Bild newspaper found 72 percent of Germans would vote for him over Republican John McCain in the Nov. 4 election, if they could.
CAMBODIA
Help From U.N. Sought
Cambodia has asked the U.N. Security Council and its Southeast Asian neighbors to help resolve a military standoff over disputed border territory around an ancient temple.
The government requested an emergency meeting of the council "to find a solution to the problem in accordance with international laws," said a Foreign Ministry statement received Tuesday.
Cambodia is also seeking regional intervention after talks between the neighbors Monday failed to end the stalemate around the Preah Vihear temple.
There was no immediate reaction from the Thai government to the initiatives.
The dispute over 1.8 square miles of land near the temple escalated earlier this month when UNESCO approved Cambodia's application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site.
