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VIDEO AND PHOTOS RELEASED BY CUBA
SHOWING DICTATOR CHAVEZ WITH FIDEL
CASTRO IN CUBA
HAVANA, CUBA--Eager
to tamp down swirling rumors and wild
speculation about DICTATOR Hugo Chávez’s
health, Venezuelan and Cuban
state television aired videos and photos
of the recuperating head of state
chatting and reading the newspaper with
Latin America’s other ailing leader:
Fidel Castro. Chávez was shown dressed
in a tracksuit in images that the
government said were taken after his
recent surgery to remove a pelvic
abscess. One video showed his daughter
in the background and other images
showed him reading the Cuban newspaper
Granma. Only folkloric music was heard
in the video. "Let these images serve
to bring peace to the people of
Venezuela regarding the health of
President Chávez," Communications
Minister Andres Izarra said on state TV.
"To those of you who speculating over
the president’s health, there he is ...
President Chávez is fine, recovering
well."
 
Determined to show that reports that
Chávez was in grave condition were
false, Izarra held up million-dollar
contracts reportedly signed by the
president, for things like tractor
purchases. The video and photos
underscored the widespread uncertainty
Chavez’s weeks-long disappearance was
having in Venezuela and throughout the
region. The normally ubiquitous and
talkative president disappeared from
public view June 10, and had given only
one phone interview since. On Tuesday,
some media had reported he had slipped
into a coma. The rumors upset alarmist
pundits and forced leftist politicians
from nations dependent on his aid even
further into a hermetic silence.
 
As the firebrand leader’s illness drags
into its third week, leaders of tiny
Caribbean nations and South American
strongholds alike closely watch Chávez’s
condition. Countries across the region
— Cuba and Nicaragua in particular — are
beholden to the oil-rich nation and the
bounty of its ailing leader, who is the
author and bankroller of 21st century
socialism in Latin America. Should a
debilitating illness — or election, for
that matter — cause a drastic change in
leadership in Venezuela, the
repercussions could be severe. But
experts caution that even if Chávez’s
sickness is more serious than his
government admits, there is no reason to
suspect that allies in his
administration won’t continue his
foreign policy of providing deeply
subsidized barrels of oil to friendly
nations. Chávez sends Cuba 100,000
barrels of oil daily in exchange for
in-kind services such as doctors and
sports trainers. Not since the Soviet
Union’s collapse has Cuba been so
dependent on another nation’s subsidies,
and so deeply at risk of economic crisis
should the support end. |
|
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE: VENEZUELA'S
ENDEAVORS AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING
DEEMED INSUFFICIENT
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--US
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton released the "2011
Trafficking in Persons Report." A total
of 184 countries, including the United
States, were examined in the paper and
it is concluded that as many as 27
million people might be living in
slavery throughout the world.
 
Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and
Saudi Arabia are among the countries
that do not make "significant efforts"
to combat human trafficking, according
to an annual report released on Monday
by the US Department of State. US
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton released the "2011 Trafficking
in Persons Report," where 184 countries
are examined, including the United
States. In the paper it is stated that
as many as 27 million people might be
living in slavery throughout the world,
Efe reported.
The US Department of State estimated that 100,000 out
of that total live in the United States,
where they are taken under false
promises of a better life. "Trafficking
is not just a problem of human bondage.
It fuels the epidemic of gender-based
violence," Clinton said. She added that
human trafficking unfortunately hurts
women and girls "disproportionately." |
|
IACHR SUES VENEZUELA FOR MURDER OF HUMAN
RIGHTS ADVOCATE
Paris,
france--The
Venezuelan government will be
liable to the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights for the killing of human
rights activist Joe Castillo
 
Although the judgments of the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights in
the claims against Venezuela due to the
procedure used by the Supreme Tribunal
of Justice (TSJ) to remove former Judge
Mercedes Chocrón or the political
disqualification of Leopoldo López, the
former Mayor of Chacao, by the
Comptroller General Office have been
disregarded, Venezuela must prepare for
another legal action at the IACHR.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights announced
that it has filed a complaint against
Venezuela with the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights, based in San José
(Costa Rica) for the murder of Joe
Castillo, a human rights advocate of the
Apostolic Vicariate of Machiques, Zulia
state, in 2003. Castillo was intercepted
by two men riding a motorcycle who shot
him while driving his car. No one has
been prosecuted after seven years of the
murder. |
|
LIBYAN MINISTERS IN TUNISIA FOR TALKS
WITH FOREIGN PARTIES
TUNIS,
TUNISIA--Libyan
Foreign Minister Abdel Ati al-Obeidi
and two other ministers were in
Tunisia to negotiate with 'several
foreign sides,' Tunisia's official news
agency reported on Monday. It was not
immediately clear if the negotiations
involved a possible peace deal with
rebels fighting to end Muammar Gaddafi's
four-decade rule.
 
Abdel Hafiz Ghoga,
vice chairman of the rebel National
Transitional Council (NTC), said last
week the rebel leadership had been in
indirect contact with Gaddafi's
government about a possible peace deal.
Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi was on
the southern Tunisian island of Djerba,
near the border with Libya, and had been
joined by Health Minister Ahmed Hijazi
and Social Affairs Minister Ibrahim
Sherif, the TAP news agency reported.
The rebels recently
confirmed that they are involved in
indirect talks with the government of
Moamer Gaddafi. The rebels' conditions
for ending their offensive against
Gaddafi's regime is that Gaddafi and his
family be excluded from any future
government. Gaddafi, who has ruled
Libya for 42 years, is clinging to power
in the face of more than three months of
armed struggle by the opposition and
NATO military operations aimed at
protecting civilians. |
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IMF NAMES FRANCE'S CHRISTINE LAGARDE AS
DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTION
PARIS,
FRANCE--Christine
Lagarde, the finance minister of
France, was voted to the post of
managing director of the International
Monetary Fund on Tuesday. Lagarde, the
first woman to run the global financial
institution, will succeed Dominique
Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested last
month in New York on sexual assault
charges. The vote on the influential
post came at a crucial time for the IMF,
which has been working closely with the
European Union and the European Central
Bank to provide financial support for
Greece and other troubled European
economies.
 
Speaking in Paris,
Lagarde called on the Greek government
to set aside political differences and
approve the additional austerity
measures that are a condition of its
next installment loans from the IMF and
EU. She also suggested that Greece's
creditors, namely French and German
banks, must be willing to make
concessions. "It must be done in a
concerted, collective way," she said in
comments translated from French. "All
the lenders must come to the bedside of
Greece and Greece must itself take
charge in a responsible manner."
Lagarde will serve
a five-year term as the global financial
institution's managing director and
chairman beginning next month, the IMF
said. "I am deeply honored by the trust
placed in me by the Executive Board,"
Lagarde said in a statement. The only
other contender was Mexican Central Bank
chief Agustin Carstens, who was
supported by Australia, Canada and
Mexico. The IMF said it selected
Lagarde by a consensus vote. "I would
like to thank the Fund's global
membership warmly for the broad-based
support I have received," said Lagarde.
"I would also like to express my respect
and esteem for my colleague and friend,
Agustín Carstens." |
|
AFGHANISTAN'S TOP BANKER RUNS FOR HIS
LIFE
KABUL,
AFGHANISTAN--Afghanistan’s
top banker, Abdul Qadeer Fitrat,
who is alleged to have played a role in
the country’s largest financial scandal,
has fled to the U.S. The, now,
former-governor of Afghanistan’s Central
Bank is holed up in a Northern Virginia
hotel. Contacted by phone, Fitrat said
he left Afghanistan because his life had
been threatened and that the Karzai
government was refusing to prosecute
those allegedly involved in fraudulent
loans. The near collapse of Kabul Bank,
the national’s largest private bank,
involved years of malfeasance by
politically connected bank shareholders,
including the brothers of both Mr.
Karzai and the first vice president,
Muhammad Qasim Fahim, who along with
other shareholders took more than $900
million in loans, many of them interest
free with no repayment plans, writes the
New York Times.
 
The bank’s troubles
and the government’s failure to deal
with them was one of several issues that
caused the International Monetary Fund
to suspend its program with Afghanistan,
which had the effect of halting the
country’s access to some foreign aid
money and threatens to reduce sharply
the country’s ability to access the
Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund,
administered by the World Bank. A few
weeks back the Guardian followed the
corrupt and moneyed trail that ensnared
both businessmen and politicians, and
brought Afghanistan to the brink of
financial ruin: The most notorious of
Kabul Bank’s “investments” are in Dubai,
where [Khalilullah Ferozi, the former
chief executive of the bank] says $160m
was spent on 35 luxury villas on the
Palm Jumeirah, the artificial sand banks
that jut out in “fronds” into the
Arabian Sea.
Many of the houses
were registered in [the bank's former
chairman, Sherkhan Farnood's] name and
handed out to bank shareholders. U.S.
commanders say with near unanimity that
corruption drives Afghans into the arms
of the Taliban. For months, officials in
the Obama Administration pressed Karzai
to indict, or at least get rid of, some
of the corrupt people around him. But
now the Americans seem to have given up
hope that Karzai will take action
against any of his officials. “We have
had long conversations about this with
President Karzai,” Richard Holbrooke,
Obama’s special envoy, told me in Kabul
not long before he died, in December.
“They’re completely useless.” |
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IN VENEZUELA, TORTURE IS NOT ALL A
MATTER OF THE PAST, IT CONTINUES UNDER
DICTATOR CHAVEZ'S REGIME
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--While
extolling the National Assembly (AN)
decision to draft a law to prevent human
rights abuses between 1958 and 1998 from
remaining unpunished, NGO Red de
Apoyo por la Justicia y la Paz (Support
Network for Justice and Peace) lamented
that the Parliament has limited the
scope of the law to prior governments.
"Torture did not finish in 1998, but
continues in the country, regrettably,"
said physician Fiorella Perona, the
NGO's spokeswoman. For her remarks, she
relied on the findings of the latest
report prepared on abuses and
ill-treatment by police agents and
military officers. Based on the report,
last year 36 people were tortured; this
means a 12.5% hike above 32 events
recorded in 2009.
 
In its report, the Network also advised
that so far this year, 16 additional
claims have been received. It put the
blame on two primary issues: "political
unwillingness" of the legislature to
draft a law intended to punish such
"shameful" practices even though, as set
forth in the fourth temporary provision
of the Constitution, it should be done
the year following the entry into force
of the law, and rampant impunity. On the
latter, attorney Laura Roldán, also a
spokeswoman of the NGO, specified that
out of 243 events of torture learned
since 2003, in none of them involved
officials have been punished. "In the
absence of punishment, there are not
reasons either not to commit again such
crimes," she regretted. The Scientific,
Penal and Criminology Investigation
Agency (Cicpc) was again, for the third
year in a row, top in the list of the
most denounced agencies for engaging in
torture with seven events in 2010 and 12
events thus far this year.
 
Over the past few weeks, the scientific
police performance has been harshly
questioned following the death of three
detainees, some of them presumably
battered by Cicpc agents and others
suffocated without being aided by
guardians. The spokeswomen requested to
fully carry the inquiry until its
logical solution and to prevent the
involvement of any Cicpc agent. "We
expected that something like that was
going to happen," Roldán acknowledged.
When queried into the reason, she
answered: "Because of the claims of
mistreatment that we have received
against the officials of that agency,
particularly after the implementation of
Operation Crack Down on Crime."
Nevertheless, she hailed the decision of
the Public Prosecutor Office to
prosecute pathologist Franklin Pérez.
The expert concluded that he people who
died in the Cicpc cells passed away for
lack of air. Interestingly, in the
report, the one-year-old National Police
is already the target of two claims for
torture. |
|
VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT TROOPS SEIZED
WEAPONS AND DRUGS IN EL RODEO PRISON
COMPLEX
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Thousands
of heavily armed government troops have
continued to lay siege to riot-torn
prison complex OF EL RODEO, amid
warnings from prisoners of a "massacre"
inside. On the fourth day of a major
government assault on the El Rodeo
prison complex, relatives continued to
surround the unit seeking news of their
husbands, brothers and sons. Human
rights activists claimed they had
received text messages from inmates
inside the jail containing urgent pleas
to the government for their lives to be
spared. The text messages described how
the national guard had fired at inmates
who had entered the prison's courtyard
after waving white flags, and with hands
above their heads in a clear sign of
surrender.
 
In an interview with a Venezuela's
private television network, one prisoner
who escaped El Rodeo on Monday claimed
security forces were preparing to commit
a massacre inside the jail. "The guards
want to carry out a massacre in El
Rodeo," the prisoner, named as Grevis
José Vargas Machado claimed. "They
killed several [prisoners] when we were
leaving [the prison]. "They want to
finish off El Rodeo 2. They want a
massacre. They want to kill everyone and
everything." So far the government has
only confirmed three deaths during the
four-day operation. But one inmate, who
spoke to Associated Press by mobile
phone, claimed there had been 17 deaths.
Other witnesses outside the jail on
Monday suggested the true figure could
be even higher.
Venezuela's interior minister, Tarek El Aissami,
admitted that it was impossible to
establish an accurate death toll while
his troops were still fighting to bring
the unit under control. He blamed the
clashes on small groups of "violent
mafias" operating within the jail
complex. The recent violence at El Rodeo
began on 12 June, when some 22 people
were killed as rival gangs clashed.
Since midnight on Friday thousands of
Venezuelan troops have been engaged in
an intense battle intended to reclaim
control of the complex. After almost 10
hours of intense gunfights, El Rodeo 1
was brought back under government
control. The national guard said it had
seized goods including seven automatic
FAL rifles, thousands of rounds of
ammunition, eight hand grenades, 20
other guns, bullets, 45kg of cocaine,
12kg of marijuana and 100 mobile phones.
The complex's second wing, El Rodeo 2,
remains out of control. Throughout
Monday sporadic rounds of gunfire could
be heard coming from inside the unit. |
|
VENEZUELA'S PRISON POPULATION UP 110
PERCENT SINCE 2007
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--In
assessing the 12 years of Venezuelan
DICTATOR Hugo Chávez's revolution,
the government claims to have boosted
food production, the school enrolment
rate and aid to the poor. However,
other indicators have climbed in the
past few years as well. From 2007 to
2010, prison population in Venezuela
skyrocketed 110 percent to above 49,000
inmates, according to the annual report
and accounts of the Ministry of Interior
and Justice (MIJ). "At the end of last
year (2010), Venezuela had an
imprisonment rate of 154 detainees per
100,000 inhabitants, which is 40 units
higher than in 2009 and 68 units higher
than in 2008," read the report submitted
by Minister of Interior and Justice
Tareck El Aissami at the National
Assembly in February 2011.
 
To help lawmakers understand the true
meaning of these figures, the Ministry
of Interior and Justice provided data as
to the "legal status" of the inmates.
According to the report, 60 percent of
the prison population is awaiting final
judgment; and 59 percent of that total
is awaiting a preliminary hearing. A
preliminary hearing is a "proceeding
that is vital to define the legal status
of the person," the document read.
"Another important factor is the fact
that 81.5 percent of the total prison
population is being prosecuted or has
been convicted for the first time for
committing a crime," El Aissami said in
the report.
 
Without specifying the exact figure, the
MIJ highlighted that "a significant
percentage" of inmates are imprisoned
for "non-violent crimes." "This scenario
is far more serious as figures show that
a significant percentage of the inmates
has been convicted for such non-violent
crimes to serve prison terms under five
years. Prison sentences under five years
should be replaced with measures
different from imprisonment, and should
be treated differently from the
judiciary and criminal points of view,"
the MIJ report stressed. In Chávez's
Venezuela, poverty remains the worst
curse. "About 68 percent of total
inmates belongs to the lowest
socio-economic strata," the MIJ annual
report and accounts acknowledged.
Further, El Aissami claimed in the
document that a Penitentiary System
Humanization Plan has helped cut "the
percentage of dead and wounded inmates
in our jails by 33 percent and 43
percent" in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
|
|
BRAZILIAN DEFEATED MORATINOS AND WILL
BECOME NEXT CHIEF OF UN FOOD AND
AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
UNITED
NATIONS, NEW YORK--A
former Brazilian food security minister,
JOSE GRAZIANO DA SILVA,
will
become the first person from Latin
America to head the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), the United Nations
agency leading international efforts in
the fight against hunger. Da
Silva, who has served as a senior
regional official for FAO since 2006,
will take up the post of
Director-General on 1 January next year
after beating five other candidates
during voting today at the agency's
headquarters in Rome.
 
Graziano da Silva,
received 92 votes from 180 votes cast by
FAO Member States during the second
round of balloting, narrowly defeating
Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaube, a former
foreign minister of Spain. Four other
candidates – Franz Fischler (Austria),
Indroyono Soesilo (Indonesia), Mohammad
Saeid Noori Naeini (Iran) and Abdul
Latif Rashid (Iraq) – all withdrew from
the contest after receiving fewer votes
during the first round of balloting
earlier today. Da
Silva, 61, will be only the eighth
person to lead an agency that was
established in 1945 and he will be the
first person from his region.
In a speech
yesterday in which he outlined his
proposed programme as FAO chief,
Da Silva pledged to
work towards five main goals:
eradicating hunger, promoting a shift to
sustainable food production, ensuring
greater fairness in global food
management; swiftly implementing agreed
internal FAO reforms, and expanding
South-South cooperation. “My track
record shows that I can bring to the
Organization the leadership that it
needs,” he said. “I have spent my whole
working life dealing with issues related
to agriculture, food security and
sustainable development that are central
to FAO's mandate. “Not only have I
taught and written about them, but as
[the] first minister of food security in
Brazil, I have led the design and
implementation of the Zero Hunger
programme that has enabled millions of
people to escape from hunger.” He said
the recent economic and food crises
should serve as a wake-up call for
countries that they must work together
to ensure that everyone has access to
food. Da
Silva's term will expire on 31 July
2015, but he will be eligible to run for
a second, four-year term. He succeeds
Jacques Diouf, who has served as FAO
Director-General since 1994. |
|
three people dead in peru airport clash
lima,
peru--At
least three people were killed and 12
injured in clashes with riot police
as anti-mining demonstrators attempted
to occupy an airport in southeastern
Peru, hospital officials said. An
estimated 1000 protesters, mostly local
Aymara Indian farmers, were dispersed by
some 100 police at Inca Manco Capac
international airport in Juliaca on
Friday. The three dead, including a
protester and a passer-by watching the
scene, died from gunshot wounds, Juliaca
hospital doctor Percy Casaperalta told
AFP in this city of 200,000 people. Some
of the protesters managed to breach the
security barrier and penetrate the
airport in hopes of disrupting air
traffic, while others burned grasslands
around the airport.
 
Airport
authorities were forced to cancel flight
departures and arrivals due to the
clashes on this second day of a 48-hour
strike in Juliaca by labour unions and
farmers. The city is a popular tourist
site on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the
highest navigable lake in the world, and
hundreds of foreign tourists were unable
to leave the city. Schools and markets
were also closed, while public
transportation ground to a halt and
protesters set up road blocks. The Puno
region has been in the grips of a wave
of protests against mining projects, led
primarily by the Aymara Indians, a
majority ethnic group in this
southeastern part of the country. They
are demanding an end to all mining
activity in the region, one of the
poorest in Peru. Protest leader Walter
Aduviri is in Lima for a dialogue with
the government but the talks have yet to
reach a settlement.
For
three weeks in May, the protesters
blocked vehicle traffic between Peru and
Bolivia, and then cut off all access to
Puno, population 120,000, for a week.
Protests have since spread to the
provinces of Azangaro, Melgar and now
Juliaca city. The protests began as a
demand to revoke a silver mining
concession granted to Canada-based Bear
Creek Mining Corporation, fearing it
will pollute the water and leave few
local benefits. They then expanded to
include opposition to other area mines,
and now include opposition to the
Inambari project, an ambitious plan to
damn several Andean rivers and build
what would become one of the largest
hydroelectric power plants in South
America. |
|
ISRAEL WARNS JOURNALISTS NOT TO BOARD
GAZA FLOTILLA
JERUSALEM,
ISRAEL--Israel
warned foreign journalists on Sunday
they could be barred from the country
for 10 years
if they board a new flotilla that plans
to challenge an Israeli naval blockade
of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. In a
statement sent by email to Reuters and
other international news organizations,
Oren Helman, director of Israel's
Government Press Office, said
participation in the flotilla would be
"an intentional violation" of Israeli
law. A year ago, nine Turkish activists,
including one with dual U.S.-Turkish
nationality, were killed by Israeli
soldiers who raided a Gaza-bound aid
convoy and were confronted by passengers
wielding clubs and knives.
 
Pro-Palestinian
activists have said ships carrying aid
to the Gaza Strip could depart from
European ports in the coming days.
Helman said that sailing in a new
flotilla "is liable to lead to
participants being denied entry into the
State of Israel for ten years, to the
impoundment of their equipment and to
additional sanctions." Israel has made
clear it will enforce a naval blockade
it says is aimed at stopping more
weaponry from reaching Hamas, an
Islamist group shunned by the West over
its refusal to recognize Israel,
renounce violence and accept existing
peace deals. Palestinians say the
measure is illegal and is helping to
strangle Gaza's underdeveloped economy.
"I implore you to avoid taking part in
this provocative and dangerous event,
the purpose of which is to undermine
Israel's right to defend itself and to
knowingly violate Israeli law," Helman
wrote in the email, asking Israel-based
journalists to pass along its contents
to their editorial boards overseas.
At least one
Israeli journalist, a reporter for the
left-wing Israeli Haaretz newspaper,
plans to sail in a Canadian ship in the
flotilla, according to an article
published on the daily's website on
Sunday. Israeli citizens are banned by
Israel from entering the Gaza Strip. In
response to Helman's warning, the
Jerusalem-based Foreign Press
Association said in a statement: "The
government's threat to punish
journalists covering the Gaza flotilla
sends a chilling message to the
international media and raises serious
questions about Israel's commitment to
freedom of the press. "Journalists
covering a legitimate news event should
be allowed to do their jobs without
threats and intimidation. We urge the
government to reverse its decision
immediately," the association said. |
|
HOUSE REBUKES PRESIDENT OBAMA ON LIBYA,
STOPS SHORT OF FUNDING CUTOFF
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
House on Friday delivered its strongest
rebuke yet to President Obama over his
handling of the U.S. military
intervention in Libya, refusing
to endorse the U.S. operation three
months after it began. But the House
stopped short of stripping funding for
the mission. In the last of two votes
Friday afternoon, the House rejected a
Republican-authored bill to strike
funding for the Libya operation. The
House voted 238-180 against it, with 89
Republicans opposing. The vote ensured
that, at least for the moment, the Obama
administration has the money to sustain
its involvement in the NATO-led campaign
-- though the funding bill was unlikely
to pass in the Senate anyway. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton said afterward
that the funding vote sends an important
message about the need to continue the
mission.
  However, the vote came after the House, in a
295-123 decision, rejected a resolution
to "authorize" the mission in Libya --
even a limited operation with no ground
troops. One-hundred-and-fifteen
Democrats and only eight Republicans
voted for the proposal; in a blow to
Obama, 70 Democrats voted against it.
Though that resolution is non-binding,
it represents the most definitive
statement the chamber has made about the
conflict. White House Press Secretary
Jay Carney said the administration was
"disappointed" by that vote. "We think
now is not the time to send the kind of
mixed message that it sends," he said.
Taken together with proposals in the
Senate, the House measures represent an
accelerating move in Congress toward
formally weighing in on Libya after
months on the relative sidelines. Ahead
of the votes, lawmakers delivered
impassioned arguments on the House
floor, with Democrats and Republicans
joining together on both sides of the
debate. "We have no business in Libya,"
declared Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas,
reprising an anti-war argument heard
often during the height of the Iraq war.
"We're there because we don't like
Muammar Qaddafi. Well, there are a lot
of bad guys in the world, and if we
start picking them off one at a time, we
will be at war with most of the world."
Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the president was
seemingly required to seek congressional
authorization within two months or
withdraw troops within three months.
That deadline passed, but the Obama
administration argued that it never
needed authorization because the
NATO-led mission in Libya did not
constitute hostilities. That argument
angered many lawmakers. A New York Times
report that said Obama overruled some of
his legal advisers further incensed
members of Congress. "The war in Libya
is illegal, unconstitutional and
unwarranted. It must end," Ohio Democrat
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, said. In a
last-ditch effort Thursday, Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with
rank-and-file Democrats to explain the
mission and discuss the implications if
the House votes to cut off funds. The
administration requested the closed-door
meeting. Minnesota Democrat Rep. Tim
Walz said Clinton apologized for not
coming to Congress earlier. But he said
she warned about the implications of a
House vote to cut off money. "The
secretary expressed her deep concern
that you're probably not on the right
track when Qaddafi supports your
efforts," Walz said.
|
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FRENCH TROOPS TO PROGRESSIVELY LEAVE
AFGHANISTAN
PARIS,
FRANCE--French
President Nicolas Sarkozy's office
has announced the progressive withdrawal
of France's troops from Afghanistan.
France will pull its 4,000 troops out of
Afghanistan on the same staggered
timetable as the US withdrawal,
President Nicolas Sarkozy said on
Thursday, helping pave the way for
drawdowns by other allies. French
President Sarkozy announced in a
statement on Thursday morning, after
speaking with Obama, that in line with
the American strategy, France too would
begin a "gradual withdrawal" of its
troops in Afghanistan. According to the
statement from the Elysée Palace, Obama
called Sarkozy to discuss their “common
engagement in Afghanistan” before giving
his address. “France shares the American
analysis and objectives and is pleased
about President Obama’s decision,” the
statement read.
  France's withdrawal will take place in coordination
with allies and Afghan officials and "in
a proportional manner comparable to the
withdrawal of American troops,"
Sarkozy's office said. Sarkozy and his
cabinet also reaffirmed that France
would “remain fully engaged with its
allies alongside the Afghan people to
see the transition process through,”
according to the statement. Since the
end of 2001, France, that currently has
4,000 troops in Afghanistan, has lost 62
French soldiers who died in the mission.
Nine of those deaths have been this
year, making 2011 one of the deadliest
years for the French military in
Afghanistan. A full withdrawal of
coalition troops from Afghanistan is
expected by summer of 2014.
  Obama announced an initial drawdown of 10,000 troops in
two phases with 5,000 troops coming home
this summer and 5,000 more by the end of
the year. An additional 20,000-plus are
to follow by September 2012. In a speech
detailing the start of a much-awaited
troop drawdown, signalling a major
strategy shift, US President Barack
Obama said that by the summer of 2012,
all of the 33,000 additional US troops
he ordered in Afghanistan in 2009 will
be withdrawn. Britain, France to follow
same strategy. President Barack Obama
said all of the 33,000 additional or
“surge” forces would be pulled out by
the summer of 2012 as the “tide of war”
was receding, he said as he announced
the start of US troop withdrawals from
Afghanistan, The US currently has about
100,000 troops in Afghanistan, including
the surge troops that were dispatched
following Obama’s 2009 speech at the
West Point military academy in New York. |
|
THOUSANDS OF SYRIAN PROTESTERS TAKE TO
THE STREETS AS CRACKDOWN ESCALATES
DAMASCUS,
SYRIA--In
a weekly ritual of defiance,
thousands of protesters took to Syria's
streets Friday calling for the downfall
of President Bashar Assad's autocratic
regime, despite a bloody military
crackdown that has failed to silence a
pro-democracy movement that has now
lasted more than 100 days. Thousands
marched in Amouda and Qamishli in the
northeast and in other provinces,
Syria-based human rights activist
Mustafa Osso said. Activists reported a
heavy military presence to squelch
protests elsewhere. The Local
Coordination Committees, which track the
Syrian protests, reported military
trucks Friday in areas including the
Damascus suburbs of Zabadani and Barzeh.
In the central city of Homs, all roads
leading to the city center were reported
blocked.
  The protests, which have occurred every Friday after
weekly Muslim prayers, come as Syrian
refugees continue to stream across the
border to safe havens in Turkey to
escape a military sweep in Syria's
northwest. More than 1,500 Syrian
refugees crossed into neighboring Turkey
on Thursday alone, boosting the number
sheltered in Turkey to more than 11,700.
International condemnation on Damascus
was mounting steadily. The European
Union announced Thursday it was slapping
new sanctions on the Syrian regime and
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton warned Damascus to pull its
troops back from the Turkish border,
where concerns grew of possible
confrontations with Turkish troops.
Citing residents on the ground, Osso
said the military has deployed heavily
in areas across the border from Turkey
and set up checkpoints. He said the few
thousand people who had been on the
Syrian side of the border had all fled
into Turkey. "The few who did not were
arrested," he said, adding 100 people
were arrested in the past two days.
  Anticipating an exodus from Syria's second city,
Aleppo, Turkish officials were setting
up a sixth camp with up to 800 tents
near a border crossing. The Syrian
opposition says 1,400 people have been
killed in a relentless government
crackdown on dissent. The Syrian regime
blames foreign conspirators and thugs
for the unrest, but the protesters deny
any foreign influence in their movement,
during which they say authorities have
detained 10,000 people. Syria has banned
all but a few foreign journalists and
restricted local media, making it nearly
impossible to independently confirm the
accounts. In Brussels, the EU said it
had expanded its anti-Syrian sanctions
list, targeting seven more individuals
and four companies, bringing to 34 the
number of people and entities faced with
an asset freeze and travel ban,
including Assad. The EU also has an
embargo on sales of arms and equipment
that can be used to suppress
demonstrations. |
|
LIBYAN DICTATOR MUAMMAR GADHAFI ACCUSES
NATO OF MURDER
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA --
According to DICTATOR MUAMMAR GadHafi,
"the three criminals" - the US, the UK
and France, are responsible for
the deaths of the family members of his
close aide. While NATO commanders insist
that they were targeting a "command and
control centre", the Libyan government
claims that an airstrike destroyed a
house full of civilians. Describing NATO
forces as “barbarians”, and President
Obama as an Arab “sold out to America”,
Gadhafi seems to successfully forget
about the shelling of Misrata and about
killings, rapes and other crimes still
being committed on his orders against
his own people.
 
According to an official statement from
the Libyan government, five houses were
hit during a NATO attack in Surman – a
town located west of Tripoli, resulting
in the deaths of 15 people, including 3
children. A spokesman for the Libyan
government also stated that among the
victims of the airstrike was the family
of Colonel Gadhafi’s close ally and
adviser - al-Khuwailidi al-Humaidi. On
Thursday, Muammar Gadhafi called on the
UN Security Council to begin an
independent investigation. "The Security
Council should hold an urgent meeting to
discuss the matter and stop this
barbaric attack," said Gadhafi in a
nationally televised address. However
NATO officials stated that the target
for the attack was a communication
outpost involved in coordinating attacks
on Lybian civilians by the government
forces. "While NATO cannot confirm
reports of casualties, we would regret
any loss of civilian life and we go to
great lengths to avoid civilian
casualties," says the NATO website,
"This is in stark contrast to the
Gadhafi regime, which continues its
policy of systematic and sustained
violence against the people of Libya."
Gadhafi’s rejection of this claim didn’t come as a
surprise. "This is not a military
factory, a munitions factory or a
military port or a fortified castle,"
said the Libyan leader. "It has no
military identity." While blaming
everybody – from the NATO commanders to
the Security Council, which authorized
the use of military force to protect
Libyan civilians Gadhafi still singled
out the US President. "Originally,
you're from Africa and originally Arab
as well," said Gaddafi, addressing
Obama. "You sold out to America. Where
will you go? On Judgment Day, you will
be in hell. Our dead will be in heaven,
and your dead will be in hell. You ought
to feel ashamed." While promising divine
retribution for his opponents and
describing them as “foreign barbarians”,
Gadhafi seems to have completely
forgotten about the violent suppression
of unarmed anti-government Libyan
demonstrators, the heavy shelling of
Misrata and the countless civilians
killed by government troops. According
to multiple sources, such as the UN
refugee agency, the International
Criminal Court and Libyan NGOs,
Gaddafi’s forces are even using rape as
a war weapon against civilians. |
|
ONE OF hugo chavez's brotherS says that
the dictator may return to
venezuela within 12 days
caracas,
venezuela--dictator
Hugo Chavez is recuperating well from
his surgery in Cuba and is
expected to return to Venezuela within
12 days, one of his brothers said
Wednesday. Adan Chavez told state
television that "it's not clear" exactly
when his younger brother would return,
but the leader expects to depart for
Venezuela within 10 to 12 days. "The
president is recovering in a
satisfactory manner," he said. "The
president is a strong man."
 
Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba for a
pelvic abscess June 10. The condition is
an accumulation of pus that can have
various causes, including infection or
surgical complications. Neither Chavez
nor doctors treating him have disclosed
what caused the abscess. Venezuelan Vice
President Elias Jaua said Chavez is
attending to his day-to-day government
duties while recuperating. "He's signing
documents for social security retirees
and resources for the education
ministry, reading reports," Jaua told
Union Radio. "The president is following
all current events in the country."
Chavez's absence and his relative silence has concerned
some of his supporters. The loquacious
leader has communicated by telephone
with program hosts on state television
several times since the surgery, but
Venezuelans are accustomed to the
president's near daily speeches and
television appearances that can last
several hours. |
|
IEA RELEASES 60 MILLION BARREL OF OIL
RESERVES TO PROP UP WORLD ECONOMY
PARIS,
FRANCE--
Oil
consumer nations on Thursday
announced a surprise release from
strategic government petroleum
stockpiles in a bid to push down fuel
prices and underpin the global economy.
The 28-member International Energy
Agency said it would release 60 million
barrels a day over an initial 30 days to
fill the gap left by the disruption to
Libya's output. The United States will
provide half the volumes from its huge
727-million barrel crude reserve, about
1.5 days of U.S. consumption, with
Europe supplying 30 pct in crude and
refined products and the rest from
Pacific OECD nations. The release, only
the third in the IEA's 37-year history,
is a blow for the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries and in
particular for its biggest producer,
Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally.
 
Despite Saudi efforts, the producer
cartel failed to raise output at a
meeting on June 8 leaving Riyadh to pump
more unilaterally. Before the OPEC
meeting Riyadh had discussed a crude
swap with the United States that would
have seen U.S. reserves supplied to
Europe, but failed to reach agreement.
"The move is significant as it
represents a reach by member countries
for the remedy of last resort to high
prices," said U.S. energy analyst John
Kilduff at Again Capital. "Clearly the
energy price spike is being cited as the
reason for the economic slowdown and
this is reaction to that. The Libyan
outage provides good cover." OPEC member
Libya was exporting about 1.2 million
bpd before the rebellion that brought
its oil industry to a standstill. "This
supply disruption has been underway for
some time and its effect has become more
pronounced as it has continued," said
the IEA
Libya was likely to remain off the market for the rest
of 2011, it said. "Greater tightness in
the oil market threatens to undermine
the fragile global economic recovery,"
the IEA said. Oil prices traded $7.07 a
barrel lower for benchmark Brent crude
at $107.14 and U.S. crude fell $4.68 a
barrel to $91.73 a barrel. With world
oil stocks at comfortably high levels by
historical standards, oil analysts were
divided on whether prices would fall
further or not. "I think the IEA is
trying to act like a central bank," said
Dominick Chirichella at New York's
Energy Management Institute. "I don't
think anyone will be comfortable being
long oil ... We may see (U.S.) oil
trading in the $80s very soon." But Carl
Larry at Blue Ocean brokerage in New
York said prices might not have much
further to fall. "This is an economic
stimulus ... in oil dollars," said
Larry. "On the other hand I think we
have confirmed the bottom of the oil
market here at $109 for Brent and $90
for WTI." The decision appears to
represent a departure for the IEA from
previous emergency releases and will not
go down well with OPEC. |
|
ARGENTINA'S PRESIDENT CRISTINA FERNANDEZ
SEEKS A SECOND TERM
BUENOS
AIRES, ARGENTINA--Argentina’s
Peronist president, Cristina Fernandez,
announced Tuesday that she will stand
for a second four-year term in the Oct.
23 election. “I have always known what I
had to do because I have always had a
high sense of political responsibility,”
she said in a nationally broadcast
address from the presidential palace.
 
Dozens of Peronists invited to the event
chanted “for Cristina, re-election” as
she described her commitment to
Argentina as “irrevocable.” Fernandez
also invoked the legacy of husband and
presidential predecessor Nestor
Kirchner, who died suddenly last October
of a heart ailment.
Polls show Fernandez with a lead over the other
hopefuls: former President Eduardo
Duhalde, who heads a dissident Peronist
faction; centrist lawmaker Ricardo
Alfonsin, the son of deceased former
head of state Raul Alfonsin; and
socialist Hermes Binner, governor of
Santa Fe province. The parties are
supposed to select their candidates in
simultaneous primaries set for Aug. 14.
If no presidential candidate wins a
majority on Oct. 23, the top two
vote-getters will face each other in a
Nov. 20 runoff. |
|
INQUIRY REQUESTED BY THE OPPOSITION INTO
VENEZUELAN DONATION TO THE MOTHERS OF
PLAZA DE MAYO
BUENOS
AIRES, ARGENTINA--Opposition
Propuesta Republicana (PRO), a
conservative party, on Tuesday
requested the Argentine government to
investigate whether there were alleged
illicit donations from Venezuela to the
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, in the midst
of a judicial scandal surrounding the
former representative of said NGO.
 
The request made to the Argentine
Executive Office came in response to a
letter delivered last week in Buenos
Aires by Venezuelan deputies Miguel
Ángel Rodríguez and Carlos Berrizbeitia
on the alleged donation of money from
the government of Hugo Chávez to the
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, PRO deputy
Julián Obiglio told Efe. Berrizbeitia
and Rodríguez claimed that the alleged
donation is not included in Venezuela's
official budget, said Obiglio, the
author of the letter requesting
information from the government of
Cristina Fernández, which has supported
the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo.
In this regard, he said they asked the Argentine
Executive Office to produce the
statements of accounts that the
Foundation Mothers of Plaza de Mayo has
to provide every year to the General
Inspectorate of Justice. He also
requested the Argentine Central Bank to
send the foundation's settlement of
foreign exchange to certify whether the
ONG received a donation from Venezuela
and "whether that money was used in the
programs for which it was intended,"
said Obiglio. |
|
25 KILLED IN RARE ATTACK IN IRAQ'S
SHIITE SOUTH
BAGHdad,
iraq--
Twin explosions including a suicide
bombing killed at least 25 people
and wounded dozens early Tuesday near a
government compound in a rare attack in
the Shiite heartland, Iraqi officials
said. The blasts came as Iraq's top
political factions started to discuss in
earnest whether to ask the U.S. to leave
some of its troops to stay beyond the
Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline because of
the security situation. While violence
is well below what it was during the
years that followed the 2003 U.S.-led
invasion, militants are still able to
launch deadly attacks. The ongoing
violence has led to concerns about what
happens when the 47,000 remaining U.S.
troops are withdrawn.
 
Still, such violence is rare in the
mostly Shiite city of Diwaniyah, which
is 80 miles (130 kilometers) outside of
Baghdad and well south of most of the
insurgent strongholds. There have been
few suicide bombings there over the
years. Provincial Gov. Salim Hussein
Alwan said he was leaving his house when
a suicide bomber rammed into a police
checkpoint nearby. "I was in the garage
preparing to leave when the attacker hit
the police barrier outside and crashed
with their vehicle," Alwan told The
Associated Press in a phone interview.
The suicide bomber also crashed into a police vehicle
that had munitions inside, said Alwan
and Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanimy, who
commands military operations in
Qadisiyah province where Diwaniyah is
located. That caused the police vehicle
to explode. A police officer and a
member of the provincial council, Thamir
Naji, said there were two suicide
bombers driving vehicles who blew
themselves up. At least 37 people were
wounded in the blasts at about 7:30
a.m., when security forces were changing
shifts, officials said. Maj. Gen.
Jeffrey Buchanan said U.S. forces,
including an explosives ordinance team,
were dispatched to assist Iraqis. Iraqi
officials said al-Qaida is trying to
increase its presence in the area
"The recent reports indicate that
al-Qaida exists in all of the Middle
Euphrates provinces, especially in
Diwaniyah," al-Ghanimy said, referring
to the river that runs south through
Iraq. "It is a message to prove that it
exists and can reach its targets." |
|
THE COURAGEOUS LADIES IN WHITE BACK
CUBAN CARDINAL JAIME ORTEGA
HAVANA,
CUBA--The
COURAGEOUS dissident Ladies in White
expressed support for Cuban Cardinal
Jaime Ortega against the criticism of
Spanish conservative lawmaker Teofilo de
Luis of the Popular Party, or PP, about
the prelate’s role as mediator in the
process of freeing political prisoners
that began last year. The political
prisoners “were not forced” to accept
the offer of going to Spain in order to
leave prison, about which they were
consulted by the archbishop of Havana,
Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the island’s top
Catholic authority, the dissident
group’s spokeswoman Laura Pollan said.
“Many thought that going there was the
only choice if they wanted to leave
prison, and seeing that others were
there believed that, but in fact the
prisoner who says they forced him to go
is lying, because the proof is in the 13
who are still here in Cuba,” Pollan
said.
  Twelve of the 52 opposition members of the “Group of
75” who left prison as a result of the
unprecedented dialogue between the Cuban
government and the Catholic Church with
the support of the Spanish government
“are out on the street” in Cuba, Pollan
said. A total of 115 Cuban political
prisoners were released and sent to
Spain together with 647 family members
between July 2010 and April this year.
During a parliamentary debate in Spain,
PP lawmaker Teofilo de Luis described as
“merciless and shameful” the
collaboration of Cardinal Ortega in the
process of releasing political prisoners
and said that the prisoners “were not
given the choice of remaining in Cuba”
and were “forced into exile.”
The Archdiocese of Havana said in a note that the statement
by Luis was “absolutely false” and that
Cardinal Ortega told the prisoners
included in the process about their
imminent release and asked them whether
they wanted to go to Spain or not. “No
one forced any of the prisoners to leave
the country,” Pollan said, and as
examples cited the cases of Rafael
Ibarra, a political prisoner of another
group who refused to accept the
condition of leaving the country in
exchange for his freedom and is still
behind bars, and her own husband, Hector
Maseda, one the 12 who were freed even
though they decided to remain in Cuba.
After the Ladies in White made their
usual march after attending Mass at
Havana’s Santa Rita Church, their leader
said they will continue to demand the
release of political prisoners. “We
never asked that they go to another
country, our fight is for their freedom
and to get them out of prison,” she
said. |
|
FORMER TUNISIAN PRESIDENT AND HIS WIFE
SENTENCED IN ABSENTIA TO 35 YEARS IN
JAIL
TUNIS,
TUNISIA--A
Tunisian court sentenced former
president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in
absentia on Monday to 35 years in jail,
six months after his overthrow in a
revolution helped to inspire the "Arab
Spring." Ben Ali, who has been in Saudi
Arabia since he was forced from power,
was found guilty after just one day of
deliberation of theft and of illegally
possessing jewelry and large sums of
cash. The same sentence was handed down
to his wife Leila Trabelsi, a former
hairdresser whose lavish lifestyle and
clique of wealthy relatives were symbols
of the corruption of the Ben Ali era for
many Tunisians. Ben Ali and his wife
flew to Saudi Arabia on January 14 after
mass protests against his 23-year rule.
The Tunisian government said in February
it had asked Saudi Arabia to extradite
Ben Ali. During his time in office,
members of his extended family
accumulated fortunes while his security
forces routinely arrested anyone who
dared to dissent.
  Tunisia's revolt electrified millions across the Arab
world who suffer similarly from high
unemployment, rising prices and
repressive governments. Ben Ali's case
has been watched closely in Egypt, where
former president Hosni Mubarak is due to
stand trial over the killing of
protesters. In a statement issued by his
lawyers earlier on Monday, Ben Ali
denied all the charges against him,
saying that he was the victim of a
political plot. He said he had been
tricked into leaving the country. Judge
Touhami Hafian, who read out the verdict
and sentence in the Palace of Justice in
the Tunisian capital, also ruled that
Ben Ali and his wife would have to pay
fines totaling 91 million Tunisian
dinars ($65.6 million). The judge said
the verdict on other charges, relating
to illegal possession of drugs and
weapons, would be handed down on June
30, according to a Reuters reporter who
was in the courtroom.
During the hearing, a prosecutor had asked the
judge to hand down "the most severe
punishments for those who betrayed the
trust and stole the money of the people
for their personal gain .... They did
not stop stealing for 23 years." Ben
Ali's defense lawyers refused to comment
after the sentence was passed.
Abderrazak Kilani, a senior lawyer who
was not involved in the trial, told
Reuters: "They have been given the
heaviest sentence in this type of
case." Earlier, Ben Ali's lawyers had
given the first detailed account of the
events that led to his departure from
Tunisia. He was persuaded to get on a
plane that was taking his wife and
children to safety in Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia, but with the intention of
returning immediately, the statement
said. "He boarded the plane with his
family after ordering the crew to wait
for him in Jeddah. But after his arrival
in Jeddah, the plane returned to Tunisia
without waiting for him, contrary to his
orders. "He did not leave his post as
president of the republic and hasn't
fled Tunisia as he was falsely accused
of doing," the statement said. |
|
FRANCE TO OPEN EXTRADITION PROCESS FOR
FORMER PANAMANIAN DICTATOR MANUEL
NORIEGA
PARIS,
FRANCE--France
said on Monday it will begin
proceedings to extradite former
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to
Panama, after the United States gave its
consent. Panamanian strongman Manuel
Antonio Noriega takes part in a news
conference at the Atlapa center in this
file photo in Panama City October
11,1998.
  Noriega is in prison in France following his conviction
for laundering millions of euros into
French bank accounts and properties in
the 1980s, but Panama wants him
extradited so that he can serve
sentences in his homeland for assorted
crimes. Noriega, 77, served 20 years in
prison in the United States for drug
trafficking, money laundering and
racketeering before being extradited to
France in 2010, where he had been
sentenced in absentia in 1999 to seven
years in jail. He had been expected to
qualify for an early release. "The
consent of the United States opens the
administrative phase of the extradition
procedure of Manuel Noriega," the French
foreign ministry said in an online
briefing.
"The government is preparing the extradition decree
which will be notified to the concerned
party." It said Noriega would have a
month to launch any process to fight the
extradition. Born into poverty, Noriega
muscled his way to the top of Panama's
military in the early 1980s, became de
facto ruler of the Central American
country and maintained a firm grip on
power until being ousted by U.S. forces
in 1989. During his rule, Panama became
a major distribution platform for
cocaine from Colombian drug cartels,
with multi-million-dollar kickbacks
going straight to Noriega. |
|
U.S. AMBASSADOR KARL EIKENBERRY WARNS
AFGHAN PRESIDENT KARZAI OVER CRITICISM
OF WEST
KABUL,
AFGHANISTAN--The
U.S. ambassador to Kabul has issued a
thinly veiled warning to Afghan
President Hamid Karzai that harsh
criticisms of the West could jeopardize
the troops and funding critical to the
Afghan government's survival. Ambassador
Karl Eikenberry said he found comments
from "some" Afghan leaders "hurtful and
inappropriate," according to a
transcript of a speech released late on
Sunday. Although he did not mention
Karzai by name, the speech appeared to
be a direct response to a string of
verbal broadsides against Western troops
serving in Afghanistan and the
diplomatic and aid programs that
accompany them. In one recent fiery
speech Karzai warned that foreign
soldiers risked being seen as occupiers
because of civilian casualties they
caused. Last week he said the West was
polluting the country with weapons
containing toxic chemicals.
  Eikenberry said those comments left him ashamed and
speechless in front of the relatives of
U.S. war dead. "When I hear some of your
leaders call us occupiers, I cannot look
at these mourning parents, spouses, and
children in the eye and give them a
comforting reply," Eikenberry told an
audience of students and academics at
Herat University in western Afghanistan.
"When we hear ourselves being called
occupiers and worse, our pride is
offended and we begin to lose our
inspiration to carry on," he added, in a
personal addendum to a speech on
education and transition. But Karzai's
spokesman said some of the president's
comments had been misunderstood and
warned against "over-reacting" to
constructive criticism, saying that
Afghan people standing up for their own
interests should not be dubbed
offensive.
Karzai's spokesman said that in his controversial speech on
civilian casualties the president was
only warning western allies that their
image in his country was at risk, and
that details may have been lost in a bad
translation. "The president has never
termed international forces as occupying
forces ... He has said if the
bombardment of civilian homes and
civilians continue, there is a risk that
(this view of western troops as
occupiers) could become part of public
opinion in Afghanistan," Waheed Omer
said. But Omer also warned against
"over-reacting" to criticism, and added
that although effective assistance was
appreciated, the west had not come to
Afghanistan for altruistic reasons. "No
one can deny that international
community came to Afghanistan for the
sake of their own interests in the first
place. We as Afghans have every right
... to make sure that international
community's presence also serves the
interests of the people of Afghanistan,"
Omer said "I don't see why this should
be termed as offending." Eikenberry was
speaking as U.S. President Barack Obama
mulls how steep a U.S. troop withdrawal
that starts in July should be. That will
coincide with the first phase of a
gradual handover of security control to
the Afghan police and army, who are due
to take responsibility for all of
Afghanistan by the end of 2014, though
critics warn this date is premature. |
|
RARE U.S. MISSILE ATTACKS HIT NORTHWEST
PAKISTAN
PARACHINAR,
PAKISTAN--Suspected
U.S. drones fired missiles at a vehicle
and a house in northwest Pakistan,
killing at least seven people Monday in
a rare attack in an area where some of
NATO's fiercest enemies have reportedly
traveled, Pakistani officials said. The
first attack in the Kurram tribal area
hit a vehicle, killing five suspected
militants, said Noor Alam, a local
government official. As tribesmen rushed
to the scene, the vehicle was again
struck, killing two more people, he
said. Minutes later, a suspected U.S.
drone attacked a nearby house, but it is
not yet clear whether that strike caused
any casualties, Alam said. The
identities of the suspected militants
killed in the strikes Monday in Kurram
were not yet known. The attacks were
confirmed by two Pakistani intelligence
officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not
authorized to talk to the media.
  The Obama administration has dramatically stepped up covert
CIA drone attacks against militants in
Pakistan, but there have only been a
handful of strikes in the Kurram tribal
area. Most of the recent drone strikes
have taken place in North Waziristan, an
important sanctuary for the Haqqani
network, which U.S. military officials
have said is the most dangerous militant
group battling foreign forces in
Afghanistan. The U.S. has repeatedly
asked Pakistan to launch an offensive
against the network in North Waziristan,
but the military has said that its
forces are stretched too thin by other
operations in the tribal areas. Local
tribesmen said late last year that the
Haqqani network cut a deal with Shiite
Muslim militias in Kurram to allow the
militants to cross through the area on
their way to fighting in Afghanistan.
The route would help them avoid the
drone attacks that have rained down on
North Waziristan.
Drone attacks are extremely unpopular in Pakistan and
have generated tension between
Washington and Islamabad, which
increased following the U.S. raid that
killed Osama bin Laden last month and
humiliated the Pakistani government.
Around 1,000 tribesmen held a protest
against drone strikes Monday in Miram
Shah, one of the main towns in North
Waziristan. The rally was organized by a
pro-Taliban political party, Jamiat
Ulema Islam. The crowd shouted "Down
with America" and threatened to block
NATO supplies to Afghanistan if the
drone attacks don't stop. The U.S.
refuses to publicly acknowledge drone
attacks in Pakistan, but officials have
said privately that they have killed
senior Taliban and al-Qaida commanders.
Pakistani officials regularly criticize
the drone strikes in public, but some
are believed to support them in private
depending on which militants they
target. At least some of the drones are
also widely believed to take off from
bases inside Pakistan. |
|
PROTESTS FOLLOW SYRIAN PRESIDENT AL
ASSAD'S SPEECH
DAMASCUS,
SYRIA--Protesters have
taken to the streets across Syria to
denounce a speech by President Bashar
al-Assad, saying his address did not
meet popular demands for sweeping
political reform. Rallies were held in
major cities including Homs, Hama, Latakia and in Damascus suburbs. In the
Sleibeh and Raml al-Filistini districts
of the coastal city of Latakia,
protesters chanted "liar, liar". "People
were still hoping he would say something
meaningful that would result in tanks
and troops leaving the streets. They
were disappointed and started going out
as soon as Assad finished talking," one
activist in the city said. "No to
dialogue with murderers," protesters
chanted in the Damascus suburb of Irbin.
 
Demonstrations also took place in the
eastern city of Albu Kamal on the border
with Iraq, the southern city of Deraa
and other towns in the Hauran Plain,
cradle of the uprising, now in its
fourth month. Activists said dozens of
students were arrested in a protest at
the campus of Aleppo University.
Meanwhile, state television aired
footage from a pro-Assad rally at the
Aleppo citadel. Along with the Syrian
flag, demonstrators held the Russian
flag. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian
president, told the Financial Times on
Thursday that his country would use its
veto to block any United Nations
Security Council resolution that could
justify military intervention in Syria.
In a 70-minute, televised speech, Assad
acknowledged demands for reform were
legitimate, but said "saboteurs" were
exploiting the situation. Although he
called for "national dialogue," he said,
"There is no political solution with
those who carry arms and kill." The
president announced that a national
dialogue would start soon and he was
forming a committee to study
constitutional amendments, including one
that would open the way to forming
political parties other than the ruling
Baath Party. He said he expects a
package of reforms by September or the
end of the year at the latest. But the
opposition dismissed the speech, saying
it lacked any clear sign of a transition
to true democracy. |
|
DICTATOR GADHAFI TELLS NATO THEY WILL BE
DEFEATED
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA--Provoked
by renewed daylight NATO bombing of his
capital, Libyan DICTATOR Muammar al-QadHafi
raged against the alliance Friday,
screaming his message and daring
Western forces to keep it up. Qaddafi
spoke in a telephone call that was piped
through loudspeakers to a few thousand
people demonstrating in Tripoli's Green
Square, at the end of a day when NATO
intensified bombing runs across the
capital. State television carried the
Qadhafi message live then repeated it a
few minutes later. "NATO will be
defeated," he yelled in a hoarse,
agitated voice. "They will pull out in
defeat."
 
NATO attacked the Libyan capital at
midday Friday, pounding a target in the
south of the city and sending a thick
cloud of black smoke rising high into
the air. A series of explosions rumbled
across other parts of the city as
fighter jets could by heard flying
overhead. Fire engines raced through the
streets, sirens blaring. It wasn't clear
what was hit or whether there were
casualties. Friday is the main day of
rest in Libya, with many people off
work. NATO has been ramping up the
pressure on Qadhafi's regime. Though
most airstrikes happen under cover of
darkness, daytime raids have grown more
frequent. Friday's raids follow a
barrage that struck multiple targets
late Thursday night.
In his outburst, Qadhafi made a spitting sound and
labeling as cowards the rebels fighting
to oust him and those politicians and
soldiers who had defected from Qadhafi's
cause. He called the rebels "sons of
dogs," a particularly cutting epithet in
the Arab world. And he said the people
of Benghazi, the rebel capital, were
existing on money from the "donkeys of
Qatar, and the donkeys of Gulf." The
rebels are receiving support from Arab
nations in the Persian Gulf. As the
fresh NATO airstrikes Friday blasted the
capital, alliance Wing Commander Mike
Bracken said Qaddafi's future at the
helm of Libya was a what he called a
"political decision." Bracken spoke by
video conference to reporters in
Brussels, NATO headquarters. In
Brussels, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu
said there were no indications Qaddafi
would stop attacking the opposition. "It
is hard to imagine the end to attacks on
civilians while the pro-Qaddafi regime
is still in power," Lungescu said in
Brussels. "It is unfortunately still the
case that pro-Qaddafi forces continue to
show shocking determination to harm the
Libyan people." |
|
NATO CONDEMNS FIERY SPEECH BY DICTATOR
GADHAFI
GENEVA,
BRUSSELS--NATO
accused Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on
Saturday of using mosques and children's
parks as shields, saying the
longtime ruler who lashed out against
alliance airstrikes is the one "brutally
attacking the Libyan people." In a
telephone call piped through
loudspeakers to a few thousand people
demonstrating in Tripoli's Green Square
on Friday, Gadhafi railed against NATO
following a day of intensified bombing
runs in the capital. NATO's mandate is
to protect civilians amid a four-month
uprising that has devolved into a civil
war. "NATO will be defeated," Gadhafi
yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice to
the crowd. "They will pull out in
defeat." In Brussels on Saturday, NATO
spokeswoman Oana Lungescu dismissed
Gadhafi's speech as "outrageous."
 
"We are saving countless lives every day
across the country," she said. "We are
conducting operations with utmost care
and precision to avoid civilian
casualties. Civilian casualties figures
mentioned by the Libyan regime are pure
propaganda." She also accused Gadhafi
and his regime of "systematically and
brutally attacking the Libyan people,"
saying government forces "have been
shelling cities, mining ports and using
mosques and children's parks as
shields." NATO has been ramping up the
pressure on Gadhafi's more than
four-decade-old regime. Though most
airstrikes happen under cover of
darkness, daytime raids have grown more
frequent.
 
Lungescu's comments also counter
allegations from Libyan Prime Minister
Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, who accused
NATO on Friday of a "new level of
aggression" and said the military
alliance has intentionally targeted
civilian buildings in recent days,
including a hotel and a university. "It
has become clear to us that NATO has
moved on to deliberately hitting
civilian buildings. ... This is a crime
against humanity," he told reporters in
the capital. Officials on Saturday took
journalists to visit a university
building that the government claims was
hit by a NATO airstrike. NATO attacked
the Libyan capital at midday Friday,
pounding a target in the south of the
city and sending a thick cloud of black
smoke rising high into the air. A series
of explosions rumbled across other parts
of the city as fighter jets could by
heard flying overhead. Fire engines
raced through the streets, sirens
blaring. It wasn't clear what was hit or
whether there were casualties. |
|
U.S. CUSTOMS: NO KEY WEST-HAVANA FLIGHTS
FOR NOW
MARATHON,
FLORIDA--
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has
denied Key West International Airport’s
request to accommodate passenger
air service to and from Cuba. The
denial, dated May 25, cites the
airport’s lack of proper inspection
facilities and appropriate or sufficient
federal personnel. When President Barack
Obama eased some restrictions on
American travel to Cuba early this year,
it raised hopes in Key West that charter
flights might soon be able to travel the
90 miles between the two islands.
Customs’ decision on the March 22
request temporarily dashed those hopes.
But county Airports Director Peter
Horton told the County Commission on
Wednesday that he’s confident upgrades
planned at the airport will clear the
path for flights if the long-standing
embargo is lifted. Horton said the
airport is working on the first phase, a
$250,000 project to improve security. He
declined to offer specifics, citing
security.
 
Once that work is completed, the airport
can expedite a two-phase revamp of the
security and Customs facilities to the
east of the old terminal. That would
double the agency’s square footage and
create a larger screening and processing
area. That project’s cost is an
estimated $2 million, which will come
from federal and state aviation funds
and passenger facility charges. The
funding is not in place yet, but Horton
said Customs’ rejection should help
speed it along. Horton said the project
will be completed “as quickly as Customs
will approve our plans.”
Miami-based C&T Charters was one operator
interested in providing service to Cuba,
but Horton said owner John H. Cabanas is
fine with a delay because he wouldn’t be
ready to offer the service for six
months to a year. Cabanas, whose company
already flies to Cuba from Miami
International Airport, couldn’t be
reached for comment Friday. Current Key
West carrier Cape Air expressed interest
initially, Horton said, but once it saw
the paperwork involved, the company
decided to hold off while there’s still
an embargo. Horton said airport
facilities are not the only issue. He
said the Customs office, which is also
responsible for processing incoming
cruise ships, does not have enough staff
to handle international commercial
aviation, particularly if cruise and
airline schedules would overlap. |
|
FIDEL AND RAUL CASTRO VISITED DICTATOR
HUGO CHAVEZ IN A HAVANA HOSPITAL
HAVANA,
CUBA--Cuban
former strongman Fidel Castro and his
brother, dictator Raúl Castro, visited
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez,
during his convalescence in Havana after
undergoing surgery in Cuba for a pelvic
abscess, reported Cuban official
newspaper Granma on Monday. "The
(Venezuelan) president (dictator) is
recovering. Fidel and Raúl visited him.
He was on his feet for more than an
hour," Granma said. The Cuban newspaper
reported the telephone conversation
between Chávez and the multinational
network Telesur, AFP reported.
 
"I am well taken care of here, even
Fidel (Castro) told me to rest. Fidel
and Raúl are taking care of every
detail," said the Venezuelan dictator,
who is recovering at a hospital in
Havana, where he is accompanied by
relatives, doctors and some members of
his cabinet. Granma published four
photos of the "fraternal meeting," one
of which appears Chavez standing,
smiling, with his visitors, wearing a
track suit with the colors of the
Venezuelan flag. Other pictures show him
in animated conversation. "During the
fraternal meeting, reviewed the close
ties between Venezuela and Cuba and
discussed various issues on the
international situation," said the brief
statement.
 
The meeting took place in what appears
to be a hospital room with curtains, a
bed, a television and a bedside table.
Chavez, 56, arrived in Cuba on June 8th
on a tour that took him to Brazil and
Ecuador before, and he was admitted and
operated on 10 pelvic abscess, as
officially reported. The Venezuelan
dictator holds office despite being
outside the country. The Venezuelan
opposition considers unconstitutional
that Chavez exercises its power from
outside the country and argues that it
should temporarily delegate the
presidency to his Vice President Elias
Jaua. Jaua said Friday in Venezuela
that Chavez "is in a recovery process
(...) of necessary rest." "Soon, Hugo
Chávez, will be here in Venezuela ," he
said. Several ministers have stressed
that Chavez "is giving orders" from
Havana, is in full physical and mental
faculties and keeps in touch with his
administration. Chávez does not know
when he will return to Venezuela. |
|
DICTATOR GADHAFI SON OFFERS LIBYA
ELECTIONS
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA--A
son of Muammar GadHafi has announced
that his father is willing to hold
elections and step aside if he loses,
an offer which could test the
unity of the Western alliance trying to
force the Libyan leader out. Saif
al-Islam's proposal, which follows a
string of concessions offered by Gadhafi
that Western powers have dismissed as
ploys, came on Thursday amid mounting
frustration in some NATO states at the
progress of the military campaign. "They
(elections) could be held within three
months. At the maximum by the end of the
year, and the guarantee of transparency
could be the presence of international
observers," Saif al-Islam told Italian
newspaper Corriere della Sera.
 
He said his father, who has ruled the
country for more than four decades,
would be ready to step aside if he lost
the election but would not go into
exile. "I have no doubt that the
overwhelming majority of Libyans stand
with my father and sees the rebels as
fanatical Islamist fundamentalists,
terrorists stirred up from abroad," the
newspaper quoted Saif al-Islam as
saying. It was not clear what form the
proposed vote would take. Libya has
never held elections under Gadhafi and
has no elected institutions. The US
dismissed the election proposal by
Gadhafi's son. Victoria Nuland, a state
department spokesperson, told reporters
at her daily briefing on Thursday: "I
think it's a little late for that," and
repeated the US view that "it's time for
him (Gaddafi) to go".
Saif al-Islam is among three top Libyan officials
wanted by the International Criminal
Court for alleged war crimes committed
by Gadhafi's regime in bid to quell an
uprising against his rule. He made the
offer as Libyan officials ruled out
Gadhafi's departure during talks with
Mikhail Margelov, the envoy leading
Russia's efforts to end the Libyan
conflict. It was not clear what was
hit, and there was no word on
casualties, as government officials did
not immediately comment on the strike.
The Libyan leader has described the
rebels as "rats" and says NATO's
campaign is an act of colonial
aggression aimed at stealing Libya's
oil. Rebels in the western mountains
said on Wednesday they had taken control
of two villages from pro-Gadhafi forces,
building on gains which in the past few
days have seen them advance to within
about 100km of Tripoli. But rebel forces
show no signs of being able to break
through to the capital soon. Amid the
standoff, explosions continued to rock
Tripoli with fresh NATO air strikes
reported on Thursday morning. |
|
LIBYAN REBELS DISMISSED ELECTION OFFER
FROM DICTATOR GADHAFI'S SON
BENGHAZI,
LIBYA--The
rebel leadership in the eastern
stronghold of Benghazi dismissed
GadHafi's son's election offer as
"wasting our time." "Saif
al-Islam is not in a position to offer
elections. Libya will have free
elections and democracy but the Gadhafi
family has no role to play in this
process," Jalal el-Gallal, a rebel
spokesman, told Reuters. "These people
are criminals, they have utter disregard
for human life. They have to withdraw
troops from our cities, allow
humanitarian aid to reach people, they
will face justice for their crimes. Only
then we can talk about holding
elections."
 
A U.S. State Department spokesperson
also dismissed the election proposal,
saying it was "a little late for that."
The United States, Britain and France,
which are leading Western air strikes on
Gadhafi's forces, have said they will
not stop bombing until Gadhafi leaves
power. The election proposal -- which
follows a series of moves the Libyan
leader's officials portray as
concessions but Western powers dismiss
as ploys -- comes at a time when
frustration is mounting in some NATO
states at slow military progress. Four
months into the conflict, rebel advances
toward Tripoli have been slow, while
weeks of NATO air strikes pounding
Gadhafi's compound and other targets
have failed to end his 41-year-old rule
over the oil-producing country.
The Russian envoy, Mikhail Margelov,
said after talks with Mahmoudi that the
issue of Gadhafi's departure from power
was a "red line" the Libyan leadership
was not willing to cross. He said his
task was to soften that position through
negotiation. "I can say that today I am
a cautious optimist regarding the
resolution of the Libyan crisis," he
said. Mahmoudi appeared to seize on
Washington's disunity. "We are following
the discussion at congress, we are
assessing the matter and seeing which
way they are going. We are still hoping
for a better relationship with the
United States based on mutual respect,"
he said. Libya-watchers say Gadhafi is
using his political skills, honed during
decades when he was able to survive
despite being an international pariah,
to try to exploit divisions within the
fragile Western alliance ranged against
him. |
|
THE WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS LEGALITY
OF LIBYA ACTION
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
White House told congress last night
that President Barack Obama has the
legal authority to press on with
US military involvement in Libya and
urged representatives not to send "mixed
messages" about their commitment to the
Nato-led air war. Delivering a detailed
report to congress to justify Obama's
policy on Libya, the administration
argued he had the constitutional power
to continue the US role against Muammar
Gadafy's forces even though congress had
not authorised it. Tensions in
Washington over the Libya conflict
reflected growing unease over US
entanglement in a third conflict in the
Muslim world in addition to costly wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan and pressure for
Obama to clarify the US mission in the
North African country.
 
The 32-page response followed a warning
on Tuesday from house speaker John
Boehner that Mr Obama was on thin legal
ice by keeping US forces involved in
Libya for nearly three months without
congressional approval. But the White
House insisted that Mr Obama had not
overstepped his authority because US
military participation in Libya had
already been scaled back to a support
role that did not require congressional
consent. Boehner accused the president
of failing to respect the role of
congress in military operations and
asked him to explain the legal grounds
for the Libya mission, saying that by
Sunday he would be in violation of a
1973 law called the war powers
resolution if nothing changed. The US
constitution says that only congress can
declare war, while the president is
commander in chief of the armed forces.
Ten members of Congress filed a legal suit against Mr Obama
in federal court yesterday over Libya.
The group, led by democrat Dennis
Kucinich and republican Walter Jones,
challenged Mr Obama's decision to commit
US forces to Libya without congressional
authorization. "With regard to the war
in Libya, we believe that the law was
violated," Kucinich said in a
statement. But senior administration
officials briefing reporters argued that
Obama was not in violation of the war
powers resolution because US forces,
which initially spearheaded the assault
on Col Gadafy's air defences in March,
had pulled back to a support role in the
Nato-led air campaign in early April.
"We're not engaged in any of the
activities that typically over the years
in war powers analysis is considered to
constitute hostilities," one official
said. "We're not engaged in sustained
fighting." The law prohibits US armed
forces from being involved in military
actions for more than 60 days without
congressional authorisation, and
includes a further 30-day withdrawal
period, which would expire on Sunday. |
|
MONSIGNOR CARLOS MANUEL DE CESPEDES:
CHURCH FARING WELL IN CUBA
HAVANA,
CUBA--Monsignor
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes feels
that the Cuban Catholic Church’s current
situation is “completely normal” and
even “better” than in many countries.
“Nowadays – I don’t believe that I’m
saying anything foolish – the Church’s
situation in Cuba is a normal situation,
completely normal, as it could be in any
other Catholic country and better than
in many,” the influential priest
declared in an interview published
Wednesday on the government Web site
Cubadebate. Referring to the
“confrontations” that occurred between
the Church and the Cuban government
after the triumph of Fidel Castro’s
revolution in 1959, Cespedes said that
the responsibility for that conflict was
“shared.”
 
He emphasized that fortunately there
were always people in both sectors – the
Church and the government – who were
concerned with sowing the seeds of
cooperation, something that, he said,
“over the course of time bore fruit.”
“It has not been anything imposed or
rapid. It’s been a slow maturation, but
I think it’s been sincere on the part of
both parties,” he said. Cespedes also
recalled that the visit made by Pope
John Paul II to the island in 1998 was
“a turning point” in Church-state
relations, noting that many who had
distanced themselves from the Catholic
Church in Cuba out of fear or a cooling
of desire had then moved closer to it
once again. The great-great-grandson of
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the national
hero who made the declaration of
independence in 1868 that started the
Ten Years’ War, the first serious
attempt to achieve independence from
Spain, Cespedes is one of the most
influential and well-known figures in
the Cuban Catholic Church.
He is a member of the Cuban Language Academy, founder
of the magazine Palabra Nueva and a
consulting expert for the Holy See’s
Papal Culture Council, as well as a
prolific writer and promoter of Cuban
thought and culture. In 2010, relations
between the Cuban state and the Catholic
Church entered a new phase of greater
goodwill after the dialogue process
opened by the government and the
island’s Catholic hierarchy, which
ultimately resulted in the release of
scores of political prisoners. During
April’s ruling Communist Party congress,
President Raul Castro urged respect for
– and the integration of – the country’s
religious diversity. In that speech,
Castro asked the nation “to continue
eliminating any prejudice that impedes
all Cubans from uniting in ... the
defense of the revolution, believers or
not.” |
|
CIA HACKERS JUST "SCHOOLBOYS," SECURITY
EXPERT SAYS
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
logo of the Lulz Security hacker
organization, which has
compromised the websites of numerous
organizations in recent weeks. They
might have just brought down the CIA's
website, but the latest group of hackers
on the scene are nothing more than
"schoolboys." That's the challenge
thrown down by the head of technology at
Sophos, Paul Ducklin, who claims the
anonymous collective Lulz Security have
to "grow some moral spine" if they want
to be taken seriously. In the past two
weeks, Lulz have launched cyber attacks
on Sony, Nintendo, gamers at Eve Online,
a company that works for the FBI and the
U.S. Senate. They claim their motive to
be nothing other than showcasing
companies' online weaknesses "for the
Lulz."
 
Yesterday, they opened up a hotline and
called on the public to suggest their
next target. "Our number literally has
anywhere between five and 20 people
ringing it every single second," members
of the group said in a Twitter message
posted online at @LulzSec. The hotline
number spelled out "LULZSEC" and had an
area code in Ohio. A recorded greeting
featured a man speaking with an
exaggerated French accent explaining
that "Pierre Dubois and Francois Deluxe"
were unavailable because they were up to
mischief on the Internet. nPanda
computer security firm labs technical
director Luis Corrons said setting up a
telephone hotline was "kind of
eccentric" given that the hackers could
have easily set up an online forum
asking for targets. "These guys are
upsetting a lot of people," Corrons
said. "They think they will never be
caught, and that could be their biggest
mistake."
Lulz certainly pushed their luck Wednesday, when they claimed
credit for the shutdown of cia.gov.
"Tango down - cia.gov," they tweeted at
@LulzSec. "For the lulz." Which sounds
impressive, but over at Sophos, Ducklin
said what Lulz was doing was "about as
intellectually interesting and important
as a bunch of schoolboys boasting in the
playground about who's got the hottest
imaginary girlfriend." He said most of
the break-ins had been "languorously
orchestrated, using nothing more
sophisticated than entry-level automatic
web database bug-finding tools,
available for free online." He admitted
Lulz's behavior was a "timely wake-up
call," but insisted that didn't justify
LulzSec's behavior. "Time spent throwing
bricks through other people's digital
windows doesn't actually teach anyone
anything about glassmaking, glazing or
civil engineering," Ducklin said. "If
you consider yourself a hacker and you
have time to spare, grow some moral
spine and use your skills for active
benefit." "Follow the lead of a guy like
Johnny Long and hackersforcharity.org,"
he added. "I dare you to look at his
site and decide that LulzSec is a more
worthwhile cause." |
|
RUMORS SPREAD AMIDST UNCLEAR REPORTS
ABOUT DICTATOR CHAVEZ'S HEALTH
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Mariana
Bacalao, a university professor
and expert in public opinion research,
thinks that speculations and rumors
about the absence of President Hugo
Chávez are largely due to "wrong" public
policy decisions by the presidential
inner circle.
 
The mismanagement of the information
about the health of the Venezuelan Head
of State by Vice president Elías Jaua
and the ministers has created a mindset
"to the detriment" of the president, to
the point that government officials have
used phrases, pictures and gigantic
posters to remind the country that "the
foremost leader is taking decisions and
dealing with issues, behind the
provisional leaders in charge of the
Executive Office," Bacalao said. "This
shows a lack of leadership within the
executive cabinet, as in the absence of
Chávez, no one can solve critical
problems. Besides, most people have
realized that with or without Chávez,
problems continue and grow," the expert
said.
Bacalao added that the main way to tone down the
criticisms and rumors created by the
absence of the president is to be
transparent and send information to the
media timely. The Venezuelan scholar
also said that the government is trying
to promote sympathy for the president by
using Chávez's disease with the only
goal of diverting public attention from
the real issues in Venezuela.
|
|
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAYS HE'S FINE
AFTER EMERGENCY SURGERY IN CUBA
HAVANA,
CUBA--
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez
said from a Havana hospital that he is
in possession of his “full faculties”
after emergency surgery for a pelvic
abscess he underwent at a Cuban
hospital. In a telephone call Sunday
night to Caracas-based regional news
network Telesur, Chavez said that his
doctors told him that “they cannot
explain how an infection did not
appear.” He also said that the biopsies
showed that “there is no sign of
malignancy” and the wound “is more or
less deep” but that the pus is draining
from it normally. “I really regret these
things,” he added after mentioning that
he did not have a date in mind when he
might return to Venezuela, that being
dependent upon “the evolution of the
recovery in the face of a considerable
injury,” the recuperation from which
“cannot be hurried.”
 
“It’s not going to be long,” Chavez said
referring to his recovery period, but he
said he “can’t answer precisely” when he
will return to his country. In the
meantime, Chavez said he remains in
constant touch with his aides in
Caracas. He also said that Fidel Castro
and his brother, Cuban President Raul
Castro, had visited him in the hospital
and he expressed his gratitude to them
for the “great love and affection” they
had demonstrated for him, just as other
leaders have done, among whom he named
his counterparts in Argentina, Bolivia
and Ecuador. The 56-year-old Chavez was
operated on in Havana after he concluded
his tour of Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba, a
trip he had to postpone last May because
of a problem with one of his knees that
caused him to have to rest for a month.
The Venezuelan leader expressed regret for what he
called the “sadism” that some of his
opponents have expressed, saying that he
should hand over power to his vice
president, Elias Jaua, due to his
inability to govern as a result of his
medical condition. “I have my full
faculties,” he repeated and guaranteed
that if that were not the case “I would
be the first to make a decision” to
delegate power. He said that it was
Fidel Castro who ordered the tomography
tests that detected his abscess on
Thursday evening. “I felt a chill,
discomfort and he (Fidel Castro) took
note” of it and encouraged him to have
an exam, Chavez said, adding that the
former Cuban leader had brought him some
movies so that he could “disconnect”
temporarily from the problems that he
must attend to. |
|
UN RIGHTS CHIEF URGES JUSTICE FOR SYRIA
ABUSES
GENEVA,
SWITZERLAND--The
U.N.'s top human rights official
called Wednesday for a full
investigation of alleged abuses carried
out by Syrian authorities against
anti-government protesters, but
acknowledged that Damascus has ignored
past requests by her office to allow
expert observers into the country. The
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Navi Pillay, said her office has
received reliable reports that up to
10,000 people have been detained and
over 1,100 have been killed, most of
them unarmed civilians. "Among those
detained, human rights defenders,
political activists, and journalists
were particularly targeted," Pillay told
the U.N. Human Rights Council.
 
Her office "has received information
indicating that Syrian security forces
have perpetrated acts of torture and
other cruel and inhuman treatment ...
resulting in deaths in custody in some
cases," she said. The Geneva-based Human
Rights Council established a
fact-finding mission in April, which was
meant to visit Syria and investigate
allegations of abuse. "I regret to
report that, despite several official
communications requesting the government
of Syria to grant access to the
fact-finding mission, I have received no
response," said Pillay.
The team is now meeting with Syrian refugees who have fled
across the border to Turkey, to hear
their stories, she said. The
government's attempts so far to shed
light on incidents of alleged mass
killing have been unsatisfactory, she
said. "I consider wholly inadequate the
Syrian government's invitation to
hand-picked journalists to visit
selected areas in order to document the
existence of an alleged mass grave and
the 'confessions' of members of 'armed
groups'," Pillay told the council,
referring to an incident June 6 in the
northern town of Jisr al-Shughour. |
|
SECRETARY CLINTON PRESSES AFRICA TO
SEVER TIES WITH DICTATOR GADHAFI
ADDIS
ABABA, ETHIOPIA--U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton
pressed some of the world's last
remaining friends of Moammar Gadhafi to
abandon Libya's strongman and join the
growing international demand for him to
cede power. She told African nations
that their solidarity with the Libyan
people could make the difference for a
peaceful future. Culminating a
volcano-shortened trip to the Gulf and
three African nations, Clinton told
diplomats at the African Union
headquarters in Ethiopia's capital that
they needed to recognize that Gadhafi
forfeited his legitimacy to rule by
attacking his own citizens.
 
It represented a
difficult call for unity. Gadhafi still
has many friends in Africa after
providing decades of military training
and patronage for groups fighting
apartheid and colonialism. "Your words
and actions could make the difference in
bringing this situation to a close and
allowing the people of Libya to get to
work rebuilding their country," Clinton
told African officials in Addis Ababa.
She said the world needed African
leadership to end the standoff between
opposition forces and Gadhafi's troops.
For Clinton, the emphasis on the Libyan
leader provided a full circle for a
one-week voyage that began in the United
Arab Emirates, where she prodded NATO
countries and Arab governments
participating in the U.N.-mandated
military mission against Gadhafi to
increase the pressure on him to leave
power and increase their contacts with
the Transitional National Council.
In Ethiopia,
Clinton acknowledged that Gadhafi's
"major role in providing financial
support for many African nations and
institutions, including the African
Union." But she said it has become clear
in light of his abuses that he cannot
remain in power. All African leaders
should demand that Gadhafi accept a
ceasefire and then leave Libya, she
said. They should expel pro-Gadhafi
Libyan diplomats from their countries,
suspend the operations of Libyan
embassies and work with the Libyan
opposition. Among the scenarios that
Western nations have debated to resolve
the situation include Gadhafi's possible
exile to a friendly African country.
Clinton said that repressive governance
is no longer accepted in the world. She
said discontent, mainly among exploding
youth populations in Africa, the Middle
East and elsewhere cannot be suppressed
in the era of the internet and social
media. |
|
VENEZUELAN LAWMAKERS TERM ILLEGAL
DICTATOR CHAVEZ'S ACTS OF GOVERNMENT
FROM CUBA
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Venezuelan
lawmakers Juan Carlos Caldera (Primero
Justicia, Justice First) and Alfonso
Marquina (UNT, A New Era),
said that the announcement made by
President Hugo Chávez that he had
approved the Special Debt Law in Havana,
Cuba, "is an illegal act"
 
Deputies Juan
Carlos Caldera (Primero Justicia,
Justice First) and Alfonso Marquina (UNT,
A New Era) said that the fact that
President Hugo Chávez is ruling
Venezuela from Cuba is illegal because,
according to the Venezuelan
Constitution, the presidential functions
must be performed in Venezuela. Caldera
said that the opposition is not saying
that there is a "power vacuum" due to
Chávez's absence, but the point at issue
is "the president's legal status."
Meanwhile, Marquina
said that President Chávez "should not
try to rule Venezuela from Cuba because
Article 18 of the Constitution provides
that the seat of the Executive Office is
the city of Caracas." For example,
Caldera and Marquina said that the
announcement made by President Chávez
that he had approved the Special Debt
Law in Havana, Cuba, "is an illegal
act." |
|
VENEZUELAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY RATIFIES
VALIDITY OF DICTATOR CHAVEZ'S PERMIT TO
LEAVE THE COUNTRY
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--The
ruling United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV) approved a document
under which the authorization given to
Venezuelan President (dictador) Hugo
Chávez to make an international
presidential tour is also valid for the
ruler to remain in Cuba until "he is in
good (health) conditions to return" to
the country Venezuela's National
Assembly on Tuesday authorized President
Hugo Chávez to stay in Cuba as long as
he needs for full recovery of a health
condition.
 
"It is clear that
President (dictator) Hugo Chávez is in
full capacity to exercise his
constitutional duties as head of State
and Government of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela. Therefore, he
continues to work in the supreme
interests of the country," read the
agreement released by Parliament. "The
National Assembly, the highest body of
the national legislative power, hereby
ratifies the absolute constitutional
legitimacy and validity of the
authorization requested by commander
President Hugo Chávez, which was
approved at the regular meeting of May
31, 2011, to leave the national
territory as of June 5, 2011 in
accordance with Article 187, section 17,
and Article 235 of the Constitution,"
the statement said. "The president
(dictator) is fully authorized to stay
in the Republic of Cuba as a result of
his unexpected health condition, until
he is able to return to the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela," the document
added. "We reject categorically the
destabilization campaign undertaken by
the Venezuelan right-wing," stressed the
document that was submitted by Deputy
Cilia Flores.
Flores accused the
opposition of ignoring the Constitution
of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,
which was passed in 1999. She added that
"now the president leaves the country
with the permission of the National
Assembly and continues to fulfill his
duties as president from anywhere in the
world." Flores described as miserable
the opposition deputies who have claimed
that Chávez did not undergo surgery in
Venezuela because of the poor conditions
of the Venezuelan health system. "You
are so miserable, not only because of
your lack of human sensitivity apropos
the health condition of President Chávez,
but because you are manipulating the
facts in order to disrupt both doctors
and the health system," she said.
|
|
JORDANIAN KING UNHARMED IN MOTORCADE
ATTACK
AMMAN,
JORDAN--Government
spokesmen in Jordan say a reported
attack on King Abdullah was a quarrel
with police, not an attempted
assault on the monarch. A security
official said earlier Monday that some
youths threw stones and empty bottles at
the king's motorcade as he visited the
southern town of Tafila. However, a
government spokesman denies there was
any attack. He says some young
Jordanians were trying to greet the king
and became riled when police tried to
push them away.
 
On Sunday, King Abdullah said he is
pursuing reforms that will allow future
governments to be formed based on an
elected parliamentary majority. The
measure is a key demand of pro-democracy
protesters calling for greater political
representation.
In a nationally televised address, the king said a
royal commission is now exploring
"possible amendments" to the
constitution. He did not elaborate on
the reforms or give a timetable for
implementation, saying sudden change
could lead to chaos and unrest. King
Abdullah is considered an important U.S.
ally. He vowed a tougher fight against
corruption while warning the Jordanian
media and political parties against
creating a climate of hatred. Since
January, the king has faced protesters
demanding a newly elected parliament to
replace one widely seen as ineffective
and complacent. |
|
GERMANY RECOGNIZES LIBYA'S REBEL
LEADERSHIP
BENGHAZI,
LIBYA--Germany
recognized Libya's rebel council as the
legitimate representative of the Libyan
people on Monday, giving
heavyweight support to leaders poised to
run the country if Moammar Gadhafi
falls. The recognition, voiced by
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on a
visit to the rebel stronghold of
Benghazi, is significant because Berlin
has been reluctant to be drawn into the
conflict and opted out of NATO military
action. "We share the same goal — Libya
without Gaddafi," Westerwelle told a
news conference after meeting members of
the National Transitional Council, seen
by many as a government-in-waiting. "The
national council is the legitimate
representative of the Libyan people,"
Westerwelle said, to applause. Countries
that have recognized the rebel council
include France, Italy, Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates.
 
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
on Monday urged African leaders to
follow suit and abandon Gaddafi. Gaddafi
has styled himself the African "king of
kings" and over the years won support
from many African states in exchange for
financial help and generous gifts. Most
countries on the continent have been
lukewarm towards the rebels. "It has
become clear that we are long past the
time when he (Gaddafi) can remain in
power," Clinton said in a speech to the
African Union at its headquarters in
Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. "Your
words and your actions could make the
difference . . . (in ending this
situation) . . . and allowing the people
of Libya to get to work writing a
constitution and rebuilding their
country," she said. Gaddafi's government
on Monday promised to implement
proposals laid out by African countries
to end the stalemate as well as draft a
constitution and a new media law,
according to official JANA news agency.
Western governments say they believe it is only a matter of
time before Gaddafi's 41-year rule ends
under the weight of NATO military
intervention, sanctions and defections.
But Gaddafi has refused to quit, and he
has proved in the past to be a wily
survivor. Libyan television showed him
on Sunday evening playing chess with the
visiting president of the international
chess federation. His armed forces have
also shown they are not about to buckle,
inflicting heavy damage on the rebels on
several fronts and forcing the NATO-led
coalition to extend its operation until
the end of September. Britain's navy
chief warned on Monday that a prolonged
military campaign would be challenging
for its naval resources. |
|
CALIFORNIAN DIVER ON A MISSION TO FIND
BIN LADEN'S BODY ON THE SEA FLOOR
LOS
ANGELES, CALIFORNIA--An
eccentric California salvage diver
was Sunday preparing a mission to the
north Arabian Sea to recover Usama bin
Laden's body as proof the al Qaeda
leader really is dead the New York Post
Reports. Bill Warren, 59, has vowed to
scour the sea bed to find the corpse and
deliver photographic evidence that the
terror leader was killed, the New York
Post reported.
 
Warren, who has discovered more than 200
undersea wrecks, told the Post he was
taking on the mission to expose the
truth. "I'm doing it because I am a
patriotic American who wants to know the
truth. I do it for the world," he said.
Bin Laden was killed in his hideout in
Abbottabad, Pakistan in the early hours
of May 2 in a precision raid by a team
of US Navy SEALs who left with his body,
which was later buried at sea.
Afterwards the White House said it would
not release graphic images of bin
Laden's corpse, but the CIA did later
show the photographs to select US
lawmakers.
Warren said he expected to spend about $400,000 on a
two-week jaunt next month. He planned to
rent a ship in India for $10,000 a day,
and spend another $1,000 a day for a
remote-operated submarine. "The Obama
administration should have released the
photo, like we did with Billy the Kid,
or [John] Dillinger, or even Saddam
Hussein," said Warren. "I have a Russian
girlfriend, and she tells me that over
there, in intelligence circles, they
don't believe bin Laden's really dead."
Bin Laden was buried at sea from the
carrier USS Carl Vinson to adhere to
Muslim funeral rites. |
|
U.S. AFRICA EMBASSY BOMBING SUSPECT
KILLED IN SOMALIA
MOGADISHU,
SOMALIA--The
Al Qaeda operative behind the 1998 U.S.
Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania
has been killed, U.S. officials
tell Fox News. Somali officials have
determined that a man killed by security
forces on Tuesday was Fazul Abdullah
Mohammed, said a spokesman for Somalia's
minister of information, Abdifatah
Abdinur. "We've compared the pictures
of the body to his old pictures," he
said. "They are the same. It is
confirmed. He is the man and he is dead.
The man who died is Fazul Abdullah."
 Mohammed,
a native of the Comoros Islands, was on
the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list had
a $5 million bounty on his head for
allegedly planning the Aug. 7, 1998,
embassy bombings. The blasts killed 224
people in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania combined. Most of the
dead were Kenyans. Twelve Americans also
died. "We commend the good work by the
TFG. Fazul's death removes one of the
terrorist group's most experienced
operational planners in East Africa and
has almost certainly set back
operations," a senior Obama
administration official told Fox News.
Abdinur said the government is planning
to issue a statement confirming
Mohamed's death.
Earlier in the
week, a security officer described the
deaths of two men in Mogadishu, one of
whom is now believed to have been
Mohammed. The security official, Osman
Nur Diriye, said that two men riding in
a luxury car pulled up to a
government-run checkpoint Tuesday night.
After security forces found a pistol on
one of the men, gunfire was exchanged.
Diriye said a Somali and a man believed
to be South African died. The man
identified as South African is now
believed to have been Mohammed, Abdinur
said. Mohammed's death would be the
third major strike against Al Qaeda in
the last six weeks. Navy SEALs killed Al
Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden on May 2 at
his home in Pakistan. Just a month
later, Ilyas Kashmiri, an Al Qaeda
leader sought in the 2008 Mumbai siege
and rumored to be a longshot choice to
succeed bin Laden, was reportedly killed
in a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan. |
|
IRAN SECURITY FORCES ATTACK PROTESTERS
TEHRAN,
IRAN--Iran's
opposition said security forces attacked
pro-reform demonstrators gathering in
Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary
of the 2009 disputed presidential
election. Witnesses said
thousands of security personnel were
deployed in Tehran to prevent a revival
of the mass anti-government rallies that
erupted after the 2009 vote. "Security
forces attacked the crowd with electric
batons ... in the Vali-e Asr street to
disperse the demonstrators," Sahamnews
said. Another opposition website, Kaleme,
said "hundreds of demonstrators" were
arrested by the security forces.
Opposition websites had called for a
"silent rally" to mark the vote, which
reformists say was rigged to secure the
hardline president's win. Authorities
say the election was the "healthiest"
since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
 
An Iranian
website also said
supporters of the opposition gathered in
other parts of the city. "Shopkeepers
were ordered to close down their shops
... hundreds of people have gathered in
other areas of Tehran," the website
said. Opposition leaders Mirhossein
Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who
spearheaded protests against President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re- election in
2009, had been placed under house arrest
after calling for a rally on February
14. Two people were shot dead at the
February 14 rally, during which
thousands of the opposition supporters
took to the streets in defiance of a
heavy security presence to back
uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, that
toppled their leaders. Iranian leaders
have portrayed the Arab Spring as an
"Islamic awakening," while avoiding to
support the popular uprising in Syria,
its most important ally in the region.
Tehran has strongly
condemned military deployment by Saudi
Arabia to quell unrest in Bahrain. Saudi
Arabia and Bahrain are both allied to
the West. Some Turks in the border
village of Guvecci said Syrians on the
other side of the frontier were calling
them with reports that "smoke was rising
from Jisr al-Shugour." Residents who
emerged from their homes Sunday said
they were suffering before the troops
came. They spoke in the presence of
military officers and government
officials accompanying the journalists,
and it was not clear whether they
expressed their views freely. Syrians
who speak against the government face
retribution and arrest, and few who
express anti-government views will allow
their names to be used. Syria-based
human rights activist Mustafa Osso said
the advancing troops, believed to be an
elite unit led by Assad's younger
brother, fought hundreds of army
defectors from the area. "This is the
biggest and most dangerous wave of
defections" since an uprising against
Assad's regime began in mid-March, Osso
said. |
|
VENEZUELAN LAWMAKERS ASKED THE
ARGENTINE CONGRESS TO CLARIFY CHAVEZ-BONAFINI
FINANCIAL TIES
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Venezuelan
opposition lawmakers Miguel Ángel
Rodríguez and Carlos Berrizbeitia
asked the Argentine Congress to launch
an investigation to determine whether
Venezuela s money has been used to fund
the alleged humanitarian causes of the
Foundation Mothers of Plaza de Mayo .
Venezuelan lawmakers Miguel Ángel
Rodríguez and Carlos Berrizbeitia,
members of the opposition umbrella group
Democratic Unified Panel (MUD),
requested Argentine legislators to
conduct a thorough investigation into
the origin of the funds used by the
Foundation Mothers of the La Plaza de
Mayo.
 
Julián Obiglio, a
lawmaker of the Republican Proposal
(PRO) party, a center-right electoral
alliance in Argentina, who presented a
motion in 2009 against Venezuela's entry
into the Common Market of the South (Mercosur),
has taken note of the request. The
petition came amidst a scandal of
alleged corruption involving Argentina's
rights group Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
-led by Hebe Bonafini- and the use of
hundred million dollars by the
Foundation.
The Venezuelan
opposition lawmakers submitted an
official note before the Argentine
Congress to determine whether
Venezuela's money has been used to fund
the alleged humanitarian causes of the
Foundation Mothers of Plaza de Mayo.
Rodríguez warned that Bonafini is a
"darling" of Hugo Chávez's regime in
Venezuela. He stressed that given
corruption allegations, an investigation
is needed to determine how much money
granted by the Venezuelan government or
any of its allies has been handled by
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. "In 12 years,
Chávez has favored his political friends
in the world with over USD 60 billion,
and we want to know who is funding the
pro-Chávez tours of Bonafini, who has
given money to pro-Chávez events in
Argentina, such as a parallel social
summits and, above all, how much
presumed Venezuelan money has passed to
the new bourgeoisie under the scam of
the revolution," said Berrizbeitia. |
|
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ UNDERWENT EMERGENCY
SURGERY IN CUBA
HAVANA,
CUBA--In
a communiqué, Foreign Minister Nicolás
Maduro said that Venezuelan DICTATOR
Hugo Chávez underwent surgery and
is recovering satisfactorily. He has
begun his recovery process in the
company of his family, his medical team
and some members of his government
staff. Chávez's safe return to Venezuela
will be assessed in the coming days
Chávez early on June 10 underwent an
emergency surgery in Cuba, after his
medical team found that he had a pelvic
abscess. The information was confirmed
by Maduro, who read a statement of the
Presidency of the Republic. The
communiqué stressed that the Venezuelan
president, "having recovered almost
fully from his knee injury, was affected
by a new health condition, which was
assessed immediately by his healthcare
team. Diagnostic tests were run, and a
pelvic abscess was found, and Chávez
made the decision to undergo a
corrective surgical procedure
immediately."
 
The statement added that the operation
was completed successfully and Chávez
"has begun his recovery process in the
company of his family, his medical team
and some members of his government
staff. Doctors believe that in a few
days the President of the Republic will
be able to return to Venezuela safely,"
Maduro told state-run television channel
Venezolana de Televisión. Chavez
traveled to Havana after visiting Brazil
and Ecuador. On the island, was
subjected to a series of tests that
detected the presence of a pelvic
abscess (collection of pus caused by
bacterial infection), which led the
president to "submit to an immediate way
to a corrective surgical procedure, "the
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas
Maduro, accompanying the Venezuelan
president. Maduro said the outcome of
the surgery was "satisfactory". Chavez,
however, will have to recover the island
before returning to Caracas.
A team of Venezuelan doctors and Cuban estimates that
in a few days Chávez will be able to
return safely to Venezuela, "the
Venezuelan foreign minister said in a
statement broadcast on state television.
This is the second health problem that
faces Chavez in recent weeks. A month
ago, he had to postpone their first
official meeting with President Rousseff,
because of a knee injury. Before
surgery, emergency, Chavez met with his
main ally in the region, Cuban leader
Fidel Castro and the Cuban dictator,
Raul Castro, to evaluate the projects of
bilateral cooperation in energy,
agriculture and telecommunications.
Venezuela - the island's main trading
partner - Cuba sends daily to 100
thousand barrels of oil. In contrast,
receives professional help more than
40,000 Cubans, of whom 30 000 are
doctors |
|
VENEZUELA SPURS DISAGREEMENT WITHIN OPEC
VIENNA,
AUSTRIA--World
oil markets, and particularly the
industrialized countries comprising the
International Energy Agency (IEA),
expected the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to
reach a consensus at its regular meeting
in Vienna to raise real output, in order
to cope with high oil prices and address
a likely increase in demand in the third
quarter. However, no such agreement was
reached because Venezuela, Iran, Angola,
Ecuador, Libya, and Algeria refused to
change production quotas and actual
production volumes claiming that current
prices are satisfactory and that oil
supply is guaranteed. However, Luis
Oliveros, a professor of the graduate
degree program in Petroleum Economics,
Central University of Venezuela, said
that "for the first time in nearly 20
years" political reasons prevailed over
the economic sense.
 
He claimed that OPEC's move not to
increase output quotas creates the
feeling that we have returned to the
OPEC price hawks era, with Venezuela,
Iran, Libya, Algeria, Angola and Ecuador
on one side, and the countries
comprising the Cooperation Council for
the Arab States of the Gulf -Saudi
Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar- on the
other. Venezuela and Iran, two
countries with no spare capacity
available to expand production, led the
refusal -which Saudi Oil Minister Ali
Naimi termed vehement- to increase OPEC
production volume by 1.5 million barrels
per day. Oliveros stressed that
Venezuela's position can be viewed as a
mistake, as Caracas is risking a clash
with Saudi Arabia "which had expressed
its intention to put more barrels on the
oil market." The analyst also pointed
out that now the oil market perception
is that OPEC is "the bad guy" in this
story, and that the organization is only
concerned about prices, without taking
into account the global economic health.
"This is a bad reputation that OPEC had
left behind."
Secretary General of OPEC Abdul-Karim Elaibi said on
Thursday that without an increase in
production, the oil market will face a
shortage of 2 million barrels in the
third quarter, and 1.5 million barrels
in the fourth quarter of 2011. Saudi
Arabia will cash in on that deficit, as
Riyadh said it intends to meet
additional demand "regardless of the
lack of agreement within OPEC," said
Naimi. Oliveros said that "Saudi
Arabia, whose spare capacity stands at
some 3.5 million bpd, will play a role
in 'balancing' the market, and will show
its muscle by increasing production."
In contrast, Venezuela, which cannot put
more barrels on the market, is betting
on a strategy of "unconditional defense"
of prices, as Minister of Energy and
Petroleum Rafael Ramírez explained.
|
|
RUSSIAN COLONEL KILLED IN MOSCOW BECAUSE
OF HIS ATROCITIES IN CHECHNYA
MOSCOW,
RUSSIA--Russia
stepped up security in the capital
Friday, after a contract-style
killing claimed the life of a disgraced
army colonel who was a hero to Russian
nationalists. Officials fear that the
killing could lead to a reprise of
bloodshed between Russian nationalists
and Islamic minorities from Russia's
Caucasus region. Buses of riot police
were dispatched to a square in central
Moscow, Manezhnaya Ploshchad, which was
the scene of fierce nationalist rioting
in December. The colonel, Yuri Budanov,
was stripped of his rank in 2003 after
he was convicted of strangling to death
an 18-year-old Chechen woman during the
war in Chechnya. Chechens denounced him
as a war criminal, but Russian
nationalists lauded Mr. Budanov as a
hero who was sold out by his government
to quell the Chechen insurgency.
 
His parole from prison in 2009, after
serving part of a 10-year sentence, drew
cheers from nationalists and
condemnation in Chechnya. On Friday,
some Russian politicians suggested that
Chechens were behind his killing. "I am
sure this is a simple revenge killing
and reprisal on an officer who fulfilled
his oath of military duty in Chechnya,"
said Gennady Zyuganov, head of Russia's
Communist Party in parliament. He said
that the killing, performed "cynically
in the center of the capital in broad
daylight shows that the justice system
here does not work." Police said that
Mr. Budanov died shortly before noon in
Moscow, after stepping out of an office
building near the center of the city.
A gunman shot him four times in the head, and then fled
in a car driven by an accomplice. Police
later found the car, which had been set
on fire, nearby. Inside they found a
pistol with a silencer. Human-rights
workers say that Mr. Budanov, who headed
a tank regiment in Chechnya, was
probably involved in the kidnapping of a
number of Chechen civilians during the
war whose bodies were later discovered
dumped with their hands tied. But
Russian courts cleared him of those
charges, as well as the initial
allegations that he raped the
18-year-old woman, Heda Kungayeva, whom
he murdered in his officer's quarters.
After his conviction, Chechnya's
Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov,
said that Chechens would "find a way to
give him what he deserves" if he was
ever released on parole. After his
release in 2009, Mr. Kadyrov called him
a "maniac" and a "killer" who should
spend his life in prison. |
|
SECRETARY GATES WARNS OF 'DISMAL FUTURE'
FOR NATO WITHOUT URGENT CHANGES
NAPLES,
ITALY--Outgoing
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
says NATO has become a
"two-tiered" alliance poorly equipped to
deal with challenges, and with members
either unable or unwilling to carry out
agreed missions in Afghanistan and
Libya. In his farewell speech Friday to
the NATO Council in Brussels, Gates
pulled few punches in listing the
shortcomings of the alliance. In
particular, he drew a contrast between
those members "willing and able to pay
the price and bear the burdens of
alliance commitments, and those who
enjoy the benefits of NATO membership
... but don't want to share the risks
and the costs." "This is no longer a
hypothetical worry," he said. "We are
there today, and it is unacceptable."
Gates called for urgent action to "avoid
the very real possibility of collective
military irrelevance." Ultimately, he
said, "nations must be responsible for
their fair share of the common defense."
  The defense secretary said the problem was in part one
of resources. Pointing to one estimate
that European defense spending had
declined by nearly 15% in the decade
following 9/11, Gates said that only
five of the 28 allies now spent the
agreed target of 2% of GDP on defense.
Gates said the allied mission in
Afghanistan had exposed significant
shortcomings of NATO -- in military
capabilities and political will.
"Despite more than 2 million troops in
uniform -- not counting the U.S.
military -- NATO has struggled, at times
desperately, to sustain a deployment of
25,000 to 40,000 troops, not just in
boots on the ground, but in crucial
support assets," he said. Gates praised
governments that had stepped up in
Afghanistan. "Frankly, four years ago I
never would have expected the alliance
to sustain this operation at this level
for this long, much less add
significantly more forces in 2010," he
said. That had "decisively changed the
momentum on the ground," but NATO must
now guard against a "rush to the exits."
"The way ahead in Afghanistan is "in
together, out together," Gates said --
with the aim of "inflicting a strategic
and ideological defeat on terrorist
groups that threaten our homelands."
Gates had harsh words for the conduct of the air
campaign against the regime of Moammar
Gadhafi in Libya. He said it had become
"painfully clear" that shortcomings
could "jeopardize the alliance's ability
to conduct an integrated, effective and
sustained air-sea campaign." "While
every alliance member voted for the
Libya mission, less than half have
participated at all, and fewer than a
third have been willing to participate
in the strike mission," he said. Some
did not want to -- others simply were
unable to. NATO lacked intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance assets
to do the job. Gates gave one critical
example: "NATO air operations center in
Italy required a major augmentation of
targeting specialists, mainly from the
U.S., to do the job. ... We have the
spectacle of an air operations center
designed to handle more than 300 sorties
a day struggling to launch about 150." |
|
AT LEAST 32 PROTESTERS KILLED BY SYRIAN
TROOPS
DAMASCUS,
SYRIA--Syrian
forces shelled a town in the country's
restive north and opened fire on
scattered protests nationwide,
killing at least 32 people on Friday,
activists said. Hundreds of Syrians
streamed across the border into Turkey,
trying to escape the violence. A Syrian
opposition figure told The Associated
Press by telephone that thousands of
protesters overwhelmed security officers
and torched the courthouse and police
station in the northern town of Maaret
al-Numan, and the army responded with
tank shells. The man spoke on condition
of anonymity because of the sensitivity
of the matter. Syria's state-run
television appeared to confirm at least
part of the report, saying gunmen opened
fire on police stations in Maaret al-Numan,
causing casualties among security
officials.
  Syrian helicopter gunships fired machineguns at
protesters in Maaret al-Numan, witnesses
told Reuters. It was the first time
Syrian forces used air power against
anti-government demonstrators. "At least
five helicopters flew over Maarat al-Numaan
and began firing their machineguns to
disperse the tens of thousands who
marched in the protest," one witness
told Reuters. "People hid in fields,
under bridges and in their houses, but
the firing continued on the mostly empty
streets for hours," another witness told
Reuters. The Local Coordination
Committees, a group that documents
anti-government protests in Syria, said
at least 32 people died in protests and
army operations, half of them in the
northwestern province of Idlib. The
group said many of the casualties were
in Maaret al-Numan. Twenty-five miles to
the west in the same province, Syrian
troops backed by dozens of tanks massed
outside the virtually deserted town of
Jisr al-Shughour and shelled nearby
villages. Late Friday, Syrian television
said troops reached the entrances of the
town and detained members of "armed
groups."
According to activists, many of the troops belong to the
army's elite 4th Division, which is
commanded by Assad's younger brother,
Maher. The use of the loyalist forces
could reflect the regime's concern about
whether regular military units would
remain loyal if called upon to crush the
uprising in the north. Other protests in
Syria occurred in neighborhoods in the
capital, Damascus, and the major city of
Aleppo, which are vital to Assad's
authoritarian regime. But the
demonstrations in those cities have been
relatively limited in scope compared to
other restive areas. Syrians who escaped
into Turkey depicted a week of revolt
and mayhem in Jisr al-Shughour, saying
police turned their guns on each other
and soldiers shed their uniforms rather
than fire on protesters. Syrian
television said the operation aimed to
restore security in the town, where
authorities say 120 officers and
security personnel were killed by gunmen
last week. Nearly 4,000 Syrians had
crossed into Turkey by Friday, nearly
all of them in the past two days,
according to Turkish media. |
|
SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE FLARES UP
HANOI,
VIETNAM---Vietnam
said on Friday that it would conduct
live-fire naval exercises off its coast
next week, a step that escalated
a long-running dispute with China over
territory in the South China Sea that
both nations claim. The naval maneuvers
follow an exchange of sharp statements
on Thursday. Vietnam claimed that China
had harassed a seismic survey boat,
damaging a research cable trailing
behind it; China demanded that Vietnam
halt all oil-exploration activities in
the disputed area. In an announcement on
its Web site, Vietnam’s state-run
Northern Maritime Safety Corporation
said that nine hours of naval exercises
would be held on Monday off the
country’s central coast, and warned
other vessels to avoid the area. It was
the first time that the government has
publicized a live-ammunition drill.
  The diplomatic flare-up between China and Vietnam was the
most serious confrontation this year in
a territorial dispute that also involves
the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan.
The five countries have competing claims
to parts of the South China Sea bed,
which may hold valuable oil and mineral
deposits. Arguments over the territory
have continued for years, and the
nations signed a 2002 accord that
committed them to show restraint in
disputed waters. The issue heated up
again last year because of a United
Nations treaty that required all nations
that maintain claims to
continental-shelf seabed to file those
claims formally by the end of 2009.
China has seized scores of Vietnamese
fishing boats in recent years, and
Vietnam has responded with naval
activities like the seismic vessel
involved in this week’s incident.
China blames Vietnam for that incident, saying that
armed Vietnamese boats were illegally
chasing Chinese fishing boats out of the
area, and that a Chinese fishing net
accidentally snagged the research cable.
Vietnam, however, called the damage to
the research cable premeditated, and
said it was the second such incident in
recent weeks. Both incidents, Vietnam
said, took place within the exclusive
economic zone, extending 200 nautical
miles from the Vietnam coast, which is
reserved to Hanoi under international
law. China claims the same kind of zone
based on its own coastline, and their
claims overlap, especially in areas
surrounding small islands in the sea
whose ownership is disputed. Both
countries are seeking to establish a
demonstrated presence in the area, a key
requirement for pressing a territorial
claim should negotiations over the
maritime boundaries ever become serious. |
|
IRAN TO TRIPLE NUKE OUTPUT, USE BETTER
CENTRIFUGES
TEHRAN,
IRAN--Iran
will soon install more advanced
centrifuges at its new uranium
enrichment site, the country's
nuclear chief said Wednesday,
underscoring Tehran's continued defiance
in the face of international sanctions
imposed over its controversial nuclear
program. Vice President Fereidoun Abbasi
also announced that Iran plans to triple
its output of the higher enriched
uranium in 2011 and move the entire
program to the new, secretly-built
facility. The uranium enrichment lies at
the heart of Iran's dispute with the
West, which is concerned that the
activity masks efforts to make nuclear
weapons - a charge Tehran denies,
insisting the work is peaceful and only
meant to generate electricity.
 
Abbasi, who also heads Iran's nuclear
agency, said that Tehran would set up
the more efficient centrifuges, suitable
for higher-grade uranium enrichment, at
the Fordo site near the holy city of Qom
in central Iran. Built next to a
military complex to protect it in case
of an attack, Fordo was long kept secret
and was only acknowledged by Iran after
it was identified by Western
intelligence agencies in September 2009.
At the time, the labs were still under
construction inside former ammunition
depots carved into a mountainside. The
area is heavily protected by the
powerful Revolutionary Guard. Despite
four rounds of U.N. sanctions over its
refusal to halt the enrichment, Iran has
threatened to expand the program tenfold
and produce new centrifuges capable of
enriching uranium faster than the old
ones. This has added to the
international concerns because these
centrifuges would allow Tehran to
accelerate the pace of its program and
potentially enable Iran to amass more
nuclear material in a shorter time that
could be turned into the fissile core of
missiles, should it choose to do so.
Centrifuges are machines that are used to enrich
uranium. Low-enriched uranium - at
around 3.5 percent - can be used to fuel
a reactor to generate electricity, which
Iran says is the intention of its
program. But if uranium is further
enriched to around 90 percent purity, it
can be used to develop a nuclear
warhead. Iran has been producing uranium
enriched up to 5 percent for years and
began the higher enrichment - up to near
20 percent, considered a threshold
between low and high enriched uranium -
in February 2010, claiming it needs the
higher enriched uranium to produce fuel
for a Tehran reactor that makes medical
radioisotopes needed for cancer
patients. According to Abbasi, the
nuclear chief, the new centrifuges at
Fordo would be more advanced than the
decades old P-1 type once acquired on
the black market and in use at Iran's
main enrichment facility in Natanz.
"Soon, we will install 164-machine
centrifuge cascades of the new
generation (at Fordo)," Abbasi was
quoted by the official IRNA news agency
as saying after a Cabinet meeting. He
also added that Iran would triple the
output of its higher enrichment program
this year and would move the entire
program to Fordo from Natanz. The U.N.'s
nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency, would monitor the
transfer, he said. Last month, the IAEA
said in a report that Iran estimates it
has produced a total of about 125
pounds, or 56.7 kilograms, of uranium
enriched to 20 percent by May 21st. |
|
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ'S TOUR: BETWEEN
ESTRANGEMENT AND THE APPETITE FOR
POPULARITY
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ's
presidential tour had three main
purposes: to reaffirm diplomatic
relations with Brazil, to enjoy a burst
of popularity in Ecuador, and reinforce
his vital relations with Cuba, according
to Félix Arellano, the director of the
School of International Studies, Central
University of Venezuela. Arellano said
that Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff
"got distanced" from Chávez and was
"prudent" during the visit her
Venezuelan counterpart paid to Brazil.
This can be viewed as the new standard
in Venezuela's relations with Brazil,
according to the international expert.
 
Meanwhile, Chávez sought to dispel any
uncertainty and tried to maintain Brazil
as a mediator with the United States, a
role that is now played by Colombian
President Juan Manuel Santos. Arellano
thinks that the gap between Venezuela
and Brazil "has been confirmed by the
short duration of the visit and the
specific agenda of the meeting. Rousseff
has shown the best image of a Head of
State because she dealt with very
specific items of the agenda and
prevented the meeting from becoming a
show." The tour had another tone
in Ecuador and Cuba. "Unlike Brazil,
Ecuador was used by Chávez as a platform
to insult the Empire (United States). He
made a show.
 
Chávez used again a high-sounding
discourse that brings no benefit to
Venezuela. On the contrary, it frightens
investors globally. The trip to Ecuador
and Cuba was also necessary for Chávez
"due to his personality. He needed a
burst of popularity and he enjoyed it in
Ecuador and Cuba because these two
countries are the core of Venezuela's
foreign policy." Arellano said that
Cuba has always been a favorite
destination in Chávez's visits to the
region. However, the Venezuelan
political analyst said that "the Cuban
model is beginning to change," and Raúl
Castro wants to restore diplomatic
relations with the US. As a result, the
Caribbean island "could distance itself
from Venezuela," he warned. |
|
CORRUPTION SCANDAL HITS ARGENTINA'S
MOTHERS OF THE PLAZA DE MAYO
BUENOS
AIRES, ARGENTINA--The
influential rights group Mothers of the
Plaza de Mayo is struggling with
a corruption scandal that forced it to
fire a top executive accused of misusing
taxpayer funds meant to build housing
for the poor. The group is a close ally
of Argentina's presidency and the
scandal could have political
consequences with only months to go
before the Oct. 23 election. President
Cristina Fernandez enjoys a wide lead in
the polls and is favored to win
re-election should she announce her
candidacy this month. The judicial
investigation has already been broadened
to include any politicians and
government appointees found to be
involved in the scandal. "If there
wasn't complicity, there was negligence
in terms of government controls. This
case is yet more proof that the controls
aren't working in Argentina," Ricardo
Alfonsin, the president's leading
challenger, said in an interview he
promoted on Twitter.
 
On Wednesday, opposition members of
Congress called for more transparency
and controls in government spending, and
governing party deputies defended the
Mothers group as key to the president's
populist programs. The human rights
group began during the 1976-83
dictatorship when its founders demanded
information about their children who had
disappeared in the military junta's
campaign to eliminate political
dissenters. In recent years, the group
has evolved into a political movement
that backs specific candidates and
unions, is a fixture at governing party
rallies, and runs a wide range of social
programs as well as radio and television
stations. Since 2008, the government has
given the Mothers group about $187
million for more than 2,000 housing and
related construction sites, Deputy
Public Works secretary Abel Fatala told
a congressional committee Wednesday. But
he insisted that local officials, not
the federal government, were responsible
for making sure the money was properly
spent.
 
Opposition leaders said the Mothers and
federal officials showed a shocking
failure of responsibility. Fernanda
Reyes, a deputy with the opposition
Civic Coalition, said that since 2004,
only 35 percent of housing that should
have been built with taxpayer money was
actually finished. A Peronist party
deputy, Gustavo Ferrari, countered that
the Mothers group is now Argentina's
second-biggest housing builder in terms
of the number of people it employs.
Sergio Schoklender, the right hand of
the Mothers' president, Hebe de Bonafini,
is accused along with his brother Pablo
and more than a dozen others of fraud,
money laundering and illegal enrichment.
Sergio Schoklender served as the rights
group's legal representative, which gave
him key financial and administrative
responsibilities. Prosecutor Jorge Di
Lello's complaint alleges Schoklender
made a series of suspicious operations
that shifted taxpayer funds into
businesses he owns. While earning about
$16,000 a year to help Argentina's poor,
Schoklender amassed a 19-room mansion,
Ferrari and Porsche sports cars and a
yacht, according to the opposition
Clarin newspaper. Schocklender also
frequently flew around the country in
private jets, the paper said. |
|
AL QAEDA DEPUTY: BIN LADEN WILL HAUNT
AMERICA
CAIRO,
EGYPT--Osama
bin Laden's longtime lieutenant, Ayman
al-Zawahri, said the United
States faces rebellion throughout the
Muslim world after killing the al Qaeda
leader, according to a YouTube recording
posted on Wednesday. In what appeared to
be his first public response to bin
Laden's death in a U.S. commando raid in
Pakistan last month, the Egyptian-born
Zawahri warned Americans not to gloat
and vowed to press ahead with al Qaeda's
campaign against the United States and
its allies.
 
"The Sheikh has departed, may God have
mercy on him, to his God as a martyr,
and we must continue on his path of
jihad to expel the invaders from the
land of Muslims and to purify it from
injustice," Zawahri said in the
28-minute clip. "Today, and thanks be to
God, America is not facing an individual
or a group ... but a rebelling nation
which has awoken from its sleep in a
jihadist renaissance challenging it
wherever it is." Zawahri's association
with bin Laden's predates the al Qaeda
attacks on the United States in
September 2001 that led to the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq. While the
bespectacled Zawahri has been touted as
successor to bin Laden, experts on al
Qaeda say that another Egyptian
militant, Saif al-Adel, is in interim
command of al Qaeda.
In the video, Zawahri warned Americans not to rejoice
at bin Laden's death. "You should await
what will befall you after every
celebration," he said. He condemned U.S.
forces for burying bin Laden at sea, a
move opposed by senior Muslim clerics as
un-Islamic. The Americans said the
burial included Muslim rite and took
place at sea to deny bin Laden's
followers a shrine. "He terrified
America when he was alive and is
terrifying it as a dead man, to the
point that they shudder at the prospect
of giving him a grave because of what
they know of the love of tens of
millions for him," he said. Bin Laden,
Zawahri said, would continue to "haunt
America and Israel and their Crusader
allies, their corrupt agents." |
|
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ ARRIVED IN CUBA
AFTER VISITING BRAZIL AND ECUADOR
HAVANA,
CUBA--Venezuela's
dictator Hugo Chávez arrived in
Havana, where he was welcomed by his
Cuban counterpart Raúl Castro, to start
a working visit in which both leaders
will review bilateral ties.
 
The official Cuban media reported
Wednesday that Chávez arrived early this
morning at the José Martí international
airport in Havana and that the purpose
of his trip is "to review the progress
of broad bilateral relations between
Cuba and Venezuela." The Venezuelan
president arrived in the Caribbean
island after visiting Brazil and Ecuador
and so far no details have been
disclosed about the Venezuelan
President's agenda in Havana.
Chávez's last working visit to Cuba was in November
2010, when he celebrated with Raúl and
Fidel Castro the 10th anniversary of the
comprehensive cooperation agreement
between Cuba and Venezuela, signed in
Caracas in October 2000. At that time,
the two governments decided to extend
for another decade the comprehensive
agreement, which includes arrangements
on energy, international cooperation;
medical, educational and sport services,
among others.
|
|
VENEZUELA REJECTS AT THE OAS SANCTIONS
IMPOSED BY US AGAINST PDVSA
SAN
SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR--According
to Venezuelan ambassador to the OAS Roy
Chaderton, the sanctions imposed
by the United States "are the beginning
of a plan designed to disrupt the
elections in Venezuela in 2012"
 
The sanctions the United States imposed
on state-run oil firm Pdvsa are an
"assault" that seeks to "disrupt" the
2012 presidential election, denounced on
Tuesday at the Organization of American
States (OAS) Venezuelan Ambassador Roy
Chaderton. "I formally denounce an
attack against the security of citizens
in my country through the imposition of
sanctions which apparently are nothing
but the beginning of a plan designed to
disrupt the elections in Venezuela in
2012," said Chaderton during the annual
meeting of the OAS in San Salvador.
"The aim is to impoverish my country,"
said Chaderton, AFP reported.
On May 24, the United States punished Pdvsa on its trade
relations with Iran, which Washington
deems contrary to international
sanctions imposed on Tehran in
connection with the Iranian nuclear
program. The sanctions prevent Pdvsa
from participating in contracts directly
with Washington, accessing export and
import financing programs or obtaining
licenses for US oil technologies. Pdvsa
was "sanctioned by 'Big Brother's'
authorities for engaging in trade
relations based on our sovereign
decisions," said Chaderton. Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez said Tuesday in
Ecuador, where he is paying an official
visit, that the US move was "an
aggression of the US empire against
Venezuela." |
|
YEMENI PRESIDENT ALI ABDULLAH SALEH
HOSPITALIZED IN SAUDI ARABIA
RIYADH,
SAUDI ARABIA--The
fate of the embattled Yemeni leader,
Ali Abdullah
Saleh
-- and whether he will return to the
conflict in Yemen -- remains uncertain.
Saleh was injured Friday in an attack
at his presidential compound. An Arab
diplomatic source with knowledge of
Saleh's condition says one shrapnel
wound is 7 centimeters (2.75 inches)
deep. Fighting between government and
tribal forces has raged for weeks in the
Yemeni capital of Sanaa, where thousands
of anti-government protesters have been
pressuring Saleh to give up power since
January. And there has been unrest
elsewhere. The turmoil in Yemen reached
a pinnacle Friday, when a mosque in
Saleh's presidential compound was
attacked. Yemen's state-run news agency
SABA reported last week that three
guards and an imam were killed, citing a
source in Saleh's office.
 
According to Western diplomats, the
attack came from a bomb. Yemeni
investigations are "focusing on what
happened inside the mosque," not a
rocket or mortar attack, diplomats said
Monday. One diplomat said the bombing
was not a suicide bombing and that the
Yemeni investigation "is still ongoing."
But last week, a Yemeni official who
asked not to be named told CNN that
Saleh was in the mosque when two
"projectiles" were fired during Friday
prayers. Supporters of Sadeq Al-Ahmar,
leader of the Hashed tribe and an
opponent of the Yemeni government, were
suspected in the attack. Yemeni
security forces shelled Al-Ahmar's home
Friday in response to the attack,
leaving 10 people dead and 35 others
wounded, according to Fawzi Al-Jaradi,
an official with the Hashed tribal
confederation.
After Saleh went to Saudi Arabia for treatment, the
tribal leader and Vice President Abed
Rabbo Mansour Hadi -- Yemen's interim
leader -- agreed on a cease-fire, said
Abdulqawi Al-Qaisi, spokesman for the
Hashed leader. Yemen's largest
opposition bloc has vowed to prevent
Saleh from returning. "The Yemeni people
will do all in their power to not allow
Saleh to re-enter the country," Joint
Meeting Parties spokesman Mohammed
Qahtan said Sunday. A U.S. government
official said Monday he can't imagine
the Saudis letting Saleh go back. He
said it is critical that the Saudis
press Saleh to accept a Gulf Cooperation
Council deal offering him immunity in
exchange for stepping down. Saudi
state-run Ekhbariya television reported
Monday that Saleh had undergone two
operations in Saudi Arabia and it
reported he would return to Yemen after
he recovers. |
|
RARE DAYTIME NATO AIRSTRIKES HIT LIBYAN
CAPITAL
TRIPOLI, LIBYA--
Low-flying NATO military craft unleashed
a ferocious series of nearly 30 daytime
airstrikes on Tripoli, rattling
the Libyan capital Tuesday and sending
plumes of smoke billowing above leader
Muammar al-Qadhafi's compound. Reporters
counted at least 27 strikes by
mid-afternoon, and Libyan television
said several structures in the Qaddafi
compound were badly damaged. Daylight
NATO raids have been rare and signal an
intensification of the alliance bid to
drive Qaddafi from power. There were no
immediate reports about casualties. NATO
strikes before dawn Monday targeted a
building of the state-run Libyan
television station, he said, reporting
that 16 people were injured. The
building was only partially destroyed
and Libyan television is still
broadcasting.
  NATO officials have warned for days that they were increasing
the scope and intensity of their
two-month campaign to oust Qaddafi after
more than 40 years in power. The
alliance is assisting a four-month old
rebel insurgency that has seized swaths
of eastern Libya and pockets in the
regime's stronghold in the west.
Ambulances, sirens blaring, could be
heard racing through the city during the
daylong raids that shook the ground and
sent thundering sound waves across the
capital. Some of the strikes were
believed to have targeted a military
barracks near Qaddafi's sprawling
central Tripoli compound, said spokesman
Moussa Ibrahim. Others hit the compound
itself, Libyan television reported.
Pro-Qaddafi loyalists in the capital
fired weapons into the air but after the
NATO strikes had ended. "Instead of
talking to us, they are bombing us. They
are going mad. They are losing their
heads," said Ibrahim.
  The spokesman said the daylight strikes were
particularly terrifying because families
were separated during the day. Libyan
school children are taking final exams
at the end of the school year. "Tens of
thousands of children are in Tripoli.
You can imagine the shock and horror of
the children. You can imagine the horror
of parents who can't check on their
children who are far away," Ibrahim
said. The strikes began at around 11:30
a.m. local time and continued through
the day. Some landed in clusters of two
and three booming explosions. Ibarahim
said the barracks likely hit Tuesday
have been repeated targets of NATO.
Libyan television later reported other
strikes hit the sprawling compound
itself. It gave few details. The
compound hosts homes, guest houses,
large grassy knolls and a camp ground
where pro-Qaddafi loyalists sleep. The
television said nearby homes were also
damaged, along with some infrastructure. |
|
DICTATOR GADHAFI VOWS TO FIGHT TO DEATH
AFTER NATO AIRSTRIKES
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA--Libyan
DICTATOR Muammar al-Qaddafi has
vowed to fight to the death in a
surprise speech during the heaviest day
of NATO shelling in the capital Tripoli.
Qaddafi's voice suddenly emerged on
Libyan television Tuesday afternoon --
barely an hour after the last some 30
NATO strikes pounded the capital.He
vowed "We will not kneel" and "We will
not surrender!" Low-flying NATO
military craft unleashed a ferocious
series of daytime airstrikes on Tripoli,
rattling the Libyan capital Tuesday and
sending plumes of smoke billowing above
Qaddafi's compound.
  Reporters counted at least 27 strikes by mid-afternoon, and
Libyan television said several
structures in the Qaddafi compound were
badly damaged. Daylight NATO raids have
been rare and signal an intensification
of the alliance bid to drive Qaddafi
from power. NATO officials have warned
for days that they were increasing the
scope and intensity of their two-month
campaign to oust Qaddafi after more than
40 years in power. The alliance is
assisting a four-month old rebel
insurgency that has seized swaths of
eastern Libya and pockets in the
regime's stronghold in the west.
Ambulances, sirens blaring, could be
heard racing through the city during the
daylong raids that shook the ground and
sent thundering sound waves across the
capital.
Some of the strikes were believed to have targeted a
military barracks near Qaddafi's
sprawling central Tripoli compound, said
spokesman Moussa Ibrahim. Others hit the
compound itself, Libyan television
reported. Pro-Qaddafi loyalists in the
capital fired weapons into the air but
after the NATO strikes had ended.
"Instead of talking to us, they are
bombing us. They are going mad. They are
losing their heads," said Ibrahim. The
spokesman said the daylight strikes were
particularly terrifying because families
were separated during the day. Libyan
school children are taking final exams
at the end of the school year. The
strikes began at around 11:30 a.m. local
time and continued through the day. Some
landed in clusters of two and three
booming explosions. NATO strikes before
dawn Monday targeted a building of the
state-run Libyan television station, he
said, reporting that 16 people were
injured. The building was only partially
destroyed and Libyan television is still
broadcasting. |
|
SYRIA SAYS 120 FORCES DEAD IN TENSE
NORTHERN TOWN
DAMASCUS,
SYRIA--Armed
men attacked Syrian security forces in a
tense northern city on Monday,
Syrian officials said, and 120 policemen
and security forces were killed in a
region where the army has carried out
days of deadly assaults on protesters
calling for the end of President Bashar
Assad's rule. The government vowed to
respond "decisively," setting the stage
for a new crackdown. Communications were
cut to the area around Jisr al-Shughour
on Monday and the details of the attack
were impossible to verify, but there
have been unconfirmed reports in the
past by residents and activists of
Syrians fighting back against security
forces and even mutinous troops. Adnan
Mahmoud, the chief government spokesman,
acknowledged that Syrian forces had lost
control of some areas for "intermittent
periods of time" and promised that the
army would restore security in the
area. "We will deal strongly and
decisively, and according to the law,
and we will not be silent about any
armed attack that targets the security
of the state and its citizens," said
Interior Minister Ibrahim Shaar.
 
The government's
response set the stage for an even
stronger crackdown against a popular
uprising that began in mid-March and
poses a potent threat to the 40-year
regime of the Assad family. The
possibility of a mutiny would show new
cracks in a rule that has held out
through weekly protests of thousands of
people. State television added the armed
groups carried out a "real massacre,"
mutilating some bodies and throwing
others in the Orontes River. Jisr al-Shughour,
about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the
Turkish border, has been the latest
focus of Syria's military, whose
nationwide crackdown on the revolt has
left more than 1,200 Syrians dead,
activists say. The town was a stronghold
of the country's banned Muslim
Brotherhood in the 1980s. Human rights
groups said at least 42 civilians have
been killed there since Saturday.
Syria's government
has a history of violent retaliation
against dissent, including a three-week
bombing campaign against the city of
Hama that crushed an uprising there in
1982. Jisr al-Shughour itself came under
government shelling in 1980, when it was
a stronghold of the banned Muslim
Brotherhood, with a reported 70 people
killed. Assad's decision to allow
pro-Palestinian protesters to storm the
Israeli border twice in recent weeks
indicates he may be trying to deflect
focus from a serious crisis at home, and
possibly divert international attention
from a new crackdown. State television
broadly carried Sunday's protest at the
Golan Heights to the south frontier,
which left as many as 23 people dead in
fighting with Israeli forces, but it has
not carried any footage of the protest,
crackdown or ambush at the northern edge
of Syria. Monday's state television
report said the officers were ambushed
as they responded to calls from
residents for protection from the armed
groups. It said 20 policemen were
initially killed, and then the groups
blew up a post office and attacked a
security post, killing other forces. The
report said the armed groups were hiding
in homes and firing at security forces
and civilians alike, using residents as
human shields. |
|
UN ATOM CHIEF: NEW DATA SUGGESTS
MILITARY DIMENSIONS OF IRAN'S NUCLEAR
PROGRAM
VIENNA. AUSTRIA--The
U.N. atomic watchdog has received
further information regarding activities
that "seem to point to the existence" of
possible military dimensions to Iran's
nuclear program, the agency's head said
on Monday. "There are indications that
certain of these activities may have
continued until recently," Yukiya Amano,
director general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a
speech to the agency's 35-nation
governing board.
 
Amano's statement
underlined the U.N. body's concern that
the Islamic Republic may be working to
develop a nuclear-armed missile. Tehran
rejects such suspicions, saying its
nuclear program has only civilian aims,
mainly generating electricity. Amano did
not disclose the source of the new
information. For several years, the IAEA
has been investigating Western
intelligence reports indicating Iran had
coordinated efforts to process uranium,
test explosives at high altitude and
revamp a ballistic missile cone so it
can take a nuclear warhead.
Amano said he had
written last month to the head of Iran's
Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoun
Abbasi-Davani, "reiterating the agency's
concerns about the existence of possible
military dimensions." He had also asked
for Iran to "provide prompt access" to
locations, equipment, documentation and
officials to help clarify the agency's
queries. to Abbasi-Davani on June 3 "in
which I reiterated the agency's requests
to Iran." |
|
RUSSIAN DEPUTY PRIMER MINISTER SAYS NATO
'ONE STEP' FROM LAND WAR IN LIBYA
MOSCOW,
RUSSIA--NATO
is "one step" from sending troops into
Libya to help rebels remove Moammar
Gadhafi from power, Russian
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said
Sunday.
 
British and French
attack helicopters struck for the first
time inside Libya on Saturday, having
previously relied on attack jets
generally flying above 15,000 feet
(4,500 meters). "Using attack
helicopters, in my view, is the last but
one step before the land operation,"
Ivanov said in Singapore at the IISS
Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security
conference. Russia abstained from a
United Nations Security Council
resolution vote in March to impose a
no-fly zone over Libya. Ivanov said
there has been disagreement over how to
interpret the scope of the resolution.
"We thought it was
a good resolution to stop civilian
casualties and close down Libyan air
space," Ivanov said. "But we haven't
agreed on what closing down air space
means. Later, it apparently meant first
bombing and now using attack
helicopters. We think it clearly takes
one side of the conflict." NATO
airstrikes have kept the outgunned
rebels from being overrun, but the
rebels have been unable to mount an
effective offensive against Gadhafi's
better-equipped forces.
|
|
PROTESTERS CELEBRATE DEPARTURE OF
YEMEN'S PRESIDENT SALEH
SANAA,
YEMEN--The
departure of Yemen's battle-wounded
president for treatment in Saudi Arabia
set off wild street celebrations Sunday
in the capital, where crowds
danced, sang and slaughtered cows in
hopes that this spelled a victorious end
to a more than three-month campaign to
push their leader from power. Behind the
festive atmosphere, many feared Ali
Abdullah Saleh, a masterful political
survivor who has held power for nearly
33 years, will yet return -- or leave
the country in ruins if he can't.
Hanging in the balance was a country
that even before the latest tumult was
beset by deep poverty, malnutrition,
tribal conflict and violence by an
active al-Qaida franchise with
international reach. Saleh, who was
taken overnight to a military hospital
in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, underwent
successful surgery on his chest to
remove jagged pieces of wood that
splintered from a mosque pulpit when his
compound was hit by rockets on Friday,
said medical officials and a Yemeni
diplomat. They spoke on condition of
anonymity because they did not have
permission to release the information.
 
The stunning rocket attack, which the
government first blamed on tribal
fighters who in recent weeks turned
against the president and later on
al-Qaida, killed 11 bodyguards and
seriously injured five senior officials
worshipping just alongside Saleh. While
Saleh is away, Vice President Abed Rabbo
Mansour Hadi is acting as temporary head
of state, said the deputy information
minister, Abdu al-Janadi. The minister
said the president would return to
assume his duties after his treatment,
though experts on Yemeni affairs
questioned whether a return is possible
in the face of so much opposition. "Saleh
will come back. Saleh is in good health,
and he may give up the authority one day
but it has to be in a constitutional
way," al-Janadi said. "Calm has
returned. Coups have failed. ... We are
not in Libya, and Saleh is not calling
for civil war." His sudden departure
raised many questions, including whether
his Saudi hosts would bless his return.
The Saudis have backed Saleh and
cooperated over the years in confronting
al-Qaida and other threats, but they are
now among those pressing him to give up
power as part of a negotiated deal.
Saudi Arabia has watched with concern
the anti-government protests that have
spread to other neighboring countries
like Bahrain and is eager to contain the
unrest on its doorstep.
 
The president's absence raised the
specter of an even more violent power
struggle between the armed tribesmen who
have joined the opposition and loyalist
military forces under the command of
Saleh's son and other close relatives.
Street battles between the sides have
already pushed the political crisis to
the brink of civil war. In an attempt to
cool the situation, the vice president
offered through mediators to pull
government forces back from the
neighborhood of the capital where
they've battled fighters loyal to Sheik
Sadeq al-Ahmar, who heads Yemen's most
powerful tribal confederation, the
Hashid. Al-Ahmar said in a statement he
agreed to the deal, which requires his
forces to leave the streets and
government ministries they seized
starting Monday. Late Sunday, opposition
members and ruling party officials said
negotiations have begun based on a
U.S.-backed Gulf Arab plan to end the
crisis with Saleh's resignation. Saleh
rejected that plan three times after
agreeing to sign it. His departure could
allow Yemen's powerful Gulf neighbors to
push it forward. Details of how this
would proceed remained unclear. The two
sides said Saleh was expected to remain
in Saudi Arabia for two weeks, one for
treatment and another for meetings, but
it remained unclear if he will return to
Yemen, In the streets of the capital,
Sanaa, joyful crowds celebrated what
they hoped would be Saleh's permanent
exit. |
|
HEAVY FIGHTING ERUPTS BETWEEN ISRAELI
TROOPS AND PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS
MAJDAL SHAMS, GOLAN HEIGHTS--
Israeli troops on Sunday battled
hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters
who tried to burst across Syria's
frontier with the Golan Heights,
killing a reported 20 people and
wounding scores more in the second
outbreak of deadly violence in the
border area in less than a month. The
clashes, marking the anniversary of the
Arab defeat in the 1967 Mideast war,
drew Israeli accusations that Syria was
orchestrating the violence to shift
attention away from a bloody crackdown
on opposition protests at home. The
marchers, who had organized on Facebook,
passed by Syrian and U.N. outposts on
their way to the front lines. "The
Syrian government is trying to created a
provocation," said Israel's chief
military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav
Mordechai. "This border has been quiet
for decades, but only now with all the
unrest in Syrian towns is there an
attempt to draw attention to the
border."
 
By evening, the crowd had swelled to
more than 1,000 people, who milled
about, prayed and chanted slogans in an
uneasy standoff with Israeli troops in
the distance. The army bolstered its
positions, posting a dozen armored
vehicles and jeeps along the border
road. A small group of youths managed to
cut through a recently fortified coil of
barbed-wire and took up positions in a
trench inside a buffer zone about 20
yards (meters) from a final border
fence. Israeli troops periodically
opened fire at young activists jumping
into the ditch, sending puffs of soil
flying into the air. As the standoff
stretched into the evening, Israeli
forces fired heavy barrages of tear gas
to break up the crowds. Hundreds of
people fled the area in panic, while
some 20 people laying on the ground
received treatment. It was not
immediately clear whether the crowd
would return to the front lines. Israel
had promised a tough response after
being caught off guard in last month's
demonstrations, when troops killed more
than a dozen people in clashes along the
Syrian and Lebanese borders. In Syria,
hundreds of unarmed protesters managed
to breach the border and entered the
Israel-controlled Golan for several
hours.
The May 15 unrest occurred on the anniversary of
Israel's birth in 1948, a day the
Palestinians refer to as the "nakba," or
catastrophe. Sunday's clashes marked the
"naksa," or setback, the term the
Palestinians use for the defeat in the
1967 Mideast war. During that war,
Israel conquered the Golan Heights from
Syria, the West Bank and east Jerusalem
from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and
Sinai peninsula from Egypt in just six
days of fighting. Israel returned Sinai
to Egypt under a 1979 peace accord, and
withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The
Palestinians seek the West Bank and east
Jerusalem, along with Gaza, for a future
state, while Syria demands a return of
the Golan, a strategic plateau
overlooking northern Israel which Israel
has annexed, as the price for peace.
Still, until last month, Syria has
steadfastly kept its border with Israel
quiet for nearly 40 years, fueling the
Israeli accusations that Syria was
trying to draw attention away from the
months of protests that have left more
than 1,200 Syrians dead. |
|
NATO ATTACKS INTENSIFY PRESSURE ON
DICTATOR GADHAFI FORCES IN LIBYA
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA--NATO
warplanes and attack helicopters have
struck more targets in Libya,
ratcheting up pressure against forces
loyal to embattled leader Moammar
Gadhafi. Rebel fighters have also made
small gains in the Nafousa mountains,
not far from the capital Tripoli. The
NATO attacks against Gadhafi forces were
another small, but incremental sign the
embattled Libyan leader’s position is
slowly being eroded. British warplanes
struck a military barracks in the
capital Tripoli, while Apache
helicopters were used against Gadhafi
strongholds along the coast. Arab
satellite channels say the deployment of
attack helicopters has galvanized rebel
fighters, while sapping the morale of
Gadhafi loyalists. British military
commander John Kingwell stressed the use
of the Apache helicopters is providing
new capacity to keep Gadhafi forces in
check.
 
"The unique capability of the attack
helicopter is its ability with its very
advanced fire control system and radar
to actually identify and engage targets
with huge precision and that is
something that fixed wing at the moment
is not achieving," he said. "That will
enable me, if required, to provide
protection to civil population in Libya
where the aircraft are flying, that at
present we are not." British Army Air
Corps strategist Lieutenant Colonel
James noted the new tactical advantages
of the helicopters will seriously impede
Colonel Gadhafi’s ability to harm Libyan
civilians, which is NATO’s core mission.
"You know it just brings something else
to the party," said Etherington. "As I
said, we are able to fly lower, slower,
different munitions, it is an escalation
and I think, you know, we are committed
to support and protect the civilians
that Gadhafi is persecuting."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague
told the BBC Britain would like Libyan
rebel leaders to “give a clearer picture
of how they plan to govern,” if Colonel
Gadhafi is driven from power. Rebel
forces in Libya’s western Nafousa
mountain range have reportedly gained
ground in recent days, capturing three
towns and lifting the siege on a
fourth. Attacks by NATO helicopters on
the oil town of Brega on the central
coast put added pressure on Gadhafi
forces defending the town. Rebel
fighters are a stone’s throw away from
Brega’s crucial oil and gas
installations, as well as the nearby oil
port of Ras Lanouf. Arab satellite
channels say some Gadhafi fighters are
ready to surrender, but are afraid of
possible reprisals. Other Gadhafi
loyalists have fled by boat to Tunisia
in recent days to avoid surrendering to
rebel fighters. |
|
NATO USES ATTACK HELICOPTERS FOR FIRST
TIME IN LIBYA
TRIPOLI,
LIBYa--NATO
announced Saturday it had for the first
time used attack helicopters in Libya,
striking military vehicles, military
equipment and forces backing embattled
leader Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi.
"Attack helicopters under NATO command
were used for the first time on 4 June,
2011 in military operations over Libya
as part of Operation Unified Protector,"
the Atlantic Alliance said in a
statement. "The targets struck included
military vehicles, military equipment
and fielded forces" of the Qaddafi
regime, said the statement, without
detailing exactly where the strikes had
taken place.
  The Apaches hit two targets near the coastal city of Brega,
according to a statement from the
Ministry of Defense in London. It said
they took off from HMS Ocean, stationed
off the Libyan coast and returned safely
after completing their mission in the
early morning hours. The French
helicopters took off from the helicopter
transport ship Tonnerre in the
Mediterranean, said Col. Thierry
Burkhard. He said the French helicopters
struck 15 military vehicles and 5
military command buildings, without
identifying the sites or their location.
He said the French helicopters came
under light firearms fire but were not
hit or damaged. Burkhard said the
operation was aimed at putting
"additional pressure on the Gadhafi
forces who continue to threaten the
civilian population." Until now, NATO
has relied on attack jets, generally
flying above 15,000 feet (4,500 meters)
-- nearly three miles (five kilometers)
high and pounding Gadhafi targets in
relentless overnight bombings. But the
helicopters are a game-changer, giving
the alliance a key advantage in close-up
combat, flying at much lower altitudes.
  Meanwhile in London the Ministry of Defense confirmed
British Apache helicopters took part in
the Saturday's helicopter attacks. "Yes,
we confirm" their intervention, a
spokeswoman said, without giving further
details. London, which has since March
19 taken part in the international
coalition's operations in Libya,
announced late last month it was sending
in four attack helicopters to be based
on HMS Ocean off the north African
coast. Lieutenant General Charles
Bouchard, commander in chief of the NATO
mission in Libya, said "this success
demonstrates the unique possibilities
offered" by using combat helicopters.
"The use of attack helicopters provides
the NATO operation with additional
flexibility to track and engage
pro-Qaddafi forces who deliberately
target civilians and attempt to hide in
populated areas," the statement went on.
It quoted Bouchard, the Canadian officer
in charge of Operation Unified
Protector, as saying: "We will continue
to use these means when and where
necessary, with the same precision as in
all our missions." |
|
Al qaeda commander
killed in pakistan in u.s. drone strike
dera ismail kham, pakistan--A
top al-Qaida commander and possible
replacement for Osama bin Laden
was killed in an American drone-fired
missile strike close to the Afghan
border, a fax from the militant group he
heads and a Pakistani intelligence
official said Saturday. Ilyas Kashmiri's
apparent death is another blow to
al-Qaida just over a month after bin
Laden was killed by American commandos
in a northwest Pakistani army town.
Described by U.S. officials as
al-Qaida's military operations chief in
Pakistan, the 47-year-old Pakistani was
one of five most-wanted militant leaders
in the country, accused of a string of
bloody attacks in South Asia, including
the 2008 Mumbai massacre, as well as
aiding plots in the West.
  His death was not confirmed publicly by the United States or
Pakistani officials. Verifying who has
been killed in the drone strikes is
difficult. Initial reports have turned
out to be wrong in the past, including
one in September 2009 that said Kashmiri
had been killed. Sometimes they are
never formally denied or confirmed by
authorities here or in the United
States. But a fax from the militant
group he was heading – Harakat-ul-Jihad
al-Islami's feared "313 Brigade" –
confirmed Kashmiri was "martyred" in the
strike at 11:15 p.m. Friday in South
Waziristan tribal region. It was sent to
journalists in Peshawar. "God willing,
America, which is the 'pharaoh' of this,
will soon see a revenge attack, and our
real target is America," it said. The
statement was handwritten written on a
white page bearing name of the group,
which has not previously communicated
with the media.
The Pakistani official also said Kashmiri was among nine
militants killed in the strike. He spoke
on condition of anonymity in line with
his agency's policy. On Friday night,
officials said several missiles hit a
compound. The official Saturday said the
men were meeting in an apple orchard
near the house when the missiles hit.
Kashmiri's name was on a list of
militants that the United States and
Pakistan recently agreed to jointly
target, officials have said. The
successful strike could help repair ties
between the two countries that were
badly damaged by the unilateral American
raid, especially if Islamabad helped
provide intelligence leading up to the
attack. Said to be blind in one eye and
missing a finger, Kashmiri was one of
the country's most accomplished – and
vicious – militants. He was so close to
al-Qaida's central command that he had
been mentioned as a contender for
replacing bin Laden, though many
analysts thought the fact that he was
not an Arab meant he was unlikely to get
the post. Indian officials have alleged
he was involved in the 2008 Mumbai siege
that killed more than 160 people. He has
also been named a defendant in an
American court over a planned attack on
a Danish newspaper that published
cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad
in 2005. |
|
COLOMBIAN ARMY KILLS
TOP FARC COMMANDER'S SECURITY CHIEF
BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA--Colombia's
army says it has killed Alirio Rojas
Bocanegra, allias “El
Abuelo,” the
security chief for the head of the
country's main rebel group. Army
spokesman Col. Fernando Avila says that
Bocanegra was killed in an area about
140 miles (230 kilometers) southwest of
Bogota, the nation's capital. He gave
few details on Saturday, soon after the
president Juan Manuel Santos said that
on Saturday announced a "major blow"
against the guerrillas.
  According to the source, who requested anonymity until the
information is formally announced by
President Santos, Rojas Bocanegra ran
part of the bodyguards who protect Cano"
and administer "Finance Central Block of
the FARC. “El Abuelo” besides
coordinating all security rings "Alfonso
Cano" sin the leader took over the top
job in 2008, had complete control of
about 16 structures of the FARC. Central
Block, which handled all FARC finances,
is the largest guerrilla group fighting
for nearly 50 years against the
Colombian state, and it is directly
commanded by Cano, whose real name is
Guillermo León Sáenz and has commanded
the FARC since the death of Manuel
Marulanda Vélez "or" Sureshot "in 2008.
Apparently, "El Abuelo", with 23 years of service and
who ran the company "Miller Salcedo",
was shot in the department of Tolima
(center), where he was teaching in a
training center. President Santos had
announced shortly before that a “big
blow” was approaching the FARC, but the
results of the “blow” was announced
later on Saturday, during a press
conference convened by Defense Minister
Rodrigo Rivera. "We are confirming a
new great blow to the FARC. Tomorrow we
will have the results, " reported Santos
said through his twitter profile. |
|
YEMENI PRESIDENT ALI ABDULLAH SALEH
INJURED IN ATTACK AGAINST PRESIDENTIAL
PALACE
SANAA,
YEMEN--Yemeni
President Ali Abdullah Saleh was
wounded when opposition tribesmen
determined to topple him hammered his
palace with rockets Friday in a major
escalation of nearly two weeks of
fighting with government forces. At
least four guards were killed and seven
top officials were also wounded, an
official said. The official said Saleh
suffered light injuries to the neck and
was treated in the palace. Yemeni state
TV quickly aired a statement that Saleh
was "in good health," denying a claim on
an opposition TV station that the
president was killed in the strike. It
was the first time that tribal fighters
have directly targeted Saleh's palace in
the fighting that has rocked the capital
since May 23. The rocket strike came
after government forces launched an
intense artillery barrage at the homes
of two tribal leaders and a top military
general who also joined the opposition.
The houses were flattened, witnesses
said.
 
The fighting pits Saleh's troops against
tribesmen loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar,
head of the Hashid, Yemen's most
powerful tribal confederation. Al-Ahmar
supports the hundreds of thousands of
protesters who have been pressing for
Saleh's ouster since February, but his
tribal fighters stayed on the sidelines
until Saleh's troops last week moved
against al-Ahmar's residence in Sanaa.
The rockets Friday hit the presidential
compound as officials were praying at a
mosque inside, the official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the
situation. Four guards were killed and
seven other officials wounded, he said.
Among those wounded were the prime
minister, the deputy prime minister, the
parliament speaker and the governor of
Sanaa, the official said. The most
serious injuries were to Sanaa's
governor Nooman Dweid, and Deputy Prime
Minister Rashad al-Alimi, who is also
the president's top security adviser and
who remained unconscious from his
wounds, the official said.
 
Saleh, in power for 33 years, has stuck
out for months against the wave of
peaceful protests that spread across
Yemen since February. Tens of thousands
of demonstrators continue to mass daily
in a central square of Sanaa, as well as
in other cities. Thursday night,
government forces opened fire on
protesters in Sanaa, wounding three, and
troops also fired on protesters in the
city of Taiz, south of the capital, on
Friday. But the fighting in Sanaa has
turned the conflict into an all-out
battle for power between two families,
the al-Ahmar and Saleh's. The president
has for years planted his close
relatives in command of security forces
and in top government positions. In days
of fighting, tribesmen have overrun more
than a dozen ministries and government
buildings, and government artillery has
pounded Sanaa's Hassaba district where
Sadeq al-Ahmar's residence is located.
On Friday, troops expanded their
shelling to the southern side of the
capital, pounding the homes of two of
al-Ahmar's brothers, Hameed and Himyar.
They also targeted the home of Gen. Ali
Mohsen al-Ahmar, the commander of the
powerful 1st Armored Division who has
also joined the opposition but has so
far stayed out of the battle. He is not
related to Sadeq al-Ahmar. The houses
were destroyed, witnesses said. |
|
BOLIVIA BOOTS VISITING IRANIAN MINISTER
AFTER ARGENTINA COMPLAINS
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA--The
Bolivian government expelled an Iranian
minister to avoid a diplomatic rift with
Argentina, the country's foreign
minister said. Iranian Defense Minister
Ahmad Vahidi is wanted in Argentina for
his alleged role in planning the bombing
of a Jewish community center in Buenos
Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people.
Interpol has issued a "red notice" for
Vahidi, which seeks other governments'
help in detaining him for possible
extradition.
 
An Argentine umbrella organization for
the Jewish community, DAIA, demanded
that the Bolivians arrest Vahidi once
they learned of his official visit.
Bolivia opted to ask him to immediately
leave the country instead. In a letter
to his Argentine counterpart, Bolivian
Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said
that Bolivia was "unfortunately unaware"
of Vahidi's history. Bolivia values its
relations with Argentina, and acted for
that reason, he wrote. Bolivia asked
Vahidi "to immediately abandon Bolivian
territory and in this way demonstrate
with clarity that Bolivia does not wish
to interfere with any legal proceedings
that could exist." The letter didn't
address the Interpol notice and why the
country had not acted upon it and
arrested Vahidi.
Vahidi was in Bolivia at the invitation of the
country's defense ministry to attend the
inauguration of a military academy for
members of the Bolivarian Alternative
for the Peoples of Our Americas, or
ALBA. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
and his allies founded the group a few
years ago in an attempt, they said, to
counterbalance United States influence
in Latin America. Bolivian President Evo
Morales also was present at the event.
In remarks during his visit to Bolivia,
Vahidi said that Iran is prepared to
"deliver a firm response" to any
provocations from the United States, the
state-run Press TV reported. |
|
CUBAN HEALTH CARE WORKERS CUTS
HAVANA,
CUBAN--The
Cuban health sector cut by 34% the
number of assistants and technicians in
2010, in accordance with the
adjustments that the authorities have
made in a rational campaign work. The
percentage was much greater than the
decline reported in the health sector in
general, which fell by 14%, which
includes doctors, dentists, nurses and
pharmacists. A report by the National
Statistics Office (NSO) that appeared on
Wednesday said the island had 329,669
people in total linked to health in 2009
against 282,248 for 2010, equivalent to
14%. However, the decrease occurs
significantly among the 133,788
"technicians and assistants" they had in
2009 compared to 87,628 of them reported
in 2010, 34% less.
 
The NSO did not elaborate and only
presented the numbers. In contrast,
there was an increase of doctors,
because in 2009 contained 74,880 and
76,506 were in 2010, as well as from
dentists (from 11,572 to 12,144) and a
similar amount in both years for the
area of
pharmaceuticals
(2993-2956). In the case of nurses it
was also low, but less significant as
they were 106,436 in 2009 and it rose to
103,014 in 2010. Cuban state media
official reports last year officials
cited the need to cut the "inflated"
payroll in the health area, the pride of
the island's political model for its
effectiveness in preventing disease, its
massive scope and completely free of
services.
In a June 2010 report of the official
libel Granma, Dr. Armando Guerra,
director of Labor, Ministry of Health
indicated that it was conducting a
reorganization of the sector and had
begun a "suitability assessment of
professional performance" of those who
served in health centers across the
country. Dictator Raul Castro announced
in mid-2010 that he would cut half a
million jobs in the state sector in 2011
as a means to achieve greater efficiency
and productivity in the midst of an
economic crisis in the island, however,
he announced that the project was
almost paralyzed and it would slowly
move forward. |
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FBI TO INVESTIGATE GOOGLE MAIL ATTACKS
SAID TO COME FROM CHINA
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
said Thursday that the F.B.I. would
investigate allegations by Google that
China was the origin of clandestine
attacks on its Gmail service. Mrs.
Clinton characterized the charges as
“very serious” and said that the Obama
administration was disturbed by the
charges of the attacks, aimed at
stealing the passwords and monitoring
the e-mail of several hundred people,
including senior government officials in
the United States, Chinese political
activists, officials in several Asian
countries, military personnel and
journalists. “We are obviously very
concerned about Google’s announcement,”
Mrs. Clinton said. “These allegations
are very serious, we take them
seriously, we’re looking into them.”
She referred reporters to Google for
details, “and to the F.B.I., which will
be conducting the investigation.” It is
the second time that Google has pointed
to areas in China as the source of an
Internet intrusion. Last year, Google
said it had traced a sophisticated
invasion of its computer systems to
people based in China.
 
The accusation led to a rupture of the
company’s relationship with China and a
decision by Google not to cooperate with
China’s censorship demands. As a result,
Google decided to base its mainland
Chinese search engine in Hong Kong. Its
latest announcement is likely to further
ratchet up the tension between the
company and the Chinese authorities.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said
Thursday that the government had no
involvement in any such attacks,
declaring that it “consistently opposes
any criminal activities that damage the
Internet and computer networks including
hacking and cracks down on these
activities according to law.” A report
by Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news
agency, on the episode repeatedly
questioned Google’s credibility and past
practices, saying that the company
“arbitrarily pointed its finger at
China” with “baseless complaints.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that it
would be reviewing the new allegations.
“We are aware of Google’s announcement
regarding attempts to obtain passwords
and gain access to these accounts,” said
Jenny Shearer, an FBI spokeswoman. “We
are working with Google to review this
matter.” The more recent attacks were
not as technically advanced, relying on
a common technique known as phishing to
trick users into handing over their
passwords. Google said that once the
intruders had logged into the accounts,
they could change settings for mail
forwarding so that copies of messages
would be sent to another address. The
company said it had “disrupted” the
efforts and had notified the victims as
well as government agencies. Executives
at Google declined to comment beyond the
blog post. The company recommended that
Gmail users take additional security
steps, like using a Google service known
as two-step verification, to make it
more difficult to compromise their
e-mail accounts. But Google said that
the password thefts were not the result
of a general security problem with
Gmail. Google said the attacks
apparently originated in Jinan, the
capital of Shandong Province in eastern
China. The city is a regional command
center for the Chinese military, one of
seven in the country. It is also home to
the Lanxiang Vocational School, which
was founded with military support.
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DICTATOR RAUL CASTRO SAYS HE IS BETTER
OFF THAN MANY AT 60
HAVANA, CUBA--DICTATOR
RAUL CASTRO
was in a jovial mood on the eve of his
80th birthday, joking that he's in
better shape than many 60-year-olds. The
Cuban dictator bantered with reporters
Thursday at the Havana airport as he saw
off Brazilian ex-President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva, and noted that he joins
older brother Fidel, 84, in the ranks of
octogenarians on Friday. "How do I look,
ladies, how do I look at 80?" Castro
quipped. "How many old men of 60 are
there who aren't in my shape?" Castro
assumed the presidency in 2006 when his
elder brother temporarily stepped aside
due to a life-threatening intestinal
illness, and more permanently in 2008
when Fidel left office for good.
 
The Castros have historically celebrated
their birthdays with little fanfare, and
officials recently said they had no word
of any public events to mark Raul's
80th, yet it still serves as a reminder
that the brothers' five-decade political
domination of the island is nearing an
end due to the immutable laws of nature.
At a Communist Party Congress held in
April to chart the country's future,
Raul Castro spoke of a need to breathe
new life into leadership with fresh
faces and ideas, and he even proposed
limiting all public officials to two
five-year terms. However the summit
ended with the naming of a ruling
council largely made up of graying
old-guard figures, as Castro
acknowledged a failure to groom a new
generation of leadership. With a
humorous tone still in his voice, Castro
said Thursday that "it's a shame" he
can't retire yet since he's in his first
of two possible terms as president.
Castro also briefly addressed the hundreds of
economic changes that were approved at
the summit but must still be turned into
law, repeating previous statements that
the process is complicated and officials
will not act hastily. "There are so many
things that have to be fixed legally,"
Castro said. "There are thousands of
laws and decrees that we have to be
fixing in an orderly manner,
institutionally, many existing things
that are absurd or had a proper
beginning and are now outdated." The
economic guidelines laid out by the
party would apparently reduce the size
of government while making it easier for
people to buy and sell private property,
run small businesses and cooperatives
and get credit. Details have been
emerging slowly, and it's too early to
tell how much they will help Cuba's
struggling economy. Officials insist
they do not represent an embrace of
capitalism, but are an update to the
island's socialist system. |
|
DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ IS THE BIGGEST
BUYER OF SPANISH WEAPONS
MADRID,
SPAIN--Spain
sold in 2010 to Libya defense material,
amounting to 11.2 million euros
(16.19 million dollars), destined
entirely to the armed forces of that
country, although the major customers
last year were Venezuela and Mexico,
according to a report released by the
Spanish State Secretary for Foreign
Trade Exports to the regime of Muammar
Gaddafi consisted of night vision
goggles (7.84 million euros) and parts
for repair and maintenance of aircraft
engines (3.38 million). These operations
represented 1% of total arms exports
during the last year, which amounted to
1128.3 million euros. Venezuela was
Spain's largest customer, with purchases
that amounted to 212 million euros
(18.7% of total) for two coastal
surveillance vessels and ammunition
intended for ships.
 
Mexico stood at second place with 132.7
million euros for six transport aircraft
and aircraft parts. Under these
countries is the United Kingdom (121.6
million), Germany (106), Czech Republic
(104.1), United States (75.1), Italy
(71.9) and Portugal (43.9). In 2010,
total sale of defense equipment
decreased by 16.2% over 2009, breaking
the upward trend established in recent
years. The Spanish government suspended
the licenses to sell arms to Libya in
February due to the measures imposed by
the international community against
Qaddafi for the repression to quell the
riots in his country. To curb this
violence, the Allies launched a military
mission on 19 March, led by NATO, to
control the Libyan air space and
enforce an arms embargo. Spain provided
four F-18, two supply planes in flight,
another maritime surveillance, a frigate
and a submarine. The organization Human
Rights Watch (HRW) reported on 15 April
that the forces of Muammar Qadhafi had
used in their battles against rebels
cluster bombs made in Spain in 2007 by
Instalaza.
The Spanish Defense Ministry said he was unaware
that Libya regime was using that type of
weapons, while recalling that Spain was
one of the first countries to sign the
international convention banning and
destruction of cluster bombs in December
2008. In 2009, Spain sold to Libya
dual-use civilian or military material,
for 12.7 million euros. Besides Libya,
other Arab countries purchased defense
equipment from Spain in 2010. The most
notable purchase was made by Saudi
Arabia, with 5.8 million in spare parts
for aircraft, armored vehicles and tanks
of the army. Also exported parts for
aircraft and vehicles went to Oman (3.2
million), Algeria (3.1), Jordan (1.6)
and Qatar (1), in all cases to be
employed by their respective Armed
Forces. In Bahrain, another country
affected by the riots in the region,
Spain sold arms worth 40,690 euros, as
detailed in the report. Egypt bought
spare parts for armored vehicles and
components for aircraft for 2.5 billion
euros and Tunisia, explosives for 0.8
million. Israel was one of the
recipients of military material, with
1.4 million in components for sporting
guns, ammunition and electronic cards
for testing image processing equipment
to be incorporated into aircraft bound
for a European country. |
|
IRAN'S PARLIAMENT VOTES TO SEND
PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD TO COURT
TEHRAN,
IRAN--Iran's
parliament voted on Wednesday in favor
of taking Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to court
over what lawmakers say is a violation
of the country's constitution stemming
from the president's move last month to
declare himself caretaker oil minister.
The vote in the conservative-dominated
assembly is its latest action against
Ahmadinejad since the president in April
publicly challenged Iran's highest
authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. That challenge was triggered
by Ahmadinejad's attempt to sack the
powerful intelligence minister, Heidar
Moslehi, a move Khamenei blocked.
Although Ahmadinejad publicly backed
down in the confrontation with Khamenei
weeks later, it emboldened his hard-line
rivals in parliament. And last month,
Ahmadinejad incurred the wrath of the
Guardian Council -- Iran's
constitutional watchdog body -- when he
sacked Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi
under a Cabinet reshuffle plan and
declared himself caretaker oil minister.
 
The confrontations appear to be part of
a power struggle ahead of parliamentary
elections next year and the vote for
Ahmadinejad's successor in mid-2013.
It's unclear whether Wednesday's vote in
the 290-member parliament will actually
be followed by charges or a lawsuit
against Ahmadinejad, but it clearly pits
the majority of the lawmakers against
the president. The legislators voted
165-1 to refer Ahmadinejad to the
country's judiciary after a parliament
committee report concluded his action in
taking over the oil ministry was an
"obvious violation of the constitution."
Remaining lawmakers were either absent
or abstained from the vote. Lawmakers
were upset after Ahmadinejad last month
restructured the Cabinet by combining
eight ministries into four without
seeking the lawmakers' approval. The
president has the power to dismiss
ministers and put caretakers in place
for up to three months without
parliament's approval.
But when Ahmadinejad declared himself caretaker oil
minister, the lawmakers said it was an
illegal move, some even alleging the
president sought personal control of
Iran's most moneymaking body. Iran also
holds the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries' rotating presidency
this year. "This illegal and hasty
action will damage the Islamic Republic
of Iran's interests on the global
level," the parliament committee report
said. "As (caretaker) oil minister,
Ahmadinejad has issued and will continue
to issue orders that are obviously
illegal interference." In another sign
of the lawmakers' confrontation with the
president, about 50 legislators have
signed a petition to summon Ahmadinejad
to appear in parliament to answer
questions. At least a fourth of the
lawmakers have to sign before a
president can be questioned. If
successful, it would be the first time
since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a
president is forced to answer questions
before the Iranian assembly. Those
behind the petition want Ahmadinejad to
respond to a long list of accusations,
including refusing to carry out laws
passed by parliament, withdrawing money
from state funds without authorization
and his alleged lack of transparency on
budget spending. |
|
EGYPT'S FORMER PRESIDENT MUBARAK, SONS
TO BE TRIED AUGUST 3
CAIRO, EGYPT--Former
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,
overthrown by a popular uprising this
year, was ordered on Wednesday to stand
trial in August for the killing of
protesters on charges that could carry
the death penalty. Supporters of former
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak pray
outside Moustafa Mahmoud Mosque in
Mohandessin neighborhood in Cairo
February 18, 2011.
 
Mubarak, ousted on February 11 after
mass protests demanding an end to his 30
years in power, has been questioned
about his role in a crackdown in which
more than 840 demonstrators died, as
well as about alleged corruption. He
could face the death penalty if
convicted on the charge of "pre-mediated
killing." His two sons, Alaa and Gamal,
once viewed as being groomed for the
presidency, will also stand trial
alongside their father and prominent
business executive Hussein Salem. Judge
Sayed Abdel-Azim, the head of the
appeals court, said the trial would open
on August 3 in a Cairo criminal court.
Egypt's public prosecutor said on Tuesday that Mubarak
was in no condition to be transferred to
a prison hospital and would for now stay
in a health facility in a Red Sea resort
of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he has been
detained since mid-April. Mubarak was
admitted to hospital after reportedly
suffering heart problems during his
initial questioning. The alleged crimes
listed by the prosecutor include
pre-meditated murder, abuse of
influence, wasting public funds and
unlawfully making private financial
gains. His sons and other former top
officials are being held in Torah prison
on the outskirts of Cairo. |
|
NATO EXTENDS LIBYA MILITARY CAMPAIGN
ANOTHER 90 DAYS
BRUSSELS, GENEVA--NATO
and its partners in the military
campaign to protect Libyan civilians
have decided to extend their mission
another 90 days, the alliance's top
official said Wednesday. "This decision
sends a clear message to the Qaddafi
regime: We are determined to continue
our operation to protect the people of
Libya," said NATO Secretary-General
Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Libyan leader
Muammar al-Qaddafi is trying to
withstand the NATO air barrage and put
down a rebellion among his own people.
 
Wednesday's decision came during a
meeting of ambassadors from the 28 NATO
countries plus ambassadors from the five
non-NATO countries participating in the
Libya campaign -- Jordan, Qatar, Sweden,
the United Arab Emirates and Morocco --
said Carmen Romero, the NATO's deputy
spokeswoman. The military alliance took
over command of the operation on March
31 after difficult negotiations among
its members. Unanimity of 28 is required
for action, and the operations to
enforce a no-fly zone and use air power
to protect civilians were authorized for
an initial 90 days. That time would have
expired June 27. The decision to extend
the campaign was taken nearly a month
ahead of time to allow the participating
countries to do their internal planning,
Romero said.
NATO also is enforcing a U.N. arms embargo against
Libya. That part of the operation has no
time limit. Critics have charged that
the military campaign has turned into a
stalemate and said it is difficult to
dislodge a government through air power
alone. But NATO, while maintaining that
regime change is not its goal, says it
has significantly diminished Qaddafi's
ability to attack civilians. Fogh
Rasmussen said in a statement that the
extension of the campaign carries a
message not only for Qaddafi but for the
Libyan people. "NATO, our partners, the
whole international community, stand
with you," he said. "We stand united to
make sure that you can shape your own
future. And that day is getting closer." |
|
FIVE TOP LIBYAN GENERALS DEFECT FROM
GADHAFI'S ARMY
ROME,
ITALY--Eight
top Libyan army officers, including five
generals, who have defected from
Muammar al-Qadhafi's regime appealed to
their fellow officers Monday to join the
revolt to hasten the end of Qaddafi's
40-year rule. Italian Foreign Ministry
officials presented the generals, two
colonels and a major to reporters in
Rome three days after they fled Libya.
One of the officers, Gen. Melud Massoud
Halasa, estimated that Qaddafi's
military forces are now "only 20 percent
as effective" as what they were before
the revolt broke out in mid-February,
and that "not more than 10" generals
remain loyal to Qaddhafi.
 
Former Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel
Rahman Shalgam, who now backs the
anti-Qaddafi rebels, told the news
conference that the eight officers are
"part of 120 officials who left and
abandoned Qadhafi and are now out of
Libya." Italy, Libya's former colonial
ruler, long had close economic and
diplomatic ties with Tripoli, but Rome
was among the first Western nations to
break with the regime and establish
formal relations with the Libyan
National Transitional Council, that is
representing anti-Qaddafi forces. Gen.
On Ali On read an appeal to fellow army
officers and top police and security
officials "in the name of the martyrs
who have fallen in the defense of
freedom to have the courage" to abandon
the regime.
The general, wearing street clothes like his fellow
defectors, denounced both "genocide" and
"violence against women in various
Libyan cities." Another general,
identified as Yahmet Salah, told
reporters that Qaddafi had only two
brigades left that were allegedly
carrying out the arrests and killings
Mahmoud Shammam, of the National
Transitional Council, said none of the
funds from abroad, including those
promised earlier this month at an
international conference hosted by the
Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome, had
yet reached the anti-Qaddafi forces. He
also said that a council representative
would go to the OPEC meeting in Vienna
next month. |
|
VENEZUELAN OIL EXPORTS TO US COME TO
STANDSTILL
CARACAS, VENEZUELA--Venezuelan
oil exports to the United States,
the main market for the Venezuelan oil,
have somewhat improved; but despite the
rise, exports are similar to those
reported 17 years ago. Statistics show
that during the first quarter of 2011,
Venezuelan exports to the United States
averaged 929,000 barrels per day. This
represents as low as a 2 percent
increase compared to the first quarter
of 2010, when sales to the North
American country averaged 908,000 bpd,
according to the numebrs provided by the
US Department of Energy. Venezuelan oil
exports on the average were similar to
the shipments of 926,000 bpd reported in
the first quarter of 1994.
 
By the end of 2010, Venezuela had
reported its worst year in terms of
exports of crude oil and byproducts to
the United States in the last 21 years,
when exports averaged 967,000 bpd, only
comparable to sales reported in 1989
(873,000 bpd). Taking into account this
result, crude oil sales to the United
States in the first quarter of 2011
improved by 12 percent over 32,000 bpd
the previous quarter. Based on a monthly
review, exports averaged 950,000 in
January and March; in February, exports
were around 880,000 bpd. According to
data from the Ministry of Energy and
Petroleum, total oil exports during the
first quarter of 2011 averaged 2.35
million bpd. This number almost
coincides with exports reported in the
same period of 2010, when Venezuela sold
20,000 bpd more, about 2.37 million.
According to Reuters, Venezuelan oil
exports fell 6.3 percent in 2010 down to
2.32 million bpd, in a sector hit by
enlarged domestic consumption and
shortened production, reaching its
lowest since the oil strike of
2002-2003, when
exports averaged 2.78 million bpd.
Since 2008 both production and
Venezuelan oil exports have declined,
which has been compensated for the state
coffers by rising oil prices. United
States remains the Venezuelan first oil
client, but there is a rapid
rapprochement of Venezuela with China
and oil and derivatives supply
agreements and derivatives with the
Caribbean and Central America; with
China and countries in Eastern Europe
and the Middle East. Petroleos de
Venezuela is amid a period of decline in
production, but it must send about 100
thousand barrels per day to Cuba, and
another 300 thousand to Petrocaribe, in
addition to those committed to China to
pay off loans and other bilateral
agreements, which represent 400 thousand
barrels per day, according to official
data. In addition to this, Venezuela
must provide to the United States, that
pays in dollars and not with products,
as it does with political allies in
Central America and the Caribbean.
Another factor threatens Venezuela's oil
relationship with the United States is
the recent State Department sanctions
against PDVSA U.S. The sanctions have
been rejected by the Venezuelan
government, which says it is considering
the effect of the measure and its
possible consequences for sending
Venezuelan oil to U.S. territory. The
sanctions prevent PDVSA to obtain export
licenses or U.S. funding, but released
no oil. |
|
UN CONDEMNS YEMENI GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN
ON TAIZ PROTESTERS
SANAA- YEMEN--The
United Nations' human rights agency
says it has received reports that Yemeni
troops have killed more than 50
anti-government protesters in the city
of Taiz since Sunday. Human rights chief
Navi Pillay on Tuesday condemned the
government's intensified use of force on
protesters, calling its acts
"reprehensible" and urging the
government to make sure the human rights
of its citizens are protected. She also
criticized security forces for occupying
a hospital in Taiz and destroying a
field clinic near the protesters' camp.
Pillay said medical staff and facilities
should never be targeted by government
forces.
 
European Union foreign affairs chief
Catherine Ashton said Tuesday she is
"shocked" by the use of force and live
ammunition against peaceful protesters
and condemns it "in the strongest
terms." She called for immediate steps
toward political transition in Yemen.
VOA's Susan Yackee speaks with Rupert
Colville, spokesperson for the U.N.
Office of the High Commissioner of Human
Rights in Geneva, about the situation in
Yemen. Meanwhile, fighting continues in
Taiz, and it restarted Tuesday in the
capital, Sana'a, indicating the
breakdown of a truce between tribal
leaders and forces loyal to President
Ali Abdullah Saleh. Pillay's agency
said it has also received reports about
the dire situation in the southern
coastal town of Zinjibar, where
government forces launched air strikes
after it was seized by Islamist
militants Sunday.
More than 30 people are reported to have died in
fighting there, including four
soldiers. On Monday, Yemeni forces
killed more than 20 opposition
demonstrators in Taiz. Republican Guard
troops and plainclothes gunmen backed by
tanks moved in before dawn, opening fire
on crowds in the city's main square
where protesters had been camped out for
weeks. Witnesses say Yemeni troops shot
at protesters, set fire to tents, and
crushed a field hospital as they took
control of the square. The U.S. embassy
in Sana'a condemned what it called the
"unprovoked and unjustified attack on
youth protesters." Also Monday, Yemeni
security officials said they are
searching for three French aid workers
who have been missing in the
southeastern province of Hadramout since
Saturday. The officials said
investigators have located a vehicle
used by the aid workers outside a town
in the province. The French Foreign
Ministry says it appears increasingly
likely that the aid workers were
kidnapped. They were working for a
France-based aid group Triangle
Generation Humanitaire. |
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