|
LATEST NEWS OF SEPTEMBER 2011 |
|
despite denials, venezuelan dictator
hugo chavez's condition might be
worsening
caracas,
venezuela--In
a sign his condition might be
deteriorating, Venezuelan President
(DICTATOR) Hugo Chávez has been sent
again to the Carlos Arvelo Military
Hospital in Caracas. Wednesday,
his doctors were considering
transferring him to the private Caracas
Clinics Hospital, where he could be
better treated for his
renal-insufficiency problems, said
sources close to the situation.
 
The sources, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said that Chávez entered the
hospital on Tuesday. “His general
condition was compromised,” said one of
the sources who saw him when he entered
the Military Hospital. “When he arrived,
he was in very serious condition.’’
Another source said that he was in a bad
state when members of his secret service
took him from the Presidential Palace to
the hospital.
Venezuelan authorities have established an ironclad routine
to oversee the health of Chávez, who
returned from Havana last week after a
new cycle of chemotherapy. But the
Military Hospital source said Chávez was
suffering from the intense chemotherapy
he had undergone and that he also showed
signs of renal insufficiency requiring
dialysis. The renal problem was
prompting the doctors to consider
transferring him to the Caracas Clinics
Hospital, which is better-equipped to
deal with that condition. |
|
us ambassador to syria, robert ford,
pelted with stones and tomatoes in
damascus
damascus,
syria--Supporters
of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
have thrown tomatoes and eggs at US
ambassador Robert Ford as he met an
opposition figure in Damascus. Veteran
politician Hassan Abdul Azim said about
100 protesters tried to get into his
office as Mr Ford arrived and then
surrounded it, trapping them both. US
officials said the "mob was violent" and
seriously damaged embassy vehicles, but
that Mr Ford was unharmed. Earlier,
Syria accused the US of inciting
violence against its military. "Recent
statements from American administration
officials... clearly indicate that the
United States is involved in encouraging
armed groups to practice violence
against the Syrian Arab Army," a foreign
ministry statement said.
 
It is thought the statement was
referring to comments made by US state
department spokesman Mark Toner, who
said on Tuesday that it was "not
surprising" that the opposition were
using violence against the military.
Ford has angered Damascus in the past,
notably by visiting the central city of
Hama with his French counterpart in
July. It led to both the French and US
embassies coming under attack from
supporters of the Assad regime. Mr Abdul
Azim, who heads the outlawed Arab
Socialist Democratic Union party, said
the ambassador's arrival at his office
on Thursday led to a demonstration.
"They were protesting in the street and
at the entrance to the building.
They tried to break down the door of my office, but didn't
succeed," he told AFP news agency. "As
soon as the ambassador came in at around
11:00 (08:00 GMT) we heard a noise
outside and hostile slogans being
chanted. The demonstrators tried to
attack the office." The US State
Department said Mr Ford and his
colleagues had been assaulted "as they
went about doing the normal work of any
embassy". "The mob was violent: it
tried, unsuccessfully, to attack embassy
personnel while they were inside several
embassy vehicles, seriously damaging the
vehicles in the process," Mr Toner said
in a statement. "Syrian security
officers finally assisted in securing a
path from the ambassador's meeting for
him and his aides back to the embassy."
Syria is under international pressure to
stop using force to suppress protests
that began six months ago. |
|
cuba does away with emblematic ministry
of sugar
havana, cuba--Cuba
announced the elimination of its
Ministry of Sugar on Thursday in
a sign of how far the symbolic crop has
fallen since its heyday, when much of
the population was mobilized to the
countryside at harvest time to help cut
cane. President Raul Castro's
government determined that the ministry
"currently serves no state function" and
will therefore replace it with an entity
called Grupo Empresarial de la
Agroindustria Azucarera, the Communist
Party daily newspaper Granma reported.
 
The goal is to "create a business system
capable of turning its exports into hard
currency to finance its own expenses,"
Granma said. There was no mention of any
private or foreign investment. Like
coffee and tobacco, sugar is a highly
emblematic crop on the Caribbean island.
Cuba used to be a world leader in sugar,
annually producing 6 million to 7
million tons. Former leader Fidel Castro
made the annual harvest a point of
revolutionary pride and regularly
mobilized brigades of Cubans from
government officials and urban office
workers to artists and ballet dancers to
boost output. In 1968 he famously
announced that Cuba would try to harvest
10 million tons of cane that year,
mobilizing labor from nearly the entire
workforce. That aim proved overly
ambitious, though some 8 million tons
were harvested.
Later, the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived Cuba of its
main buyer, and sugar has since fallen
on hard times, today trailing nickel
production and tourism as a source of
foreign income, contributing about $600
million a year. Last year Cuba reported
its lowest harvest since 1905 -- 1.1
million tons -- and sacked its sugar
minister. Officials have said that this
year's harvest was expected to be only
slightly higher. Granma said Thursday
that the decision to eliminate the Sugar
Ministry was announced at a Cabinet
meeting over the weekend. |
|
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: CUBA MUST REFORM
BEFORE U.S. EASES ESTANCE
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
United States is ready to change its
stern policy toward Cuba but has
not seen steps from Havana that would
justify lifting its embargo, President
Barack Obama said on Wednesday. U.S.
President Barack Obama speaks at a fund
raiser in New York September 20, 2011.
Obama is in New York for the United
Nations General Assembly.
 
Obama said he did not want to be "stuck
in a Cold War mentality" and that
Washington had sought to improve ties by
changing rules about remittances and
travel but was waiting for signals from
Cuba such as the release of political
prisoners and guarantees of basic human
rights. He urged the communist-run
Caribbean island, under a U.S. embargo
for the last five decades, to join the
wave of democratic change sweeping the
Arab world and that ousted most
authoritarian rulers in Latin America in
decades past.
"The time has come for the same thing to happen in
Cuba," Obama said in a question and
answer session with U.S. Hispanic media.
"If we see positive movement then we
will respond in a positive way." Former
Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused Obama
on Monday of talking "gibberish" in his
recent speech to the United Nations and
said NATO's actions in Libya were a
"monstrous crime. |
|
VENEZUELAN ATTORNEY GENERAL OFFICE VIEWS
IACHR COURT RULING AS BINDING
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--A
group of 37 renowned Venezuelan and
foreign jurists said on Wednesday
that the Venezuelan government is
obliged to abide by the ruling of the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR
Court), which enables the leader of
opposition Voluntad Popular political
party and candidate to primary elections
Leopoldo López to run for public office
since September 16. Attorney Alfredo
Morles, a former president of the
National Academy of Political and Social
Sciences, on behalf of the 37 lawyers
who signed the document, said that
according to the Venezuelan law and
international agreements signed by
Venezuela, "the ruling that allows López
to run in the presidential elections to
be held in 2012 has a constitutional
status and it must be applied directly
by the branches of government to which
the IACHR Court gave a direct mandate."
 
They added that the National Electoral
Council (CNE) must immediately lift the
"Code 8" status of Leopoldo López.
Reference was made to the code used in
the Venezuelan electoral system to
identify people subject to political
disqualification. Venezuela's Attorney
General Luisa Ortega Díaz said, when she
learnt of the IACHR Court's decision,
that it was "ridiculous." Ortega stated
that "these bodies have no authority to
force Venezuela (to accept the ruling),
because domestic laws always prevail."
However, Díaz's stance is contrary to the position held
by her office in recent times. "(The
decisions of the Inter-American Court)
are binding for Venezuela, because the
country accepted its contentious
jurisdiction as of July 24, 1981," read
the 2006 Annual Report of the Attorney
General Office. Meanwhile, Justice
Luisa Estella Morales, the president of
the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ),
remarked that the TSJ has not circulated
the Solicitor General's petition to
review the ruling of the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights related to López. |
|
LIBYANS CLAIM FORMER DICTATOR GADHAFI IS
HIDING IN WESTERN BORDER AREA
TRIPOLI, LIBYA--Ousted
Libyan DICTATOR Moammar Gadhafi
is believed to be hiding out near the
western town of Ghadamis under the
protection of Tuareg fighters, an
interim government military spokesman
told CNN Tuesday. "We have reliable
information that Gadhafi is protected by
the Tuareg tribe located between Niger,
Algeria, and Ghadamis town in Libya,"
said Col. Abdul Basit. He said Gadhafi's
son Saif al-Islam is in Bani Walid and
another son, Mutassim, is in Sirte.
 
Both cities are among areas in Libya
that remain contested, with loyalist
Gadhafi forces fighting to the bitter
end to retain control. Basit did not
provide insight as to how the interim
government discovered Gadhafi's
whereabouts and the claims could not be
verified. The National Transitional
Council has in the past made claims that
turned out to be false. Ghadamis lies in
western Libya, on the border with
Algeria. Tuareg tribesmen, known as
capable mercenaries, have helped Gadhafi
loyalists escape Libya across the
expanses of the Sahel. During his rule,
Gadhafi often turned to the nomadic
Tuareg to bolster his forces and his
attempts to manipulate and destabilize
the poor countries to the south of
Libya: Niger, Chad and Mali.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague,
Netherlands, has arrest warrants out for
Moammar and Saif al-Islam Gadhafi. They
are wanted for alleged crimes against
humanity committed after the start of
the Libyan uprising in February. After
the fall of Tripoli to revolutionary
forces, purported messages from Moammar
Gadhafi were aired on Syrian-based
television Al-Rai. The longtime dictator
has not been seen in public for months.
Libya's new leadership has been meeting
in Benghazi to discuss the formation of
an interim government. Meanwhile,
battles are still raging in Sirte and
Bani Walid -- NATO estimates that
200,000 of Libya's 6 million people are
still under threat from Gadhafi's
supporters. |
|
FORMER DICTATOR GADHAFI SAYS HE IS READY
TO DIE AS A MARTYR
SIRTE,
LIBYA--FUGITIVE Libyan strongman Muammar
Gaddafi has told his supporters he is
still fighting on the ground and is
ready to die a martyr, a loyalist
website reported today. "Heroes have
resisted and fallen as martyrs and we
too are awaiting martyrdom," the website
of the defunct Allibiya state TV channel
quoted Gaddafi as saying in a speech
broadcast on local radio in Bani Walid,
one of his last remaining bastions.
  The toppled despot hailed the fierce
resistance put up by his loyalists in
Bani Walid, a desert city 170km
southeast of Tripoli, which has resisted
a bloody siege by forces of the National
Transitional Council for several weeks.
The region's Warfalla tribe was a major
source of recruitment for the elite
troops of Gaddafi's regime and the
strongman told its members they were
continuing in that martial tradition.
"Through your jihad, you are imitating
the exploits of your ancestors," he
said. "You should know that I am on the
ground with you. They lie when they say
Gaddafi is in Venezuela or Gaddafi is in
Niger. I am among my people and an
unexpected shock awaits this clique of
agents in the coming days."
Meanwhile representative of NATO forces
in Libya colonel Robert Lavoie said that
Gaddafi supporters in Sirte and Bani
Walid continue to make resistance using
peaceful citizens as a human shield.
Libyan revolutionary forces battled
their way into the eastern outskirts of
Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte on
Tuesday, trying to link up with anti-Gadhafi
fighters besieging the city from the
west, commanders said. More than a month
after sweeping into Tripoli and ending
Gadhafi's nearly 42-year rule, Libyan
forces still face fierce resistance from
the fugitive leader's supporters on
three fronts - in Sirte, the town of
Bani Walid southeast of the capital and
in pockets in the country's vast desert
south.
Some of the heaviest fighting has taken
place in Sirte, which anti-Gadhafi
forces first attacked nearly two weeks
ago. They have since pulled back in the
face of fierce resistance from Gadhafi
loyalists holed up inside.
Revolutionary forces have staked out
positions to the west and south of the
city, and commanders said anti-Gadhafi
forces advancing on Sirte from the east
also pushed into the city's outskirts
Tuesday. |
|
CUBA SEEKS RE-ESTABLISH TIES WITH US
UNITED
NATIONS, NEW YORK--CUBA wants to re-establish relations
with the United States with a focus on
humanitarian and other issues, Foreign
Minister Bruno Rodriguez said today.
Rodriguez also called on President
Barack Obama to release five Cubans
serving US espionage sentences, telling
the opening of the new UN General
Assembly that the continued imprisonment
of the five men convicted of espionage
in 2001 is "inhumane". The Cuban
government refers to the five men as
heroes who were gathering information
about terrorist groups in the United
States to protect their homeland.
 
The foreign minister said the two
countries had many points of
understanding in common. "The Cuban
government reiterates its willingness
and interest to move toward the
normalisation of relations with the
United States," Mr Rodriguez said.
"Today I reiterate the proposal of
beginning a dialogue aimed at solving
bilateral problems, including
humanitarian issues, as well as the
offer of negotiating several
co-operation agreements to combat
drug-trafficking, terrorism, human
smuggling, prevent natural disasters and
protect the environment." Among the
humanitarian issues pending between the
two countries is the continued
imprisonment of American Alan Gross, who
the Cuban government accuses of
illegally bringing communications
equipment onto the island while on a
USAID-funded democracy building program.
In March of this year he was sentenced
to 15 years in prison for crimes against
the state.
Cuban officials including dictator Raul
Castro accused him of spying, but Gross
says he was only trying to help the
island's tiny Jewish community get
Internet access. The case has harmed any
chance of improved relations between
Washington and Havana, which briefly
seemed to be getting better after Barack
Obama assumed the presidency. In an
interview with The New York Times during
his current visit to the United States,
Rodriguez did not rule out the
possibility of Gross being freed for
humanitarian reasons. But he indicated
Cuba would expect some kind of
reciprocal action. Rodriguez did not
mention Gross in his speech to the
assembly today, but spoke several times
about the five imprisoned Cubans. |
|
GORBACHEV WARNS RUSSIA RISKS WASTING SIX
YEAR IF PUTIN RETURNS TO THE PRESIDENCY
MOSCOW, RUSSIA--Ex-USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev has
warned Russia risks wasting six years if
PM Vladimir Putin returns to the
presidency in March as expected.
Reacting to the news Mr Putin will run
for office in 2012, Mr Gorbachev said
Russia was at an "impasse" and that he
doubted Mr Putin could bring change.
 
Mr Putin told a ruling United Russia
party congress on Saturday he would
stand again. If he is elected, current
President Dmitry Medvedev may replace
him as PM. Mr Putin served two terms as
president before Mr Medvedev took over
in 2008. He was barred by the
constitution from running for a third
consecutive term. Mr Gorbachev said he
hoped Mr Putin's move would provide an
incentive for the leadership to get
Russia out of the "impasse" it was in,
but that this was unlikely as it was he
who had created the current situation.
"We can assume that there will be no
movement forward if there are not
serious changes along the lines of a
replacement of the entire system," he
wrote in the opposition Novaya Gazeta
newspaper, which he partly owns.
"Without this we could lose six years. I
think that the future president needs to
think about this very seriously." Mr
Putin's decision means that he could in
theory remain in office until 2024,
prompting Novaya Gazeta to publish
artists' impressions of how he, Mr
Medvedev and other senior politicians
might look in that year. It portrayed
them dressed in medal-festooned suits,
recalling the elderly Soviet leadership
which clung on to power in the early
1980s. |
|
FORMER CUBAN DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO
CRITICIZES PRESIDENT OBAMA U.N. SPEECH
havana,
cuba--Former
Cuban DICTATOR Fidel Castro
accused President Barack Obama of
speaking "gibberish" in his recent
address to the United Nations and called
NATO's actions in Libya a "monstrous
crime" on Monday in his first opinion
column since early July. Castro, 85, has
been mostly out of sight the past few
months, which combined with the absence
of his usual steady flow of columns, had
prompted rumors his health was
worsening. He wrote he was involved in
work that occupied all his time and
therefore he had not been writing what
he calls his "reflections." But he said
he wanted to comment on the U.N. General
Assembly in New York and in particular
Obama's speech last week.
  Castro was his vintage self in his latest piece, blasting
Obama and the United States, his
ideological foes and favorite rhetorical
targets, for what he views as bellicose
and hypocritical behavior. He called
Obama the "yankee president." Castro,
who led Cuba for 49 years before health
and age forced him to cede power to
younger brother Raul Castro in 2008,
quoted extensively from Obama's General
Assembly speech, inserting paragraphs of
his opinions of the U.S. leader's words.
"In spite of the shameful monopoly of
the mass information media and the
fascist methods of the United States and
its allies to confuse and deceive world
opinion, the resistance of the people
grows, and that can be appreciated in
the debates being produced in the United
Nations," he wrote.
Castro called into question many points in Obama's
speech, accusing him of misrepresenting
the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan,
U.S. policy on Israel and Palestine and
the uprisings this year in several Arab
nations. "Who understands this gibberish
of the President of the United States in
front of the General Assembly?" he
asked. He said the General Assembly
presented political difficulties for
many countries trying to decide the
positions they should take on numerous
issues. "For example, what position to
adopt about the genocide of NATO in
Libya?" Castro wrote. "Does anyone wish
it recorded that under their direction,
the government of their country
supported the monstrous crimes by the
United States and its NATO allies?"
Castro did not describe the project that
had taken him away from his column
writing, but his allies President Hugo
Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of
Bolivia said recently he was working on
something to do with agriculture. |
|
BOLIVIAN DEFENSE MINISTER RESIGNS IN
PROTEST OVER POLICE'S DEPLOYMENT
LA PAZ,
BOLIVIA--Bolivian
DefenSe Minister Cecilia Chacon
has resigned in protest at the
government's decision to deploy police
to break up an anti-road march. Her
resignation came amid growing public
anger at the police action which saw
some 500 officers fire tear gas and
round up indigenous demonstrators. The
protesters had been marching since
mid-August against plans to build a road
through a rainforest reserve. President
Evo Morales says the road is essential
for Bolivia's development. However, on
Sunday he offered to put the issue to a
regional referendum. Demonstrators
blocked a landing strip on Monday to
prevent police flying detainees out
Hours later, police wielding batons
moved to clear the demonstrators from
their camp outside the town of Yucomo,
where they were stopped last week.
Protest leaders said dozens of people
had been put on buses and driven away.
Local police chief Oscar Munoz said
they were being taken back to their
hometowns.
  The Bolivian ombudsman, Rolando Villena, criticised what he
said was excessive use of force by the
police. "Injured children, disappeared
mothers who didn't want to separate from
their children - this does not talk well
about our democracy. This is not
democracy," he said. And on Monday,
trade unions, indigenous associations
and opposition parties all condemned the
police action. In a letter to President
Morales, Ms Chacon gave notice of her
"irrevocable" resignation. "I do not
agree with the decision to intervene in
the march and I cannot defend or justify
the measure when other alternatives
existed," her letter said. Also on
Monday, people seized the landing strip
in the Amazon town of Rurrenabaque to
prevent police from flying detained
protesters out of the area. Hundreds of
people set off last month from Trinidad
to walk 500km (310 miles) to Bolivia's
main city, La Paz, but were stopped at
Yucomo, with about half the journey
covered.
On Saturday, they briefly detained the foreign
minister, David Choquehuanca, forcing
him to walk with them. Mr Choquehuanca,
who had come to negotiate with the
protesters, said the fact that he was
freed showed "they want to resolve
matters through dialogue". The road is
already under construction Plans for a
road through the Isiboro-Secure
Indigenous Territory and National Park -
known by its Spanish acronym Tipnis -
have divided opinion in Bolivia.
Indigenous people who live in the
reserve say the highway would encourage
illegal settlement and deforestation in
their ancestral Amazon homeland. But
others, including Mr Morales, say the
road would help bring basic services to
isolated communities, and also boost the
local economy by giving farmers better
access to markets. The road, which
would link the highland city of
Cochabamba with San Ignacio de Moxos in
the Amazon lowlands, is being funded by
Brazil and built by a Brazilian company.
The march is the latest in a series of
challenges Mr Morales is facing from the
indigenous groups and social movements
that helped make him Bolivia's first
indigenous president. |
|
THOUSANDS OF CIVILIANS FLEE GADHAFI'S
HOMETOWN OF SIRTE
SIRTE, LIBYA--THOUSANDS
of civilians fled Moammar Gadhafi's
hometown Monday to escape growing
shortages of food and medicine and
escalating fears that their homes will
be struck during fighting between
revolutionary forces and regime
loyalists. NATO says warplanes have
struck several military targets in
Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte as
Libyan revolutionary forces besiege the
area in an attempt to wear down Gadhafi
supporters who are holed up inside. The
alliance said Monday that it hit eight
targets around Sirte the previous day,
including an ammunition and vehicle
storage facility, a multiple rocket
launcher and other military sites.
Revolutionary fighters have faced fierce
resistance in efforts to take the city
and the NATO airstrikes could be aimed
at softening up targets for a new push
in coming days. -Gadhafi fighters
launched their offensive against Sirte
nearly two weeks ago, but have faced
fierce resistance from loyalists inside
the city. After a bloody push into Sirte
again over the weekend, revolutionary
fighters say they have pulled back to
plan their assault and allow civilians
more time to flee.
  Sirte, which is 400 kilometres southeast of Tripoli on the
Mediterranean coast, is one of the last
remaining bastions of Gadhafi loyalists
since revolutionary fighters stormed
into the capital last month, ending
Gadhafi's rule and sending him into
hiding. The fugitive leader's supporters
also remain in control of the town of
Bani Walid southeast of Tripoli and
pockets of territory in the country's
south. Mohammed, who is from the Warfala
tribe that has traditionally supported
Gadhafi, said most of the fighters in
the city are armed volunteers fighting
for personal reasons. "There is a bloody
aspect to it," she said, standing at a
rebel checkpoint outside the city. "Many
people died in the battlefield as
martyrs, so their relatives are angry.
It doesn't have to do with Gadhafi
anymore. It's more about revenge than
about anything else." She said she
didn't expect the fighters to surrender
easily.
Amir Ali, resident of Sirte said "It is just simple
resistance, just those who lost
relatives or who are defending their
homes," she said. Others said they also
felt endangered by the fighting. "We got
scared for our children," said Amir Ali,
40, who ran a metal workshop in the city
for years. He fled with his five when
they felt the explosions they heard
outside got too close to their home. "It
comes from both sides," he said. "I have
no idea what kind of weapons they are,
but it's all heavy stuff." He said the
shortages keep many people who would
like to flee from getting out. "There
are many people inside who don't have
cars to leave or can't get gas," he
said. "Others don't want to leave." |
|
cuban police detain dissidents in
several cities and towns
havana,
cuba--Cuban
dissidents say police detained more than
20 people Thursday
as they tried to take part in a novel
protest – a proposed march from one end
of the island to the other. Among those
reported detained were Angel Moya, freed
this year after eight years in prison,
and Guillermo Fariñas, awarded the
prestigious Sakharov human rights prize
last year. Five dissident women were
detained with Fariñas and Moya in the
central city of Santa Clara, according
to the dissidents, and two men were
grabbed in Mella, in eastern Santiago
province.
 
Berta Soler, Moya’s
wife and a spokeswoman for the Ladies in
White, said there was no news from those
arrested as of Thursday evening. Such
detentions usually last only a few hours
or days, just long enough for the police
to make sure they disrupt any planned
protests. José Daniel Ferrer García, a
former political prisoner in the eastern
town of Palmarito del Cauto, noted that
Thursday’s detentions were connected to
the proposed “National March for
Freedom, Boitel and Zapata Live!” The
march was to have started Sept. 8 in
easternmost Guantanamo and picked up
supporters as it moved west toward
Havana, he added. But the plans changed
after police from the very first day
detained several dozen dissidents in
towns like Guantánamo, Palma Soriano,
Holguín, Bayamo and Las Tunas.
 
Now dissidents in
each town and city are expected to try
to stage their own marches, whenever
they can and for as long as they can
before police break them up, Ferrer told
El Nuevo Herald. The marches are to
demand the government obey international
agreements on human rights, halt the
repression against peaceful dissidents,
free all political prisoners and cancel
all laws that limit dissent. Ferrer also
reported that Cuban prosecutors appear
to be preparing to bring to trial four
dissidents arrested Sept. 8 after they
shouted anti-government slogans in the
city of Santiago. Ferrer and Moya were
among the 52 political prisoners freed
over the past year as part of a Raúl
Castro promise to release the last of
the 75 dissidents still jailed since a
massive crackdown in 2003. They were
among the 12 who chose to stay in Cuba,
while the rest went directly from prison
to airplanes that flew them to exile in
Spain in what critics branded as virtual
deportations. |
|
libya mass grave found IN TRIPOLI
contained 1,270 bodies from 1996
massacre
tripoli,
libya--Libya
officials announced on Sunday the
discovery of a mass grave believed to
hold the remains of 1,270 inmates killed
by Gadhafi's regime in a 1996 prison
massacre. The site – a desert
field scattered with bone fragments –
was found outside the walls of Tripoli's
Abu Salim prison, where the victims were
killed on June 26, 1996, after
protesting conditions at the facility. A
demonstration by women demanding justice
for the victims of that prison massacre
was one of the things that touched off
the uprising against Gadhafi in
February. A Tripoli military spokesman,
Khalid al-Sharif, said authorities found
the site after getting information from
witnesses and former security guards who
had been captured after the capital
fell. Officials will ask for
international assistance in excavating
and identifying the remains because the
Libyans don't have sufficient expertise
and equipment to test the DNA, he said.
 
Libyans are eager
for those who committed crimes under the
old regime to face justice and have been
moving forward with efforts to account
for the past even as fighting continues
in parts of the country. Col. Ahmed
Bani, a military spokesman for the
transitional government, said an attack
on the city of Ghadamis occurred
Saturday but revolutionary forces had
intelligence that cars filled with
weapons had crossed the border a few
days earlier. Ghadamis is about 280
miles (450 kilometers) southwest of
Tripoli. He said the loyalist forces
were believed to belong to a unit that
had been under the command of Gadhafi's
son Khamis, who was reportedly killed in
fighting before the revolutionary forces
seized Tripoli.
 
Bani said
revolutionary forces had repelled the
attack but the assailants escaped back
across the border. An official from
Ghadamis, Ali al-Mana, however, said
fighting was ongoing. He told The
Associated Press that six people had
been killed and 63 wounded. "We are
sending a plane from Tripoli to evacuate
the wounded," said al-Mana, who is the
Ghadamis representative on the National
Transitional Council, which is acting as
the country's government. Al-Mana said
Ghadamis has a small runway for the
plane to land. Gadhafi's wife and three
of his children, including his daughter
Aisha, fled to Algeria through Ghadamis
after Tripoli's fall late last month.
The whereabouts of the fugitive leader
remain unknown and he continues to try
to rally supporters. That has raised
concern that he could stoke violence as
fighting continues between revolutionary
forces in his hometown of Sirte and two
other strongholds. |
|
women in saudi arabia to vote and run in
elections
RIYADH, SAUDI
ARABIA--Women
in Saudi Arabia are to be given the
right to vote and run in future
municipal elections, King
Abdullah has announced. He said they
would also have the right to be
appointed to the consultative Shura
Council. The move was welcomed by
activists who have called for greater
rights for women in the kingdom, which
enforces a strict version of Sunni
Islamic law. The changes will occur
after municipal polls on Thursday, the
king said. King Abdullah announced the
move in a speech at the opening of the
new term of the Shura Council - the
formal body advising the king, whose
members are all appointed. "Because we
refuse to marginalise women in society
in all roles that comply with sharia, we
have decided, after deliberation with
our senior clerics and others... to
involve women in the Shura Council as
members, starting from next term," he
said. "Women will be able to run as
candidates in the municipal election and
will even have a right to vote."
 
Saudi Arabia is a
conservative society which has been
inching towards reform under the
leadership of King Abdullah, himself a
reformist. About 10 years ago the king
said women should be central to the
Saudi economy. Since then, change has
been gradual for fear of a religious
backlash. Steps have been taken to
reduce segregation and give more respect
to women. Now, allowing women to stand
and vote in municipal elections is a big
step towards political reform, even
though the municipal councils have very
little power. The right for women to
join the all- male Shura Council could
turn out to be even more significant as
it is the most influential political
body in the country.
 
The BBC's world
affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan
says it is an extraordinary development
for women in Saudi Arabia, who are not
allowed to drive, or to leave the
country unaccompanied. She says there
has been a big debate about the role of
women in the kingdom and, although not
everyone will welcome the decision, such
a reform will ease some of the tension
that has been growing over the issue.
Saudi writer Nimah Ismail Nawwab told
the BBC: "This is something we have long
waited for and long worked towards." She
said activists had been campaigning for
20 years on driving, guardianship and
voting issues. Another campaigner,
Wajeha al-Huwaider, said the king's
announcement was "great news". "Now it
is time to remove other barriers like
not allowing women to drive cars and not
being able to function, to live a normal
life without male guardians," she told
Reuters news agency. |
|
YEMENI PRESIDENT ALI ABDULLAH SALEH
MAKES UNEXPECTED RETURN FROM SAUDI
ARABIA
SANAA,
YEMEN--
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh
unexpectedly and defiantly
returned to the country Friday after
more than three months in Saudi Arabia,
a move that is likely to inflame
tensions among rival forces that have
transformed the capital and other cities
into war zones. By seeking to reinject
himself into the heart of Yemen’s
turbulent landscape, Saleh is going
against the wishes of his key ally, the
United States, and his Persian Gulf
neighbors, who had hoped he would sign
an agreement to transfer power while he
recuperated in Saudi Arabia from
injuries sustained in a June attack on
his presidential compound.
  The United States and Saudi Arabia were widely believed
to have urged Saleh not to go back to
Yemen before such a deal, which they
view as the best hope to prevent the
country from hurtling toward civil war
and destabilizing the region. U.S.
officials have long been concerned about
al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch, which has
attempted two attacks in the United
States since December 2009. Instead,
Saleh’s return at dawn Friday in a
private plane was followed later in the
day by a call for a cease-fire so
negotiations can be held. “The solution
is not in the mouths of rifles and guns,
it is in dialogue and stopping
bloodshed,” the official state news
agency quoted him as saying. Saleh is
expected to give a speech to the nation
Sunday. His comments suggested that he
would probably not step down from power
immediately, a move that will likely
anger anti-government military and
tribal leaders, as well as youth
activists who have protested for eight
months to end his 33-year rule. “He has
come back to lead the battle himself,”
said Khaled al-Anisi, an activist. “This
is a project of war.” While some U.S.
officials characterized Saleh’s return
as a setback, others were hopeful it
would still lead to a negotiated
transfer of power.
The Obama administration has feared that the political
crisis could bolster al-Qaeda’s Yemen
branch, allowing it to exploit the
growing lawlessness here and enhance its
ability to target the West.
Al-Qaeda-linked militants took over
parts of Yemen’s south after Saleh’s
departure. Still, U.S. officials said
they did not expect any disruption in
counterterrorism cooperation, namely
Yemeni security agencies’
intelligence-sharing with the CIA and
U.S. Joint Special Operations Command
officials behind a series of recent
drone and conventional strikes against
al-Qaeda operatives. Saleh, the U.S.
officials added, will be focused on
consolidating his power now that he is
back in the capital, and there is little
reason to expect that he would curtail
cooperation with the United States
against a common foe — militant groups
with links to al-Qaeda. The
developments Friday set off a frenetic
round of high-level diplomatic meetings
that brought few conclusions about
Saleh’s intentions or how to proceed
with international efforts to push him
from power. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary
Leon E. Panetta met with ministers from
the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the
six-member group of Persian Gulf states
that crafted a power-transfer deal for
Yemen, in New York outside the U.N.
General Assembly. |
|
VLADIMIR PUTIN TO RUN FOR RUSSIAN
PRESIDENCY IN 2012
MOSCOW,
RUSSIA--Vladimir
Putin said Saturday he'll run for
Russia's presidency next year,
almost certainly ensuring he'll retake
the office and foreshadowing years more
of a strongman rule that many in the
West have called a retreat from
democracy. The announcement sets up the
possibility that he could rule Russia
until 2024. In nominating Putin on
Saturday, his United Russia party also
approved his proposal that President
Dmitry Medvedev take over Putin's
current role as prime minister. Putin
took over the premiership after serving
as president from 2000-2008, bowing to
term limits. But he was always the more
powerful figure, with Medvedev viewed as
a caretaker president.
  During his presidency, Putin ruled Russia with a steely
command, bringing about a system known
as "managed democracy" that saw
opposition politicians all but
eliminated from the national eye. His
personal popularity aided his
maneuvering. Many Russians view Putin as
the strong, decisive figure needed by a
sprawling country troubled by
corruption, an Islamist insurgency and
massive economic inequality. Putin's
nomination at a congress of the United
Russia party ends months of intense
speculation as to whether he would seek
to return to the Kremlin or whether he
would allow the more mild-mannered and
reform-leaning Medvedev to seek another
term in next year's election. The
presidential election, to be held March
4, is preceded by national parliamentary
elections on Dec. 4, in which United
Russia will seek to retain its
dominance; the party has 312 of the 450
seats in the current parliament.
The period for formal submission of presidential
candidates' names has not yet begun, and
it is unclear who might choose to
challenge Putin for president.
Constitutional changes have extended the
presidential term to six years from four
beginning in 2012, meaning Putin could
stay on as president through 2024.
Medvedev's advisers were clearly
disappointed that he would not have
another term in the Kremlin to try to
continue pursuing reforms, and bristled
at political maneuverings. Putin's
return to the presidency would likely
continue or even strengthen the
so-called "managed democracy" system he
installed in his first stint as
president. Under it, opposition parties
face high obstacles to winning seats in
parliament; of the four parties
currently in parliament only the
Communists, whose support is dwindling,
act as a genuine opposition force. Under
Medvedev, Russia's relations with the
West have been less tense, even though
there has been little change in Russia's
domestic politics. The improved
relations with Washington largely
reflected the Obama administration's
"reset" initiative and it is unclear if
Obama will win a second term next year
to continue the policy with Putin in the
Kremlin. |
|
IRANIAN PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD'S VISIT TO
VENEZUELA CANCELED DUE TO DICTATOR
CHAVEZ'S CANCER TREATMENT
UNITED NATIONS,
NEW YORK--A
visit to Venezuela by Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been canceled
and will be rescheduled, the
South American country's foreign
minister said Friday. The Iranian leader
had been scheduled to arrive in
Venezuela on Saturday. "Both governments
have decided to postpone the date of
President Ahmadinejad's visit for
another opportunity," Maduro said at a
televised meeting with Iranian officials
in Caracas. "We're going to be waiting
for the fulfillment of the schedule of
President Hugo Chavez's full
recuperation," Maduro said.
  Chavez, who has been undergoing cancer treatment, had just
returned to Venezuela from Cuba a day
earlier after a fourth round of
chemotherapy. Maduro did not elaborate
on what prompted the decision to put off
the visit. He said he expected
Ahmadinejad to come to Venezuela "in the
coming weeks, perhaps in the coming
months." Chavez has a close relationship
with Ahmadinejad, and the two have
regularly teamed up to criticize the
U.S. government and defend Iran's
nuclear energy program. Chavez last
visited Tehran in October, and the
Iranian leader has also visited Caracas.
Maduro made the announcement at a meeting with Iranian officials
where they signed accords for joint
projects in housing, agriculture and
other areas. The Iranians said a prayer
for Chavez's health during the meeting.
Chavez said Thursday after his return
home that he had completed chemotherapy
and expressed optimism the treatment was
successful. Chavez underwent surgery in
Cuba in June to remove a tumor from the
pelvic region. He has said that tests
have shown no signs of any reappearance
of malignant cells. |
|
ISRAEL'S NETANYAHU EXTENDS HAND TO
PALESTINIANS, CALLS FOR MEETING WITH
ABBAS
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK--Netanyahu
said this afternoon that his country is
“willing to make painful compromises”
-- and called for a meeting today
with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
at the United Nations. “I extend my
hand to the Palestinian people, with
whom we seek a just and lasting peace,”
he said, to extended applause before the
General Assembly. Palestinians, he
added, “should live in a free state of
their own, but they should be ready for
compromise” and “start taking Israel’s
security concerns seriously." Netanyahu
said he was reaching out to the
Palestinian people, but cautioned that
peace could not be won with a UN
resolution. “I extend my hand to the
Palestinian people,” he told the
193-nation assembly, shortly after
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
submitted an application for full UN
membership to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
despite Israeli and US objections. “The
truth is that Israel wants peace. The
truth is that I want peace,” he said,
adding that “we cannot achieve peace
through UN resolutions.”
 
“The Palestinians
should first make peace with Israel and
then get their state,” he said.
Netanyahu added that if there was such
a peace, Israel "will not be the last
state to welcome a Palestinian state
into the United Nations. We will be the
first.” It was also time for the
Palestinians to acknowledge that “Israel
is the Jewish state,” he added. He then
made an appeal to Abbas for direct peace
talks with the Palestinians to begin
without delay in New York. Let’s meet
here today in the United Nations,”
Netanyahu said. Direct negotiations
between Israel and the Palestinians
collapsed a year ago. The Palestinians
pulled out after Israel refused to
extend a moratorium on new Jewish
settlements in the West Bank. In recent
weeks, international mediators have been
furiously trying to piece together a
formula that would let the Palestinians
abandon their plan to ask the Security
Council for full UN membership, and
instead make do with asking a
sympathetic General Assembly to elevate
their status from permanent observer to
nonmember observer state.
With Council
approval unlikely, they are expected to
exercise that option, which, while more
modest, would still be seen as valuable
to the Palestinians because of the
implicit recognition of the pre-1967
borders. It also would give the
Palestinians access to international
judicial bodies such as the
International Court of Justice and the
International Criminal Court, which
Israel fears would target them unfairly.
The US and Israel have also been
pressuring Council members to either
vote against the plan or abstain when it
comes up for a vote. The vote would
require the support of nine of the
Council’s 15 members to pass, but even
if the Palestinians could line up that
backing, a U.S. veto is assured.
Efforts to stymie the UN move have been
accompanied by a regalvanized
international bid to get talks moving
again, but the resumption of
negotiations seems an elusive goal, with
both sides digging in to positions that
have tripped up negotiations for years.
Israel insists that negotiations go
ahead without any preconditions. But
Palestinians say they will not return to
the bargaining table without assurances
that Israel would halt settlement
building and drop its opposition to
basing negotiations on the borders it
held before the 1967 Mideast war. |
|
IRANIAN PRESIDENT SLAMS U.S. IN SPEECH
AT U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
UNITED
NATIONS, NEW YORK--American diplomats led a walkout at the
U.N. General Assembly Thursday as Iran's
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a
sweeping attack on the United States and
major West European nations,
calling them "arrogant powers" ruled by
greed and eager for military
adventurism. The two U.S. diplomats, who
specialize in the Middle East, were
followed out of the chamber by diplomats
from more than 30 countries. They
included the 27 European Union members,
Australia, New Zealand, Somalia,
Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and
Macedonia, a U.N. diplomat said.
Ahmadinejad's speech contrasted what he
called the poverty and unhappiness in
most countries against the riches and
power of the U.S. and unnamed European
nations that he accused of perpetuating
wars, causing the current global
economic crisis and infringing on "the
rights and sovereignty of nations."
 
He attacked the
United States and European colonial
powers for abducting tens of millions of
Africans and making them slaves, for
their readiness "to drop thousands of
bombs on other countries," and for
dominating the U.N. Security Council He
singled out the U.S. for using a nuclear
bomb against Japan in World War II and
imposing and supporting military
dictatorships and totalitarian regimes
in Asia, Africa and Latin America. "It
is as lucid as daylight that the same
slave masters and colonial powers that
once instigated the two world wars have
caused widespread misery and disorder
with far-reaching effects across the
globe since then," Ahmadinejad said. "Do
these arrogant powers really have the
competence and ability to run or govern
the world?" The Iranian president
answered by calling for "the shared and
collective management of the world in
order to put an end to the present
disorders, tyranny and discriminations
worldwide."
In his speech,
Ahmadinejad noted "the widespread
awakening in Islamic lands ... (in) the
pursuit of the realization of justice,
freedom and the creation of a better
tomorrow." He said "our great nation
stands ready to join hands with other
nations to march on this beautiful
path." The Iranian leader accused the
U.S. of threatening to place sanctions
on anyone who questions the Holocaust
and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks against the United States with
sanctions and military action. Without
naming the United States, he asked: "Who
imposed, through deceits and hypocrisy,
the Zionism and over 60 years of war,
homelessness, terror and mass murder on
the Palestinian people and on countries
in the region?" Ahmadinejad accused some
unidentified European countries of still
using the Holocaust "as the excuse to
pay fine or ransom to the Zionists." He
also said any question about the
foundation of Zionism is condemned by
the U.S. "as an unforgivable sin." |
|
ROGER NORIEGA SAYS THAT DICTATOR HUGO
CHAVEZ IS NOT REACTING WELL TO
CHEMOTHERAPY
WASHINGTON,
D.C.-former U.S. Ambassador TO THE
ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES (OAS),
Roger Noriega,
said that Venezuelan dictator Hugo
Chavez is not reacting well to his
cancer treatment, as published by a
Miamian newspaper. The daily, quoting
sources that "over the years have
provided very reliable information,"
Noriega said Thursday that the Chavez’s
health is worse than he had let people
know. "These sources are saying that
Chavez is in a serious condition and is
not improving as his doctors had hoped,"
said Noriega at a forum organized by the
Center for Hemispheric Policy at the
University of Miami.
  According to the newspaper, Noriega said
that "this means we should start
thinking, and we should be prepared for
a world without Hugo Chavez." Despite
Noriega’s assertion, when the Chavez
returned Thursday to Caracas from
Havana, he announced that he had
completed a fourth cycle of chemotherapy
that was "highly successful". "We can
say, with these results, which completes
the last phase of chemotherapy, we
close the cycle of chemotherapy and now
we will rededicate ourselves to full
recovery of all my physical disorders,"
he said on arrival at the airport of
Maiquetía. The dictator also said that
he will now follow physiotherapy
treatment conducive to a "progressive
and full recovery," and asked his
followers to ignore the rumors about his
illness.
Noriega,
however, said the ruling elite is
hiding the truth and that the regime
has determined that the only way to win
next year's presidential election is if
Chavez is able to project an image that
he has fully recovered from his illness.
"They think that they can win the
election only n if Chavez is on the
ballot, if he js relatively active and
shows strength," said Noriega, who even
added that the dictator is lying when
he says he was subjected to four rounds
of chemotherapy. "He has completed a
third round of chemotherapy yesterday,
not the fourth as he said,” Noriega
emphasizes. When he went to Cuba for his
second treatment, the doctors decided
not to do it because they concluded that
to apply the treatment at that time
would have done more harm than good
mainly due to his low red cell count."
|
|
ADMIRAL MULLEN HAS ACCUSED PAKISTAN'S
SPY AGENCY OF SUPPORTING THE HAQQANI
TERRORIST NETWORK
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
Haqqani network - and Pakistan's alleged
relationship with it - has been a
source of frustration for the US. But
Pakistan's interior minister has denied
any links. Pakistan will also be keen to
remind people that it too is in the grip
of terror. In the 1980s when militants
were fighting the Soviets in
Afghanistan, the head of the Haqqani
network was nurtured by Pakistani
intelligence - and indeed by the CIA.
Some analysts believe the links between
the militants and Pakistan's
intelligence are still alive. But others
say that Pakistan's secret service no
longer has control over the potent
militant groups it helped create.
 
"With ISI support, Haqqani operatives
planned and conducted a truck bomb
attack [on 11 September], as well as the
assault on our embassy," said Adm
Mullen. "We also have credible
intelligence that they were behind the
28 June attack against the
Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and a
host of other smaller but effective
operations." In July Adm Mullen, who
steps down this month as chairman of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused
Pakistan's government of sanctioning the
killing of investigative journalist
Saleem Shahzad. Pakistan called that
statement "irresponsible".
Correspondents say that during his
tenure, Adm Mullen has been a forceful
advocate for maintaining dialogue with
Pakistan and with its military
establishment. He was said to be close
to the Pakistani army's chief of staff,
Gen Ashfaq Kayani. Indeed, Adm Mullen is
thought to have made more visits to
Pakistan than any other senior US
official or chief of staff in recent
times. But, correspondents say, the
latest comments are yet more evidence of
his patience wearing thin, and suggest
he is prepared to be more outspoken as
his term in office draws to a close.
The Haqqani network, which is closely
allied to the Taliban and reportedly
based in Pakistan, has been blamed for
several high-profile attacks against
Western, Indian and government targets
in Afghanistan. It is often described
by Pakistani officials as a
predominantly Afghan group, but
correspondents say its roots reach deep
inside Pakistani territory, and
speculation over its links to Pakistan's
security establishment refuses to die
down. Earlier this month, Washington
said it could target the Haqqani network
on Pakistani soil if the authorities
there failed to take action against the
militants. |
|
NATO KILLED A TALIBAN COMMANDER LINKED
TO DEADLY U.S. HELICOPTER DOWNING
KABUL,
AFGHANISTAN--NATO
said Thursday it had killed a Taliban
commander who was linked to an
operation that ended with the deaths of
30 American servicemen after their
helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.
Qari Tahir was killed Tuesday in Wardak
province in a precision air strike after
being located along with an associate,
NATO's International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) said in a statement. "Tahir
coordinated ambush attacks against
Afghan forces and led fighters under his
control to conduct hijackings of convoy
vehicles. Additionally, he facilitated
abductions and held his hostages for
ransom," ISAF said.
 
The statement added, "Tahir was the
Taliban's top leader in Tangi Valley and
was the target of a previous combined
operation on Aug. 5, 2011, that resulted
in the loss of the CH-47 Chinook last
month. He led a group of insurgent
fighters throughout the valley and was
known to use roadside bombs and rockets
to intimidate the local populace. No
civilians were harmed in the strike,
ISAF said. The Americans' CH-47 Chinook
helicopter was shot down in Wardak
province, in eastern Afghanistan,
apparently by a rocket-propelled
grenade. U.S. forces later killed the
insurgents responsible for the crash in
an F-16 air strike.
The crash killed 38 people, including 30 Americans, 17
of whom were U.S. Navy SEALs. It was the
biggest single loss of life for
international forces in Afghanistan
since the conflict began 10 years ago.
But U.S. Gen. John Allen, the commander
of U.S. and international forces in
Afghanistan, said at the time that the
original Taliban target remained at
large. "We will continue to exploit that
target. We will remain in pursuit,"
Allen said. The remains of the soldiers
were greeted by President Barack Obama,
defense secretary Leon Panetta and other
U.S. officials in a ceremony at Dover
Air Force Base in Delaware when they
returned home last month. |
|
MEXICO HORROR: GUNMEN DUMP 35 BODIES AT
RUSH HOUR BENEATH A BUSY OVERPASS
MEXICO CITY,
MEXICO--Suspected
drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at
rush hour beneath a busy overpass in the
heart of a major Gulf coast city
as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened
drivers. Mexican authorities said
Wednesday they are examining
surveillance video for clues to who
committed the crime. Horrified
motorists grabbed cell phones and sent
Twitter messages warning others to avoid
the area near the biggest shopping mall
in Boca del Rio, part of the
metropolitan area of Veracruz city. The
gruesome gesture marked a sharp
escalation in cartel violence in
Veracruz state, which sits on an
important route for drugs and Central
American migrants heading north. The
Zetas drug cartel has been battling
other gangs for control of the state.
 
Prosecutors said it's too soon to draw
conclusions from the surveillance video.
"We're not going to confirm or deny
anything," Veracruz state Attorney
General Reynaldo Escobar Perez told the
Televisa network Wednesday. "We're
looking at it in different ways, we're
seeing different numbers, that's why we
don't want to get ahead of ourselves."
Escobar said the bodies were left piled
in two trucks and on the ground under
the overpass near the statue of the
Voladores de Papantla, ritual dancers
from Veracruz state. He said some of the
victims had their heads covered with
black plastic bags and showed signs of
torture.
Police had identified seven of the victims so far and
all had criminal records for murder,
drug dealing, kidnapping and extortion
and were linked to organized crime,
Escobar said. Motorists posted Twitter
warnings said the masked gunmen were in
military uniforms and were blocking
Manuel Avila Camacho Boulevard. "They
don't seem to be soldiers or police,"
one tweet read. Another said, "Don't go
through that area, there is danger."
Veracruz is currently hosting a
conference of Mexico's top state and
federal prosecutors and judiciary
officials. Local media said that 12 of
the victims were women and that some of
the dead men had been among prisoners
who escaped from three Veracruz prisons
on Monday, but Escobar denied the
escaped convicts were among the dead.
|
|
NATO'S TOP BODY
OKs
90 more days for libya mission
BRUSSELS,
BELGIUM--
NATO's decision-making body granted
approval Wednesday for the military
alliance to continue its mission over
Libya for another 90 days.
Libya's former leader, Moammar Gadhafi,
has fallen from power but pockets of
loyalist resistance remain. NATO took
over command of the mission in March,
enforcing a U.N. resolution allowing the
imposition of a no-fly zone and action
to protect civilians.
 
Some observers have said NATO's actions,
which have included daily bombing runs
over the North African country, were
more robust than envisioned in the
resolution and amounted to supporting
the rebels in a civil war. But NATO
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
defended the operation in a statement
Wednesday. "Together with our partners,
NATO has been remarkably successful in
fulfilling the mandate of the United
Nations," he said. "But while threats to
civilians persist, we will continue to
protect them under the mandate confirmed
unanimously in U.N. Security Council
Resolution 2009, and at the request of
the National Transition Council."
The council is forming Libya's new government. The
additional 90 days was approved
Wednesday in Brussels by the North
Atlantic Council, which is composed of
representatives from NATO's 28 member
countries. NATO took command of the
operation in March and extended it for
another 90 days in June. Without the new
extension, permission for the operation
would have expired Sept. 27. Fogh
Rasmussen said the mission would be
under constant review and could end at
any time. "This decision sends a clear
message to the Libyan people: We will be
there for as long as necessary, but not
a day longer, while you take your future
in your hands to ensure a safe
transition to the new Libya," he said.
|
|
IMF: WORLD ECONOMY ENTERING 'DANGEROUS
NEW PHASE'
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
International Monetary Fund says
the U.S. economy is struggling to
overcome "sluggish" growth due to an
unresolved government debt crisis and
weaknesses in the housing market and
household finances. In a report released
Tuesday, the IMF downgraded its forecast
for U.S. economic growth this year to
1.5 percent, one percentage point lower
than its previous projection. It says
the "first priority" of the U.S.
government should be to commit to a
"credible fiscal policy" that puts the
country's massive public debt on a
"sustainable track."
 
The report urges the White House and
Congress to agree on a "medium-term debt
reduction plan" to avoid a sudden
collapse of market confidence that could
disrupt global economic stability. It
also calls for "temporary" government
stimulus measures and an "accommodative"
monetary policy to encourage private
economic activity. In another report
highlighting weakness in the housing
market, the U.S. Commerce Department
said Tuesday construction of new homes
fell more than expected in August. It
says U.S. housing starts declined 5
percent from July, to a
seasonally-adjusted annual rate of
571,000 homes. The IMF also predicted
U.S. unemployment will remain above 9
percent next year. The jobless rate was
9.1 percent in August. Persistently
high unemployment has dampened consumer
spending, the biggest part of the U.S.
economy.
Analysts expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to announce
new measures to try to boost the U.S.
economy on Wednesday, at the end of a
two-day policy meeting. The central bank
opened the meeting Tuesday. Analysts
say the Fed is likely to announce a move
to buy long-term U.S. government bonds
as a way of pushing down long-term
interest rates and encouraging
businesses to invest. The U.S. central
bank has kept short-term interest rates
near zero since 2008. The analysts do
not expect the Fed to repeat its recent
purchase of $600 billion in U.S.
Treasuries, a "quantitative easing"
operation that expired in June. The
operation fell short of the Fed's goal
of generating self-sustaining economic
growth and critics said it risked
fueling inflation. |
|
IMF: VENEZUELA HAS THE WORST PROSPECTS
IN THE REGION
WASHINGTON, D.C.--In
its latest edition of the World Economic
Outlook, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) forecast that Venezuela's economy
should expand 2.8% this year,
with an inflation rate of 25.8%.
According to the intergovernmental
organization, Venezuela has the worst
outlook in South America and a poor
performance among oil exporters.
According to the IMF, Argentina, Chile,
Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay will lead the
region, growing between 6% and 8% while
growth in South American economies will
average 4.9%.
 
The projected economic growth in the
countries of the region is higher than
Venezuela's, with their inflation rate
much lower, at 7.9% on average. The
outlook for the remaining oil-exporting
countries is much better. Oil-exporting
countries in the Middle East and North
Africa are expected to grow 4.9% with an
inflation rate of 10.8%. According to
the World Economic Outlook, "much of the
(Latin American) region has this far
benefited from strong terms of trade and
favorable external financing
conditions." "The outlook is still
strong, although commodity prices will
provide less momentum in the future.
Further macroeconomic tightening is
still essential to rebuild room for
policy maneuvering and to contain demand
pressures," read the report.
The IMF report added that the inflation rate in
Venezuela and Argentina "is projected to
remain in double digits, reflecting
expansionary policies." The report also
highlighted that "further monetary
tightening is likely warranted in a few
economies where overheating risks appear
more imminent (Venezuela, Argentina, and
Paraguay)." Regarding the global
economic outlook, the IMF report
estimated that the "world economy
suffers from the confluence of two
adverse developments. The first is a
much slower recovery in advanced
economies since the beginning of the
year" and the second is a "large
increase in fiscal and financial
uncertainty." |
|
AFGHAN PEACE COUNCIL CHIEF KILLED IN
ATTACK ON HIS HOME
KABUL,
AFGHANISTAN--Afghan
officials said the peace council leader,
former President Burhanuddin Rabbani,
was likely killed by a suicide bomber
in or near his heavily guarded home in
the Afghan capital, Kabul. The
assassination coincided with President
Hamid Karzai’s visit to the United
Nations General Assembly, where he was
scheduled to confer with President Obama
about the war. A spokesman for Mr.
Karzai said he would cut short his trip
to return home.
  At least three other people were wounded in the attack,
Afghan officials said. Ministers of the
Afghan government raced to the scene and
streets were closed off near Mr.
Rabbani’s home. “This is not good for
the peace process,” said a member of
parliament on the defense committee,
Shukria Barakzai, one of the few female
members of the legislature, who was
crying as she spoke in reaction to the
news. Reuters quoted Hashmatullah
Stanikzai, a police spokesman in Kabul,
as saying the killer was probably a
suicide attacker.
Mr. Rabbani, who once led a powerful resistance
group during the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan in the 1980s, was president
in the 1990s following the Soviet
withdrawal. He was killed a week after
Taliban insurgents orchestrated a
surprise attack on several Kabul
neighborhoods that demonstrated the
seeming ease with which they can strike
despite ambitious efforts by the
American-led NATO forces here to improve
security and persuade Taliban insurgents
to engage in negotiations to end the
war. The Taliban attacks have called
into question the basic readiness of
President Karzai’s forces to assume
security in the country as the foreign
military forces gradually withdraw, as
they have pledged to do by the end of
2014. Alissa J. Rubin reported from
Kabul, Afghanistan, and Rick Gladstone
from New York. Sangar Rahimi and Jack
Healy contributed reporting from Kabul.
|
|
U.S. URGES TURKEY NOT TO WORSEN ISRAEL
TIES
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--The
United States urged Turkey on
Monday not to do anything to worsen its
relationship with Israel, officials said
on Monday, seeking to prevent relations
between two allies from deteriorating
further. One official offered no details
but may have been alluding to the
possibility of the Turkish navy
escorting aid flotillas to the Gaza
Strip ruled by the Hamas Islamist group,
which the United States and Israel
regard as a terrorist organization.
Israel's May 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound
aid flotilla killed nine Turkish
citizens and the idea of future Turkish
naval escorts raise the possibility of a
military confrontation between two major
U.S. allies in the Middle East.
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered the message
in a nearly one-hour meeting with
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
that also touched on the Cyprus dispute,
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and
Syria's brutal crackdown on protests
against the four-decade Assad
government. Israel's refusal to
apologize for the flotilla incident has
angered Turkey, an ally of the United
States through the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, and a growing economic
power. "She encouraged Turkey to keep
the door open," a senior official who
spoke on condition of anonymity said
after Clinton and Davutoglu met ahead of
the U.N. General Assembly session that
opens this week. "We want to see them
repair their relationship, so she
encouraged them to avoid any steps that
would close that door and, on the
contrary, to actively seek ways that
they can repair (their) important
relationship with Israel," he added.
"The secretary made clear that this is not a time when
we need more tension, more volatility in
the region," a second official said,
apparently referring to Israel's
deteriorating ties with Egypt and Jordan
and tensions with the Palestinians. The
United States has watched with dismay as
Turkish-Israeli ties began to unravel in
late 2008, after Israel outraged Turkey
by launching an offensive against the
Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas. After the
release of a U.N. report on the
flotilla, which aimed to break Israel's
naval blockade of Gaza, Turkey expelled
Israel's envoy, froze military
cooperation and said the Turkish navy
could escort future aid flotillas.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
has kept up a stream of harsh rhetoric
on Israel, using a tour of Arab states
last week to support a Palestinian bid
for statehood at the United Nations and
dismissing Israel as a spoiled client of
the West. The two countries previously
worked closely together on military
cooperation and intelligence sharing, as
both had sought reliable partners in a
volatile neighborhood. |
|
IRAN'S PRESIDENT WILL TRAVE TO VENEZUELA
FOR BILATERAL MEETING
TEHRAN, IRAN--Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
will visit Venezuela after attending the
UN General Assembly. He travels to New
York with the intention to "push for
reforms in the management of the
world." Speaking to reporters before his
departure, the Iranian leader said his
agenda includes "bilateral meetings with
heads of different countries and an
exchange of ideas and dialogue with
U.S. groups." The Iranian President
plans to visit Venezuela after attending
a meeting at the United Nations General
Assembly in order to "strive to reform
world management."
  Before leaving, the Head of State told reporters that his
agenda includes "bilateral meetings with
the Heads of different States, exchange
of ideas and dialogue with several US
groups, visit students and scholars in
various universities in the United
States and give a press conference and
interviews to different media. After
completing his official visit,
Ahmadinejad will travel to Caracas to
participate in a joint
Iranian-Venezuelan task force. All
Ahmadinejad preceding visits to the
United Nations General Assembly have
been marked by controversy.
Last year, he lambasted the attacks of September 11, 2001
against Washington and New York, calling
them a conspiracy and hoax to justify
the U.S. invasion of Iraq and
Afghanistan. A year earlier, dozens of
delegations walked out during his
speech, which was branded a "hateful
anti-Semitic allegations." This year,
Ahmadinejad is scheduled to give away to
all delegations a book denouncing "the
damage inflicted on Iran by the Allied
powers during World War II." |
|
PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS SAYS
NOTHING CAN STOP UNITED NATIONS
BID
UNITED
NATIONS, NEW YORK---Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said
Monday he'll not be deterred from
seeking U.N. recognition of a state of
Palestine, despite what he said was
"tremendous pressure" to drop the
request and instead seek to resume peace
talks with Israel. Abbas spoke to
reporters en route to the United
Nations, where he is to seek U.N.
membership for "Palestine" in the West
Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem,
territories Israel captured in the 1967
Mideast War. The U.S. and Israel oppose
Abbas' bid, saying a state can only be
established through negotiations. Abbas
has said that negotiations remain his
preference, but that they must be based
on the pre-1967 war frontiers and a halt
of all Israeli settlement construction
on occupied land. Abbas said Monday
that even if Israel were to agree to
those two demands, "we will go to the
U.N. because there is no contradiction
between negotiations and going to the
U.N."
  Officials from the Quartet of Mideast
mediators - the U.S., European Union,
Russia and the United Nations - have
been holding talks in recent days in
hopes of persuading the Palestinians to
drop the U.N. bid and instead resume
peace talks with Israel. The
Palestinian leader said he came under
"tremendous pressure" in recent days,
but that the proposals for a new
framework for talks were unacceptable.
Full U.N. membership can only be
bestowed by the U.N. Security Council,
where the recognition bid could be
derailed if fewer than nine of the 15
members vote in favor or if the U.S.
uses its veto, as it said it would.
Abbas said his plan, for now, is to go
to the Security Council, but suggested
that he might change tactics at the last
minute and go for the lesser option of
General Assembly approval of Palestine
as a nonmember observer state. Chances
for success are much higher in the
General Assembly, which Abbas is to
address Friday. "From now until
delivering the speech at the General
Assembly, we have no thought except
going to the Security Council," he said.
"Then, whatever the decision is, we will
sit with the leadership and decide."
  Asked whether he was threatened by
U.S. officials trying to stop him from
seeking U.N. recognition, Abbas said:
"It's not a matter of threats, but they
(the Americans) said that things will be
very difficult after September. ... We
don't know to what extent. We will know
later." He said he has not been told
officially that U.S. aid to the
Palestinians would be cut. For months,
congressional Republicans and Democrats
have threatened to cut off some $500
million in economic and security
assistance if the Palestinians move
forward with the U.N. bid. Abbas said
he's not scheduled to meet with
President Barack Obama on the sidelines
of the General Assembly. Concerning the
possibility of mass protests in the
Palestinian territories, Abbas said the
only violence might come from Israeli
settlers. In recent months, there has
been an upswing in attacks by settlers
on Palestinians and their property, some
of it as retaliation for attempts by
Israeli troops to remove unauthorized
settler outposts. "We will never return
to an intifada (uprising). We will never
return to violence," Abbas said. "All
our people will do is demonstrate
peacefully inside the (Palestinian)
cities." Abbas, however, holds no sway
over the Gaza Strip or its rulers from
the violently anti-Israel group Hamas,
which drove out forces loyal to Abbas
during a power struggle in 2007. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ SAID HIS
HAIRCUT IS "WORTH MORE" THAT THE
INTER-AMERICAN COURT
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez said
Saturday that his haircut IS "worth more"
than the INTER American Court of Human Rights
(Inter-American Court), which found
Venezuela guilty for violating the right
to be elected opposition leader Leopoldo
Lopez. Chavez, on his way to Cuba for
a fourth round of chemotherapy on
Saturday, dismissed an international
court ruling that cleared a key
opposition candidate to run against him
in 2012. The leftist ruler has led Latin
America's top oil exporting country
since 1999 and wants to stay in office
until at least 2025 to consolidate his
self-styled "revolution." The opposition
-- galvanized by a recent decision from
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
that cleared rival Leopoldo Lopez to run
against Chavez -- aims to bring that
revolution to an end in the October,
2012, election.
 
The court is part of the Organization of
American States, or OAS, and its
decisions are supposed to be binding.
But Venezuela may keep Lopez out of the
campaign just the same. Despite being
treated over the last three months for
cancer, Chavez was in classic form on
Saturday, breaking into song during
marathon public appearances. In
televised comments, he laughed the court
decision off with a play on words. "One
of my haircuts is worth more than this
court," he said repeatedly to laughter
from an audience of supporters. In
Spanish, the word "corte" means "court"
as well as "cut", as in haircut. The
57-year-old leader has shaved his head
since entering chemotherapy and often
jokes about his new look. His government
issued a statement on Friday dismissing
the Lopez ruling as a politically
motivated violation of Venezuelan
sovereignty. Chavez remains Venezuela's
most popular politicians despite rampant
crime and one of the highest inflation
rates in the world. In June he underwent
surgery in Cuba to remove a tumor in the
pelvic area, throwing added uncertainty
into Venezuela's upcoming political
season.
Centrist candidate Lopez was banned from
politics by Venezuelan authorities who
accuse him of corruption. The
40-year-old centrist made his name as
mayor of the wealthy Chacao district in
Caracas. He was favored to go on to win
the race for mayor of the whole city in
2008, but he was blocked by Chavez's
comptroller general. Accused but not
tried for corruption, Lopez was barred
from seeking public office until 2014.
He says the accusations are trumped up
and called it unconstitutional to
suspend him from politics without first
giving him a trial. The court agreed.
Chavez says he will soon be done with
chemotherapy and promises to be fit for
a rigorous campaign next year. "I will
go to Cuba this afternoon," he said.
"Early tomorrow I will start the fourth
round of chemotherapy, which will most
likely be the last." The dictator, who
had the constitution changed to allow
perpetual re-elections, said he expected
to return to Venezuela by the middle of
the week after about five days of
treatment. The opposition meanwhile aims
to elect a unity candidate in February's
primary, which Lopez vows to win. Polls
show him toward the top of an opposition
field led by Henrique Capriles Radonski,
a state governor who promises to emulate
Brazil's "modern-left" policy model if
elected. |
|
CHINA CRITICIZES US DEAL TO UPGRADE
TAIWAN F-16 FIGHTER JETS
beijing, china--China expressed its opposition Monday
to reports that the United States has
decided to upgrade Taiwan's existing
fleet of F-16 fighter jets, even though
it apparently rejected the island's bid
for a more advanced version of the
plane. While the Obama administration
has yet to issue a formal notification
of the F-16 deals, two congressional
aides privy to the results of a Capitol
Hill briefing on the issue told The
Associated Press it nixed the Taiwanese
request for 66 relatively advanced F-16
C/Ds, while agreeing to upgrade the
island's existing fleet of F-16 A/Bs.
The fighter jets have been a dominant
issue in the uneasy triangular
relationship between Taipei, Washington
and Beijing throughout the 3 1/2 year
presidency of Taiwan's Ma Ying-jeou.
Despite reducing tensions across the
100-mile (160-kilometer) -wide Taiwan
Strait to their lowest level since China
and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949,
Ma has pressed for the new warplanes,
saying Taipei needs them to continue
negotiating with Beijing from a position
of strength.
  That has put the U.S. in a difficult
position, forcing it to try to balance
its congressionally mandated
responsibility to provide Taiwan with
weapons to defend itself against a
possible Chinese attack with a desire to
keep its increasingly important
relations with Beijing on an even keel.
China reacts angrily to any foreign
military sales to Taiwan, because it
regards the democratic island of 23
million people as part of its territory.
It temporarily suspended military
exchanges with the U.S. last year after
the Obama administration notified
Congress it was making $6.4 billion in
weapons available to Taiwan, including
missiles, Black Hawk helicopters,
information distribution systems and two
Osprey Class Mine Hunting Ships.
Speaking at daily news briefing in
Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China's
opposition to American arms sales to
Taiwan has been "consistent and clear."
  Without indicating what action China
might take because of the F-16 upgrade,
Hong said the United States should
"refrain from selling arms to Taiwan so
as to avoid impairing bilateral
relations as well as the peaceful
development of cross-strait relations."
Hong's comments were relatively muted in
comparison to the ferocity of China's
response when last year's arms package
was announced. While China's powerful
military and nationalistic public
opinion have called for retaliation -
including against the U.S. companies
involved - Beijing has so far relied on
diplomatic channels to register its
unhappiness. State leaders appear
unwilling to see a major disruption in
ties ahead of a visit to the U.S. by
Vice President and expected future
leader Xi Jinping before the end of the
year. China is also mindful of public
opinion in Taiwan, where a threatening
response could undue years of efforts
aimed at winning over the island's 23
million people to the cause of better
relations and, ultimately, unification
between the sides. In Taipei, Ma's
office said it would not comment on the
decision until it is formally announced
- something that U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton has promised will
happen by the end of this month. |
|
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: PALESTINIAN
STATEHOOD BID WILL FAIL
JERUSALEM,
ISRAEL--Israel's
prime minister predicted on Sunday that
the Palestinians' quest for U.N.
membership would fail because it
bypasses negotiations with the Jewish
state, and said he was working close
with Washington to ensure the statehood
bid withers in the Security Council.
Benjamin Netanyahu put the blame for
stalled negotiations squarely on the
Palestinians, who are skeptical of his
commitment to peacemaking and have
refused to return to the bargaining
table without an Israeli freeze on
settlement construction. "The truth is,
Israel wants peace, and the truth is,
the Palestinians are doing all they can
to torpedo direct peace talks,"
Netanyahu told his weekly Cabinet
meeting.
 
"They must understand that despite the
current attempt to bypass negotiations
again by going to the U.N., that peace
is achieved only through direct
negotiations," Netanyahu added. "Their
attempt to be accepted as a full member
of the U.N. will fail." Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said over the
weekend that he would submit his bid for
full membership to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon
in New York on Friday, during the annual
General Assembly session in New York.
Netanyahu said there was "close
cooperation" with the U.S. to make sure
the Palestinians' bid is shot down in
the U.N. Security Council, the powerful
body that must approve a membership bid.
The U.S. has threatened to veto the move
if it wins backing from nine of the
Council's 15 members -- something
Washington is trying to prevent.
 
That would leave the Palestinians with
the option of seeking a lesser status of
nonmember observer state at the General
Assembly, a forum where they would
expect to win the necessary simple
majority of those present and voting.
Although that would be a largely
symbolic victory, the Palestinians hope
to use their elevated status on the
international stage to press Israel for
concessions in any future negotiations.
Netanyahu said he was traveling to New
York with two goals: to block the
statehood bid at the Security Council
and to present "our truth." Shortly
before Netanyahu spoke, a close ally,
Cabinet Minister Moshe Yaalon, told Army
Radio that "we don't have a partner for
peacemaking." It was not clear whether
Yaalon was expressing a personal
opinion. |
|
VENEZUELAN FOREIGN MINISTER TERMS US
DRUG REPORT AS A FARCE
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Venezuela's
Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro
on Thursday said that the United States
is the world's biggest producer of
drugs. "Imperialism uses drug
trafficking as a political flag to mark
its leadership to independent countries
and impose economic and political
models," Maduro said at a press
conference held in Casa Amarilla (Yellow
House), the headquarters of Venezuela's
Foreign Ministry. The foreign minister
was answering to a report released
yesterday by the White House in which it
accused Venezuela and other countries of
not cooperating sufficiently in fighting
drugs. Concerning Venezuela, the report
specifically says that it did not
demonstrate "substantial efforts to
comply with its obligations under
international counternarcotics
agreements." Maduro said the U.S. has
taken the flag of drug trafficking "to
blackmail the world, to try to put the
blame on countries and independent and
progressive leaders of the world."
 
Maduro said that the United States
promotes the production and drug
trafficking throughout the world and
where it is rapidly growing local drug
production, "he said. He also accused
Washington of assuming itself the right
"above the international law" to emit
judgment and draw the attention to
world's governments. In this regard, he
also indicated that his country will
continue denouncing before
international bodies the complaints
presented by U.S. reports , without
giving further details because, as he
said, he "is conducting a battle of
truth against manipulation." Maduro
said that there is a "daily aggression"
of all institutions of power of the U.S.
against the Venezuelan government with
the intention of “taking back" and
"re-colonizing" the country. "If we
were flattered by the empire, the I
would have been concerned,” he said.
He also defended the results of Venezuela’s fight against
drug trafficking by highlighting their
“huge efforts to have, for sixth
consecutive years, Venezuelan land
free of drugs" and now to be the fifth
country in cocaine seizures in the
world. He said that in the United
States "there is a policy to promote
and legalize the production, processing
and consumption of drugs" and to traffic
and promote mass consumption of drugs
"especially to African American, Latino
and young people." Meanwhile, Néstor
Luis Reverol, Venezuela's Vice-Minister
of Citizen Security, Ministry of
Interior and Justice, said that the US
is the country that produces more
illicit capital flows. "We will produce
data on which country has failed
demonstrably, on how the US apparently
has a policy to promote and legalize
production, processing, trafficking, and
use of drugs," Reverol said. He also
noted that the US statements are false
and constitute an aggressive campaign
against Venezuela. |
|
YEMENI FORCES OPEN FIRE ON PROTESTERS;
26 KILLED
SANAA, YEMEN--Yemeni
government forces opened fire with
anti-aircraft guns and automatic weapons
on tens of thousands of anti-government
protesters in the capital
demanding ouster of their longtime
ruler, killing at least 26 and wounding
dozens, medical officials and witnesses
said. After nightfall, Sanaa sank into
complete darkness after a sudden power
outage, as protesters took control of a
vital bridge, halting traffic and
setting up tents. Thousands of other
protesters attacked government buildings
and set fires to buildings they said
were used by snipers and pro-government
thugs. The attack was the deadliest in
months against protesters and comes as
tensions have been escalating in the
long, drawn-out stalemate between the
regime and the opposition. The
president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, left for
Saudi Arabia for treatment after being
severely wounded in a June 3 attack on
his palace, raising hopes for his swift
removal - but instead, he has dug in,
refusing to step down.
 
The protest movement has stepped up
demonstrations the past week, angered
after Saleh deputized Vice President
Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to negotiate a
power-transfer deal. Many believe the
move is just the latest of many delaying
tactics. At the same time, greater
numbers of the powerful Republican
Guards force, led by Saleh's son and
heir apparent Ahmed and armed regime
supporters have also been turning out in
the streets in recent days, raising
fears of a new bloody confrontation.
More than 100,000 protesters massed
Sunday around the state radio building
and government offices, witnesses said.
When the crowd began to march toward the
nearby Presidential Palace, security
forces opened fire and shot tear gas
canisters, they said. Snipers fired down
at the crowd from nearby rooftops, and
plainclothes Saleh supporters armed with
automatic rifles, swords and batons
attacked the protesters. Protesters took
control of a main bridge, closed off the
entrances and set fire to tents in a
camp used by pro-government forces.
"This peaceful protest was confronted by
heavy weapons and anti-aircraft guns,"
said Mohammed al-Sabri, an opposition
spokesman. He vowed that the
intensifying protests "will not stop and
will not retreat."
At the neighborhood of al-Zubairi in the heart of Sanaa,
troops opened fire at an anti-government
force, the 1st Armored Division led by
Maj. Gen. Ali al-Ahmar, who defected to
the opposition along with his 50,000
troops several months ago. Witnesses
said al-Ahmar's forces engaged in the
fighting Sunday for the first time, but
Abdel-Ghani al-Shemari, spokesman for
al-Ahmar division denied that and said
they are "maintaining self-restraint."
Tarek Noaman, a doctor at Sanaa field
hospital, said that 26 protesters were
shot dead and more than 200 were
wounded. "Most of the injuries are at
the chest, shoulder, head and face," he
said, and said 25 of injured protesters
were in critical condition. He accused
security forces of preventing ambulances
from evacuating the wounded and
collecting bodies of the slain
protesters. Protesters throwing stones
managed to break through security force
lines and advance to near the Yemeni
Republican Palace at the heart of Sanaa,
turning the clashes with the security
forces into street battles. The Youth
Revolution committee, which leads the
protests, called on Yemenis to rally
"day and night and everywhere in Yemen
until we topple the remnants of the
regime." |
|
venezuelan opposition leader leopoldo
lopez says that "political bans have
ended today" IN VENEZUELA
caracas,
venezuela--Leopoldo
López, the former mayor of the
municipality of Chacao and leader of
opposition Voluntad Popular political
party, said on Friday night that
he would not rest until all Venezuelans
enjoy equal rights. His remarks came
during his first public appearance after
the publication of a ruling issued by
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
(IACHR Court) that lifted a political
ban meted out to López three years ago
by the Venezuelan Comptroller General
Office. "I have regained my rights and
now I vow not to rest until all
Venezuelans enjoy equal rights," were
López's first words before his
followers.
  He highlighted the importance of the ruling ordering
the immediate reinstatement of his
political rights. "Today, the IACHR
Court finally put an end to political
disqualifications... It has put an end
to that sword of Damocles the
(Venezuelan) ruling party has used in
the last four years to sweep away any
uncomfortable political leaders, to get
rid of a number of leaders who have
people's support and whom they could not
defeat in an election battle, leaders
like us, leaders they fear." For López,
the decision is not only a personal
triumph, but it also represents a
victory for other 800 people, a boost
for Venezuelan and Latin American
democracies. "There is no way to
justify the failure to comply with this
ruling. I invite you to read the
Constitution; it is a matter of
constitutional status (...) This
decision has no room for
interpretation," López stressed.
"This is a ruling with a hemispheric impact, with an
influence in similar cases in Colombia,
Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Costa Rica
(...) But above all, this a strong
binding decision for the Venezuelan
State under the agreements signed and
endorsed in our Constitution pursuant to
Articles 23 and 31 (...) This is a
decision that democrats will respect and
comply with determination and courage,
in order to preserve the rights millions
of Venezuelans have to choose freely,"
he added. López further announced that
he is running for the opposition
primaries and vowed to become the
opposition presidential candidate that
is to face President Hugo Chávez in
Venezuela's presidential election in
October 2012. "Today, I would like to
tell all Venezuelans: Keep dreaming of
the Venezuela you wish (...) Our
ultimate goal is not only to defeat a
poor administration, but also to achieve
the Best Possible Venezuela." |
|
MANMOUD ABBAS VOWS TO PURSUE EFFORTS TO
WIN RECOGNITION OF PALESTINE AS AN
INDEPENDENT STATE
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--In
Washington, U.S. State Department
spokesman Mark Toner said on
Friday that peace talks are the only way
to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. He added that the Palestinian
efforts at the U.N. are
“counterproductive gestures.” A bid for
full membership for the Palestinians
would be subject to a veto by one of the
five permanent members of the Security
Council, including the U.S., which has
opposed the Palestinian plan and said it
would use its veto power. Palestinians
could achieve non-member status by
winning a simple majority in the
193-member General Assembly, where they
enjoy strong support. Palestinians
currently hold observer status at the
United Nations.
  Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters
Thursday that Palestinians have been
working for years to build institutions
that would make it easier for them to
quickly form a state. The Palestinian
Self-rule Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas
has vowed to pursue efforts to win
recognition of Palestine as an
independent state at the upcoming UN
General Assembly meeting despite US and
Israeli threats against the move.
According to Press TV, Abbas said in a
televised speech on Friday in Ramallah
“We are going to the United Nations to
request our legitimate right, obtaining
full membership for Palestine in this
organization.”
He added "It is our legitimate right to demand the full
membership of the state of Palestine in
the UN, to put an end to a historical
injustice by attaining liberty and
independence, like the other peoples of
the earth, in a Palestinian state on the
borders of June 4, 1967." On Thursday,
the Zionist regime Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he
would travel to New York next week to
personally lead the opposition to the
Palestinian initiative at the UN
headquarters. Many Palestinians have
expressed frustration over years of
cooperation with US-pushed negotiations
with the Israeli regime while enduring
persistent humiliation and violation of
their rights by Tel Aviv as well as
Washington. They insist that they have
finally realized that negotiating with
the US-Israeli alliance is unrealistic
and no longer a viable option. |
|
united states and EUROPEAN UNION refuse
to recognize aN INDEPENDENT palestinian state
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--United States announced it
clearly to the world that it will veto
any resolution in the United Nations to
recognize a Palestinian state. On the
other hand, European Union member
countries follow the American track
against the Palestinian state.. What
makes the European Union change its
attitude towards the Palestinian state ?
Spain was going to lead a European
Campaign to make EU member countries
recognize the Palestinian state .
However, Al-Jazeera reported that EU
countries refused the Palestinian state
and won't support the UN bid.
  The United States and the European
Union stepped up their efforts to
dissuade the Palestinians from seeking
full membership in the United Nations
later this month, a move that would
expose deep divisions between EU member
states. The question has split EU
member states, with France and the UK
broadly in favour, and the Czech
Republic, Germany and the Netherlands
opposed. All EU efforts are now focused
on sidestepping the issue by getting the
Palestinians to seek an enhanced
non-member status similar to that of the
Vatican.
Dennis Ross and David Hale, senior US
diplomats, were in the region in a
last-ditch attempt to avert a bid to
establish Palestinian statehood. They
were seeking to restart direct peace
talks between the Palestinians and the
Israelis, which have been suspended for
three years. But several diplomats
expressed doubts that they would be
successful and suggested that a US-EU
back-up plan is now taking shape to
convince the Palestinians to apply for a
less controversial upgrading of their
status at the UN. An informal meeting of
EU foreign ministers in Sopot, Poland,
last weekend (2-3 September) failed to
bring the ministers closer to a common
position on the issue, but the ministers
agreed on the paramount importance of
preventing a public split. A diplomat
from a member state that in principle
backs the Palestinian recognition bid
said that all member states shared that
goal. Israel has made it clear that a
Palestinian statehood bid would spell
the end of the peace process, which
began with the 1993 Oslo accords. |
|
FORMER GOVERNOR BILL RICHARDSON AID SAYS
CUBA BACKTRACKED ON ALAN GROSS
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--A
top aide to Bill Richardson said
Thursday the former New Mexico governor
held a series of meetings with Cuban
officials over more than a year about
the fate of a jailed U.S. subcontractor,
and was left with no doubt the Cubans
were ready to discuss releasing him.
Gilbert Gallegos, who accompanied
Richardson on a failed trip to Havana to
try to win Alan Gross' release, told The
Associated Press that the Cubans
suggested they come. And he said they
made clear they "were ready to
negotiate." Gross was arrested in
December 2009 after he was caught
illegally bringing communications
equipment onto the island while on a
USAID-funded democracy building program.
He was sentenced last March to 15 years
in jail for crimes against the state, a
ruling upheld in August by Cuba's
Supreme Court.
 
The case has snuffed out any chance for
better relations between Washington and
Havana, which had briefly been seen as
improving after U.S. President Barack
Obama took office. Richardson, who has
had success winning the release of
prisoners in the past and enjoyed a warm
relationship with the Cuban leadership,
arrived Sept. 7. But soaring hopes that
he would go home with the American
quickly turned to mutual recriminations
when Cuba declined to even let him see
Gross in jail. Richardson called Gross a
"hostage," and ultimately left the
island saying he could never come back
as a friend. Cuba on Wednesday accused
him of "blackmail" and slander in his
comments to the AP, and said he was
never invited to come or given any
indication he would leave with Gross.
Gallegos' comments Thursday made clear
the two sides have very different
versions of what went wrong.
On July 22, Richardson had a phone conversation
with Jorge Bolanos, Cuba's top diplomat
in Washington, who was in Cuba at the
time. He said that the judicial process
against Gross would soon be over and
that they could then proceed with talks
on Gross situation. Gallegos said the
two men spoke again July 26, at which
point Richardson proposed a Sept. 7
trip, which is when he came. On Aug. 10,
Richardson had lunch with Bolanos at the
Cuban diplomat's residence in
Washington. Bolanos told Richardson he
would meet Bruno Rodriguez in Havana,
and implied that negotiations would
ensue. "It was incredibly clear to Gov.
Richardson that the Cubans this time
were at the point where they were ready
to negotiate," said Gallegos. "They were
ready to seriously discuss the
possibility of releasing Mr. Gross."
That is the opposite of what Josefina
Vidal, head of the Cuban Foreign
Ministry's North American affairs
division, told the AP on Wednesday. She
insisted that releasing Gross was "never
on the table," and chastised Richardson
for the fact that news of his trip
leaked just as he was arriving,
indicating Havana considered it an
attempt at pressure tactics. Gallegos
said Richardson briefed the U.S. State
Department on the trip on Thursday. He
recommended no improvements in bilateral
ties until Gross is release. |
|
CUBAN POLICE REPORTEDLY DETAIN AT LEAS
20 DISSIDENTS
SANTA
CLARA, CUBA--Cuban
dissidents say police detained more than
20 people Thursday as they tried
to take part in a novel protest – a
proposed march from one end of the
island to the other. Among those
reported detained were Angel Moya, freed
this year after eight years in prison,
and Guillermo Fariñas, awarded the
prestigious Sakharov human rights prize
last year. Five dissident women were
detained with Fariñas and Moya in the
central city of Santa Clara, according
to the dissidents, and two men were
grabbed in Mella, in eastern Santiago
province. Berta Soler, Moya’s wife and
a spokeswoman for the Ladies in White,
said there was no news from those
arrested as of Thursday evening. Such
detentions usually last only a few hours
or days, just long enough for the police
to make sure they disrupt any planned
protests.
 
The detentions came as the dissidents
mobilized for their latest
anti-government tactic — a march from
east to west that would recreate a
famous offensive by Cubans fighting for
independence from Spain in the 1800s.
Police have blocked every attempt,
however, keeping some dissidents under
house arrest and detaining others before
they reached the march’s starting points
— then dropping them off in isolated
spots or driving them home. The
Havana-based Cuban Commission for Human
Rights and National Reconciliation
reported that it had received word of
more than 20 detentions on Thursday in
the Santa Clara region alone. “All the
detentions were arbitrary, with the goal
of preventing a group of peaceful
[government] opponents from gathering,”
wrote commission president Elizardo
Sánchez Santa Cruz. He added that his
panel has received reports of more than
200 such detentions so far this month —
very likely one of the highest totals
since Raúl Castro took the reigns of
power from his ailing brother Fidel in
2006.
José Daniel Ferrer García, a former political prisoner
in the eastern town of Palmarito del
Cauto, noted that Thursday’s detentions
were connected to the proposed “National
March for Freedom, Boitel and Zapata
Live!” The march was to have started
Sept. 8 in easternmost Guantanamo and
picked up supporters as it moved west
toward Havana, he added. But the plans
changed after police from the very first
day detained several dozen dissidents in
towns like Guantánamo, Palma Soriano,
Holguín, Bayamo and Las Tunas. Now
dissidents in each town and city are
expected to try to stage their own
marches, whenever they can and for as
long as they can before police break
them up, Ferrer said. The marches are to
demand the government obey international
agreements on human rights, halt the
repression against peaceful dissidents,
free all political prisoners and cancel
all laws that limit dissent. |
|
US FINDS VENEZUELA, BOLIVIA "FAILED
DEMONSTRABLY" TO COUNTER DRUG
TRAFFICKING
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Under
the Foreign Relations Authorization Act
(FAA), the President is required
each year to notify Congress of those
countries he determines to be major
illicit drug-producing countries or
major drug-transit countries that
“significantly affect the United
States.” A country’s presence on the
list does not necessarily reflect its
counternarcotics efforts or its level of
cooperation on illegal drug control with
the United States. The designation can
reflect a combination of geographic,
commercial, and economic factors that
allow drugs to be produced and/or
trafficked through a country.
 
When a country on the list does not
fulfill its obligations under
international counternarcotics
agreements and conventions, the
President determines that the country
has “failed demonstrably” to meet its
counterdrug obligations. Such a
designation can lead to sanctions.
However, the President may also execute
a waiver when he determines there is a
vital national interest in continuing
U.S. assistance. Even without such a
waiver, humanitarian assistance and
counternarcotics assistance may
continue.
This year the President has identified 22 countries as
major drug-producing or drug-transit
countries: Afghanistan, the Bahamas,
Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras,
India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Pakistan, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
Belize and El Salvador are new to the
list this year. Of these 22, the
President has determined that three
countries, Bolivia, Burma, and
Venezuela, “failed demonstrably” during
the last 12 months to make sufficient or
meaningful efforts to adhere to the
obligations they have undertaken under
international counternarcotics
agreements. In the cases of Bolivia and
Venezuela, the President has waived
possible sanctions under U.S. law, so
that the United States may continue to
support specific programs to benefit the
Bolivian and Venezuelan people. |
|
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LEON PANETTA: "WE
WILL NOT ALLOW INSURGENTS TO ATTACK U.S.
FORCES FROM BASES IN PAKISTAN
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta expressed
frustration with Islamabad, warning that
the U.S. will not allow the attacks on
U.S. forces from Pakistan-based
insurgents like the Haqqani network to
continue. Pointing to the 20-hour
assault against the U.S. Embassy and
NATO headquarters in Kabul that finally
ended Wednesday, Panetta said it is
unacceptable that the Haqqanis are able
to launch such deadly attacks and then
flee to safe havens across the border in
Pakistan. "The message they need to know
is: we're going to do everything we can
to defend our forces," Panetta told
reporters traveling with him to San
Francisco for meetings with Australian
officials.
 
He refused to say whether the U.S. plans
to take any new military actions, but
there has been an escalating U.S.
campaign of drone strikes into
Pakistan's border regions. "Time and
again we've urged the Pakistanis to
exercise their influence over these
kinds of attacks from the Haqqanis, and
we have made very little progress in
that area," Panetta said. "I'm not going
to talk about how we're going to
respond. ... We're not going to allow
these types of attacks to go on." U.S.
officials have blamed the Haqqani
network for the nearly daylong assault
on the heavily guarded Afghan capital.
The attack left 27 dead, including
police, civilians and attackers,
officials said.
Panetta's remarks reflect growing U.S. impatience over
Islamabad's reluctance to go after the
Haqqanis, who are connected to both the
Taliban and al Qaeda and present the
most significant threat to Afghanistan's
stability. U.S. officials have
repeatedly pressed the Pakistanis to
move against insurgent havens in the
border region, including in North
Waziristan. The Haqqanis use the lawless
territory to launch attacks against U.S.
and Afghan forces across the border.
U.S. relations with Pakistan have been
rocky amid complaints about the
increased American drone attacks across
the border. But they worsened after the
U.S. special operations forces crossed
into Pakistan in May to raid the
Abbottabad compound where al Qaeda
leader Usama bin Laden had been hiding
for years. Bin Laden was killed in the
raid, and Pakistani officials were angry
about what they considered an assault on
their country's sovereignty. |
|
BOMBER KILLS 26 AT NORTHWEST PAKISTAN
FUNERAL
PESHAWAR,
PAKISTAN--A
suicide bomber attacked the funeral
service on Thursday of a
Pakistani tribesman opposed to the
Taliban, killing 26 people,police said,
two days after Taliban gunmen killed
four children from another district in
conflict with the militant network. The
blast during Thursday's ceremony in the
Lower Dir region, 15 miles (25
kilometers) west of the Afghan border,
also wounded 60 people.
 
The bomber struck as around 200 mourners
were attending the funeral in the Shina
Samar Bagh village, police officer Sher
Hassan Khan said. Another police
officer, Salim Marwat, said the attacker
hid in a nearby field and then ran
toward the graveyard shouting "Allah
Akbar!" -- the Arabic phrase meaning
"God is Great" that is also a Muslim
rallying cry -- and then detonated his
bomb. Witness Gull Rehman said he saw
the attacker, who was killed in the
bombing, describing him as a man with a
long beard. Rehman said he was knocked
down by the blast but he was able to get
up and help transport the injured to
hospitals. The scene of the attack was
strewn with bloodstained shoes in the
blood-soaked grassy field, and officers
collecting pieces of the bomb.
The funeral was for Bakhat Khan, who was a member of a
local "lashkar" or militia that is
opposed to Taliban rule in the region,
police said. He died Wednesday night.
The tribesmen in the northwest have
formed several such militias, for which
they typically receive some government
funding. They have had some success at
stopping militant infiltration but are
routinely struck by revenge attacks.
Many of the bloodiest bombings of the
last three years have targeted "lashkar"
members or their families. On Tuesday,
Taliban gunmen killed four children as
they were returning from school close to
the main northwestern city of Peshawar.
The insurgents said the attack was aimed
at stopping locals there supporting a
tribal militia that is fighting them. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ PONDERS
ACTIONS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Carlos
Escarrá, the new Solicitor General,
said that the US government "will not be
allowed to insult or offend any
Venezuelan leader. The peoples of Latin
America are different now and here in
Venezuela there is a commander who leads
the country." He would not disclose the
actions the Venezuelan government would
take regarding the accusations made by
the US Department of the Treasury
against Venezuelan officers.
 
Dictator Hugo Chavez is "discussing the
actions that will be adopted against the
government of the United States,"
following the publication by the US
Department of the Treasury of a
blacklist including Venezuelan top
military and civilian officials.
Venezuela's Solicitor General Carlos
Escarrá made the announcement on
Wednesday. He said that the actions
adopted by Barack Obama's administration
are "a new aggression of the US empire."
Escarrá said in Barquisimeto, Lara state (northwestern
Venezuela), where he was the keynote
speaker at a session to celebrate the
459th anniversary of the city, that the
US government "will not be allowed to
insult or offend any Venezuelan leader.
The peoples of Latin America are
different now and here in Venezuela
there is a commander who leads the
country," reported state-run news agency
Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (AVN).
Major General Clíver Alcalá, of the
Fourth Armored Division of the
Venezuelan Army; ruling party lawmaker
Freddy Bernal (United Socialist Party of
Venezuela); alternate president to the
Latin American Parliament Amilcar
Figueroa, and intelligence official
Ramón Madriz were blacklisted by the
Office of Foreign Assets Control, US
Department of the Treasury. |
|
NEW CHIEF US ENVOY TO CUBA TAKES UP
SENSITIVE POST
HAVANA,
CUBA--A
career U.S. diplomat with more than 30
years of experience has taken up
the sensitive post as Washington's top
envoy to Cold War foe Cuba, U.S.
government officials said Tuesday. John
Caulfield arrived in the island's
capital Monday to begin a three-year
stint as chief of the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana, which Washington
maintains instead of an embassy since
the nations do not have diplomatic ties.
"It is an honor for me to serve
President Obama and the American people
in Havana," Caulfield said in a brief
statement released by the Interests
Section. "The United States and Cuba
share a long and complex history. I am
looking forward to getting to know Cuba
and the Cuban people while advancing
U.S. interests here."
  Relations between the United States and Cuba have been
in a deep freeze since shortly after
Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, with
successive U.S. governments pushing for
political change and greater individual
freedoms on the island. Among other
sticking points between the two
countries, Havana chafes at Washington's
economic embargo and the
democracy-building programs the Cuban
government considers aimed at
overthrowing it. U.S. restrictions on
travel and remittances to the island
have relaxed under Obama, but Caulfield
arrives as U.S. officials insist that
improving relations will be difficult
given the continued imprisonment of Alan
Gross, a Maryland man sentenced to 15
years in Cuba for crimes against the
state after he was caught bringing
banned communications equipment onto the
island.
On Monday, Obama criticized the pace of change in Cuba
and said the communist-run island has
not been aggressive enough in opening
its economy or its political system.
Caulfield was previously charge
d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in
Venezuela and spent much of that time
effectively in charge of that mission,
first when Caracas expelled the U.S.
ambassador and later when it rejected
Obama's chosen replacement. The Cuba and
Venezuela posts share some important
similarities: Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez counts himself a friend and ally
of former Cuban President Fidel Castro
and, like Cuban officials, frequently
rails against the U.S. "empire" and its
foreign policy. In Caracas, Caulfield
developed a reputation for being a
low-key diplomat who acknowledged
differences between the two governments
while, at least publicly, focusing on
opportunities to seek common ground. He
generally refrained from responding in
kind to Chavez's often-heated rhetoric.
Caulfield has served overseas missions
in a half-dozen Latin American nations
plus the United Kingdom, the Philippines
and Portugal, and also held
Washington-based jobs focusing on the
Americas, according to the statement
from the Interests Section. He replaces
former Section chief Jonathan Farrar,
who left the island in July. |
|
ISRAEL WARNS AGAINST UNILATERAL
PALESTINIAN MOVE
JERUSALEM,
ISRAEL--The
unilateral declaration of a Palestinian
state would have "dire consequences,"
Israel's foreign minister warned
Wednesday, a day after Palestinians said
they would take the proposal to the
United Nations. Avigdor Liberman did
not elaborate in his comments on Israel
Radio, but said previous Israeli
concessions like the withdrawal from
Gaza had not resulted in peace.
Frustrated with stalled negotiations
with Israel, Palestinians plan to appeal
to U.N. member states to recognize their
territories as an independent country.
But a United Nations report warned
Wednesday that the Palestinians are not
yet ready politically for statehood,
even while it said the government did
carry out basic functions. "Government
functions are now sufficient for the
functioning government of a state," the
U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle
East Peace Process said, calling it
"considerable achievement."
  But Israeli occupation has contributed to keeping Palestinian
politics "stagnant," Robert Serry's
office warned. "There is only so much
that can be done in conditions of
prolonged occupation, unresolved final
status issues, no serious progress on a
two-state solution, and a continuing
Palestinian divide," Serry said. The
Palestinians currently have non-state
observer status at the United Nations.
The United States has said it will veto
full Palestinian statehood if the
question comes to the U.N. Security
Council. "It should not come as a
shock to anyone in this room that the
U.S. opposes a move in New York by the
Palestinians to try to establish a state
that can only be achieved through
negotiations," State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last
week. "So yes, if something comes to a
vote in the U.N. Security Council, the
U.S. will veto."
Instead, the Palestinian Authority is expected to go to
the General Assembly, where it could get
"observer state" status, similar to the
position that the Vatican currently
holds. A vote in its favor is all but
assured. "Some of the members of the
United Nations, important members, it
seems to me that they're coming to the
realization that this is not theatric,
because this is real," Palestinian U.N.
envoy Riyad Mansour said. The upgraded
status would give the Palestinians
greater access to U.N. agencies,
including possibly the International
Criminal Court, where it could make
criminal claims against Israel. The
Obama administration has expressed
concern that Palestinian action at the
United Nations could intensify
conditions on the ground and delay
already-stalled negotiations with
Israel. "Our objective is not to
intensify with anyone or to isolate
anyone, or to de-legitimize anyone,"
Mansour said. "Our objective is to
legitimize our rights and to advance the
cause of the two-state solution." The
U.S. State Department has sent two
diplomatic envoys to the region to help
Mideast Quartet envoy Tony Blair gain
Israeli and Palestinian approval on a
Quartet statement on a set of principles
in advance of the Palestinian bid next
week. |
|
VENEZUELAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION MOVED
FORWARD TO OCTOBER 7, 2012
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--Venezuela's
elections board announced the 2012
presidential vote for October 7,
moving the contest up from its
traditional December time frame, which
some critics say gives President Hugo
Chavez an edge by shortening the
campaign of potential challengers.
Venezuela's opposition, which some say
has a rare chance of unseating Chavez,
will hold primary voting to choose a
unity candidate for the presidency on
February 12, leaving the nominee just
under eight months to attempt the
daunting task of defeating the weakened
but still powerful incumbent.
  Miranda state
Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski
constantly tops polls of likely
candidates to face off with Chavez.
Other leading hopefuls include former
Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma,
Congresswoman Maria Corina Machado and
Zulia state Governor Pablo Perez.
Another potentially strong opponent,
former Caracas Mayor Leopoldo Lopez, is
banned from holding public office
because of corruption charges and will
find out this week if an international
court backs his return to politics.
Lopez says the charges are trumped up
and politically motivated. Political
analyst and pollster Luis Vicente Leon
said building a grass-roots campaign
will be important and time consuming for
whoever fills the opposition's
candidacy. He says that shortening the
campaign will favor Chavez, who has
access to virtually unlimited broadcast
hours and is Venezuela's most
recognizable politician. “The
[opposition's] candidate will need
face-to-face contact, will need to shake
hands and generate popular connections
to compete with Chavez,” Leon said.
With Chavez undergoing treatment for cancer, there is
some speculation that an earlier date
will allow the leader to capture a third
six-year term before his condition can
possibly worsen, Leon said. “It can also
be attached to the illness of the
president,” Leon said. “This is only
speculation. We don't know exactly how
it could relate to his health, but then
again, we don't know much about his
health.” Chavez's approval rating has
not significantly changed since he
announced he had cancer in June,
according to Leon. Chavez, who enjoyed
soaring approval ratings at around 70%
during his last successful re-election
in 2006, still maintains a strong
measure of popularity and has hovered
around 50% over the last year, but he
has lost the aura of invincibility, Leon
said. Chavez, 57, who has been in power
since 1999, had a cancerous tumor
removed June 20 in Cuba, but has offered
few further details on his condition.
The former Army officer said Tuesday
that he is likely to begin a fourth and
final cycle of chemotherapy and will be
at full strength when he hits the
campaign trail in December. Chavez says
he is cancer-free and seeking further
treatment as a preventative measure.
|
|
president obama says cuba's reforms not
aggressive enough
washington,
d.c.--Recent
changes in Cuba have not been
"aggressive enough" to open its economy
or reform its political system, US
President Barack Obama has said. Obama,
speaking to Spanish-language
correspondents in Washington, said Cuba
remained a "throwback" to the 1960s.
Cuba, under a US economic embargo for
nearly five decades, has this year moved
towards some economic opening.
President Obama said the Cuban
authorities had indicated they wanted to
make changes to allow businesses to
operate more freely. But, he said,
there was no evidence that they had been
sufficiently aggressive in doing this.
"And they certainly have not been
aggressive enough when it comes to
liberating political prisoners and
giving people the opportunity to speak
their minds", Obama said.
 
Cuban dictator Raul Castro has been
introducing some changes including
allowing Cubans to work for themselves.
The Cuban government this year also
freed the last of 75 dissidents jailed
during a crackdown on dissent in 2003.
But the president put the situation in
Cuba in the wider international context.
"You are seeing enormous changes taking
place in the Middle East just in the
span of six months, you are seeing there
are almost no authoritarian communist
countries left in the world, and here
you have this small island that is a
throwback to the 60s."
President Obama has moved to ease restrictions on
Cuban-Americans travelling to the island
but a gradual thaw in ties has been
disrupted by the imprisonment of a US
contractor. Obama confirmed that his
measures to ease travel restrictions to
the island and remittances are "right"
because "we believe it will create more
space in Cuba for freedom and civil
liberty." Shortly after taking office,
Obama eased travel restrictions as they
were in force during Bill Clinton
administration, and also issued
regulations that promote travel for
educational, cultural or religious
goups. The tours were prohibited by
the trade embargo imposed against Cuba
decades ago. Two Cuban-American
congressmen have introduced bills to
re-establish the restrictions eliminated
by Obama. |
|
explosion at french nuclear site kills
one
paris,
france--A
furnace exploded Monday at a nuclear
site in France, killing one person and
injuring four, a spokeswoman for
French energy company EDF said to the
international press.There was no
radioactive leak or waste released, she
said. The French nuclear safety agency
also said there had been no radioactive
leak. The explosion happened at a center
for processing and decommissioning
nuclear waste, said the safety agency,
which is known by its French acronym ASN.
The agency has sent inspectors to the
site, it said in a statement. The
explosion took place in Marcoule, in
southeastern France, the EDF spokeswoman
said, declining to give her name in line
with company policy. The building
housing the furnace was not structurally
damaged by the explosion, an official at
the plant said.
 
Different activities take place at the
large-scale site, including research by
France's Center for Atomic Energy, said
a spokeswoman for Areva, a nuclear
company that has operations at Marcoule.
Areva dismantles nuclear facilities at
the site, she said. There are no nuclear
power plants in Marcoule, the
spokeswoman said, declining to give her
name. Weapons-grade plutonium was once
produced at the site, one of the oldest
nuclear facilities in the country, but
France no longer produces plutonium. The
location is not far from the Cote du
Rhone wine region. Ed Lyman of the Union
of Concerned Scientists in the United
States said he does not know of any
comparable facilities there, but he said
the incident in France shows that
processing even low-level nuclear waste
carries some risk.
The incident could affect the debate over what the U.S. does
with its spent nuclear fuel, said Lyman
of the nuclear watchdog group.
Currently, nuclear plants store the fuel
in pools and in dry casks. Some say that
it should be processed for reuse, as is
done in France. But Lyman said that
reprocessing creates large amounts of
low-level waste and that Monday's
incident shows the risk of dealing with
even that kind of waste. France relies
heavily on nuclear power, which now
accounts for about 80% of the country's
electricity production, according to the
U.S. State Department. The French
government has been reviewing the
country's dependence on nuclear energy
after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima
in Japan in March 2011, which was
triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.
There have been no serious suggestions
from mainstream politicians that France
reduce its dependence on nuclear power,
the State Department says. |
|
CONVICTED CUBAN SPY WANTS TO RETURN TO
THE ISLAND UPON HIS RELEASE FROM PRISON
MIAMI, FLORIDA--A
former Cuban intelligence officer
convicted of spying in the U.S. wants to
return immediately to Cuba upon his
release from prison next month,
but federal prosecutors insist he must
serve an additional three years of
probation in this country. Phil
Horowitz, attorney for 55-year-old Rene
Gonzalez, said Monday he has asked U.S.
District Judge Joan Lenard on
humanitarian grounds to permit the
probation to be served in Cuba. Horowitz
noted that Gonzalez's wife cannot get a
visa to visit him in the U.S. - she was
also implicated in the spy ring - and
that his two children and parents also
live in Cuba. "It's our view that's an
additional three years of punishment,"
Horowitz said. "He has no relatives, no
close family in the United States."
 
Gonzalez, who holds dual U.S.-Cuban
citizenship, is set for release Oct. 7
from a federal prison in Marianna, Fla.
He has been in custody since the men
were arrested 13 years ago Monday.
Prosecutors say there is no legal
justification for Gonzalez to return
before the three years' probation is
completed. In court papers, they contend
that Gonzalez was unrepentant regarding
the actions that landed him in prison
and a return to Cuba would put him
beyond any U.S. supervision. "The
modification he seeks is essentially to
terminate and eliminate supervised
release before it has begun," said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck
Miller in court documents. She added
that Gonzalez could later request
permission to visit Cuba. There is no
timetable for Lenard to make a decision.
Horowitz said Gonzalez's mother in Cuba has expressed concern
that he might be in danger if forced to
serve out probation in the Miami area,
home to thousands of Cuban exiles who
are virulently opposed to the communist
government of Raul and Fidel Castro. "I
would hope that society is more mature
than that," Horowitz said. Gonzalez and
the other four men known as the "Cuban
Five" were convicted in 2001 of
attempting to infiltrate U.S. military
installations in South Florida, such as
the Miami-based Southern Command
headquarters. They also monitored the
Miami exiles and tried to place
operatives inside the campaigns of
anti-Castro politicians. One of the five
was also convicted of murder conspiracy
in the 1996 shootdown by Cuban fighter
jets of planes flown by the "Brothers to
the Rescue" organization, which dropped
pro-democracy leaflets in Cuba and
helped Cuban migrants seeking to reach
U.S. shores. All five are hailed as
heroes in Cuba. |
|
FORMER DICTATOR FIDEL CASTRO "Amused" by
speculations about his death
havana, cuba--Former
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said
he’s “amused” that there are people
speculating about his death, as if for
him “dying would be bad news,” and
ridiculed the “importance” the world
gives him, according to a voice
recording aired on Venezuelan state
television. Castro also said that he
stopped writing his “Reflections” two
months ago because he doesn’t like to
“waste time” and is working on more
“important” and “useful” things. He also
said that he is “serene” and “happy.”
Fidel spoke of these and other matters
with Venezuelan TV talk-show host Mario
Silva at a meeting that, according to
the pundit, took place Sept. 6 in
Havana, and of which he has broadcast
the audio and photos showing the Cuban
leader sitting, dining and talking with
him. “I’m amused by these people and
their speculations, as if for me dying
would be bad news,” Castro said.
 
Moments before, he joked in response to
a comment by Silva about rumors that he
might have suffered a stroke. “You don’t
say! Nobody told me about it,” he said
after asking himself “You mean I’ve
become that important?” “They give me
too much importance,” he said. His words
were a response to rumors doing the
rounds last week about the Cuban
leader’s health, sparked by the fact
that he has written none of his
“Reflections” articles for more than two
months and has not been seen in public
since April. “I wrote quite a lot and
I’m thinking of writing again, but now
I’m working on things that seem very
important to me, on things that are
interesting because they will benefit
people, things that will be useful. I
don’t like to waste time,” he said.
He said that even though he likes to write and analyze, he
thinks that right now he should “work,
think about ideas in depth that can be
useful to many people” and to nations,
but gave no further details. During the
conversation, Castro spoke of the world
economic crisis, the problems of racial
integration in the United States, of the
literacy campaign in Venezuela and some
of his experiences during the Cuban
Revolution. “I’m serene and happy to
have been able to talk with you,” the
Cuban told Silva. The last public
appearance of Castro, 85, was in April
at a meeting of the Cuban Communist
Party. Rumors about the Cuban leader’s
health have customarily circulated every
time he has kept silent for a time or no
new photos of him have appeared. |
|
venezuelan dictator hugo chavez laughs
off us allegations of corruption in his
government
caracas,
venezuela--Venezuelan
dictator Hugo Chavez has
condemned as laughable a US government
decision to blacklist four of his allies
for allegedly aiding Colombian rebels.
He challenged Washington to present
proof and said he is starting his own
list of international rogues that would
include some US politicians and Nato
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
The US Treasury Department on Thursday
accused a Venezuelan general, an
intelligence official and two other
political allies of Chavez of providing
arms, security and training to
Colombia's main rebel group.
 
"The list the Treasury Department has
released is something to laugh at,"
Chavez said in a televised appearance at
the presidential palace. "I challenge
President (Barack) Obama to present
evidence of that infamy." Chavez said
he defends "the honour of the four
countrymen unfairly accused in that
list". Those named by the US included
congressman Freddy Bernal, General
Cliver Alcala Cordones, intelligence
official Ramon Isidro Madriz Moreno and
Amilcar Figueroa, who has represented
Venezuela in the multi-national advisory
body the Latin American Parliament.
The US agency's Office of Foreign Assets Control said the
four had closely collaborated with the
leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or Farc, supporting the rebel
group's "narcotics and arms trafficking
activities". The Venezuelans were added
to US Foreign Narcotics Kingpins list,
freezing any assets they might have in
the US and barring Americans from doing
business with them. "I also have my
list, the Chavez list. Sanction Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen," he said, referring to the
Republican congresswoman from Florida
who is a staunch critic of his
government, Otto Reich, ex ubsecretarY
of State for Latin America U.S., and
Anders Fog Rasmussen, the secretary
general of NATO. On the other hand, the
ALBA countries signed a statement bcking
Venezuela and rejecting the inclusion of
the four Venezuelan nationals in the
U.S. blacklist. |
|
some 405 venezuelan opposition leaders
banned by the comptroller GENERAL
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--The
issue of the political bans meted out by
the Comptroller General Office to any
Venezuelan citizen is in the
spotlight again. The Inter-American
Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court) is
expected to announce this week its
ruling on the petition filed by former
mayor of Chacao municipality Leopoldo
López. The Venezuelan politician
requested the IACHR Court to reverse his
political disqualification, which
prevents him from running for public
office until 2014; and to order the
Venezuelan State to amend the relevant
legislation, so that only a judge can
prevent someone from being elected.
 
The decision is not only awaited by
López, who is the national coordinator
of opposition Voluntad Popular party,
but also by more than 400 Venezuelans
who can not work in the public
administration, because the Comptroller
General Office, which is the body
responsible for ensuring the proper
management of public funds, views them
as a threat to the national treasury.
According to the Comptroller General
Office's web page, there are 405
Venezuelan citizens who are politically
disqualified; among them the former
governors of the states of Guárico,
Miranda, and Amazonas, Eduardo Manuitt,
Arnaldo Arocha and Bernabé Gutiérrez,
respectively.
According to the website, other 812 banned people have
already complied with their sanctions,
and therefore they may occupy any public
office. The late comptroller and other
officials have defended the use of this
measure, arguing that it serves to
combat corruption and have held that
other than disabling it in the
Constitution, in Articles 64 and 65, and
that can only be imposed by a judge,
does not limit all political rights of a
citizen. It is noteworthy that among
those sentenced are not included those
involved in the case related to Pdval,
which was revealed by the proper
Comptroller. |
|
former governor bill richardson says he
will not leave cuba until he is allowed
to see alan gross
havana, cuba--Alan
Gross is serving 15 years for bringing
internet equipment into Cuba. The
US has repeatedly demanded his release.
His case has put a brief warming of
US-Cuban relations, under President
Barack Obama, on hold after decades of
economic and political sanctions. "I
came here in good faith; I've had good
conversations," said Mr Richardson at a
news conference in Havana on Friday.
"This issue is not over, but I just
wanted to send a signal that I'm staying
here in Havana until I get to see Alan
Gross."
 
He said he would be willing to stay for
the Cuban baseball season, which opens
in November. "The legal process has
ended and my hope is that the Cuban
government now considers a humanitarian
release," Richardson said. Alan Gross
was working on a programme aimed at
promoting democracy Mr Gross' family
have asked for his release on
humanitarian grounds, saying he is
unwell and both his wife and daughter
have cancer. Richardson arrived in Cuba
on Wednesday, describing his visit as
private. The Gross family said he was
travelling at the invitation of the
Cuban government.
He made a trip to Havana in August 2010, when he also raised
Mr Gross' case, without winning any
concessions. Former US President Jimmy
Carter also raised the matter during a
visit to Cuba in March. Alan Gross, 62,
was arrested in December 2009 for
distributing illegal communications
equipment in Havana. Last March he was
convicted of crimes against the
communist state. He says he was just
trying to help Cuba's small Jewish
community get access to the internet.
Gross was in Cuba working as a
contractor for the US Agency for
International Development (USAID) on a
secretive programme aimed at promoting
democracy in Cuba. Last month, Cuba's
Supreme Court upheld his sentence,
saying he was part of a programme aimed
at "subverting" and "destabilising" the
communist system. |
|
iraq's s anti-american cleric moqtada
al-sadr says to halt attacks on u.s.
troops IN THE COUNTRY
baghdad,
iraq--Iraq's
fiercely anti-American cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr on Sunday called on his
followers to suspend attacks against
U.S. troops to ensure they leave Iraq by
a year-end deadline. But the Shi'ite
cleric, whose Mehdi Army militia fought
U.S. forces until 2008, warned that if
they did not depart on time, military
operations would resume and be "very
severe." "Because of my eagerness to
accomplish the independence of Iraq and
have the invader forces withdraw from
our holy land, it has become imperative
for me to stop military operations ...
until the invader forces complete their
withdrawal," Sadr said in a statement
read out by his spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi.
"If not, the military operation will
start again and with new approaches, and
it will be very severe."
 
American troops are scheduled to
withdraw fully by December 31, more than
eight years after the 2003 invasion, but
Iraq's leaders are currently negotiating
with the United States on whether to
retain U.S. military trainers beyond
2011. Sadr warned last month that U.S.
military trainers who stayed in Iraq
after the end of the year would be
targets. About 43,000 remaining troops
are due to leave Iraq under a security
agreement between the two countries.
While Sadr's Mehdi Army has for the most
part been demobilized, U.S. officials
say splinter groups have continued to
attack U.S. soldiers.
"We shall soon see whether the Promised Day
Brigade and others affiliated with al-Sadr's
organization continue to conduct attacks
against U.S. forces and the Iraqi
government, or if these are just words
without the deeds to back them up," U.S.
military spokesman Colonel Barry Johnson
said in an emailed response to Sadr's
statement. Although violence in Iraq has
dropped dramatically from the height of
sectarian fighting in 2006-7, bombings
and killings occur daily and Sunni
insurgents and Shi'ite militia are still
capable of carrying out lethal
operations. Attacks against Iraqi and
U.S. security forces have climbed in
recent months. While there were no U.S.
military casualties in August, 14 U.S.
soldiers were killed in June, the
deadliest month for U.S. forces since
2008. |
|
dictator gadhafi spy chief bouzAid dorda
captured libyan rebELs
TRIPOLI, LIBYA--Bouzaid
Dorda, the head of Muammar GadHafi's
external security organization,
has been arrested by anti-Gaddafi
fighters, Reuters witnesses said on
Sunday.
 
Dorda, Gadhafi's foreign intelligence
service chief, will be handed over to
Libya's interim governing council later
on Sunday, an anti-Gadhafi fighter said.
A team of Reuters journalists visited a
house in the capital's Zenata district
where Dorda, a former prime minister,
was held by members of a unit of anti-Gadhafi
fighters who call themselves Brigades of
the Martyr Abdelati Ghaddour.
Dorda was kept in the downstairs living room of a
private house, which was guarded by
about 20 fighters clad in battle
fatigues and armed with assault rifles.
He has been subject to a travel ban
under a United Nations sanctions
resolution passed in February. Dorda is
one of several former government
officials rounded up since Tripoli fell
to anti-Gaddafi forces last month.
Gadhafi's foreign minister, Abdelati
Obeidi, was arrested on August 31 in a
suburb west of Tripoli. |
|
ISRAELI EMBASSY IN CAIRO ATTACKED AND
RANSACKED BY EGYPTIAN MOB
CAIRO, EGYPT--avana, cuba--Israel's
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
on Saturday condemned the overnight
attack on his country's embassy in the
Egyptian capital, saying the incident
inflicted a "severe injury to the fabric
of peace with Israel." The attack on the
Nile-side embassy in Cairo forced all
but one Israeli diplomat to leave the
country and significantly added to the
already growing tensions between the two
Mideast neighbors, seven months after
the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, Israel's closest Arab ally. The
street battles between thousands of
protesters and riot police and army
troops outside the Israeli embassy in
Cairo's neighborhood of Giza lasted into
Saturday's early morning hours. The
police and army troops fired tear gas
and live ammunition into the air to try
and disperse the crowd. Several cars,
police vehicles and trees on the streets
outside the embassy were set ablaze.
 
The violence subsided by around 6 a.m.
Earlier on Friday, hundreds of
protesters had torn down the embassy's
security wall with sledgehammers and
their bare hands. After nightfall,
about 30 protesters stormed into the
embassy and just before midnight,
reached a room on one of the embassy's
lower floors at the top of the building
and began dumping Hebrew-language
documents from the windows, said an
Egyptian security official, speaking on
condition of anonymity because he wasn't
authorized to talk to the media.
Friday's attack came as Egyptians held
their first significant demonstrations
in a month against the country's
military rulers, with thousands
gathering in Cairo and other cities.
Alongside those gatherings, a crowd
massed outside the Israeli Embassy
building. Tensions quickly escalated,
and for the second time in less than a
month, protesters were able to get to
the top of the building and pull down
the Israeli flag, which they replaced it
with the Egyptian flag.
 
Mustafa Sayid said he was among the
group of protesters who broke into the
embassy. He showed a reporter cell phone
video footage he said he recorded inside
of young men ransacking the room. The
group got into the building through a
third-floor window and climbed the
stairs to the embassy. They worked for
hours to break through three doors to
enter the embassy, said the 28-year-old
man. They encountered three Israelis and
beat one of them. It was not until
several hours later that Egyptian police
and military forces firing tear gas
moved in to try to disperse the
protesters from around the embassy. By
that time, the crowds of youths had
swelled to several thousand. Protesters
were cleared from inside the building
but held their ground outside, lobbing
firebombs at the forces and setting fire
to several police vehicles. The military
moved about 20 tanks and troop transport
trucks into the area. State radio
reported that one person died of a heart
attack. In Washington, President Barack
Obama assured Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. was
acting "at all levels" to resolve the
situation. |
|
ISRAEL'S AMBASSADOR TO EGYPT LEAVES THE
COUNTRY AS EMBASSY CLASHES RESUME
CAIRO,
EGYPT--Israel's
ambassador to Egypt, Yitzhak Levanon,
and the staff of that country's mission
left Cairo early Saturday, the
semi-official newspaper Al Ahram
reported online. The envoy and his
family left for Israel aboard a private
plane, added the paper. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recalled
Levanon for urgent consultations after
Egyptian protesters stormed late Friday
part of the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
The move came as violent clashes erupted
anew Saturday between Egyptian police
and demonstrators near embassy,
according to state Egyptian television.
The fighting resumed Saturday when
police tried to restrain at least 150
demonstrators who blocked a nearby road,
according to the report. The protesters
threw stones and empty bottles at the
police, said the television.
 
All diplomatic personnel from the
Israeli Embassy have either left or were
in the process of leaving, the Israeli
official said. But one Israeli diplomat
-- a deputy ambassador -- will stay in a
secure location in Egypt becuse Israel
wants to maintain a diplomatic presence
in the country, he said. U.S. Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to Field
Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of
Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces, late Friday to encourage Cairo
to take steps to protect the Israeli
embassy, a senior U.S. defense official
told CNN. Tantawi pledged to take those
steps, the official said. On Friday,
Egyptian protesters tore down a wall
surrounding the building that houses the
Israeli Embassy and entered its offices.
Once inside, the protesters threw papers
bearing Hebrew from the windows and into
the streets.
 
Initially, police and military forces
took no action as demonstrators
destroyed the wall that had protected
the high-rise building. Israeli Foreign
Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said
about 3,000 protesters had torn apart
the wall. An Egyptian commander at the
embassy said that security personnel had
been ordered to avoid confrontations
with protesters. Police had been
guarding the entrance to the building,
which houses the embassy on the 12th
floor and private dwellings on other
floors. The commander said the wall had
been erected recently to protect the
residents, not the Israeli Embassy.
Protesters cheered the demolition and
chanted for the ouster of Israel's
ambassador. "There was a real concern
for the lives of six embassy personnel
who were trapped inside the embassy
during the course of the attack," the
Israeli official said. The six Israelis
were able to escape after an Egyptian
military operation and arrived in Israel
on Saturday, officials said. |
|
VENEZUELAN DICTATOR HUGO CHAVEZ LABELS
US SANCTIONS AS AN ACT OF AGGRESSION
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA --Venezuelan
dictator Hugo Chavez "strongly"
rejected the sanctions that the Office
of Foreign Assets Control, US Department
of the Treasury, imposed on four
Venezuelan officials who were included
in the Specially Designated Nationals
and Blocked Persons List. The Venezuelan
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicolás
Maduro, also said that “this new action
is part of the permanent aggressions
against the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela." In an official statement,
the Ministry expressed unease over the
announcement, describing it as another
expression of "the imperial and arrogant
character though which these
institutions act against our countries."
"Such actions are part of the permanent
defamatory campaigns orchestrated in the
US imperial power centers aimed at
nourishing hostile policies against our
homeland," the communiqué added.
 
Deputy for ruling Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV) Freddy Bernal lamented
that he was blacklisted by the US
Department of the Treasury together with
three other Venezuelan government
officials for presumed links to drug
traffic and terrorism. "If they purport
to intimidate me with their gringo list,
now more than ever, knee on the ground
for (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chávez
and the revolution!" he posted on his
Twitter account @FreddyBernal.
Maduro labeled on Thursday as abusive the claims from
the US Department of the Treasury
against Venezuelan government officials,
namely: congressman Freddy Bernal;
General Clíver Alcalá; former alternate
speaker of the Latin Parliament (Parlatino)
Amílcar Figueroa, and intelligence
officer Ramón Madriz. Maduro did not
rule out the possibility of sending over
the next few hours a note of protest to
the White House for the remarks made by
the US Department of the Treasury, and
regretted the agency's attempts at
turning into "sort of world police to
classify decent citizens of our
country," he said, as quoted by AVN.
The US government's statements were
made on Thursday. According to
Washington, the Venezuelan officials are
"the support" of insurgent groups, such
as the Colombian Revolutionary Armed
Forces (FARC). For this reason,
"sanctions" were anticipated.
|
|
former governor bill richardson said
cuba denIes meeting with ALAN GROSS
havana,
cuba--Former
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
said Thursday that Cuban officials
denied his request to meet with a U.S.
government subcontractor who has been
jailed since 2009, dashing hopes that
the man might be freed soon. In an
exclusive interview with The Associated
Press, Richardson repeatedly described
62-year-old Alan Gross as an "American
hostage." He said he would not leave the
island until he was allowed to see the
Maryland native at a military hospital
where he is being held. "My mission here
as a private citizen is to secure the
release of Alan Gross, an American
hostage," Richardson said. "I've been
informed by the Cuban government that I
would not be allowed to see Alan Gross
during my visit."
Richardson
said that he had been scheduled to
depart Saturday, but that he told Cuban
officials he would not leave until he
was granted a meeting with Gross. "I
promised his wife, Judy, that I would
see him," the governor said. There was
no immediate comment from Cuba's
government. The news, delivered by a
somber Richardson at the end of a long
day of meetings with Cuban officials,
was sure to come as a shock to those who
had felt certain Gross' long ordeal was
nearing an end. Gross' lawyer said
Wednesday that Richardson came to Havana
at the invitation of the Cuban
government, and earlier Thursday a
leading Cuban official praised the
governor and described Gross as a
"victim."
The case has chilled efforts to
improve ties between Washington and
Havana, and the failure of Richardson's
visit to win his release would likely
set things back even further.
Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations, has a working
relationship with Cuba's leaders and a
long history of winning the release of
prisoners in Cuba and elsewhere. His
description of Gross as a hostage —
rather than a prisoner — was sure to
rankle Cuban leaders. Gross was arrested
in December 2009 while on a USAID-funded
democracy building program. A Cuban
court convicted him in March of crimes
against the state for illegally bringing
in communications equipment and
sentenced him to 15 years in jail, a
decision that was upheld last month by
the country's Supreme Court. |
|
chinESE paper WARNS u.s. not to play
with fire over taiwan
beijing,
china--China's
top official newspaper warned on Friday
that "madmen" on Capitol Hill who
want the United States to sell advanced
weapons to Taiwan were playing with fire
and could pay a "disastrous price," as
the Obama administration nears a
decision on a sale. The People's Daily,
the main paper of China's ruling
Communist Party, said the United States
should excise the "cancer" of the law
which authorizes Washington's sale of
weapons to the self-ruled island of
Taiwan that China considers its own
territory. Taiwan's biggest ally and
arms supplier, the United States is
committed under a 1979 law to supply it
with the weapons it needs to maintain a
"sufficient self-defense capability."
Taiwan hopes to buy 66 late-model F-16
aircraft from the United States, a sale
potentially valued at more than $8
billion and intended to phase out its
remaining F-5 fighters.
 
The arms sale debate has been building
steam in the United States, with U.S.
Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from
Texas, where Lockheed Martin Corp
manufactures the F-16, saying killing
the sale would cost valuable U.S. jobs.
"At present, some madmen on Capitol Hill
are making an uproar about consolidating
and expanding this cancer," the People's
Daily said in a commentary, adding these
politicians were "wildly arrogant." "If
these crazy ideas come to fruition, what
kind of predicament will Sino-U.S.
relations find themselves in?" the paper
wrote. The commentary appeared under a
pen name "Zhong Sheng," a name
suggesting the meaning the "voice of
China," which is sometimes used to
reflect higher-level opinion. While
China and the United States have sparred
over everything from trade, Tibet and
the internet over the past few years,
ties have improved drastically following
President Hu Jintao's visit to the
United States in January.
 
Relations between the world's two
largest economies have "not easily
reached the point where they are today,
and need to be cherished and protected
to the greatest extent," the commentary
wrote. "Some people want to turn back
the tide of history, but they must be
clear about the disastrous price they
will have to pay," it added. "A word of
advice for those muddleheaded
congressmen: don't go too far, don't
play with fire." U.S. President Barack
Obama is due by October 1 to say what,
if anything, his administration plans to
do to boost Taiwan's aging air force.
Beijing strongly opposes the potential
arms sale to the island it deems an
illegitimate breakaway province. But
Taiwan says it needs the jets to counter
China's growing military strength. The
request for the new F-16s has been
pending informally since 2006. Taiwan in
2009 also requested an upgrade to its
146 old F-16 A/B models. Then-President
George H.W. Bush sold Taiwan its first
F-16s in 1992. Analysts have told
Reuters a full package of new jets is
unlikely to be approved by the Obama
administration, but that it may instead
offer Taiwan an upgrade on existing
F-16A/B jets worth up to $4.2 billion. |
|
interpol issues arrest warrant for
former dictator gadhafi
lyon, france--Interpol
has issued an arrest warrant for former
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on
charges that he has committed crimes
against humanity. The wanted poster
issued by Interpol for Libya's Moammar
Gadhafi is shown here by CAMCO. In a
statement released Friday, Interpol says
it issued a "red notice" for the arrest
of Mr. Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam
and former intelligence chief Abdullah
al-Senussi, asking all 188 member
countries to help locate and apprehend
them. Interpol Secretary-General Ronald
Noble called Gadhafi a "fugitive," and
said the arrest warrant will help
restrict his ability to cross
international borders. Gadhafi, whose
whereabouts are unknown, has been on the
run since anti-regime fighters swept
into the capital of Tripoli on August
21.
 
On Thursday, a Syrian television station
aired an audio message purportedly from
Mr. Gadhafi, who rejected reports he may
have fled the country for neighboring
Niger. Gadhafi said his forces are still
able to carry out attacks against
National Transitional Council fighters,
who he called "rats, germs and
scumbags." Meanwhile, the head of
Libya's provisional government says the
battle for liberation is not yet
finished, and that the country must be
unified in order to rebuild after six
months of civil war. Speaking in his
first major address from the capital
Tripoli on Thursday, National
Transitional Council leader Mahmoud
Jibril said there are still some cities
in Libya's south in the hands of forces
loyal to ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi.
He says a new government can only be
formed once fighting ends and the entire
country is "liberated."
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said
Thursday the transition process in Libya
cannot move backwards, and the United
Nations will continue to help the Libyan
people reach their aspirations of human
rights and democracy. NATO said Thursday
its warplanes bombed five armored
vehicles near Mr. Gadhafi's hometown,
Sirte, as well as 18 surface-to-air
missile systems around the town of
Waddan, 300 kilometers to the south.
Near Bani Walid, a desert town held by
Gadhafi supporters, negotiators from
Libya's National Transitional Council
say they are committed to avoiding
bloodshed as they press tribal elders
tied to the former leader to surrender. |
|
u.s. officials confirm 'credible but
unconfirmed' 9-11 threat
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--U.S.
officials said Thursday evening they
have "specific, credible but
unconfirmed" information about a
threat against the United States
coinciding with the 10th anniversary of
the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Officials declined to disclose details
of the threat, including any suspected
method of attack or possible targets,
although one source said the cities of
New York and Washington were
specifically mentioned as possible
targets. Officials said they were taking
the threat seriously, while evidently
trying to temper the news by saying such
threats are commonplace during key
events. "It's accurate that there is
specific, credible but unconfirmed
threat information," said Matthew
Chandler, spokesman for the Department
of Homeland Security.
 
"As we always do before important dates
like the anniversary of 9/11, we will
undoubtedly get more reporting in the
coming days. Sometimes this reporting is
credible and warrants intense focus,
other times it lacks credibility and is
highly unlikely to be reflective of real
plots under way. "Regardless, we take
all threat reporting seriously, and we
have taken, and will continue to take,
all steps necessary to mitigate any
threats that arise. We continue to ask
the American people to remain vigilant
as we head into the weekend," Chandler
said in a prepared statement. A
government official told CNN that
members of Congress were briefed by
White House and intelligence officials
Thursday about the threat.
The lawmakers were told that officials are "strongly
concerned" and "are not taking anything
for granted," the source told CNN.
Earlier Thursday, Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano told
reporters that intelligence officials
have picked up "lots of chatter" on
jihadi websites and elsewhere about the
impending 10th anniversary of the
September 11 terrorist attacks, but
nothing yet that warranted issuing a
threat advisory. Nonetheless, the
department will be at a heightened level
of readiness as the nation commemorates
the anniversary, "staffing up" the
Federal Air Marshals Service and other
agencies. Napolitano said it is not
uncommon to see increased chatter before
major events. "We know it's an iconic
day to al Qaeda, in part because of what
was found at the (Osama bin Laden)
compound. So we are preparing
accordingly," she said. "I don't want to
give those (details) out because I don't
want to tell the bad guys exactly what
we're doing," Napolitano said. "But I
think it's fair to say that in addition
to asking citizens to be vigilant and so
forth, that we have ourselves leaned
forward and have made sure that we are
doing all that we can from the DHS
perspective." |
|
former governor bill richardson in cuba
to seek alan gross freedom
HAVANA,
CUBA--Former
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
flew to Cuba on Wednesday at the
invitation of the Raúl Castro
government, apparently to discuss the
release of a U.S. government
subcontractor jailed in Havana for 22
months. The case of Alan P. Gross has
become a key stumbling block in efforts
to improve U.S.-Cuba relations, with the
Obama administration saying repeatedly
that no major changes can take place
until he returns home. Gross’s
Washington lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, issued
a statement Wednesday on behalf of the
family saying, “We are pleased that the
Cuban government invited Governor
Richardson to Havana.” Although
Richardson and former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter have tried unsuccessfully
in the past to win Gross’s freedom,
Kahn’s mention of the invitation, if
true, could indicate that Castro is
ready to move on the case.
 
The Kahn statement added that the family
welcomes “any and all dialogue that
ultimately will result in Alan’s
release. We are grateful to Governor
Richardson for his continued efforts.”
“We hope that the Governor and Cuban
authorities are able to find common
ground that will allow us to be reunited
as a family before the Jewish High Holy
Days,” the statement concluded.
Richardson, who has made at least one
previous trip to the island in an
attempt to win Gross’s release, arrived
in Cuba on Wednesday but could not be
reached immediately for comment. State
Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland
said U.S. officials “are aware of
Governor Richardson’s trip to Cuba and
have been in contact with him. While
Governor Richardson is traveling as a
private citizen, we certainly support
his efforts to obtain Alan Gross’s
release.”
Gross, a 62-year-old international development
specialist from Potomac, Md., was
arrested Dec. 3, 2009 in Havana after
delivering a satellite telephone to
Cuba’s tiny Jewish community so that it
could have direct access to the
Internet. He was convicted in March of
this year on state security charges of
violating Cuba’s sovereignty, and was
sentenced to 15 years in prison, which
he has been serving in a military
hospital. The island’s Supreme Court
rejected his appeal last month. Gross
was in Havana as part of a $20 million
package of U.S. Agency for International
Development programs designed to help
Cuban civil society groups develop
outside the controls of the
communist-run government. Cuba’s
government views the USAID programs as
subversive efforts to topple it, and has
outlawed any cooperation with them.
Castro has said that he would be willing
to swap Gross for five convicted Cuban
spies held in U.S. prisons. But the
Obama administration has repeated that
Gross is not a spy and that there will
be no swap. One of the Cuban spies, René
González, is set to complete the prison
part of his sentence on Oct. 7. He will
be released from a prison in northern
Florida, but technically will have to
serve a period on parole, though he may
seek permission to return to Cuba. |
|
MADRID SAYS CUBA WRONG TO BOOT SPANISH
JOURNALIST
MADRID, SPAIN--Spain’s
foreign minister said Wednesday
that Cuba made a “great mistake” in
declining to renew the work permit of a
Spanish journalist who reported from the
island for 20 years.
 
Trinidad Jimenez said the decision was
unfair to Mauricio Vicent, Havana
correspondent for Madrid daily El Pais
and the Cadena Ser radio network, and
“liable to criticism from the
perspective of the right to
information.” “I think he is a
magnificent journalist and he has done
an excellent job as a correspondent. His
reports have helped us a great deal in
getting close to the political and
social reality of the country,” the
minister told Onda Cero radio.
Cuban authorities accused Vicent of a lack of
journalistic ethics and objectivity.
Jimenez, however, described Vicent as a
reporter who “has always tried to
maintain critical stances – when he
thought he should – with the maximum
respect.” “Criticism does not mean the
reporting is biased,” the foreign
minister said. The minister said that
both she and the Spanish Embassy in
Havana tried to dissuade the Cuban
government from booting Vicent, “but,
regrettably, it was a firm decision.”
|
|
RETIRED GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS SWORN IN
AS CIA DIRECTOR
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Retired
Gen. David Petraeus was sworn in
by Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday
as the director of the CIA at a small
ceremony amid concerns in the
administration that he could be a loose
cannon, according to a report. White
House officials who disagreed with
Petraeus on a counterinsurgency troop
surge in Afghanistan are concerned that
the former four-star general will use
his influence with the media and Capitol
Hill to pursue policies at odds with
their goals, the Associated Press said.
“Silent is what some in the White House
want the well-connected former four-star
general to remain,” the AP wrote, citing
three former and current U.S. officials.
 
In addition, CIA officials are concerned
that their analyses will be colored by
Petraeus’ preferences. The former
general has publicly acknowledged
disagreements with CIA analysis of
conditions in Afghanistan. Analysts have
expressed worry that they may be forced
to match their new boss’ point of view,
a current U.S. official told the
Associated Press. The AP wrote in the
early morning hours that the White House
was holding a low-profile private
swearing-in ceremony. The VP’s schedule
was released less than an hour before
the event Tuesday morning – the first
time it was revealed that Biden would
preside over the swearing-in. In his
remarks, Petraeus thanked President
Barack Obama for his “confidence in an
old soldier.” Biden, who has publicly
disagreed with Petraeus in the past,
said that Petraeus has “led and trained
the 9/11 generation to become the
greatest group of warriors this country
has ever seen.”
Petraeus, who retired last week after 37 years in the
military, was confirmed as CIA chief by
a resounding vote of 94-0 in the Senate.
His influence was seen when he helped to
persuade Obama to increase troops in
Afghanistan - similar to Petraeus’
successful counterinsurgency strategy in
Iraq - over the doubts of other
advisors, such Biden. Despite fears that
Petraeus’ views will flow counter to
those of some top White House officials,
his access is unlikely to be hindered.
Petraeus has been promised weekly face
time with Obama to address concerns.
Recent CIA analysis has predicted a
continued stalemate in fighting with the
Taliban, something that intelligence
officials say has invigorated the Afghan
group – especially considering that more
U.S. troops are planning to leave within
the next year. |
|
LIBYAN REBELS SAY FORMER DICTATOR
GADHAFI IS SURROUNDED
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA--
Libya's former rebels have ousted
dictator Muammar QadHafi surrounded,
and it is only a matter of time until he
is captured or killed, a top, a
spokesman for Tripoli's new military
council said Wednesday. Anis Sharif
would not say where Qadhafi had been
found, but said he was still in Libya
and had been tracked using high
technology and human intelligence.
Qadhafi is trapped in a 40-mile- (60
kilometer-) radius area surrounded by
rebels, he said. "He can't get out,"
said Sharif, who added the former rebels
are preparing to either detain him or
kill him. Locating Qadhafi would help
seal the new rulers' hold on the
country. The announcement after convoys
of Qadhafi loyalists, including his
security chief, fled across the Sahara
into Niger in a move that Libya's former
rebels hoped could help lead to the
surrender of his last strongholds.
 
Some former rebels depicted the flight
to Niger as a major exodus of Qadhafi's
most hardcore backers. But confirmed
information on the number and identity
of those leaving was scarce given the
vast swath of desert -- over 1,000 miles
(1,600 kilometers) -- between populated
areas on the two sides of the border. In
Niger's capital, Niamey, Massoudou
Hassoumi, a spokesman for the president
of the landlocked African nation which
shares a border with Libya, said that
Qadhafi's security chief had crossed the
desert into Niger on Monday accompanied
by a major Tuareg rebel. The government
of Niger dispatched a military convoy to
escort Mansour Dao, the former commander
of Libya's Revolutionary Guards who is a
cousin of Qaddafi as well as a member of
his inner circle, to Niamey.
Dao is the only senior Libyan figure to have crossed into
Niger, said Hassoumi, who denied reports
that Qadhafi or any member of his
immediate family were in the convoy.
Hassoumi said the group of nine people
also included several pro-Qadhafi
businessmen, as well as Agaly ag Alambo,
a Tuareg rebel leader from Niger who led
a failed uprising in the country's north
before crossing into Libya, where he was
believed to be fighting for Qadhafi.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman
Victoria Nuland told reporters, "We
don't have any evidence that Qadhafi is
anywhere but in Libya at the moment." |
|
dictator chavez urges his allies to
counterattack TO SAVE his friend gadhafi
caracas,
venezuela.--Venezuela's
dictatgor Hugo Chávez urged the
BRIC countries (Brazil, India, China,
and Russia) and the Bolivarian Alliance
for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) to
launch a "counterattack" in view of the
"barbaric" international operations
against Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi.
"We have to start a more coordinated
action to counteract this barbaric"
operation, said the Venezuelan president
in a telephone contact with state-run TV
channel VTV. Chávez did not elaborate.
 
Chávez made this proposal to the BRIC
countries as well as to the ALBA
countries because, in his view, they
have expressed a "very firm" position
against the attacks on Libya by the
United States and the "old European
empires." The members of the ALBA have
already supported Chávez's proposal to
mediate in the conflict. "We have to
launch a counterattack. We can not sit
back and do nothing," he said. "We urge
(the international community) to respect
the life of the Libyan people, the life
of Gadhafi. They must stop this
madness," Chávez added. The day before,
Chavez called for resuming the plan
launched in late February for the
creation of an international commission
of countries that could mediate between
the government and rebels Gaddafi in
order to stop the fighting.
In
mid-April, Chavez said that Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked him
to intensify his efforts to keep pushing
through his plan, which, in fact, did
not crystallize into a concrete solution
despite the support of Alba, which
comprises, in addition to Venezuela,
Nicaragua, Cuba , Bolivia, Ecuador,
Dominica, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda.
"Hopefully we have time. If the African
Union were proposing a long-standing
peace deal, but no, they say they will
and will. It is a barbarism, madness,
war without end, no parameters, "the
president stressed. Chavez, who has
backed Gadhafi unconditionally since the
start of international operations, was
on Monday "confident" that his friend
was "far from any thought of leaving
Libya," and called him to resist "with
the forces that remain. However, it is
not known how big are the forces from
the military and popular point of view.
" "We stand for respecting the life of
the Libyan people, of Kadafi, to stop
this madness," he emphatically said. |
|
ELIZARDO SANCHEZ SLAMS ARREST,
REPRESSION
HAVANA,
CUBA--The
dissident Cuban Commission for Human
Rights and National Reconciliation
said Tuesday that at least 28
opposition members have been arrested
over the last five weeks. Commission
spokesman Elizardo Sanchez said in a
communique that such repression was
carried out last Sunday at the home of
dissident Marino Antomachit in the
eastern town of Palma Soriano, where a
vigil was being held protesting "several
acts of police brutality."
  Interior Ministry troops in full riot gear
"mistreated some 30 people gathered
there and destroyed several mattresses,
damaged the furnishings badly and seized
a computer, cameras, cell phones,
printed matter and other work
materials," Sanchez said. "That has been
the atmosphere here since Friday and
there are still 28 dissidents under
arrest whose whereabouts are unknown,"
he told Efe. The statement contrasts
with a statement by the Catholic Church
on Monday, according to which the
authorities denied having ordered acts
of harassment against the Ladies in
White, ex-wives of political prisoners
and other dissidents, recorded in recent
weeks in the east, and denounced the
opposition.
"The Cuban government, in these situations, has
informed the Church that the national
decision-making center has given any
order to attack these people," said the
note by the Archbishop of Havana. The
CCDHRN, headed by Elizardo Sanchez,
said: "In August 2011, the level of
police violence against peaceful
dissidents was the highest in recent
years," 243 -184 temporary detention in
August 2010 - and nine acts of
harassment, especially in the eastern
province of Santiago de Cuba. He also
said that what occurred in Palma Soriano
has been "in crescendo" in terms of the
number of protesters and the "intensity
of the repression." "It was a real act
of vandalism," he said. Sanchez said
that "the measure is pretty drastic,"
blamed the government of Gen. Raul
Castro for the incidents and said that
the purpose of his complaint is "to win
support from the community and
international organizations." |
|
LIBYAN CONVOYS ARRIVES IN NIAMEY, NIGER
NIAMEY,
NIGER--Two
Libyan convoys have passed through Niger
this week, officials there said Tuesday
-- fueling renewed speculation
about the whereabouts of ousted Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi. One convoy was
on its way Tuesday to Niger's capital,
Niamey, said a Nigerien military
captain. Another convoy reached Niamey
a day earlier, a Nigerien Interior
Ministry official said. That convoy
included six high-ranking Libyan
officials close to Gadhafi, including
Gen. Mansour Daw, the source said. Daw
is said to be the head of the
Revolutionary Guard and is responsible
for the security of Gadhafi and his
family. The sources did not want to be
identified because neither is authorized
to speak to the media.
  Abdallah Kenshil, chief negotiator for Libya's National
Transitional Council, said Tuesday a
convoy left the pro-Gadhafi stronghold
of Bani Walid three days ago. "We
believe that Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was
part of that convoy," Kenshil said,
referring to a Gadhafi son who
vehemently defended his father's regime.
NATO said Tuesday that while it
"continuously receives reports" about
weapons, vehicles and even convoys of
vehicles moving throughout Libya, "we do
not discuss the intelligence and
surveillance information we collect."
"To be clear, our mission is to protect
the civilian population in Libya, not to
track and target thousands of fleeing
former regime leaders, mercenaries,
military commanders and internally
displaced people," a NATO official said
in an e-mailed statement.
Gadhafi's wife, two of his sons and other
relatives fled to Algeria recently,
deepening mistrust between the new
Libyan leadership and its neighbor. But
Algeria said it acted on humanitarian
grounds. Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam
Gadhafi and the former head of military
intelligence, Abdullah Al-Senussi, face
charges in the International Criminal
Court at The Hague for crimes against
humanity related to the regime's violent
crackdown against anti-government
protesters. Niger is a signatory to the
Rome Statute, meaning it recognizes the
international court's authority and,
under its statutes, would be obliged to
turn Gadhafi over to the court.
Neighboring Burkina Faso is a signatory
as well. The U.S. State Department was
asked last week about Burkina Faso being
among the countries that have offered
potential asylum to Gadhafi. State
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland
said "the first priority is for Gadhafi
to renounce power, and the second
priority is to bring him to justice."
She added that it's up to the Libyan
people how to achieve those goals, "as
long as it meets international
standards." |
|
U.S. DELEGATES HEAD TO CUBA TO DISCUSS
DEEPWATER OIL EXPLORATIONS
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--Oil
spill commission co-chief Bill Reilly is
heading to Cuba next week to help
evaluate that country’s plans for
developing its oil resources, Dow
Jones Newswires has learned. The trip
represents an important development in a
thorny situation that has U.S. lawmakers
raising concerns about potential oil
spills and oil experts pressing the
Obama administration to grant exemptions
under the decades-long embargo. The
trip, which will involve a delegation of
U.S. oil-drilling experts and
environmentalists, coincides with Cuba’s
effort to develop its offshore oil
resources as a way to wean itself off
imports from Venezuela. U.S. officials
believe Cuba’s waters could contain more
than 5 billion barrels of undiscovered
oil.
  Cuba’s efforts to tap its offshore oil will get off the
ground later this year, when a
consortium led by Spanish company Repsol
YPF S.A. (REPYY, REP.MC) is expected to
begin drilling a well in more than 5,500
feet of water off the country’s northern
coast. If Repsol finds oil, it could
touch off a quick-moving race to set up
production in Cuban waters. The
delegation to Cuba, involving the
International Association of Drilling
Contractors and the Environmental
Defense Fund, is on a fact-finding
mission to determine the country’s
long-term plans for pursuing its oil
resources and identify steps to ensure
safety and environmental protection.
They’re scheduled to depart Monday.
The process of oil drilling in thousands of feet of
water is “inherently risky,” said Daniel
Whittle, Cuba program director at the
Environmental Defense Fund and a member
of the delegation. “We believe it’s
imperative that if and when Cuba drills,
they get it right.” Reilly, as co-head
of President Barack Obama’s oil-spill
commission, helped to draft a report
earlier this year that recommended U.S.
officials work with Cuba and Mexico to
develop shared standards for drilling in
the Gulf. The oil-spill commission
ceased operations in March after
completing its work. Cuba’s effort to
promote drilling in its waters is
presenting a thorny situation for U.S.
lawmakers, regulators and companies.
Among the loudest critics of Cuba’s
plans are Gulf Coast lawmakers who are
raising questions about the country’s
ability to respond to oil spills and the
risks of crude oil washing on U.S.
shores. Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida
Republican whose district faces the Gulf
of Mexico, introduced a bill earlier
this year to allow the Interior
Secretary to deny U.S. oil exploration
and development leases to companies that
do business with Cuba. |
|
LIBYAN FIGHTERS SURROUND GADHAFI
STRONGHOLD
TARHOUNA,
LIBYA--Reinforcements
for Libyan provisional authority
fighters Monday headed towards
one of last remaining strongholds of
ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi. There are
reports that negotiations aimed at
persuading Gadhafi loyalists to
peacefully surrender the desert town of
Bani Walid broke down on Monday. But
there is confusion about what lies
ahead: local authority commanders speak
of deadlines both short and long, some
passing without notice.
 
Thousands of provisional authority
fighters sit just outside Bani Walid,
about 170 kilometers southeast of the
capital, Tripoli, as representatives for
pro- and anti-Gadhafi forces try to
conduct on and off discussions to end
the standoff. For days, Western media
has reported that Mr. Gadhafi and key
advisers could be in or around the town.
A negotiator for the National
Transitional Council Abdullah Kanshil
said talks failed Sunday when pro-Gadhafi
tribal elders rejected an offer to have
medical supplies brought into Bani Walid
on the condition that authority fighters
enter the town. He said they insisted
that anti-Gadhafi fighters enter the
town without their weapons.
Bani Walid is dominated by Libya's largest tribe, the
Warfalla, which helped anchor Mr.
Gadhafi's nearly 42-year rule. However,
many of the anti-Gadhafi fighters
encircling the town are also Warfalla
members. The NTC has extended a deadline
for all opponents to lay down their
weapons until next Saturday. NTC
officials hope they can avoid laying
siege to civilian areas. But some
fighters surrounding Bani Walid say they
have heard conflicting reports that an
attack might come sooner. Meanwhile,
NATO on Monday said it bombed several
targets overnight near Sirte, another
Gadhafi stronghold that has not fallen
to provisional authority fighters. NATO
has carried out airstrikes against pro-Gadhafi
forces since March under a U.N. mandate
to protect civilians. |
|
HEZBOLLAH OPENS TERRORIST BASE IN CUBA
HAVANA,
CUBA--Shiite
terror group to use operations center to
launch attack on Israeli target in South
America, Italian newspaper
reports Hezbollah has established a
center of operations in Cuba in order to
expand its terrorist activity and
facilitate an attack on an Israeli
target in South America, Italian
newspaper Corriere della Sera reported.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the
attack is meant to avenge the death of
Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah. The
organization alleges that Israel was
behind his 2008 assassination.
According to the report, three Hezbollah
members have already arrived in Cuba
with the purpose of establishing a
terrorist cell there.
 
Within a few days, another 23 guerrilla
fighters chosen by Talal Hamia, a
high-ranking Hezbollah official in
charge of clandestine operations, will
join them. The move by the three men is
not temporary. With the approval of
Secretary Nasrallah, Hamia has decided
to open a "base" in Cuba with a generous
budget of more than $1.5 million, which
will be called "The Caribbean Case."
The base in Cuba should not come as a
surprise. For years now, Hezbollah has
been operating on a regular basis in
Latin America with the help of Iran.
The organization has strongholds in Ciudad del Este
(Paraguay) and Brazil, but the extremist
organization has also set up operations
on many border cities and in Venezuela.
They are able to raise funds, travel
freely and have lists of cell groups
they can mobilize to strike an adversary
whenever necessary. With assistance from
Iran, Hezbollah has struck Argentina
twice: the Israeli embassy, and the
headquarters of a Hebrew association.
The Cuban operation will initially
provide logistical support. Hezbollah
members will be able to develop new
contacts, obtain and produce travel
documents for various South American
countries, recruit informants, and
develop relationships with smugglers
that move merchandise and are involved
in human trafficking. |
|
CHINA CONFIRMS RECENT VISIT FROM GADHAFI
REPRESENTATIVES TO BUY WEAPONS
BEIJING,
CHINA--Representatives
of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi
visited Beijing in July seeking to buy
arms, though no contracts were
signed and no weapons were shipped, the
Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday.
Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu confirmed
that Qadhafi's officials met with
representatives from Chinese companies,
but gave no details about the
discussions. She said China strictly
adheres to a United Nations ban on
supplying arms to the toppled regime and
backed the role of the UN in a
post-conflict Libya. "Chinese companies
have not provided military products to
Libya in any direct or indirect form,"
Jiang said at a daily briefing.
 
Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail
reported last week that Qadhafi's
officials negotiated to buy weapons and
ammunition from Chinese arms makers
China Northern Industries Corporation,
China Precision Machinery Import and
Export Company, and China Xinxing Import
and Export Company. Representatives of
the companies either could not be
contacted or said no spokesman was
available to speak with the media. The
fact that meetings were even held with
Qaddafi's representatives could deliver
a further blow to Beijing's relations
with the new government, and reinforce
the belief that China may have been
trying to play both sides of the
conflict.
China never endorsed the U.N. resolution authorizing force
against the Qadhafi regime and has yet
to formally recognize the opposition
Transitional National Council as the new
rulers of Libya. During the conflict,
China and Russia both questioned whether
the supplying of weapons to rebels
breached the terms of the U.N. ban.
China has also been accused of holding
up the release of frozen Libyan funds
held overseas, allegedly in order to
first guarantee the safety of billions
of dollars in Chinese investments in
Libya. Jiang said China had no problem
in principle with releasing the funds,
but wanted to ensure there was adequate
supervision over their use. |
|
COMMUNIST CUBA REVOKES ACCREDITATION OF
A JOURNALIST WORKING FOR THE SPANISH
PAPER "EL PAIS" AND CADENA SER
HAVANA,
CUBA--One
of Spain's largest media groups says
Cuba has revoked the accreditation of
its longtime correspondent on the
Caribbean island for alleged bias and
negative reporting, the latest in
a series of steps by the communist
government targeting foreign journalists
and news organizations. El Pais said
Sunday that 47-year-old Mauricio Vicent
has reported from Cuba for the newspaper
El Pais and the radio network Cadena SER
- both part of Grupo Prisa - for 20
years. He is married to a Cuban woman
and has children born on the island. It
was not clear whether the revocation of
his accreditation meant Vicent would
have to leave the country, or if he was
just barred from reporting. Cuba's
international press center informed
Vicent his permit was withdrawn
"irrevocably," according to El Pais.
 
Several phone calls to Vicent went
unanswered Sunday, and Cuba's government
did not immediately respond to requests
for comment. El Pais said Vicent's work
was an example of professionalism,
impartiality and balance, and that he
won Spain's 1998 International Press
Club award for best work. Several
correspondents based on the island have
not had their press credentials renewed
in recent months, and some have left.
Cuba's state-run media often accuse the
foreign press of being biased, and the
country has kept up an unusually strong
stream of criticism this year. State-run
media most recently have accused the
foreign press of misunderstanding the
country's economic changes because they
see them through a capitalist prism.
In February, the Communist Party newspaper Granma carried an
article denouncing The Wall Street
Journal for an editorial that drew
parallels between Cuba and Egypt, where
a popular uprising forced former
President Hosni Mubarak to step down.
The editorial was published days after
Cuban media lashed out at CNN's
Spanish-language channel for reporting
that an opposition demonstration was
going to take place in Havana. The
protest never occurred. Cuban state
cable TV providers in January removed
CNN's Spanish service from a package of
channels provided mostly to hotels,
foreign companies and diplomats on the
island, though no reason was given. Then
in April, a Cuban state-television
channel accused a former bureau chief
for the Reuters news agency of helping
arrange a meeting between an undercover
Cuban agent and a U.S. diplomat who the
program described as a CIA operative.
Reuters vehemently denied the
accusation. |
|
IRAN LINKS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TO GRID
TEHRAN,
IRAN--long
suspected of hiding a clandestine
nuclear weapons program behind its
civilian nuclear power program --
announced Sunday that it had connected
its nuclear power plant in Bushehr to
the power grid for a test run. An
Iranian state radio report quotes
Mohammad Ahmadian, Iran's deputy nuclear
chief, as saying the plant began to
generate 60 megawatts of electricity
about midnight.
 
Ahmadian says a ceremony marking the
connection to the power grid will be
held Monday. He expressed hope the plant
would feed the grid at full capacity in
coming months. The power plant has a
capacity of 1,000 megawatt power
generations. Iran built the plant with
Russian help. It was supposed to go
online over the past years but it was
repeatedly postponed. "It is very
important for us to take these final
steps with utmost safety concerns in
mind. We want to have guaranteed
functional operation," Ahmadian said. In
mid-August, Iran's atomic organization
chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani said the
plant was expected to reach "full
capacity of 1,000 megawatts" in late
November or early December.
The Bushehr plant was started up in November 2010, but
repeated technical problems delayed its
operation, leading to the removal of its
fuel in March. Russia blamed the delays
on Iran for forcing its engineers to
work with outdated parts in the
facility, while the latest delay in
March was pinned on internal
wear-and-tear at the plant, AFP
reported. The plant, which was
officially inaugurated to great fanfare,
was started again in early May, with
Iranian media announcing that it would
be connected to the electricity grid in
early July. The construction of the
plant started in the 1970s with the help
of German company Siemens, which quit
the project after the 1979 Islamic
Revolution over concerns about nuclear
proliferation. In 1994, Russia agreed to
complete the plant and provide fuel for
it, with the supply deal committing Iran
to returning the spent fuel, amid
Western concerns over the Islamic
Republic's controversial uranium
enrichment program. |
|
430,000 TURN OUT IN ISRAELI ECONOMIC
PROTESTS
TEL
AVIV, ISRAEL--It
wasn’t the “March of the Million” that
organizers had hoped for, but the
turnout Saturday night of some 430,000
in social protests across Israel meant
it was the biggest demonstration in
Israeli history. Speaking to
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
organizer Itzik Shmuli told the hundreds
of thousands on Tel Aviv’s Kikar
Hamedina, “Mr. Prime Minister, the new
Israelis have a dream and it is simple:
to weave the story of our lives into
Israel. We expect you to let us live in
this country. The new Israelis will not
give up. They demand change and will not
stop until real solutions come.”
 
Nahum Barnea from the daily newspaper
Yedioth Ahronoth summarizes last night’s
anger well: “This protest wave is about
values just as much as it is about
economics. Young men and women, members
of the middle class, saw the direction
taken by Israeli society in the past
number of years and became fed up with
what they saw. On the one hand, they are
buckling under the yoke of the high cost
of living, under the difficulty to be
able to lead the lifestyle they had
expected. On the other hand, they saw
the hedonism, the smugness, the flow of
their tax funds to parasitical sectors,
the distorted set of priorities, which
prefers building settlements over
mending society, and the way in which
the people closest to power got rich
quick. Their Israel was gradually pushed
to the sidelines, was gradually
diminished, and another Israel usurped
it.”
The protests that started July 14 now enter a new stage
of talks and negotiation. There are
calls to take down the tent cities that
sprung up almost two months ago, others
want to keep them and even reinforce
them as winter comes. The protests have
grown in scope over the past three
weeks, and so too has the anger. There
is a deep-seated frustration with the
government that they aren’t holding up
their end of the deal on a range of
social issues. “There is much more anger
now. At first, we were angry about a
moderate situation, and now they’ve
shown us that they aren’t going to let
it be solved,” said Roee Neuman,
organizer of Tel Aviv’s tent city. |
|
SPY FILES IN LIBYA SHOWS DICTATOR
GADHAFI TIES TO CIA, MI-6, OTHERS
LONDON,
ENGLAND--Rights
investigators have uncovered secret
documents in Libya that appear to show
close cooperation between Western
intelligence agencies and the
former Libyan regime, with the CIA even
helping the Gadhafi government abduct
terror suspects in foreign countries.
Human Rights Watch researchers
uncovered the documents Friday in
Tripoli, at an abandoned office once
used by Libya's former spy chief.
Moussa Koussa, a close associate of
Libya's fugitive former leader, headed
the country's intelligence service in
2003-2004 and later served as Moammar
Gadhafi's foreign minister. HRW and
journalists who examined the documents
Friday say it has been impossible to
completely verify their authenticity,
and that none were printed on official
stationery. However, it has been
generally known that Western
intelligence agencies have cooperated
with Libya since 2004, when Gadhafi said
his government would dismantle its
arsenal of so-called weapons of mass
destruction.
 
Reports about the
Central Intelligence Agency's activities
in recent years have suggested that
Libya was involved in the U.S. agency's
secret "rendition" program of detaining,
transporting and interrogating terrorist
suspects in foreign countries, often
places with no connection to the
detainees' suspected operations. Human
Rights Watch said the documents its
investigators examined date back to
2002, detailing communications between
Libya's External Security Organization
and a variety of foreign intelligence
services including the CIA and Britain's
MI-6. News accounts indicate all the
documents were at least three years old.
HRW investigators in Tripoli said that,
overall, the documents show that Western
intelligence agencies' cooperation with
Libya in recent years was much more
extensive than previously thought.
Witnesses said the
files detailed intelligence that Libya
shared, as well as Western intelligence
that was shared with Libya, and there
also were messages involving
surveillance, abduction plans and the
detention of suspects sought either by
Libya or its Western partners. A Human
Rights Watch worker in Tripoli said he
saw what appeared to be the draft text
of a speech the CIA and MI-6 prepared
for Gadhafi, in which he called on all
parties in the Middle East to renounce
unconventional weapons, another term for
weapons of mass destruction. The New
York Times reported from Tripoli that
the speech text prepared by the CIA
"seems intended to depict the Libyan
dictator in a positive light." A
spokeswoman for the CIA, Jennifer
Youngblood, declined to comment on the
specific details reported from Tripoli,
but told reporters: "It can't come as a
surprise that the Central Intelligence
Agency works with foreign government to
help protect our country from terrorism
and other deadly threats." |
|
communist cuba's defense minister dies
havana,
cuba--Gen.
Julio Casas Regueiro, who oversaw
the Cuban military's lucrative economic
enterprises for years before replacing
Raul Castro as defense minister, died
Saturday of heart failure, state
television reported. He was 75. Casas,
who was also a vice president of the
Council of State, Cuba's supreme
governing body, was the most important
figure from the revolution to die since
Juan Almeida Bosque in 2009, and his
death was sure to focus renewed
attention on the fragility of the
island's aging leadership.VState
television announced three days of
national mourning in his honor, and
immediately began playing retrospective
footage of his life. It said that Casas'
body was cremated in accordance with his
wishes, and that his remains would be
placed in the Defense Ministry
headquarters on Havana's Revolution
Plaza for public viewing on Monday.
 
A large procession
of people was expected to turn out. It
was not clear if Raul or Fidel Castro
planned to attend. Casas served under
Raul Castro in the rebel army that
ultimately pushed out the dictatorship
of Fulgencio Batista in early 1959. He
was trained as an accountant, a
profession that served him well in the
Revolutionary Armed Forces, where he ran
the military's financial operations for
two decades. "In the past 50 years I
don't remember ever criticizing comrade
Julio Casas, save that, as we Cubans
say, he's very cheap," Raul joked on
Feb. 24, 2008, after he was elected to
replace his ailing brother Fidel as
president. Among the first things the
younger Castro did in the top job was to
name Casas defense minister, the post
the new leader had held for nearly a
half-century under Fidel. In April,
Casas was also elected a member of the
Communist Party's powerful 15-member
Politburo, which is led by Raul.
Born in eastern
Cuba on Feb. 18, 1936, Casas was an
accountant working in a food warehouse
when he joined the rebel forces. Under
Raul Castro's command in the eastern
Sierra Maestra mountains, Casas fought
numerous battles against Batista's
troops. He received additional military
training in the Soviet Union and fought
in Ethiopia during the years that Cuba
sent troops to support African struggles
for independence. Beginning in 1990,
Casas ran the Defense Ministry's
Business Administration Group, which
includes a host of efficient and
profitable enterprises designed to
generate the hard currency Cuba has
needed to buy critical imports.VCasas'
death is sure to renew questions about
the health of the rest of the Cuban
leadership. Raul Castro turned 80 this
year, and No. 2 Jose Ramon Machado
Ventura is the same age. Fidel Castro,
who has retired from all public roles,
is 85 and has not made a public
appearance since April.
|
|
COLOMBIA - U.S. COCAINE BUST: POLICE
ARRESTED 30 PEOPLE, SEIZED 21 PLANES
BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA--In
a joint U.S.-Colombian operation against
a major trafficker, police
arrested 30 people and seized 21 small
planes that were ferrying cocaine to
Central America, officials announced
Friday. Officials also announced a $2.7
million reward for the Colombian
trafficker Daniel "Loco" Barrera. They
said he was supplying Mexico's Sinaloa
cartel, which ships the cocaine to the
United States. The suspects, who were
arrested in Colombia early Friday, were
mostly pilots and air traffic
controllers, said Colombia's chief
prosecutor, Viviane Morales.
  Several of the suspects were in their 50s and 60s
and had piloted cocaine flights for the
late Medellin cartel kingpin Pablo
Escobar, authorities said. Investigators
said most of the planes were seized this
past week in Guatemala and Honduras,
which have become key transit points for
Mexican drug cartels due to extremely
weak or nonexistant state control.
Barrera's organization was smuggling at
least 10 tons of cocaine a month by
plane to Central America, said
Colombia's police director, Gen. Oscar
Naranjo. The suspects were wanted for
extradition on U.S. indictments handed
up in Miami, whose U.S. attorney,
Wifredo Ferrer, attended the news
conference along with President Juan
Manuel Santos.
U.S. and Colombian authorities said they had been
tracking drug flights for months into
Central America but have little chance
of making arrests there because security
forces in Guatemala and Honduras are
either weak or compromised by organized
crime. "I would say that general
aviation (small planes) as a popular
mode of drug trafficking has come back
into fashion in the past five years,"
the regional head of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration, Jay Bergman,
told The Associated Press. That's partly
because interdiction of
cocaine-smuggling semi-submersibles on
the high seas has been so successful, he
added. Such maritime interdiction
encouraged traffickers to build their
first fully submersible submarines, two
of which have been seized, and to
increasingly turn to small planes.
"They've filled the cocaine pipeline to
Central America, which is causing a lot
of problems," Bergman said. |
|
EUROPEAN UNION STEPS UP SYRIA SANCTIONS
WITH BAN ON OIL IMPORTS
VIENNA,
AUSTRIA--The
EU has stepped up sanctions on Syria by
banning imports of its oil, as
protests again broke out against the
rule of President Bashar al-Assad. The
UK Foreign Office said the European
Union had agreed at official level to
ban imports of Syrian oil into the EU to
increase pressure on the Syrian regime
over its crackdown against
anti-government protest. A spokesperson
said it was hoped the agreement would be
signed off by EU foreign ministers
meeting in Poland on Friday and Saturday
and come into immediate effect. However,
Italy has won a concession allowing it
to fulfil existing contracts until 15
November These latest sanctions are only
from the EU, so the Syrians could find
outlets on other markets. What we are
seeing is an attempt by Western
governments to be seen to be doing
something - to use rhetoric, sanctions,
everything short of military action to
give the impression that they really are
serious about pressing for change in
Syria.
 
There is no real indication such actions
have made President Assad any weaker now
than when the uprising started. But the
protesters have been out on the streets
for nearly six months now and show no
sign whatsoever of stopping. The
president has not got control of the
streets and it is unclear that he will
be able to regain it. This is not really
an EU or regional matter - this is going
to be sorted out within Syria. There are
two very powerful forces; the people on
the streets - mainly from provincial
towns and cities - and the army and
security apparatus. The two have shown
themselves to be pretty evenly matched.
That struggle will continue, and that is
what will determine Syria's future - not
what is said in the region or further
afield in the West. The EU also added
four more Syrian officials and three
Syrian groups to its list of those
affected by an EU travel ban and asset
freeze.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said:
"President Assad is carrying out
massacres in his own country." In Paris
on Thursday, US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton condemned Mr Assad's
"brutality against unarmed citizens",
adding: "The violence must stop and he
needs to step aside." The US has already
banned the import of Syrian oil. UK PM
David Cameron has expressed frustration
that a tough UN resolution on Syria has
not yet been found. He told the BBC on
Friday: "We've been at the vanguard,
arguing for a different approach to
Syria. What [Assad] is doing is
appalling. He's had his chance to
demonstrate he's serious about reform
and he's blown it." Russia, which has a
veto on the Security Council, refuses to
back a resolution imposing an arms
embargo or asset freeze. |
|
TURKEY EXPELS ISRAEL AMBASSADOR OVER
FLOTILLA RAID
ANKARA, TURKEY--Turkey
expelled Israel's ambassador and
said Friday it is cutting military ties
with the country over its refusal to
apologize for last year's raid on a
Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine
people. Turkey's move came before the
anticipated publication Friday of a U.N.
report on violence aboard a Gaza-bound
protest flotilla. The fatalities
included eight Turkish nationals and one
Turkish-American activist. The report,
obtained by The New York Times and
posted on its website, said Israel's
naval blockade of Gaza is a "legitimate
security measure." But it also said
Israel's use of force against the
flotilla was "excessive and
unreasonable," according to the
newspaper.
 
An Israeli official said the report
showed Israel's naval blockade was in
keeping with international law. He spoke
on condition of anonymity because the
report had yet to be officially
released. He said Israel expected it to
be made public by the U.N. later Friday.
Turkey has made an Israeli apology a
condition of improving diplomatic ties.
Israeli officials say the report does
not demand an Israeli apology,
establishing instead that Israel should
express regret and pay reparations.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
said the government was downgrading
diplomatic ties with Israel to the level
of second secretary and that the
ambassador and other high-level
diplomats would leave the capital Ankara
by Wednesday.
He said all military agreements signed between the
former allies were also being suspended.
Other sanctions against its former ally
would include possible naval
restrictions in the eastern
Mediterranean as well as Turkish state
backing for flotilla victims families'
court actions against Israel, Davutoglu
said. "The time has come for Israel to
pay for its stance that sees it above
international laws and disregards human
conscience," Davutoglu said. "The first
and foremost result is that Israel is
going to be devoid of Turkey's
friendship." "As long as the Israeli
government does not take the necessary
steps, there will be no turning back,"
the minister said. |
|
ETA MEMBERS ARRESTED IN VENEZUELA WERE
IN BOAT REGISTERED UNDER SPANISH FLAG
CARACAS,
VENEZUELA--The
three suspected members of the Basque
armed separatist group ETA arrived on
Thursday in Los Roques Island and tried
to enter illegally. Elena Bárcena
Argüelles, Francisco Javier Pérez Lekue
and José Ignacio Etxarte Urbieta came
from Haiti in a Spanish flagged sailboat
named "Silver Clouds" that ran aground
on Los Roques Island, off the Venezuelan
coast, reported sources of the National
Armed Force (FAN).
 
The Venezuelan authorities also arrested
Sadir Allyn, a Haitian citizen, and
Carlos Méndes, a national from Cape
Verde. According to sources of the Coast
Guard Command of the Venezuelan Navy,
the arrested people arrived in Los
Roques aboard a boat having mechanical
problems. When they received support
from the authorities and were requested
their documentation, the Venezuelan
officers discovered that the boat had
entered illegally.
The case was reported to the Public Prosecutor 8th with
national competence in immigration
affairs. According to the authorities,
the arrested people will be taken to the
Coast Guard Command in the port of La
Guaira. Spanish newspaper El País said
that the three suspected members of ETA
fear extradition to Spain. |
|
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS RETIRES FROM THE
ARMY TO LEAD THE CIA
WASHINGTON,
D.C.--An
era in the American military came to an
end on Wednesday when David H. Petraeus,
the most influential general of his
generation, retired with a 17-gun salute
and a warning that coming budget cuts
should not lead to the “hollow Army”
that occurred after the Vietnam War.
Just 11 days before the 10th anniversary
of Al Qaeda’s attacks on New York and
Washington, General Petraeus also
implicitly cautioned that the United
States should not abandon the
troop-intensive and expensive
counterinsurgency doctrine that was his
hallmark when he commanded the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. The general spoke
as the Obama White House is shifting
from a broad counterinsurgency strategy
of trying to build roads, schools and
good government in Afghanistan to a
narrower and more secretive
counterterrorism mission of hunting down
terrorists.
 
General Petraeus
said that the United States should keep
counterinsurgency as a doctrine — he
helped write the military’s updated
manual on it in 2005 and 2006 — if only
because war is unpredictable and the
military needs to be trained for all
possibilities. “We have relearned since
9/11 the timeless lesson that we don’t
always get to fight the wars for which
we’re most prepared or most inclined,’’
General Petraeus said at the retirement
ceremony, held in the bright sunshine of
the parade ground at Fort Myer, near
Arlington National Cemetery. “Given that
reality, we will need to maintain the
full-spectrum capability that we have
developed over this last decade of
conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere.’’ General Petraeus, 58, will
arrive on Tuesday in a civilian business
suit as the new director of the Central
Intelligence Agency. His last day in
uniform, after 37 years in the Army, was
not only a turning point in his own life
but also in the military, signaling the
end, or so President Obama hopes, of the
wars that defined the first decade of
the 21st century.
 
General Petraeus
has told friends that going to the C.I.A.
will still keep him “in the fight’’ —
perhaps as much as if he had stayed in
the military, given the Obama
administration’s move toward covert
operations. General Petraeus’s
retirement ceremony, held on a warm
morning with light breezes and little
humidity, was a reunion of sorts for the
military and civilian veterans who had
worked with him during the troop surges
he oversaw in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Zalmay Khalilazad, a former American
ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan who
was born in the Afghan city of
Mazar-i-Sharif, was there, as was Meghan
L. O’Sullivan, the Bush White House’s
deputy national security adviser for
Iraq and Afghanistan and a onetime aide
to L. Paul Bremer III, the former top
American civilian administrator in Iraq. |
|
DICTATOR GADHAFI IN HIDING, VOWS NO
SURRENDER IN LIBYA
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA--In
a fiery broadcast from hiding, Muammar
Qadhafi
warned Thursday that loyalist
tribes in his main strongholds were
armed and preparing for battle, a show
of defiance hours after rebels extended
a deadline for the surrender of the
fugitive leader's hometown. The rebels,
who have been moving troops toward
remaining Qadhafi
bastions across Libya, had shifted the
deadline for the town of Sirte in hopes
of avoiding the bloodshed that met their
attack on Tripoli. "We want to save our
fighters and not lose a single one in
battles with Qadhafi's
forces," said Mohammed al-Rajali, a
spokesman for the rebel leadership in
the eastern city of Benghazi. "In the
end, we will get Sirte, even if we have
to cut water and electricity" and let
NATO pound it with airstrikes.
 
World leaders
meeting in Paris on Libya's future after
Qaddafi said the NATO military
operations would continue as long as
needed. The rebels say the advance on
Sirte is going well, and that their
forces have already captured one nearby
city. They also say they are closing in
on Qadhafi,
who came to power 42 years ago Thursday
in a military coup that toppled King
Idris. The rebels have been hunting for
Qadhafi
since he was forced into hiding after
they swept into Tripoli on Aug. 20 and
gained control of most of the capital
after days of fierce fighting. "We won't
surrender again; we are not women. We
will keep fighting," Qaddafi said in a
blustery tone in the audio statement,
broadcast by Syrian-based Al-Rai TV. His
voice was recognizable, and Al-Rai has
previously broadcast statements by Qadhafi
and his sons.
Qadhyafi
said the tribes in Sirte and Bani Walid
are armed and "there is no way they will
submit." He called for continued
resistance, warning "the battle will be
long and let Libya burn." In a second
late-night audio also broadcast on the
Syrian channel, Qaddafi spoke in more
measured tones and called for a long
insurgency. "We will fight them
everywhere," he said. "We will burn the
ground under their feet." He said NATO
was trying to occupy Libya and steal its
oil. "Get ready to fight the occupation.
... Get ready for a long war, imposed on
us," Qadhafi
added. "Get ready for the guerrilla
war." He called Sirte "the capital of
the resistance." The rebels, who have
effectively ended Qadhafi's
rule, dismiss his threats as empty
rhetoric. The rebels believe he may be
in one of their three key targets. The
rebel fighters, backed by NATO
airstrikes, have been pushing in recent
days toward Sirte as well as toward Bani
Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometers)
southeast of Tripoli, and the southern
city of Sabha. All three were given a
Saturday deadline to surrender. While
the deadline extension was officially
only for Sirte, rebels said it would
also apply to Bani Walid and Sabha. |
|
up to $60 billion wasted in iraq and
afghanistan
kabul,
afghanistan--The
United States' extensive outsourcing of
military functions in war zones has been
controversial since the beginning of the
conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A report by the bipartisan
Commission on Wartime Contracting has
heightened concerns with details of
allegations of billions of dollars lost
due to waste and corruption. To lessen
wartime strains on America’s
all-volunteer military force, the
Pentagon hires private businesses to
provide a vast array of support
services. Reliance on contractors
expanded drastically during the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars, feeding what is now a
large for-profit military industry
funded by U.S. taxpayers. The
commission's co-chairman, Michael
Thibault says not all of the money has
been well-spent. “Total spending on
contract and grants in Iraq and
Afghanistan amounts to $206 billion. We
estimate that $31-$60 billion of that
total has been or is being lost to waste
and fraud,” said Thibault.
 
At a news
conference Wednesday, Thibault stressed
that the commission's aim is not to
attack the reputations of individual
contractors, but rather to identify
problems in the government’s contracting
process. He says many problems have been
identified. “The cost of contract
support has been unnecessarily high.
[The U.S.] government has not
effectively managed contracts to promote
competition, reward good performance,
and impose accountability for poor
performance and misconduct by both
government and contractor personnel,”
Thibault said. As an example of
counter-productive efforts, the
commission alleges that some U.S. funds
for construction projects in Afghanistan
wound up in the hands of insurgents
battling American troops. Contractors do
everything from serving meals to troops
to building power plants and guarding
diplomats.
 
The commission
urges an overhaul of government
contracting procedures in war zones, and
even phasing out the use of contractors
for certain functions. The other
commission co-chairman is former
Congressman Christopher Shays. “The way
forward demands reform. With tens of
billions of dollars already wasted, with
the prospect of more to follow, and with
the risk of re-creating these problems
the next time America faces a
contingency, denial and delay are not
good options,” said Shays. “I disagree
with the assertion that they acted like
cowboys,” Prince said. Democratic
Senator Jim Webb of Virginia says the
commission’s report is a call to action
for Congress. “These recommendations
will be listened to and, when
appropriate, acted on by the United
States Congress,” Webb said. In May, the
Congressional Research Service reported
that the United States had 155,000
private contractors in Iraq and
Afghanistan, compared with 145,000
uniformed personnel. |
|
cuban POLICE detained at least 65
dissidents
havana,
cuba--The
Cuban Commission for Human Rights and
National Reconciliation, known by its
Spanish acronym CCDHRN, said at
least 65 men and women have been
arrested by secret police, 29 of whom
remain in custody in the Americas' only
one-party Communist-ruled nation. "For
five weeks the government has carried
out violent political repression against
women and other peaceful dissidents" in
Santiago de Cuba province in the south
of the island, according to a statement
signed by the rights group's founder and
spokesman Elizardo Sanchez. "Most were
totally unarmed and suffered acts of
police brutality," it added. According
to the statement, several members of the
"Ladies in White" group comprising wives
and relatives of political prisoners
were "beaten and arrested" on Sunday to
prevent them joining a Mass in Santiago
de Cuba.
 
A Ladies in White
leader, Berta Soler, told AFP the group
planned to meet Cardinal Jaime Ortega in
Havana on Tuesday, and would ask him to
intervene on behalf of dissidents,
officially considered "mercenaries" in
the pay of the US government. A US
State Department spokesman said
Washington was "troubled by reports of
increased violence by
government-organized mobs against the
Damas de Blanco in Havana and Santiago
de Cuba in recent weeks. "The use of
government-organized mobs to physically
and verbally abuse peaceful protesters
is unconscionable," the US spokesman
added, noting: "We call for an immediate
end to the harassment and violence
committed against the Damas de Blanco.
"We support the Cuban people?s desire to
freely determine their own future," the
US spokesman added. Cardinal Ortega's
2010 dialogue with Castro led to the
release of 130 political prisoners, many
of whom left Cuba for Spain with their
relatives.
Meanwhile, the
Cuban singer and songwriter Pablo
Milanes -- who is on tour in America --
hit out at the alleged mistreatment of
Ladies in White members, but said he did
not share their negative views of the
government in Havana. "When I see
ladies in white dresses on the street
who are protesting but being harassed by
men and women, I cannot help feeling
ashamed and indignant," he said in an
open letter published in Miami's El
Nuevo Herald newspaper. "Even though I
do not agree with them at all I express
solidarity with them," the singer added
of the wives, whose wearing of white
clothes is meant to symbolize peace.
The CCDHRN called on foreign governments
and international human rights groups to
show "solidarity" with Cuban dissidents
and urge Havana to end its "abusive
practices." Cuban dissident Orlando
Zapata died in Cuba on February 23, 2010
on the 85th day of his hunger strike.
His death at the age of 42 drew global
attention to the plight of political
dissidents in Cuba. |
|
two gadhafi's sons provide contradictory
statements; onE vows no surrender to
libyan rebels
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA--Two
men claiming to be Muammar QadHafi's
sons made conflicting appeals from
hiding Wednesday night,
with one of them calling for talks with
rebel leaders and the other urging the
regime's loyalists to fight to the
death. The dueling messages reflected
the growing turmoil in Qadhafi's
inner circle on the eve of the 42nd
anniversary of his rise to power. This
year, the dictator is a fugitive from
opposition fighters who have seized most
of the country in a six-month civil war.
Now, they say they're hot on his trail.
The rebels are pooling tips about
Moammar Qadhafi's
whereabouts from captured regime
fighters and others, and believe he is
most likely no longer in Tripoli, said
Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the rebels' military
chief in the capital. In telephone calls
to Arab TV stations within minutes of
each other Wednesday night, two men
claiming to be Qaddafi's sons sent
messages to the Libyan people.
 
A man identifying
himself as Seif al-Islam Qadhafi
urged his father's supporters to fight
the rebels "day and night." He told the
Syrian-based Al-Rai TV station that
residents of Bani Walid agreed that "we
are going to die on our land." He said
NATO carried out several airstrikes in
Bani Walid that killed people. "All move
right now," said Seif al-Islam, once
considered the moderate face of the Qadhafi
regime and the leader's heir apparent.
"Attack the rats," he said, referring to
the rebels. He said he was calling from
a suburb of Tripoli and that his father
"is fine." The caller dismissed comments
by Belhaj that another Qadhafi
son, al-Saadi, was negotiating the terms
of his surrender. Seif al-Islam said his
brother was under pressure, in part out
of concern for his family.
In a separate phone
call to the Al-Arabiya TV station, a man
identifying himself as al-Saadi said he
was ready to negotiate with the rebels
to stop the bloodshed. Rebel leaders
have repeatedly said they won't
negotiate until Qaddafi is gone. Al-Saadi
said he spoke for his father and regime
military commanders in calling for
talks. He said that the rebels could
lead Libya. "We don't mind. We are all
Libyans," he said. "We have no problem
to give them power." The voice of Seif
al-Islam -- who was reportedly captured
by the rebels earlier this month only to
turn up free and defiant in Tripoli --
was easily recognizable, but al-Saadi's
was more difficult to confirm. "The
regime is dying," said rebel council
spokesman Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga, reacting to
the two statements. "Qaddafi's family is
trying to find an exit." "They only have
to surrender completely to the rebels
and we will offer them a fair trial. We
won't hold negotiations with them over
anything," he added. |
|
LIBYA'S REBEL LEADERSHIP REJECTS
ASSISTANCE OF UN BLUE HELMET FORCE
TRIPOLI,
LIBYA--With
the citizens of Libya offering
themselves as volunteers to protect
their country, Libya apparently
does not need the help of the United
Nations. What’s more, even the country’s
interim leadership, according to a BBC
report, has rejected the idea of
deploying an international force. The UN
had considered the idea of posting
military observers in Libya.
 
According to the
BBC report, ‘Libyan crisis is a special’
case as it is neither a civil war, nor a
conflict between two parties. But it is
a case of people defending their own
country. The BBC report further says
that helping the country prepare for
democratic elections is a major
challenge before the UN. It quotes Mr
Martin, a UN Official, who says, "Let's
remember [...] there's essentially no
living memory of elections, there's no
electoral machinery, there's no
electoral commission, no history of
political parties, no independent civil
society, independent media are only
beginning to emerge in the east in
recent times.
"That's going to be
quite a challenge, sort of
organizationally, and it's clear that
the NTC wish the UN to play a major role
in that process." According to BBC, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said
that growing humanitarian shortages in
Libya demand urgent action and appealed
to the Security Council to be
"responsive" to requests from the
transitional authority for funding.
Though stockpiles of medical supplies
and food stashed away by the government
were found over the weekend, water
supplies are short. "An estimated 60
percent of Tripoli's population is
without water and sanitation," he said.
The EU's humanitarian office says that
pro-Gaddafi forces are responsible for
cutting supplies,” says the report. |
|
|