Tag Archives: AFP

News, Politics, Government

Top EU diplomat heads to Egypt for talks with new regime

Leave a comment

The European Union’s top diplomat was heading for Cairo Wednesday, a day after an interim government was sworn in to replace Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, toppled by the military two weeks ago.

Announcing the surprise visit, the office of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said her visit was to press the case for a swift return to democratic rule.

“I am going to Egypt to reinforce our message that there must be a fully inclusive political process, taking in all groups which support democracy,” Ashton said.

Both the Muslim Brotherhood, the influential movement from which Morsi hails, and the ultra-conservative Al-Nur party refused to take part in the new administration.

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad immediately rejected the 35-member cabinet that was sworn in on Tuesday.

“We don’t recognise its legitimacy or its authority,” he told AFP.

The government is headed by liberal economist Hazem al-Beblawi.

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the general behind the popularly backed coup that overthrew Morsi, becomes first deputy prime minister and minister of defence.

Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony took place just hours after deadly clashes between the security forces and Morsi’s supporters in Cairo and nearby Giza.

Officials said seven people were killed and 261 wounded in the clashes. Hundreds of protesters were also arrested.

On Monday, US envoy Bill Burns — the most senior American official to visit since the July 3 coup — had appealed for an end to the violence rocking the Arab world’s most populous nation.

Within hours however, thousands of Morsi supporters were on the streets of the capital protesting at the president’s overthrow and his detention by the military.

Hundreds of them battled the security forces and two people died in clashes around the central Ramses area near Tahrir Square, while another five were killed in Giza, emergency services told AFP.

A security source cited by state media said 401 protesters were arrested in the Ramses area alone, and at least 17 security personnel were injured.

This was the first major violence in the capital since dozens of Morsi supporters were shot dead outside an elite army barracks early last week.

The United States condemned the violence. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said it made the transition “much more difficult,” but he insisted Washington was not taking sides.

Washington has refrained from saying Morsi was the victim of a coup, which would legally require a freeze on some $1.5 billion in US military and economic assistance to Cairo.

These latest deaths bring to more than 100 the number of people killed in the unrest since the coup, according to an AFP tally.

The caretaker government unveiled on Tuesday included three women ministers and three Coptic Christians.

Analyst Samer Shehata said Egypt’s budget deficit, reforming the interior ministry, establishing the rule of law and restoring security in the Sinai peninsula were among the pressing issues for the new government.

“How to deal with the protesters on the street at the moment is another very serious issue,” he added.

Standard & Poor’s ratings agency said Tuesday it would keep its credit rating for Egypt unchanged after Gulf states pledged billions to …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

MPs pass gay marriage bill

Leave a comment

MPs passed a bill legalising same-sex marriage in England and Wales, paving the way for the first gay weddings in 2014.

The House of Commons decided not to oppose a number of minor amendments to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill proposed by the House of Lords.

The legislation is now expected to receive official assent from Queen Elizabeth later this week after MPs agreed to changes such as ensuring protections for transgender couples.

Already on Monday night, jubilant gay rights activists danced outside parliament as the government-backed bill passed unopposed through the House of Lords. Some members there wore pink carnations.

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which is overseeing the new law, told AFP the bill would probably receive royal assent on Wednesday or Thursday.

“But we are looking at seeing the first gay weddings in the middle of 2014 because there are various issues to sort out, such as its impact on pensions,” the spokesman added.

Government computer systems also need to be updated to allow same-sex marriages to be registered, at an estimated cost of ??2 million.

But the government hopes legalising gay marriage will bring an overall boost to the economy, estimating that the change could bring in up to ??14.4 million a year for caterers, hotels and the rest of the wedding industry.

The bill survived a stormy passage through parliament, with dozens of Tories voting against it.

Tory minister Gerald Howarth criticised the way the government had backed the bill.

“I have to say that it is astonishing that a bill for which there is absolutely no mandate, against which a majority of Conservatives voted against, has been bulldozed through both Houses and just two hours of debate tonight is an absolute parliamentary disgrace,” he said.

“I think the government should think very carefully in future if they want the support of these benches. Offending large swathes of the Conservative Party is not a good way of going about it.”

An attempt in the Lords last month to kill off the legislation with a “wrecking amendment” failed.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the new law would ensure that gay couples felt “recognised and valued, not excluded”.

Gay rights activists have vowed to press on for equal marriage in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

But opponents of gay marriage have warned that the legislation will “come back to bite” Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Coalition for Marriage campaign group said it would mobilise a 700,000-strong support base ahead of next year’s European elections and the general election in 2015.

“They are passionate, motivated and determined to fight on against a law that renders terms like ‘husband and wife’ meaningless,” said the group’s chairman Colin Hart.

Civil partnerships for gay couples have been legal in Britain since 2005, giving them identical rights and responsibilities to straight couples in a civil marriage.

But campaigners point to differences, such as gay couples’ inability to choose a religious ceremony or to call their partnership a “marriage”.

The new law will ban the Churches of England and Wales — which are …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Simply the best: Tina Turner ties knot in Switzerland

Leave a comment

Tina Turner, the US-born superstar famed for hits such as “Private Dancer”, has married her longtime German partner and will reportedly celebrate the union in a Buddhist ceremony in Switzerland Sunday.

The 73-year-old retired singer wed 57-year-old record executive Erwin Bach in a discreet civil ceremony on the banks of Lake Zurich in Kusnacht, northern Switzerland “a few days ago,” municipal official Hannes Friess told AFP.

According to Swiss media reports, the pair will celebrate the union at their Kusnacht manor on Sunday with an intimate Buddhist ceremony attended by 120 guests.

Music industry A-listers including David Bowie, Eros Ramazzoti and Sade are due to attend along with television talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, according to Swiss weekly Schweiz am Sonntag, which also reported guests were requested to wear white.

The bride herself, who traded in her US passport for a Swiss one earlier this year, will be wearing a gown designed by Italian fashion giant Giorgio Armani, according to the newspaper, which did not reveal its sources.

Swiss media reported that a small stage would be set up for Sunday’s party, and that Turner and Bach had sent out letters to their neighbours apologising in advance for the noise they might cause.

Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock in Tennessee, was the voice of such hits as “Simply the Best” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero”, over a five-decades long career, and moved to Switzerland in 1995 when Bach was transferred to the country.

Before her relationship with Bach began in the mid-1980s, Turner was famously married to her musical partner Ike Turner for 14 years.

She left him in 1976 after suffering serious domestic abuse, as detailed in her autobiography “I, Tina,” and alluded to in her 1984 hit “What’s Love Got To Do With It.”

Tina Turner retired from the public eye after a final tour in 2008/2009.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

With Zetas arrest, Mexico deals blow to vicious cartel

Leave a comment

With the daring nighttime capture of the Zetas drug cartel leader, the Mexican government has delivered a major blow to the country’s most vicious gang, known for beheadings and massacres of migrants.

Capturing Miguel Angel Trevino was the biggest anti-cartel victory for the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto since he took office in December with his pledge to reduce a wave of drug-related murders that has left 70,000 people dead since 2006.

With this high-profile catch, Pena Nieto provides a rebuttal to fears that his new security strategy focused too much on crime prevention instead of putting kingpins in handcuffs.

But the arrest of Trevino, a drug kingpin who authorities say would “stew” his victims in burning oil, could set off an internal war of succession marked by more strife in the cartel’s northeastern territories, analyst say.

Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, whose dominion covers the Pacific coast, could also see Trevino’s demise as the perfect opportunity to raid the regions dominated by the Zetas.

Interior ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said authorities were on “alert” for any rise in violence following Trevino’s arrest.

“There are two scenarios,” Raul Benitez Manaut, security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told AFP. “The positive one is that the cartel is weakening, and the negative is that there could be a war between subordinates and much violence.”

Trevino, alias “Z-40,” was intercepted by marines before dawn on Monday after a helicopter swooped down in front of his pick-up truck as he traveled with two associates on a dirt road near Nuevo Laredo, a northeastern city in the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas.

The Mexican and US governments have not said whether the United States helped catch Trevino. His arrest came days after the head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) visited Mexico and amid a visit by the Mexican military chiefs in the United States.

Trevino’s arrest came eight months after Mexican troops killed his predecessor, Heriberto Lazcano, in a gunfight in the northern state of Coahuila, only for the capo’s body to be stolen by gunmen hours later in a funeral home.

Lazcano’s death was not followed by internal bloodshed for his job, but analysts say it remains to be seen if Trevino’s capture will lead to an orderly succession or a fight.

His brother Omar “Z-42” Trevino is considered a potential heir, but it is unclear how high up he ranks within the organization. The Zetas were formed by former elite soldiers and its leaders had been ex-troops until Trevino, a civilian, took over last year.

“Omar could step in and take power relatively quickly. Or someone within the Zetas could see this as an opportunity to step in and there could be infighting,” said Sylvia Longmire, a former US Air Force special agent and author of “Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico’s Drug Wars.”

But she said Trevino’s arrest may not affect the cartel’s day-to-day operations because the Zetas work like a franchise, with each cell overseeing its own turf. At the same time, …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

India police arrest eight in gang-rape of four schoolgirls

Leave a comment

Indian police arrested eight suspects on Tuesday over the gang-rape of four schoolgirls abducted from their convent boarding house in the country’s east, officials said.

A group of men armed with knives barged into the hostel Sunday night and kidnapped the girls aged between 12 and 14, before assaulting them in a nearby forest in the tribal state of Jharkhand, a police officer said.

“We have made some arrests and we are interrogating eight persons accused in the case,” police superintendent Y. S. Ramesh told AFP.

“These girls are shocked and frightened after the incident,” he said, adding that police would press for a speedy trial if the men were charged over the crime.

India faces intense scrutiny over its efforts to curb violence against women following the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi last December which sparked major protests.

The school principal told police that the gang locked him and other teachers inside a room at the school run by a Christian missionary in the state’s Pakur district.

The men then entered the dormitory and took away four girls, all belonging to a local tribal community, police said.

Ramesh said medical tests on the girls had confirmed that they were raped.

Mass protests erupted nationwide in December and January following the fatal gang-rape, which brought simmering anger about the treatment of women in India to the surface.

Parliament has passed laws aimed at better protecting women, including doubling the minimum prison sentence for gang-rape to 20 years.

Jharkhand is a densely forested state comprising large numbers of indigenous people.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Snowden to stay in Moscow airport for now: lawyer

Leave a comment

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden will stay in the transit zone of the Moscow airport where he has been holed up for three weeks while Russian authorities process his asylum request, a lawyer helping him said Tuesday.

Anatoly Kucherena, a Russian lawyer who helped Snowden file an application for asylum in Russia earlier Tuesday, told AFP the fugitive former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor was happy with his treatment at the airport.

“While all procedural questions are being decided, he will remain in the transit zone of the airport,” Kucherena told AFP in central Moscow when asked if Snowden would remain at Sheremetyevo airport until the asylum request was approved.

He confirmed that the asylum procedure could take up to three months, although a shorter period is theoretically possible.

Kucherena said he met Snowden at the airport on Tuesday to file the asylum request, with a translator the only other person present.

“He is satisfied with how he is being treated by the employees of the airport,” he added, declining to say how Snowden’s security was being ensured at the airport.

Speaking outside his office in a courtyard off a prestigious central Moscow street, Kucherena said he helped Snowden put together the asylum application after the stranded fugitive requested his assistance.

A supporter of President Vladimir Putin who supported Putin’s election campaign last year, Kucherena also has a legal practice in Moscow that takes on high-profile cases.

He also sits on the “public council” of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which was created by Putin in 2006.

According to its website, the council works to “develop a relationship” between the security service and the public. Its fifteen members have to be approved by the head of the FSB.

Kucherena was among a group of rights activists, pro-Kremlin lawmakers and lawyers who met Snowden at the airport on Friday, where the fugitive indicated that he wanted to file for asylum in Russia.

Snowden later called Kucherena “by telephone” asking for his help, the lawyer said. He said he did not know why Snowden singled him out.

“I didn’t look for him,” he said. “Do you have a way of talking with him? I didn’t either.

“He reached out to me and asked me to come” after the meeting on Friday, said Kucherena, adding that he had a long meeting with Snowden Monday, when he explained Russian laws.

He then came back to the airport on Tuesday to “put together” the application for the migration service.

The two met in the transit zone, Kucherena said, but said he could not remember which terminal of the airport. At these meetings he said he had not seen Sarah Harrison, the British citizen and WikiLeaks employee who has accompanied Snowden.

“Most likely she has documents,” he said, when asked whether Harrison has a Russian visa. “I had no contact with her.”

Kucherena said Snowden, who has been marooned in the transit zone since arriving from Hong Kong seeking to escape US justice, has “options”.

“Right now he wants to stay in Russia. He has options. He has friends and a lot of supporters…. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Afghanistan's only Olympian bows out over accusations

Leave a comment

Afghanistan’s only Olympic medallist, taekwondo star and national hero Rohullah Nikpa, announced Tuesday that he would boycott international competition unless reforms root out discrimination and mismanagement within the sport in his country.

The 26-year-old said he would not compete in this week’s WTF World Taekwondo Championships in Puebla, Mexico, to protest against poor management and discrimination within Afghanistan’s Taekwondo Federation (ATF).

“It has been there, discrimination and mismanagment. It is like a clique, a group of people have taken over the ATF and are doing whatever they want with no regard to athletes’ needs,” Nikpa told AFP.

“This situation has negatively affected our abilities – both physically and psychologically… I hereby announce I will no longer represent Afghanistan on the international stage unless serious reforms are made in the ATF,” he added.

The decision by the twice Olympic bronze medallist will be viewed as a step backwards for the war-torn country. As a member of the minority Hazara community, he is seen by Afghans as a unifying figure.

The ATF rejected Nikpa’s allegations, saying that the athlete had informed the organisation a month ago that he would not go to Mexico because of injury.

No Afghans are competing in Mexico, because they were denied visas in India, officials have confirmed.

“All his wins since 2009 were under the current ATF leadership. We cannot understand why he is making these accusations,” secretary general Mirwais Bahawi told AFP.

Nikpa denies pulling out due to injury, saying that a recurring knee problem did not stop him from competing and winning a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

Trainer Mohammed Bashir Taraki also resigned recently, telling AFP it was to protest against mismanagement, favouritism and poor selection decisions within in the ATF.

“He (the head of the ATF) brings people from his own taekwondo club to the federation regardless of their capabilties and professionalism, and sends fighters fom his own club to take part in international competitions, not the people who really deserve it,” he said.

The ATF says it has documents to disprove all the allegations.

Nikpa is a fairytale hero in a war-ravaged country.

As a 10-year-old obsessed with Bruce Lee and martial arts movies, he followed his brother to the taekwondo club while civil war raged in Afghanistan.

He was 14 when the Taliban regime fell at the end of 2001 and began training in Kabul in earnest while a bloody insurgency against the government and its NATO allies raged throughout the country.

Partly thanks to Nikpa, taekwondo has become one of the most popular sports in Afghanistan. Around 25,000 competitors — up to 38,000 according to Bahawi — practise in hundreds of clubs around the country, though facilities are sometimes basic.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Afghan suspect blames US commandos for civilian murders

Leave a comment

An Afghan accused of torturing and murdering civilians while working for US special forces denies the charges and says he followed American orders, according to a report obtained by AFP on Tuesday.

Zakrya Kandahari, who worked as an interpreter, was arrested by Afghanistan’s premier intelligence agency around six weeks ago.

According to a copy of a report confirmed as authentic by a security official, intelligence agents have a video showing Kandahari beating a prisoner.

Afghan authorities are investigating allegations that armed Afghans working with US special forces harassed, tortured and murdered civilians in Wardak province, a Taliban flashpoint on the doorstep of Kabul.

President Hamid Karzai ordered US special forces to leave Wardak in February, although a compromise deal later announced that they would leave only Nerkh, one of eight districts in Wardak and the district where Kandahari worked.

“Zakrya himself has denied the accusations, saying he was under the command of others,” said a copy of the report obtained by AFP.

Instead he blamed the murders on three Americans, whom he named as Dave, Hagen and Chris, and whom he said were fluent in Afghanistan’s two main languages Dari and Pashto.

“‘I was simply a low-rank translator and did not have authorisation to roam around inside the base, or (go) to interrogation sections,” the report quoted Kandahari as saying.

Kandahari told interrogators that he had worked for foreigners for nine years, most recently as an interpreter for US special forces in Nerkh.

He was picked up in the southern city of Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, and moved to Kabul for interrogation, officials said.

US investigations have found “no credible evidence” to substantiate any allegations of abuse by either NATO or US forces, a military spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

But the military is co-operating with the Afghan government and US Army criminal investigators are also looking into the claims, said Lieutenant Colonel Will Griffin from the US-led NATO force.

“The allegations were taken very seriously and we just want to ensure that every possible outcome is thoroughly investigated,” Griffin told AFP.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Pakistan Taliban say no shift to Syria

Leave a comment

Pakistani Taliban commanders Tuesday rejected suggestions they were sending fighters to Syria, saying some have gone there independently but the movement’s focus remained in Pakistan.

They said some militants, mainly Arabs and Central Asians, had gone to fight the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, but a senior Taliban leader dismissed reports of them setting up camps in Syria.

The lawless tribal areas of northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border have long been a magnet for militants from across the Muslim world eager to fight US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.

But since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, foreign jihadists have flocked to Syria, where disparate rebel groups are seeking his downfall.

Some media reports in recent days have claimed scores or even hundreds of Pakistani Taliban are among them and that they have set up camps in Syria.

A senior commander who sits on the shura or ruling council of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told AFP there was no tactical shift and no decision had been made to send forces to Syria.

“There is no reality in these reports, we have far better targets in the region, NATO troops headed by the Americans are present in Afghanistan,” he said on condition of anonymity.

“We are already in a war with Pakistani troops. We support the mujahideen’s struggle in Syria but in our opinion, we have a lot more to do here in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

The TTP is an umbrella group for numerous factions trying to bring down the Pakistani state and impose sharia law. It has ties to the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

“The great evil (America) is here in Afghanistan, troops from 30 kafir (non-believer) countries are attacking innocent people in Afghanistan, so Bashar al-Assad is not that important for us,” the TTP commander said.

“Obama is the big evil, Americans are a much bigger evil for us. The Taliban shura has never discussed sending mujahideen to Syria.”

Another mid-ranking TTP commander in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district which is a hotbed of Taliban and Al-Qaeda activity, said some fighters had gone to Syria “in a personal capacity”.

A third senior TTP cadre said those who had gone were mostly Arabs, Uzbeks and Chechens.

More than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad erupted, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai dismissed claims of the TTP setting up camps in Syria as “a publicity campaign” by some of the militants.

“But we cannot deny the fact that they are quite ambitious and want to send a clear message to the world that they are still very strong and have strong linkages with other local and international groups,” he said.

Ismail, an Arab fighter from Al-Qaeda, told AFP in northwest Pakistan that he planned to join the fight against Assad.

“I am going to Syria in the next few days, my family will stay here,” he said.

“Our mujahideen are going not only to Syria but also to Lebanon, Egypt and other Arab countries.”

Saifullah Khan Mahsud, the executive director of the FATA Research Centre …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Ethiopian Dreamliner fire probe looks at Honeywell part

Leave a comment

British investigators said Tuesday they were examining a transmitter made by US group Honeywell as part of a probe into a fire on a Boeing Dreamliner jet at London’s Heathrow Airport.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has previously said that the blaze on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 was not down to overheating batteries that have caused problems with other Dreamliners.

“We can confirm that Honeywell have been invited to join the investigation,” an AAIB spokesman said.

“The emergency locator transmitter (ELT) is one of several components being looked at in detail as part of the investigation and it would be premature to speculate on the causes of the incident at this stage,” he added.

“The travelling public can be sure we are investigating all possible causes and following up all leads.”

Honeywell said in a statement to AFP that it had sent experts to Heathrow and that it had never had any problems with the transmitters, which have been certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration since 2005.

The Ethiopian Airlines 787 was parked and empty when it caught fire on Friday, causing the temporary closure of Heathrow’s two runways.

The fire is a further blow for the jet after Boeing temporarily withdrew all Dreamliners from service earlier this year due to concerns that lithium ion batteries on board could cause fires.

But the AAIB said at the weekend that the fire was in a different area to the batteries, adding that “at this stage there is no evidence of a direct causal relationship”.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

India police release sketches of temple bomb suspect

Leave a comment

Indian police investigating bomb blasts at one of Buddhism’s holiest sites released sketches of a suspect on Tuesday and offered a reward for information about the attacks.

Ten small devices exploded on July 7 in the Bodh Gaya temple complex in the eastern state of Bihar, wounding two monks, while three others were defused at the historic shrine.

The National Investigation Agency released two sketches of a man suspected of planting the bombs at the complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which was not badly damaged in the blasts.

One sketch showed the suspect wearing a mask, while the second showed a clean-shaven face. The suspect was “wearing the dress of a Buddhist monk”, the agency said on its website.

It also announced a reward of one million rupees ($16,900) for information leading to the arrest of the bombers.

Police studied CCTV footage of the complex immediately after the early morning attacks and arrested a man for questioning, but no charges were laid.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But police say they had received intelligence that Islamic militants could target the site as revenge for Buddhist violence against Muslims in neighbouring Myanmar.

Along with temples, dozens of monasteries housing monks from around the world dot the Bodh Gaya complex, which is said to be the site where the Buddha reached enlightenment in 531 BC.

The centrepiece of the complex is the site of the holy Bodhi tree, under which Buddha is said to have meditated. A sapling of the original tree was undamaged in the attacks.

The complex, 110 kilometres (69 miles) south of Patna, contains one of the earliest Buddhist temples still standing in India.

Buddhists are rarely targeted in India but there have been tensions in the wider region recently following clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In neighbouring Nepal, dozens of police have been mobilised to guard the country’s famed Buddhist temple complex as a precaution after the India attacks.

Police have doubled to 70 the number of security officers guarding the Lumbini temple complex, 250 kilometres (150 miles) southwest of the capital Kathmandu, local police official Surendra Bahadur Shah told AFP.

Thousands of pilgrims visit Lumbini each year to pay homage to the Buddha, who is said to have been born in the temple gardens in 623 BC.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Israel agrees to two Egypt battalions for Sinai

Leave a comment

Israel has given Egypt the go-ahead to deploy two battalions to the Sinai to tackle militants in the sensitive region where deployments are restricted by treaty, army radio reported Tuesday.

Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon gave his approval to a request from the Egyptian army to station one battalion at El-Arish in the north of the peninsula and one at Sharm al-Sheikh in the south, the radio said.

Israel already gave its backing earlier this month to Egypt’s deployment of a first batch of troop reinforcements to the Sinai, where deployments are restricted under the terms of the 1979 peace treaty between the two neighbours.

“The Egyptian military activity in the Sinai is coordinated with Israeli security elements and authorised at the most senior levels in Israel, in order to contend with security threats in the Sinai that pose a threat to both Israel and Egypt,” an army statement said at the time.

The Egyptian army is preparing to go on the offensive against Islamist militants in the Sinai who have escalated attacks since president Mohamed Morsi’s overthrow on July 3.

Over the past two weeks, militants have launched almost daily attacks on troops and police in the peninsula, killing several members of the security forces and two Egyptian Christians.

At dawn on Monday, militants killed three workers from a cement factory in an attack on the bus in which they were travelling in El-Arish.

A senior Egyptian military official confirmed to AFP on Monday that the army “will carry out an operation” in the Sinai, without giving further details.

The army knew the militant leaders by name and their location, he said, adding that most of the militants “live with their family, in villages”.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Celebratory fire turns Iraq football win into nightmare

Leave a comment

Thirteen-year-old Moqtada went outside his house to set off fireworks after a victory by Iraq’s football team, but ended up a victim of celebratory gunfire, with a bullet lodged in his back.

When Iraq beat South Korea in the U-20 World Cup quarter-finals this month, Baghdad erupted with the sound of gunshots, fired individually or in automatic bursts.

But while some were gleefully firing in the air, others were paying the price. Security and medical officials said at least four people were killed and around 21 wounded by gunfire after the match.

Celebratory shooting adds yet another danger to a country which has been hit by the worst violence since 2008. More than 2,600 people have been killed in attacks so far this year.

At a house in central Baghdad, Moqtada, a slightly-built boy with black hair, rested on his stomach on a narrow bed, a large bandage covering his wounded lower back.

“I went out … to play with fireworks” and “was hit in my back,” Moqtada said in a quiet voice.

He intially thought he had been struck by a firework, but it soon became clear it was something more serious.

“I was sitting at home watching the match, which Iraq won. We were happy,” said Moqtada’s uncle Rahim. “Then they called saying your nephew was hit by a shot.”

Rahim said Moqtada was taken to a public hospital in Baghdad, but they refused to operate, saying it was too risky.

So the wounded boy had to be moved to a second public hospital.

It seemed the operation would be performed there, but doctors eventually decided it should be done at a third, privately-owned hospital, where the bullet was finally removed.

The boy’s father Ali later told AFP Moqtada was recovering well from the gunshot and walking again.

But the operation, unlike treatment at public facilities, came at a steep cost — 2.5 million Iraqi dinars (about $2,080) — a huge expense that the family could ill-afford. They pooled money to pay the bill.

It was “all because of the match,” Rahim said. “Clap, dance, celebrate, but not with shooting.”

As for an upcoming match, he added: “I hope that Iraq will lose, it is better, I swear to God.”

No victory would mean no celebratory shooting.

Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told AFP that people who fire weapons in the air can face arrest and the confiscation of their firearms.

“If you want to celebrate, you can celebrate in a modern way,” Maan said. “Anything else except using guns.”

But celebratory shooting, which also occurs at some weddings and funerals, is still common in Iraq, and security forces are sometimes part of the problem.

The night Moqtada was shot, one witness saw federal policemen in the Zayouna area of Baghdad firing a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a machinegun into the air, though an officer came and called them to account.

People usually fire into the air at an angle, meaning that “the bullet will come back to earth on a parabolic curve with some residual velocity,” said Ronald Scott, a US-based forensic consultant on firearms, ballistics, and …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Tourists flock to Pakistan Kashmir valley in rare boom

Leave a comment

Success stories can be rare in Pakistan, but business is booming in one Kashmir tourist spot as the region rebuilds after a devastating earthquake and shrugs off associations with violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Pakistani tourists drawn to the lakes and glaciers of the Neelum valley are injecting desperately needed money into one of the poorest parts of the country.

Westerners stopped coming to the Himalayas of Pakistani-Kashmir years ago, put off by its reputation as a training ground for Islamist militant groups and the risk of sporadic conflict with India.

But with a new road built by the Chinese after the 2005 earthquake killed 73,000 people and a ceasefire holding with India, Pakistanis are discovering the snow-capped peaks, glaciers, lakes and lush-green meadows of the Neelum valley.

Known locally as “Paradise on Earth,” the valley is 114 kilometres (70 miles) east of the base camp where gunmen shot dead American, Chinese, Lithuanian, Slovakian and Ukranian climbers in June.

It was the worst attack on foreigners in Pakistan for a decade, but in neighbouring Kashmir, few Pakistanis are worried.

“There is a bit of fear there, but overall we are enjoying ourselves and we will stay according to our plan,” said Mohammad Amir, a lawyer on holiday with his family from southern Punjab.

Munazza Tariq, a university student from Karachi, agrees.

“This was carried out by enemies of Pakistan. After it happened, we received a lot of calls from our relatives from Karachi, but we are safe and enjoying ourselves,” said Munazza.

Local tourism ministry official Shehla Waqar says 600,000 people visited Neelum last year compared to 130,000 in 2010, before the Chinese built a road linking the area to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

“There is an influx of tourists in the area because we have a very beautiful road from Muzaffarabad to the Neelum Valley,” she said

The nearby Line of Control slices apart the Indian and Pakistani-held zones of the Himalayan region where a ceasefire has held since November 2003.

“This area is very peaceful and there is no fear of terrorism,” said Waqar.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region claimed in full by both sides.

Sporadic clashes killed six soldiers in January and February, but officials on both sides have kept tensions in check and Pakistan’s newly elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has put improving relations with India at the cornerstone of his foreign policy.

By contrast, Taliban attacks in the northwest — where mountain resorts have in the past sucked domestic tourism away from Kashmir — and the impact of crippling power cuts pushing people towards balmier climes is also driving visitor numbers higher, Waqar said.

There are now 115 registered guest houses in the Neelum valley, local deputy commissioner Mohammad Farid told AFP, compared to none in 2010.

The authorities say they have stepped up security after the climbers were killed in Gilgit-Baltistan, but because tourists in Kashmir are Pakistani rather than foreign, they are not braced for a serious knock-on effect.

“We have strict instructions that all government and private guest houses are to …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Mexico captures Zetas cartel leader

Leave a comment

Mexican marines captured the head of the ultra-violent Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino, an official from the federal attorney general’s office told AFP.

“They carried out an important arrest, of Miguel Angel Trevino, in the early hours of Monday,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Zetas are considered one of the most powerful and feared organized crime groups in Mexico, founded by former soldiers and known for their brutality.

Originally, the Zetas acted as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, but the two groups split in recent years, sparking brutal turf wars in the north of the country.

Trevino’s capture comes eight months after Mexican troops killed his predecessor, Heriberto Lazcano, in a gunfight in the northern state of Coahuila, only to lose Lazcano’s body hours later.

Last October, gunmen burst into a funeral home and stole his body, which has never been recovered.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Gbagbo ally says I.Coast leader insincere on reconciliation

Leave a comment

A top ally of ex-Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo on Monday accused the country’s new leader of being dishonest in his efforts to heal divides two years after a brutal civil conflict.

Gbagbo loyalist Damana Adia Pickass captured global media attention when he seized the piece of paper with results from Ivory Coast’s fiercely disputed 2010 presidential election and tore it up in front of journalists as the tally was being read out for the first time.

Gbagbo’s refusal to accept defeat to current President Alassane Ouattara in that poll sparked fighting that killed an estimated 3,000 people.

Adia Pickass fled to Ghana amid the violence.

He told AFP that Ouattara’s efforts to ease the country’s still fierce political rivalries were superficial.

“He’s not shown that he’s honest (or) sincere in this dialogue,” said the staunch supporter of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), Gbagbo’s party.

“We want all the political prisoners to be released,” Adia Pickass said, adding this would be a key step in Ouattara proving his sincerity.

Several top Gbagbo aides and FPI heavyweights remain behind bars.

Adia Pickass pointed to the arrest last month of FPI youth leader Justin Koua as evidence of the Ouattara government choosing punishment over reconciliation.

“We see a kind of justice of winners,” Adia Pickass said. “It’s only one side that is under judgement.”

Adia Pickass is facing an arrest warrant in Ivory Coast, but said he does not trust the courts there to give him a fair trial.

Adia Pickass, who had been Gbagbo’s representative on the electoral commission through the 2010 polls, is one of several of his loyalists living in exile in neighbouring Ghana.

Another Gbagbo loyalist, Justin Kone Katinan, the ex-president’s spokesman and former budget minister, will learn on August 5 whether he will be extradited from Ghana to Ivory Coast for economic crimes allegedly committed during the post-election crisis.

FPI supporters have repeatedly accused Ouattara of not doing enough to reconcile the rival camps.

Ouattara allies reply that Gbagbo loyalists continue to be involved in sporadic armed attacks across the west African nation and attempts to destabilise the regime.

FPI supporters have also demanded Gbagbo’s release from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he is facing crimes against humanity charges over his role in the post-election crisis.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

British gay marriage bill clears crucial hurdle

Leave a comment

The first gay marriages in England and Wales are set to take place in 2014 after the legislation passed through parliament’s upper chamber the House of Lords on Monday.

Jubilant gay rights activists cheered outside parliament as the bill cleared unopposed, while gay lawmaker Lord Waheed Ali told colleagues in an emotional speech: “My life and many others will be better today than it was yesterday.”

The government-backed legislation now passes back to the lower House of Commons for final debates on Tuesday, but they are expected to be little more than a formality.

A spokesman for the culture ministry, which is overseeing the legislation, said the bill would probably receive official assent from Queen Elizabeth II, the head of state, on Wednesday or Thursday.

“But we are looking at seeing the first gay weddings in the middle of 2014 because there are various issues to sort out, such as its impact on pensions,” the spokesman told AFP.

Supporters of the bill in the House of Lords wore pink carnations, while gay marriage activists danced outside the Houses of Parliament.

Gay rights activists have vowed to press on for equal marriage in Britain’s other constituent nations, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the new law would ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people felt “recognised and valued, not excluded”.

The legislation represents “the kind of open, modern, tolerant and diverse society we want Britain to be in the 21st century”, he added.

But opponents of gay marriage warned that the legislation would “come back to bite” Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Coalition for Marriage campaign group said it would mobilise a 700,000-strong support base ahead of next year’s European elections and the general election in 2015.

The bill survived despite opposition from dozens of members of Cameron’s own Conservative party, and an attempt to kill it off with a “wrecking amendment” in the Lords last month failed.

Veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said it was “a defeat for discrimination and a victory for love and marriage”.

“It is of huge symbolic importance, signalling that same-sex love has social recognition, acceptance and parity,” he said.

Gay couples in Britain have had the right to enter into a civil partnership since 2005, giving them identical rights and responsibilities to straight couples in a civil marriage.

But campaigners point to some differences such as international recognition, which applies to marriage but not partnerships.

The new law will ban the established Churches of England and Wales — which are opposed to gay marriage — from conducting ceremonies.

Other religious institutions will be able to “opt in” if they wish.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own laws on the matter.

The Scottish government published its own same-sex marriage bill last month, but Northern Ireland’s assembly voted to block a similar measure.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Israel rejects Polish ban on kosher slaughter

Leave a comment

Israel said Monday a Polish ban on the ritual slaughter of livestock for food is “unacceptable” and a “blow” to Jewish tradition, calling on the parliament to review its decision.

The foreign ministry also summoned Poland’s ambassador Jacek Chodorowicz to express its discontent, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“Israel is disappointed in the decision of the Polish parliament to forbid an important religious ritual which has been common practice among millions of Jews since ancient times,” the ministry said in a statement.

The slaughter of animals for food — a ritual among Jewish and Muslim communities — has been banned in Poland since January 1 after a constitutional court ruled it was incompatible with animal rights law.

The government had sought to overturn the ban and sent a bill to parliament to that effect, but it was struck down on Friday in a move that angered the Jewish community, farmers and companies that export kosher meat to Israel and halal meat to Muslim countries.

The Israeli foreign ministry said the decision by the Polish parliament “to reject kosher slaughter in Poland is totally unacceptable.

“We call on the Polish parliament to review its decision and we expect the relevant parties to find a way to prevent this brazen blow to the religious tradition of the Jewish people.”

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News