Diberdayakan oleh Blogger.

Popular Posts Today

South Africa police fire rubber bullets at striking miners

Written By Bersemangat on Selasa, 30 Oktober 2012 | 23.51

RUSTENBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African police fired rubber bullets and teargas on Tuesday at striking Amplats miners who were protesting against a union-brokered deal to end a six-week wildcat walkout at the top platinum producer.

As they moved into a shanty town near the mines, police also deployed water cannons and stun grenades against groups of protesters armed with wooden sticks and stones. Women and children fled as they fanned out through the maze of tin huts.

One protester was dragged away bleeding heavily and unable to walk, and was treated by paramedics, a Reuters witness said.

The strikers at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) mines near Rustenburg, 120 km (70 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, had been due to return to work following a company offer to reinstate 12,000 men sacked for downing tools six weeks ago.

"We are not giving up, we will soldier on," said striker John Tonsi, who had been shot in the leg by a rubber bullet. "We will fight for our cause until management comes to its senses."

Months of labor unrest in the mines have hit platinum and gold output, threatened growth in Africa's biggest economy and drawn criticism of President Jacob Zuma for his handling of the most damaging strikes since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Amplats said at the weekend it had reached a deal with several unions and would be offering sweeteners, such as a one-off hardship payment of 2,000 rand ($230), to end a strike that has crippled production.

A return to work on Tuesday was one of the conditions attached to the deal.

However, at Amplats' Thembelani mine, hundreds of miners barricaded a road with burning tires, and police said an electricity sub-station at another mine was set alight.

Amplats said it was still working out attendance numbers at its four strike-hit Rustenburg mines. For the past few weeks, fewer than 20 percent of staff have been turning up.

PAYMENT SWEETENERS

The strikes have shone a harsh spotlight on South Africa's persistent income inequality and the promise by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) to build "a better life for all" following the end of white-minority rule.

The strikes have also been a major test for Zuma, who faces an ANC leadership election in December.

Even though his handling of the unrest has caused internal party concern, he remains favorite to win re-election, teeing him up for another five years as national president from 2014.

Management threats of mass dismissals, along with pay sweeteners, have ended most of the strikes in the last two weeks, but workers at Thembelani said they were determined to hold out.

Their main demand is for Amplats to match a salary increase of up to 22 percent offered by rival Lonmin after a violent wildcat walkout at its nearby Marikana platinum mine in August.

The Lonmin offer came in the wake of the police killing of 34 miners on August 16, the bloodiest security incident since apartheid. Lonmin said on Tuesday it wanted to raise $800 million via a rights issue to help it recover from the strikes.

MacDonald Motsaathebe, who has been with Amplats for 12 years, said workers did not agree to the deal struck at the weekend between Amplats and unions including the National Union of Mineworkers.

"We didn't agree to the offer. We want 16,000 rand. Lonmin miners got it, and we want it," said the 35-year-old, whose salary supports nine people. "We earn peanuts."

Strikers at gold firms including AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields returned to work last week after threats of mass dismissals and an offer of a small pay increase.

(Additional reporting and writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Louise Ireland, Ed Cropley and William Maclean)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Guinea opposition cries foul over new electoral body

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's opposition on Tuesday accused the government of tampering with its list of nominees to a newly formed electoral commission, casting doubt on the country's latest efforts to jumpstart election preparations.

A political stalemate in the world's top bauxite supplier, nestled in the midst of Africa's fragile 'coup belt', has stalled legislative polls needed to restart foreign aid and complete a shift to civilian rule after a 2008 coup.

President Alpha Conde named a new 25-person electoral body on Monday which was meant to include 10 people chosen by the opposition under a compromise deal after complaints the previous commission was biased toward the ruling party.

"The opposition coalition submitted a list of 10 members and we do not intend to change it. We cannot accept it," Sidya Toure, a former prime minister and opposition spokesman told Reuters by telephone.

He said one of the opposition's nominees, Thierno Seydou Bayo, a former electoral commissioner seen as a fervent critic of the former electoral structure, was omitted from their list in favor of someone they did not chose.

"Neither the head of state nor the interior minister has the right to change our list," he said, adding that the opposition will meet later on Tuesday to decide on its next move.

The government had agreed in September to shake up the electoral body - to include 10 members from the ruling coalition, 10 from the opposition, and five from civil society, public service and administration - in an effort to defuse tensions that have triggered a rash of violent and ethnically-charged protests.

Parliamentary polls were initially meant to be held in 2011, following Conde's election in late 2010.

The European Union has said Guinea must hold elections by the end of this year in order to restart hundreds of millions of dollars in aid frozen after a 2008 coup, but Western diplomats say polls will not be possible until April 2013 at the earliest.

(Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Jon Hemming)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Palestinians lobby for convincing win in U.N. vote

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians have launched a diplomatic blitz aimed at garnering a strong majority for a vote granting the non-member statehood at the United Nations slated for next month, officials said on Tuesday.

Despite heading for a sure victory in the U.N General Assembly, mostly consisting of post-colonial states historically sympathetic to the Palestinians, West Bank diplomats are courting European countries to further burnish their campaign.

"From the E.U. we will have a minimum of 12 votes and maybe up to 15, as some are not yet decided," Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Reuters. There are 27 nations within the European Union.

Palestinian officials say that they can count on around 115 'yes' votes, mostly from Arab, African, Latin American, and Asian states, and expect around 22 no-votes, led by the United States, and 56 abstentions in the 193-member organization.

Frustrated in their request for full statehood last year amid U.S. opposition at the United Nations Security Council, Palestinians have launched a watered-down bid for recognition as an "observer state" -- the same status given to the Vatican.

Senior Palestinian officials have fanned out around the globe to press their case, including a meeting in Paris with French President Francois Hollande at the weekend.

Speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the talks, a Palestinian official said they hoped to flip a possible French abstention into a yes-vote, while other waiverers might also switch position nearer the date.

Israel and the United States have sharply criticized the Palestinian initiative, arguing that such unilateral moves are in violation of the 1993 Oslo accords, which were intended to pave the way to a "final status agreement" within five years.

While Israel expects to lose the forthcoming vote, it is anxious to see leading Western democracies vote against, or at worst abstain. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met Hollande on Tuesday and was expected to raise the issue.

In Europe, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Georgia were among 5 nations that looked set to vote 'no', the Palestinian official said.

LIKELY PUNISHMENT

Palestinians see the upgrade as international recognition of the lines predating the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. They say this will then be the reference point in future peace talks.

President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to restart the talks, stalled since 2010 over settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, "straightaway", inferring he would drop a Palestinian precondition for a halt to the building work.

The top Palestinian peace negotiator told local newspapers on Tuesday of likely American and Israeli economic punishment should Palestinians win the upgrade.

Saeb Erekat wrote of contingencies including U.S. divestment from U.N. agencies and withdrawal of financial aid as well as the withholding by Israel of $100 million in monthly customs payments that the Palestinian Authority needs to remain afloat.

The U.S. could "freeze all or some of the funding for the Palestinian National Authority ... put pressure on other governments to discourage them from providing support and/or reduce their aid to Palestine," he warned.

Since last year's campaign, the U.S. has withheld $192 million in economic assistance to the broke, aid-dependent Palestinian Authority and stopped funding the U.N. cultural body UNESCO after it admitted Palestine as a member.

Economic anxiety is on the rise in the West Bank following U.S. sanctions and an aid shortfall from rich Gulf states last year, leading to delayed public sector salaries and fuel price hikes which provoked violent street demonstrations last month.

The vote is set to be called on November 15 or 29. Palestinian sources said the first date was more likely because it was closer to U.S. presidential elections on November 6, giving Washington less time to organize a lobbying campaign.

(Editing by Crispian Balmer)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gunmen kill religious leader in Russia's Dagestan

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a Muslim religious leader in Russia's Dagestan region on Tuesday in an attack likely to worsen a spiral of militant violence that threatens Moscow's hold on the restive North Caucasus.

Karimulla Ibragimov was at least the fifth Muslim leader killed this year in Dagestan following a rise in tension between moderate and more radical Muslims in the southern Russian republic.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on Ibragimov in the town of Derbent at around 6:30 a.m (0230 GMT), Russia's Investigative Committee said. Local officials said he had served as an imam at an unregistered mosque frequented by radical Muslims.

"All three died on the spot from the gunshot wounds," the committee, a government agency that handles criminal investigations, said in a statement.

Russian news agencies said the gunmen escaped in a car.

Dagestan is at the centre of an insurgency for an Islamic state in the North Caucasus, more than a decade after Russian troops ousted a rebel government in neighboring Chechnya and restored Moscow's direct control.

Security analysts said the violence could be aimed at spoiling efforts to reconcile moderate and more extremist Muslims, and provoke a more forceful approach by Moscow which could further radicalize the population.

President Vladimir Putin, who as prime minister in 1999 sent troops to Chechnya, has made clear he favors a tough approach and will not let religious intolerance tear Russia apart.

Russia's most senior Islamic cleric warned in August that there was a danger of civil war in Dagestan, which is only a few hundred kilometers (miles) from the city of Sochi where Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Putin has called for unity and has told security forces to outsmart and outmuscle Islamist militants to ensure the safety of the Winter Games and other events Russia is hosting.

CONCERNS OVER EXTREMISM

In comments published on Tuesday, the head of the Dagestan region, Magomedsalam Magomedov, echoed Putin's remarks and pleaded for an end to violence.

"We should act against extremism and terrorism with one front, work more actively, aggressively and in a more targeted way," he was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as telling a regional anti-terrorism commission.

Efforts to reconcile adherents to the mystical Sufi branch of Islam and Muslims who practice the purist Salafi version of the faith were launched after Putin steered his ally Dmitry Medvedev into the presidency in 2008.

But security analysts say that renewed violence in Dagestan could force a more robust approach toward religious intolerance which could backfire by encouraging retaliation and fuelling bloodshed.

"(Today's attack) could be used as one more argument for the increased use of force," said Grigory Shvedov, editor of web news portal Caucasian Knot www.kavkaz-uzel.ru.

"If this approach is implemented, then the violence will definitely increase a lot," he said.

In August, a woman disguised as a pilgrim detonated a bomb strapped to her body in Dagestan, killing popular spiritual leader Said Atsayev, 74, an opponent of militant Islam.

Suicide bombers and gunmen have killed at least three other religious leaders in Dagestan this year, including another Salafi leader earlier this month.

In July, the top Muslim official in Tatarstan - about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) from the North Caucasus - was wounded in a car-bomb attack and his deputy was shot dead the same day.

The attacks raised concerns in Moscow that militant violence could spread to Russia's heartland and Putin flew to Tatarstan to appeal for calm.

The attacks have largely been depicted by religious experts as retribution for the authorities' crackdown on Salafism, which along with corruption and clan feuds, has been instrumental in directing young Muslims into the ranks of the insurgency.

Militants led by Russia's most wanted man, the Chechen-born Doku Umarov, wage almost daily violence to try to establish an Islamist state in the patchwork of mostly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus mountains between the Caspian and Black Seas.

(Reporting by Thomas Grove; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Jon Hemming)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Poland denies explosives found on wreck of crashed jet

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish prosecutors denied a newspaper report that investigators found traces of explosives on the wreckage of the government jet that crashed in Russia two years ago, killing Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

Rzeczpospolita daily said on Tuesday that Polish investigators who examined the remains of the plane in Russia found signs of TNT and nitro-glycerine on the wings and in the cabin, including on 30 seats.

The report strengthened accusations by rightists groups that investigators ignored evidence of outside involvement and prompted opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Lech, to call for the government to resign.

But Polish military prosecutors said they were sticking to their finding that the crash was not an assassination and no explosives were found on the remains of the government Tu-154 that crashed during its approach to a small airport near the Russian city of Smolensk on April 10, 2010.

"It is not true that investigators found traces of TNT or nitro-glycerine," said Colonel Ireneusz Szelag from the military prosecutors' office.

"Evidence and opinions collected so far have in no way provided support to the belief that the crash was a result of actions by third parties, that is to say an assassination," he told a news conference.

Russian investigators had blamed the Polish crew for trying to land in heavy fog, while their Polish counterparts also said the airport controllers should not have allowed the plane to attempt an approach.

Moscow and Warsaw have faced renewed criticism over their handling of the Smolensk investigation after Polish prosecutors admitted last month that families of two of the victims received and buried the wrong remains.

On Tuesday, Szelag said two more bodies were misidentified and lawyers for families of other victims feared more remains may need to be exhumed.

Before the denial by prosecutors, Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the newspaper report was proof that his twin brother and the other passengers of the presidential plane were murdered.

"We demand the resignation of the government of (Prime Minister) Donald Tusk," Kaczynski told reporters. "It cannot be that Poland is governed by people who have obfuscated for 30 months in the matter of what we can now say is a heinous crime."

(Reporting by Chris Borowski; Editing by Jon Hemming)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Greek Socialists urge PM to seek more concessions

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's Socialist party on Tuesday criticized the prime minister for saying talks on an austerity package had concluded and urged him to seek further concessions from foreign lenders before a November 12 meeting of euro zone finance ministers.

"We call on the government to do its best, make use of the national forces, to seek the best possible result of this crucial Eurogroup meeting," PASOK party chief Evangelos Venizelos told party officials, according to a statement.

The statement came after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said the long-running negotiations on the austerity plan had been completed and urged coalition allies to vote in favor of the package.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou, Writing by Deepa Babington)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Serbian general opens appeal with Libya warning for Britain and France

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The former head of the Serbian army, who was convicted last year for war crimes during the Balkans wars of the 1990s, told an appeal court on Tuesday he could not be held responsible for the actions of an army that was not under his direct control.

General Momcilo Perisic is appealing against his conviction for murder, persecution and attacks on civilians in Bosnia and Croatia, including the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and the 42-month siege of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serb forces.

Perisic, 68, was sentenced to 27 years in prison in September 2011 for helping the Serb troops to plan and carry out the war crimes.

"Never before was a chief of staff indicted and convicted for crimes committed by members of another army in another country," Perisic told the court.

"My case remains unique in the world," said Perisic, who was also convicted of securing financial and logistical support for Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia.

Prosecutors said Perisic was directly responsible for atrocities committed by the fighters in Bosnia and Croatia and that he had made conscious attempts to conceal his role.

"What the chamber did was to remove this veil of deception and show Perisic's position of authority and effective control," said Elena Martin Salgado, for the prosecution.

A lawyer for Perisic said that holding him responsible for the actions of the Bosnian Serb army risked creating a double standard.

Britain and France had intervened in Libya last year with "impunity" in support of rebel forces they did not control in order to topple dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

"Do we think it's going to be prosecutions around the world for the United States and its personnel? Or for the U.K. or for France? Or for NATO?" asked Gregory Guy Smith, one of Perisic's lawyers.

"I think not, and the problem that's going to occur very rapidly will be that there will be a rise in impunity, because there will be a recognition that there is not equal treatment under the law," he told the court.

Perisic is the only senior Belgrade official convicted of atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia during the wars that followed the break-up of multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president, died in detention before the end of his trial. Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, and Ratko Mladic, the leader of the Bosnian Serb forces, are still on trial.

(Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Angus MacSwan)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rwandan opposition politician jailed for eight years

KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda's high court on Tuesday sentenced a leading opposition politician to eight years in prison, in a case linked to the 1994 genocide and seen as a test of the judiciary's independence.

Victoire Ingabire, leader of the unregistered FDU-Inkingi party, had faced six charges and was found guilty of two: conspiring to harm the country through war and terror and minimizing the genocide.

Ingabire had pleaded not guilty. She was accused of transferring money to FDLR Hutu rebels and of questioning why no Hutu victims were mentioned in a genocide memorial.

More than 800,000 people were killed in the central African country when an ethnic Hutu-led government and ethnic militias went on a 100-day killing spree in April 1994, indiscriminately killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

BARRED FROM ELECTION

Ingabire, a Hutu, returned to Rwanda in January 2010 from exile in the Netherlands to contest presidential elections but was barred from standing after being accused of crimes linked to genocide denial. The vote was won overwhelmingly by President Paul Kagame.

In mid-April this year, Ingabire began to boycott the trial, saying her "trust in the judiciary has waned".

Iain Edwards, Ingabire's British lawyer, argued that the evidence against her was fabricated and that some of the charges were against Rwanda's constitution.

On Tuesday, Edwards said Ingabire would appeal the verdict.

"I'm not surprised, (but I am) disappointed. I firmly believe that she should have been acquitted of all of the counts on the indictment," he told reporters.

"But we will go to appeal on what it is that she has been convicted of," he said.

"She will be disappointed ... but she's an intelligent person who recognizes that the likelihood of her being acquitted of all of these allegations was unlikely."

There was no immediate reaction to the verdict from members of her party. A handful of her supporters were in court but left quietly after the verdict.

Some Western diplomats also attended the session, which lasted about four hours.

PRAISE AND CRITICISM

Kagame's final presidential term expires in 2017. He has led his country's recovery from the 1994 genocide, receiving praise for his efforts to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country by 2020.

But critics accuse him of being authoritarian and trampling on media and political freedoms. He rejects the accusations.

"Political space in Rwanda barely exists, I would say, for opposition parties in the real sense of the word," said Carina Tertsakian, senior researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

"The verdict today is the culmination of a long and flawed trial for Victoire Ingabire which included several charges which in our view were politically motivated."

Ingabire was arrested by Rwandan police on October 14 after they said investigations into a former rebel commander facing terrorism charges had also implicated her.

Phil Clark, a lecturer at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said the prosecution of Ingabire sent a message to other Rwandan political groups.

"I think this verdict will certainly cause concerns that if they contest they may find very serious charges brought against them as well," he said.

"It sends a warning to other parties who may want to run in future elections."

(Writing by James Macharia; editing by Andrew Roche)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Clinton: Bosnia risks being left behind on EU/NATO path

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Bosnia on Tuesday to overcome ethnic infighting and pursue constitutional reforms needed for any chance of joining NATO and the European Union.

"If you do not make progress you will be left behind," Clinton said at the start of a trip with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to three Balkan nations still coming to terms with the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

"We are here today to urge the leaders to put aside their political differences, put aside the rhetoric of dissolution, secession, denial of what tragically happened in the war, for the sake of the young people of this country," Clinton told a news conference after meeting Bosnia's tripartite presidency.

Bosnia remains deeply divided 17 years since the end of its 1992-95 war, which killed 100,000 people before the United States, under then President Bill Clinton, brokered peace at an air base in Dayton, Ohio.

Power is shared uneasily between Serbs, Croats and Muslims in an unwieldy state ruled by ethnic quotas. Bosnia lags behind its ex-Yugoslav neighbors on the road to the EU membership.

Croatia, already a member of NATO, is due to become the second country carved from Yugoslavia to join the EU in July next year. Slovenia did so in 2004.

Montenegro has started EU accession talks and Serbia and Macedonia are both official candidates for membership. Bosnia has yet to meet the conditions to apply. Clinton and Ashton were due in Serbia and its former province Kosovo later on Tuesday.

Clinton implored Bosnia's leaders to reach a deal on the ownership of defense property, the last condition of accession to NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP), a stepping stone to joining the Western military alliance.

If they reach agreement, Clinton said, "I will personally go to the NATO ministerial in Brussels in December to push for MAP to be given to you."

Ashton said the 27-nation EU wanted to see "effective and determined action from the authorities."

That includes agreement on reforming the constitution to address a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that it discriminates against minorities.

The West invested heavily to cement peace and rebuild Bosnia, but people there have opposing visions of its future.

Bosnia's Muslims want the central state strengthened, but are opposed by leaders of the autonomous Serb Republic who frequently threaten secession.

Clinton said such notions were "totally unacceptable".

"Such talk is a distraction from the problems facing this country, and serves only to undermine the goal of European integration. The Dayton Accords must be respected and preserved - period."

(Additional reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Syrian air force on offensive after failed truce

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed rebel targets with renewed intensity on Tuesday after the end of a widely ignored four-day truce between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and insurgents.

State television said "terrorists" had assassinated an air force general, Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi, in a Damascus suburb, the latest of several rebel attacks on senior officials.

In July, a bomb killed four of Assad's aides, including his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and the defense minister.

Air strikes hit eastern suburbs of Damascus, outlying areas in the central city of Homs, and the northern rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numan on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, activists said.

Rebels have been attacking army bases in al-Hamdaniya and Wadi al-Deif, on the outskirts of Maarat al-Numan.

Some activists said 28 civilians had been killed in Maarat al-Numan and released video footage of men retrieving a toddler's body from a flattened building. The men cursed Assad as they dragged the dead girl, wearing a colorful overall, from the debris. The footage could not be independently verified.

The military has shelled and bombed Maarat al-Numan, 300 km (190 miles) north of Damascus, since rebels took it last month.

"The rebels have evacuated their positions inside Maarat al-Numaan since the air raids began. They are mostly on the frontline south of the town," activist Mohammed Kanaan said.

Maarat al-Numan and other Sunni towns in northwestern Idlib province are mostly hostile to Assad's ruling system, dominated by his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Two rebels were killed and 10 wounded in an air strike on al-Mubarkiyeh, 6 km (4 miles) south of Homs, where rebels have besieged a compound guarding a tank maintenance facility.

Opposition sources said the facility had been used to shell Sunni villages near the Lebanese border.

"WE'LL FIX IT"

The army also fired mortar bombs into the Damascus district of Hammouria, killing at least eight people, activists said.

One video showed a young girl in Hammouria with a large shrapnel wound in her forehead sitting dazed while a doctor said: "Don't worry dear, we'll fix it for you."

Syria's military, stretched thin by the struggle to keep control, has increasingly used air power against opposition areas, including those in the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo. Insurgents lack effective anti-aircraft weapons.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said he will pursue his peace efforts despite the failure of his appeal for a pause in fighting for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

But it is unclear how he can find any compromise acceptable to Assad, who seems determined to keep power whatever the cost, and mostly Sunni Muslim rebels equally intent on toppling him.

Big powers and Middle Eastern countries are divided over how to end the 19-month-old conflict which has cost an estimated 32,000 dead, making it one of the bloodiest of Arab revolts that have ousted entrenched leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The United Nations said it had sent a convoy of 18 trucks with food and other aid to Homs during the "ceasefire", but had been unable to unload supplies in the Old City due to fighting.

"We were trying to take advantage of positive signs we saw at the end of last week. The truce lasted more or less four hours so there was not much opportunity for us after all," said Jens Laerke, a U.N. spokesman in Geneva.

The prime minister of the Gulf state of Qatar told al-Jazeera television late on Monday that Syria's conflict was not a civil war but "a war of annihilation licensed firstly by the Syrian government and secondly by the international community".

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said some of those responsible were on the U.N. Security Council, alluding to Russia and China which have vetoed three Western-backed U.N. draft resolutions condemning Assad.

He said that the West was also not doing enough to stop the violence and that the United States would be in "paralysis" for two or three weeks during its presidential election.

(Additional reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alistair Lyon)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Egypt ruling allows time for constitution

Written By Bersemangat on Selasa, 23 Oktober 2012 | 23.51

CAIRO (Reuters) - A legal case against the assembly writing Egypt's new constitution was referred to the country's top court on Tuesday, a move likely to give the Islamist-dominated body enough time to complete its work before the judges can rule.

The step appeared to remove legal doubts overshadowing a process that will shape the post-Hosni Mubarak era. But the assembly still faces a struggle to build consensus around a text that is exposing fault lines in Egypt's new political landscape.

"The case is finished. The challenge will now be a political one, not a legal one. If you don't have a consensus you will have a big crisis," said Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at the University of Cairo.

The new constitution is a major component of a transition from military-backed autocracy to a democratic system of government that Egyptians hoped would follow the popular uprising that swept Mubarak from power last year.

Yet its drafting has been marred by political bickering. Non-Islamists say the process has marginalized other voices in society. Much of the debate has been shaped by a tussle over the role Islam should play in government.

There are also complaints the text falls short of hopes for revolutionary change sought by parties that were due to launch a new initiative to press their demands - a sign of a push to shape the debate.

The judge hearing 43 complaints against the way the assembly was formed sent the case to the Supreme Constitutional Court. Plaintiffs, many of them motivated by alarm at the Islamists' sway, argued the 100-person assembly had been formed illegally.

Legal experts said it could take months - up to six by some estimates - for the constitutional court to examine the case. Barring an exceptional burst of activity by the judges, that means the assembly will have time to finish the constitution by December's deadline. The text will then put to a referendum.

"The decision gives the assembly the chance to finish what it started by completing the draft and putting it to a referendum," said Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, a Muslim Brotherhood lawyer, at the end of a chaotic court session punctuated by chants for and against the assembly.

"Once the constitution is approved in the referendum ... the Supreme Constitutional Court has no authority over it."

"CRUNCH TIME"

The constitution has been the focus of political and legal struggle since the start of the year. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Nour Party - both Islamist groups - secured an influential say over the process by winning a majority in the first parliamentary election held after Mubarak's removal from power.

But the assembly formed shortly afterwards was dissolved by a court ruling in March after plaintiffs fought a successful legal battle over its make-up. Subsequently, parliament itself was dissolved. New legislative elections are scheduled to take place after the constitution is passed.

According to an October 14 draft, the new constitution will guard against the one-man rule of the Mubarak era and institutionalize a degree of civilian oversight - not enough say the critics - over the military establishment that had been at the heart of power since a 1952 coup.

The draft has been criticized for failing to provide enough protection for rights such as the freedom to form trade unions, which it links to unspecified future legislation. Experts say the vagueness of some of the articles smacks more of the autocratic past than a democratic future.

Highlighting the concerns of the non-Islamists, the liberal Dustour Party headed by Mohamed ElBaradei and the Popular Current, a leftist party founded by defeated presidential challenger Hamdeen Sabahi, are launching a campaign for a "revolutionary constitution", a Current spokeswoman said.

Zaid Al-Ali, a constitutional lawyer who has been monitoring the process, said it was now or never for Egyptians to reach a consensus on the new constitution. "It's crunch time," he said.

"They have two months to rebuild trust between each other, iron out the inconsistencies and gaps in the draft text, and convince the country that the coming constitution is the best available solution for the country," he told Reuters.

Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians' Party, said President Mohamed Mursi must now intervene to appoint a more balanced assembly, indicating that street protests were the only path left for people seeking to change the assembly.

"The issue went out of the arena of the courts and has become one of the people," he told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Yasmine Saleh; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alison Williams)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rebels battle Assad's forces for gateway to north Syria

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are battling to seize an army base close to the main north-south highway and say its capture would be a big step towards creating a "safe zone" allowing them to focus on Bashar al-Assad's southern strongholds.

For two weeks they have surrounded and attacked Wadi al-Deif, east of the town of Maarat al-Numan. They say the ferocity of counter-attacks by government forces shows how important holding the base is to the president's military strategy.

Assad is fighting an insurgency that grew out of protests 19 months ago and has escalated into a civil war in which 30,000 people have been killed. His overstretched army has lost swathes of territory and relies on air power to keep rebels at bay.

If Wadi al-Daif fell to rebels, who already control northern border crossings to Turkey, Assad would be dependent on a single land route - from the Mediterranean port of Latakia - to supply his forces fighting to win back Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.

"The battle started 11 days ago. At first we sent small groups to liberate (the base) and we were surprised by the resistance the regime forces showed," said Lieutenant-Colonel Khaled Hmood, a former army officer who defected to fight Assad.

"The regime is fighting fiercely. It seems that it doesn't care if it loses thousands of troops in order to keep its control over the compound."

Maarat al-Numan has already fallen to Assad's opponents, effectively cutting the Aleppo highway. But without control of the nearby military base, their hold over the road is tenuous.

Hmood said he believed around 400 soldiers were defending Wadi al-Deif - a group of barracks barely 500 meters (yards) from the Damascus-Aleppo road and backed by air power that Assad has deployed against rebels and Maarat al-Numan residents.

The base may also be an important fuel depot, holding at least five million liters of kerosene in five underground bunkers, according to Hmood..

"The regime is bombarding Maarat al-Numan and the villages to pressure us to end the siege," he said. "By bombarding our families they want to force us to pull back."

Anti-Assad activists say 40 civilians were killed in air strikes on the town last Thursday in one of the most intense air offensives of the Syrian conflict.

ARMY REPULSED

The army has resorted to supplying Wadi al-Deif by air, dropping bread and other food supplies from helicopters.

But its efforts to send military reinforcements have been repulsed by the besieging rebels. The last attempt on Sunday ended when four tanks were destroyed and the remnants of an army column had to pull back. "We have noticed that the best strategy is to hit its supply line. We have been harming the regime a lot by hitting the reinforcements it is sending."

Hmood said that if rebels could take the base and secure the highway, they could intensify efforts to cut Assad's second main supply line to the north - the road from Latakia to Aleppo that passes through the town of Jisr al-Shughour.

"If we liberate these barracks we will be able to protect our backs and move on to Jisr al-Shughour from which we can block supplies and reinforcement coming from Latakia," he said.

"This will give us a de-facto free zone ... The north will be liberated and will be our enforced free zone, and the battle will be in the south of the country."

The rebels still face challenges to take the base. Although they have acquired increasingly deadly arms, including artillery and anti-aircraft weapons, they have regularly complained that they have only limited supplies to keep up the fight.

There have been bouts of heavy fighting along the border with Turkey with some rounds of heavy weapons fire crashing on Turkish territory, prompting Ankara to beef up its military presence and return fire.

On Tuesday an anti-aircraft shell fired from Syria hit a health center in the Reyhanli district of Turkey's Hatay province but there were no reports of injuries, CNN Turk television said.

Tension between the two formerly allied states has soared since Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan broke with Assad last year over his violent crackdown on popular protests.

The sporadic skirmishes along the border have heightened concern that Syria's civil war could drag in regional powers.

International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who ended a four-day visit to Damascus on Tuesday, has pushed for a ceasefire to mark the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, which starts on Friday, hoping for a respite from daily death tolls of around 150.

But he did not win a public commitment to a truce in his talks with Assad, and the rebels say there is little point to a ceasefire that cannot be monitored or enforced.

Assad granted a limited amnesty for crimes committed up until Tuesday, excluding those involved in weapons smuggling.

(Additional reporting by Daren Butler and Ece Toksabay in Turkey; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Car bombs, mortars kill nine in Baghdad Shi'ite districts

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb blasts and mortars killed at least nine people and wounded 28 more in Shi'ite districts in Baghdad on Tuesday, just days before Iraqis started celebrating the Islamic Eid al-Adha religious festival.

Car bombs exploded and mortars landed around the Shi'ite neighborhood of Shula, northwestern Baghdad, killing 8 people and wounded 28, and another person was killed by a mortar round in Kadhimiya area, police and hospital sources said.

"Three car bombs exploded one after the other, and we started to hear the screaming and shouting," said a policeman who was patrolling in Shula. "Some walls of houses collapsed, and glass was shattered everywhere."

Violence in Iraq is well below the bloody peak of sectarian war in 2006-2007, but al Qaeda affiliates and other Sunni Islamist insurgents often target Shi'ites in an attempt to stoke tensions between Sunni and Shi'ite communities.

The insurgents have launched one major assault a month since U.S. troops withdrew in December. Security officials say they believe insurgents may try to carry out a large attack during the religious holiday starting on Friday.

The monthly death toll from militant attacks across Iraq doubled in September to 365, the highest figure for more than two years, with most of them killed in bomb attacks, according to government figures released this month.

(Reporting by Baghdad newsroom; writing by Patrick Markey)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iran says may stop oil sales if sanctions tighten

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday it would stop oil exports if pressure from Western sanctions got any tighter and that it had a "Plan B" contingency strategy to survive without oil revenues.

Western nations led by the United States have imposed tough sanctions on the Islamic Republic this year in an attempt to curb its nuclear program that they say is designed to produce atomic weapons. Tehran says its nuclear plans are peaceful.

"If sanctions intensify we will stop exporting oil," Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi told reporters in Dubai.

Qasemi's statement is the latest in a series of threats of retaliation by Tehran in response to the sanctions, which have heightened political tensions across the Middle East and, analysts say, led to a sharp drop in Iranian oil exports.

"We have prepared a plan to run the country without any oil revenues," Qasemi said, adding, "So far to date we haven't had any serious problems, but if the sanctions were to be renewed we would go for 'Plan B'.

"If you continue to add to the sanctions we (will) cut our oil exports to the world... We are hopeful that this doesn't happen, because citizens will suffer. We don't want to see European and U.S. citizens suffer," he said, adding that the loss of Iranian oil on the market would drive up oil prices.

Analysts brushed off Qasemi's threat.

"It's just making noise. It would be like cutting off their nose to spite their face," said Leo Drollas, Chief Economist at the Centre for Global Energy Studies.

"Iran needs to export its crude more than other countries need to import it. They are desperate for cash."

Sanctions have already reduced Iran's exports to around 1 million barrels per day (bpd) compared to 2.2 million bpd in 2011. China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey now count as Tehran's main buyers.

The U.S. government has focused on blocking Iran's oil exports because it estimates that crude sales provide about half of Iranian government revenues and that oil and oil products make up nearly 80 percent of the country's total exports.

The rial plunged by about a third against the U.S. dollar in the week to October 2, reflecting a slide in oil income wrought by tightened sanctions over summer aimed at pressuring Tehran to drop its nuclear program.

How long the economy could function without selling any oil is unclear, but Iran has large currency reserves accumulated over decades as one of the world's largest oil suppliers.

"What else can they export to generate the necessary revenues?" Carsten Fritsch of Commerzbank said in the Reuters Global Oil Forum.

Because of the slide in the rial and oil export earnings, the government is already moving onto an austerity footing, cutting imports of non-essential goods and urging its citizens to buy fewer foreign products.

Iran has in the past said it could shut the vital shipping lane of Hormuz at the head of the Middle East Gulf. However, a large Western naval force sent to keep open the route, through which about a third of the world's seaborne oil exports pass might be a large obstacle to such an attempt.

PRODUCTION CAPACITY

Earlier on Tuesday, Qasemi said Iran was still producing 4 million barrels per day (bpd), rejecting reports the country's output has fallen to around 2.7 million bpd.

According to the latest secondary source estimates published by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Iran pumped just 2.72 bpd in September, and Iran's own data submitted to OPEC showed the country produced 3.75 million bpd in August.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that Iranian exports fell to a new low of 860,000 bpd in September, down from 2.2 million bpd at the end of 2011.

Assuming a crude oil price of $110, such a sharp drop means Iran making just $95 million dollars from daily crude sales last month, about $147 million less every day than it was making late last year.

Nevertheless, Qasemi said Iran was pumping oil at full capacity and refining more of its own oil to meet domestic demand.

"It is currently 4 million barrels per day," he said, declining to give export figures.

"Iran has been facing U.S. sanctions for 30 years while successfully managing its oil sector," he said.

He said Iran's refining capacity was now 2 million barrels per day (bpd) with another 200,000 bpd of capacity to be added before the end of Iranian year next March.

The increase in refining capacity had already ended Iran's need to import vehicle fuel and could soon drive a boom in fuel exports, the minister said.

"Our daily consumption of petrol (gasoline) is 90 million liters ... Earlier, a big portion of that was being imported but we no longer import products," he said.

"Right now, we not only don't import but we also export some products ... there are always customers for Iranian oil.

"By the end of the Iranian year they will reach their maximum capacity and then we can export more Iranian oil products," he said.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren and Amena Bakr, additional reporting by Christopher Johnson and Alex Lawler in London, writing by Christopher Johnson; editing by Keiron Henderson)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Army say gunmen agree to truce in Lebanon's Tripoli

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - The Lebanese army said it had arranged a ceasefire on Tuesday in the northern city of Tripoli after two nights of fighting between Sunni and Alawite gunmen loyal to different sides in the war in neighboring Syria, a military source said on Tuesday.

At least 10 people have been killed and 65 wounded in clashes in Tripoli despite a heavy deployment of troops backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers.

In the capital Beirut, life was getting back to normal after soldiers swept though the city on Monday to dismantle barricades and clear the streets of gunmen who had clashed on Sunday night.

The violence flared after Friday's assassination in central Beirut of senior Lebanese security official, Wissam al-Hassan, who had worked to counter Syrian influence in Lebanon.

The car bombing and ensuing clashes brought the civil war in Syria into the heart of Lebanon and triggered a political crisis, with the opposition demanding the resignation of the mostly pro-Damascus cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

The fighting in Tripoli took place between the neighboring areas of Bab al-Tabbaneh, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, and Jebel Mohsen, an Alawite district. Residents said combatants had traded machinegun-fire and rocket-propelled grenades after nightfall and snipers were active during the day.

A military source told Reuters that after talks with the army on Tuesday both sides had agreed to a halt in the hostilities. However, as evening fell residents reported hearing occasional gunfire.

The army said in a statement it had arrested 100 people since Sunday, including 34 Syrians and 4 Palestinians, in a security operation aimed at getting guns off the streets.

It said soldiers had raided properties in Beirut and Tripoli where gunmen were sheltering and seized weapons. Fifteen members of the security forces had been wounded by gunfire.

TEENAGE WASTELAND

On Tuesday morning, soldiers backed by tanks and armored vehicles were stationed in the streets of Tripoli, which has suffered several previous bouts of fighting since the Syrian conflict started 19 months ago.

But at the front line, they merely looked on as teen-aged fighters carrying assault rifles ran up and down the streets.

Shops close to the combat zone were shuttered and the area blocked off with what people called "Bullet Checkpoints" - streets where they feared to go for fear of snipers.

Tripoli's Sunni Muslims support the Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, who are mostly from Syria's Sunni majority.

Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. He can count on the support of Hezbollah, a powerful Shi'ite Islamist armed group that is part of the Mikati government, as well as other Shi'ites and Alawites in Lebanon's complex sectarian and political mix.

Lebanon is still haunted by its 1975-1990 civil war, which made Beirut a byword for carnage and wrecked much of the city. Many Lebanese fear Syria's war will drag their country back to those days, destroying their efforts to rebuild it as a centre of trade, finance and tourism with a semblance of democracy.

Opposition politicians have accused Syria of being behind Friday's killing of Brigadier General Hassan, an opponent of the Damascus leadership.

A Sunni Muslim, Hassan helped to uncover a bomb plot that led to the arrest and indictment in August of a pro-Assad former Lebanese minister. He also led an investigation that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the 2005 assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon.

Mikati, who is also a Sunni Muslim, had personal ties to the Assad family before he became prime minister in January last year. His cabinet includes Hezbollah as well as Christian and other Shi'ite politicians close to Damascus.

He offered to resign at the weekend to make way for a government of national unity but President Michel Suleiman persuaded him to stay in office to allow time for talks on a way out of the political crisis.

If he were to stand down before an alternative was worked out, it would mean the collapse of the political compromise that has kept the peace in Lebanon.

Free Patriotic Movement parliamentarian Michel Aoun, a Christian politician and ally of the well-armed Hezbollah, said Lebanon could not live with such a power vacuum.

"What happened (Hassan's assassination) constitutes a security setback but if there was a vacuum, maybe the country would be in chaos," he told the Beirut Daily Star newspaper.

Visiting European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Lebanese political leaders in Beirut on Tuesday and stressed the importance of political and social reforms. She also warned of the dangers of a weak state.

"At such times, the importance of robust state institutions that continue to provide security and services cannot be overstated," she told reporters before leaving.

POSTERS ON WALLS

In Tripoli, Mikati's hometown, resentment was growing among some residents against him and his connection with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which is led by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

A protest camp has been set up outside his house.

One protester, Azam Karali, a 47-year-old Sunni jewelry shop owner, said he would stay there until Mikati resigns.

"It was Tripoli that brought him to power but he has now gone to March 8," he said, referring to a group of political parties including Hezbollah who are close to Syria.

"We want our politics to be Lebanese. We don't want Syrian interference, or even American, Iranian, Saudi, whatever."

Posters of the assassinated intelligence chief were plastered on walls all over the city.

"Assad, Nasrallah and Iran made that bomb and we have now lost our protector," said Abu Marwan, a car salesman who had been at the protest camp since Saturday.

But a man called Bassam, an architect, said he supported Mikati and he believed 70 percent of the city did so too.

"This is Mikati's city. He helps us," he said, speaking in a coffee shop. "Tell me, where is the evidence that this bomb was Syrian made?"

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and Dominic Evans; Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Jon Hemming)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Russia's parliament votes to expand definition of high treason

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's parliament on Tuesday voted to expand the country's definition of high treason in a move that critics said meant any Russian citizen who had contacts with a foreigner could be accused of trying to undermine the state.

The proposed changes - that still need to be approved by the upper house of parliament and President Vladimir Putin before they become law - redefine high treason to include "granting financial, technical, consulting or other help" to those seeking to damage Russia's security, including its "constitutional system, sovereignty, territorial and state integrity."

The vote follows Putin's return to the presidency in May which was preceded by the biggest anti-Putin protests of his 12-year rule. The Kremlin has pushed a raft of laws through parliament since May that opposition politicians and activists have described as a tough crackdown on dissent.

The parliament's lower chamber, or Duma, voted 375-2 to expand the definitions of high treason and espionage and to introduce prison terms of up to eight years for illegally obtaining secret state information.

The opposition Just Russia party said it opposed the changes, saying such a wide definition of high treason meant "almost any Russian citizen with any contacts with any foreigner" could be accused of betraying the state.

Rights activists have warned that the law could be used to sanction anyone who incurs the wrath of the authorities.

"This law is designed for arbitrary interpretation," said Alexander Cherkasov, an activist at the rights group Memorial.

"Imagine they will start taking all this seriously and apply all these laws to everybody. This would mean writing off all social and political life as well as international ties."

Recently approved legislation hikes fines for protesters and forces foreign-sponsored non-governmental organizations to register as "foreign agents", a term echoing the Cold War era.

Russia's Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, who was originally appointed by Putin, sided with the treason bill's critics, saying it contradicted international law and Russia's constitution by choosing a definition that was too broad to fairly determine a person's guilt.

The proposal also adds multinational organizations to a list of bodies that could benefit from state secrets. Previously, the list had only named the governments and organizations of foreign states.

"In obtaining information constituting a state secret in regard to the Russian Federation various international organizations may act in their own interests or for the benefit of secret services of various foreign countries," a document explaining the proposed changes read.

It also mentioned unspecified attempts by various international organizations to obtain Russia's state secrets "by illegal means".

Moscow ordered the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to close at the start of this month, accusing Washington of using its international aid mission in Russia to meddle in Russian politics and influence elections.

(Editing by Andrew Osborn)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

UK bomb suspects played currency market to raise funds: court

LONDON (Reuters) - Three Islamist militants accused of plotting attacks in Britain tried to raise funds for their bombing campaign by trading stolen charity money on the foreign exchange market, a court heard on Tuesday.

The three men from Birmingham in central England were arrested with several others on terrorism charges in September last year as part of a wider crackdown following the 2005 bomb attacks in London that killed 52 people.

The trio, on trial in London accused of being central figures in a suicide bomb plot, tried to raise money to finance a shop as a "cover" to recruit others to their cause, prosecutor Brian Altman told the jury.

He said the defendants had asked an associate, Rahin Ahmed, to set up a currency trading account using 14,500 pounds ($23,200) they had amassed posing as volunteer fundraisers for a Muslim charity.

British-born Ashik Ali, 27, Irfan Khalid, 27,and Irfan Naseer, 31, have all pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges.

The three appeared relaxed in the glass-fronted dock, occasionally flicking through ring-binders of the prosecutor's evidence and exchanging words quietly with each other.

Prosecutors said transcripts of covertly recorded conversations would form the bulk of their evidence.

"We're planning soon to open a shop ... obviously we're gonna need money innit," Naseer was quoted as saying in one recorded conversation, according to a written transcript provided by the prosecutor.

The court heard how the defendants started doubting Ahmed's trading abilities after it transpired he had lost more than 9,000 pounds, blaming "troubles in Europe".

Jurors at Woolwich Crown Court were told how the men had worried that the locations of militant camps in Asia might be revealed by four other men Naseer allegedly helped send to Pakistan for training.

"They'll arrest all the brothers' man, all their commando kit, all their weapons ... millions worth of weapons," the transcript quoted Naseer as telling another defendant.

The trial continues.

(Editing by Maria Golovnina)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Major powers examine long-shot options in Iran talks

BRUSSELS/VIENNA (Reuters) - Big powers may ask Iran for stricter limits on its nuclear work if it wants an easing of harsh sanctions - a long-shot approach aimed at yielding a negotiated solution that has eluded them for more than a decade.

A solution to the standoff is increasingly urgent. The longer the impasse goes on, the closer Iran could get to the technological threshold of a capability to build an atom bomb, raising the odds of Israeli strikes against its installations.

Western diplomats say the possibility of revising their negotiating tactic is under discussion as they prepare for possible talks with Iran after the November 6 presidential election in the United States, following three inconclusive rounds this year.

One option could be for each side to put more on the table - both in terms of demands and possible rewards - than in previous meetings in a bid to break the stalemate despite deep skepticism about the chances of a breakthrough any time soon.

Years of diplomacy and sanctions have failed to resolve a dispute between the West and Iran over its nuclear program, raising fears of Israeli military action against its arch foe and a new Middle East war damaging to a fragile world economy.

"The next meeting would have to be well prepared," said one Western diplomat. "There could be interesting new developments, like more demands and more concessions."

Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power and convinced a nuclear Tehran would pose a mortal threat, says Iran could arrive at the point of being able to "weaponise" enriched uranium next spring or summer.

Iran denies accusations it is seeking nuclear weapons and has so far refused to meet demands that it scales back its atomic activity, insisting on immediate sanctions relief.

Western powers have rejected that and, instead, offered limited incentives focused on technology cooperation. They have also ramped up punitive measures to draw Iran, one of the world's biggest oil producers, into meaningful talks.

Another Western diplomat cautioned that a new strategy for diplomacy had yet to be finalized by Iran's six interlocutors: the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

But he said a new meeting with Iran soon after the U.S. vote could not be ruled out, and preparations were under way.

"It is possible there may indeed be some meeting in November to discuss an offer ... and that we ask more of the Iranians, in which case we could offer more," this diplomat said.

SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS

In a possible sign diplomacy could gather speed after the U.S. election, the New York Times has reported Washington and Iran have agreed in principle to hold one-on-one negotiations, although the White House denied that any talks had been set.

In the earlier meetings this year, the powers called on Iran to stop producing higher-grade enriched uranium, shut down its Fordow underground facility and ship out its stockpile.

Iran rejected the proposal, described by Western officials as an initial step to build confidence, and demanded recognition of its "right" to refine uranium, activity which can have both civilian and military purposes, as well as lifting of sanctions.

But for Iran to secure any relaxation of the pressure, it would have to take substantial additional action beyond the so-called "stop, shut and ship" demand, another Western official said. "For a lifting of sanctions they would have to do much more than just these three steps," the official said.

A more-more strategy would make sense as the West would want to see strict limits to Iran's entire enrichment program, said nuclear expert Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank.

Any new proposal would also have to take into account Iran's growing holdings of refined uranium as well as its expanding enrichment capacity, according to Fitzpatrick.

In return for making concessions, Iran "will need some sanctions relief beyond the meager measures that were offered in the earlier rounds of talks," he added.

But Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group said a "gulf of expectations" between negotiators and the irreversible nature of many sanctions made a "more-for-more" strategy implausible.

"Managing to seal a 'big-for-big' deal in the total absence of trust would be equivalent to reversing the law of gravity."

Iran has enough low-enriched uranium for several atomic bombs if it were refined to a high degree, but may still be a few years away from being able to assemble a missile if it decided to go down that path, analysts say.

Experts say it has become increasingly unrealistic to expect Iran to suspend all its enrichment, even if this demand is enshrined in a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the aim should be to restrain the activity as much as possible.

Daryl Kimball of the Washington-based Arms Control Association said high-level U.S.-Iranian talks could help to reach a deal and reduce the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Negotiators should seek to limit Iran's enrichment, cap its stockpiles and give U.N. inspectors more access to ensure it does not engage in weapons-related nuclear activity. In return, there would be a "phased rollback of sanctions," he said.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Qaeda goes underground in Yemen against U.S.-driven crackdown

ADEN (Reuters) - A U.S.-backed military onslaught may have driven Islamist militants from towns in Yemen they seized last year, but many have regrouped into "sleeper cells" threatening anew the areas they vacated, security officials and analysts say.

The resilience of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), despite increased U.S. drone strikes to eliminate militants, is worrying for top oil exporter Saudi Arabia next door and the security of major shipping lanes in the seas off Yemen.

When a nationwide uprising against autocratic rule erupted last year, tying up security forces and causing a power vacuum, militants charged into the major south Yemen towns of Zinjibar, Jaar and Shuqra and set up Islamic "emirates".

To broad their appeal, the militants renamed themselves Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), appointed spokesmen to deal with the media and put up signposts and flags. Poverty, unemployment and alienation from a central government seen as aloof and corrupt spurred some young men to join the cause.

Residents said the militants included Saudis, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Chechens and Somalis, hinting at the international scope of the jihadi threat to Saudi and Western interests.

After President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally bowed to popular revolt and stepped down in February, the U.S.-backed Yemeni military swept in and wrested back southern towns from the militants, sometimes after heavy fighting.

But the south, where resentment of tribal domination from the north has long run high and a separatist movement revived in 2007, has since become a more dangerous place, residents say.


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Qatar visit breaks Gaza ice, delights Hamas

GAZA (Reuters) - The Emir of Qatar embraced the Hamas leadership of Gaza on Tuesday with an official visit that broke the isolation of the Palestinian Islamist movement, to the dismay of Israel and rival, Western-backed Palestinian leaders.

Israel said it was "astounding" that Qatar, a U.S.-allied Gulf state whose oil and gas permit it to punch way above its diplomatic weight, would take sides in the Palestinian dispute and endorse Hamas, branded as terrorists in the West. The emir had "thrown peace under the bus", an Israeli spokesman said.

But some analysts saw a daring move, aimed at rehabilitating Hamas in Western eyes in order to coax it into the peace camp at a time when the Arab Spring revolts, and civil war in Syria, have been reshaping power balances across the Middle East.

The Emir, who is rare among Arab rulers in having met senior Israeli officials, denounced Israel's policies and praised people in Gaza for standing up to it with "bare chests" - but he also urged rival Palestinian leaders to abandon their feuds.

The Gaza Strip is all but cut off from the world under a land and sea blockade by Israel and Egypt that is intended to obstruct the import of arms to Hamas. A Sunni Islamist group like several others supported by Qatar elsewhere, it has long been aided by Shi'ite Iran and its allies Syria and Hezbollah.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas's arch-rival, said it hoped the Qatari visit would not hinder the rebuilding of Palestinian unity, nor endorse a separate Palestinian territory in Gaza.

Embarking on what was a state visit in all but name, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his wife Sheikha Mozah crossed from Egypt at the head of a large delegation, to be greeted by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and an honor guard.

Hundreds of Palestinians lined his route, waving Palestinian and Qatari flags as emir's black Mercedes limousine bumped along the rutted main highway Qatar has promised to rebuild.

"Today we declare victory over the blockade through this historic visit," Haniyeh told the Qatari monarch in a speech at the site of a new town to be built with the emirate's money. "Thank you Emir, thank you Qatar, for this noble Arab stance ... Hail to the blood of martyrs that brought us to this moment."

Hamas, whose suicide bombing campaign against Israeli was at a peak a decade ago, rejects a peace treaty with Israel and has poured scorn on Abbas for his efforts to negotiate his way to a Palestinian state. That peace process with Israel is stalled.

Sheikh Hamad slammed Israeli settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem: "The Palestinian cause ... remains a bleeding wound in the Arab body as Israel continues every day to change the face of Palestinian land through its settlement activities and Judaisation in the occupied West Bank and especially in Jerusalem," he told an audience at Gaza's Islamic University.

But he blame some of the failure on Palestinian in-fighting, which had undermined "resistance": "Surely you realize that your division is the source of greater harm to your cause and the cause of all Arabs," he said. "It is time you end the chapter of differences and open a wide chapter for reconciliation."

QATAR STRATEGY

This was the first visit to Gaza by any national leader since Hamas seized control of the enclave and its 1.7 million people from Abbas's forces in 2007. Israel had pulled out its troops and settlers from the territory two years earlier.

Qatar has called the visit a humanitarian gesture, to inaugurate reconstruction projects financed by the emirate. After initially earmarking $250 million for the schemes, a smiling Haniyeh announced the fund now stood at $400 million.

"Qatar now is directly involving itself in the Palestinian issue. It is certainly a bold step that goes beyond what any other country in the region would have done on its own," said Ghanem Nuseibeh of London-based consultancy Cornerstone Global.

"Qatar is acting as a go-between between the West and Hamas. Though both the West and Hamas prefer not to admit this, both in fact are eager for someone to assume such a role. Only Qatar is able to do so given its regional status, and it's doing it through economic diplomacy."

The tiny Gulf emirate, sandwiched between a hostile Iran and its sometimes irritable large Sunni neighbor Saudi Arabia, has ambitions to parlay its vast natural gas wealth into diplomatic influence. It hosts major U.S. military bases and will hold the soccer World Cup finals in 2022. But it was also a major supporter of Sunni Islamist groups, some hostile to the West, who were big beneficiaries of last year's Arab Spring revolts.

Though giving up none of his absolute power as monarch at home, the Qatari ruler has also aided criticism of other Arab rulers through Qatar's establishment of Al Jazeera television.

Qatar helped arm and fund Libya's successful, Western-backed rebels and many believe it is helping Syria's opposition in a similar way. But its dual policy has perplexed some foreign powers, with its strong support for Islamist groups, including Hamas, running in parallel with close ties to the United States.

Analysts in Gaza also saw the visit as an attempt by the Emir to use his leverage with Western capitals to help Hamas out of isolation and move them into mainstream politics, using their falling out with Shi'ite Iran over the conflict in Syria as a stepping stone to break Tehran's influence on them for good.

Among signs of Hamas's shifting focus was the move of exile leaders this year from Damascus to the Qatari capital Doha.

The Gaza Strip unquestionably needs the reconstruction aid Qatar is now going to provide. Little has been repaired in Gaza since a devastating three-week offensive by Israeli forces in the winter of 2008-2009 to stop Hamas and other groups firing rockets and mortars at southern Israel communities.

The visit coincided with another round in the low-level Gaza conflict. An Israeli officer was badly injured by an explosion on the border and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a "strong response", which often means Israeli air strikes.

"NO SIGN" OF HAMAS CHANGE

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Qatari ruler had never visited Abbas's Palestinian Authority:

"No one understands why he would fund an organization which has become notorious with committing suicide bombings and firing rockets on civilians. By hugging Hamas, the Emir of Qatar is really someone who has thrown peace under the bus," he said.

Eli Avidar, who once ran Israel's diplomatic mission in Doha - a rarity in the Arab world - told Israel Radio: "The policy of this emir is to play both angles simultaneously."

Western governments have shunned contact with Hamas. Palmor said in answer to a question that Qatar had not cleared the visit with Israel in advance. But word of the Emir's travel plans had been aired in Arab media for the past two weeks.

Hamas refuses to renounce violence or recognize Israel's right to exist and is ostracized by Quartet of mediators, comprising the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. However, Hamas has softened its position to a degree, by saying it would accept a decades-long truce with Israel in return for a state in borders left by violent partition in 1948.

It also denies any desire to create a separate state in Gaza, a 40-km (25-mile) sliver of coastline with few resources.

While loosening ties to Tehran and Damascus, Hamas has strengthened relations with its mentor, the Muslim Brotherhood now in control of Egypt - though Cairo has disappointed some of its hopes for a swift easing of the border blockade.

Iran's nuclear program has raised the prospect of a war with Israel, with potential Hamas involvement in the south and attacks by Iranian-backed Hezbollah on the northern border.

However, Israel acknowledges that the Islamist movement is trying to curb smaller militant groups that refuse to accept its unwritten moratorium on firing rockets at the Jewish state.

(Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul in Beirut, Andrew Hammond in Dubai, Crispian Balmer, Dan Williams and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)


23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More
techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger