Tag: InternationalNews

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made an ominous threat against foreign intervention, saying it would have a “domino impact” on the world.

“I think that the cost of foreign invasion of Syria, if it happened, would be greater than one that the whole world can afford,” he told a Russia television Friday.

“Because if there were problems in Syria, particularly as we are the last bastion of secularism, stability and coexistence in the region, it will have a domino impact that will affect the world from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

“And you know its implications on the rest of the world. I do not think that the West is moving in this direction, but if they do, no one can predict what will happen after.”

President al-Assad said “I’m not a puppet, and I was not made by the West to go to the West or to any other country. I am Syrian, I was made in Syria and to live and die in Syria”.

The director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation stepped down Saturday amid controversy over a report that aired false claims by a sex abuse victim implicating a political figure of the 1980s.

“I have decided that the honorable thing to do is to step down from the post of director general,” a somber George Entwistle told reporters.

“When appointed to the role, with 23 years’ experience as a producer and leader of the BBC, I was confident the trustees had chosen the best candidate for the post,” he said.

“However, the wholly exceptional events of the past few weeks have led me to conclude that the BBC should appoint a new leader.”

Tim Davie, the director of BBC Audio & Music who was tapped to be CEO of BBC Worldwide, will serve as acting director general while a permanent replacement is sought. Entwistle had just two months on the job.

US President Barack Obama will this November become the first US president to visit Burma. The White House has revealed.

Obama will meet President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

It is part of a three-leg tour from 17 to 20 November that will also take in Thailand and Cambodia.

The government of Burma has begun implementing economic, political and other reforms, a process the Obama administration sought to encourage.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was previously the most senior US official to go to Burma when she visited in December 2011.

The trip is built around the summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations in Cambodia, which leaders from China, Japan and Russia will also attend.

In a statement, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Mr Obama intended to “speak to civil society to encourage Burma’s ongoing democratic transition”.

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Preparing to hand over power after a decade in office, China’s President Hu Jintao called Thursday for sterner measures to combat official corruption that has stoked public anger while urging the Communist Party to maintain firm political control.

In a 90-minute speech opening a weeklong party congress to usher in new leaders for the coming decade, Hu cited many of the challenges China faces – a rich-poor gap, environmentally ruinous growth and the imbalanced development between prosperous cities and a struggling countryside.

Yet he offered little evidence of fresh thinking to address ways to reinvigorate a flagging economy and meet public demands for a more open government. Instead he outlined more of the piecemeal policy-making that has been the hallmark of his 10 years in power.

Only in addressing the rampant graft did he sound the alarm. Hu singled out party members, calling on them to be ethical and to rein in their family members, whose trading on their connections for money and lavish displays of wealth have deepened public cynicism about the party.

“Nobody is above the law,” Hu said to the applause of the 2,309 delegates and invited guests gathered in the Great Hall of the People, with his successor, Vice President Xi Jinping, and other party notables on the dais behind him.

The man behind the anti-Islam video blamed for sparking widespread protests in the Muslim world was jailed for a year Wednesday for breaching the terms of his probation for a previous offense.

Mark Basseley Youssef will serve the sentence in federal prison after he admitted four allegations of using false identities, violating the terms of his probation for a bank fraud conviction in 2010.

The 55-year-old was identified as the main man behind “Innocence of Muslims,” which triggered a wave of protests in September, and was initially blamed for an attack which killed the US ambassador to Libya.

In February 2009, a federal indictment accused Youssef and others of fraudulently obtaining the identities and Social Security numbers of customers at several Wells Fargo branches in California and withdrawing $860 from them.

He was arrested in September for eight probation violations. At a hearing last month he denied all counts, but on Wednesday he admitted to four, in return for the other four being set aside.

US. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said Youssef, who has already spent five weeks in custody, must spend 12 months behind bars, followed by four years of supervised release.

Youssef was previously listed as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and known as Sam Bacile when the protests about the video emerged.

The amateurish film depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a thuggish deviant offended many Muslims, and sparked a wave of anti-US protests that cost dozens of lives and saw mobs set US missions, schools and businesses ablaze.

It was also linked to the September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in which US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

Assistant US Attorney Robert Dugdale said Youssef had “betrayed” the actors involved in the “Innocence of Muslims,” by not telling them he was a “recently released convicted felon.”

The Egyptian-born Coptic Christian also deceived them by dubbing anti-Islamic dialogue over their lines after the movie was shot. “He made that choice for other people,” the prosecutor said.

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The US dollar tumbled against the euro in Asian forex trade after President Barack Obama won a second term following a nail-biter White House race.

The euro bought $1.2869 in Tokyo, up from $1.2788 earlier Wednesday and $1.2814 in New York late Tuesday. The greenback was also weaker against the yen, at 80.03 yen compared with 80.34 yen in New York.

An Obama victory was seen among traders as a dollar-selling cue as it may suggest further easing measures by the US Federal Reserve, after the central bank ushered in a $40 billion monthly bond-buying programme to spur the world’s biggest economy.

“Investors have been factoring in his win and adjusting their positions likewise,” said Kengo Suzuki, forex strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.

“The issue now is the uncertainty surrounding the US fiscal cliff, and how a divided Congress will deal with the issue,” he added.

The so-called fiscal cliff, which will see the government sharply cut spending and hike taxes, is due to take effect on January 1 unless politicians find a compromise on reducing budget deficits.

However, Takumi Nomura, a senior dealer at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, said the dollar may get some support, with an incumbent Obama seen as better able to address the issue more quickly than a newly-elected leader.