Tag: InternationalNews

An Iranian naval task force has docked in Sudan, carrying with it a “message of peace and security to neighbouring countries”, Iranian state media reported.

The vessels, which include a corvette and freighter, set sail from Iran last month, the Irna news agency said.

Their arrival comes six days after explosions destroyed an arms factory in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Sudan has complained to the UN that Israel bombed the factory, which is believed to have been operated by Iran.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the incident.

The Iranian navy was quoted as saying the visit was aimed at “conveying the message of peace and friendship to the neighbouring countries and ensuring security for seafaring and shipping lanes against marine terrorism and piracy”.

Israel has turned back dozens of African asylum-seekers, mostly Eritreans, trying enter the country from Egypt, Human Rights Watch and two other NGOs said on Sunday.

“Since June, Israeli forces patrolling Israel’s newly constructed … border fence with Egypt’s Sinai region have denied entry to dozens of Africans, mostly Eritreans,” HRW and Israeli NGOs the Hotline for Migrant Workers and Physicians for Human Rights said in a joint statement.

“Thousands of (Eritrean asylum-seekers) flee persecution in their country every year.

“In forcing asylum seekers and refugees to remain in Egypt and in deporting others, Israel is putting them at risk of prolonged detention in Egyptian prisons and police stations where they cannot claim asylum,” it added.

They also face “forcible return to Eritrea, and serious abuse by traffickers in the Sinai region.”

The NGOs implored Israeli to abandon its policy, reminding the Jewish state it signed the 1951 Refugee Convention in Geneva, which requires “all countries to respect the principle of nonrefoulement,” a principle of international law which prohibits turning over a victim of persecution to his persecutor.

“Not only are there credible reports that Israeli soldiers are blocking asylum seekers at the border, but also that they are using violence to do so,” HRW lawyer Gerry Simpson said.

According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 80 percent of Eritreans seeking asylum throughout the world are recognised as refugees, the statement added.

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Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt will meet with French President Francois Hollande on Monday as the Internet giant wrangles with Paris over a bill that would force search engines to pay for content, a government source said.

Schmidt’s meeting with the president will be preceded by one with Communication and Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Google has warned that it would exclude French media sites from its search results if France adopts a bill that will force search engines to pay for content.

A letter sent by Google to several French ministerial offices this month said it “cannot accept” such a move and the company “as a consequence would be required to no longer reference French sites”.

Google said a law which would require it to make payments to media sites for displaying links to their content, would “threaten (Google’s) very existence”.

Leading French newspaper publishers last month called on the government to adopt a law imposing a settlement in the long-running dispute with Google, forcing it and other search engines to share some of the advertising revenue from user searches for news contained on media websites.

Their demand follows the German government approving in August draft legislation that would force search engines to pay commissions to German media websites.

The culture minister Filippetti told a parliamentary commission last week that she was in favour of the idea, calling it “a tool that it seems important to me to develop”.

She said she was surprised by the tone of Google’s letter, telling AFP that “you don’t deal with a democratically-elected government with threats.”

AFP

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the west coast of Canada, but there were no reports of major damage.

Residents in parts of British Columbia were evacuated, but the province appeared to escape the biggest quake in Canada since 1949 largely unscathed.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the powerful temblor hit the Queen Charlotte Islands just after 8 p.m. local time Saturday at a depth of about 3 miles (5 kilometers) and was centered 96 miles (155 kilometers) south of Masset, British Columbia.

It was felt across a wide area in British Columbia, both on its Pacific islands and on the mainland.

“It looks like the damage and the risk are at a very low level,” said Shirley Bond, British Columbia’s minister responsible for emergency management said. “We’re certainly grateful.”

The National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas of British Columbia, southern Alaska and Hawaii, but later canceled it for the first two and downgraded it to an advisory for Hawaii.

At least 30 people have been killed in a series of attacks around Iraq, with dozens more injured.

Twin bomb attacks in Baghdad’s mainly Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City on Saturday evening killed at least 13.

Hours earlier, a bomb near a playground in the Bawiya neighbourhood of the capital killed several people, including at least three children.

Authorities had put security measures in place to try to prevent attacks over the four-day holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Another bomb exploded near Baghdad on a bus carrying Shia pilgrims, some of whom are reported to be Iranian.

Thousands of people in an eastern Chinese city clashed with police while protesting the proposed expansion of a chemical factory that they say would spew pollution and damage public health, townspeople said Saturday.

Pollution has become a major source of unrest in China, as members of the rising middle class become more outspoken against environmentally risky projects in their backyards.

The Zhenhai district government in Zhejiang province’s Ningbo city said in a statement Saturday that a few people disrupted public order by staging sit-ins, unfurling banners, distributing fliers and obstructing roads. It said the proposed project was under review.