Tag: InternationalNews

International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has said the Syrian government has agreed to a ceasefire during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, a decision Damascus would announce shortly.

“After the visit I made to Damascus, there is agreement from the Syrian government for a ceasefire during the Eid,” Brahimi told a news conference at the Cairo-based Arab League on Wednesday.

The holiday starts on Thursday and lasts three or four days.

Brahimi, a mediator appointed by the United Nations and League, did not specify the precise time period.

Brahimi, who arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, is due to meet with the head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi for talks on the 20-month conflict.

The envoy wanted “a long-lasting ceasefire that will enable a political process to unfold”.

The 15-member Security Council is bitterly divided over the conflict with Western nations pressing for international actions against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and Russia and China blocking these moves.

UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous spoke on Monday of tentative plans top assemble a peacekeeping force if the ceasefire takes hold.

“We are getting ourselves ready to act if it is necessary and a mandate is approved,” Ladsous said..

The Syrian authorities “are still optimistic,” deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad said. “The visit was successful and [Syria’s] co-operation with Brahimi is without limits.”

British cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell resigned October 20, after launching a foul-mouthed tirade at police officers guarding the gates of Prime minister David Cameron’s Downing Street office.

Mitchell, who as the government’s chief whip was supposed to enforce discipline in Cameron’s Conservative party, handed in his resignation after nearly one month of intense pressure over his behaviour.

He denied accusations that he had called police “plebs” but admitted using bad language to the officers after they stopped him going through the main gate on his bicycle, directing him to a side gate instead.

The row was damaging for the Conservatives as they face growing accusations that the privileged backgrounds of Cameron and other senior party members including Mitchell are out of touch with voters.

The new chief whip will be George Young, the former leader of the House of Commons. British media pointed out that Young is like Mitchell a keen cyclist and went to the elite Eton College, where Cameron was educated.
In his resignation letter, Mitchell, said: “The offending comment and the reason for my apology to the police was my parting remark ‘I thought you guys were supposed to fucking help us’.”

Part of the offensive word was replaced by asterisks in the copy of his letter officially released by Downing Street.

Citing the “upsetting and damaging publicity”, Mitchell said that “whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter I will not be able to fulfil my duties as we would both wish”.

He added: “I have made clear to you — and I give you my categorical assurance again — that I did not, never have and never would call a police officer a ‘pleb’ or a ‘moron’ or use any of the other pejorative descriptions attributed to me.

“It was obviously wrong of me to use such bad language and I am very sorry about it and grateful to the police officer for accepting my apology.”

Police representatives had called for Mitchell’s resignation, saying his outburst was particularly badly timed because it came in the week that two policewomen were shot dead in the city of Manchester in northwest England.

Cameron wrote back that he was sorry to receive Mitchell’s resignation but understood why he had decided to quit.

“I regret that this has become necessary,” the prime minister wrote.

“As you have acknowledged, the incident in Downing Street was not acceptable and you were right to apologise for it.”

Mitchell, 56, a former soldier and investment banker, was appointed to his new post by Cameron during a cabinet reshuffle in August. He previously served as international development secretary.

He was educated at the elite Rugby public school where he was reportedly nicknamed “Thrasher” because of his reputation as a stern disciplinarian.

Mitchell met Britain’s Police Federation last Friday in a fruitless attempt to smooth over the row.

The opposition Labour Party had also taunted Cameron over Mitchell’s row with the police, which was first reported in The Sun newspaper and quickly became known as “Plebgate” in the British media.

Speculation over his position reached fever pitch after he was unable to attend the Conservatives’ annual conference in the industrial city of Birmingham, which neighbours his own constituency as a lawmaker.

But the Conservatives continue to face accusations of being a party of the privileged.

Hours before Mitchell quit, finance minister George Osborne was embroiled in a row after he got into a first class train carriage with only a standard ticket.

It emerged later that Osborne paid to upgrade his ticket, while both his spokesman and rail company Virgin Trains dismissed initial reports that Osborne’s aide had refused to pay.

Six Italian scientists and a government official were sentenced to six years in jail on Monday for multiple manslaughter in a watershed ruling that found them guilty of underestimating the risks of a killer earthquake in 2009.

They were also ordered to pay more than nine million euros (almost $12 million) in damages to survivors in the devastated medieval town of L’Aquila in a case that has sparked outrage in the international science community.

Seismologists in Italy and beyond were horrified by the unprecedented sentence and argued that all science was being put on trial.

Under the Italian justice system, the seven remain free until they have exhausted two chances to appeal the verdict.

Prosecutor Fabio Picuti had asked for jail sentences of four years for each defendant for failing to alert the population of the walled medieval town to the risks, days before the 6.3-magnitude quake that killed 309 people.

“I am crestfallen, desperate. I thought I would be acquitted. I still don’t understand what I’m accused of,” said Enzo Boschi, who was the head of Italy’s national geophysics institute (INGV) at the time.

All seven defendants were members of the Major Risks Committee which met in L’Aquila on March 31, 2009 — six days before the quake devastated the region, tearing down houses and churches and leaving thousands of people homeless.

Picuti had slammed the experts for providing “an incomplete, inept, unsuitable and criminally mistaken” analysis, which reassured locals and led many to stay indoors when the first tremors hit.

“This is a historic sentence, above all for the victims,” said lawyer Wania della Vigna, who represents 11 plaintiffs, including the family of an Israeli student who died when a student residence collapsed on top of him.

“It also marks a step forward for the justice system and I hope it will lead to change, not only in Italy but across the world,” she said.

The bright blue classroom-sized temporary tribunal in L’Aquila — built on an industrial estate after the town’s historic court was flattened in the quake — was packed with lawyers, advisors and international media for the verdict.

Four of the defendants were in court, as well as a small group of survivors.

Aldo Scimia, whose mother was killed, welled up as the verdict was read out.

“We cannot call this a victory. It’s a tragedy, whatever way you look at it, it won’t bring our loved ones back,” he said.

“I continue to call this a massacre at the hand of the state, but at least now we hope that our children may live safer lives.”

A historic legal precedent

Some commentators had warned that any convictions would dissuade other experts from sharing their expertise for fear of legal retribution.

“We are deeply concerned. It’s not just seismology which has been put on trial but all science,” Charlotte Krawczyk, president of the seismology division at the European Geosciences Union (EGU)

A senior US commander has been dismissed after he made disparaging comments about Afghanistan’s leaders.

Maj Gen Peter Fuller, deputy commander of Nato’s Afghan training mission, said in an interview with Politico the country’s leadership was “isolated from reality”.

It is not clear whether Gen Fuller will be reassigned or will retire.

The head of US forces in Afghanistan says Gen Fuller’s comments do not represent the US-Afghan relationship.

Gen John Allen described the two countries as “solid”, adding: “The Afghan people are an honourable people, and comments such as these will not keep us from accomplishing our most critical and shared mission – bringing about a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan.”

Pentagon spokesman George Little said Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was aware of the remarks but said that Gen Fuller had been speaking for himself and not the Department of Defense.

‘Poke me in the eye’

Speaking while visiting Washington, Gen Fuller told Politico on Thursday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was an unimpressive public speaker.

“When they are going to have a presidential election, you hope they get a guy that’s more articulate in public,” he said.

Gen Fuller also said that he tried to make Afghan generals understand that the US was involved in Afghanistan despite economic uncertainty at home.

“You think that America has roads paved in gold, everybody lives in Hollywood,” he said.

“They don’t understand the sacrifices that America is making to provide for their security.”

Politico have reported that the general appeared to be irritated when referring to a recent comment made by Mr Karzai – that Afghanistan would side with Pakistan if the country ever went to war with the US.

“Why don’t you just poke me in the eye with a needle! You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m sorry, we just gave you $11.6bn (£7.2bn) and now you’re telling me, ‘I don’t really care?’” Gen Fuller said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the Afghan president’s statement has been misinterpreted.

The general also likened the Nato training mission in Afghanistan to teaching a man to fish.

“You can teach a man how to fish, or you can give them a fish. We’re giving them fish while they’re learning, and they want more fish!

“[They say] ‘I like swordfish, how come you’re giving me cod?’ Guess what? Cod’s on the menu today,” he told Politico.

Gen Fuller is not the first senior military figure to find themselves in hot water over comments made to the media.

BBC

Cuba’s revolutionary former leader Fidel Castro has written a strongly-worded article condemning persistent rumours that he is on his death bed.

The 86-year-old attacked international media “lies”, and published photos of himself in Cuba’s state media.

He said he was in good health, and could not even remember the last time he had a headache.

Venezuelan politician Elias Jaua said on Sunday he had a five-hour meeting with Mr Castro the previous day.

He presented a photo of the encounter, and said the former Cuban leader was “very well, very lucid”.

The last images of Mr Castro to be made public had been from March, when the Cuban ex-leader briefly met Pope Benedict during the pontiff’s visit to the Communist island.

Mr Castro’s long absence from the public stage had fuelled rumours on social media sites that his health had deteriorated, or that he may even have died.

“Although a lot of people in the world are taken in by the organs of information, almost all of which are in the hands of the privileged and the rich that publish these stupidities, people are increasingly believing less and less in them,” Mr Castro said in his article.

He went on to say that he was keeping himself busy writing and studying, but had decided to step back from public life “because it certainly is not my role to occupy the pages of our newspaper”.

He finished off by saying: “I don’t even remember what a headache is. To show what liars they are, I’m offering these photos to accompany this article.”

A series of photos, taken by his son Alex, show him outside wearing a cowboy hat and a checked shirt. In some photos, he is reading Friday’s copy of the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Fidel Castro led Cuba after the revolution in 1959, first as prime minister (1959-1976) and later as president.

In 2006, surgery took Fidel Castro out of public view. His brother Raul became acting president.

In February 2008, Fidel Castro officially handed over power to Raul who has been leading the country since then.