IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Suarez Receives Top UK Football Award

    Suarez Receives Top UK Football Award

    {{Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has been named as the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year at an awards ceremony in London on Sunday. }}

    The Uruguayan, 27, travelled down to the ceremony after the Reds’ 2-0 defeat at home to Chelsea earlier in the day.

    “The Premier League is full of really great players and so it is a great honour when these players recognise your work on the pitch,” Suarez said.

    Chelsea’s Eden Hazard was voted Young Player of the Year.

    Suarez’s strike partner Daniel Sturridge, 24, and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard joined him in the Premier League Team of the Year, along with three Chelsea players – goalkeeper Petr Cech, defender Gary Cahill and midfielder Hazard.

    The line-up was completed by Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure, Southampton left-back Luke Shaw and midfielder Adam Lallana, plus Everton right-back Seamus Coleman.

    Liverpool defender Lucy Bronze was named the Women’s Players’ Player of the Year while her team-mate Martha Harris was voted the Young Player of the Year.

    {wirestory}

  • Ukraine Crisis: Kharkiv mayor Shot, Wounded

    Ukraine Crisis: Kharkiv mayor Shot, Wounded

    {{The mayor of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine has been shot and critically wounded amid ongoing unrest in the region.}}

    Hennadiy Kernes was reportedly shot in the back by unknown gunmen while out jogging, and is said to be undergoing emergency surgery in hospital.

    Monday also saw pro-Russian separatists seize a local government building in Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine.

    The US and EU are preparing to impose fresh sanctions against Russian individuals and companies.

    Western nations accuse Moscow of supporting separatist gunmen who are occupying official buildings in cities across eastern Ukraine.

    Mr Kernes used to be a supporter of the former pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych. He then dropped his support for the ousted president in favour of a united Ukraine.

    He has been described as a “mini-oligarch” – a successful businessman wealthy enough to launch a career in politics.

    Gunmen wearing uniforms with no insignias moved into the local administrative building in Kostyantynivka on Monday morning and raised the flag of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk Republic”.

    They were also reported to be in control of the police station in the town, which is located between the town of Sloviansk and the city of Donetsk, both also controlled by separatists.

    The separatists continue to hold seven Western military observers who were seized last week in the region.

  • Slaviansk Rebels Declare OSCE Observers ‘Prisoners of War’

    Slaviansk Rebels Declare OSCE Observers ‘Prisoners of War’

    {{The self-declared mayor of Slaviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov (pictured), said on Sunday that members of an OSCE observer mission being held by separatist rebels in the town were being considered “prisoners of war”.}}

    “In our town, where a war situation is going on, any military personnel who don’t have our permission are considered prisoners of war,” he said, reiterating that they would only be freed in exchange for the release of pro-Moscow militants.

    Ponomaryov said he did not consider them to be part of the official OSCE mission to Ukraine and that he would be meeting Sunday with a delegation of mediators to negotiate their release.

    He said the group’s driver had been already been freed, bringing the number of detainees in the OSCE military verification mission to 12 – eight Europeans and four accompanying members of the Ukrainian army.

    The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) headquarters in Vienna has acknowledged that they the military verification mission is a separate unit headed by German command.

    Ponomaryov also said his men had captured three officers from Ukraine’s state security service overnight who had been mounting an operation in the nearby town of Horlivka.

  • Abbas Says Holocaust ‘Most Heinous Crime’ Against Humanity

    Abbas Says Holocaust ‘Most Heinous Crime’ Against Humanity

    {{Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the Nazi Holocaust “the most heinous crime” against humanity in modern times in a statement released on Sunday, an apparent bid to build bridges with Israel days after troubled peace talks collapsed.}}

    Abbas has condemned the mass killings of Jews in World War Two before and challenged allegations, stemming from a 1983 book he authored, that he is a Holocaust denier.

    But the timing of the publication of his latest comments gave them extra significance, a day after he signaled he remained committed to the peace talks and said a future Palestinian unity government would recognize Israel.

    The message, in Arabic and English, coincided with Israel’s annual remembrance day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and included an expression of sympathy for the families of the victims.

    Israel suspended U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians on Thursday in response to Abbas’s unexpected unity pact with the rival Islamist group Hamas – a movement which has vowed to destroy Israel.

    On Sunday, Israeli leaders showed little interest in responding to Abbas’ apparent olive branch.

    Abbas, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, made the comments at a meeting with an American rabbi last week.

    “What happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era,” Abbas told Rabbi Marc Schneir, president of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which promotes relations between racial and ethnic communities.

    The Palestinian people, he added, “are the first to demand to lift the injustice and racism that befell other peoples subjected to such crimes”.

    {agencies}

  • Obama Says US & Europe Must Jointly Impose Sanctions on Russia

    Obama Says US & Europe Must Jointly Impose Sanctions on Russia

    U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday said the United States and Europe must join forces to impose sanctions on Russia to stop it destabilizing Ukraine, where armed pro-Russian separatists were for a third day holding eight international observers prisoner.

    Washington and Brussels are expected, possibly as early as Monday, to name new people and firms close to Russian President Vladimir Putin who will be hit by punitive measures, but there is no consensus yet on wider economic sanctions.

    Speaking during a visit to Malaysia, Obama said any decision on whether to slap sanctions on sectors of the Russian economy at a later time would depend on whether the United States and its allies could find a unified position on how to proceed.

    “We’re going to be in a stronger position to deter Mr. Putin when he sees that the world is unified and the United States and Europe is unified rather than this is just a U.S.-Russian conflict,” Obama told reporters.

    The stand-off over Ukraine, an ex-Soviet republic of about 45 million people, has dragged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War.

    Obama said Russia had not “lifted a finger” to get pro-Russian separatist rebels in Ukraine to comply with an international agreement to defuse the crisis.

    “In fact, there’s strong evidence that they’ve been encouraging the activities in eastern and southern Ukraine,” he said.

    Washington is more hawkish on further sanctions than Brussels, and this has caused a degree of impatience among some U.S. officials with the European response.

    Many European countries are worried about the risks of imposing tougher sanctions, not least because Europe has extensive business ties with Moscow and imports about a quarter of its natural gas from Russia.

    British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that in the coming days there would be “an expansion of existing sanctions, measures against individuals or entities in Russia”.

    reuters

  • South Korean PM Chung Hong-won Resigns over Ferry

    South Korean PM Chung Hong-won Resigns over Ferry

    {{South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won has resigned amid criticism of the government’s handling of the sinking of a passenger ferry.}}

    He said the “cries of the families of those missing still keep me up at night”. Mr Chung will stay in his post until the disaster is under control.

    The Sewol ferry with 476 people aboard – most of them students and teachers – sank off South Korea on 16 April.

    Officials have confirmed 187 died, but scores are missing presumed drowned.

    Furious relatives have repeatedly criticised what they see as the slowness of the recovery operation.

    “The right thing for me to do is to take responsibility and resign as a person who is in charge of the cabinet,” Mr Chung said in a brief televised statement.

    “On behalf of the government, I apologise for many problems from the prevention of the accident to the early handling of the disaster.”

    He added: “There have been so many varieties of irregularities that have continued in every corner of our society and practices that have gone wrong. I hope these deep-rooted evils get corrected this time and this kind of accident never happens again.”

    President Park Geun-hye accepted her prime minister’s resignation but did not set a last day in office.

    The PM would leave his post once the ferry disaster was under control, South Korean media reported.

  • Brazil Investigates Possible Mad Cow Case

    Brazil Investigates Possible Mad Cow Case

    {{Brazil is investigating a potential case of atypical mad cow disease, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday, just over a year after several countries banned Brazilian beef imports when a similar case of the disease was confirmed.}}

    A routine inspection at a slaughterhouse in Mato Grosso state found an animal that veterinarians suspect of having a neurological problems, a ministry spokesman said in an e-mail.

    Laboratory tests are under way and atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, has not yet been confirmed, the e-mail said.

    In late 2012 tests showed that a cow that died two years earlier in Parana state had developed the protein that causes mad cow disease, though the animal never developed the disease and died of natural causes.

    The case was considered “atypical” as the animal contracted the protein spontaneously, rather than through the feed supply. Classical cases of mad cow are caused when cattle are fed brain or spinal tissue of other ruminants, which is now forbidden in nearly all beef producing countries including Brazil.

    The World Animal Health Organization maintained Brazil’s status as a country with an insignificant risk of BSE after it confirmed the atypical Parana case in tests carried out in England in 2012.

    Even so, several countries including South Korea, China and Egypt banned some or all beef imports from Brazil, the world’s top exporter.

    Humans can develop what is known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from consuming animals with mad cow, and more than 150 people have died from it. Mad cow was first discovered in Britain in 1986, but strict controls have tempered its spread.

    reuters

  • G7 Imposes Additional Sanctions on Russia

    G7 Imposes Additional Sanctions on Russia

    {{The Group of Seven has agreed to “move swiftly to impose additional sanctions on Russia”, a joint statement on Saturday said, as pro-Russian militants in the country’s east detained several members of an OSCE observer mission near Slaviansk.}}

    The G7 statement also praised the “restraint” with which the new government in Kiev has shown in dealing with the pro-Russian militants who have seized official buildings across the country’s east.

    Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said EU foreign ministers would meet soon to discuss the issue following a conference call with US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President François Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The G7 also includes Canada and Japan.

    The United States and the European Union have already targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle with visa and asset freezes and imposed sanctions on a key Russian bank.

    Western leaders have repeatedly threatened to hit Russia with measures aimed at the wider economy.

    Obama, however, has signalled that the new sanctions will not involve an attempt to target key areas of the Russian economy such as mining, energy and the financial sectors. US officials have said those measures would only be considered if Russia sends forces across the border into eastern Ukraine.

    Several members of an OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) observer mission to Ukraine were detained Friday at the entrance to Slaviansk and taken to the rebel-held security services building, sparking immediate international condemnation.

    German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said the pro-Russian separatists had taken 13 mission members, including three members of the German army and an interpreter.

    The pro-Russian rebels holding them accused the observers of being “NATO spies” and said they would be freed only in a prisoner exchange.

    “Yesterday, we arrested some NATO spies… they will be exchanged for our own prisoners. I don’t see any other way they will be freed,” Denis Pushilin, the head of the insurgents’ self-declared Donetsk Republic, told reporters.

    Washington called for the immediate release of the OSCE team and State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki repeated claims that “there is a strong connection between Russia and these separatists” who are now taking hostages.

    Rebels in Slaviansk on Friday released US national Simon Ostrovsky, one of three journalists they were believed to be holding.

    france24

  • North Korea President Tells Troops to Prepare for War

    North Korea President Tells Troops to Prepare for War

    {{North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has warned his soldiers they must be ready for “impending conflict with the United States,” Pyongyang media reported on Saturday as satellites showed a nuclear test could be near.}}

    The report comes as US President Barack Obama finishes up a two-day visit to South Korea, where he warned the North it faced tougher sanctions if the underground detonation went ahead. Obama described North Korea as a weak “pariah state”.

    It also comes after Pyongyang claimed it had been holding a young American for two weeks.

    Kim, the supreme commander of the North’s 1.2-million-strong armed forces often visits military units to deliver on-the-spot “guidance” on ways to strengthen preparedness.

    He usually lavishes them with praise and presents gifts such as rifles or binoculars as symbols of their vigilance.

    But after watching a shelling drill by an artillery sub-unit on Friday, he upbraided soldiers for their lax approach, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

    “Dear Supreme Commander Kim Jong-Un said nothing is more important than preparing for combat now, in the face of an impending conflict with the United States”, KCNA reported.

    North Korean state media regularly carries colourfully-phrased warnings that the isolated state is on the verge of war.

    Pointing at a map, Kim ordered the unit to establish a firing position and start the shelling exercise, the agency said, without revealing the location.

    “Watching the drill, he severely criticised the sub-unit for failing to make good combat preparation” citing the time it had taken to deploy, it said. He blamed a lack of enthusiasm over training among the sub-unit’s commander and his superiors.

    “The minds of the commanding officers of this sub-unit and relevant unit seem to be away from the battlefield”, he said, KCNA reported.

    It is unusual for the agency to carry direct quotes from Kim. “Of course, they might do sideline jobs for improving service personnel’s living conditions and do their bit in building a rich and powerful nation. “However, they should always give priority to combat preparations”, he said.

    Speaking in Seoul on Friday after satellite imagery revealed the North was advancing preparations for a nuclear test, Obama warned it of sanctions with “more bite” unless it fell into line.

    North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests, in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

    Underlining its status as global outlaw, Pyongyang said late on Friday that it had been holding US citizen Miller Matthew Todd, 24, since April 10 because of his “rash behaviour” while passing through immigration.

    france24

  • Ex-Barcelona coach Dies at 45

    Ex-Barcelona coach Dies at 45

    Tito Vilanova above, the former Barcelona coach, has died aged 45 after a long battle with cancer.

    Vilanova had a tumour removed from his throat in November 2011 before suffering a relapse in December 2012.

    He stepped down as Barca boss last July to continue his treatment, with Gerardo Martino taking charge.

    “FC Barcelona is in immense mourning. Tito Vilanova has died at the age of 45. May he rest in peace,” said a statement from the Spanish club.

    “The club wishes to express its most heartfelt sympathy to his family, who are being joined in these moments of mourning by FC Barcelona members and fans all around the world, as well as the rest of the footballing and sporting world.

    “The Vilanova family has asked for respect for their desire for the strictest intimacy in the moments after his death.”

    The club added that a “space for condolence” would be opened in the main grandstand at their Nou Camp stadium on Friday.

    {agencies}