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Tag: InternationalNews

  • Ukraine Braces for Military Action

    Ukraine Braces for Military Action

    {{Towns in eastern Ukraine on Monday braced for military action from government forces as a deadline passed for pro-Russian separatists to disarm and end their occupation of state buildings or face a major “anti-terrorist” operation.}}

    As the 9 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT)) deadline issued by authorities in Kiev expired, a Reuters reporter in the flashpoint city of Slaviansk, where armed men had seized two government buildings, said there was no outward sign the rebels were complying with the ultimatum.

    Angered by the death of a state security officer and the wounding of two comrades near Slaviansk, acting president Oleksander Turchinov warned rebels on Sunday that a full-scale security operation, including the army, would be unleashed unless they met the deadline.

    Turchinov and other leaders blame Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region when Moscow-backed former president Viktor Yanukovich fled after months of pro-Western protests, for inspiring and organizing a rash of rebellions in Slaviansk and other Russian-speaking towns in eastern Ukraine.

    “We will not allow Russia to repeat the Crimean scenario in the eastern regions of Ukraine,” Turchinov said on Sunday night.

    The crisis has brought relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War in 1991, and also carries a risk of unleashing a “gas war” which could disrupt energy supplies across Europe.

    Use of force by Kiev’s pro-Europe authorities could trigger a fresh confrontation from Russia. Russia’s foreign ministry called the planned military operation a “criminal order” and said the West should bring its allies in Ukraine’s government under control.

    The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session on Sunday night, and the United States warned that it was likely to impose further sanctions on the Kremlin if the escalation in eastern Ukraine continues.

    In Slaviansk as of 9 a.m. local time on Monday, a Russian flag still flew over police headquarters, one of two buildings taken over by the separatists, while masked men continued to man barricades of sandbags in front of it.

    Even as the deadline passed, a truck appeared bringing more tires to heap on top of the barricades to reinforce them.

    There was tension in the air as people tried to go about their normal business, though school and colleges have been closed and parents advised to keep their children indoors.

    {reuters}

  • Pope Asks Forgiveness for Child Abuse by Priests

    Pope Asks Forgiveness for Child Abuse by Priests

    {{Pope Francis made his first public plea for forgiveness on Friday for the “evil” committed by priests who molested children, using some of his strongest words yet on the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis.}}

    Yet the Argentine-born pontiff said the Church had to take an even stronger stand against the scandal that has haunted it for over two decades.

    “I feel compelled… to personally ask for forgiveness for the damage that they have done by having sexually abused children,” he told members of members of the International Catholic Child Bureau, an NGO committed to protecting the rights of the child.

    Francis said the number of guilty priests was “quite a few in number” but “obviously not compared to the number of all the priests”.

    {{“Personal, moral damage”}}

    “The Church is aware of this … personal, moral damage carried out by men of the Church, and we will not take one step backward with regards to how we will deal with this problem, and to the sanctions that must be imposed,” he continued.

    “On the contrary, we have to be even stronger. Because you cannot interfere with children,” Francis said.

    Victims’ groups have criticised Francis in recent months for not taking a bold enough stand on the issue. He was also criticized for failing to meet with victims of sexual abuse in Italy and in a July trip to Brazil.

    The Vatican announced in December the creation of a new dedicated group to help the Church fight the abuse crisis but only named its members in late March.

    The group of clerics and lay people includes Marie Collins, a survivor of abuse in Ireland in the 1960s, who has campaigned for the protection of children and for justice for children who were molested.

    {france24}

  • UK Military Provokes Argentina

    UK Military Provokes Argentina

    {{Britain has been accused of provoking Argentina with plans to hold military exercises in the Falkland Islands.}}

    Argentina said next week’s drills would include missile launches and were part of a “pattern” of “hostile acts”.

    The British ambassador in Buenos Aires has been summoned by Argentina’s deputy foreign minister, who will protest over the “new show of military force”.

    Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has called the islands “Nato’s military base” in the region.

    Argentina claims the islands, which are known to it as Las Malvinas.

    It said the UK planned to conduct the exercises on “occupied Argentine territory” between 14 and 27 April.

    A spokesman for the Argentine embassy in London added: “This action is a new example of UK’s disregard for United Nations resolutions, which call on both parties to resume negotiations over sovereignty and refrain from introducing unilateral modifications in the situation as long as the dispute persists.”

    Islanders voted by 1,513 to three to remain a British overseas territory in a referendum last year.

    UK Prime Minister David Cameron said at the time that the result “could not have sent a clearer message”.

    {wirestory}

  • Iran Anger Over US Visa Refusal

    Iran Anger Over US Visa Refusal

    {{Iran has accused the US of acting illegally by refusing a visa to the new Iranian envoy to the UN in New York.}}

    Iran’s UN mission spokesman Hamid Babaei called the decision to bar Hamid Aboutalebi “regrettable”, but did not specify any action Tehran might take.

    The US accuses Mr Aboutalebi of links to the group that seized the US embassy in 1979, an incident that soured ties between the two countries for decades.

    Mr Aboutalebi says he only acted as a translator for the group.

    Congress passed a bill last week that would allow the US to refuse an ambassadorial selection if the candidate posed a security risk.

    Earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif condemned the move by Congress.

    He characterised those in favour of the bill as “a group of radicals” and said the move would not influence Iran’s policies.

    Although the bill still requires the signature of the president before it can become law, Congress appears to have succeeded in getting Mr Aboutalebi barred.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president “shared the intent of the bill”, and would not issue a visa.

    Mr Babaei said the White House decision was “in contravention of international law, the obligation of the host country and the inherent right of sovereign member states to designate their representatives to the United Nations”.

    Under international law, the US as the host nation for the UN is obliged to grant visas to states’ representatives.

    In the most high-profile similar case, the US refused a visa to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to speak at the UN in 1998. The UN condemned that decision.

    The UN has not yet commented on Mr Aboutalebi’s situation.

    Mr Aboutalebi has previously served as Iran’s ambassador to Belgium, the European Union, Italy and Australia.

    He has said said he was not part of the group that took over the US embassy, and was only later asked to translate for the students.

  • Ukraine Looks to Europe for Gas

    Ukraine Looks to Europe for Gas

    {{Ukraine said on Friday it would turn to Europe for gas and won a promise of help from Brussels after Russia warned it could cut supplies over Kiev’s refusal to pay Moscow’s “political, uneconomic price” for supplies.}}

    Presenting a united front a day after President Vladimir Putin wrote to the European Union warning that its supplies could be disrupted if Ukraine failed to cover its bills, European officials said they had little to fear and would help Ukraine pay.

    With Russia increasing the pressure on Ukraine’s faltering economy, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan told parliament the EU would stand in solidarity with Kiev if Russia reduced supplies, making sure Moscow could not increase flows through alternative pipelines to bypass its neighbor.

    “Ukraine cannot pay such a political, uneconomic price, so now we are negotiating with the European Union about reverse deliveries into Ukraine,” Prodan said.

    “We will make gas purchases from reverse flows urgently. On the conditions offered by European gas companies. We plan that they will be Germany’s RWE and a French gas company.”

    The ministry’s spokeswoman confirmed the French company was GDF Suez, adding no agreement had been signed as yet.

    wirestory

  • G20 Gives U.S. Year-end Deadline for IMF Reforms

    G20 Gives U.S. Year-end Deadline for IMF Reforms

    {{Finance chiefs from around the globe on Friday gave the United States until year-end to ratify long-delayed reforms to the International Monetary Fund and threatened to move forward without it if it fails to do so.}}

    The inability to proceed with giving emerging markets a more powerful voice at the IMF and shoring up the lender’s resources appeared the most contentious issue for officials from the Group of 20 leading economies and the representatives for all IMF member nations who met with them.

    In a final communiqué, G20 finance ministers and central bankers said they were “deeply disappointed” with the delay.

    “I take this opportunity to urge the United States to implement these reforms as a matter of urgency,” Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey told reporters on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank spring meetings.

    The reforms would double the Fund’s resources and hand more IMF voting power to countries like the so-called BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

    The U.S. Congress has refused to sign off on the overhaul, which was agreed to in 2010, and the failure overshadowed even the crisis in Ukraine and the spillover effects of ultra easy monetary policies in advanced economies in the discussions.

    Some Republicans have complained the changes would cost too much at a time Washington was running big budget deficits. The reforms also ran afoul of a growing isolationist trend among the party’s influential Tea Party wing.

    If Washington does not ratify the reforms this year, the G20 advanced and emerging economies said they would ask the IMF to develop possible next steps.

    A source said Brazil had pushed for a harder line. It wanted to require the Fund to begin work now to determine options to be implemented if the United States failed to act, a notion that was floated in an early draft of the communiqué.

    {reuters}

  • Greek Bond Oversubscribed

    Greek Bond Oversubscribed

    {{The sale of long term debt by the Greek government was eight times over subscribed, the government has said.}}

    Greece’s deputy prime minister Evangelos Venizelos said demand for 3bn euros (£2.4bn) worth of five year bonds proved the country’s debt is sustainable.

    The sale attracted interest from 550 investors.

    Greece is retuning to the capital markets for the first time since its economy nearly collapsed in 2010.

    The Greek government had initially priced the bond to provide a return of between 5% and 5.25%.

    But with investor orders running at 20bn euros (£16.5bn) it was able to lower the yield to 4.95% – far lower than analysts had expected.

    The country still has a “junk” credit rating, nine notches below investment grade at Caa3 by Moody’s. Standard and Poor’s and Fitch rank Greece six notches below investment grade at B-.

    Bailout
    Greece has been locked out of capital markets by high borrowing costs since 2010.

    The bond sale comes almost four years to the day the government said it could no longer fund itself.

    It received an international bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union (EU) and a further bailout two years later as well as loans of 240bn euros.

    The bailouts were granted on condition Greece imposed a series of deeply resented spending cuts and tax hikes.

    However, the country’s interest rates have been falling recently as its public finances have improved following tough austerity measures.

    Protests
    The bond sale came amid reports that a car bomb had exploded outside one of the Bank of Greece’s offices in central Athens at dawn.

    Police, blamed leftwing or anarchist extremists, but said no one was injured.

    Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel is due to make an official visit to the country on Friday.

    Many Greeks blame Germany for insisting on spending cuts and tax increases in return for loans.

    On Wednesday thousands of striking Greeks marched on parliament to protest against job and spending cuts.

    BBC

  • Obama’s Health Secretary Resigns

    Obama’s Health Secretary Resigns

    {{US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning following the problematic launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, US media report.}}

    The law – regarded by the president’s supporters as one of his main domestic achievements – has been marked by early technical problems and delays.

    Ms Sebelius has been health secretary since Mr Obama took office in 2009.

    The reports say Mr Obama will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the current budget director, to replace her.

    Ms Sebelius had made the decision to resign herself, the New York Times reported.

    The US president had resisted calls for the health secretary to stand down after the websites where people could enrol for health insurance ran into problems last October.

  • US Congress passes ban on Iran envoy

    US Congress passes ban on Iran envoy

    {{The US Congress has sent a bill to the president that would bar Iran’s pick for ambassador to the UN from entering the country.}}

    The House of Representatives passed the measure unanimously two days after the Senate approved it.

    Hamid Aboutalebi was a part of the Muslim student group that seized the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

    The White House has told Iran Mr Aboutalebi was “not viable” but has not taken a position on the bill.

    Fifty-two Americans were held for 444 days at the height of Iran’s Islamic revolution, which saw pro-American Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi sent into exile and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini take power.

    Mr Aboutalebi, who previously served as Iran’s ambassador to Belgium, the European Union, Italy and Australia, told Iranian media his participation in the hostage crisis began only after the initial seizure of the embassy, and primarily involved translation.

    ‘Unequivocal message’
    On Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “We’ve made clear and have communicated to the Iranians that the selection they’ve put forward is not viable.”

    But he declined to say whether President Barack Obama would sign the bill into law.

    The Iranian government, meanwhile, has called the US rejection of Mr Aboutalebi “not acceptable”.

    The bill passed on Thursday in the House denies entry into the US to individuals engaged in espionage or terrorism or who pose a threat to national security.

    Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who introduced the legislation in the US Senate, urged Mr Obama to sign the bill.

    “We, as a country, can send an unequivocal message to rogue nations like Iran that the United States will not tolerate this kind of provocative and hostile behaviour,” Mr Cruz said.

    The bill’s sponsor in the House, Republican Doug Lamborn, said, “Terrorists, from Iran or elsewhere, should not be allowed to walk the streets of Manhattan with diplomatic immunity.”

    {{US options}}

    As the host country of the United Nations, the US has previously but rarely denied entry to an envoy or head of state. Those included a previous Iranian diplomat and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

    In those cases the applications were withdrawn after the US signalled opposition, or the state department simply declined to process the visas.

    Those options are available in Mr Aboutalebi’s case.

    On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told state-run media he had previously received a US visa as part of a visit to the UN in the 1990s.

    In an interview with an Iranian news site, Mr Aboutalebi said he was not part of the group that took over the US embassy and was only later asked to translate for the students.

    Others involved in the hostage-taking have corroborated that account.

    BBC

  • Venezuela’s Maduro & Opposition Hold Crisis Talks

    Venezuela’s Maduro & Opposition Hold Crisis Talks

    {{Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has met opposition leaders in crisis talks aimed at quelling weeks of protests.}}

    Mr Maduro met his bitter rival, opposition leader Henrique Capriles, for six hours. More talks are scheduled for Tuesday.

    The meeting was brokered by foreign ministers from South American nations.

    Protests erupted over soaring crime rates in February, but have snowballed into wider anti-government rallies. Some 40 people have been killed.

    Mr Maduro, who says the protests are part of a “fascist” US-backed plot against him, told the meeting that there would be no deal with the opposition.

    “There are no negotiations here. No pacts. All we’re looking for is a model of peaceful coexistence, of mutual tolerance,” he said.

    He has said any kind of formal deal with the opposition would make him a “traitor to chavismo”, the socialist platform of his predecessor Hugo Chavez.

    Mr Maduro called on the opposition to renounce violence.

    ‘Builders of peace’
    Mr Capriles, who was narrowly defeated in last year’s presidential election, insisted that the opposition did not want a coup against the government.

    “We don’t want a coup d’etat. We don’t want an explosion on the streets,” he said.

    “Either this situation changes, or it bursts. I hope it changes because I don’t want violence.”

    Mr Capriles also accused Mr Maduro of being disrespectful to the Venezuelan people.

    “How are you going to ask the country to accept you if you call half the country fascists or you threaten them?” he asked. “I think it is very difficult to govern a country where half the people are against you.”

    The talks were broadcast live on television.

    Pope Francis sent a letter giving his support to the talks.

    “I urge you not to get stuck in the conflict of the moment but open yourselves to one another to become true builders of peace,” the Roman Catholic leader said, in a letter read out at the meeting.

    Venezuela is sharply divided between supporters and opponents of Mr Maduro, who narrowly beat Mr Capriles to the presidency last year.

    The oil-rich country’s economy has hit the buffers in recent years, with food shortages and rising inflation causing increasing dissent.

    BBC