IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Russia Faces ‘Isolation’ over Ukraine

    Russia Faces ‘Isolation’ over Ukraine

    {{William Hague has warned Russia that it faces long-term “isolation and stagnation” over the crisis in Ukraine.}}

    The foreign secretary said it was time to consider a “new state of relations” different to that of the past 20 years.

    Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said the UK and its European allies would not “run scared”.

    His comments came amid continuing tensions, with Russian troops taking control of one of the last big military bases in Crimea from the Ukrainians.

    At least one person was injured in the assault on Belbek air base, near Sevastopol, according to reports. It is now said to be under Russian control.

    The Ukrainian region was formally annexed by Russia on Friday.

    In other developments:

    Several hundred unarmed protesters seized a Ukrainian naval base at Novofedorivka, western Crimea

    Ukraine’s warship Slavutych was seized by Crimean “self-defence” units and Russian troops following a two-hour assault in Sevastopol, a Ukrainian defence spokesman said

  • Ebola in Guinea Blamed for Deadly Fever Outbreak

    Ebola in Guinea Blamed for Deadly Fever Outbreak

    {{The Ebola virus has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever now believed to have killed nearly 60 people in southern Guinea, government officials say.}}

    Scores of cases have been recorded since the outbreak began early last month.

    There is no known cure or vaccine for the highly contagious Ebola virus.

    It is spread by close personal contact with people who are infected and kills between 25% and 90% of victims.

    Symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting.

    Outbreaks of Ebola occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests, the World Health Organization says.

    Analysts suggest it has never been recorded in Guinea before.

    Recent years have seen outbreaks in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

  • Twitter ban: Turkey’s President Gul Challenges PM’s Move

    Twitter ban: Turkey’s President Gul Challenges PM’s Move

    {{President Abdullah Gul has challenged a ban on Twitter in Turkey after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “wipe out” the micro-blogging service.}}

    Twitter users across the country reported that the site had been blocked on Thursday.

    But like many others, President Gul evaded the ban to tweet that the “shutdown was unacceptable.”

    Mr Erdogan is angry that people used Twitter to spread allegations of corruption in his inner circle.

    “I don’t care what the international community says at all. Everyone will see the power of the Turkish Republic,” Mr Erdogan said in a speech on Thursday.

    ‘Not technically possible’
    President Gul took to the site on Friday to say that websites should only be blocked if courts found they had violated personal privacy.

    He said it was not “technically possible to totally block access to platforms used all over the world” and added that he hoped the decision would “not last long.”

    Like Mr Erdogan, Mr Gul is a member of the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

    In Turkey, the government holds most power but the president can veto laws, appoint officials, and name judges.

    The European Union said it was worried about the move to block Twitter, with Stefan Fuele, the EU commissioner for enlargement, saying he was “gravely concerned” by Prime Minister Erdogan’s policy on free speech.

    European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes described the blocking of the site as “groundless, pointless, cowardly.”

    Turkey’s lawyers’ association asked a court to overturn the ban, arguing it was unconstitutional and violated Turkish and European human rights laws. Turkey’s main opposition party also said it would try to have the decision reversed.

    BBC

  • Europe Strikes Deal to Complete Banking Union

    Europe Strikes Deal to Complete Banking Union

    {{Europe took the final step to complete a banking union on Thursday with an agency to shut failing euro zone banks, but there will be no joint government back-up to pay the costs of closures.}}

    The breakthrough ends an impasse with the European Parliament, which persuaded euro zone countries to strengthen the scheme. It completes the second pillar of banking union, which starts at the end of the year when the European Central Bank takes over as watchdog.

    The accord means that the ECB has the means to shut banks it decides are too weak to survive, reinforcing its role as supervisor as it prepares to run health checks on the still fragile sector.

    ECB President Mario Draghi said that plans to allow the new ‘resolution’ or clean-up fund to borrow to top itself up looked promising and that the decision-making scheme to shut a bank had been streamlined.

    “The point we’ve always made that we need a mechanism that is properly funded and the agreement actually improves the existing funding,” Draghi told journalists as he entered a meeting of European Union leaders.

    “All in all we made progress for a better banking union.”

    Michel Barnier, the European commissioner in charge of regulation, said the scheme would help to bring “an end to the era of massive bailouts”.

    “The second pillar of banking union will allow bank crises to be managed more effectively,” he said.

    Thursday’s agreement makes it harder for EU countries to challenge the ECB if the central bank triggers bank closures, and establishes a common 55 billion euro back-up fund over eight years – quicker than planned but far longer than the ECB’s watchdog had hoped.

    But the new system, which Barnier conceded was not ‘perfect’, has shortcomings.

    For one, the ‘resolution’ fund is small and would, in the view of the ECB watchdog, be quickly spent. To remedy that the fund will be able to borrow to replenish spent money.

    Euro zone governments will not, however, club together to make it cheaper and easier for it to do so.

    {wirestory}

  • China Spots New Possible Missing Jet Debris

    China Spots New Possible Missing Jet Debris

    {{China said on Saturday it had a new satellite image of what could be wreckage from a missing Malaysian airliner, as more planes and ships headed to join an international search operation scouring some of the remotest seas on Earth.}}

    The latest possible lead came as the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 entered its third week, with still no confirmed trace found of the Boeing 777 or the 239 people on board.

    The new potential sighting was dramatically announced by Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, after he was handed a note with details during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, scooping the official announcement from China.

    “Chinese ships have been dispatched to the area,” Hishammuddin told reporters.

    China said the object was 22 meters long (74ft) and 13 meters (43ft) wide, and spotted around 120 km (75 miles) “south by west” of potential debris reported by Australia off its west coast in the forbidding waters of the southern Indian Ocean.

    The image was captured by the high-definition Earth observation satellite “Gaofen-1” early on March 18, two days after the Australian satellite picture was taken, China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) said on its website.

    There was no official comment on whether the two images could show the same object.

    Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled flight to Beijing.

    Investigators believe someone on board shut off the plane’s communications systems, and partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

    That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but they have not ruled out technical problems.

    {A screen shows the questions from family members of passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 after a routine briefing given by Malaysia’s government and military representatives at Lido Hotel}

  • Pope Francis Denounces ‘Evil Mafia’

    Pope Francis Denounces ‘Evil Mafia’

    {{Pope Francis has launched a stinging attack on the mafia, warning gangsters that they will go to hell unless they repent and stop doing evil.}}

    “Blood-stained money, blood-stained power, you can’t bring it with you to your next life. Repent,” he said.

    He was speaking at a prayer vigil for relatives of those killed by the mafia.

    The Pope has spoken out frequently about the evils of corruption and wrote a booklet on the subject in 2005 when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.

    ‘No joy’
    The meeting near Rome on Friday – organised by a citizens’ group called Libera – was aimed at demonstrating the Roman Catholic Church’s opposition to organised crime, rejecting historic ties with mafia bosses claiming to be good Catholics.

    Pope Francis (right) leaves the church in Rome with Father Luigi Ciotti of the Catholic Libera association.

    The vigil was filled with those who have suffered at the hands of the mafia, including people whose family members and loved ones had been killed.

    As the names of those murdered were read out, the Pope listened, deep in sombre thought.

    After expressing solidarity with the 842 people at the vigil, he said that he could not leave the service without addressing those not present: The “protagonists” of mafia violence.

    “This life that you live now won’t give you pleasure. It won’t give you joy or happiness,” he said.

    “There’s still time to not end up in hell, which is what awaits you if you continue on this path.”

    Our correspondent says there is a long list of brave priests in Italy who have stood up to the mafia, and some have paid with lives.

    But he says that the wider Church has been accused of not doing enough to confront the gangsters.

    Anti-mafia activists hope that the Pope’s words are a signal that he is on their side.

    wirestory

  • Chelsea v Arsenal is ‘the Game of the Season’

    Chelsea v Arsenal is ‘the Game of the Season’

    {{Arsene Wenger says his 1,000th match as Arsenal boss will be the “game of the season” as his side travel to Premier League leaders Chelsea on Saturday.}}

    Arsenal sit four points behind Chelsea with a game in hand as the title race looks to be a four-way battle.

    “What is very interesting is you have Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, and that has not happened for years,” said the 64-year-old Frenchman.

    “None of these four can say they’re not going for it, that would be stupid.”
    Wenger, who joined Arsenal in 1996, has won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups, and qualified for the Champions League in 16 consecutive seasons.

    However, his last silverware came in the 2005 FA Cup and he has been widely criticised for not adding to his 11 domestic titles in the last nine years.

    Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has been among Wenger’s leading critics and the pair will meet for the first time since the Portuguese called him “a specialist in failure” earlier this season.

    “I admire him and admire Arsenal,” Mourinho said on Friday.

    “It is not possible to have 1,000 matches unless the club is also a fantastic club in the way they support their manager, especially in the bad moments – and especially when the bad moments were quite a lot.”

    Mourinho has not lost against a Wenger team in 10 attempts, but the Chelsea manager played down that statistic ahead of Saturday’s encounter.

    “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “It’s not against him. It’s Chelsea against Arsenal. I didn’t play Arsenal with Inter, Madrid or Porto; just Chelsea.

    “It’s Arsenal v Chelsea, not me against him. Records don’t play any role – a match is a match. It’s not coach against coach, it’s team against team.”

    Wenger refused to get involved in a row with Mourinho and, when asked for his opinion of the former Inter Milan and Real Madrid boss, the Frenchman said: “I keep that for myself.

    “On Saturday I represent my club, I don’t represent myself, and I will behave always in respecting the values of our club, and keep my own feelings far away from that.”

    Wenger described reaching 1,000 games as “a privilege” and said he is confident that Arsenal’s trophy drought will end soon.

    “The next period is to deliver trophies and compete with everyone at the top level. We have great players, so I’m confident we can win trophies.”

  • Guantanamo Detainees to Relocate to Uruguay

    Guantanamo Detainees to Relocate to Uruguay

    {{Uruguay is open to taking in detainees from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, President Jose Mujica said on Thursday, calling the decision “a question of human rights”.}}

    “If the inmates of Guantanamo want to make their homes in Uruguay, they can do it,” Mujica told Channel 10’s “Subrayado” programme, adding that he “would not be their jailer”.

    Uruguay’s weekly Busqueda magazine reported earlier in the day that Mujica had agreed to accept five of the prisoners at President Barack Obama’s request, and that US Secretary of State John Kerry personally called Mujica to thank him on Monday.

    The magazine said the deal includes a requirement that the former detainees remain inside Uruguay’s borders for at least two years.

    However, US Ambassador to Uruguay Julissa Reynoso denied that an agreement had been met, saying that talks were ongoing. She specifically denied that the governments had agreed that five prisoners would go to Uruguay.

    “That’s not correct. We’re consulting and in conversation, but there is no deal to make a process like this in Uruguay,” she told Montevideo’s “El Espectador” radio show.

    {{Guantanamo promise}}

    US President Barack Obama is struggling to fulfil his five-year-old promise to close the controversial jail, and countries have been slow to come forward and agree to accept transferred inmates.

    Uruguay would be the first country in South America to do so.

    It was “a question of human rights,” Mujica later told reporters while at a farm fair in rural Uruguay.

    The prisoners “haven’t seen a judge, haven’t seen a prosecutor, and the president of the United States wants to resolve this problem as well,” added Mujica, a former leftist rebel who spent more than a decade in prison.

    “They asked a lot of countries if they could give shelter, and I said yes.”

    Mujica said the inmates would be granted refugee status, and could eventually bring their families to Uruguay.

    When asked if he had demanded something in return from Washington, Mujica replied: “I don’t do favours for free.”

    Significant progress

    The US has resettled 43 Guantanamo detainees in 17 countries since Obama took office, and released 38 others to their homelands. Last week, the State Department office working to close the prison said to expect significant progress with the remaining 154.

    A statement from the US Embassy in Montevideo on Thursday said “we are consulting with various countries in the region about closing the detention centre. Given the leadership role that President Jose Mujica shows in the region, we have consulted with his government.”

    Obama came into office pledging to close the prison for terrorism suspects on the US base in Cuba but was thwarted by Congress, which imposed restrictions on transferring the prisoners overseas and a ban on moving any of the men held there to the United States.

    Congress finally eased the restrictions in December, and transfers and releases, which had come to a virtual halt, have resumed as part of the president’s renewed efforts.

    france24

  • US-Russia: Sanctioned Politicians Invoke Irony and Tupac

    US-Russia: Sanctioned Politicians Invoke Irony and Tupac

    {{In the age of the sound bite, politicians have learned to talk in snappy quotes.

    Everyone from Dmitry Rogozin to John McCain has put that skill to use in this week’s round of sanctions between the West and Russia. }}

    Indeed, the variations of “see if I care” reactions from both sides have, at times, been so creative, you have to wonder how long in advance they were scripted.

    Take Vladislav Surkov, for example. Putin’s top aide offered this comeback when he found out he was on a list of people sanctioned by the U.S.:

    { {{“I see the decision by the administration in Washington as an acknowledgment of my service to Russia. It’s a big honor for me. I don’t have accounts abroad. The only things that interest me in the U.S. are Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg, and Jackson Pollock. I don’t need a visa to access their work. I lose nothing.”}} }

    @MemphoNewsLady…{{Putin aide doesn’t care about U.S. sanctions. But he DOES care about Tupac. No joke.}}

    But the successful rapper, shot to death in 1996, wasn’t the only one referenced by Surkov. He also professed his love for the works of beat poet Allen Ginsberg and of painter Jackson Pollock.

    The message was clear: I’m so cultured and cool, I take the long-time view on the U.S. rather than be bothered by its current administration.

    Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin found himself on the initial list of people hit by Western sanctions, and he had this reaction:

    {{Comrade @BarackObama, what should do those who have neither accounts nor property abroad? Or U didn’t think about it?)http://bit.ly/1ebMXDM}}

    In a subsequent Twitter post, Rogozin went on to suggest that the sanctions had been drawn up by “pranksters.” He also wished Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper luck in finding any overseas assets:

    {{Canadian PM Stephen Harper put me on the list http://gazeta.ru/politics/news/ … Looks like they’re also looking for my accounts and villas)) They wish}}

    Vladimir Yakunin, head of the Russian Railways state company, also had something to say upon finding himself on the latest list:

    @KiritRadia..{{Yakunin reax: “I’m sorry that a country that calls itself democratic uses sanctions for an honest position and for honest statements”}}

    @PaulSonne…{{Yakunin says the sanctions against him seem to reflect some sort of mental illness.}}

    Meanwhile in the U.S., Republican senator and former presidential candidate John McCain decided that irony was the way to go in the face of Moscow’s actions. Upon finding his name on the list of banned U.S. citizens, McCain sent out this tweet, which was retweeted over 1,000 times.

    @SenJohnMcCain…{{I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off, Gazprom stock is lost & secret bank account in Moscow is frozen http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=fb0cfcb4-99c3-4ee5-b4ee-c761faa766a3 …}}

    Others opted for a strong dose of pathos, like McCain’s fellow Republican member and speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner:

    @SpeakerBoehner…{{Proud to be included on a list of those willing to stand against Putin’s aggression http://j.mp/1gCSPCr}}

    And just when you thought that Tupac reference was as pop culture as it gets, other U.S. politicians decided that, clearly, this latest round in the escalating tension between Russia and the West needed its own hashtag. So, in a nod to Twitter conventions, enter #SanctionedByPutin:

    @SenatorMenendez…{{If standing up for #democracy & sovereignty in #Ukraine means I’m #SanctionedByPutin, I’ll take it.}}

    @SenatorReid…{{President Putin, it’s one thing to pick on me, but I wouldn’t mess with Mary. @SenLandrieu #SanctionedByPutin}}

    @SenLandrieu…{{Being sanctioned by President Putin is a badge of honor. #SanctionedByPutin}}

    In fact, after reading all these reactions, you could argue that recent sanctions have brought joy wherever they’ve been imposed:

  • India-Pakistan to Begin Super 10 Phase

    India-Pakistan to Begin Super 10 Phase

    {{The ICC World Twenty20 enters the Super 10 phase on Friday with an eagerly awaited contest between rivals and former winners India and Pakistan.}}

    They are in Group 2 with defending champions West Indies, Australia and Group A qualifiers Bangladesh.

    England, the 2010 champions, begin their Group 1 campaign against New Zealand in Chittagong on Sunday.

    Sri Lanka and South Africa are also in the group, with Ireland seeking to join them by qualifying from Group B.

    The Irish team have secured victories against Zimbabwe and the United Arab Emirates to lead their qualifying group on four points and could go through even if they are beaten on Friday by the Netherlands, who, like Zimbabwe, have two points from their first two matches.

    When England won the tournament in the Caribbean in 2010 their leading run-scorer was Kevin Pietersen, who was told last month he would no longer be part of the national team set-up.

    Stuart Broad’s team, who have lost seven of their last eight matches, including warm-up defeats against West Indies and India, are also without the injured Joe Root and Ben Stokes for the event.

    Despite having never beaten India in the competition, Pakistan have a superior World T20 record to India, having qualified for the semi-finals in all four editions and won the tournament in 2009 in England after being runners-up in the inaugural event.

    India have not reached the semi-finals since taking the title in 2007, but have lost only once in five T20 internationals against Pakistan.

    West Indies, who beat hosts Sri Lanka in the 2012 final, defeated England 2-1 in their series in Barbados earlier this month when star opener Chris Gayle returned from injury, and the cavalier left-hander has made 1,096 T20 runs in 37 internationals, with 10 fifties and one century.

    Sri Lanka are the top-ranked T20 international side, and they have spent more than six weeks in Bangladesh conditions, winning the 50-over Asia Cup there earlier this month with a five-wicket victory against Pakistan.

    Australia, who begin against Pakistan on Monday, are yet to win the World T20 title and have opted for experience in their squad with the inclusion of 39-year-old batsman Brad Hodge and 43-year-old spinner Brad Hogg, but fast bowler Mitchell Johnson is out with an infected toe.

    The top two teams in each group contest the semi-finals on 3 and 4 April, with the final in Mirpur on 6 April.

    The women’s tournament runs alongside the men’s event, with England facing West Indies (24 March), India (26 March), Bangladesh (28 March) and Sri Lanka (30 March) in the group stage.

    wirestory