Tag: InternationalNews

{{Israel has intercepted a ship carrying Iranian weapons to Gaza, Israeli defence officials say.}}

The Panamanian-flagged vessel was boarded by Israeli special naval forces in the Red Sea on Wednesday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said.

Israel says it found rockets on board, and that it was now taking the ship back to Israeli shores.

There has not yet been any comment on the incident from Hamas, who govern the Gaza Strip.

{{China announced a growth target of 7.5% and revealed plans to raise its defence budget by 12.2%, as it opened its annual parliament session in Beijing.}}

Premier Li Keqiang said that economic development was the central task of the government, but “painful structural adjustments” were needed.

Japan voiced concern at the defence move, citing a “lack of transparency”.

Mr Li also pledged to “declare war” on pollution, fight corruption “without mercy”, and “crack down” on terrorism.

The congress marks one year since Xi Jinping was confirmed as president.

The 10-day meeting of around 3,000 legislators from delegations across China began on Wednesday.

China describes the National People’s Congress (NPC) as the country’s “supreme organ of state power”. It has the power to enact and amend legislation. In practice, it is generally considered a rubber stamp for the ruling Communist Party.

{{‘Critical stage’}}

As parliament opened Premier Li Keqiang presented a work report highlighting targets for China’s economy this year.

He said that the government’s “work got off to a good start” but admitted that “there are still many problems that people are unhappy about”.

“Painful structural adjustments need to be made” in China’s development, he said, though economic growth would remain stable.

According to the speech, the government will aim to keep inflation at about 3.5%, while boosting domestic growth and carrying out “people-centred urbanisation”.

The growth and inflation targets were widely expected. The growth rate target in 2013 was also 7.5%.

Correspondents say the fact that the growth target for 2014 has not changed will lead some to question how serious China is about embracing economic reforms, which would involve lowering the growth rate.

According to Mr Li’s speech, reforms were the “top priority” for the government and had entered “a critical stage”.

“We must rely on the people, break mental shackles and vested interests with determination as great as a warrior cutting his wrist, and deepen reforms in all fronts.”

Implementing reforms to tackle local government debt was also expected to be a priority.

{{‘Matter of concern’}}

The latest military budget boost comes amid tensions between China and many of its neighbours, including Japan and the Philippines, over disputed territories.

China has consistently announced double-digit increases to its official military budget in recent years. Analysts say its total military spend may in fact be higher.

However, China points out its defence budget is much smaller than that of the US.

China has also accused Japan of failing to adequately address its actions in World War Two.

In Wednesday’s speech, Mr Li said: “We will safeguard the victory of World War Two and the post-war international order, and will not allow anyone to reverse the course of history.”

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Wednesday the lack of transparency in China’s defence policy had “become a matter of concern for the international community, including Japan”.

{{‘Red light warning’}}

Issues such as targeting corruption and the environment are also on the agenda at the National People’s Congress.

President Xi Jinping has launched a high-profile crackdown against corruption since coming to power last year.

In his speech Mr Li admitted the toxic smog hanging over many Chinese cities was “nature’s red light warning against the model of inefficient and blind development”.

“We will declare war against pollution and fight it with the same determination we battled poverty,” he said.

In many urban areas, including Beijing, pollution levels routinely exceed the safety limits set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Security at the congress was tight in the wake of a mass stabbing attack at a railway station in Kunming, south-west China.

Eight attackers stabbed people at the station at random on Saturday, killing 29 and wounding more than 130.

Delegates held a moment of silence for the victims of the attack as the NPC opened.

Officials have blamed separatists from Xinjiang – which is home to the Muslim Uighur minority – for the attack.

On Wednesday morning, two protesters were dragged away from Tiananmen Square, near the venue for the NPC, by policemen. It is not clear what they were protesting about.

BBC

{{President Barack Obama said Russia was not “fooling anybody” over the Ukraine crisis after it denied its forces were operating in Crimea, as Secretary of State John Kerry prepared to meet his Russian counterpart on Wednesday.}}

In a show of support for the new interim leaders in Kiev on Tuesday, Kerry condemned Russia’s “act of aggression” and accused Moscow of “working hard to create a pretext for being able to invade further”.

Pro-Kremlin forces are in de facto control of the strategic, majority-Russian Crimean peninsula, where Ukrainian troops remain blocked inside their barracks in the most serious stand-off between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War.

Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his government had made the first “timid” contacts with Russian leaders aimed at resolving the crisis.

But the rhetoric from the United States and Russia remained tough.

Obama said the European Union and allies like Canada and Japan all believed Russia had violated international law by mobilising troops following the 22 February ouster of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych.

“President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers, maybe a different set of interpretations. But I do not think that is fooling anybody,” Obama said during a visit to a school in the US capital.

Putin, breaking more than a week of silence with a press conference in Moscow, said his country reserved the right to use “all available means” to protect Russians in Ukraine. “This is a last resort,” he added.

Responding to claims by Ukraine’s new authorities that thousands of Russian troops had poured into Crimea in recent days, Putin said that only “local forces of self-defence” were surrounding Ukrainian military bases in the region.

Asked if Russian forces took part in operations in Crimea, he said: “No, they did not participate”, adding: “There are lots of uniforms that look similar.”

When told of Putin’s remarks by a reporter in Kiev, Kerry responded: “He really denied there were Russian forces in Crimea?” and shook his head, bewildered.

{{Russia missile test}}

The top US diplomat is set to meet Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Paris on Wednesday, the first such meeting since the Crimea crisis started.

Separately, Kerry is to hold three-way talks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague and acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia.

Lavrov will also meet the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany at the Paris meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon.

Diplomats were expecting terse exchanges following German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s admission on Tuesday that there is no solution to the crisis in sight.

Amid the tensions, Russia carried out a successful test launch of an “advanced” intercontinental ballistic missile, state news agencies reported. The US was informed of the test earlier this week, a US defence official said.

World financial markets, meanwhile, rebounded on Tuesday as traders interpreted comments by Putin that force was “a last resort” as a sign that the situation in the nation of 46 million people was easing.

In a further public boost to Ukraine’s new Western-backed authorities, the US confirmed $1bn in loan guarantees to help shore up Ukraine’s debt-laden economy.

The move came after Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said it would end a discount it gives to Ukraine on gas prices from April, instead proposing a loan of up to $3bn to cover its debt.

Moscow is often accused of using its gas exports as a diplomatic weapon aimed at influencing decisions of ex-Soviet nations that contemplate closer relations with the West.

The European Commission also offered an aid package reportedly worth more than €1bn, as cash-strapped Ukraine says it needs €25bn ($35bn) over two years.

{{Warning shots}}

There was no immediate sign of calm returning to Crimea, which has housed the Russian Black Sea Fleet since the 18th century.

In one incident, Russian forces fired warning shots in the air as unarmed Ukrainian soldiers approached them at a base near Sevastopol, in what appeared to be the first shots fired since the Crimean crisis erupted.

In Sevastopol, a bastion of pro-Kremlin sentiment, the headquarters of the Ukrainian navy in Crimea was surrounded by around 100 pro-Russian activists who formed a human chain as Russian forces with automatic rifles looked on.

Ukrainian defence officials said Russian vessels were also blocking Ukrainian warships from trying to leave the port.

There may not be any fighting in Ukraine yet, but as tensions ratchet up in Crimea, young men in Kiev were queuing to sign up for military service, ready to take up arms if it comes to a war with Russia.

“I want to take part in the fight,” said Roman Surzhikov, a 33-year-old engineer and army reservist, one of a steady stream of people going into an army recruitment centre in the city on Tuesday, despite a “closed” sign outside.

{{West to step up pressure?}}

In a sign of profound Western frustrations with Russia, Kerry warned that unless Russia acts to reduce tensions, it will face further international action after the US already suspended military cooperation.

A US official travelling with Kerry said Russia was “likely” to face US moves to introduce sanctions as early as this week. The EU has also threatened “targeted measures”.

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande warned that Russia was “running the risk of a dangerous escalation”.

But Putin warned that any sanctions would lead to “mutual losses”.

Also on Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will visit Kiev ahead of an EU emergency summit on Ukraine on Thursday.

But Washington and its allies appear to have few options beyond limited punitive measures to halt what they perceive as Putin’s drive to rebuild vestiges of the Soviet empire, irrespective of the wishes of nations such as Ukraine.

After Putin’s comments calmed fears of an immediate war, Asian and European markets bounced back from deep losses suffered on Monday.

Stocks on Wall Street shot up by more than one percent.

Russia’s stock market also clawed back almost half of the 11% slump it suffered on a Black Monday of trading that sent the ruble to historic lows.

– AFP

{{North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its eastern coast on Monday, the second such launch in less than a week, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.}}

The defense ministry said it is on high alert and monitoring the situation. It called on the North to stop the missile launches.

The weapons launched were Scud missiles with a range capability of 500 kilometers, according to the defense ministry, twice that of those launched last week.

On Thursday, four Scud missiles were fired into the sea off North Korea’s eastern coast just days after the start of annual joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States.

North Korea opposes such exercises, which routinely spark tension among the three countries.

Last year’s exercises triggered weeks of heightened tensions between the nations and North Korean threats of nuclear war.

Thursday’s launch was the first time North Korea had fired Scud missiles, which have a range that covers the whole of the Korean Peninsula, since 2009, South Korea said.

Foreign policy experts say the North Korean missile firings may not herald a repeat of last year’s saber rattling from Pyongyang, which included threats of preemptive nuclear strikes against the United States and South Korea and the declaration that the armistice that stopped the Korean War in 1953 is null and void.

CNN