Tag: InternationalNews

Ukraine Leader Agrees Early Election

{{Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has agreed to hold a presidential election before the end of the year, as part of a deal to end the crisis.}}

He said he had also agreed to a national unity government, and to make constitutional changes reducing the power of the president.

The compromise came after hours of talks with the opposition leaders.

The opposition has not spoken about the deal and it remains unclear whether protesters will back it.

The German and Polish foreign ministers, who mediated the talks in Kiev, are now on their way to talk to protesters in Kiev’s Independence Square.

“Delicate moment over agreement on the settlement of the crisis. All sides need to remember that compromise means getting less than 100%,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said.

Ukrainian broadcaster ICTV said it had seen a copy of the deal, and it had been signed by all parties.

According to the report, the deal contains:

The 2004 constitution will be restored within 48 hours, and a national unity government will be formed within 10 days

Constitutional reform balancing the powers of president, government and parliament will be started immediately and completed by September

A presidential election will be held after the new constitution is adopted but no later than December 2014

{wirestory}

February 21, 2014
Anne Frank’s Diary Vandalised in Japan Libraries

More than 100 copies of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl have been vandalised in public libraries in Japan’s capital Tokyo, officials say.

Pages have been ripped from at least 265 copies of the diary and other related books, they added.

It is not clear who is behind the vandalism. A US Jewish rights group has called for a police investigation.

Anne Frank’s diary was written during World War Two, while the teenager hid from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam.

The book made her a symbol of the suffering of Jews during the war.

The head of Japan’s library council, Satomi Murata, told media that five of Tokyo’s wards had reported the vandalism so far.

“We don’t know why this happened or who did it.”

Meanwhile, Toshihiro Obayashi, a library official in West Tokyo’s Suginsami area, said: “Each and every book which comes up under the index of Anne Frank has been damaged at our library.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a global Jewish human rights organisation, said it was shocked and concerned by the incidents, and called for the authorities to investigate.

“The geographic scope of these incidents strongly suggest an organised effort to denigrate the memory of the most famous of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis in the World War Two Holocaust,” associate dean Abraham Cooper said.

“Anne Frank is studied and revered by millions of Japanese,” Mr Cooper added. “Only people imbued with bigotry and hatred would seek to destroy Anne’s historic words of courage, hope and love in the face of impending doom.”

The book was added to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Memory of the World Register in 2009.

BBC

February 21, 2014
President Obama to Meet Dalai Lama

{{US President Barack Obama will meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday, at the White House , US officials say.}}

China has urged the US to cancel the meeting, saying it will “seriously impair China-US relations”.

China describes the Dalai Lama as a separatist, while the spiritual leader says he only advocates greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence.

Officials say the US does not support Tibetan independence but is concerned about human rights in China.

The two men last met in 2011, in talks that angered China.

Tibet is governed as an autonomous region in China.

China has been widely accused of repressing political and religious freedoms in Tibet. Beijing rejects this and says economic development has improved Tibetans’ lives.

{{‘Respected leader’}}

Mr Obama will host the Dalai Lama in a private meeting in the White House Map Room on Friday morning, US officials said.

Obama traditionally hosts foreign leaders in the Oval Office, so the decision to use the Map Room is viewed as an attempt to give the visit a lower-profile.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said Mr Obama would meet the Dalai Lama “in his capacity as an internationally respected religious and cultural leader”.

“We do not support Tibetan independence,” she said, adding that the US “strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in China.

“We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China.”

Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing was “firmly opposed” to the meeting.

“The US leader’s meeting with the Dalai is a gross interference in China’s internal affairs, a severe violation of codes of international relations and will seriously impair China-US relations,” she said in a statement.

China had “already lodged solemn representations” with the US on the matter, she added.

In recent years more than 110 ethnic Tibetans – mostly young monks and nuns living in areas outside Tibet – have set themselves on fire in apparent protest against Beijing’s rule.

BBC

February 21, 2014
Korean Families Head to Bittersweet Reunions

{{A group of 82 elderly, frail South Koreans, two of them in ambulances, have started a journey to the North Korean border to attend the first family reunion in more than three years for familes divided by the Korean war.}}

Ten coaches, with half a dozen police vehicles as escorts, left the eastern port city of Sokcho at 8:30am local time on Thursday (23:30 GMT Wednesday) for the heavily-militarised border 50kms away.

The departure was delayed as two female members of the group needed medical attention, and ended up being put in ambulances for the journey.

“Twenty-six of the group are over 90 years old, so we have to be very careful. It’s more challenging than any other time,” Yoo Jung-Kaeun, president of the South Korean Red Cross, told media.

“This is why there are so many more accompanying family members,” she added.

She was referring to 58 family members who have joined the journey, emotionally and physically supporting the elderly travellers, of whom more than a dozen are in wheelchairs.

After crossing the world’s last major Cold War frontier, there will be another 30km drive to a resort on Mount Kumgang – the venue for the reunion with 180 North Korean relatives they have not seen for more than 60 years.

“I think when I see her face, I won’t believe it’s real,” Kim Dong-Bin, 81, said of the elder sister he left decades ago in the North’s capital, Pyongyang.

“I wonder if I will be able to recognise her immediately? It’s been so long,” Kim said.

Pyongyang concessions

All of the South Koreans carried bags filled with gifts, ranging from basic medicines, to framed family photos and packets of instant noodles. Some brought bags of fresh fruit that they planned to offer in a joint prayer ceremony with their reunited siblings to their late parents.

“The gifts I’m bringing to my sister should be good. Something you can’t see much in North Korea so I hope she will be happy,” said Kim Se-Rin, 85.

“I’ve also included some US dollars for her and my younger brother,” Kim said.

The reunion is the result of tortuous, high-level negotiations between Pyongyang and Seoul, which nearly broke down over the North’s objections to overlapping joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States.

The majority of Koreans separated by the war died without meeting again.

aljazeera

February 20, 2014
French Tycoon in Custody for ‘Vote-Buying’

{{French industrialist billionaire and Senator Serge Dassault was detained Wednesday for alleged vote-buying in his former fiefdom south of Paris. He faces renewed questioning Thursday after having been released for the night.}}

The 88-year-old manufacturer of fighter jets is suspected of buying votes in Corbeil-Essonnes, where he was mayor from 1995 to 2009.

Dassault is ranked by Forbes magazine as the fourth-richest man in France and the 69th-richest in the world, with an estimated fortune of 13 billion euros ($18 billion).

French judges suspect him of operating an extensive system of vote-buying which influenced the outcome of three mayoral elections in the Paris-area suburb of Corbeil in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Those votes were won either by Dassault or his successor and associate, Jean-Pierre Bechter.

Formal charges against Dassault now look inevitable, experts say.

{{Allegations of bribing immigrants}}

Bechter has already been charged, as has Cristela de Oliveira, a former official in the mayor’s office suspected of giving council flats to families in exchange for supporting Dassault or Bechter.

Dassault heads the Dassault Group, which owns the country’s main conservative daily newspaper, Le Figaro, and holds a majority stake in Dassault Aviation, which makes business and military aircraft (including the Rafale fighter jet).

A member of former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party, Dassault admits using his vast personal wealth to help residents of Corbeil, but denies any payouts were made in return for votes.

But at least two men who claim to have been paid by Dassault to help organise the alleged vote buying have described an efficient electoral machine which targeted poorer families from immigrant backgrounds.

In return for casting their ballots for Dassault or Bechter, residents were promised help with paying for driving lessons and finding subsidised housing.

In addition to vote-buying, Dassault could be charged with money laundering and misuse of public assets. Those charges are serious enough to warrant prison time.

In 1998, Dassault received a two-year suspended prison sentence in Belgium for bribing members of the country’s Socialist Party in order to secure an army helicopter contract in what became known as the “Agusta scandal”.

agencies

February 20, 2014
Japan Bar Sues Website for Unwanted Publicity

{{An exclusive Japanese bar is suing a foodie website, arguing that unwanted publicity from a review is damaging its operational strategy of being little-known and hard to find, reports said on Thursday.}}

The bar in the western city of Osaka, which was not named in reports, has asked the wildly popular “Tabelog” web site to take down a client review and photos of the establishment.

But the operators of the site, which claims to have around 53 million users a month, refused the request, arguing that the review is covered by the right to freedom of expression, the Asahi Shimbun and the Nikkei business daily said.

The bar, which threw open its nondescript doors in 2010, has no sign outside saying what it is or what it does. It requires known customers and their guests to ring a doorbell and ask staff to unlock an iron door from inside.

“It was a way to differentiate the establishment. Our stagecraft as a secret hideaway was designed to appeal to visitors’ imaginations,” the bar operators told the Osaka District Court in a hearing Wednesday, according to the Asahi.

The Tabelog information “took away the elements of surprise and fun and undermined our operational strategy”, they said, demanding the website take down the post and asking for 3.3 million yen ($32,400) in damages, the Asahi reported.

The review, alongside pictures of the bar, was posted in 2012. Its operators noticed it last summer and asked Tabelog to take it down, according to local press.

Tabelog claims to be the premier restaurant review website in Japan. A New York version launched in March last year.

Users write reviews of places they have eaten which others can use as a guide for finding the right spot.

aljazeera

February 20, 2014
Venezuela Opposition Leader Surrenders Amid Fresh Protests

{{Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez (pictured) surrendered to authorities at a rally in Caracas Tuesday as his followers gathered for a fresh round of anti-government protests in a plaza surrounded by anti-riot troops.}}

President Nicolas Maduro last week ordered Lopez’s arrest on charges of homicide and inciting violence after street clashes in the capital left three dead.

The surrender was a dramatic move following two weeks of protests in the country, spearheaded by students who are angry over rampant crime, deteriorating living conditions and the arrests of demonstrators.

The government banned Tuesday’s opposition march after Lopez said he would use it to surrender. Defying the ban, thousands of Lopez’s supporters turned out dressed in white at the Plaza Brion after he called for the march in a video message on Sunday.

Lopez, also in white, suddenly emerged in the crowd, climbing a statue of Cuban independence hero Jose Marti with a Venezuelan flag. After delivering a brief message to his cheering supporters, he surrendered to the National Guard.

“I present myself before an unjust justice, before a corrupt justice,” said the 42-year-old Harvard-educated economist.

“If my incarceration serves to wake up a people … my infamous incarceration will have been worth it,” he said to an explosion of cheers from the crowd.

He calmly walked under escort to a National Guard vehicle as his supporters pressed in around the vehicle, blocking its path.

Shouts of “Freedom, Freedom!” and “It’s going to fall, it’s going to fall; this corrupt government is going to fall” rose from the crowd.

Lopez himself got on the loudspeaker from within the vehicle to appeal for calm.

Three rings of national police – backed by a second line of National Guard anti-riot troops with light armoured vehicles – were positioned around the plaza.

The government summoned its followers to rallies of its own in an area of downtown Caracas where the opposition march was to end, raising the risk of a violent confrontation with rival protesters.

{wirestory}

February 20, 2014
Arsenal v Bayern Munich: The Win That Kick-Started Gunners Revival

{{Arsenal face Champions League holders Bayern Munich at Emirates Stadium after taking two significant steps on the road to recovery from their public humiliation at Liverpool.}}

Manager Arsene Wenger knew his side needed a response to that 5-1 defeat at Anfield with their season reaching defining moments on three fronts.

This has been achieved with a solid, if unspectacular, clean sheet in the goalless draw at home to Manchester United and then by exacting revenge on Liverpool with an FA Cup fifth round victory at the Emirates.

So with the Premier League ship steadied and FA Cup progress secured, the greatest test of all now comes in the shape of a last-16 Champions League meeting with Bayern, arguably Europe’s finest side now under the guidance of coach Pep Guardiola, twice a winner in this competition with Barcelona.

And with confidence being rebuilt in the past week, can Arsenal take further solace in their victory in The Allianz at this same stage 11 months ago – when a 2-0 victory shocked Bayern, who were relieved to advance on away goals after a 3-1 win in London?

It is a victory that is now seen as the first building block in Arsenal’s return towards the top of the Premier League table and renewed optimism that this can be the season when Wenger ends the wait for a trophy stretching back to the 2005 FA Cup final win against Manchester United.

Theo Walcott, currently recovering from a cruciate ligament injury in his left knee, is in no doubt about about the significance of the match in Germany.

“We’ve learnt from so much experience we’ve had in the last year,” he said.
“Ever since that Bayern Munich result, really, it’s changed the whole club.”

Study the statistics and it bears out the theory that even though the win in Germany did not produce aggregate victory for Arsenal, the lift taken from beating the eventual winners in their own imposing arena had a positive knock-on effect.

In 49 games before that meeting in Munich, Arsenal won 23, drew 14 and lost 12. Since that win, with goals from Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny, they have won 34, drawn eight and lost seven.

The win percentage before was 47% and afterwards, including Sunday’s 2-1 win against Liverpool, it has now been elevated to almost 70%.

It has made a clear difference to their league form as well, winning 25 out of 36 games since the victory over Bayern, bringing a points return of 82. This puts them at the top of the points list of the Premier League’s top 10 since then – Chelsea are second with 79 points from 35 games.

Contrast this with, for example, Manchester United, who have just 60 points from 36 league games played since that day.

For Arsenal, the figures suggest that win did mark a turning point – at least in injecting some self-belief into players who were still under heavy fire from their own fans for a shock FA Cup fifth-round home defeat by Championship Blackburn Rovers just days before the first leg against Bayern.

So, even if the second leg win can only be regarded as symbolic, will it make a difference to their mindset going into their latest meeting with an undisputed European football superpower?

Former Tottenham manager David Pleat told BBC Sport: “It won’t be easy for Arsenal but the fact they have beaten Bayern should certainly give them some confidence.
“I think if they have beaten Bayern before, then they must believe.

Arsene always says the focus, mentality and concentration of his players is right. If it is, then he must believe those players have the mental strength to go in there and do it again, although of course the first leg is again at home and Bayern are a wonderful side.”

Pleat is a huge admirer of Wenger and his methods but worries Arsenal may suffer from a lack of firepower, with only Olivier Giroud as a proven top-class striker.

He added: “They have got enough players who are capable of passing well and keeping the ball but I’m not sure whether they have got enough thrust against top, top sides to score the vital goals.

“They haven’t really got what I would call two recognised top front men and as a consequence Arsene has to play with a semi-second striker.

“There is no problem with that, provided he is schemer in the way that I had Glenn Hoddle and Clive Allen at Spurs, and if the other people are scoring goals or the front man is scoring buckets full of goals.

“Can they score enough goals? Can they make enough positions to score those goals? I think it is difficult without Theo Walcott’s pace, particularly when he is used late on in games and teams are trying to get level with Arsenal. He is quick and exploits space.”

Mark Lawrenson was BBC Radio 5 live’s pundit in the Allianz Arena that night last year – and does not attach great significance to Arsenal’s victory as an indicator to this year’s prospects.

“They won’t be frightened of playing Bayern and of course you always remember when you go to a class side in their own stadium and win,” he said. “But I think it will be a completely different animal to the one they faced in March.

“Bayern were not bothered. Arsenal played very well on the night and got very close to getting through with the extra away goal, but even the Bayern fans just turned up for a party and Bayern didn’t play a full-strength team.

“It was a good result but I’m pretty sure within a few minutes of watching the game start I was thinking if there were any 50-50s there were not too many Bayern players winning them. Bayern then lost their way and it almost backfired on them.”

And Lawrenson believes that under Guardiola, Bayern may be even more powerful now than when they won the Champions League last season, a run that included a 7-0 aggregate win over Barcelona in the semi-final.

“You get the feeling they are desperate to become the first team to win back-to-back Champions Leagues,” said Lawrenson.

“They have got a new coach in Pep Guardiola who is driven by the whole thing. He wants to show he can do it at another club and silence anybody who still wants to downgrade his achievements at Barcelona by suggesting he inherited the best team in the world.

“If anything it probably strengthened their team and they have a real swagger. When I saw Bayern at Manchester City this year what impressed me so much was how hard they all worked, including Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben.”

Since last year’s tie Arsenal have brought in their own German influence in playmaker Mesut Ozil.

He was a £42.4m summer signing from Real Madrid and a meeting with Bayern will provide the perfect platform for this graceful midfield man to answer those who have been critical of his recent performances.

Lawrenson added: “Ozil’s form has tailed off in recent weeks but this is the perfect time for him to raise his game.

“No doubt the German national coach Joachim Low will be watching so it’s a showcase day for Ozil.”

Arsenal do have a formidable Bayern barrier to overcome – but Wenger and his players can take comfort in their impressive statistics since they won in Munich and the manner in which they have responded to their most damaging defeat of the season.

BBC sport

February 19, 2014
EU Migrants Must earn £149 a week to Claim Benefits

European migrants coming to the UK will have to show they are earning at least £149 a week before they can access a range of benefits.

The minimum earnings threshold, first announced last year by David Cameron, will come into force on 1 March.

It is the latest in a series of measures to restrict access to benefits for migrants from other EU countries.

Migrants have already been told that they will need to wait three months before claiming jobseeker’s allowance.

Curbs on housing benefit are being introduced in April.

Ministers argue that the longstanding principle that citizens of EU countries should be allowed to live and work in other member states does not amount to an automatic right to claim benefits abroad.

They say it has become too easy for migrants from the other 27 EU member states to access public services in the UK, such as the welfare state and the health service.

The prime minister announced the plan for an earnings threshold at the end of last year, as he came under pressure from Conservative MPs to act before the lifting of work restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians on 1 January.

Welfare Minister Esther McVey will announce the details of how it will work later on Wednesday.

BBC

February 19, 2014
BAE Systems Agrees Eurofighter Pricing With Saudi Arabia

{{Defence group BAE Systems has agreed pricing with Saudi Arabia over the rising cost of a long-running Eurofighter Typhoon jet deal.}}

Saudi ordered 72 Eurofighters in 2007 for £4.5bn, but the contract faced obstacles over escalating costs.

BAE said the new deal was an “equitable outcome” for both sides, although full details were not disclosed.

BAE warned last year that failure to agree a deal could hit earnings. Its shares rose 3% on Wednesday’s news.

The new deal was negotiated mainly between the Saudi and UK governments. Now that this contract, known as the Salam programme, has been secured, talks are expected to begin with the Saudis about buying dozens more Eurofighters.

BAE builds the fighter jet with European aerospace group Airbus and Italian defence contractor Finmeccanica.

BAE is due to publish latest profits figures on Thursday.

BBC

February 19, 2014