Tag: InternationalNews

{{European peace-keeping forces in the Central African Republic will increase sharply after first Paris and then Brussels announced on Friday that they would boost troops to the strife-torn country.}}

In the afternoon, France announced it would deploy 400 more soldiers and gendarmes, bringing its total forces in its former colony to 2,000.

The French decision followed a meeting of the national Defence Council at the Elysée Palace. French forces are working alongside nearly 6,000 African peacekeepers in an attempt to halt sectarian violence in CAR.

In the announcement, France had urged other countries to show “increased solidarity” and had called on the European Union to accelerate its deployment of a promised 500 peace-keepers in the country.

Later on Friday, the EU responded. Catherine Ashton, its head of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said the EU would send around 1,000 troops to CAR to help restore order.

“We have more than 500 troops [already promised],” Ashton said, adding that the EU was “looking at double that number”.

It was not clear whether that number included the extra French forces. Ashton has in recent weeks avoided specifying which countries would be contributing troops.

Major EU powers such as Britain and Germany have refused to commit soldiers, and diplomats say efforts are focusing on smaller countries.

Diplomatic sources said on Friday that besides France, five other EU countries had proposed a “substantial” contribution to the mission.

Poland could provide 140 soldiers while Estonia, Latvia, Romania and Portugal could each offer 30 to 50, the sources said.

{france24}

{{UN-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi (photo) ended the second round of direct talks held in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition Saturday without finding a way of breaking the impasse or setting a date for a third round.}}

Saturday’s talks, which lasted less than half an hour, left the future of the negotiating process in doubt.

“I apologise that these two rounds have not come out with very much,” Brahimi said.
Brahimi also told a press conference that he had proposed an agenda for another round of talks that would first focus on ending the violence in Syria and then examine how to create a transitional governing body.

“Unfortunately, the government has refused,” he told reporters, saying he would now seek consultations with the United States and Russia, the main sponsors of the peace conference, and the United Nations to see how to proceed.

Brahimi stated that the regime’s refusal had raised the “suspicion of the opposition that the government doesn’t want to discuss a transitional governing body at all.”

The latest round of talks aimed at finding some way out of Syria’s civil war lasted for a sixth consecutive day at U.N. European headquarters in Geneva, while the violence kept escalating back home for Syrians.

{{Future of talks ‘not clear’}}

“Everybody needs to go back to their base and we will contact each other to determine the coming date. It is not clear,” Brahimi said.

Despite the hostility between the two delegations that has produced little more than public displays of acrimony and sparring before the TV cameras, the opposition said it continued to hold out hope for a political solution.

Anas al-Abdeh, a member of the opposition negotiating team, said his side accepted the agenda but the government’s unwillingness to go along with it has put the prospects of a third session of talks within the “Geneva 2” negotiating round in doubt.

The first peace conference, dubbed “Geneva 1,” produced a roadmap for peace in June 2012 that was not followed.

france24

{{A plane with 18 people on board has gone missing in western Nepal.}}

Contact with the Nepal Airlines plane was lost a few minutes after it took off from the town of Pokhara, bound for Jumla, around 360km (220 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, officials said.

Fifteen passengers – reportedly including a child- and three crew members were on board the aircraft.

Critics say that many passenger aircraft in Nepal are often poorly maintained.

The Twin Otter plane went missing shortly after it took off at 12:40 local time (06:55 GMT), Nepal Airlines spokesman Ram Hari Sharma told reporters.

One of the passengers is believed to be a foreign national.

{{Poor record}}

In December the EU put all of Nepal’s airlines on a blacklist, citing safety fears.

In September 2012, a plane operated by Nepal’s Sita Air crashed near Kathmandu airport, killing 19 people.

In May of that year 15 people died when an Agni Air plane carrying Indian pilgrims to a Hindu religious site in northern Nepal crashed at a high-altitude airport.

Since 1949 – the year the first aircraft landed in Nepal – there have been more than 70 different crashes involving planes and helicopters, in which more than 650 people have been killed.

BBC

{{Afghanistan released 65 alleged Taliban militants from prison on Thursday despite protests from the US military, which warned that the men were “dangerous insurgents” who will likely return to fighting Afghan and international forces.}}

President Hamid Karzai ordered the release several weeks ago. The Afghan government took over administering the prison, located near Bagram Air Field, from US troops in March 2013.

Karzai has referred to the Parwan prison as a “Taliban-producing factory” where many Afghans have been tortured and mistreated into hating their country. He ordered a review of alleged Taliban-linked prisoners in 2010.

The decision prompted angry denunciations from Washington and further strained relations between the two countries ahead of the planned withdrawal of international combat troops at year’s end.

”The release of these detainees is a major step backward for the rule of law in Afghanistan,” the US military said in a statement on Tuesday. “Some previously released individuals have already returned to the fight, and this subsequent release will allow dangerous insurgents back into Afghan cities and villages.”

The prisoners were freed from the Parwan Detention Facility near Bagram Air Field, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Kabul, around 9am local time, according to prison spokesman Major Nimatullah Khaki. They boarded a bus to leave the facility, laughing and smiling, he said.

{{DNA evidence}}

The US has argued for the detainees to face trial in Afghan courts, citing strong evidence against them – from DNA linking them to roadside bombs to explosives residue found on their clothing – but Kabul has said there was insufficient proof to hold them.

The US military late Wednesday night issued a strongly worded statement condemning the imminent release, which it said would include detainees directly linked to attacks that have killed or wounded 32 US or coalition personnel and 23 Afghan security personnel or civilians.

Among those who were expected to walk free are Mohammad Wali, who the US military says is a suspected Taliban explosives expert who allegedly placed roadside bombs targeting Afghan and international forces.

The military said Wali had been biometrically linked to two roadside explosions and had a latent fingerprint match on another improvised explosive device.

Others in the group include Nek Mohammad – who the US says was captured with extensive weapons – and a man identified as Ehsanullah, who the US says was biometrically matched to a roadside bomb and who tested positive for explosives residue.

{france24}

{{Turkish MPs have approved controversial plans to reform the country’s top judicial body, amid a brawl which left one MP with a broken nose.}}

The government wants the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors – the HSYK – to come under justice ministry control.

The bill was debated overnight amid heated scenes which left one opposition MP with a broken nose.

Last month the judicial body said the plans were unconstitutional and would undermine its independence.

The plans were proposed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party, which dominates parliament.

At one point during the debate a brawl broke out in which one MP from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had his nose broken.

Ozcan Yeniceri, an MP from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), also criticised the bill, saying it was aimed at impeding corruption inquiries and “meeting the needs of the AK Party”, Reuters reports.

The reforms come after allies of Mr Erdogan were arrested in a major corruption inquiry, following the government dismissed hundreds of policemen.

There is intense rivalry between Mr Erdogan and a former ally, Fethullah Gulen, who has many supporters in the police and judiciary. Mr Gulen is an influential Islamic scholar living in self-imposed exile in the US.

Judicial reform is a highly sensitive issue because Turkey is under pressure from the EU to bring its justice system into line with EU standards.

Turkey hopes to join the EU, but progress in the negotiations has been very slow.

The Islamist-rooted AK Party is trying to overhaul institutions such as the judiciary and armed forces, traditionally dominated by secularists loyal to the values of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish state.

The secularist CHP has said it will contest the plans in Turkey’s Constitutional Court.

BBC

{{The Cuban government says it has suspended consular services in the United States after an American bank decided to withdraw its facilities.}}

Cuba says it will not be able to renew passports and process visas unless it finds an alternative to the M&T bank.

The bank said its decision was taken for business reasons.

The move is likely to prevent tens of thousands of people travelling from the US to Cuba every month and could have a big impact on the economy there.

The US broke off diplomatic relations with the communist-run island in 1961 and imposed an economic embargo a year later.

In the absence of bilateral contacts, consular services have been handled by the Cuban Interests Section in Washington.

In a statement, the Cuban government blames the trade embargo for its failure to find a new bank “in spite of huge efforts made”.

The M&T bank announced last year that it would stop accepting deposits from 17 February, which is a public holiday in the US.

“The section regrets any inconvenience this situation may cause,” read the statement.

It says it will only be able to handle “humanitarian cases”.

{{‘Recent thaw’}}

More than 40,000 people on average travel to Cuba from the US every month, most of them Cuban-Americans, according to the Miami-based Havana Consulting Group.

Americans who do not have Cuban nationality are also allowed to travel if they are taking part in cultural exchange programmes.

The suspension of consular services comes amid a recent slight thaw in relations.

At Nelson Mandela’s funeral in December, Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro shook hands for the first time.

Cuba and the US also announced the resumption of official talks on immigration and postal services between the two countries.

Earlier this week, the European Union agreed to open negotiations aimed at restoring full relations with Cuba.

On Thursday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said President Obama should proceed with a similar gesture and follow the example of the EU.

{{In a surprise move, US workers have voted against union representation at a Volkswagen car plant in the southern state of Tennessee.}}

The vote derails efforts by the United Auto Workers (UAW) to organise foreign-owned factories in the southern US.

Experts had expected the ballot to pass in favour of unionising, after Volkswagen tacitly supported the move.

The vote had faced resistance from Republican politicians, who argued it would slow economic growth.

It was the UAW’s first attempt in 13 years to unionise a plant not run by one of the three big US carmakers – General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.

Analysts say the result could significantly curtail future organisation efforts and further dent the union’s reputation.

Membership is reported to have plummeted 75% since the late 1970s, leaving it with barely 400,000 supporters.

‘Outside influence’
Some 1,550 workers began voting at the plant in Chattanooga on Wednesday and rejected the union plan by 712 to 626 with an 89% turnout.

UAW spokesman Gary Casteel said “some outside influence” had been exerted on the poll.

agencies

{{Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has said he will resign on Friday after his Democratic Party backed a call for a new administration.}}

Party leader Matteo Renzi had earlier called for a change of government at a party meeting, saying the country could not go on in “uncertainty”.

Speculation has been rife that Mr Renzi wants to take over as prime minister.

He is eight years younger than Mr Letta and was elected leader of the party in December.

Mr Letta said in a statement that his decision followed “the decision taken today by the national leadership of the Democratic Party”.

He said he would formally submit his resignation to President Giorgio Napolitano at the presidential palace on Friday.

Relations between Mr Letta and Mr Renzi had become increasingly fraught, the BBC’s Alan Johnston reports from Rome.

The Democratic Party now hopes that Mr Renzi will be able to replace him, and form a new administration, our correspondent adds.

A US federal judge in Virginia has ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

It is the first time that a southern state has had a voter-approved prohibition on gay marriage overturned.

The ruling will not apply pending a possible appeal. Same-sex marriages are legal in 17 US states, most of them in the north-east, and Washington DC.

Such unions have been approved either through legislation, court rulings or voter referendums.

{{‘Adding momentum’}}

The ruling by Judge Arenda Wright Allen in Norfolk followed a legal challenge on same-sex marriage by a gay couple.

The judge agreed with them that the ban infringes on their constitutional rights and their fundamental freedom to marry.