Tag: InternationalNews

{{A controversial bill in Spain to end women’s right to abortion on demand is set to be passed after an opposition challenge was defeated in parliament.}}

The challenge from the Socialists was defeated by 183 votes to 151 in parliament, where the conservative Popular Party has a solid majority.

The ruling party allowed a secret ballot and six MPs abstained.

Some of its own MPs oppose the bill, which critics say will force Spanish women to travel abroad for abortion.

Opinion polls suggest up to 80% of Spaniards, including practising Catholics, believe the draft law is unnecessary.

The Church itself backs the bill, which is championed by Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, who said lawmakers had to balance the rights of women with those of unborn children.

However, with resistance to the legislation growing, the government may make amendments before finally passing it into law later this year.

{{At least 12 people have been killed in a multiple bombing Tuesday afternoon at a movie theater in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, a hospital official said.}}

Syed Jamil Shah, press officer for the city’s Lady Reading Hospital, said at least 17 others were injured.

A senior Peshawar police officer, Ijaz Ahmed, said three hand grenades hit the Shama Cinema, which is infamous in the city for showing pornographic movies.

One blast was inside the cinema, and the other two outside, he told reporters.

The movie theater had received security threats, and police had advised that metal detectors should be set up outside it. This advice was not heeded, Ahmed said.

A witness, Waliur Rehman, told media he was watching a film when the blast rocked the building. People started running outside.

“There was a cloud of dust and smoke,” he said. “The first blast was followed by another — and then another — explosion.”

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Shahidullah Shahid, spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, also known as Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan, denied any involvement by the militant group.

Peshawar, the capital city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, borders the tribal districts that are a stronghold of the Pakistan Taliban.

A week ago a suicide bomber blew himself up near a hotel restaurant in Peshawar, killing nine people and injuring more than 30 others, according to local officials.

{agencies}

{{Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the streets of the Iranian capital and cities around the country to mark the 35th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.}}

In Tehran, huge crowds thronged central Azadi square on Tuesday for a speech by President Hassan Rouhani, his first major address to the public since his election in August.

Rouhani launched into the traditional anti-US rhetoric despite a significant political shift in Tehran, which resulted in his election last year as a leader pursuing a policy of outreach to the West.

“The people’s vote had no role in running this country. This was a huge humiliation,” Rouhani said, referring to the period when Iran was a constitutional monarchy.

“People wanted their views to be an influence [but] the big powers were interfering in the internal affairs of this country … The Americans thought the country of Iran belongs to them. They interfered everywhere even on security issues.”

The revolution was set in motion in 1979 after a siege began some 10 months following the fall of the US-allied shah.

Radical students stormed the US embassy, taking 52 people hostage. They were released after 444 days, and the seige ended Washington’s diplomatic relations with Tehran.

More recently, Iran reached an interim agreement with Western powers to curb its nuclear programme, which the West suspects is meant to develop a nuclear bomb.

But while Tuesday’s mood in Tehran is one of celebration, reporters say that Iranians still feel there is a lot that needs to be done to strengthen relations between the US and Iran.

“Yes, they want better relations with the United States, they’re happy with the government and the diplomatic push from the government, but there’s still so much anger in the people towards the history of Iran and the United States,” Lennie said.

The slogan’s of Tuesday’s celebration express Iran’s current feelings towards the US and include “we’ll stand to the end”, “we will stand up against and we are ready for all options on the table”, and “we are ready for the great battle”.

The first slogan is “obviously a reference to the United States and external pressures on Iran”, Lennie said.

The second one is “of course a reference to President Obama, John Kerry and all options on the table including military ones”, she said.

Lennie added that the third, like the first slogan, is also about external pressures on Iran.

{{Missile test }}

Activities to mark the anniversary come a day after Iran “successfully tested” two missiles, according to the official IRNA news agency.

aljazeera

US President Barack Obama and French President François Hollande toured Thomas Jefferson’s plantation estate on Monday in a show of solidarity for Franco-American ties that have endured for more than two centuries, despite the occasional tempest.

The visit to Monticello, home to America’s third president, served to showcase a relationship that stretches back to the founding of the United States in the late 18th century, an alliance still strong despite spats over US eavesdropping and trade talks with the European Union.

“The NSA scandal has left a very bitter residue in this relationship but there is also a sense of letting bygones be bygones,” media reports.

“They are looking to what unites them – they’re finding common ground in a strong and steadfast relationship that goes back 200 years. It’s not for nothing that Obama took Hollande to Monticello – the home Jefferson, who was an avid Francophile and one of the earliest US envoys to France,” he said.

“Thomas Jefferson represents what’s best in America, but as we see as we travel through his home, what he also represents is the incredible bond and the incredible gifts that France gave to the United States, because he was a Francophile through and through,” Obama told reporters.

Obama said the house also represents the complicated history of the United States since “slaves helped to build this magnificent structure”.

“It’s a reminder for both of us that we are in a continuous fight on behalf of the rights of all peoples,” Obama said.

Hollande noted the significant role played by a French general, the Marquis de Lafayette, in helping George Washington defeat the British colonial power.

“We were allies in the time of Jefferson and Lafayette. We are still allies today. We were friends at the time of Jefferson and Lafayette and will remain friends forever,” he said.

france24

{{British citizens have posted video footage and photographs that suggest they have been involved in the torture and murder of prisoners during the civil war in Syria, it was reported.}}

A man, who is believed to be with a jihadist rebel group, claimed to have beaten a fighter from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which is backed by the West, according to The Times. The injured man was shown tied to a car tyre and being hit with an iron bar in footage posted on the internet.

“This FSA scum never thought we wud jump out at them and pick them up after saying some abusive words to our brothers,” the British man wrote. “Two then got ahead of themselves and swore at Allah, at this point there was no stopping us LOL [laugh out loud] although we where told to jus leave them.”

Three blindfolded prisoners were pictured in a post on Twitter. “Got these criminals today. Insha’Allah [God willing] they will be killed tomorrow. can’t wait for that feeling when you just killed someone,” the accompanying text said.

The same poster later tweeted a picture showing a hand dripping with blood with the words, “My first time!”

Shiraz Maher, a senior fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, said the man who posted the video footage was from London and had been to university.

“He is a known British jihadi and we have been monitoring him and his account and his grouping,” he said.

Mr Maher said he had contacted the man over the internet. The man denied killing prisoners and said the blood on his hands was from a sheep that had been slaughtered.

{independent}

{{The European Union has agreed to launch negotiations with Cuba aimed at restoring full bilateral relations with the Communist-run island.}}

The talks, which could begin as soon as next month, will try to increase trade and investment, and include a dialogue on human rights, officials said.

Since 1996, the EU has restricted its ties with Cuba to encourage multi-party democracy and progress on human rights.

The bloc is Cuba’s second-biggest trading partner after Venezuela.

It represents a major source of investment, and hundreds of thousands of European tourists visit the island every year.

{{‘Vote of confidence’}}

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton stressed that human rights remained “at the core” of its dealings with Cuba.

“These negotiations will help consolidate our engagement with Cuba,” she said. “I hope Cuba will take up this offer.”

The announcement comes with Cuba engaged in an economic and social reform process launched by President Raul Castro.

The EU ambassador to Havana, Herman Portocarero, said the talks came in response to “serious” changes in Cuba.

“It is to some extent a vote of confidence in the reforms and that the new realities in Cuban society are irreversible, and that we want to be on board,” Mr Portocarero said.

“We hope to promote a future model of Cuban society which is closer to European values.”

But he added that the EU had a number of “red lines” in order for the relations to be normalised. These included such issues as human rights and the possibility for civil society groups to have legal status.

The move indicates the most important diplomatic shift since the EU lifted sanctions against Cuba in 2008.

It follows the visit by Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans to Cuba in January. During his trip, Mr Timmermans called on the EU to change its policy toward the island.

He said the best way to promote change was through dialogue, not isolation.

In 1996, the EU agreed on a set of rules governing its relations with Cuba, called the Common Position.

It states that the EU’s objective is “to encourage a process of transition to a pluralist democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as sustainable recovery and improvement in the living standards of the Cuban people”.

Despite the policy, more than half of EU member states have bilateral agreements with Cuba.

Cuba has rejected the Common Position, arguing that it constitutes an interference in its internal affairs.

{BBC}

{{Police in Mexico say they have arrested a major drug lord in the central state of Guanajuato.}}

Tirso Martinez Sanchez specialised in importing, transporting and distributing drugs for several criminal gangs, authorities said.

The US State Department had offered a $5m (£3m) reward for his capture.

Mr Martinez Sanchez is accused of having smuggled 76 tonnes of cocaine from Colombia into the United States between 2000 and 2003.

Investigators say he had links to various international groups due to his close relationships with Mexican drug lords Amado Carrillo Fuentes, Arturo Beltran Leyva and the Colombian brothers Victor and Miguel Mejia Munera.

The man is reportedly also wanted by Colombian authorities for his alleged links to Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia and Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez, arrested in 2007 under the accusation of having laundered “more than $10m (£6m)”.

The US State Department says Mr Martinez Sanchez’s organisation used “a network of large warehouses to store and distribute cocaine in Mexico and the United States”.

It also says the group used cover companies to import legitimate goods with drugs hidden in them.

The US authorities say the cocaine was smuggled by “ocean vessels, tractor-trailers, and railroad tanker cars”.

{wirestory}

{{European Union warned it will review ties with Switzerland after the non-member Alpine country voted Sunday to restrict EU immigration in a closely-fought referendum.}}

Final results of the plebiscite showed 50.3 percent of voters backed the “Stop Mass Immigration” plan pushed by Swiss right-wing populists.

The fall-out from the result could sink a raft of deals with the EU, including on the economic front.

Switzerland is ringed by EU member countries and does the bulk of its trade with the 28-nation bloc, but has remained steadfast about not becoming a member.

The European Commission said it would assess EU ties with Switzerland, raising the prospect of restricted trade or other retaliatory steps.

“The EU will examine the implications of this initiative on EU-Swiss relations as a whole,” it said a statement.

EU foreign ministers were scheduled to meet Monday in Brussels but it was not clear whether the Swiss vote would be added to the agenda.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, finance minister of Germany, Switzerland’s top trade partner, said the result “is going to create plenty of problems for Switzerland in a host of areas”. But he said it was also a warning sign of European globalisation fears.

Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter said he planned to tour European capitals to explain the vote and seek a solution, starting with Berlin.

“The people are sovereign, and a healthy system doesn’t force the public to follow political authorities with outsized powers,” Burkhalter said.

The Swiss government and a broad swathe of economic lobby groups fearing the EU fall-out had battled the immigration curb plan.

But under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, voters have the last word on a huge range of issues.

The French-language newspaper Le Temps noted how French-speaking areas and larger cities voted against the immigration curbs, while German-speaking and rural areas generally voted for them.

{{‘We are ashamed’}}

Hundreds of people came out to demonstrate against the referendum result in the capital Bern and in the city of Lucerne. “We are ashamed,” shouted protesters in Bern.

The Swiss government said it would examine over coming weeks how to “recast relations” with the EU, but stressed that current immigration rules would remain in place until the new ones were drawn up.

The vote obliges the government to renegotiate within three years a 2007 deal struck with Brussels that gave most EU citizens free access to the Swiss labour market.

It was one of a series of accords reached in 1999 after five years of talks that were seen as a way for Switzerland and the EU to enjoy access to each other’s markets without Switzerland having to opt for full EU membership.

Brussels, though, has warned that Switzerland cannot cherrypick from the binding package of deals, which were themselves approved in a 2000 referendum.

Besides free movement of labour, the pacts include equal access for Swiss and EU firms to public procurement tenders, smooth trade in farm goods, air transport and other sectors.

There have been warnings that ripping up those deals could also affect Switzerland’s membership of Europe’s passport-free Schengen travel zone.

It could also hit talks aimed at giving Swiss financial players more access to EU markets, and to prise open Switzerland’s banking secrecy, a hot topic as EU countries try to crack down on tax dodgers.

Such fears failed to faze the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which piloted the referendum.

Hawkish about sovereignty, it claims the country has been swamped by migrants.

“The people have taken back their destiny over immigration,” said party ideologue Christoph Blocher, while leader Toni Brunner hailed “a turning point in our immigration policy”.

{{Tough rules on citizenship}}

The SVP says that with 80,000 EU citizens arriving per year – more than the 8,000 predicted before the rules were liberalised – the nation of eight million people needs to apply the brakes.

It claims that EU migrants undercut Swiss workers’ salaries, and that overpopulation has driven up rents, stretched the health and education systems, and overloaded the road and rail networks.

Immigration and national identity are traditional political themes in a country with a long history of drawing foreign workers and yet some of Europe’s toughest rules for obtaining citizenship.

But over recent years, the proportion of foreigners has risen from around one-fifth of the population to roughly a quarter.

There are around a million EU citizens in Switzerland, while some 430,000 Swiss live in EU member states.

The majority of recent immigrants are from neighbouring Germany, Italy and France, as well as Portugal.

The new measure will leave it up to authorities to set quotas for foreigners’ work permits per sector.

Critics say restricting the hiring of EU citizens will hamper the Swiss economy, which enjoys virtually full employment but has an ageing population, and it could also hurt trade with a disgruntled EU.

“This is a bad result. Switzerland needs good relations with the EU,” said Paul Rechsteiner, a Socialist lawmaker and trade union official.

The national employers’ federation warned that “period of uncertainty has begun for the Swiss economy, and that is not a good thing”.

The result was hailed by eurosceptics within the EU who want to rein in immigration among its member states, notably from eastern to western Europe.

Spain’s centre-left El Pais daily said the vote “reflects the populist and xenophobic agitation sweeping the Old Continent less than three months before the European elections”.

{AFP}