Tag: InternationalNews

{{The second round of peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition representatives is due to begin in Geneva on Monday.}}

The first round of talks ended last month with no firm agreements and with both sides trading insults.

However, UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said then that some “common ground” had been reached.

The talks come after hundreds of people were evacuated from the besieged city of Homs under a three-day truce.

The evacuations were completed despite mortar fire and shooting, which both sides blamed on each other and that activists say killed several people and wounded several others.

On Monday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said France and other countries would present a resolution at the UN calling for greater access for humanitarian aid.

“We are asking for stronger action as far as the humanitarian side is concerned, that medicines and food supplies are handed out in cities,” he told French radio.

“It is absolutely scandalous that there have been discussions for quite a while and that people are still being starved every day, and so along with a number of other countries, we will present a resolution at the UN along those lines.”

The civil conflict has claimed well over 100,000 lives since it began in 2011.

The violence has also driven 9.5 million people from their homes, creating a major humanitarian crisis within Syria and for its neighbours.

At the end of the last talks on 31 January, the two warring sides appeared to be a long way away from reaching any compromise.

The government insists the talks focus on fighting “terrorism” – its description of the uprising – but the opposition says that the priority should be the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.

It has insisted that the government commit in writing to the 2012 Geneva Communique, which called for the formation of a transitional administration with full executive authority.

President Assad’s government has emphatically ruled out any transfer of power.

Correspondents say that his position has been strengthened on the ground since the last round of talks because pro-Assad forces have made territorial gains while rival rebel forces have been fighting each other in the north and east of the country.

{wirestory}

{{When François Hollande sits down to dinner with Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday, many eyes will be fixed on the “empty chair” beside the French president, following his split with Valérie Trierweiler after reports of an affair.}}

The trip will illustrate Hollande’s now very definite split from journalist Trierweiler, a predicament which the president likely entertained while he was carrying out his alleged affair with actress Julie Gayet, judging by the speed at which his relationship dissolved.

Probed by journalists on Trierweiler’s status as first lady on January 14, Hollande said he would clarify the issue before the trip to Washington, making it something of a deadline (which he was in advance of – he confirmed his split with Trierweiler on Jan 25).

President Obama and wife Michelle had expressed eagerness – formulaic no doubt but nonetheless – in welcoming François and Valérie, whose predecessor Carla Bruni, wife of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, is said to have got along famously with the American First Lady.

“Michelle and I look forward to welcoming President Hollande and Valérie Trierweiler,” Obama said in November, long before the Gayet affair emerged.

Since then, France has been rocked by the revelation of the affair, Trierweiler checked into hospital for “un coup de blues”, Gayet has sued Closer magazine for violation of privacy and Hollande has seen his approval ratings climb and then plummet to their lowest ever – below 20%.

france24

{{Swiss voters will decide on Sunday whether to curb immigration by European Union citizens, in a referendum that risks igniting a row with Brussels.}}

If the measure is approved, the government would have to renegotiate painstakingly forged treaties with the European Union on the free movement of workers. It could also put Switzerland – which prides itself on a long humanitarian tradition – at odds with international accords on asylum.

Neutral Switzerland is not in the EU but is ringed by countries that are members and does most of its trade with the 28-nation bloc.

Since 2007, the EU’s 500 million residents have enjoyed an equal footing with locals on the job market of Switzerland, a country of eight million.

That is part of a raft of deals signed with the EU in 1999 after five years of talks, approved by Swiss voters in a 2000 referendum and then phased in.

But a referendum coalition helmed by the right-wing populist Swiss People’s Party – the largest in Switzerland’s parliament – says that opening the door fully to EU citizens was a huge mistake.

If passed, the coalition’s proposal would bind the government to renegotiate the labour market deal within three years.

Opinion polls show growing support for the plan, which would impose an absolute limit on the number of foreigners who can move to Switzerland each year.

But the government, most political parties and the Swiss business and industry federations warn that ripping it up would kill off the related economic deals and dent Switzerland’s credibility as a partner for the EU.

They also say that slapping restrictions on hiring EU citizens would be a disaster, arguing that the steady stream of foreign labour is a driving force of this wealthy economy with virtually full employment and an ageing population.

Until 2007, Swiss firms had to clear bureaucratic hurdles before being allowed to recruit a non-resident, with official quotas for foreign employees set down for each business sector.

National sovereignty

Brussels has warned that Switzerland cannot pick and choose from the binding package of deals negotiated painstakingly in the 1990s, seen as a way for Switzerland to enjoy the benefits of access to the EU market without joining the bloc.

Brussels is already battling internal dissent over its own borderless labour market – west European countries complain about competition from citizens of eastern member states – and has ruled out reopening the issue with Switzerland.

Such arguments have not swayed the campaign coalition, which says national sovereignty is at stake.

It argues that the arrival of 80,000 new residents per year has been an economic and social disaster, and not only because EU citizens have allegedly undercut Swiss workers.

It says that overpopulation has driven up rents, stretched the health and education systems, overloaded the road and rail networks, and eaten into the landscape due to housing construction.

Immigration and national identity are traditional headline issues in a country with a long history of drawing foreign workers and 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.

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

Most Swiss cast their postal ballots, making voting on the day relatively brief.

Polling stations are scheduled to close at noon (GMT+1) on Sunday, with an early estimate of the results expected soon afterwards.

AFP

Iranian warships in the Atlantic Ocean are to sail close to US maritime borders for the first time, a senior naval commander has said.

Iranian media quoted Adm Afshin Rezayee Haddad as saying the deployment was a response to US vessels in the Gulf.

The fleet consists of a destroyer and a helicopter-carrying supply ship.

It began its voyage last month and entered the Atlantic though South African waters, the IRNA news agency quoted the admiral as saying.

The Iranian ships are reported to be carrying about 30 navy academy cadets for training along with their regular crews. They are on a three-month mission.

Correspondents say that the voyage comes amid continuing efforts by Iran to to project its power across the Middle East and beyond.

The semi-official Fars news agency said the move was a response to an increased US naval presence in the Gulf.

“Iran’s military fleet is approaching the United States’ maritime borders, and this move has a message,” it quoted Adm Rezayee Haddad as saying.

{{Two owners of a Bangladesh garment factory where 112 workers died in a fire two years ago have turned themselves in to the authorities.}}

Delwar Hossain and his wife were charged with homicide in December.

The couple arrived at Dhaka magistrates court, and have now been jailed after their plea for bail was rejected.

Although arrests warrants had been issued in December, they had been living freely in Dhaka.

It was not clear why they decided to give themselves up.

They face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

The Tazreen fire was the country’s deadliest garment factory fire, and brought attention to working conditions in the all-important garment industry.

The country suffered an even greater tragedy just months later when the Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, killing 1,135 people.

{{Poor conditions}}

Mr Hossain and his wife, Mahmuda Akter, are among 13 people who were charged over the fire.

An investigation found that when the blaze broke out, managers and security guards told workers it was part of a regular drill, and it was too late for many to escape.

Investigators said the nine-storey factory had no emergency exits, and workers desperately trying to leave found that some of the gates were locked from the outside.

Victims of the fire, many of them women who were paid as little as $37 ( £23) a month, found themselves overcome by the smoke inside the building.

The Tazreen factory produced clothing for big retailers including Wal-Mart,

This the first time Bangladesh has sought to prosecute factory owners in the influential garment industry, which is the world’s second largest after China and a vital part of Bangladesh’s economy.

BBC

{Kenneth Bae}

{{A US missionary held captive in North Korea was moved from hospital back to a labour camp last month on the same day he appealed for help from Washington, the US State Department said on Friday.}}

Kenneth Bae, 45, has been held for more than a year in North Korea after being sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for trying to overthrow the state. From last summer until January 20, he had been kept at Friendship Hospital in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

The US, who does not have diplomatic ties with North Korea, has been obtaining information about Bae’s whereabouts from his family, with whom he had limited contact, and the Swedish Embassy in North Korea.

“The Department of State has learned that the DPRK transferred Mr. Bae from a hospital to a labour camp, a development with which we are deeply concerned,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

“We also remain gravely concerned about Mr. Bae’s health, and we continue to urge DPRK authorities to grant Mr Bae special amnesty and immediate release on humanitarian grounds,” she said, referring to North Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Psaki said Swedish Embassy representatives had met Bae 10 times since his detention, most recently on Friday in a labour camp.

“We continue to work actively to secure Mr. Bae’s release,” Psaki said, adding that Washington remained prepared to send its human rights envoy for North Korea, Robert King, to Pyongyang for that purpose.

In the past, North Korea has rejected this offer, withdrawing an invitation for King to visit Pyongyang last August.

Bae said Friday in an interview with Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korea newspaper published in Japan, that a Swedish Embassy official had visited him earlier that day. The official apparently told Bae that King would visit as early as Monday and by the end of the month at the latest.

Bae also said in the interview that the United States had also offered to send civil rights activist Jessie Jackson but North Korea approved the visit by King instead. Choson Sinbo did not have further details on King or Jackson’s plans.

Health concerns

Bae’s sister, Terri Chung, told Reuters that Bae had been held in a labour camp from May 14 last year until Aug. 5, when he was moved to the hospital. A State Department official said Bae was moved back to the labour camp on Jan. 20.

Chung said the family did not know where the camp was, except that it was far from Pyongyang and Bae was working eight hours a day, six days a week.

Chung said her brother suffered from a variety of health issues, including diabetes, an enlarged heart, kidney stones and severe back pain.

“We are very concerned about his health,” she said.

{wirestory}