Tag: InternationalNews

{{The US has defended its drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, saying it takes “extraordinary care” to ensure they comply with international law.}}

The unmanned raids targeting terror suspects were a “course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life”, the White House said.

It follows allegations by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International of the unlawful killing of civilians.

Pakistan’s PM on Tuesday urged the US to end drone attacks in his country.

Speaking at the start of a visit to the US, Nawaz Sharif said the attacks violated his country’s sovereignty.

He added that the raids were a “major irritant” in relations with Washington.

Drone warfare has become common in the US pursuit of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Few details are known about these covert operations, which are directed remotely from control rooms, often on other continents.

More on: BBC

{Amnesty International raises a serious accusation, saying deadly US drone attacks in Pakistan are conducted with German help. Experts fear things are actually a lot worse}

The US defends its drone attacks as “precise and effective.” But now a report by Amnesty International about the deadly US drone attacks raises serious questions about civilian deaths. It also suggests German intelligence helped provide the US with targeting data.

Even for experts on the issue it’s difficult to determine whether the allegations about German involvement are true. German Greens Member of Parliament Hans-Christian Ströbele said that whenever he requested information on the matter from the government in the past he only ever got evasive answers. “They did, however, say that they do provide information, but not for shoot-to-kill operations. But the government cannot be sure that the information it provides doesn’t also get used for such operations.”
Marcel Dickow of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) confirmed to DW that it is practically impossible to check whether intelligence provided by a country’s secret service is in fact correct. It is in the very nature of such data that the information is classified and will remain so.

According the report, Amnesty found out about the German involvement in the drone strikes from former Pakistani intelligence members.

Dickow still thinks the NGO did the right thing. “Amnesty used that information – and I think they were justified in doing that – in order to show that there is a hidden war, a war that raises many questions with regards to international law. And with regards to Germany being – in part – responsible in light of the international cooperation of intelligence agencies.”

International law says that it is illegal for a country to use lethal weapons against another country it is not at war with, said Reiner Braun, head of the German wing of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA). He said that the possibility that German intelligence had a part in the US breaking international law illustrates the worldwide extent of spying as revealed through the NSA leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

DW

{Beijing is seeking to tame the spikes in its infamous smog by preparing emergency measures such as factory shutdowns and traffic limits to kick in when air pollution levels are especially heavy. }

The city government said Tuesday the strictest emergency measures will take effect when the pollution index for fine particulate matter, PM2.5, is forecast to exceed 300 micrograms per cubic meter for three days running.

Private vehicles will be allowed to operate only on alternating days, depending on the last number of their license plates. Factory emissions will be cut 30 percent by suspending or limiting production, and construction sites must halt excavation and demolition work. Classes will be suspended, a measure likely to cause inconvenience in a city where most parents both work.

The measures require precise pollution forecasting and timely public notification to be effective, and there was obvious skepticism in the questions asked by Chinese reporters at a briefing announcing the emergency measures.

They apply only to industries and individuals in Beijing, despite the fact that as much as 60 percent of the city’s air pollution wafts in from neighboring provinces, such as Hebei to the south.

AP

{A senior White House official who was helping negotiate nuclear issues with Iran has been fired after being unmasked as the acidic voice behind a Twitter account known for its insults of public figures at the White House and on Capitol Hill, a government official said on Tuesday.}

Jofi Joseph was director of nuclear non-proliferation on the White House National Security Council staff, but for more than two years sent hundreds of anonymous and abrasive tweets using the handle @NatSecWonk.

He was fired last week after he was caught, the official said.

A White House official confirmed Joseph no longer worked there, but would not comment on personnel matters. The firing was first reported by the website Daily Beast.

In his Twitter biography, now removed from the social networking site, Joseph described himself as a “keen observer of the foreign policy and national security scene” who “unapologetically says what everyone else only thinks.”

As the widely followed @NatSecWonk, Joseph speculated anonymously about the political motives and career moves of administration officials he worked with. They included Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s spokesman on national security issues.

This month, Joseph tweeted that Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, “had few policy goals and no wins” in the Middle East. He agreed with Republican Representative Darrell Issa, who has relentlessly pursued Clinton for administration actions after last year’s attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.

“Look, Issa is an ass, but he’s on to something here with the @HillaryClinton whitewash of accountability for Benghazi,” he tweeted.

He also sniped at U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power’s use of Twitter. “Can someone again brief @AmbassadorPower that Bashar Assad likely doesn’t follow her Twitter feed?” he recently wrote.

Joseph did not respond to phone and email requests for comment, but he told the website Politico he regretted his tweets.

“What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited comments. I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted,” Joseph said in an email to Politico.

He also targeted journalists, including Daily Beast reporter Josh Rogin who broke the story of his firing. “Just a hunch, but I have the sense lots of people would like to punch @joshrogin in the face,” he said earlier this month.

New York Times

{{Venezuela says two light aircraft have been shot down after entering the country’s airspace over the weekend.}}

These were the first mid-air attacks by fighter jets since a bill authorising such action against illegal planes was approved earlier this month, the Bolivarian Armed Forces said.

The aircraft were allegedly smuggling drugs from Central America and refused to follow the military pilots’ orders.

Another 11 unauthorised planes have been disabled on the ground this year.

Venezuelan security forces say more than 35 tonnes of drugs have been found this year.

The head of Venezuela’s Strategic Operational Centre, General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, told the country’s state television that a plane had been targeted after “all other means of persuasion had been exhausted” in the early hours of Saturday.

“This was the first plane shot mid-air in the country since the approval of the Law and Control Regulation for the Integral Defence of the National Airspace, following the orders of our commander-in-chief, President Nicolas Maduro,” Gen Padrino said.

{agencies}

{{ A U.S. judge on Monday refused to let Yahoo Inc YHOO.O delay using Microsoft Corp’s Bing search capabilities in Taiwan and Hong Kong, affirming an arbitrator’s decision in favor of Microsoft.}}

Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer sought to slow the rollout of its search partnership arguing that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s decision to retire had raised concerns, according to court documents.

But U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson Jr upheld an arbitrator’s earlier ruling in favor of Microsoft.

Yahoo and Microsoft began a 10-year search partnership in 2010, before Mayer took over as Yahoo’s CEO. The two companies hoped their combined efforts could mount a more competitive challenge to Google Inc, the world’s No.1 search engine.

The partnership has not lived up to expectations. Google remains the dominant search engine, with roughly two thirds of the U.S. search market, while Microsoft and Yahoo’s combined share of the market is essentially unchanged.

Yahoo said it wanted to pause the process until Mayer had a chance to discuss the partnership with Ballmer’s successor, according to a court filing. Microsoft said in August that Ballmer would retire within 12 months.

Mayer has criticized the partnership in the past. “We need to see monetization working better because we know that it can and we’ve seen other competitors in the space illustrate how well it can work,” Mayer said at an investor conference in February.

Microsoft and Yahoo were not immediately available for comment.

wirestory

{{In some parts of Israel, voters in Tuesday’s elections will be casting a ballot not on how well their municipality is run but on how to stop “Arabs” moving in next door, how to prevent mosques being built in their community, or how to “save” Jewish women from the clutches of Arab men.}}

While the far-right’s rise in Israeli national politics has made headlines, less attention has been paid to how this has played out in day-to-day relations between Israeli Jews and the country’s Palestinian-Arab minority, comprising a fifth of the population.

According to analysts and residents, Israel’s local elections have brought a tide of ugly racism to the fore, especially in a handful of communities known as “mixed cities”, where Jewish and Palestinian citizens live in close proximity.

Jewish parties, including local branches of the ruling Likud party, have adopted openly racist language and fear-mongering suggesting an imminent Muslim takeover of Jewish communities in a bid to win votes.

“Israeli society has become more and more racist, and the candidates are simply reflecting this racism back to voters knowing that it will win them lots of support,” said Mohammed Zeidan, director of the Human Rights Association in Nazareth.

Last week, as electioneering intensified, Salim Joubran, an Arab judge, stepped in to ban adverts by the Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the cities of Karmiel and Tel Aviv.

Joubran, who is the first Arab in Israel’s history to chair the Central Elections Committee, which oversees elections, said the ads were “racist and almost certain to hurt the feelings of Arab Israelis and disrupt public order”.

In doing so, Joubran overruled the advice of the attorney-general, Yehuda Weinstein, who had argued that the committee had no authority to regulate online ads and posters.

aljazeera

Rights groups have demanded that the US launch an impartial investigation into its use of drone warfare and that the country publicly disclose any evidence of civilian casualties.

In independent reports published on Tuesday, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said that the US must hold to account those responsible for civilian deaths and be more transparent about its drone programme.

“As evidence emerges of civilian casualties in these strikes, it’s time for the US to stop covering its ears and starting taking action to ensure the programme is legal,” Letta Taylor, senior counterterrorism researcher at HRW told media.

Two recently published UN reports are to be presented to the General Assembly on Friday. Taylor said that the release of the four reports in a brief period “underscores the mounting questions about the legality” of drones.

All four reports demand that the US should provide a full legal rationale for targeted killings.

Polly Truscott, Amnesty International’s deputy Asia-Pacific director, said that while its report focuses on Pakistan, and HRW’s on Yemen, the drones programme “raises the same questions about human rights violations all over the world”.

“Both organisations are calling on the US Congress to fully investigate the cases the we have documented in our reports and other potentially unlawful deaths,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that the group hoped that the US would act immediately on their recommendations.

HRW said that the Yemeni government, which is engaged in a conflict with al-Qaeda, had been “almost as silent” as the US on the death toll caused by air raids.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, said that President Barack Obama had outlined the US rational for drone strikes in a May 23 speech.

“The president spoke at length about the policy and legal rationale for how the US takes action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces. As the president emphasised, the use of lethal force, including from remotely piloted aircraft, commands the highest level of attention and care.

“Of particular note, before we take any counterterrorism strike, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set.”

She said the US was aware that this report had been released and were reviewing it carefully.

{agencies}