Tag: InternationalNews

{{North Korea has postponed a scheduled series of reunions for families separated for six decades since the 1950-53 Korean War, dealing a blow to months of efforts to improve relations between the neighbours.}}

In a statement on Saturday, the North accused South Korea of “poisoning dialogue to heighten the conflict” and said “the reunions will happen when there can be a normal atmosphere for negotiations to be held”.

Six days of meetings between family members still separated after the war had been due to start on Wednesday in the Mount Kumgang resort, north of the militarised border.

The reunions would have been the first in nearly three years.

North Korea also said it was putting off planned talks on resuming tours of Mount Kumgang, suspended after a North Korean guard shot dead a South Korean tourist in 2008. The talks had been set early October.

There was no immediate comment from the South Korean government.

Technically at war

The neighbours remain technically at war as the 1950-53 war ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. The conflict left millions of families divided, with travel across the border all but impossible and nearly all forms of communication barred.

The abrupt announcement upended an easing of tensions in recent months.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told Reuters that authorities in Pyongyang were trying seeking to secure more concessions from the South, a recurring tactic used by the North.

Concessions on this occasion, he said, were aimed particularly at lucrative tourism to Mount Kumgang.

“For North Korea, the tours come first and family reunions come later. It is the opposite for South Korea”, he said.

{Reuters}

{{Pakistan has released Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the former Afghan Taliban second-in-command, from prison in an effort aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan.}}

“Yes Baradar has been released,” Omar Hamid, a spokesman for interior ministry told AFP news agency on Saturday, without elaborating.

The US and Afghanistan have long pressed Islamabad to free Baradar, a figure they believe could tempt moderate Taliban leaders to come to the negotiating table as US-led troops prepare to leave Afghanistan at the end of next year.

Pakistani sources said Baradar would probably be sent to Saudi Arabia or Turkey as part of that process, but Pakistan government officials would not confirm this.

Sartaj Aziz, a government adviser, told media in Islamabad this month that Baradar would not be handed over to Afghanistan directly, as some in Kabul had hoped, and would instead be released into Pakistan.

He said it was important to make sure that released Taliban prisoners had a chance to establish contact with their leadership on the ground to persuade them to be part of peace talks – an idea he said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had agreed to.

aljazeera

Ukraine’s prime minister sought on Saturday to calm Russian fears over Kiev’s plans to sign a free trade pact with the European Union, saying in practice there would be no threat to Russia’s home market.

Moody’s Investor Service cut Ukraine’s sovereign credit rating on Friday, partly on concern over relations with Russia.

Speaking at an international conference in the Black Sea resort of Yalta, Mykola Azarov also expressed frustration at Russia’s refusal to reduce the price of its gas sales to the ex-Soviet republic and said Kiev may be obliged to reduce further the volume of its gas imports.

Azarov’s government approved plans this week to sign landmark agreements in November with the EU on political association and free trade – drawing new threats of retaliation from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia says it fears its market could be flooded by competitive EU goods entering Ukraine free of import duties and being re-exported across the long border with Russia. It says it will introduce counter-measures to mitigate damage and has invited Kiev to join a Russian-led customs union.

Azarov dismissed the threat of illegal transit of EU goods into Russia as “hypothetical” and one which in practice would not happen.

“We are convinced that the signing (of the agreements with the EU) does not hold any risks (for Russia),” he said, adding that he would give personal assurances of this to Russia and its trade allies in the Moscow-led Customs Union.

But he had sharper words for Russia over its refusal to bring down the price of gas supplies to Ukraine which hangs heavily on the country’s cash-strapped economy.

Ukraine pays what it sees as an exorbitant price of more than $400 per thousand cubic meters under a 2009 contract which Russia has refused to revise despite pleas by the Azarov government.

In a bid to break away from reliance on Russia, Ukraine is trying to secure alternative energy sources by stepping up domestic gas production, reaching shale gas and off-shore deals with Western companies, and possibly bringing in liquefied gas from foreign suppliers.

Azarov said Ukraine was pressing ahead with “a serious restructuring” of its energy policy to diversify energy sources.

wirestory

{{Syria has begun sending details of its chemical weapons as part of a US-Russia brokered deal to make them safe, the chemical arms watchdog has said.}}

The Hague-based OPCW added that it expected more details from Syria in the coming days and had postponed a meeting planned for Sunday.

Syria was given a Saturday deadline to give a full list of its chemical arms.

The US had threatened military action over a chemical attack in Damascus last month, which the UN called a war crime.

The US, UK and France have accused Syrian government forces of carrying out the attack in the Ghouta district on 21 August, but President Bashar al-Assad has blamed rebel groups.

Separately, two Syrian rebel groups have agreed a ceasefire in the northern town of Azaz after two days of fighting that raised fears of a war within a war.

agencies

{{Pope Francis on Thursday lashed out at what he called the scandal of “airport bishops”, urging his peers to remain rooted in their dioceses and spend less time seeking the spotlight.}}

The Argentine pontiff, who is very attached to his title as bishop of Rome, said residence in a diocese was “not only necessary for organisational purposes but had theological roots.”

“You are betrothed to your community, deeply bound to it. I am asking you, please, to remain among your people,” the pope said at an audience of new bishops from around the world.

“You must stay, stay! Avoid the scandal of airport bishops,” he said.

Bishops are often invited to attend international seminars and conferences but Francis voiced his indignation at reports of bishops who could never make time for their own flock.

“Careerism is a cancer,” the pontiff said, adding that some bishops trying to raise the profile of their diocese reminded him of those men “who are constantly looking at other women more beautiful than their own.”

“Be welcoming pastors… journeying with your people,” he said, urging the new bishops to keep their door open and phone close at hand.

{AFP}

{{The United States and its allies are clamping down on suspected Hezbollah activity in West Africa, which Washington says is a major source of cash for the Lebanese group as its patron Iran feels the pinch of sanctions.}}

The push coincides with Hezbollah’s deepening role in Syria, where it has dispatched thousands of fighters to back President Bashar al-Assad. It also comes in the wake of attacks outside Lebanon linked to Hezbollah that Western experts say are part of global campaign that could soon include Africa.

Critics, however, argue that Washington and its allies may be exaggerating the threat and failing to distinguish between different forms of support for various elements of the Shi’ite Islamist guerrilla and political movement, which was founded with Iran’s help after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

U.S. officials say that while most Lebanese in West Africa have few links to the group, Washington’s financial sanctions have reduced an annual flow of millions of dollars which Hezbollah receives from people and businesses in the region.

Iran remains the main sponsor and armourer of a group which fought Israel with missiles in a month-long war in 2006.

But Western sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear plans add significance to Hezbollah’s other income, U.S. officials say.

“(West Africa) is more important in the sense that what they’re getting from Iran is squeezed. Iran’s capacity to fund Hezbollah has been impaired,” said David Cohen, U.S. treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“There’s reason to think Hezbollah is not just collecting money but it is also using these outposts as places where they can plan and conduct activities,” he added.

Nigeria, with support from Israel, says it has uncovered a Hezbollah cell and arms cache and arrested has locals it accuses of spying for Iran.

A resource-rich but poorly policed part of the world, which already sees al Qaeda-linked activity, could see future Hezbollah attacks, some Western experts say.

While there are disputes over the scale of the support Hezbollah receives from West Africa, there is little doubt over how important Lebanese businesses are to the region.

With interests ranging from mobile phones, import-export and heavy industry to street stalls and fast-food joints, Lebanese-owned businesses are present at every level of the economy.

But Western security officials and Lebanese businessmen say common use of cash and informal transfers by such enterprises makes it hard to detect whether any engage in money laundering. Businesses move money across borders through friends and family rather than banks. Some may even send cash by the suitcase load.

Individuals targeted in the most recent wave of U.S. sanctions have denied the accusations and complain Washington is penalising charity and family ties with Shi’ite areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah plays a major social and political role.

Rudy Atallah, a former Africa Counterterrorism Director in the U.S. Defense Department said the United States viewed Hezbollah as “the linchpin in all sort of activities – money laundering, drug trafficking and weapons”.

“They feel if they can clamp down on them in West Africa it would have some sort of impact on them back home,” added Atallah, who now is now a private security consultant.

Representatives of Hezbollah in Beirut did not respond to requests for comment. The group gives no detail on its financial arrangements.

It has elected members in parliament but its leadership, facing a permanent threat of Israeli attack, generally stays undercover and limits public comment.

reuters

{{A former Afghan senator and district governor has defected to the Taliban in the northern province of Sar-e-Pol, officials have told media.}}

Qazi Abdul Hai served as a senator between 2004 and 2008 and was later made a district governor in Sar-e-Pol.

Correspondents say he is thought to be the highest-ranking civilian official to have joined the Taliban.

The move comes as foreign combat forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014 and ahead of elections next year.

Mr Hai is believed to have defected to the Taliban along with two of his bodyguards on Tuesday.

Officials say it is unclear why he decided to join the Taliban and played down the impact of his decision and dismissed his influence.

“His defection does not have any impact on his people in the district, because he was not a very influential person,” Abdul Ghafore Dastyaar, deputy governor of Sar-e-Pol, told media.

He added that Mr Hai had left Afghanistan and was believed to be over the border in Pakistan.

The Taliban welcomed the move, describing it as an achievement that supports their cause and said that it was partly due to their efforts in the area.

Mr Hai also appears in a video posted on the Taliban website in which he describes himself as a former mujahideen fighter and says that in his four years in Kabul he saw what he describes as “the corrupt face of the government”.

“In my four years’ time during which I represented my people in the Senate I saw that a lot of cruelty and corruption carried out by the government people towards the Afghan population . Our villages were bombarded and our houses were searched by the invaders,” he says on the video.

{agencies}

{{Brazil’s Supreme Court has narrowly ruled in favour of reopening the country’s biggest corruption trial.}}

The court agreed that 12 of 25 people convicted in a scheme using public funds to pay parties for political support could have appeals heard.

The decision is set to anger many who expected the sentences to be upheld, correspondents say.

But judge Celso de Mello, who broke an earlier deadlock, said justice should not yield to popular pressure.

In a two hour-long statement, Mr Mello argued for the right of appeals on the grounds of human rights and the Brazilian law.

“For them to be exempt and independent, the judges cannot yield to the popular will, to the masses,” he said.

{{‘Brazil in the bin’}}

Last week, five judges voted to deny appeals against last year’s Supreme Court Decision.

Another five voted in favour.

The prospect of the tie-breaking vote of judge Celso de Mello had the nation holding its breath for nearly a week, correspondents say.

But the decision to reopen the Mensalao trial, which took four months to conclude in 2012, is controversial.

“Today we march to [Brazil’s capital] Brasilia to demand our rights, because Celso de Mello has just thrown Brazil in the bin,” a user wrote on Twitter.

wirestory