Tag: InternationalNews

{{European Commission is to send a fact-finding mission to Gibraltar to examine the legitimacy of border controls imposed by Spain in a growing dispute over the British Mediterranean enclave.}}

It broke out after Gibraltar’s construction of an artificial reef using concrete blocks in the bay off the tiny territory. Gibraltarian authorities say the move was necessary to help marine life recover from overfishing.

Spanish fishermen counter that it hampers their access to certain waters. Spain, in turn, has toughened its border checks, leading to long queues for workers and tourists entering Gibraltar.

While Spain has threatened to take its claim on Gibraltar to the United Nations, Britain last week called on the Commission, the European Union’s executive, to send in monitors to check whether Spain’s controls breach EU rules.

And on Monday, as British warships arrived in Gibraltar on a previously scheduled, routine port of call, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy spoke by telephone.

“They agreed that a Commission fact-finding mission should as soon as possible examine in loco the border control, movement of people and goods questions,” a Commission statement said.

“President Barroso expressed his hope that Spain and the UK will address these matters in a way that is in line with their common membership in the EU.”

The British Foreign Office declined to comment.

wirestory

A court in Pakistan has formally indicted former military dictator Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday with the murder of former premier Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in 2007.

“He should be tried,” the public prosecutor, Mohammad Azhar, told reporters after a brief hearing in the city of Rawalpindi during which the three charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and facilitation of murder were read out to Musharraf.

The indictment of the army chief who seized power in a 1999 coup – once Pakistan’s most powerful man – is an unprecedented event in a nuclear-armed country ruled by the military for half of its 66-year history.

The case has also shattered an unwritten rule that the top military brass are untouchable as the South Asian country tries to shake off the legacy of decades of military rule under the new government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Musharraf, who made no public remarks during his appearance, denied all the charges against him, a lawyer from his defense team told Reuters. Journalists were not allowed in the court room for the hearing which lasted just about 20 minutes.

“All the cases against Musharraf are fabricated. He denied all the charges,” said Afshan Adil, the lawyer. The next hearing was set for August 27.

Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack after an election rally, weeks after she returned to Pakistan from years in self-imposed exile.

The government at the time blamed Pakistani Taliban militants and Musharraf has said he warned her of the danger she faced.

Hundreds of police were deployed along the main road leading to the court as well as on rooftops as Musharraf’s car arrived.

On August 6, the court delayed the widely expected indictment because it was too dangerous for Musharraf to attend the proceedings due to threats to his life.

reuters

{{European Union governments will this week question how to best use their economic ties with Egypt to pressure Cairo’s army-backed rulers into finding a peaceful compromise with supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi}}.

At stake could be a 5 billion euro ($6.7 billion) package of grants and loans promised by the EU, its member governments and international financial institutions last year, as well as various trade incentives, EU officials and experts say.

The EU’s ability to exert immediate economic pressure on Cairo is limited – much of its current aid is already stopped because of inadequate democratic reforms.

But the hope is that such a signal could help end a bloody crackdown by the government against Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, in which around 800 people have died, and prevent further bloodshed between the two sides.

President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, two of the most senior EU officials, said in a statement on Sunday the 28-member bloc should “urgently review” its relations with Cairo to try to end the violence.

Senior EU diplomats will meet in Brussels on Monday to decide which areas of economic cooperation could be targeted and prepare a possible meeting of EU foreign ministers to be held in the next two weeks.

“Egypt is a key partner of the European Union,” the two officials said. “Further escalation must be prevented. It could have unpredictable consequences for Egypt and for its broader neighborhood.”

In the past days, a host of European foreign ministers have raised the specter of suspending economic aid.

France’s Laurent Fabius has said “nothing could be ruled out” in terms of aid policy.

“What is evident is that we must quickly stop the bloodshed and reach an inter-Egyptian dialogue. It is not easy of course. We have to mobilize all our energies so that a solution is found by Egyptians,” he told reporters on Sunday.

Austria’s Michael Spindelegger called on the EU to withhold its main aid deal.

additional information-wire

{{Mexican troops have captured one of the country’s most wanted drug-gang leaders.}}

Mario Ramirez Trevino, known as X-20, is said to be the head of the cocaine and marijuana-smuggling Gulf Cartel.

It is the second high-profile arrest since President Enrique Pena Nieto came to power last December.

The US government was offering a reward of $5m (£3.2m) for information leading to the capture of Mr Ramirez, while Mexico offered about $3m.

Ramirez Trevino is thought to have taken over as leader of the Gulf Cartel after the arrest of Jorge Eduardo Costilla, known as The Coss, last September.

Mexican media reported that the drug lord was arrested by a joint Army and Marines operation in Rio Bravo, in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

{BBC}