Tag: InternationalNews

{{Syria’s crisis will only be solved by stamping out “terror”, President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday, in reference to rebels fighting his regime.}}

In a rare speech on Syrian state television, Assad also dismissed the political opposition to his regime as a “failure” that could play no role in solving the country’s brutal war.

“No solution can be reached with terror except by striking it with an iron fist,” said Assad.

“I don’t think that any sane human being would think that terrorism can be dealt with via politics,” he added.

“There may be a role for politics in dealing with terrorism pre-emptively,” said Assad, adding that as soon as “terrorism” has arisen, it can only be struck out.

In March 2011, a widespread protest movement calling for political change in Syria broke out.

In response, the regime unleashed a brutal crackdown against dissent, while systematically labelling dissidents and rebels as “terrorists” and refusing to recognise the existence of a popular revolt.

The movement later morphed into an increasingly radical insurgency and more than 100,000 people have since been killed, the UN says.

The war has also forced millions to flee their homes, while plunging Syria into an unprecedented economic crisis.

In his latest speech, Assad also said Syria’s economic woes “are linked to the security situation, and they can only be solved by striking terror”.

Assad’s speech comes a week after the army, backed by pro-regime paramilitary troops and Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement, reclaimed a strategic district of the central city of Homs, after a suffocating siege on rebels that lasted more than a year.

“In this kind of fight, we as Syrians either win together or lose together,” he said.

Assad also said that the army, untrained for guerrilla warfare, “has achieved the impossible”.

“There is only one kind of war that is bigger than guerrilla warfare, and that is a people’s war, one that is fought by the army alongside the citizens,” he said, adding that “the hand of God is with those who stand together”.

He meanwhile stressed the need to fight on against the rebellion.

“It is true that there is a battle being fought in the media and on (the Internet), but the crisis will only be solved on the battlefield,” said Assad in his 45-minute address.

He also said that any efforts towards a political solution should be combined with continued military operations.

“There cannot be any political efforts or political progress if terror is striking everywhere. Therefore terror must be struck in order to get the political process moving on the right track,” Assad said.

“That does not mean that there cannot be parallel tracks. There is no reason why we shouldn’t strike terror while at the same time working politically,” he added.

Assad’s comments come amid faltering efforts to push forward a US-Russian proposal for peace talks dubbed Geneva 2, which would see regime representatives and the opposition gathering for negotiations.

AFP

{{The United States extended embassy closures by a week in the Middle East and Africa as a precaution on Sunday after an al Qaeda threat that U.S. lawmakers said was the most serious in years.}}

The State Department said 19 U.S. embassies and consulates would be closed through Saturday “out of an abundance of caution” and that a number of them would have been closed anyway for most of the week due to the Eid celebration at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The United States initially closed 21 U.S. diplomatic posts for the day on Sunday. Some of those will reopen on Monday, including Kabul, Baghdad and Algiers.

Four new diplomatic posts – in Madagascar, Burundi, Rwanda and Mauritius – were added to the closure list for the week.

Last week, the State Department issued a worldwide travel alert warning Americans that al Qaeda may be planning attacks in August, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.

“There is an awful lot of chatter out there,” U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

He said the “chatter” – communications among terrorism suspects about the planning of a possible attack – was “very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11.”

A National Security Agency surveillance program that electronically collects communications on cellphones and emails – known as intercepts – had helped gather intelligence about this threat, Chambliss said.

It was one of the NSA surveillance programs revealed by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to media outlets.

Those programs “allow us to have the ability to gather this chatter,” Chambliss said. “If we did not have these programs then we simply wouldn’t be able to listen in on the bad guys.”

{wirestory}

{{Chinese bloggers trying to expose corruption say they are coming under increasing physical and verbal attack over their reports, in what anti-graft activists describe as another blow to efforts to make Chinese officials more accountable.}}

At least six self-styled whistleblowers have been assaulted or harassed in recent months, according to media reports, Internet postings and several of the bloggers who spoke to Reuters.

Two unidentified men stabbed blogger Li Jianxin in the face and splashed acid on his back on July 8. Li, now blind in his right eye, remains in hospital in the southern city of Huizhou.

The attacks coincide with a government crackdown on activists demanding officials disclose their wealth, underscoring the limits of an anti-corruption push by President Xi Jinping.

Xi, who became president in March, has called for action against graft, warning, as many Chinese leaders have before him, that the problem could threaten the ruling Communist Party’s survival.

“If President Xi Jinping is serious about fighting graft, then he should ensure that these individuals are protected from such intimidation and persecution,” said Maya Wang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Xi has said the “supervision of the people” is needed to fight corruption.

Indeed, Li said he and other whistleblowers were encouraged when they heard officials discuss “public opinion-based oversight” of power during China’s annual parliament session in March. Li said he thought that meant the government wanted the Internet to be a tool to weed out corruption.

“It was like a boost to the heart,” Li, 45, told Reuters from his hospital bed where he awaits three more operations in addition to the three he has undergone.

“It signified that the nation’s leaders attach importance and support our anti-corruption efforts on the Internet.”

Li, who runs a small restaurant, began posting accusations of official misconduct, illegal land grabs and nepotism in the city of Huizhou in Guangdong province just over a year ago.

In March, someone tossed a brick through his daughter’s bedroom window. Li was not cowed.

“If they have the guts, they should take a gun and shoot me dead,” Li wrote in an online forum after that incident.

Li does not know who attacked him last month and police have not made any arrests. He vowed to continue his online reports.

The postings contain few documents to support his accusations and none of Li’s dozens of exposes have led to investigations. Much of his information comes from informants, Li said, adding he had never been sued for slander.

{reuters}

{{Interpol has issued a global security alert in connection with suspected al-Qaida involvement in several recent prison escapes including those in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan.}}

The Lyon, France-based international police agency says that the alert follows “the escape of hundreds of terrorists and other criminals” in the past month.

The alert calls on Interpol’s 190 member countries to help determine whether these events are coordinated or linked, the organization said in a statement Saturday.

Interpol says it issues such alerts fairly regularly, the last one 10 days ago following jailbreaks from Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison and the Taji prison near Baghdad.

The alert also comes a day after the U.S. issued an extraordinary global travel warning to Americans about a possible al-Qaida attack.

The U.S. is closing 21 of its embassies and consulates in the Muslim world this weekend, while Britain, France and Germany have announced the closures of their embassies in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

(AP)

{{The Foreign Office is continuing to “strongly urge” Britons to leave Yemen as a two-day closure of its embassy begins amid a terrorism warning.}}

It also advised against travel to Yemen due to “increased security concerns”.

The closure of the Sanaa embassy, which had already been operating only with essential staff, was said to be a “precautionary measure” until Tuesday.

The French and German embassies are also shut as are US diplomatic missions in the Middle East and North Africa.

US officials met in Washington on Saturday to review the threat of a terrorist attack that led to the Sunday closure of 21 embassies and consulates and a global travel warning to Americans.

It came after the US reportedly intercepted al-Qaeda messages, which, it has been claimed, were between senior figures talking about a plot against an embassy.

Meanwhile, Interpol issued a separate global security alert, citing jail breaks linked to al-Qaeda in nine countries.

The international policing organisation said “hundreds of terrorists” had been freed during breakouts in countries including Iraq, Libya and Pakistan in the past month.

Several hundred Britons are thought to live in Yemen, with most working for the embassy, charities, UN organisations and oil companies.
BBC

{{Honduras has sent troops to take control of the country’s main prison near the capital Tegucigalpa after three inmates were killed in a riot.}}

Three security guards were also wounded in the clashes, officials said.

The move was aimed at ending “the reign of criminals in our prison system”, President Porfirio Lobo said.

It follows the release of a report, which said the government had given up on rehabilitating criminals and left prisons to be controlled by inmates.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the country’s prisons were impoverished, overcrowded and corrupt.

Government figures show more than 12,000 people in Honduras are currently incarcerated in prisons that were built for just 8,000.

{{‘Cell-by-cell review’}}

A police spokesman said a riot broke out at the National Penitentiary after fighting erupted between gang members and other prisoners.

The prison, located north of Tegucigalpa, reportedly houses some 3,300 inmates.

Authorities were carrying out a “cell-by-cell review to find out what happened”, prison director Simeon Flores was quoted as saying.

After the clash, the authorities found hand grenades and firearms in the prison.

Hours later, the government ordered an immediate military takeover at the facility saying it should end the reign of criminals in the prison.

Security forces were also guarding injured inmates taken to a hospital in Tegucigalpa, to prevent any attempt by gangs to free the prisoners.

The violence occurred a day after a new report described the jail system in Honduras as “dehumanised, miserly, and corrupt”.

The Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the jails were under the de-facto command of inmates – often belonging the country’s violent criminal gangs – who even set rules and enforce physical punishments.

The report also found that women shared prisons with men and were often victims of abuse.

“It is essential that the state take on this crisis in the prison system as one of its priorities, because the system has totally collapsed,” said commission spokesman Escobar Gil.

The report highlighted a lack of staffing, resources and organisation, saying the government had abandoned its responsibilities towards funding and rehabilitation programmes.

{agencies}

{{Japanese truck maker Isuzu Motors Ltd (7202.T) will use diesel engines made by General Motors Co (GM.N) in its new pick-up truck made in India to cut costs and lessen the burden of technology development, the Nikkei daily reported on Sunday.}}

Isuzu plans to supply some 100,000 engines made at GM’s factory based in India. The engines are produced with use of Isuzu technology.

The move will allow Isuzu, which plans to start making the low-cost truck in 2016, to make it affordable to customers in India and Africa, the Nikkei report said.

The cooperation will further strengthen ties between the two companies. GM is eager to tap Isuzu’s strength in Southeast Asian markets and its diesel technology, while Isuzu wants to share the burden of developing technologies.

The largest U.S. automaker first took a stake in Isuzu in 1971 and at one point owned as much as 49% of the Japanese truck maker before selling the holding down. In 2006, GM sold its remaining 7.9% stake for $300 million.

The companies, which worked together on trucks such as the GM Chevrolet Colorado mid-size pickup, sold as the i-Series by Isuzu, still cooperate in some areas.

They jointly developed the updated Isuzu D-Max in 2011 and collaborate in sales in Latin America and South Africa.

In May, shares in Isuzu climbed some 20% after the automaker posted a record net profit of 96.5 billion yen ($946 million) for the year ended March 31, thanks to brisk overseas sales.

{agencies}