Tag: InternationalNews

{{China and Russia kicked off their largest-ever joint naval drills Friday in the Sea of Japan, a further sign of the broad-based progress in ties between the former Cold War rivals.}}

Eighteen surface ships, one submarine, three airplanes, five ship-launched helicopters and two commando units were taking part in the “Joint Sea-2013” exercise that runs through July 12.

The drills will cover anti-submarine warfare, close maneuvering and the simulated takeover of an enemy ship.

The drills are considerably bigger than anything China’s navy has previously held with a foreign partner.

China’s increasingly formidable navy is contributing four destroyers, two latest-generation guided missile frigates and a support ship, all of which sailed Monday from the port of Qingdao, where China’s Northern Fleet is based, to the rallying point in Peter the Great Bay near Vladivostok.

“This is our strongest line-up ever in a joint naval drill,” Rear Admiral Yang Junfei, commander of the Chinese contingent, was quoted as saying by state media.

China has long been a key customer for Russian military hardware, but only in the last decade have their militaries begun training jointly.

The naval drills are to be followed by another round of anti-terrorism joint drills in Russia’s Ural Mountain region of Chelyabinsk from July 27 to Aug. 15.

China’s armed forces are eagerly pursuing stronger links with most regional militaries, with the notable exception of Japan, with which China is embroiled in a strongly emotional spat over control of an uninhabited East China Sea island group north of Taiwan.

Chinese land units have taken part in border security and anti-terrorism exercises organized by the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

{The Moscow Times }

{{The outlook for Greece’s bailout program remains uncertain, with differences still to be worked out between the Greek government and its creditors, the European Union and International Monetary Fun said on Monday.}}

“While important progress continues to be made, policy implementation is behind in some areas,” the so-called “troika” of creditors said in an update on Greece’s bailout program, which will be discussed later by euro zone finance ministers.

“The authorities have committed to take corrective actions to ensure delivery of the fiscal targets for 2013-14 and achieve primary balance this year,” it said, but added:

“The mission and the authorities agreed that the macroeconomic outlook remains broadly in line with program projections, with prospects for a gradual return to growth in 2014. The outlook remains uncertain, however.”

{agencies}

{{China’s former railways minister Liu Zhijun has given a suspended death sentence for his role in a huge corruption scandal, state media reports.}}

Liu was accused of using his position of influence to help about 11 business associates win promotions and project contracts and accepted 64.6 million Chinese yuan ($10.5 million) in unspecified bribes between 1986 and 2011.

Under Chinese law the death penalty can be imposed for taking bribes exceeding 100,000 yuan ($ 16.000). The official Xinhua News Agency on Monday said the sentence was with a two-year reprieve by a court in Beijing.

After two years, such sentences typically are commuted to life in prison if the inmate shows good behaviour.

The court also ordered all of Liu’s personal property to be confiscated and issued a separate sentence of 10 years in prison for abuse of power.

Liu’s lawyer Qian Lieyang said his client would likely not appeal the sentence.

Once hailed as the “father” of China’s flagship high-speed rail network, Liu was sacked as railways minister in 2011 after eight years in the post,

The country boasts the world’s longest high-speed network, but a high-speed crash killing some 40 people in 2011, sparked public criticism that authorities compromised safety in their rush to expand the network.

The railways ministry was disbanded with its administrative functions handed to the transport ministry.

{reuters}

{{Cuban President Raul Castro on Sunday backed offers of asylum by Venezuela and other Latin American countries to fugitive U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden and criticized the United States for what he described as bullying other nations.}}

Castro, speaking behind closed doors to Cuba’s National Assembly, said Venezuela and other countries in the region have the right to grant asylum “to those persecuted for their ideals or struggles for democracy, according to our tradition,” according to the official Prensa Latina News Agency.

Foreign journalists were barred from the parliament meeting.

Castro’s remarks were his first public comment on the Snowden affair.

Cuba over the years has given refuge to various U.S. fugitives it considers political refugees, most notably members of the Black Panthers group decades ago.

Communist-run Cuba’s leftist allies Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua have stated that their doors are open to Snowden.

Castro did not say if Cuba had received an asylum request and what the country’s position would be if it does.

Snowden, 30, is believed to be holed up in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo international airport and has been trying to find a country to give him sanctuary since he landed there from Hong Kong on June 23.

There are no direct commercial flights between Moscow and Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and the usual route involves changing planes in Havana. It is not clear if Cuban authorities would let him transit. There was no sign of Snowden aboard the flight to Havana on Saturday.

Castro denounced U.S. threats of economic sanctions against any country that harbors Snowden and also denounced this week’s incident in which some European countries banned Bolivian President Evo Morales’s plane from their airspace on suspicion that it was carrying the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor.

“These actions demonstrate we live in a world in which the powerful feel they can violate international law, violate the national sovereignty of other states and trample on the rights of citizens,” he said, accusing the United States of employing a “philosophy of domination.”

Castro downplayed Snowden’s revelations of secret U.S. spy programs, stating Cuba had been one of the countries most spied upon on the planet. “We already knew about the existence of these systems,” he said, as he closed the parliament meeting.

{agencies}

{{The Popocatepetl volcano just east of Mexico City has spit out a cloud of ash and vapor 2 miles (3 kilometers) high over several days of eruptions, and Mexico City residents awoke Saturday to find a fine layer of volcanic dust on their cars.}}

It has been years since the center of the nation’s capital has seen a noticeable ash fall because prevailing winds usually blow the volcanic dust in other directions. Ash fell earlier this week in some neighborhoods on Mexico City’s south and east sides.

The city’s legion of car washers quickly wiped the fine coating from cars on Saturday with no apparent ill effects.

Claudia Dominguez, spokeswoman for the Mexico City civil defense office, said the very fine ash had probably been floating around the city from eruptions in previous days and had been brought to Earth by a rainfall late Friday.

She said no new ash fall had been reported Saturday, despite continuous eruptions of vapor and ash into the air from the 15,000-foot (5,450 meter) volcano.

While city residents were surprised by the talcum-like ash, inhabitants of towns nearer the volcano have had to deal with much thicker accumulations that have coated their crops, homes and sidewalks.

In San Pedro Nexapa, located about nine miles (15 kms) from the volcano, residents swept up small piles of ash from a few square yards (meters) of sidewalk. Some residents wore surgical masks to ward off the dust raised by passing vehicles.

“The ash affects us a lot, because we get our water from the snow melt from Popocatepetl, and right now we can’t use the water for bathing, for cooking, we can’t even give it to our animals,” said Agustina Perez Gutierrez, a housewife in San Pedro Nexapa. “The children get sore throats from the ash, and it affects the few vegetables and corn crops we are able to plant.”

Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention raised the volcano alert from Stage 2 Yellow to Stage 3 Yellow, the final step before a Red alert, when possible evacuations could be ordered. A Stage 3 Yellow alert had been in effect during eruptions earlier this year until early June, when it was lowered.

Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention reported there had been three explosive eruptions at the peak late Friday and early Saturday — events that usually toss glowing-hot rock on the volcano’s flanks.

It said that Popocatepetl has also continuously spewed clouds of ash into the air, most of which was headed northwest, toward Mexico City.

{wirestory}

Radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada arrived in Amman on Sunday after Britain deported him to face terror charges ending a decade long legal battle, a Jordanian government official said.

“Abu Qatada landed at Marka airport in east Amman,” the official told media on condition of anonymity.

“He was escorted by British and Jordanian guards, who handed him over to state security court prosecutors.”

Jordan vowed “credibility and transparency” in dealing with Abu Qatada.

The Palestinian-born preacher, 53,was taken from prison in an armoured police van to a military airfield on the outskirts of London, where he boarded a privately chartered jet that lifted off into the night sky, photographers said.

“The government is keen on credibility and transparency in handling the issue of Abu Qatada,” who was flown out of Britain at 0146 GMT on Sunday, Jordan’s information minister and government spokesman Mohammad Momani, told the state-run Petra news agency.

“The deportation of Abu Qatada, which came as a result of Jordanian-British coordination and cooperation sends a message to all fugitives that they will face justice in Jordan.”

Britain was finally able to expel the father of five, once dubbed Osama bin Laden’s deputy in Europe, after the two governments last month formally approved the so-called “Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters” treaty, guaranteeing that evidence obtained by torture would not be used against him in any retrial.

Home Secretary Theresa May said his departure proved that the government’s efforts to deport him had been worth the £1.7 million ($2.7 million, two million euros) legal bill and would be “welcomed by the British public.”

“This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country,” she said in a statement released seconds after Abu Qatada’s plane took off.

AFP

{{About 80 people are missing after a driverless oil tanker train derailed and exploded in the small Canadian town of Lac Megantic, destroying dozens of buildings.}}

The accident in the small Quebec town, located around 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Montreal, created a spectacular fireball and forced 2,000 people from their homes.

Officials earlier only confirmed one fatality, but had warned the toll could rise. A search for bodies was to begin Sunday at dawn.

The firefighter said on condition of anonymity that there had been at least 50 people in one bar that was consumed by the flames.

“There is nothing left,” he said.

Witnesses reported as many as six explosions after the train derailed at about 1:20 am (0520 GMT) in Lac Megantic, a picturesque resort town of 6,000 residents near the border with the US state of Maine.

Michel Brunet, a spokesman for Quebec’s provincial police, said late Saturday the official death toll remained at one but added: “We expect there will be more fatalities.”

Radio-Canada had earlier reported that 60 people were unaccounted for in Lac Megantic, where the blaze was still raging, 20 hours on.

“There have been several reports” from people who said they were unable to reach relatives who lived near the accident site, Brunet said.

“The fire is still raging, our investigators have not yet even be able to get close to the scene,” he added, more than 12 hours after the incident.

An initial evacuation zone of a kilometer around the crash site was widened Saturday as a precaution against harmful particles in the air, bringing the total to 2,000 people forced to leave their homes.

Around 150 firefighters were battling the blaze, including some who came across the border from Maine, just 25 kilometers south of the town.

“No conductor on board”

The cause of the crash was still unknown, but a spokesman for the Montreal Maine & Atlantic company, Christophe Journet, told media the train had been stopped in the neighboring town of Nantes, around 13 kilometers west of Lac-Megantic, for a crew changeover.

AFP

{{An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 with 307 people on board crashed and burst into flames as it landed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight from Seoul, killing two people and injuring more than 180.}}

Witnesses said the tail of the plane appeared to hit the approach area of the runway, which juts out into San Francisco Bay, as it came in for landing.

The tail came off and the aircraft appeared to bounce violently, scattering a trail of debris, before coming to rest on the tarmac.

Pictures taken by survivors immediately after the crash showed passengers emerging from the wrecked plane and hurrying away. Thick smoke then billowed from the fuselage, and TV footage later showed the aircraft gutted and blackened by fire, with much of its roof gone.

There was no immediate indication of the cause of the accident, and federal officials were traveling from Washington to investigate. One survivor said the pilot seemed to be trying to gain altitude just before crash.

Asiana Airlines said the flight, which had originated in Shanghai, had carried 291 passengers and 16 crew members. Most were Chinese, Korean and U.S. nationals.

Dale Carnes, assistant deputy chief of the San Francisco Fire Department Chief, said two people were killed in the crash, and 49 were transported immediately to area hospitals with serious injuries. Another 132 people were later taken to hospitals with moderate and minor injuries.

Five people were in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital, according to spokeswoman Rachael Kagan. She said a total of 52 people were treated for burns, fractures and internal injuries.

Three people were in critical condition at Stanford Hospital.

The crash was the first-ever fatal accident involving the Boeing 777, a popular long-range jet that has been in service since 1995. It was the first fatal commercial airline accident in the United States since a regional plane operated by Colgan Air crashed in New York in 2009.

San Francisco International Airport, a major West Coast hub and gateway to Asia, was shut down for several hours after the crash and flights were diverted to Los Angeles, Seattle, Oakland and San Jose. By late afternoon two runways had reopened even as scores of safety workers scoured the airfield for debris.

{wirestory}