IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Vatican Announces John Paul II & John XXIII Will be Saints

    {{The late Pope John Paul II will be made a saint, the Vatican has said, announcing that Pope Francis had approved a second miracle attributed to the Polish pontiff, who led the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005.}}

    The Vatican said on Friday that Pope John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and called the Second Vatican Council – which enacted sweeping reforms to modernise the Church – would also be made a saint.

    No dates for the canonisation ceremonies were immediately given but the Vatican said they were expected by the end of the year.

    John Paul had already been credited with asking God to cure French nun Marie Simon-Pierre Normand of Parkinson’s disease, which helped lead to his beatification in 2011, when he was declared a “blessed” of the Church.

    Two confirmed miracles are usually required under Vatican rules for the declaration of a saint.

    The second miracle attributed to John Paul’s intercession is the inexplicable curing of a woman from Costa Rica who prayed to him for help with her medical condition on the day of his beatification.

    Details of that miracle were due to be announced in Costa Rica on Friday.

    {wirestory}

  • Syrian troops advance in rebel-held parts of Homs

    {{Syrian troops have advanced into rebel-held areas of the city of Homs, occupying buildings after pummeling the area with artillery that drove out opposition fighters, an activist said Saturday.}}

    The push into Khaldiyeh district was the first significant gain for troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, who have been waging an eight-day campaign to seize parts of the central Syrian city in rebel hands for over a year.

    Tariq Badrakhan, an activist based in the neighborhood, said government troops used rockets, mortars and cannon fire to flush out the area’s “first line of defenses” on Friday evening.

    The offensive continued Saturday morning, he said via Skype, as explosions were heard in the background.

    “We feel like they are shaking the sky,” Badrakhan said.

    Another activist said eight rebels were killed in the fighting. He requested anonymity because rebels have accused him in the past of damaging their morale by reporting their casualties.

    Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since a peaceful uprising against the Assad regime two years ago turned into armed revolt after a violent government crackdown.

    Government forces, sometimes bolstered by fighters of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, have launched a major countrywide offensive to reclaim territory lost to rebels, who operate in chaotic groups with ideologies ranging from secular to hardline Islamic extremists.

    Hardline Sunni Muslims from other countries have also joined the fighting, which has left more than 93,000 people dead.

    AP

  • Brazil data Indicate Increase in Amazon Deforestation

    {{Brazilian government figures released on Friday indicated further rise in deforestation in the Amazon, a trend that could soon amount to a full year’s reversal from recent progress in the battle against destruction of the world’s largest rainforest.}}

    Satellite data compiled by Brazil’s space agency showed 465 sq km (180 sq mi) of deforestation during the month of May, nearly a five-fold increase compared with destruction detected in May 2012.

    Since August, the month when Brazil’s annual measurement of cleared rainforest starts, a total of 2,338 square kilometers (903 sq mi) have been detected – a 35 percent increase from figures compiled a year ago.

    The area, roughly three times the size of New York City, is already more than the total of 2,051 square kilometers (792 sq mi) detected by the same system for the 12 months of measurement ended in July 2012.

    The figures are small compared to the worst days of Amazon deforestation, when loggers, farmers and developers in recent decades fueled rapid destruction that caught the world’s attention and helped spawn the global environmental movement.

    More complete figures and on-the-ground research will be needed to confirm the full extent and type of the clearing. Some of it, for instance, will be the result of wild fires and other natural degradation.

    Still, the data so far uphold fears by scientists and environmentalists that hard-won gains against deforestation in Brazil are undergoing a reversal. Government infrastructure projects, changes to long-standing environmental policy and a run-up in prices for soybeans and other Brazilian farm exports, which encourage ranchers to clear woodland, are factors believed to be driving the increases.

    The data is compiled August through July because cloud cover during the Amazon rainy season makes accurate imagery difficult. May is generally the first month in which the clouds disperse before rains recommence toward the end of the calendar year.

    {wirestory}

  • China, Switzerland Sign Free Trade Agreement

    {{China and Switzerland on Saturday signed a free trade agreement in Beijing – a move that came amid escalating tensions between Asia’s economic giant and the European Union.}}

    The pact followed China’s signing in April of its first free trade accord with a European economy, non-EU member Iceland. Saturday’s deal, however, marked the first with an economy in continental Europe.

    China’s commerce minister Gao Hucheng and Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann inked the bilateral agreement in a ceremony in China’s capital city.

    According to government news agency Xinhua, Gao described its free-trade agreement with Switzerland as a comprehensive and mutually beneficial pact that should contribute to increased trade between the two economies.

    Xinhua said the bilateral trade volume between China and Switzerland reached $26.31 billion in 2012. The figure for the first five months of this year surged to $22.89 billion, the agency said.

    Saturday’s free-trade signing came just days after the Chinese government formally began an investigation into whether Europe is selling wine in China below cost, a response to heightened trade tensions with the European Union.

    EU officials have said China is only targeting the EU wine industry in retaliation for a dispute with the European Union over cheap Chinese solar panels.

    {wirestory}

  • Venezuela offers asylum to U.S. fugitive

    {{Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro offered asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on Friday in defiance of Washington, which is demanding his arrest for divulging details of secret U.S. spy programs.}}

    “Who is the guilty one? A young man … who denounces war plans, or the U.S. government which launches bombs and arms the terrorist Syrian opposition against the people and legitimate President Bashar al-Assad?” he asked, to applause and cheers from ranks of military officers at the parade.

    “In the name of America’s dignity … I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden,” Maduro told a military parade marking Venezuela’s independence day.

    “He is a young man who has told the truth, in the spirit of rebellion, about the United States spying on the whole world.”

    Russia has kept the former National Security Agency contractor at arm’s length, saying the transit area where passengers stay between flights is neutral territory and he will be on Russian soil only if he goes through passport control.

    It was not immediately clear how Snowden would react to Maduro’s offer, nor reach Venezuela if he accepted.

    There are no direct commercial flights between Moscow and Caracas, and the usual route involves changing planes in Havana – to which there is a flight from Sheremetyevo at 6:05 ET. It is not clear if the Cuban authorities would let him transit.

    Given the dramatic grounding in Vienna of the Bolivian president’s plane this week over suspicions that Snowden was onboard, using European airspace could prove problematic.

  • France Accused of Vast Electronic Spying Network

    {{A leading French newspaper says France’s intelligence services have put in place a giant electronic surveillance gathering network.}}

    Citing no sources, the Le Monde daily says France’s Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, the country’s foreign intelligence agency, systematically collects information about all electronic data sent by computers and telephones in France, as well as communications between France and abroad.

    According to Le Monde, data on “all emails, SMSs, telephone calls, Facebook and Twitter posts” are collected and stored in a massive three-floor underground bunker at the DGSE’s headquarters in Paris.

    The paper specified that it is the communications’ metadata – such as when was call was made and where an author was when she sent an email – that is being archived, not their content.

    Officials at the DGSE did not answer phone calls or emails seeking comment Thursday.

    The vast archive, which Le Monde says amounts to tens of millions of gigabytes, is accessible to France’s other spy agencies, including military intelligence, domestic intelligence, Paris police and a special financial crimes task force.

    Le Monde compared the French digital dragnet to PRISM, the U.S. National Security Agency program which has most caught the imagination of Internet users.

    But PRISM appears aimed at allowing U.S. spies to peel data off the servers of Silicon Valley firms – whereas the program described in Le Monde appears to be fed through the mass interception of electronic data bouncing across the world.

    Also, PRISM can apparently be used to collect content, not just metadata.

    Le Monde said the French surveillance program relies on spy satellites, listening stations in French overseas territories or former colonies such as Mayotte or Djibouti, and information harvested from undersea cables – all three of which are methods long familiar to the NSA.

    A French lawmaker played down the report, saying France’s surveillance gathering system is not comparable with the NSA’s.

    Patricia Adam, a lawmaker who until last year headed parliament’s intelligence committee, said French spies “are line fishing, not trawling” the vast oceans of data thrown up by mobile phones, emails and Internet communication.

    AP

  • Sarkozy’s UMP Party hit by Bill for Overspending

    France’s conservative opposition party the UMP has suffered a financial blow as election auditors billed it for 11m euros (£9.4m; $14.3m).

    It was asked to repay state funds advanced for Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2012 presidential campaign, on grounds it had breached spending limits.

    According to the Constitutional Council, which rules on electoral disputes, it had overspent by 2.1%.

    Mr Sarkozy resigned from the Council in protest at the move.

    As a former French president, he automatically became a member of the constitutional body last year.

    Party leader Jean-Francois Cope launched a national fundraising campaign after Thursday’s decision, which leading centre-right daily Le Figaro described as a “hard blow” for the UMP’s finances.

    Since its defeat at the presidential and parliamentary elections, the party is believed to have further lost support because of a bitter party leadership battle.

    Satirical blogger Nain Portekoi tweeted an image of the party’s tree logo looking withered.

    The UMP was allotted 22.5m euros for Mr Sarkozy’s unsuccessful contest with Socialist challenger Francois Hollande and was found by the Constitutional Council to have overspent by 466,118 euros.

    To ensure an even playing-field, France caps election funding, bans large donations and subsidises campaign spending.

    {BBC. UMP leader Jean-Francois Cope announced a party fundraising drive}

  • EU states Condemned for ‘virtual kidnapping’ of Bolivian President.

    {{Six South American leaders have demanded an explanation and public apology from four European countries for diverting Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane earlier this week.}}

    Morales’ presidential plane landed in Austria on Tuesday night after France, Portugal, Italy and Spain closed their airspace over suspicions that the fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden was aboard. The information was inaccurate and Morales, who was returning from a summit in Russia, was able to fly home on Wednesday.

    At the summit in the Bolivian city Cochabamba on Thursday, five regional leaders joined Morales in denouncing his “virtual kidnapping” and the US pressure they believed spurred it behind the scenes.

    At the end of the summit, which included the leaders of Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Surinam and Venezuela, a statement was issued demanding answers from France, Portugal, Italy and Spain, the European Union (EU) member states that closed their airspace. The US was not mentioned in the statement.

    ‘We don’t need US embassy’

    Morales warned that he could close the US Embassy in Bolivia, blaming Washington for pressuring European countries to refuse to allow his plane to fly through their airspace in what he called a violation of international law.

    “We don’t need a US embassy in Bolivia,” Morales said. “My hand would not shake to close the US embassy. We have dignity, sovereignty. Without the US, we are better politically, democratically.”

    agencies

  • Syria’s food situation will worsen in 2014: U.N. report

    {{Four million Syrians, or a fifth of the population, are unable to produce or buy enough food for their needs and the situation could deteriorate further next year if the two-year old conflict continues, the United Nations said on Friday.}}

    Following a visit to Syria between May and June, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report that domestic production over the next twelve months is likely to be severely compromised.

    The agencies estimated Syria would need to import 1.5 million metric tons (1 metric ton = 1.1023 tons) of wheat for the 2013/14 season.

    Wheat production has fallen to 2.4 million metric tons, some 40 percent less than the annual average harvest before the conflict of more than 4 million metric tons , they said.

  • Backers of Ousted Mursi to Protest

    Islamist supporters of Egypt’s ousted president, Mohamed Mursi, will rally on Friday to express their outrage at his overthrow by the army and to reject a planned interim government backed by their liberal opponents.

    Dozens of people were wounded in clashes in Mursi’s home city on Thursday, raising fears of more of the violence in which several dozen have died in the past month. There were also militant attacks in the restive Sinai peninsula, next to Israel.

    How the army deals with trouble will help determine future support for Cairo from the United States and other international powers. Concern that the generals have carried out a military coup against Egypt’s first-ever freely elected leader has left Washington reviewing the $1.5 billion in military and civilian aid it annually gives Egypt.

    The planned protests have the slogan “Friday of Rejection”.

    A military source said: “We will continue to secure the places of protest with troops, and jets if necessary, to make sure the pro- and anti-Mursi demonstrators don’t confront each other. We will let them demonstrate and go where they want.”

    Mursi’s political opponents insist there was no coup. Rather, the army heeded the “will of the people” in forcing the president out. Millions rallied on Sunday to protest at a collapsing economy and political deadlock, in which Mursi had failed to build a broad consensus after a year in office.

    After a busy day of diplomacy by concerned Obama administration officials interrupting their Independence Day holiday in Washington, the Egyptian armed forces command issued a late-night statement guaranteeing rights to protest and free expression and pledging not to pursue arbitrary measures against any political group.

    The uncontroversial phrasing belied a busy 24 hours since the military chief suspended the constitution, detained Mursi and oversaw the swearing in of the chief justice of the constitutional court as Egypt’s interim head of state.

    In addition to Mursi, the country’s first freely elected leader, several senior figures in his Muslim Brotherhood were arrested, security sources said. Prosecutors were investigating various charges, including incitement to violence and, in the case of Mursi himself, insulting the judiciary.

    wirestory