Tag: InternationalNews

{{Israeli missiles struck a research center near the Syrian capital Damascus, setting off explosions and causing casualties, Syria’s state news agency reported early Sunday, citing initial reports.}}

If confirmed, it would be the second Israeli strike on targets in Syria in three days, signaling a sharp escalation of Israel’s involvement in Syria’s bloody civil war.

There was no immediate Israeli comment. However, Israel has said it will not allow sophisticated weapons to flow from Syria to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and a heavily armed foe of the Jewish state.

Two previous Israeli airstrikes, one in January and one on Friday, targeted weapons apparently bound for Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials have said.

The Syrian media reported early Sunday that explosions went off at the Jamraya research center near Damascus, causing casualties. “Initial reports point to these explosions being a result of Israeli missiles that targeted the research center in Jamraya”.

A Syrian activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also reported large explosions in the area of Jamraya, a military and scientific research facility northwest of Damascus, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese border.

{SANA}

{{An international media watchdog has called President Vladimir Putin a “predator” of free press and lumped him together with the likes of new Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Italian Mafia.}}

The France-based Reporters Without Borders released an updated list of 39 “Predators of Freedom of Information” for World Press Freedom Day on Friday, but it reserved some of its most scorching criticism for Putin.

“If just one word were needed to describe Vladimir Putin, who was catapulted into the presidency in 2000 after a decade of dilution of authority, it would have to be ‘control freak,’” it said in a report.

“Since his return to the presidency in May 2012, Putin’s rhetoric has become even more militaristic and Cold War-like. Media critics? Manipulated by the U.S. State Department. Pussy Riot and their ilk? Anti-Semites who undermine public decency and destroy the country. Human rights NGOs? Foreign agents,” it said.

The report noted that Putin has shown public support for media freedom, most recently in an address to the Russian Union of Journalists last month when he said, “The media’s active and responsible attitude and a truly independent and courageous journalism are more than ever desired and indispensible for Russia.”

But the reality, Reporters Without Borders said, is “indispensible or not, independent journalism is a risky activity in Russia.”

The report said at least 29 journalists have been killed in connection with their work since Putin first became president in 2000 and lamented the death of Khimki journalist Mikhail Beketov in April and the fact that the masterminds of attacks on Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya and Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin remain unknown.

The report also berated Russia for last year recriminalizing defamation and creating a blacklist of websites that have been banned in the name of protecting minors.

“Since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in Russia, the authorities have tightened their grip even further in response to unprecedented opposition protests,” it said.

“The country remains marked by a completely unacceptable level impunity for those responsible for violence against journalists.”

The report also names as predators the leaders of other former Soviet republics, including Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It singles out the presidents of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan for especially stinging criticism.

“Reporters Without Borders urges the international community not to hide behind economic and geopolitical interests,” it said.

“Thanks to their rich natural resources, Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev and Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbayev are confident that no one will rap their knuckles.”

Five new predators were added to this year’s list, including the new Chinese president and members and supporters of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

The report also said criminal organizations like Mexico’s Zetas and the Italian Mafia continued to target journalists that they considered too curious or independent.

The Kremlin had no immediate comment on the report, although it has rejected similar findings in the past as biased. Reporters Without Borders also named Putin as a predator last year.

As part of this year’s report, the organization raised eyebrows in Paris by pasting large posters of its press predators in subway stations and on building walls. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was depicted shaking his fist, while Putin was shown raising his middle finger.

{The Moscow Times }

{{US president Barack Obama has promised cooperation in fighting drug-trafficking and organised crime in Mexico following his meeting with his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto.}}

Appearing alongside his Mexican counterpart at a news conference on Thursday, Obama recommitted the US to fighting the demand for illegal drugs in the US and the flow of illegal guns across the border, even as its southern neighbour rethinks how much access it gives to American security agencies.

“I agreed to continue our close cooperation on security, even as the nature of that cooperation will evolve,” Obama said.

“It is obviously up to the Mexican people to determine their security structures and how it engages with other nations, including the United States.”

Obama’s remarks come as Pena Nieto, in a shift from his predecessor, has moved to end the widespread access that US security agencies have had in Mexico.

The White House has been cautious in its public response to the changes, with the president and his advisers saying they need to hear directly from the Mexican leader before making a judgment.

Obama’s visit is part of a three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica, his first to Latin America since winning re-election last year.

Pena Nieto said his government’s new security strategy emphasizes reducing violence. But he downplayed the notion that it would mean a diminished effort to fight organised crime, saying “there is no clash between these two goals.”

This so-called “single-door” policy would be an abrupt change from the wide latitude the US government previously enjoyed under Pena Nieto’s predecessor, Felipe Calderon.

“From their perspective, it’s the effort to have better control over all the aspects of security policy and make it more fluid,” said Maureen Meyer, a Mexico specialist with the Washington Office on Latin America, a US non-governmental organisation.

The change has raised concern about Mexico’s commitment to combating drug trafficking and drug-related violence.

{aljazeera}

{{An Israeli airstrike against Syria was targeting a shipment of advanced missiles bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Israeli officials confirmed Saturday.}}

It was the second Israeli strike this year against Syria and the latest salvo in its long-running effort to disrupt Hezbollah’s quest to build an arsenal capable of defending against Israel’s air force and spreading destruction inside the Jewish state.

The officials said the attack took place early Friday and was aimed at sophisticated “game-changing” weapons, but not chemical arms.

One official said the target was a shipment of advanced, long-range ground-to-ground missiles but was not more specific.

It was not immediately clear where the attack took place, or whether the air force carried out the strike from Lebanese or Syrian airspace.

The Israeli officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information about a secret military operation to the media.

U.S. officials had earlier confirmed the airstrike but said only that it appeared to have hit a warehouse.

Calls to the Israeli military and defense ministry were not immediately answered.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that Israel would be prepared to take military action if chemical weapons or other arms that would upset the balance of power with Hezbollah were to reach the Islamic militant group.

Syria’s assistant information minister, Khalaf Muftah, told Hezbollah’s Manar TV that he has “no information about an aggression that was staged,” and said reports of an Israeli air raid “come in the framework of psychological war in preparation of an aggression against Syria.”

It’s not the first time since Syria’s crisis erupted in March 2011 that Israel has intervened struck inside Syria.

In January, the Israeli air force is believed to have targeted a shipment of advanced SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah.

Israel has not formally admitted to carrying out that airstrike, though officials have strongly hinted they were behind the attack.

The airstrikes follow decades of enmity between Israel and allies Syria and Hezbollah, which consider the Jewish state their mortal enemy.

The situation has been further complicated by the civil war raging in Syria between President Bashar Assad regime and rebel brigades seeking his ouster.

The war has drained Assad’s military and threatens to deprive Hezbollah of a key supporter, in addition to its land corridor to Iran.

The two countries provide Hezbollah with the bulk of its funding and arms.

Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive 34-day war in 2006 that left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.

{wirestory}

{{China has sentenced a former provincial deputy governor to life in prison for accepting almost $2 million in bribes, the most senior official to be punished since the country’s new leadership made tackling corruption its top priority.}}

Huang Sheng, former deputy governor of the eastern province of Shandong, accepted more than 12 million yuan ($1.95 million) from organizations and individuals between 1998 and 2011, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

In addition to the jail sentence, Huang’s assets were confiscated. Xinhua said.

President Xi Jinping, who took over in March in a once-a-decade leadership transition, has called for a crackdown on corruption, warning that the problem is so severe it could threaten the party’s survival.

So far, a few high-ranking officials have been caught in the crackdown, including Sichuan province deputy Communist Party boss Li Chuncheng and, reportedly, Politburo member Li Jianguo, both for “serious” disciplinary issues.

{{Brazil’s candidate to head the World Trade Organization brushed off criticism from rich nations that his country is growing more protectionist, saying he will be a neutral negotiator of global trade frictions if he gets the job this month.}}

Roberto Azevedo, a diplomat who has represented Brazil at the WTO for years, is running against Mexico’s Herminio Blanco, a key player in the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), to become the first Latin American to lead the organization which sets the rule for global trade.

The winner will emerge in May and will face a huge challenge to restore confidence in the WTO’s ability to negotiate a global trade deal.

Although both men come from Latin America, they represent nations with very different stances on free trade. Mexico advocates more aggressive liberalization while Brazil favors a gradual approach to bringing down trade barriers and a big role for the state in regulating commerce.

The United States, Japan, China, South Korea and other countries have complained that Brazil’s move to raise tariffs on hundreds of imported goods to protect its local industry breach international trade rules. Brazil has said those measures are allowed under WTO rules.

In a document circulated at the WTO in mid-April, the European Union, Japan and the United States said Brazil has adopted measures to raise local-content requirements that “discriminate” against imported goods ranging from cars to cellphones and even fertilizers.

“I, as candidate and as director of the WTO will not be representing Brazil,” Azevedo told Reuters in a phone interview on Tuesday.

“I made it to the final round in the election with those complaints on the table, and that doesn’t change things. It means there is an understanding between WTO members that the candidate must be independent from his country and be evaluated according to his skills.”

Asked if he considered Brazil was protectionist, he declined to comment.

While Azevedo is respected in diplomatic circles for his consensus building abilities he has come under fire for his efforts to get the WTO to discuss the impact of currency movements on global trade.

Blanco was Mexico’s negotiator of the mid-1990s NAFTA treaty with the United States and Canada and a consultant in other free trade deals. In recent decades, Mexico has embraced free trade with a dozen such pacts encompassing 44 countries, its trade ministry says.

That would seem to make him a shoo-in to head the WTO, whose mandate is not just to supervise world trade but to work to liberalize global trade flows.

However, his proximity to free-trade deals reached outside the WTO could be a handicap in the final round of the race, particularly among the developing world weary of global trade policy dominance by wealthy nations like the United States.

Mexico’s close links to U.S.-styled free trade policies makes Azevedo a more appealing choice for developing nations, said Kevin Gallagher, an international relations professor at Boston University.

“Most developing countries are at a stage of trade liberalization closer to that of Brazil than of Mexico,” Gallagher said. “I think more developing countries will trust Brazil than Mexico.”

{{Skilled Diplomat Wanted}}

Diplomatic skills and influence to revive global trade talks will have a bigger weight in the next selection round than the nationality of the candidate, some experts say.

“The characteristics of the nation that the person comes from aren’t particularly important, what is more important is whether the individual has the power and the influence to get countries to liberalize,” said Andrew Rose, an international business professor with the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

“The head of the WTO is not a particularly visible position, which is really sad because the WTO should be a much more effective and powerful institutions than it is.”

The WTO’s credibility suffered a serious blow in 2011 when its member recognized that the 10-year old Doha Round of trade talks – meant to culminate in a bold new trade deal – was, if not dead, at least at an impasse.

Both Azevedo and Blanco said the revival of Doha is vital for global trade to take off.

“We need to sit down at the table with a more open mentality and constructive spirit and more innovative vision about the issues we have at hand. That will only happen if we have the political will to overcome the impasse,” Azevedo said.

Blanco has said key priorities include the elimination of subsidies for agricultural exports that hurt smaller countries, lowering tariffs on industrial products and introducing new rules on the way trade disputes are solved.

Since the onset of the global financial crisis of 2008 world trade has suffered greatly, growing a meager 2% last year, its smallest annual rise since records began in 1981 and the second weakest figure on record after 2009, when trade shrank.

The WTO even slashed its 2013 trade growth forecast to 3.3% from 4.5 % and warned of a protectionist threat.

Recession-hit Europe and a slow-moving United States are scrambling to bolster their exports via new regional trade deals that some experts say may undermine the relevance of the WTO.

“These plurilateral, bilateral and multilateral negotiations have always existed. The problem is that multilateral talks have not evolved,” said Azevedo. “We have a system of rules that reflects the business reality of 30 years ago, which means that what should be the engine of global commerce has stopped.”

{reuters}