Tag: InternationalNews

{{US officials have brought charges against Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzohkhar Tsarnaev while he lay in his hospital bed, a federal court official said.}}

“There has been a sealed complaint filed,” said Gary Wente, circuit executive for the US Courts for the First Circuit, who said that a magistrate judge was present when Tsarnaev was charged at his bed in Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital on Monday.

He was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and one count of malicious destruction of property resulting in death.

Police declined to comment on media reports he was communicating with authorities in writing.

Officials say Tsarnaev and his older brother and suspected co-conspirator, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the twin explosions at Monday’s marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 180 others.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remained unable to speak with a gunshot wound to the throat, and he was expected face separate state charges in the fatal shooting of a university police officer.

“There have been widely published reports that he is [communicating silently]. I wouldn’t dispute that, but I don’t have any specific information on that myself,” Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told CNN on Sunday. “We’re very anxious to talk to him and the investigators will be doing that as soon as possible.”

The White House said that the surviving suspect in the Boston bombings would not be treated as an “enemy combatant” but would be tried through the US civilian justice system.

“He will not be treated as an enemy combatant,” Jay Carney, the Whitehouse spokesperson, said following calls from some Republicans for 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to be granted the same status as “War on Terror” detainees.

“We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice,” Carney said, arguing that US law prohibited a US citizen being tried in the military court system.

Carney said that since the September 11, 2001 attacks the US government had repeatedly and successfully used civilian courts to try terror suspects.

{wirestory}

{{ Pakistan’s caretaker government told the Supreme Court on Monday it will not file treason charges against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf but will leave the decision on that to the winner of the upcoming election.}}

The petitions before the Supreme Court alleging Musharraf committed treason while in power constitute just one of several legal challenges he is facing following his recent return to Pakistan from self-imposed exile.

The former military strongman was placed under house arrest over the weekend in connection with a different case, which involves his decision to fire senior judges while in power.

Musharraf’s detention was the latest in an array of setbacks he has faced since returning home last month with hopes of making a political comeback.

Lawyers have filed private petitions before the Supreme Court alleging Musharraf committed various treasonable offenses, including toppling a civilian government, suspending the constitution and declaring a state of emergency.

But according to Pakistan’s constitution, the government is the only one with authority to file treason charges against Musharraf.

Attorney General Irfan Qadir submitted a statement to the Supreme Court on Monday, saying caretaker officials have decided not to file treason charges because it was not part of their mandate.

The caretaker government should avoid controversial matters that are not reversible by the winner of the May 11 parliamentary election, Qadir said. Instead, he added, caretaker officials are focused on routine matters, such as ensuring security for the upcoming election.

However, Law Minister Ahmer Bilal Soofi indicated that caretaker officials would not defy the Supreme Court if the judges ordered the government to act.

“At present all the focus, the attention is on the election arrangement,” Soofi told reporters in Islamabad. “But we will be ready to proceed according to what the court asks us to do.”

The interim government took over last month and will hold power until a new government is formed after the vote.

At this point, it’s unclear how the next government will choose to proceed in the case of treason charges against Musharraf.

The front runner to become the next prime minister is Nawaz Sharif, who was toppled by Musharraf in a military coup when he was serving as premier in 1999.

{agencies}

{{Iranians lined up to buy cooking oil and meat in Tehran on Monday, as price hikes threatened to stir discontent less than two months before presidential elections.}}

Prices of staples such as imported cooking oil, chicken and red meat have jumped up to 60 percent since authorities decided last week to increase the official dollar exchange rate for importers who need the currency to do business.

They now pay 24,500 rials for $1, nearly double the previous rate of 12,260.

Iran’s economy is flagging under international and Western sanctions over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. The West suspects the program could lead to production of weapons, but Iran denies the charge.

The sanctions, which include an oil and banking embargo, have led to a shortage of foreign currency and drastically cut the government’s income, while the country’s persistent inflation eats into consumer buying power.

Despite government assurances that the new rate will go not go into effect for several weeks, many people are stocking up on goods before prices rise even more.

The government has banned prices hikes until the new measures are in place and dispatched inspectors to keep tabs on businesses.

“Any price rise is illegal,” said Mojtaba Farahani, an official in the Commerce Ministry. “So far a remarkable number of reports have been filed about wholesale and retail shops,” he told media.

{Wirestory}

{{Authorities have arrested two men accused of planning to carry out an al Qaeda-supported attack against a Canadian passenger train on one of its busiest routes, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday.}}

Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, are charged with “receiving support from al Qaeda elements in Iran” to carry out an attack and conspiring to murder people on a VIA railway train in the greater Toronto area, Assistant Police Commissioner James Malizia said.

“When I speak about supported, I mean direction and guidance,” he said.

Despite the allegation of links to al Qaeda in Iran, there was no evidence to suggest the planned attacks were state-sponsored, Malizia said.

Authorities said the suspects were not Canadian citizens, but declined to identify their nationality or how long they had been in Canada.

There was no link between the Canadian investigation and the Boston Marathon bomb attack, an official with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told media.

Canadian authorities were tight-lipped about the planned time frame of the alleged attack except to say it was in the planning stage and not imminent.

“We are alleging these two individuals took steps and conducted activities to conduct a terrorist attack,” Police Capt. Jennifer Strackan told reporters.

“They watched trains and railways in the greater Toronto area.”

The alleged attack included a plan to derail a passenger train, she said.

The Canadian media quoted “highly placed sources” as saying the suspects were under surveillance for more than a year.

Media reported that the investigation was “part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”

Essenghaier, of Montreal, and Jaser, of Toronto, will make their first court appearance on Tuesday, police said.

News of the arrests came the same day Canada’s parliament debated an anti-terrorism bill.

CNN

{{Serbia and its former province of Kosovo struck an historic deal on Friday to settle their fraught relations, opening the door to European Union membership talks for Belgrade in a milestone for the region’s recovery from the collapse of Yugoslavia.}}

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the prime ministers of both sides had initialled an agreement during talks in Brussels, capping six months of delicate negotiations after over a decade of deep animosity since Kosovo broke away in war.

« It’s very important that now what we are seeing is a step away from the past and for both of them a step closer to Europe, » Ashton told reporters.

Kosovo’s EU’s integration minister, Vlora Citaku, tweeted: « And the white smoke is out! Habemus pactum! Happy:))) »

Serbian officials said the deal remained subject to approval by « state bodies » back in Belgrade. « We will inform the EU by letter on Monday whether we accept the deal or not, » Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic told reporters. EU diplomats said there was very little chance of Serbia reversing course.

The pact tackles the ethnic partition of Kosovo between its Albanian majority and a small Belgrade-backed pocket of some 50,000 Serbs in the north, a schism that has dogged regional stability since Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 2008.

It will also likely open the door to greater international integration of the young state, the last to emerge from the ashes of federal Yugoslavia but which Belgrade considers the cradle of the Serb nation.

Serbia hopes it will be enough to win the green light on Monday from the EU’s 27 members for the start of talks on Serbian accession to the bloc.

That process could unlock Serbia’s potential as the largest market in the former Yugoslavia and lure much-needed foreign investment to its struggling economy.

{wirestory}

Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed a flashpoint town near Damascus on Sunday, said a watchdog, adding that scores of bodies, some of them disfigured, were found there.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 80 people have been killed in the town of Jdaidet al-Fadl in five days of violence.

“Regime troops have taken complete control over the town of Jdaidet al-Fadl and its surroundings,” said the Observatory which has documented the names of at least 80 people killed.

“We call on the International Committee of the Red Cross to send a delegation to Jdaidet al-Fadl in order to investigate,” Abdel Rahman Observatory director said.

Three of those killed were children and six others were women, the Observatory said, adding that the rest were men, among them many rebel fighters.

The Observatory distributed amateur video filmed in the town showing the bodies of men laid out on the ground, some with mutilated faces and covered in blood.

Jdaidet al-Fadl is located in an area southwest of Damascus that is home to several communities, including Sunnis, Druze and Christians.

After the outbreak of Syria’s conflict, which the United Nations says has forced millions to flee their homes, many of those living in the area were internally displaced people.

An activist in Damascus said via the Internet that all communication, water and electricity have been cut off in Jdaidet al-Fadl, adding that some of the corpses were “found in one of the hospitals” in the town.

Identifying herself as Enas, the activist said some of the bodies “were severely beaten on the head, causing it to crack open. Others had bruises all over their face”. She added that other bodies had been “burnt”.

Since last year, the army has tried to root out rebels positioned southwest and east of Damascus, in a bid to secure the capital.

Sunday’s violence comes a day after at least 121 people were killed across Syria, the Observatory reported.

{AFP}

{{Britons’ finances deteriorated in April at a faster pace than in March as incomes fell and living costs rose, and households expected the squeeze to continue, reducing their ability to spend and support the economy.}}

Survey compiler Markit said on Monday that its headline Household Finance Index fell to 37.7 from 39.3 in March, sinking further below the 50 level that would mark no change compared with a month ago. That is the first drop in the index since December.

The index is not adjusted for seasonal influences due to a limited history of data.
Thirty-two percent of households said their finances worsened this month, while only 8 percent reported an improvement.

On future prospects, almost 42 percent expected to be worse off in 12 months’ time versus the 27 percent who thought they would have more money to spend.

“April’s survey highlights a deepening downturn in financial well-being, driven by renewed pressures on household income and another strong rise in living costs,” said Tim Moore, the author of the report, saying this was likely to undermine consumer spending in coming months.

The threat from high inflation was particularly striking: the index measuring inflation expectations for the year ahead rose to its highest level since the survey was first compiled more than four years ago, reaching 94.6.

Consumer spending, which generates about two thirds of Britain’s gross domestic product, is vital to the economy’s chances of meaningful growth after more than a year of stagnation.

The survey of 1,500 people was conducted between April 10 and April 15.

{reuters}