IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Israel Starts Collecting Gas from ‘Tamar’ field

    {{Natural gas from the Tamar field off Israel’s Mediterranean shores has started flowing, the first step towards Israel possibly becoming an energy-exporting country within the next few years.}}

    The discovery in 2009 led to an exploration frenzy in the Levant Basin – shared between Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon – and the uncovering of a second bigger find, Leviathan, which prompted Israel to set up a natural gas wealth fund.

    Tamar alone is expected to meet the country’s natural gas needs for decades.

    “Today [we begin] independence in Israeli natural gas. It is an enormous achievement for the Israeli economy and the start of a new era,” said Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, the controlling shareholder in Delek Group, one of the partners in Tamar on Saturday.

    The gas should lead to a reduction in production costs for state utility Israel Electric Corp., as well as a decline in the price of electricity, the Israeli water and energy ministry said last week.

    A statement from the production partners, who said they had invested $3bn in developing Tamar, estimated the new gas supplies would save Israel’s economy, which relies heavily on oil imports, $3.6bn per year.

    Texas-based Noble Energy holds 36 percent of Tamar.

    {Aljazeera}

  • Pope Francis to Lead First Easter Celebrations

    {{Pope Francis prepared to lead his first Easter Sunday celebrations with tens of thousands of people expected in St Peter’s Square for a mass marking the holiest day in the Christian calendar.}}

    The ceremony will be followed by a special “Urbi et Orbi” blessing for Rome and the world that the pope will deliver from the same balcony where he made his first public appearance after his election this month.

    At an Easter Vigil in St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, the first pontiff from outside Europe in nearly 1,300 years of Church history reached out to non-believers and lapsed Catholics, urging them to “step forward” towards God.

    “He will receive you with open arms,” said the 76-year-old Argentine pope, formerly the archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has called for the Roman Catholic Church to be closer to ordinary people and the needy.

    “Let us not close our hearts,” he appealed to the congregation in a mass in which he also baptised four converts.

    He added: “Let us not lose confidence, let us never give up: there are no situations which God cannot change.”

    Easter Sunday celebrates the Christian belief in Jesus’s death and resurrection and is marked around the world, often with a variety of not strictly religious local traditions like painted eggs or Easter Bunnies.

  • India’s top Court to Deliver Novartis Judgment

    {{India’s Supreme Court is to rule Monday on a landmark patent case involving Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG that focuses on demands by major companies that their investments be protected, against Indian companies that say they should be allowed to continue producing cheaper generic versions of many lifesaving medicines.}}

    A decision in the seven-year legal battle is keenly awaited by the two most interested parties— big pharma companies and health aid groups — with both sides saying the outcome will set a precedent with far-reaching consequences for the future availability of the drugs.

    “Across the world, people rely on India for supplies of affordable versions of expensive patented medicines,” said Leena Menghaney of Doctors Without Borders. “This case will have fundamental consequences.”

    The case goes back to 2006 when Novartis’ application for a fresh patent in India for its cancer drug imatinib mesylate was rejected by the Indian patent office.

    The patent authority cited a legal provision in India’s 2005 patent law aimed at preventing companies from getting fresh patents for making only minor changes to existing medicines — a practice known as “evergreening.”

    The drugmaker has argued that its leukemia drug Gleevec, known in Europe and India as Glivec, was a newer, more easily absorbed version that qualified for a fresh patent.

    The company filed an appeal, but India’s patent appeals office turned it down in 2009 on the grounds the company was unable to show significant increase in efficacy of the drug.

    Novartis then approached the Supreme Court in August 2009, which heard arguments seeking to challenge the interpretation and application of India’s patent law in the case.

    Gleevec, used in treating chronic myeloid leukemia and some other cancers, costs a patient about $2,600 a month. Its generic version was available in India for around $175 per month.

    “The difference in price was huge. The generic version makes it affordable to so many more poor people, not just in India, but across the world,” said Y.K. Sapru, of the Mumbai-based Cancer Patients Aid Association.

    The case once again pits big pharmaceutical companies against health activists and aid groups with both sections arguing that the judgment would be an important milestone for the future of the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.

    “The Novartis verdict is important because it will determine whether India gets to limit patents to genuine new drugs, or whether drug companies get to “evergreen” their patents until eternity, simply by re-patenting a slightly modified version of a known substance,” said Ellen ‘t Hoen, a pharmaceutical law and policy consultant.

    Western pharmaceutical companies have warned that a rejection of Novartis’ application would discourage investment in research and innovation, and would hobble drugmakers’ efforts to refine and improve their products.

    The international drug majors have been pushing for stronger patent protection in India to regulate the country’s $26 billion generic drug industry, which they say often flouts intellectual property rights.

    In a statement sent to The Associated Press late last year, Novartis said patent protection was important to ensure effective protection for innovation.

    “Knowing we can rely on patents in India benefits government, industry and patients because research-based organizations will know if investing in the development of better medicines for India is a viable long-term option,” the company said.

    Groups such as Doctors Without Borders say cheaply made Indian generics are a lifesaver for millions of patients in poor countries who cannot afford to pay Western prices to treat diseases such as cancer, malaria and HIV.

    India, which has emerged as the world’s pharmacy for the poor, has come under intense scrutiny from pharmaceutical giants who say India’s 2005 Patent Act fails to guarantee the rights of investors who finance drug research and development.

    The country’s recent decision to allow a local manufacturer to produce a generic version of Bayer’s patented cancer drug Nexavar, to make the drug available to the public at a reasonably affordable price, has also not gone down well with Western pharmaceutical companies.

    Health and aid groups were clearly nervous before the top court rules on the Novartis case.

    “Generic companies depend on the freedom to operate. If there are too many intellectual property-related challenges, then the companies very quickly withdraw from making that drug,” said Menghaney.

    The groups fear that a ruling in favor of Novartis would lead to a proliferation of patents — some based on a minor tweaking of formulation and dosages —on dozens of other generic medicines that Indian companies have been producing and supplying to needy nations at far lower costs than those charged by Western drug manufacturers.

    And the fallout of the judgment will be felt across the world, says Menghaney. “It’s not just about India.”

    “If generic competition on many crucial medicines ends, then prices for these medicines will increase, both in India and across the developing world. This would be devastating for millions who rely on India for affordable medicines.”

    {Associated Press}

  • Eiffel Tower Evacuated over Bomb Threat

    {{The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Saturday night after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, police said.}}

    Nearly 1,400 people were sent away from the tourist attraction following a request from tower operators after the warning, a Paris police official said.

    Police then searched the monument with sniffer dogs, and set up a security perimeter.

    No explosives were found and the site was to be reopened, the official said on condition of anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

    French authorities have stepped up counterterrorism measures in recent weeks amid heightened concern about threats to France over its military campaign against al-Qaida-linked fighters in Mali which began more than two months ago.

    The tower is occasionally evacuated because of such warnings — at least once last year and twice in 2011.

    The 324-meter (1,063-foot) tower is one of the world’s top tourist attractions, with millions of visitors a year.

  • Ex-Anglican Leader says Cameron Alienating Christians

    {{Prime Minister David Cameron is alienating Christians by promoting gay marriage, an influential former leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans said on Saturday.}}

    In a strongly worded article, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey said Cameron’s plan to legalise gay unions hid an “aggressive secularist” approach that threatened the link between church and state.

    The comments echoed widespread concern about the policy among some Christians – and also highlighted the challenge facing Cameron whose efforts to modernise his Conservative Party have antagonised some traditional party voters.

    “The danger I believe that the government is courting with its approach both to marriage and religious freedom, is the alienation of a large minority of people who only a few years ago would have been considered pillars of society,” Carey wrote in the Daily Mail.

    Carey’s comments come at a bad time for Cameron, who as the economy flounders is attempting to woo right-leaning voters with tough talk on immigration and the European Union.

    The former Anglican leader also condemned what he saw as a lack of government support for Christians who choose to wear a cross at work, a practice that has been challenged in the past due to rules on religious expression at the workplace.

    He cited a survey by pollster ComRes saying more than two thirds of Christians in Britain felt they were a “persecuted minority” and that more than half who voted Conservative in 2010 would not do so in 2015.

    “It was a bit rich to hear that the prime minister has told religious leaders that they should ‘stand up and oppose aggressive secularisation’ when it seems that his government is aiding and abetting this aggression every step of the way,” Carey said.

    Cameron’s Downing Street office rejected Carey’s accusations, and praised the church’s role in charities and education, but did not address the issue of gay marriage.

    “This government strongly backs faith and Christianity in particular, including backing the rights of people wanting to wear crosses at work and hold prayers at council meetings,” Downing Street said in a statement.

    “The prime minister values the profound contribution that Christianity has made and continues to make to the country, which is why he strongly backs it,” the statement continued.

    Carey was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002. Current Archbishop Justin Welby this month said some gay relationships were “stunning” in quality, but he is also opposed to gay marriage.

    As elsewhere in Europe, the number of regular churchgoers in Britain has been declining in recent decades.

  • U.S. ex-soldier Charged With Using RPG for al Qaeda

    {{A former U.S. soldier has been arrested and charged with illegally using a weapon on behalf of an al Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria.}}

    Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix was arrested Tuesday night by the FBI at a hotel near Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

    A Justice Department official said FBI agents questioned Harroun at the hotel, then took him into custody.

    Harroun appeared Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, and was charged in connection with his alleged use of a rocket-propelled grenade in Syria.

    The law used to charge him states, “Any national of the United States who, without lawful authority, uses or threatens, attempts, or conspires to use a weapon of mass destruction outside of the U.S. shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or if death results, may be punished by death.”

    Harroun served with the U.S. Army from 2000 to 2003. He is not charged with targeting U.S. troops in Iraq.

    The organization he allegedly fought with, al-Nusra Front, is one of several aliases used by the al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist organization. The organization claims responsibility for nearly 600 terrorist attacks in Syria, the Justice Department said.

    An FBI affidavit says Harroun crossed into Syria in January 2013 and fought against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. He posted photos and videos of himself on the Internet handling RPGs and other weapons, it said.

    The Pentagon declined to comment on Harroun’s arrest. However, “It’s always a concern when terrorist networks in that part of the world and elsewhere seek to recruit Americans, whether they’re in the military or not,” spokesman George Little said.

    “I don’t think this is a widespread phenomenon, and most of our people in this country — and certainly most men and women in the military — would not consider joining a terrorist network,” Little added.

    CNN

  • FIFA grants Palestinian soccer $4.5m

    {{Against a background of conflict, strife and economic hardship, the Palestinian territories hope a $4.5 million football grant can help reshape the world’s view of this troubled region.}}

    On Thursday world soccer’s governing body FIFA announced it will help promote the growth of Palestinian football by establishing a youth academy and building artificial pitches in the disputed territory with the investment.

    The academy will be in Al-Bireh in the West Bank, while the new pitches will be located in Tulkarem — also in the West Bank — and Al-Ram on the outskirts on Jerusalem.

    The grant is part of FIFA’s Goal program, which aids the development of football in emerging associations.

    The Goal program is already helping with the construction of Palestinian Football Association (PFA) headquarters in Al-Ram.

    “Our aim is to change the world’s impression of the people of Palestine, highlighting our passion for football and sports in general,” PFA technical director Mazen Khatib said in a FIFA statement.

  • Israel to pay Turkey over 2010 Flotilla Deaths

    {{In the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology Friday to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard the 2010 Gaza flotilla, the two countries have set the wheels in motion to pay compensation over the deaths, with Israel set to pay out as much as tens of millions of dollars, according to sources in Turkey.}}

    High-level diplomatic contact between the two countries began on Monday when Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni over the establishment of a joint committee that will formulate the terms of Israel’s agreement to pay compensation.

    The vice prime minister of Turkey, Bulent Arinc, told journalists on Monday that both sides agreed to establish a joint high-level committee over the coming days to discuss the details of the compensation transfer.

    Beyond the technical and legal questions over the compensation payments, the waiver of the legal claims and the extent of the blockade on Gaza, the Palestinian issue – rather than the Syrian one – will continue to be the focus of future relations between the two countries.

    The Turkish foreign minister made it clear during Tuesday’s Arab League summit in Doha that Turkey will continue to stand with the Palestinian people and will act in order to end Israeli occupation.

    In Turkey, they estimate that the three-year long rift caused by the “Palestinian question” now gives Turkey leverage, and that the nature of the relationship between it and Israel will be largely dependent upon Israel’s behavior towards the Palestinians.

    As for Syria, Israel and Turkey see its future differently. While Israel is concerned by the possibility that Assad’s rule may fall and be replaced by an extremist Islamic regime, or that the state may be dismantled by armed forces that will control different sections, Turkey estimates that the Syrian opposition, which will also include Islamic movements, will be able to lead Syria and will not be a threat to the region.

    Turkey, which started a process of national reconciliation with the Kurds, estimates that this reconciliation is likely to widen its influence on the Kurdish minority in Syria, which will be a significant force in the country’s political developments.

    A Turkish political source told Haaretz that Turkey does not see Israel as a factor that can help resolve the crisis in Syria or participate in the battle against chemical weapons stockpiles if such a battle develops. “Israel’s importance regarding Syria is in intelligence sharing, not joint conduct of the battle in Syria,” said the source.

    On the Turkish side, the committee will be led by Turkey’s Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry Feridun Sinirlioğlu, who has also served in the past as ambassador to Israel.

    A year ago, both sides already reached an agreement in principle to transfer the compensation to a special humanitarian fund to be established by the Turkish government.

    This was to avoid the need for direct negotiations between Israel and the victims’ families. Turkish sources told Haaretz that the amount to be paid by Israel is still unknown, but is “tens of millions of dollars.”

    Those same sources said that the compensation payment, whose scope will be determined by Turkey, was the “simplest clause in all mediation efforts between the sides, but it is possible that it now may be made more complex, as Israel is demanding the cancellation of all charges filed against Israeli officers, and of the legal proceedings that had begun against them.

    Turkey can undertake not to submit any charges against Israelis, but it is not legally possible [for it to] to cancel private proceedings that have already begun.

    The only thing is to try to persuade their families to withdraw their claims, but there is no way to force them to do so.”

    Arinc also clarified that the date of Prime Minister Erdogan’s visit to Gaza and the West Bank has not yet been set: “The prime minister wants to visit Palestine but the visit has not yet been confirmed. If it will be possible then the visit will take place; if not, then it won’t,” Arinc said.

    At the start of the month, there were reports that Turkey had decided to raise the level of diplomatic representation in the territories, and to appoint the Jerusalem Consul General, Şakir Özkan Torunlar, to the post of ambassador to Palestine. Turkey denied the appointment.

    A senior diplomatic source told Haaretz that Erdogan was under American pressure not to visit Gaza at a time when relations between Turkey and Israel are beginning to thaw.

    The source added that “Turkey is examining the possibility of a high-level visit to Israel, probably by Foreign Minister Davutoglu before he visits Gaza and the West Bank.

    If the compensation agreement is paid without any complications, there is also the option that Turkey will invite high-level Israel officials to visit Ankara.”

    Turkish analysts said on Monday that Erdogan, who received the text of Netanyahu’s apology via email before he spoke on the phone with the Israeli prime minister, already agreed in June 2011 to a softened apology, according to which “the killings and wounding aboard the Mavi Marmara were not carried out intentionally.”

    This is in contrast to Turkey’s official position, that accused Israel of a deliberate attack.

    Kadri Gursel of the newspaper Milliyet wrote Monday that Erdogan agreed to an apology that referred to the deaths of Turkish civilians aboard the Gaza flotilla vessel as “an operational error,” as he agreed to a softened apology saying that Israel would commit to easing the conditions of the blockade on the Gaza Strip, instead of a text that demands that the lifting of the blockade.

  • French Actress Sues Over Hollande Mistress Rumours

    {{French actress Julie Gayet has filed legal action over rumours that she is the mistress of President François Hollande, her lawyer said in a statement on Thursday.}}

    Judicial sources said Gayet, 40, who appeared in one of Hollande’s 2012 campaign commercials, filed a complaint on March 18 with Paris prosecutors for breach of privacy.

    The move came after numerous blogs and Websites alleged that she was pursuing a relationship with Hollande.

    Gayet’s lawyer Vincent Toledano denied the rumours in a statement.

    “The actress Julie Gayet has instructed my chambers to take legal action over the rumour, widely disseminated on the internet, suggesting, with no foundation, that she has a romantic relationship with the president of the republic,” he said.

    {“Nothing to justify” claims}

    “She expects her right to a private family life to be respected as there is nothing to justify these claims.”

    Hollande, 58, lives with his girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler, a journalist. He had a previous relationship with fellow Socialist politician and onetime presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, who is the mother of his four children.

    Hollande’s office refused to comment when contacted by AFP.

    Gayet, who has two children, is a television and movie actress who has appeared in more than 50 films. She is due to play Helen of Troy in an upcoming series named “Odysseus” on France’s Arte TV channel.

    In the campaign video she filmed for Hollande, she described him as “marvellous” but also “humble, and a really good listener”.

    Gayet is a strong supporter of same-sex marriage, one of Hollande’s key election pledges. His Socialist government has pushed ahead with plans to implement its “marriage for all” policy despite opposition from the Catholic Church and France’s centre-right opposition.

    france24

  • NKorea says it’s in state of war with SKorea

    {{North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered “a state of war” with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea.}}

    Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely and North Korea’s threats are instead aimed at drawing Washington into talks that could result in aid and boosting leader Kim Jong Un’s image at home.

    But the harsh rhetoric from North Korea and rising animosity from the rivals that have followed U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang’s Feb. 12 nuclear test have raised worries of a misjudgment leading to a clash.

    In a joint statement by the government, political parties and organizations, North Korea said Saturday that it will deal with all matters involving South Korea according to “wartime regulations.”

    It also warned it will retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without “any prior notice.”

    The divided Korean Peninsula is already in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

    But Pyongyang said it was scrapping the war armistice earlier this month.

    {wirestory}