Tag: InternationalNews

{{A Bangladeshi tribunal sentenced a leader of the country’s main Islamic party to life in jail Tuesday for his role during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971.}}

The tribunal pronounced the verdict Tuesday against Abdul Quader Mollah in a packed courtroom at the High Court in Dhaka.

His Jamaat-e-Islami party had already ordered a general strike that shut down schools and shops and halted most traffic in Dhaka.

Jamaat supporters exploded homemade bombs and clashed with police in parts of the capital, leaving several people injured, ATN News said.

Mollah and five other leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami party have been on trial before Dhaka’s International Crimes Tribunal.

They have been accused of committing atrocities during the nine-month war against Pakistan more than 40 years ago. A former party member was sentenced to death last month.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 initiated the process of trying those accused of committing crimes against humanity during the war, under an amended 1973 law.

Jamaat-e-Islami — a key partner in a former Bangladeshi government — says the charges are politically motivated. Authorities deny the claim.

Jamaat campaigned against Bangladesh’s independence war and stands accused of forming several groups to help the Pakistani troops in killing, rape and arson.

Until it gained independence in 1971, Bangladesh was the eastern wing of Pakistan, and Bangladesh says Pakistani troops aided by local collaborators killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women.

Mollah was tried on six counts, including playing a role in the killing of 381 unarmed civilians, the prosecution says. He denied the charges.

Last month, the tribunal sentenced former party member Abul Kalam Azad to death in the first war-crimes trial verdict.

International human rights groups have raised questions about the conduct of the tribunals, including the disappearance of a defense witness outside the courthouse gates.

Jamaat-e-Islami was a key partner in the former government of Khaleda Zia, a longtime political rival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Zia has called the tribunal a farce, while Hasina has urged Zia to stop backing those she says fought against independence.

wirestory

{{Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, has undergone two successful surgeries to reconstruct her skull and restore her hearing.}}

A statement released on Sunday by Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the British hospital where the 15-year-old is being treated in, said Yousafzai is currently in stable condition.

“She is awake and talking to staff and members of her family,” said the statement, adding that she would continue to recover in the hospital until she is well enough to be discharged.

The teenager drew the world’s attention by being shot and critically wounded by Taliban fighters on October 9, as she walked home from school in northwestern Pakistan.

The group said they targeted her because she promoted girls’ education and “Western thinking”.

At age 11, Malala began to write a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC about life under the Taliban in the Swat Valley, where she lived.

After Pakistan’s military ousted the Taliban in 2009, she began publicly speaking out about the need for girls’ education.

She appeared frequently in the media and was given one of the country’s highest civilian honours for her bravery.

Malala was airlifted to Britain from Pakistan in October to receive specialised medical care and protection against further Taliban threats.

She is expected to remain in the UK for some time after her father, Ziauddin, was given a diplomatic post based in the English city of Birmingham.

So far, doctors say she has made very good progress. She was able to stand, write and return home, and doctors said they have seen minimum signs of brain damage.

{Wirestory}

{{A court in India has charged the chief of Delhi’s 2010 Commonwealth Games, Suresh Kalmadi, with corruption.}}

Mr Kalmadi and nine others have been charged with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

The case will be heard at a fast-track court in Delhi.

Estimated to be worth $16.5m (£10m) in funds lost to the exchequer, the case is one of several corruption scandals to have rocked India’s government.

The Games’ secretary general Lalit Bhanot, director general VK Verma and seven others have also been charged for illegally awarding the contract to the company in Switzerland – they deny the allegations.

India’s federal investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, arrested Mr Kalmadi in April 2011 “for conspiracy to cause favour to a company in Switzerland while procuring timers and scoring equipment for the Games”.

He was sacked as chairman of the Commonwealth Games Committee in January 2011.

Mr Kalmadi, a sitting member of parliament for the governing Congress party, has also been charged with corruption in a case related to contracts at a 2009 event in London which marked the start of a baton race across Commonwealth countries.

He denies those charges too.

{{UK PM David Cameron is hosting key talks on the Afghan peace process, involving the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, at his country retreat.}}

The talks at Chequers will focus on cross-border security and how to engage the Taliban in effective peace talks.

It will be the third round of discussions since Mr Cameron instigated the trilateral process last year.

Foreign ministers, military leaders and intelligence chiefs will attend the talks for the first time.

Nato troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

read more….http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21310575

{{South Korean and U.S. troops began naval drills Monday in a show of force partly directed at North Korea amid signs that Pyongyang will soon carry out a threat to conduct its third atomic test.}}

The region is also seeing a boost in diplomatic activity focused on North Korea’s announcement last month that it will conduct a nuclear test to protest U.N. Security Council sanctions toughened after a December satellite launch that the U.S. and others say was a disguised test of banned missile technology.

Pyongyang’s two previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, both occurred after it was slapped with increased sanctions for similar rocket launches.

As it issued its most recent punishment, the Security Council ordered North Korea to refrain from a nuclear test or face “significant action.”

North Korea’s state media said Sunday that at a high-level Workers’ Party meeting, leader Kim Jong Un issued “important” guidelines meant to bolster the army and protect national sovereignty.

North Korea didn’t elaborate, but Kim’s guidelines likely refer to a nuclear test and suggest that Pyongyang appears to have completed formal procedural steps and is preparing to conduct a nuclear test soon, according to South Korean analyst Hong Hyun-ik.

“We assess that North Korea has almost finished preparations for conducting a nuclear test anytime and all that’s left is North Korea making a political decision” to do so, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters Monday.

ABCnews

Israel’s defense minister strongly signaled Sunday that his country was behind an airstrike in Syria last week, telling a high profile security conference that Israeli threats to take pre-emptive action against its enemies are not empty. “We mean it,” Ehud Barak declared.

Israel has not officially confirmed its planes attacked a site near Damascus, targeting ground-to-air missiles apparently heading for Lebanon, but its intentions have been beyond dispute. During the 22 months of civil war in Syria, Israeli leaders have repeatedly expressed concern that high-end weapons could fall into the hands of enemy Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militants.

For years, Israel has been charging that Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iran have been arming Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war against Israel in 2006.

U.S. officials say the target was a convoy of sophisticated Russian SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. Deployed in Lebanon, they could have limited Israel’s ability to gather intelligence on its enemies from the air.

Over the weekend, Syrian TV broadcast video of the Wednesday attack site for the first time, showing destroyed vehicles and a damaged building identified as a scientific research center. The U.S. officials said the airstrike hit both the building and the convoy.

In his comments Sunday in Munich, Barak came close to confirming that his country was behind the operation.

“I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago,” Barak told the gathering of top diplomats and defense officials from around the world.

Then he went on to say, “I keep telling frankly that we said – and that’s proof when we said something we mean it – we say that we don’t think it should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon.” He spoke in heavily accented English.

In Syria, Assad said during a meeting with a top Iranian official that his country would confront any aggression, his first comment on the airstrike.

“Syria, with the awareness of its people, the might of its army and its adherence to the path of resistance, is able to face the current challenges and confront any aggression that might target the Syrian people,” Assad was quoted as saying by the state news agency SANA.

He made the remarks during a meeting with Saeed Jalili, the head of Iran’s National Security Council. Iran is Syria’s closest regional ally. Jalili, on a three-day visit to Syria, has pledged Tehran’s continued support for Assad’s regime.

Jalili, who also serves as his country’s top nuclear negotiator, condemned the Israeli raid, stressing that it has proven the “aggressive nature of Israel and its threat of the region’s security and stability.”

The chief of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that Tehran also hopes Syria will strike back against Israel.

Syrian opposition leaders and rebels have criticized Assad for not responding to the airstrike, calling it proof of his weakness and acquiescence to the Jewish state.

The Syrian defense minister, Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij said Israel attacked the center because rebels were unable to capture it. Al-Freij called the rebels Israel’s “tools.” He told the state TV, “The heroic Syrian Arab Army, that proved to the world that it is a strong army and a trained army, will not be defeated.”

Ahmad Ramadan, an opposition leader, said Syria’s claim that the rebels are cooperating with Israel “is an attempt by the regime to cover its weakness in defending the country against foreign aggression.” He spoke by telephone from Turkey.

While Israel has remained officially silent on the airstrike, there seemed little doubt that Israel carried it out, especially given the confirmation from the U.S., its close ally….

Read more…..http://www.france24.com/en/20130203-israel-defence-minister-barak-comments-air-strike-syria-arms-convoy-assad

{{Turkish security forces arrested the late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden‘s son-in-law, Suleiman Abu Gheith, in Ankara, Turkish media agencies reported.}}

The United States’ Central Intelligence Agency tipped off Turkish authorities to Gheith‘s whereabouts, Afghanistan’s Khaama Press reported Saturday.

The CIA told the Turkish National Intelligence Organization Gheith, a former al-Qaida leader, entered Turkey on a false passport, Turkey‘s Daily Milliyet reported.

Gheith allegedly fled Afghanistan to a camp in Iran following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden during a raid at his compound in Pakistan in May 2011.

Koreaherald

{{Russia government officials said Friday that they did not expect U.S. President Barack Obama to visit Russia before the Group of 20 summit in September.}}

President Vladimir Putin had sent Obama an invitation in November after the U.S. president won a second term in office. Obama accepted, saying the dates for the trip would be confirmed through diplomatic channels.

The Kremlin currently expects Obama to attend the G20 summit of world leaders in St. Petersburg in September and not to make an additional trip, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

“We’re expecting [Obama to come] for the G20,” Peskov told Interfax. “At the moment, no separate visit by Obama is on the agenda. The president has a standing invitation but without any specific date attached to it.”

In an article published Friday, an unidentified U.S. diplomat told Kommersant that Obama was unlikely to visit Russia this summer because no breakthrough in negotiations on nuclear arms reductions and anti-ballistic missile talks was expected by then.

Moscow had hoped that the U.S. president would make a separate visit in June or July before participating in the G20 summit, the Kommersant report said.

Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee, said he too did not expect Obama to come before September, citing the lack of evident progress on bilateral issues.

“Obama, apparently, won’t come to Russia before G20 in September, since there are many disputes and no visible area for a breakthrough,” he tweeted Friday. “There’s no program for a new ‘reset.’”

Putin skipped the G8 summit hosted by the U.S. in May last year, with some observers citing disagreement on anti-ballistic missile issues as a possible reason behind the decision.

Putin, who had just been sworn in for his third term in the Kremlin, told Obama that he would not attend the summit because he would be busy finalizing Cabinet appointments.

U.S.-Russian ties have become strained over the last year as Russia has taken steps to minimize U.S. influence in the country, including by kicking out the Moscow office of USAID, the United States Agency for International Development.

In recent months both countries have taken tit-for-tat measures following the passing of the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which seeks to punish Russians implicated in human rights violations. In response, Russia passed a law that includes a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian orphans.

Moscowtimes