Tag: InternationalNews

The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has officially resumed her official duties Monday, five days after being released from a hospital for treatment of a blood clot, the State Department said.

The secretary was released from New York Presbyterian Hospital last Wednesday, after a stay of several days during which she was given blood thinners to treat the clot in a vein behind her right ear.

She has been resting at home in New York since then.

Clinton has suffered a series of ailments over the last month, including a stomach virus and a concussion.

Her doctors have said they expect her to make a full recovery.

The State Department said Clinton has been keeping up with her work by talking to her staff and receiving memos.

Her first White House meeting this week will take place on Tuesday and include Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and national security adviser Tom Donilon, the State Department said.

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{{Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will deliver a rare speech on Sunday about the uprising against his rule, which has killed 60,000 people and brought civil war to the edge of his capital.}}

With insurgents fighting their way closer to the seat of his power, state media said in a statement that Assad would speak on Sunday morning about the “latest developments in Syria and the region”, without giving details.

It will be the 47-year-old leader’s first speech in months and his first public comments since he dismissed suggestions that he might go into exile to end the civil war, telling Russian television in November that he would “live and die” in Syria.

Insurgents are venturing ever closer into Damascus after bringing a crescent of suburbs under their control from the city’s eastern outskirts to the southwest.

Assad’s forces blasted rockets into the Jobar neighbourhood near the city center on Saturday to try to drive out rebel fighters, a day after bombarding rebel-held areas in the eastern suburb of Daraya.

“The shelling began in the early hours of the morning, it has intensified since 11 a.m., and now it has become really heavy. Yesterday it was Daraya and today Jobar is the hottest spot in Damascus,” an activist named Housam said.

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{{Iran’s agricultural exports grew last year, with pistachio and saffron sales almost doubling, despite Western sanctions on trade with the country, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Iran’s deputy agriculture minister as saying on Saturday.}}

Between March 21 and December 20, Iran’s pistachio exports doubled to $587 million, making the nuts Iran’s biggest agricultural export by value. Exports of saffron rose 87 percent to $213 million, Fars reported.

“Export of farming products has increased 15 percent compared to the previous year, while the agricultural exports are still on the increase on a daily basis,” Far quoted Jahangir Pourhemmat as saying.

“Over 95 percent of Iran’s needed products are produced inside the country which is highly important for the country’s political independence.”

Western sanctions on banks dealing with Iran, which are intended to force Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment program by preventing it from selling oil, have made it difficult for exporters of many other Iranian goods to get paid.

Despite tighter controls on trade with Iran in 2012 compared to 2011, Fars said exports of everything from tomatoes and potatoes to water melons, kiwi fruit and apples all grew significantly last year.

{{Venezuelan lawmakers re-elected a staunch ally of Hugo Chavez to head the National Assembly on Saturday, putting him in line to be caretaker president if the socialist leader does not recover from cancer surgery}}.

By choosing the incumbent, Diosdado Cabello, the “Chavista”-dominated legislature cemented the combative ex-soldier’s position as the third most powerful figure in the government, after Chavez and Vice President Nicolas Maduro.

“As a patriot … I swear to be supremely loyal in everything I do, to defend the fatherland, its institutions, and this beautiful revolution led by our Comandante Hugo Chavez,” Cabello said as he took the oath, his hand on the constitution.

He had earlier warned opposition politicians against attempting to use the National Assembly to “conspire” against the people, saying they would be “destroyed” if they tried.

Thousands of the president’s red-clad supporters gathered outside parliament hours before the vote, many chanting: “We are all Chavez! Our comandante will be well! He will return!”

If Chavez had to step down, or died, Cabello would take over the running of the country as Assembly president and a new election would be organized within 30 days.

Chavez’s heir apparent, Maduro, would be the ruling Socialist Party candidate.

Chavez, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area in mid-2011, has not been seen in public nor heard from in more than three weeks.

{{The father of an Indian woman whose brutal rape and torture provoked a global outcry said in an interview published on Sunday that he wanted her name to be made public so she could be an inspiration to other victims of sexual assault.}}

The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died on December 28 in a Singapore hospital, two weeks after a gang rape on a moving bus in New Delhi that ignited protests across India and neighboring countries, and prompted government promises for tougher punishments for offenders.

“We want the world to know her real name,” the woman’s father told Britain’s Sunday People newspaper.

“My daughter didn’t do anything wrong, she died while protecting herself,” he added. “I am proud of her. Revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived these attacks. They will find strength from my daughter.”

Indian law generally prohibits the identification of victims of sex crimes. The law is intended to protect victims’ privacy and keep them from the media glare in a country where the social stigma associated with rape can be devastating.

The father later told Reuters he had no objections to the media using his daughter’s name, but did not elaborate.

There have been growing calls in India to name the victim. Politician Shashi Tharoor last week questioned the merit of keeping her anonymous, and suggested naming new anti-rape legislation after her, a proposal her father supported.

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On the same day lawmakers count the electoral votes on Capitol Hill, officially certifying President Obama’s victory in the Electoral College, the AP released a tabulation of official presidential votes from all 50 states.

As tabulated by the AP, Romney got 47.2 percent of the full presidential vote.

He did a bit better – 48.0 – if you just look at the two top candidates.

That number – 47% – resonates in the context of the race because of Romney’s infamous ” 47% ” comments that seemed to have an effect on the race.

In hidden camera video clips, which were posted by Mother Jones, Romney was seen telling Florida telling donors that 47% of voters will chose Obama “no matter what” because they are people “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.

That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”

“My job is not to worry about those people,” Romney says in the video. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

AP

{{Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez can take the oath of office for his next term before the Supreme Court at a later date if the ailing leader isn’t fit to be sworn in next week, his vice president said.}}

Vice President Nicolas Maduro sent the strongest signal yet that the government may seek to postpone Chavez’s inauguration as the 58-year-old president fights a severe respiratory infection more than three weeks after undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba.

Maduro’s position in a televised interview on Friday night generated new friction between the government and opposition over the swearing-in, which the constitution says should occur next Thursday before the National Assembly.

Some opposition leaders have argued that if Chavez doesn’t make it back to Caracas by that date, the president of the National Assembly should take over as interim president.

Such brewing disagreements are likely to be aired on Saturday when the congress, which is controlled by a pro-Chavez majority, convenes to choose its president and other legislative leaders.

Whoever is elected National Assembly president could potentially end up being the country’s interim president if Chavez’s illness forces him from office.

{Wirestory}

{{The suffering of a university student and her male friend who were brutally attacked aboard a bus in India’s capital did not end after the woman was gang-raped and both were savagely beaten for 2 1/2 hours. }}

Dumped naked on a roadside, the pair encountered shocking apathy as passersby offered only cursory looks and police debated jurisdiction for 30 minutes before taking them to a hospital, where the man received no treatment as he sat without clothes on the floor, the friend recounted in a television interview.

The interview Friday marked the first time the man, who has not been named, has spoken publicly about the Dec. 16 attack in New Delhi.

The attack has outraged Indians and led to calls for tougher rape laws and reforms of a police culture that often blames rape victims and refuses to file charges against accused attackers.

The nation’s top law enforcement official said the country needs to crack down on crimes against women with “an iron hand.”

The 23-year-old woman died last weekend from massive internal injuries suffered during the attack. Authorities charged five men with her murder and rape and were holding a sixth suspect believed to be a juvenile. A hearing in the case was scheduled for Saturday.

On the night of the attack, the woman and her companion had just finished watching the movie “Life of Pi” at an upscale mall and were looking for a ride home.

An autorickshaw driver declined to take them, so they boarded the private bus with the six assailants inside, the companion told the Indian TV station Zee News.

Authorities have not named the man because of the sensitivity of the case. Zee News also declined to give his name, although it did show his face during the interview. The man has a broken leg and was sitting in a wheelchair during the interview.

Indian law prohibits the disclosure of the identity of victims in rape cases, and police have opened an investigation into the TV station for broadcasting the interview, New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said Saturday. Violators of the law can face up to two years in prison and a fine.

The man went on to tell Zee News that after the pair were on the bus for a while, the men started harassing and attacking them.

“I gave a tough fight to three of them. I punched them hard. But then two others hit me with an iron rod,” he said. The woman tried to call the police using her mobile phone, but the men took it away from her, he said. They then took her to the rear seats of the bus and raped her.

“The attack was so brutal I can’t even tell you … even animals don’t behave like that,” the man said.

Afterward, he overheard some of the attackers saying the woman was dead, he said.

The men then dumped their bleeding and naked bodies under an overpass. The woman’s companion waved to passersby on bikes, in autorickshaws and in cars for help, but no one stopped. “They slowed down, looked at our naked bodies and left,” he said.

“My friend was grievously injured and bleeding profusely,” he said. “Cars, autos and bikes slowed down and sped away. I kept waving for help. The ones who stopped stared at us, discussing what could have happened. Nobody did anything.”

After about 20 minutes, three police vans arrived, but the officers argued over who had jurisdiction over the crime as the man pleaded for clothes and an ambulance, he said.

Finally, he said, they were taken to a hospital.

“When we reached the hospital, I sat without clothes on the floor for a long time even as my friend was taken inside for treatment,” he said.

The man said he was given no medical care. He then spent four days at the police station helping police investigate the crime. He said he visited his friend in the hospital, told her the attackers were arrested and promised to fight for her.

He said his friend was determined to see that the attackers were punished. “She gave all details of the crime to the magistrate — things we can’t even talk about,” he said. “She told me that the culprits should be burnt alive.”

The man said he gave the TV interview because he hopes it will encourage rape victims to come forward and speak about their ordeals without shame.

“She has awakened us all by her courage,” he said of his friend, who died at a Singapore hospital after being flown there for treatment. “People should move ahead in the struggle to prevent a similar crime happening again as a tribute to her.”

Most people in India are reluctant to get involved in police business because once they become witnesses, they can be dragged into legal cases that can go on for years. Also, Indian police are often seen less as protectors and more as harassers.

On Friday, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said crimes against women and marginalized sections of society are increasing, and it is the government’s responsibility to stop them.

“This needs to be curbed by an iron hand,” he told a conference of state officials from across India that was called to discuss how to protect women.

He called for changes in the law and the way police investigate cases so justice can be swiftly delivered. Many rape cases are bogged down in India’s overburdened and sluggish court system for years.
“We need a reappraisal of the entire system,” he said.

In the wake of the rape, several petitioners appealed to the Supreme Court to take an active role in the issue of women’s safety.

On Friday, the court dismissed a petition asking it to suspend Indian lawmakers accused of crimes against women, saying it doesn’t have jurisdiction, according to the Press Trust of India.

The Association for Democratic Reforms, an organization that tracks officials’ criminal records, said six state lawmakers are facing rape prosecutions and two national parliamentarians are facing charges of crimes against women that fall short of rape.

However, the court did agree to look into the widespread creation of more fast-track courts for accused rapists across the country.

{Wirestory}