Tag: InternationalNews

{{In the UK, Ministers have rejected plans to automatically block internet access to pornography on all computers, saying the move is not widely supported.}}

A public consultation found 35% of parents wanted an automatic bar while 15% wanted some content filtered, and an option to block other material.

But the government says internet providers should encourage parents to switch on parental controls.

Claire Perry, the MP who led the campaign, said she was “disappointed”.

The NSPCC said parents’ voices were not being heard.

There were more than 3,500 responses to the 10-week consultation – which included those from members of the public, academics, charities and communication firms as well as 757 from parents.

Respondents were asked to answer “yes”, “no” or “maybe” to three separate questions about how internet service providers (ISP) could play a role in limiting access.

An automatic block would mean users would have to actively request that pornographic content was made available by their ISP.

Mrs Perry, the Conservative MP for Devizes in Wiltshire, led the campaign and handed over a petition to Downing Street containing more than 115,000 names.

{{American technology pioneer John McAfee said he faked a heart attack while detained in Guatemala to buy time for his attorney to file a series of appeals that ultimately prevented his deportation to Belize, hastening the government’s decision to send him back to the United States.}}

After weeks on the run and days in immigration detention, McAfee arrived in Miami on Wednesday.

He said Belize authorities in April 2011 accused him of running a methamphetamine lab, before the November 11 killing of his neighbor, American businessman Gregory Faull, and have since persecuted him.

“I have absolutely nothing to do with the murder in Belize,” he said Thursday. “This is not about a murder in Belize. This began on the 30th of April of last year when 42 armed soldiers stormed my property.”

After weeks in hiding, the 67-year-old antivirus software company founder emerged in Guatemala’s capital last week to ask for asylum.

Guatemalan authorities took him into custody on accusations of entering the country illegally, and his asylum bid was rejected.

McAfee then waged a public battle, requesting asylum and arguing that police in Belize were after him following his apparent decision to shed light on corruption in the country.

{{Iran has called for a halt to violence in Syria, hit by a 21-month civil war.}}

Iran is the main regional ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The call comes as reports of rebel achievements increase, and much of the international community recognizes the new rebel council.

The Sunday report by the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, quotes a statement by Iran’s Foreign Ministry as saying all armed actions should be stopped immediately.

It says the government and the armed opposition should halt military activities under supervision of the U.N, particularly in civilian areas.

The statement also calls for a broad-based dialogue to form a transitional government aimed at holding free elections.

In the statement, Iran calls for release of political prisoners and reconstruction of areas damaged in the fighting.

{{Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s recovery from cancer surgery in Cuba on Tuesday has been slow but progressive, said his communications minister.}}

Ernesto Villegas said the 58-year-old president is recovering “satisfactorily” from his fourth cancer operation since last year.

Earlier this week, the Venezuelan authorities revealed that Mr Chavez had suffered bleeding during the operation.

The president is due to begin a fourth term in office on 10 January.

He declared himself free of cancer in June, before engaging in a tough campaign for re-election.

Venezuelans go to the polls again on Sunday to elect state governors.

In Miranda state, former Vice-President Elias Jaua is running against Henrique Capriles, the defeated opposition presidential candidate.

Mr Capriles, a former Miranda governor, is expected to win, but analysts say he needs an outstanding victory to confirm his credentials as a strong challenger to the government.

{{The top contenders for the “big three” jobs in President Barack Obama’s second-term Cabinet are all white men, rekindling concerns among Democratic women about diversity in his inner circle.}}

Now that Susan Rice has withdrawn under pressure from consideration as the next secretary of state, Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts is the front-runner for the nation’s top diplomatic post. Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is Obama’s favored candidate to run the Pentagon, and White House chief of staff Jack Lew is likely to be his next treasury secretary if he wants the job.

“The boys network is alive and well,” Democratic activist Donna Brazile wrote on Twitter after Rice withdrew. “The war on qualified women continues here in DC.”

Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a close friend of the president, dropped out of consideration for the State Department job Thursday.

That followed months of withering criticism from Republicans over her initial comments about the attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya — criticism several female House Democrats said smacked of sexism and racism. Rice is black.

Her withdrawal reignited questions about gender diversity in the upper echelons of the administration, a concern that has nagged at the Obama White House for years.

The questions grew so persistent early in Obama’s first term that the president invited his upper-level female staffers to a dinner to get their input on how to shake his administration’s “boys club” reputation.

Now, senior administration officials are considering whether a prominent woman should be named to a top Cabinet post in order to create gender balance, according to a person familiar with White House thinking.

That person spoke only on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss internal White House deliberations.

Among those whose names have been mentioned within the administration, former Defense Department official Michele Flournoy is being considered to lead the Pentagon and Lael Brainard, Treasury’s undersecretary of international affairs, has been cited as a contender for her agency’s top job.

Former California Rep. Jane Harman has been discussed as a candidate for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

A woman has never held the top job at any of those agencies.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday, “The president’s approach has always been to seek excellence and as part of that believes diversity in terms of highly qualified candidates enhances excellence.”

Grumblings about gender diversity in the Obama administration have never focused on raw numbers but more on whether enough women were in high-powered decision-making roles.

“While numbers say a lot, they don’t say everything,” said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center. “Role and influence are important factors to bring to bear.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton certainly has had a high-powered role in the administration, as did Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during the debate on health care reform.

Longtime Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett serves as a White House senior adviser and has the strongest personal relationship with the president of anyone in the administration.

And women backed Obama over Republican Mitt Romney in the November election, 55 percent to 43 percent.

Yet a photograph released by the White House Friday showing Obama meeting with his senior advisers underscored where critics see problems. Jarrett is the only woman among the six aides in the room.

Obama appointed seven women to his 22-person Cabinet during his first term. An eighth woman, Rebecca Blank, is currently serving as interim Commerce Secretary after John Bryson resigned earlier this year.

Some women in the Cabinet are expected to stay on for at least some of the second term, including Sebelius and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Rice also will remain in the Cabinet as long as she stays in her post as the United Nations.

The controversy surrounding Rice centered on her assertion in Sunday talk shows that the attack in Libya was a spontaneous demonstration over an anti-Muslim video produced in the U.S. Rice later acknowledged that was wrong, but she also said she was relying on an account that was provided by intelligence officials, who have since said their understanding of the attack evolved as more information came to light.
Republican lawmakers, led by Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, aggressively criticized Rice for her statements on Benghazi, calling her unqualified and untrustworthy.

MCain said she was “not being very bright” in her comments.

That comment in particular provoked the ire of a dozen House Democratic women, who leapt to Rice’s defense and accused McCain and Graham of being motivated by sexism and racism. Rice never publicly agreed with their assessment.

In the aftermath of her withdrawal, other Democratic women lamented that they hadn’t done more to assist Rice as the criticism mounted.
“The thing about Susan Rice that really bothers me, the women’s groups, the civil rights groups, we should have stood up more,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, on MSNBC.

While Obama and others in the administration vigorously defended Rice, the White House never appointed a team to coordinate the administration’s response to the criticism, in large part because Rice was not an official nominee.

{{South Korea is pushing for a sea transport embargo against North Korea as one of options to respond Pyongyang‘s long-range rocket launch, a senior presidential official said Thursday. }}

The official said Seoul will consult with other countries over the punitive action which he said would be have a significant impact on the North’s trade.

“We are considering sanctions in marine transport. Now that we have already set the legal grounds (over the restriction of the North’s sea transport), we will start talks with other countries over additional sanctions after watching the U.N. Security Council’s decision,” he told reporters, asking not to be named.

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday condemned North Korea’s breach of bans on nuclear and missile activity.

The council swiftly convened a meeting after the communist country successfully conducted what is believed to have been a covert test of a long-range ballistic missile.

“Members of the Security Council condemned this launch, which is a clear violation of Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874,” said Mohammed Loulichki, Moroccan Ambassador to the U.N. and president of the 15-member council this month.

“Members of the Security Council will continue consultations on an appropriate response.”

The Seoul official expressed concern that China would be reluctant to push for stronger action as it has been in the past.

“If the council had taken tough enough action, it would’ve acted as a deterrent. Weak sanctions may lead North Korea to miscalculate that it would be ok to conduct a nuclear test.”

One possible ban will target shipments in and out of the North. A revision to the South’s Public Order in Open Ports Act mandates entry clearance for all container lines that have come into any North Korean port over the last 180 days, up from the previous 60 days.

China, the North’s principal ally, is a veto-wielding council member. Critics have pointed to its passive stance as a perennial obstacle to effective enforcement of past sanctions.

While acknowledging a violation of resolutions, Beijing defended its rogue neighbor’s fundamental right to make use of outer space and called for a cool-headed approach.

Any U.N. response “should be prudent, appropriate and conducive to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and avoid the escalation of the situation,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a briefing in Beijing.

“We hope relevant parties will keep calm and jointly maintain the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula.”

The council’s closed-door meeting came in reaction to the “trigger” clause installed in the Council’s statement following Pyongyang’s failed April launch. The stipulation forces an automatic gathering, making way for a quicker resolution and sanctions.

South Korea won a two-year non-permanent membership of the top decision-making body in October, which will take effect at the beginning of January. But U.N.-based Seoul diplomats were allowed to attend the session as observers.

Kim Sook, the country’s top representative to the U.N., said that a fresh resolution may need longer to come than three days it took last time but will surely contain a new bout of sanctions.

“South Korea and the U.S. are looking through details,” he told journalists. “There may be several options such as an expansion of existing sanctions targets or tightening of inspections (of cargoes shipped to and from the North).”

The council imposed sanctions against the North after its failed launches in 2006 and 2009. It added three North Korean state firms to the blacklist following the April attempt.

While leading consultations with other council members, Washington warned the wayward regime of punishment and deeper isolation.

“It is regrettable that the leadership in Pyongyang chose to take this course in flagrant violation of its international obligations,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, adding that the regime will face “consequences” for its action.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland billed the launch “highly provocative and a threat to regional security.”

“It is only going to serve to further isolate the North Korean regime,” she told a briefing.

Despite projections that North Korean missiles may now be able to hit as far as California, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. has the capability to avert such a strike.

“I’m very confident that American defense capabilities are able, no problem, to block a rocket like this one,” Panetta said in a PRESS interview.

Seoul and Washington are also seen as striving to carry through its demands for tougher sanctions with the help of other countries including China and Russia.

On Wednesday, Lim Sung-nam, the South’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs responsible for six-party denuclearization talks, met in Seoul with Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xinsen and Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho, respectively.

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan had phone conversations on Tuesday with his counterparts in Japan, the U.K., France and Australia, during which they agreed on the need for harsher measures and greater bilateral cooperation, according to the ministry.

Vice Foreign Minister Ahn Ho-young also discussed the issue by phone with Wendy Sherman, the U.S. State Department’s under secretary for political affairs.

In Beijing, South Korean Ambassador Lee Kyu-hyung held one-hour talks later in the day with Wu Dawei, China’s top nuclear envoy for North Korea, to deliver Seoul’s position and rally support.

Wu was known to have expressed regret but stressed peace and stability on the peninsula.

Wu was also believed to have met with Ji Jae-ryong, Pyongyang’s ambassador to Beijing, shortly before a meeting with Lee.

{kOREAHerald}