Tag: InternationalNews

{{Syrian rebels firing mortars and rocket-propelled grenades captured an oilfield in the country’s east on Sunday after three days of fierce fighting with government troops protecting the facility, activists said.}}

The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said rebels overran the Al-Ward oilfield in the province of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq early Sunday.

About 40 soldiers were guarding the facility that the rebels had been pounding for the past three days, he said, adding that opposition fighters also captured several regime troops.

Oil was a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped regime of President Bashar Assad before the European Union and the United States imposed an embargo on Syria’s crude exports last year to punish the government for its brutal crackdown on protesters early on in the uprising.

“This field used to supply the regime with fuel for its tanks and our aim was to stop these supplies,” Omar Abu Leila, an activist in Deir el-Zour, told The Associated Press by telephone. He said there was heavy fighting recently near the oil facility that is located just east of the city of Mayadin.

Both activists said the rebels shot down a fighter jet near the oil field Sunday. It was not clear if the warplane was taking part in fighting in the area.

{{An Israeli news program claims that Israel’s premier told his military to prepare for a strike on Iranian nuclear sites in 2010, but it was not ready.}}

Defense Minister Ehud Barak says in excerpts aired Sunday that “at the moment of truth, the answer given was that the ability didn’t exist.”

It quotes former Mossad chief Meir Dagan as telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the order was illegal, as it needed Cabinet approval.

The full program is scheduled for broadcast Monday.

Israel views Iran as an existential threat due to its nuclear program, frequent calls for Israel’s destruction and support of anti-Israel militants.

The West suspects Iran might try to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies that. Israel has hinted at a military strike if economic sanctions fail.

{{A candidate looking to lead France’s opposition UMP party has called for demonstrations against the Socialist government’s policies, including plans to legalise gay marriage.}}

But far-right leader Marine Le Pen has threatened to steal the show.

Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s far-right National Front (FN), has said her party would join anti-Socialist demonstrations proposed by the head of the centre-right opposition UMP party, dealing a significant blow to his credibility ahead of a leadership contest.

Jean-François Copé has said that if he wins the battle for the party’s presidency against former Prime Minister François Fillon on November 18 – which polls say looks unlikely – he would launch street protests against Socialist policies that threaten the “pillars of society”.

Chief among these supposed threats is a proposed law to legalise gay marriage and give greater parenting rights to same-sex couples, including adoption, which has drawn the anger of French conservative groups.

In late October, pro-life group Alliance Vita, which says it has no religious or political affiliation, organised demonstrations in 75 towns and cities across France against the proposed law, under the banner “Un Maman et Un Papa” (one mummy, one daddy).

{{Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been forced to cancel several public appearances recently, prompting speculation over the state of his health.

The Kremlin insists the all-action leader had simply pulled a muscle.}}

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is continuing to maintain an unusually low profile and speculation is mounting over the state of the president’s health.

Despite denials from the Kremlin, the rumours are growing that the all-action president has been laid low by injury, with some suggesting his notorious backbone had become his Achilles heel.

The Russian leader, whose image of physical vigour has been key to his success, has cancelled several foreign trips in recent weeks and has rarely left his suburban residence outside Moscow.

{{Israel’s military lodged a complaint with the United Nations on Saturday after three Syrian tanks allegedly entered the demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights which separates the two countries, just a few kilometres from an Israeli military post.}}

Three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights on Saturday, prompting Israel to complain to U.N. peacekeepers, a military spokesman said.

The foray would be the first such violation in 40 years and hikes concerns that violence from Syria’s civil war could heat up a long-quiet frontier.

Israel’s relatively low-key response of turning to the U.N. suggested it did not see the Syrian armor as an immediate threat.

But the entry marks the most serious spillover of Syria’s turmoil at the frontier to date.

Misfired Syrian shells have exploded inside Israel on several occasions and a tourist site was temporary shut after armed Syrians were spotted nearby recently.

The three tanks entered the DMZ on Saturday and Israel lodged a complaint with the peacekeepers, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military protocol.

She did not elaborate on what the tanks were doing.

The Israeli news site Ynet said the tanks and two armored personnel carriers drove a few kilometers (miles) away from Israeli military positions.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. It later annexed the strategic territory overlooking northern Israel in a move that is not recognized internationally.

Before 1967, Syria used the highlands to shell Israeli villages and farms.

The DMZ, which is about 7 kilometers (3.5 miles) at its widest and 200 meters (yards) at its narrowest, was created after the 1973 war in which Syria tried to retake the plateau.

Marco Carminjani, an official with the U.N. body supervising the zone, said he could not immediately confirm the entry of the tanks.

But if the report is true, he said, it would be a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel. He said it would be the first such move in the zone since the accord.

There was no immediate comment from Syria.

Israel and Syria have been bitter enemies for decades and have fought
several wars but the border has been mostly quiet for years.

There is concern in Israel that if the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is toppled, the country could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists or descend into sectarian warfare, destabilizing the region.

Israeli officials have also expressed concern that the frontier region could turn into a lawless area like Egypt’s Sinai desert, where Islamic militants have gained strength since the ouster last year of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

{{In a foreign ministry statement, Cuba said the US was “promoting… financing and supplying” opponents of the government using “diverse media”.}}

It blamed staff at the US Interests Section at the Swiss embassy in Havana.

The US has said it simply allows Cubans access to computers and free courses on how to use the internet.

Access to the internet in Cuba is severely restricted, but some activists have used it to challenge the government.

Havana said that diplomats from the US Interests Section were “permanently inciting these people… to undertake provocative actions… and act against the Cuban constitutional order”.

The statement was published in the official newspaper, Granma.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the section did offer free internet courses for Cubans as well as access to computers – like all other US missions – but denied that diplomats were working to subvert the Cuban government.

She said the US promoted “freedom of access to information around the world”.

“Obviously, this wouldn’t be necessary if the Cuban government didn’t restrict access to the internet and prevent its own citizens from getting technology training,” she said.

The timing of the latest statement, just ahead of the US presidential elections, is curious, the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports from Havana.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney recently launched a campaign advert in the key swing-state of Florida – home to many anti-communist exiles – saying that Cuba supports Barack Obama for the presidency.

The government in Havana appears to be denying that, albeit in a roundabout way, while also reminding Cubans that hostility to Cuba has remained constant in the US for five decades, regardless of who is in the White House, our correspondent adds.

The US and Cuba broke off diplomatic relations in 1961, but have maintained interest sections in each other’s capitals for the past three decades to provide consular services and deal with bilateral issues.

Three years ago, a US contractor was imprisoned for 15 years for distributing laptops and electronic material to the island’s Jewish community.

Alan Gross said he had just been trying to help the small community get access to the internet.