Hariri 'rejects any Hezbollah deal'
By (Al Jazeera and agencies)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 17:27 Mecca time, 14:27 GMT
Saad al-Hariri, the leader of Lebanon's Future movement, has said he will refuse to join a Hezbollah-led coalition government should the Shia party and its allies win the country's forthcoming elections.
. . .
He said that his party and its allies, a coalition broadly opposed to Syrian influence on the country and named after the date of Lebanon's Cedar Revolution, were campaigning on economic issues.
"We want to give every single Lebanese a job," he said.
Tensions have risen in Lebanon before the June 7 election, which could see the Western-backed government unseated by the Hezbollah-led opposition, which is supported by Iran and Syria. |
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U.N. rights chief calls for Sri Lanka investigation
By Stephanie Nebehay
Tue May 26, 2009 10:03am EDT
The U.N. human rights chief called on Tuesday for an international investigation to determine if Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil rebels had committed war crimes.
. . .
"Establishing the facts is crucial to set the record straight regarding the conduct of all parties in the conflict," said Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge who spoke by teleconference from Doha. "Victims and the survivors have a right to justice and remedies."
She said the Sri Lankan government had already indicated it may grant amnesty to lower and mid-level LTTE officers and only prosecute senior leaders.
"I would like to underscore that amnesties preventing accountability of individuals who may be responsible for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity or gross violations of human rights are impermissible," she said. |
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ANALYSIS / Netanyahu bringing Israel closer to war with Iran
By Aluf Benn
08:02 26/05/2009
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers the lifting of the Iranian nuclear threat his life's mission. Before coming to power, he had mentioned that such an operation might cost thousands of lives, but the price was justified in view of the threat's severity. . .
. . .
The leaders of Iran and Israel escalated the verbal confrontation yesterday. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said discussions on the nuclear issue are over, which means Iran does not intend to give up enriching uranium. Netanyahu said that if Israel does not lead the defense against the Iranian threat and bring in the United States and other countries, no one else will.
. . .
A senior source close to the Obama administration has said that the dialogue Obama has offered Iran will come to nothing and that the U.S. will not strike Iran unless something unusual and unexpected happens. If this turns out to be the case, the Netanyahu government may have to decide whether to attack Iran's nuclear installations. |
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Hawkish Likud MKs propose giving part of West Bank to Jordan
By Yuval Azoulay
18:55 26/05/2009
A number of lawmakers from the ruling Likud party on Tuesday proposed that Israel annex parts of the West Bank, while turning over Palestinian population centers to Jordanian jurisdiction.
The proposal was debated at a Knesset conference organized by Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely on alternatives to the two-state solution. The idea is a nonstarter with Israel's Arab neighbor and conflicts with U.S. President Barack Obama's support for a Palestinian state.
Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon, who participated in the conference, said past peace plans urging Israel to give up captured land to the Palestinians have failed. "The Western way of thinking has proven irrelevant and dangerous to this region," the former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff said . . . |
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MI5: leave young Muslims alone
By Zin Derfoufi
Tuesday 26 May 2009 13.30 BST
Last week, the Independent led with the story of how MI5 agents are harassing young British Muslims and bullying them into becoming informants. . .
. . . the security services have been hellbent on "disrupting" terrorist cells in the UK, trying to use the Muslim community to weed out any would-be attackers and, with the US, stopping at nothing to destroy what they see as safe havens of extremists overseas – often, in the process, creating new enemies where it would not otherwise have found them.
. . .
These include cases of security agents harassing Muslim student activists, members of the university students' Islamic Society (Isoc) and general Muslim students, threatening to send them to prison if they do not co-operate, barring them from leaving the country, making false accusations that they are somehow linked to people who pose a threat to our national security, getting them to spy on each other, attending and recording Isoc lectures and seminars and pressuring university staff to spy on Muslim students. . .
. . .
Recently, the Home Office published some deeply worrying figures on terrorism arrests and outcomes. Between 9/11 and March 2008 . . . figures show that a success rate of arrests on specific terrorism grounds remained stable through the seven years at just 7%, which rises to 14% if we include other terror-related convictions. These figures also include arrests of non al-Qaida-related extremism (such as the activities of IRA and animal rights activists). This means that a whopping 86% of those arrested on terrorism grounds were completely innocent of any offence. |
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France opens UAE military base
By (Al Jazeera)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:34 Mecca time, 07:34 GMT
France has opened its first military base in the Gulf Arab region, with French officials saying the facility will strengthen efforts to battle piracy and defend trade.
. . .
Speaking at a maritime security conference, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the UAE's president, called the deal "an important pillar of our foreign policy because it helps the stability in the Gulf region".
The base sits on the banks of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 per cent of the world's crude oil is transported. |
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Russia breaks "wall" into U.S. nuclear market
By Simon Shuster
Tue May 26, 2009 1:15pm EDT
Russia signed a landmark deal to supply nuclear fuel directly to U.S. companies on Tuesday, setting itself up to control 20 percent of the U.S. uranium market and extending its global reach in the nuclear sector.
At a ceremony in the Russian capital, U.S. electricity firms PG&E, Ameren Corp and Luminant signed deals to get more than $1 billion in uranium supplies from Russia's state nuclear fuel exporter Tenex between 2014 and 2020.
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The Russian fuel would be used initially to provide power to 5 million U.S. homes in California, Texas and Missouri . . . |
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Scores are killed by Cyclone Aila
By (BBC)
17:37 GMT, Tuesday, 26 May 2009 18:37 UK
More than 155 people have been killed by Cyclone Aila which hit Bangladesh and the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, relief officials say.
They say that at least 500,000 people have been made homeless by the storm.
. . .
Correspondents say that the fear in Bangladesh - where 91 people have been confirmed killed - is that salt water from a tidal surge that followed the cyclone will contaminate non-saline surface water which is crucial for farming. |
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Winning the hearts and minds of Pakistan’s displaced
By Samina Ahmed
May 26, 2009 19:50 ET
Winning hearts and minds is decisive in any counter-insurgency operation. As hundreds of thousands of displaced persons flee fighting in Swat, Buner and Dir districts in Pakistan, this single truth should drive the response by the Pakistani state and the international community. In short, how those people are treated will decide if the insurgency-hit zones are saved or lost to the Taliban.
. . .
Those fleeing the conflict zone have to find their own way to safety. In the absence of official support, private transport providers are fleecing them . . .
A large number of the displaced have chosen to live with host families, in rented accommodation or in officially provided shelters such as schools. What they need is cash, not food supplies. Emergency relief in the shape of cash vouchers has been effective in other humanitarian disasters, and while this kind of assistance should be monitored, of course, too much red tape could defeat the purpose of the exercise. Speed of delivery trumps other concerns at the moment.
. . .
Still, we have enough information to know that non-combatants in the conflict zones are without power and have dwindling supplies of food and water. Hospitals are without staff or supplies. |
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Canadian think-tank that spent tax-dollars plagiarizing US copyright lobby press-materials ignored its own expert's conflicting research
By Cory Doctorow
May 26, 2009 11:44 AM
The Conference Board of Canada -- a supposedly independent think tank that took Canadian tax-money to produce a report on the "Digital Economy" that plagiarized press-materials from the US copyright lobby -- ignored conflicting evidence that an independent legal expert produced after they paid him to investigate the subject.
In other words, they went into this project knowing what conclusions they wanted to draw, and ignored everyone -- even their own researchers -- who had anything different to say. |
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Pakistan, Iran sign gas pipeline deal
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
May 27, 2009
Officials from Pakistan on Sunday finally signed a gas pipeline accord with Iran, without India's participation, after 14 years of on-off negotiations over what was initially framed as the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project.
Under the gas sale purchase agreement signed between the Iranian National Oil Company and Interstate Gas System of Pakistan, Iran will provide 750 million cubic feet of gas per day to Pakistan for the next 25 years. Officials in Islamabad termed the deal a major breakthrough and an achievement that would greatly help Pakistan meet its energy needs.
. . .
Pakistan has faced severe criticism from the US over any kind of economic deal with Iran. The change of stance from the Pakistani government and the pace of developments at the project suggest that the strong US opposition has softened, Dawn newspaper reported, citing official sources.
The former George W Bush administration in Washington strongly resisted the IPI and had exerted considerable pressure on both India and Pakistan to abandon the project. The Bush White House instead supported purchase by South Asian nations of energy from the Central Asian republics contiguous to Afghanistan. Geopolitical considerations and continuing security issues in Afghanistan work against that from materializing. The present US administration of President Barack Obama has not yet given its views on the IPI project. |
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Niger leader dissolves parliament
By (BBC)
16:08 GMT, Tuesday, 26 May 2009 17:08 UK
iger's President, Mamadou Tandja, has dissolved the uranium-rich country's parliament a day after his bid for a third term in office was ruled illegal.
He assumed executive powers after the constitutional court turned down his attempt to extend his time in power.
The court had found it would be illegal for Mr Tandja to hold a referendum on a change in the law, to allow him to continue as head of state.
Opponents have said they fear a return to dictatorship if Mr Tandja stays on. |
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Venezuela's economy reels as oil income is cut in half
By Tyler Bridges
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Prices for home appliances have skyrocketed, pharmacies are reporting shortages of drugs and General Motors is planning to stop car production here next month, as measures by the Venezuelan government to conserve dollars ripple through the weakening economy.
"Today, there's no milk, no rice, no beans, no chicken, no meat, no butter and no cooking oil," Francisco Quintero said as he shopped at a government store that sells subsidized staples for the poor.
President Hugo Chavez, a socialist, blames capitalism for the world's economic problems, but in this case he's partly at fault for Venezuela's troubles. |
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Mexico arrests mayors, police chiefs in drug war
By Alonso Hernandez in Morelia, Pedro Galindo in Durango and Miguel Angel Gutierrrez in Mexico City
Tue May 26, 2009 6:07pm EDT
Mexican troops rounded up 10 mayors and a string of police chiefs on Tuesday suspected of links to drug gangs in a western state, one of the biggest single corruption sweeps in the government's drug war.
Soldiers burst into police stations and town halls to arrest 27 public officials in Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon and the place he launched his army-led assault on drug cartels in late 2006.
The officials included a judge and a former police chief who is an aide to the state governor. The attorney general's office said all were suspected of links to drug smugglers.
Calderon has staked his presidency on crushing drug gangs whose turf wars have killed some 2,300 people so far this year . . . |
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Obama to visit Saudi Arabia to discuss peace, Iran
By Ross Colvin
Tue May 26, 2009 8:59pm EDT
U.S. President Barack Obama will meet Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in Riyadh next week to seek his support over the nuclear standoff with Iran and reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Obama will visit Riyadh on June 3 in a surprise addition to his scheduled three-day trip to Egypt, Germany and France, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, is a staunch U.S. ally in the region and potentially a key player in the drive for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which Obama has declared a top foreign policy priority. |
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Obama dismisses Aung San Suu Kyi hearing as 'show trial'
By (AFP)
May 26, 2009
The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi was due to continue Wednesday as US President Barack Obama urged Myanmar to immediately free the pro-democracy icon, describing her hearing as a "show trial."
The Nobel Peace Prize winner testified for the first time at her trial on Tuesday, telling the court that she did not violate the terms of her house arrest by offering shelter to a US man who swam to her lakeside home.
In Washington, Obama called on Myanmar's military rulers to "immediately and unconditionally" release the 63-year-old democracy leader
"Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention, isolation, and show trial based on spurious charges cast serious doubt on the Burmese regime's willingness to be a responsible member of the international community," he said in a statement.
. . .
The case has drawn widespread international condemnation of the country's iron-fisted military junta. |
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Sri Lankans divided by war: Tamils trapped in internment camps tell of desperate hunt for loved ones
By Gethin Chamberlain
Tuesday 26 May 2009 23.21 BST
The three children standing in the dirt outside the tent in Sri Lanka's newest internment camp have not seen their mother for weeks, ever since a shell exploded next to the bunker where they had taken cover, ripping a hole in er stomach.
Medics rushed 29-year-old Sandi to a makeshift hospital, where doctors operated to save her life. All that Sandi's husband, 33-year-old Yogisuran, and the children – Thuyamthini, Kuwanthini and Thusiyanthini – know is that she was later evacuated on a ship by the International Committee of the Red Cross. They have not seen her since, and trapped with tens of thousands of others in the Menik Farm camp they are powerless to do anything about it.
Another camp refugee, Threekanden, 27, is similarly distraught at the disappearance of a loved one. He produces a picture of himself and his wife, Pokonai, on their wedding day. They were split up last month, he said, when the army advanced on the last Tamil Tiger redoubt in northern Sri Lanka. "Now I cannot find my wife or our daughter. The girl is only four and my wife was nine months pregnant. I don't know where they are. We need help to find them."
Countless civilians herded into Sri Lanka's sprawling internment camps are in the same position, unable to locate or contact relatives missing or separated during the bloody chaos that ensued during the final weeks of the military onslaught on the Tamil Tigers. |
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China farmers raid police station
By (BBC)
10:35 GMT, Tuesday, 26 May 2009 11:35 UK
Hundreds of Chinese tea farmers have attacked a police station following a row about social security payments.
The farmers used stones, bricks and hoes, and burned four police cars, according to the state-run China Daily.
The workers are reported to be angry about arrears in the payment of medical insurance, unemployment benefits and pensions.
Thousands of similar incidents are reported each year, although most are usually isolated, local disputes. |
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