Wednesday 11 September 2013
Syrians queue for passports despite reprieve from U.S. strike
DAMASCUS | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:12am EDT
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - The threat of U.S. air strikes on their country may be receding for now, but Syrians queuing for passports in a central Damascus office were taking no chances.
Dozens stood in line for hours on Tuesday, many returning for a second day, seeking passports in case talks over Syria's chemical weapons unravel or the country's protracted civil war reaches once more into the heart of the capital.
Already two million people have fled to neighboring countries, escaping bloodshed in which at least 100,000 people have died, according to the United Nations.
Damascenes remain wary even though U.S. military action in response to a chemical gas attack in Damascus, which Washington blames on President Bashar al-Assad's forces, has been deferred after Syria welcomed a Russian proposal to put its chemical weapons stocks under international supervision and destroy them.
"We just decided it was time we got passports for the whole family," said Raghad, a mother of three in her thirties. Her family has traveled to neighboring Lebanon - where Syrians can stay without travel documents - every time "things got bad here", but are unable to go further without passports.
"Now with all this news, what if we went to Lebanon and couldn't return? We need passports in case we have no choice but to travel to a third country," she said. "For now, based on the latest news, we're staying until something changes."
Raghad is not alone in hedging her bets and watching developments closely. With schools reopening after a long summer break next week, parents face difficult choices about whether to uproot their families.
Amira, a mother of two in her late twenties, expects to take her daughter to her kindergarten in the affluent neighborhood of Malki on Sunday. But like other wealthier Syrians who have the luxury of choice, she is keeping options open.
"We have a place in Beirut, but it needs some fixing up and major cleaning," she said, eating cactus fruit bought from a street vendor, a popular family pastime in the summer months.
"In the worst case scenario, we'll go there and work on it for a few days and settle there. For now though, we're staying."
Down the street, soldiers and armed state security men moved into two schools about two weeks ago when U.S. President Barack Obama seemed to be preparing a military strike against Syria. They are still there.
Activists say armed men in schools and mosques throughout the city had abandoned their posts on the outskirts of the capital for fear they would be targeted.
Asked if he thought the school would be vacated and ready in time to receive students by Sunday, one vigilant-looking soldier guarding the gate said: "Yes, God willing."
DOLLAR FALLS
News of emerging proposals to put Syrian chemical weapons under international control, that might avert a U.S. air strike, pushed the Syrian pound up against the dollar in Damascus.
The currency, which has tumbled in the last two years, recovered to 205 to the dollar on Tuesday from 260 when strikes appeared imminent, residents say.
The pound stood at 47 to the dollar before the Syrian uprising erupted in March, 2011. Its steep fall has led to sharp price increases for food, gas and other basic requirements.
"But they won't bring down the prices," said Maha, a mother of five who works as a part-time housekeeper. "I've seen the dollar go down before, yet all the prices remain the same, or they go up."
Back at the passport agency, officials shouted at people to stay in line, their voices competing with the commotion of screaming babies and restless children, impatient with the bureaucratic paper trail.
When Raghad's turn came, she watched an official wet a dozen stamps, attach them to her paperwork, pound a dozen more ink stamps onto the pages, cut her passport photos to size and affix them with a glue stick.
He repeated the procedure five times, for all members of her family.
"And now, I go up to the third floor for a signature, then come back down to give him my papers, then I pick up the passports in a couple of days," she said. "God only knows if we'll need them. But it's best to have them just in case."
A plane carrying 107 Syrian refugees was due to land in Germany on Wednesday, bringing the first of some 5,000 additional Syrians that Berlin has said it would admit.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees selected the group and brought them via Lebanon. They included orphans, widows with children and a dozen members of Syria's Christian minority.
Germany has urged other European Union states to also accept more Syrian refugees - it and Sweden have granted asylum to two thirds of all Syrians sheltering in the EU.
Berlin has been admitting about 1,000 Syrian asylum seekers a month - some 18,000 since 2011 - mostly those who already had relatives living in Germany.
By contrast, France, the only EU country willing to take military action against Syria, has granted asylum to only 700 Syrians this year and told the UNHCR in response to requests to admit more that its reception system is saturated, the newspaper Le Monde reported last week.
(Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; Editing by Dominic Evans and Paul Taylor)
Spanish Catalonia presses independence bid with human chain
1 of 3. A woman holds an ''Estelada'' (Catalonia separatist flag) flag as she attends a ceremony to mark the ''Diada de Catalunya'' (Catalunya's National day) in central Barcelona September 11, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Gustau NacarinoBy Julien Toyer
BARCELONA, Spain | Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:33pm EDT
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Catalans held hands in a 400-km (250-mile) human chain across their region on Wednesday to press the Spanish government to let them vote on breaking away and forming their own country.
Demonstrators in yellow T-shirts and draped in blue, red and yellow separatist banners raised their joined hands through cities and along rural roads, jumping and shouting in celebration when the chain was completed.
"We want a referendum to see whether there's majority support for independence. The problem is Spain won't listen. Our only hope ... is that Europe and the rest of the world put pressure on the Spanish government," said Ester Sarramona, a 39-year-old civil servant.
Sarramona and her husband and two children joined the chain in the heart of Barcelona, Catalonia's capital. Like many other Catalans, they said their region was treated unfairly over taxes and cultural issues such as the Catalan language.
A deep recession and cuts in public spending in Catalonia, a wealthy industrial region in the northeast that accounts for a fifth of Spain's economic output, have stirred discontent with the central government in Madrid.
Polls show backing for secession has risen steadily in Catalonia, with some registering support as high as 50 percent. An large majority of Catalans want the right to hold a vote on the issue, the polls show.
PYRENEES TO VALENCIA
The demonstration, on Catalan national day, comes as separatists try to revive their referendum drive. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Catalan President Artur Mas have signaled they are open to talks to end a year-long standoff over greater tax powers for the region.
Organizers said they accomplished their goal of forming an unbroken line from the Pyrenees in the north to the border with Valencia in the south, and television footage showed huge segments of the completed chain.
The act was inspired by a similar 1989 demonstration that helped the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania win independence from the Soviet Union.
Growing separatism in the region of 7.5 million people has become a major headache for Rajoy, who is mired in a corruption scandal and trying to pull Spain out of recession while also pushing through unpopular spending cuts.
Catalan separatists are watching closely a planned September 2014 Scottish referendum on independence from the United Kingdom, hoping it will promote the idea of self-determination for regions within countries that belong to the European Union.
Although Catalans have nurtured a separate identity for centuries, an independence movement surged recently as Catalans became disillusioned with limitations on the autonomy they gained in the late 1970s after the Francisco Franco dictatorship, which had suppressed Catalan nationalism.
Traffic clogged highways as police cut some roads to allow the chain to form.
"If we don't get a referendum people will just get more frustrated," said Bernat Cabero, a 53-year-old sculptor who lives in France and traveled home to Catalonia to participate.
PUSHING THE PRIME MINISTER
Rajoy says a referendum would be unconstitutional and has pledged to block it in the courts.
Opponents of independence argue the region has never been an entirely separate state. The Medieval Principality of Catalonia came under the Crown of Aragon, though it was allowed to run its own affairs through an institution known as the Generalitat.
The human chain linked up on Wednesday at exactly 17:14, symbolizing the year 1714 when King Philip V abolished the Generalitat after the War of the Spanish Succession.
Catalan President Mas has threatened to call an early election and use it as a plebiscite on secession if Rajoy uses the courts to block a referendum. This is seen as a risky move as his political alliance has lost ground while a more leftist separatist party has won support in the past year.
Mas is in a delicate position because the Catalan budget hole is so big that the central government had to bail out the region last year.
"We are talking with the Spanish government but I have a lot of doubts over whether it will be fruitful," Mas told foreign journalists on Wednesday morning.
Rajoy also has limited room for maneuver as any offer to Catalonia of better fiscal treatment or more political autonomy could spur protests in other Spanish autonomous regions such as the Basque Country.
(Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Andrew Roche)
Italy's wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship to be raised
The capsized cruise liner Costa Concordia lies surrounded by containers called ''sponsons'' as part of the salvage plan to remove the wreck of the ship outside Giglio harbour August 8, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Stefano RellandiniROME | Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:44pm EDT
ROME (Reuters) - The wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship could be upright again next week, nearly two years after the liner capsized and killed at least 30 people off the Italian coast.
The giant vessel, which has lain partly submerged in shallow waters off the Tuscan island of Giglio since the accident in January 2012, will be rolled off the seabed and onto underwater platforms.
Workers will look for the bodies of two people, an Italian and an Indian unaccounted for since the disaster, as machines haul the 114,000-tonne ship upright and underwater cameras comb the seabed.
The exact day of the Concordia's rotation - known as parbuckling - has yet to be set, but on Wednesday Civil Protection Commissioner Franco Gabrielli said Monday was likely.
The Costa Concordia hit a rock when it maneuver too close to the island, prompting a chaotic evacuation of more than 4,000 passengers and crew, in one of the most dramatic marine accidents in recent history.
Divers have pumped 18,000 metric tons of cement into bags below the ship to support it and prevent it from breaking up in an operation which is expected to last 8-10 hours and is part of a salvage operation estimated to cost at least $300 million.
A buoyancy device acting "like a neck brace for an injured patient" will hold together the ship's bow, and fishing nets will catch debris as it rises from beneath the ship, said Nicholas Sloane, senior salvage master at Titan Salvage.
The salvage team will go through the ship cabin by cabin and had over items found on board to the Italian state prosecutor, and the vessel will be towed away to be dismantled.
Four Costa Concordia crew members and a Costa Cruises company official were sentenced to jail in July for their part in the accident, and the ship's captain Francesco Schettino remains on trial for manslaughter and causing the loss of the ship.
The captain is accused of abandoning ship before all crew and passengers had been rescued. A coastguard's angry phone order to him - "Get back on board, damn it!" - became a catchphrase in Italy after the accident.
(Reporting by Eleanor Biles; writing by Naomi O'Leary; editing by Emma Farge)
Libya PM: arrest warrants issued for oil strike leaders
Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan speaks during a joint news conference with Oil Minister Abdelbari al-Arusi at the Prime Minister's Office in Tripoli July 31, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Ismail ZitounyBy Suleiman Al-Khalidi
TRIPOLI | Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:03pm EDT
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's attorney general has issued arrest warrants for the leaders of oil strikers, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said on Wednesday, adding he would act soon against the protesters.
Zeidan hinted at military action which many Libyans have warned could spark wider unrest in a country riven by tribal and regional divisions, if the crippling oil output stoppages do not end soon.
"I am not threatening, but I won't let anyone hold Libya and its resources hostage to irresponsible acts of these groups for long," Zeidan told reporters.
"These people must calculate what they are doing, so when action takes place everyone will understand why but I hope we won't be forced to do something that we don't want," he added.
Industry executives say the disruptions and stoppages in the west of the country are instigated mainly by the powerful Zintan tribe, a major rebel group that has become very influential within government-financed army units and could be flexing its muscles for a bigger political role.
"The Zintans are bargaining for higher allowances and a bigger role in guarding the oil installations," one oil executive in touch with senior officials negotiating with the tribe said, on condition of anonymity.
They have shut last month the two major oilfields in the south, El Feel and Esshara, disrupting at least 500,000 barrels per day of production or nearly a third of Libya's pre-crisis production levels of around 1.5 million bpd.
In the coastal east, where protesters from the oil sector are disrupting oil terminals, demands beyond more pay extend to broader political demands tied to a bigger share of the oil wealth and more self-government for the main oil producing areas.
Hardliners among the federalists have even raised their demands this week with calls for an independent national state oil firm in charge of exports, they said.
Libyan oil production was now averaging between 200,000 to 300,000 bpd, Zeidan said.
He also said he was awaiting recommendations by a fact finding mission conducted by a 13 member crisis committee that was set up by the legislature to find a way out of the crisis.
The committee, headed by Abdul Wahab al-Qayed, told parliamentarians late on Tuesday they still had not arrived at a deal with protestors, but won the approval of the General National Council (GNC) for another week's extension to conclude their task.
Finance Minister Alkilani Abdelkarim al-Jazi told reporters his ministry had calculated the oil stoppage was depriving Libya of at least $130 million daily in lost revenue.
Jazi said a prolonged crisis could in the next few months force Libya to draw on substantial foreign reserves but he did not foresee any problems in meeting financial obligations, including salaries, at least until the end of the year.
(Editing by William Hardy)
U.S. sees 'troubling' Iran nuclear moves, urges steps by Tehran
Iranian President-elect Hassan Rohani speaks with the media during a news conference in Tehran June 17, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Fars News/Majid HagdostVIENNA | Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:30pm EDT
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it saw "troubling developments" in Iran's nuclear program and called on the country's new president to take concrete steps soon to ease concerns about Tehran's aims.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, has pledged to smooth Iran's relations with world powers to help ease stringent international sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over its atomic activities.
U.S. Ambassador Joseph Macmanus said Washington was ready to work with the new Iranian government "to reach a diplomatic solution that will fully address the international community's concerns" about Iran's nuclear program.
"We are hopeful that the Rouhani administration will live up to its assurances of transparency and cooperation by taking concrete steps over the next several months," he told the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"We are mindful of this unique moment, and urge Iran to take the steps necessary to allay international concerns about the nature of its nuclear program," Macmanus said, according to a copy of his speech.
Iran says it is enriching uranium only for civilian energy and medicine. The West suspects the program is covertly oriented towards developing the capability to make nuclear weapons.
Macmanus noted that Iran had further expanded its uranium enrichment capacity by continuing to install both advanced and first-generation centrifuges, calling these steps "concerning escalations of an already prohibited activity".
Iran is also making further progress in the construction of a reactor, Arak, that can yield plutonium for bombs, including putting the reactor vessel in place and beginning to make fuel, he said. "All of these are troubling developments," he said.
(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Andrew Roche)
UK Labour leader sees rating shrink as record questioned
Britain's opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband waves to delegates after addressing the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Bournemouth, southern England September 10, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Luke MacGregorBy Peter Griffiths
LONDON | Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:01pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - British Labour leader Ed Miliband, the main challenger to Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015 elections, has suffered a sharp slide in his personal ratings and his party's lead has been cut to a thin margin, a poll found on Wednesday.
Miliband has faced criticism from inside and outside his party over his leadership style, his reform of Labour's historic links with trade unions and the tactics he used to effectively block Britain's involvement in possible strikes against Syria.
Miliband, saw his rating plunge to its lowest point since research company Ipsos MORI started recording it, with six out of 10 saying they were not satisfied with his performance.
Even among supporters of his center-left party, just over half (52 percent) said they weren't happy with him. That was Miliband's worst score among Labour voters ever recorded by Ipsos MORI.
Senior Labour figures have said the party's lead should be much wider at this stage in the election cycle, given the economy's poor performance until recently, and the poll is likely to increase pressure on Miliband's leadership.
"There has been much discussion over the perceived softness of Labour's lead and this poll shows that clearly," said Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI.
Since beating his brother David to the party leadership in 2010, Miliband has failed to match Cameron's personal ratings.
Former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell called for an end to the criticism, saying it had created a "sense of toxic disunity" in the party that governed Britain for 13 years until 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
The latest poll gave Labour a three point lead over the Conservatives, based on those certain to vote. Labour were down three points and the Conservatives up four since the last poll.
The survey also measured the leaders' net personal ratings - the number of people who say they are satisfied with their performance minus the number who are dissatisfied.
Miliband's stood at minus 36 percent, in line with lows recorded by former Conservative leaders Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague. Cameron's net rating stood at minus 20 percent.
Cameron was seen as a more capable leader, better in a crisis and with more personality than Miliband.
A run of upbeat economic figures helped push the economic optimism index to +23, its highest score since November 2009.
Ipsos MORI questioned 1,000 adults between September 7-9.
Miliband led a successful parliamentary revolt last month against Cameron's bid to seek approval in principle for military action in Syria over an alleged chemical attack - saying he was not opposed to force in theory but unconvinced by Cameron's case.
Critics accused him of acting out of political opportunism rather than principle.
(Editing by Andrew Osborn and Andrew Heavens)
Egypt sends journalist to military court for 'aiding militants'
CAIRO | Wed Sep 11, 2013 1:05pm EDT
CAIRO (Reuters) - An army prosecutor sent an Egyptian journalist to a military court on Wednesday for allegedly publishing false news and tipping Islamist militants to the location of troops in the Sinai region bordering on Israel, an army statement said.
Ahmed Abu Deraa of the privately owned al-Masry al-Youm daily was charged with "harming national security by providing militants with locations of security forces in Sinai", according to a statement sent to the newspaper and seen by Reuters.
The newspaper has called for his release and provided him with a lawyer, who could not be reached for comment on the case.
A colleague of Abu Deraa, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the newspaper, said the reporter was accused of spreading false news in an interview with a private television station and in Twitter messages.
Since the army overthrew elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July, civil rights groups have voiced fears of a return to the authoritarian era of former President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted by a pro-democracy uprising in 2011.
His rule was marked by human rights' abuses and the use of military tribunals to prosecute activists, journalists and political opponents.
Abu Deraa was arrested earlier this month in north Sinai, where militants have stepped up attacks since Mursi's removal.
The army launched an offensive against Islamist militants in the lawless peninsula this week involving dozens of tanks as well as armored vehicles and attack helicopters. At least 30 people were killed or wounded and nine arrested.
Six army officers were killed on Wednesday in two car bomb explosions near military units in Sinai.
Another 10 soldiers and seven civilians were wounded in the attacks that took place in the border town of Rafah, adjoining the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
(Reporting and writing by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Paul Taylor)
Kenyan broadcaster tells court he did not incite vote violence
By Thomas Escritt
AMSTERDAM | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:50am EDT
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Kenyan broadcaster described as the mouthpiece of the deputy president denied helping incite a post-election bloodbath, telling the International Criminal Court on Wednesday he was a deeply religious, law-abiding man.
Joshua arap Sang is charged with crimes against humanity relating to the violence, alongside Deputy President William Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta, in cases some Kenyans fear could reignite the political strife they have struggled to put behind them.
Prosecutors say Sang, 38, used his radio show to send out coded messages encouraging members of his and Ruto's Kalenjin tribe to attack rivals after disputed elections at the end of 2007.
The violence which continued into 2008 killed more than 1,000 people and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes in East Africa's biggest economy.
The cases have divided public opinion in Kenya where many have accused the court of unfairly targeting African leaders. That perception has driven primarily symbolic parliamentary and senate votes calling for Kenya to withdraw from the ICC.
"In my entire life, I've never stood before any court," Sang said, rising to speak over the objections of the prosecution, who said they expected only his lawyer to give an opening statement. Judges overruled the objection.
"I am a law-abiding person. I've lived my life as a Christian, with all the Christian values," he said.
Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Sang's messages on Nairobi radio station Kass FM were meant to coordinate violent attacks in the Rift Valley region.
"The main mouthpiece used by Mr Ruto to spread his message, was his co-accused Joshua arap Sang," she said.
Both Ruto and Sang pleaded not guilty to the charges at the trial opening on Tuesday.
Ruto's lawyer Karim Khan gave a fiery speech that appeared to be aimed at a Kenyan audience back home, and said prosecutors had been misled by tainted evidence and false testimony.
Kenyatta will come to court to defend himself against similar charges in a separate trial that starts in November, and will be the first serving head of state to go on trial before an international court.
"WOULD I BE SO SILLY?"
Though Kenyatta, the son of the country's founding father, was in a rival political camp to Ruto's during the crisis, the two reconciled after the ICC brought charges against them, and they won this year's national elections on a joint ticket.
The Kenyan trials are seen as a test for the ICC, which after 10 years has only secured one conviction and brought charges only against Africans.
The cases have also posed challenges to prosecutors, who have had to contend with the loss of some of their key witnesses over the course of a three-year investigation. Chief prosecutor Bensouda said the witnesses had been intimidated into withdrawing.
Sang said the charges that he coordinated attacks against members of the Kikuyu tribe in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret made no sense, as his own wife lived in a Kikuyu house in the same town.
"Would I be so silly, so stupid as not to be concerned about my family?" Sang asked.
Joseph Kigen-Katwa, his lawyer, said all the witnesses against Sang were linked to Kenya's Party of National Unity, a rival party to Ruto's Orange Democratic Party led by former prime minister Raila Odinga.
In Eldoret, 300 km (190 miles) northwest of Nairobi, locals followed the proceedings by television on Wednesday.
"This case is causing us unnecessary anxiety. People obviously want to be informed of what is unfolding because the outcome will affect our relations with other neighbors within the country," said Joseph Kandie, 57, a Kalenjin farmer.
"Let's wait and see. What Kenyans want is justice," said 40-year-old mechanic Alfred Onyango.
"If Sang is innocent as he says, then he will be set free. Above all, he now has a chance to clear his name and set the record straight. But peace is what we call for even as the cases continue."
The trial of Ruto and Sang was adjourned after Sang finished speaking. The first prosecution witness, who had been due to testify on Wednesday, will now attend court on Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by James Macharia in Nairobi; Editing by Sara Webb and Andrew Heavens)
U.S., Russia, other big powers to meet on Syria in New York
UNITED NATIONS | Wed Sep 11, 2013 1:02pm EDT
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Envoys from the five permanent U.N. Security Council member states will meet in New York on Wednesday to discuss plans to place Syrian chemical weapons under international control, diplomats said.
Among the topics to be discussed by U.S., British, Chinese, French and Russian diplomats is a French draft resolution that would give the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an ultimatum to give up its chemical arsenal or face punitive measures, a text that Russia has said is unacceptable.
It was not immediately clear at what time and where the diplomats would meet. The meeting comes a day before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meet in Geneva in an attempt to break the deadlock on the 15-nation Security Council over Syria.
(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Jackie Frank)
Nigerian president sacks ministers amid party divisions
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan inspects a military parade in his honour on arrival for bilateral talks at State House in Nairobi September 5, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Noor KhamisBy Felix OnuahABUJA | Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:08pm EDT
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan sacked nine ministers on Wednesday in his first major cabinet reshuffle, as he looked to rally support in an increasingly divided ruling party.
The dismissals, which did not impact key finance and oil positions, come less than two weeks after seven ruling party governors and a former presidential candidate formed a splinter group opposed to Jonathan.
The split within the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), which has been in power since shortly after the end of military rule in 1998, is centered around Jonathan's assumed plan to run again in 2015, although he has not declared his intentions.
Jonathan removed the ministers of foreign affairs, education, science and technology, housing and urban development, national planning, and environment, a presidency spokesman said.
The junior "ministers of state" for power, agriculture and defense were also dismissed.
"He said he needed to inject new blood for more service delivery, hence the need to adjust his cabinet," Information Minister Labaran Maku told reporters.
Other ministers will take on the responsibilities of the vacant positions until Jonathan decides on replacements.
"Since these positions are not of huge policy significance it appears to be more of a political play than a change of economic direction," said Clement Nwankwo, a political analyst at the Abuja-based Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre.
However, Maku denied Jonathan was using the reshuffle to bring more of his core supporters into his cabinet.
"It is part of the process of improving service delivery and not with any political undertone," Maku said.
CRISIS TALKS
Jonathan held mediation talks with members of the breakaway PDP faction into the early hours of Wednesday but they ended without a resolution and experts believe the internal dispute could rumble on for months and possibly until elections.
"It would be suicide for the defectors to come back now, equally Jonathan can't realistically meet their demands," one source close to the negotiations told Reuters.
Among the demands of the breakaway faction are that Jonathan publicly says he will not run in 2015 and that he sacks the PDP chairman Bamanga Tukur, replacing him with a candidate of the faction's choosing, three political sources told Reuters.
The PDP chairman has a strong influence over the voting for the party's presidential candidate.
"Some of the demands are unconstitutional. These demands are not in accordance with the law," Ahmed Gulak, Jonathan's political adviser, told reporters after the talks on Wednesday. Gulak did not give details of the demands.
Many northerners say Jonathan's running again would violate an unwritten rule within the PDP that power should rotate between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south every two terms.
Wrangling will erode the political will needed to push through reforms, including to Africa's biggest energy industry.
The Petroleum Industry Bill, a long-delayed law that could unlock billions of dollars of oil and gas investment, looks increasingly unlikely to pass before the elections.
The OPEC member is already losing around 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of its 2.5 million bpd oil output capacity due to widespread oil theft and pipeline shut-ins.
The open rebellion could mean that Jonathan's loyalists will use state funds to pay off rivals, draining the treasury in a pattern that often sees the country's savings depleted and debt soar around election time.
There will be an increased risk of instability as the poll approaches. Violence, always high at election time, may worsen, as rivals use unemployed youth militia to settle scores.
(Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Andrew Roche)
Netanyahu says Syria must be stripped of its chemical weapons
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem September 8, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Uriel Sinai/PoolJERUSALEM | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:32am EDT
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Syria must be stripped of its chemical weapons and that the international community must make sure those who used weapons of mass destruction pay a price.
Netanyahu said Syria had carried out a "crime against humanity" by killing innocent civilians with chemical weapons and that Syria's ally Iran, who is at odds with the West over its nuclear program, was watching to see how the world acted.
"It must be ensured that the Syrian regime is stripped of its chemical weapons, and the world must make sure that whoever uses weapons of mass destruction pays a price for it," Netanyahu said. "The message that is received in Syria will be received loudly in Iran."
(This story was refiled to fix translation in quote in third paragraph to read "It must be ensured ... " instead of "We must make sure ... ")
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Alison Williams)
Syrian forces responsible for Banias massacres: U.N. report
A Free Syrian Army fighter aims his weapon behind sandbags in the eastern al-Ghouta, near Damascus, September 9, 2013. Picture taken September 9, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Raje AlsoriBy Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA | Wed Sep 11, 2013 1:39pm EDT
GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. rights investigators have established that Syrian government forces were almost certainly responsible for two massacres last May in which up to 450 civilians were killed, a report published on Wednesday said.
The report documents nine mass killings in all, attributing all but one to government forces, but said both government and rebel fighters had committed war crimes including murder, hostage-taking and shelling of civilians.
With more than 100,000 dead in the Syrian war, there was little sign that reports of atrocities would spur international action until last month, when allegations that President Bashar al-Assad's forces had gassed hundreds of civilians sparked a threat of U.S. strikes, and furious international diplomacy.
The killings in Baida and Ras al-Nabaa, two pockets of rebel sympathizers surrounded by villages loyal to Assad on the outskirts of the town of Banias, did not involve fighting with rebels and appeared designed to send a message of deterrence.
The U.N. commission of inquiry has not been allowed into Syria, but its 20 investigators carried out 258 interviews with refugees, defectors and others, in the region and in Geneva, including via Skype, for their 11th report in two years.
In Baida, it said between 150 and 250 civilians had allegedly been killed, including 30 women, apparently executed, who were found in one house. It said armed rebels were not active in the area at the time.
"Testimonies were consistent that members of the National Defence Forces were actively involved in the raids and in many cases leading them," the 42-page report said.
"Accordingly, there are reasonable grounds to believe that government forces and affiliated militias including the National Defence Forces are the perpetrators of the al-Bayda (Baida) massacre.
The next day, as word spread that militia fighters were advancing with army support, hundreds of civilians tried to flee the neighboring village of Ras al-Nabaa, but were pushed back at checkpoints. Government forces proceeded to shell the village and then militia fighters moved in.
"As they raided the village, civilians were captured and executed," the report said, adding: "The operation did not occur in the context of a military confrontation. Government forces were in full control of the area.
It gave a figure of 150-200 dead in Ras al-Nabaa.
GOVERNMENT SILENCE
The Syrian government kept silent about the killings at the time but a Syrian intelligence officer, speaking to Reuters anonymously, acknowledged that the perpetrators were government loyalists, including some from the surrounding Alawite villages.
The conflict began in March 2011 as an uprising against Assad and descended into a civil war where mostly Sunni Muslim rebels are pitted against Assad's forces, who are backed by Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Hezbollah.
The only deliberate slaughter of civilians attributed to rebel forces in the period of investigation was in June, when rebels captured Hatla in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor.
"Anti-government armed group fighters conducted home invasions, killing and summarily executing (by shooting at close range) many Shia including at least 30 civilians, among them children, women and elderly," the report said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group that has reported abuses on both sides of the conflict, said at the time that 60 people had died in the attack, mostly pro-Assad Shi'ite militiamen.
The U.N. report, which largely covered incidents between May and July, accused forces loyal to Assad of bombing schools and hospitals, and rebels of carrying out summary executions after sentencing by Islamic Sharia courts lacking due process.
The commission, led by Paulo Pinheiro of Brazil, urged the U.N. Security Council to hold perpetrators accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The investigators, who include former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, analyzed photographs, video and satellite imagery, as well as forensic and medical records, to draw up their report.
The team also verified the killing of 450 people during an offensive by Syrian government forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters to retake the strategic town of Qusair. Food and water were cut off during a siege, and the town was heavily shelled.
"Approximately half were civilian casualties, killed primarily in the shelling and aerial bombardment of the town in the early days of the offensive," the report said.
U.S. President Barack Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to delay a vote on authorizing a military strike against Syria in retaliation for its use of chemical weapons, to give time to a Russian plan to take away Syria's chemical weapons.
The U.N. experts said they had received allegations of chemical weapons use, "predominantly by government forces", but could not give details of the incidents, some of which have been investigated by U.N. weapons inspectors in the last few weeks.
(This story has been corrected to change figure in second paragraph for total massacres to nine from eight)
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Tom Miles and Kevin Liffey)
Blast damages Libyan foreign ministry building in Benghazi
1 of 3. People look at the site of an explosion at a Libyan Foreign Ministry building in Benghazi September 11, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Esam Omran Al-FetoriBENGHAZI, Libya | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:14am EDT
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A car bomb damaged a Libyan foreign ministry building in Benghazi on Wednesday, causing no known casualties on the first anniversary of the attack on the U.S. consulate in the country's second largest city.
Two years after the revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is riven along regional and tribal lines and dogged by armed violence, leaving the central government struggling to curb the clout of rival militias and radical Islamists.
Local security officials said a car packed with explosives was left beside the ministry building where it detonated at dawn, badly damaging it and several other buildings in the center of Benghazi. There were no reports of casualties.
A few hours before the Benghazi explosion, security forces defused a large bomb placed near the foreign ministry headquarters in the eastern Zawyat al Dahmani district of the capital Tripoli, the government said.
"Libyans cannot ignore the timing of this explosion. It's a clear message by the forces of terror that they do not want the state or the army to stand on its feet," Prime Minister Ali Zeidan told reporters.
Zeidan did not directly blame any group for the attack, but alluded to Islamist militants blamed for a spate of recent car bombs targeting security and army officers.
As well as militia violence, Zeidan's central government has also struggled to end strikes by oil workers and armed guards at oil installations that have paralyzed the North African state's crude production.
A year ago, four Americans including the U.S. ambassador to Libya were killed in an attack on the Benghazi consulate.
Washington initially said the assault had grown out of anti-Western protests. But it later turned out Islamist militants were the perpetrators, marking the 11th anniversary of al Qaeda's September 11 attacks on the United States.
Acting Interior Minister Al-Sadeeq Abdul Karim said the army and police were stepping up measures to stem the deterioration of security in Benghazi and other parts of the vast country.
Benghazi has seen a spike in car bombings and assassinations of army and security officers, many of whom served in Gaddafi's security contingents and then joined successor formations after the 2011 civil war.
Analysts say rebels and militants seeking revenge against former security officers who served under Gaddafi, and frustrated with the limited progress in bringing his ex-henchmen to justice, have sought to take the law into their hands.
(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli in Benghazi and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Tripoli; editing by Patrick Markey and Mark Heinrich)
German court rules Muslim girls must join swimming classes
By Madeline Chambers
BERLIN | Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:08pm EDT
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court ruled on Wednesday that Muslim girls must take part in school swimming lessons with boys, in a landmark decision that touches on the sensitive relationship between religion and the state.
The decision by Germany's top court for public and administrative disputes signals that the state's constitutional obligation to educate children can take precedence over customs and practices linked to an individual's religious beliefs.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her center-right government have sought dialogue with the country's roughly four-millions Muslims, but have also said they must make an effort to integrate and learn German.
The court said Muslim schoolgirls could not be exempted from swimming lessons, provided they were allowed to wear so-called 'burkinis', full-body swimsuits worn by many Muslim women which leave only the face, hands and feet exposed.
The plaintiff was a Muslim girl, originally from Morocco, who goes to school in the western state of Hesse. Her parents have tried for several years to stop her from joining swimming lessons with boys. She was 11 years old when the case started.
"The plaintiff has not made sufficiently clear that ... taking part in co-educational swimming lessons with a burkini breaches Muslim rules on clothing," said the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, rejecting her appeal.
Two courts in Hesse had already rejected her bid to be exempted from swimming lessons.
However, the girl's lawyer argued that she was embarrassed to see boys wearing nothing but swimming trunks.
"The Koran not only forbids being seen by others in light clothing but she herself should not see boys and girls with (swimsuits) on," Klaus Meissner, her lawyer, was quoted in German media as saying before the hearing.
The question of Muslim girls taking part in physical education and swimming lessons has prompted legal disputes in several European countries in recent years, highlighting the challenge of accommodating different religious beliefs.
German Islamic groups say they are not against burkinis.
"From our point of view, a full body swimsuit is appropriate and acceptable in Islam. However, freedom of belief and conscience should be respected," Aiman Mazyek, head of Germany's Central Council of Muslims, told German radio.
In May, the Swiss Supreme Court rejected a Muslim family's case against a school rule that their daughter had to take part in swimming classes and could not wear a burkini.
In staunchly secular France, which has banned religious dress such as Muslim headscarves and Jewish skullcaps as well as large Christian crosses in state schools, some public swimming pools have banned burkinis.
(Additional reporting by Tom Heneghan, editing by Noah Barkin)
Red Cross urges U.S. and Russia to help unblock aid delivery in Syria
GENEVA | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:43am EDT
GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on the United States and Russia to also address the obstacles to delivering aid in Syria at talks on Thursday focusing on the use of chemical weapons.
Syrian government forces and opposition rebels are both preventing medical assistance in particular from reaching the sick and wounded, ICRC President Peter Maurer said on Wednesday.
"We need political and diplomatic support for independent humanitarian action," Maurer told reporters in Geneva a day before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov meet in the Swiss city.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams)
Netanyahu says Syria must be stripped of its chemical weapons
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem September 8, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Uriel Sinai/PoolJERUSALEM | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:32am EDT
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Syria must be stripped of its chemical weapons and that the international community must make sure those who used weapons of mass destruction pay a price.
Netanyahu said Syria had carried out a "crime against humanity" by killing innocent civilians with chemical weapons and that Syria's ally Iran, who is at odds with the West over its nuclear program, was watching to see how the world acted.
"It must be ensured that the Syrian regime is stripped of its chemical weapons, and the world must make sure that whoever uses weapons of mass destruction pays a price for it," Netanyahu said. "The message that is received in Syria will be received loudly in Iran."
(This story was refiled to fix translation in quote in third paragraph to read "It must be ensured ... " instead of "We must make sure ... ")
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Alison Williams)
Russian Duma warns U.S. against Syria strike
By Steve Gutterman
MOSCOW | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:55am EDT
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian parliament on Wednesday urged the United States not to strike Syria, warning that military action could be a "crime against the Syrian people" but stopping short of threatening countermeasures.
Air strikes would "lead to new civilian deaths, further destruction of vital infrastructure and, in the end, an irreversible humanitarian catastrophe," the State Duma, the lower chamber, said in a declaration adopted by unanimous vote.
The non-binding declaration by the Duma, dominated by the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party, echoed the vociferous opposition to U.S. military action of President Vladimir Putin and his government.
"Those who are prepared to give an order for such an attack should understand that such actions could be qualified as a very crude violation of international law and as a crime against the Syrian people," it said.
It warned that a strike could "place nuclear and chemical security in the region under threat", a reference to Syria's chemical weapons stocks and a small reactor that contains radioactive uranium.
Russia has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most powerful backer during the civil conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, delivering arms and - with China - blocking three U.N. resolutions meant to pressure Assad.
The Duma expressed support for Russia's proposal to place Syria's chemical arsenal under international control, which Putin said on Tuesday would only succeed if the United States and its allies abandoned plans for possible military action.
The vote followed debate in which lawmakers proposed Russia consider taking action to punish the United States if it does strike - such as withdrawing from the New START nuclear arms control pact, increasing weapons sales to Syrian ally Iran or curtailing cooperation with the United States on Afghanistan.
No such measures ended up in the declaration, but lawmakers said they could be included in a second statement that could be put to a vote if the United States strikes Syria.
The Duma criticized the U.S. Congress for allegedly refusing to see Russian lawmakers who offered to travel to Washington for talks on Syria, saying it "could place interaction on key issues on the Russian-American agenda in question".
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
British minister calls for greater BBC scrutiny after funding row
1 of 4. A man talks on a mobile phone inside the BBC headquarters in London November 21, 2008.
Credit: Reuters/Andrew WinningBy Paul Sandle
CAMBRIDGE, England | Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:13pm EDT
CAMBRIDGE, England (Reuters) - The British government believes the BBC needs to come under greater scrutiny after generous severance payments made to departing executives raised "serious questions" about the management of the publicly funded broadcaster.
Former BBC Director General Mark Thompson, who quit the BBC last year to become chief executive of the New York Times Company, and six other senior executives were grilled by British lawmakers on Monday over payments made beyond contractual obligations during the last three years of Thompson's 2004-2012 watch.
Culture Secretary Maria Miller was due to tell television executives attending the Royal Television Society Conference on Wednesday that the questioning, which saw BBC executives past and present arguing over who sanctioned the payments, was a "grim day" for the BBC's senior management and for British households who fund the broadcaster through license fees.
The BBC said it would launch a review of its internal governance systems, structures and cultures and examine the relationship between the executive management of the corporation and the BBC Trust, which regulates the broadcaster.
"The corporate dramas of the BBC should never eclipse its actual drama," Miller would tell the conference in Cambridge, according to an advance copy of her speech.
"Ultimately, license fee payers rely not only upon the right structures and governance being in place but also upon the BBC's executive management using their good judgment. And I think serious questions were raised about that judgment by the scale of the severance payments made."
She said under the leadership of Tony Hall, who assumed the role of director general in April this year, significant changes were being made at the broadcaster.
The government had already opened the BBC's accounts to scrutiny by the National Audit Office (NAO) to ensure license fee payers could see where their money was spent.
But she said she wanted the auditors to get quicker access to BBC accounts.
"The NAO's work has been pivotal in bringing issues to light so I want us to strengthen its role further," she said. "I want a system where the NAO can look at any area of concern without hindrance or delay."
Car bomb kills 15 near Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad
BAGHDAD | Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:57pm EDT
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb exploded near a Shi'ite mosque in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday evening, killing at least 15 people, police and medical sources said.
A further 27 were wounded in the blast, which took place in the northwestern Kasra district of Baghdad.
It was not immediately clear who had carried out the attack, but Sunni Islamist militants who view Shi'ites as non-believers, have been regaining momentum and striking on a near daily basis this year.
More than two years of civil war in neighboring Syria have brought sectarian tensions to the boil in Iraq and the wider region.
About 800 Iraqis were killed in August, according to the United Nations, with more than a third of the deadly attacks happening in Baghdad.
The bloodshed, 18 months after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, has stirred concerns about a return to the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07, when the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000.
(Reporting by Kareem Raheem; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Alison Williams)
Sierra Leone minister arrested after accused of raping student
FREETOWN | Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:16pm EDT
FREETOWN (Reuters) - A deputy minister in Sierra Leone has been sacked and arrested after he was accused of raping a student in his office, state radio said on Wednesday, citing a statement from the president's office.
Mamoudu Tarrawali, deputy minister for education, science and technology, was arrested in Freetown after the incident late on Tuesday, the radio said in a report announcing his sacking.
According to the radio station, the minister's security detail heard shouting coming from Tarrawali's office on Tuesday evening and they found him and a 16-year-old girl fighting.
She later filed a complaint at a police station near Tarrawali's ministry, the radio reported.
Tarrawali has not commented on the accusations.
Sierra Leone is recovering from years of war, during which fighters were accused of raping thousands of women and girls.
(Reporting by Christo Johnson; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Alison Williams)
Diplomatic success may strengthen Assad
A Free Syrian Army fighter takes a position as he aims his weapon near Hanano Barracks, which is controlled by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Aleppo September 11, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Muzaffar SalmanBy Oliver Holmes
BEIRUT | Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:15pm EDT
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Washington and Moscow are taking applause for a possible diplomatic bargain to have Syria hand over its chemical arsenal.
U.S. President Barack Obama has put off a congressional vote on attacking Syria that he was likely to lose; Russia, having presented the idea, can now present itself as peacemaker after two years of Western criticism that it is shielding a tyrant.
Yet the ultimate victor could be President Bashar al-Assad. And, if past experience with international cooperation on Syria is repeated, the main losers may be other Syrians, of whom more than 100,000 have been killed and over 6 million made homeless since Assad cracked down on demands for democracy in 2011.
For all the talk of a deal that may ease a dilemma for Western leaders seeking a politically acceptable response to a poison gas attack on August 21, few Syrians see it as any solution to the greater crisis their nation faces.
Chemical weapons account for perhaps 2 percent of deaths in the civil war; in the three weeks since toxins killed some 1,400 people near Damascus, according to U.S. officials, conventional bombs and bullets have killed more than twice that number.
Assad, who calls his enemies terrorists and highlights the role of Islamist militants, grows in confidence as the threat of U.S. strikes fades and diplomacy affords him legitimacy.
"Syria and its allies are trying to buy time and avert Western action at all costs, while the Obama administration is also looking for time in the face of an uncertain congressional landscape," said James Fallon of consultancy Control Risks.
"The proposal is of considerable short-term diplomatic utility but is unlikely to form the basis for long-term compromise."
Those living in rebel-held areas say they now fear more years of attacks by weapons just as deadly and terrifying as nerve gas, but lacking the taboo, all while the world focuses on the minutiae of how to destroy Syria's chemical arms.
"This is just a game by Russia and the regime to buy more time," said an opposition activist in Damascus who uses the name Tariq al-Dimashqi. Since the Russian government raised the idea on Monday, government bombardments have been heavier, he said.
On Tuesday, Syrian warplanes resumed their air campaign against rebel-held suburbs of the capital for the first time since before August 21. Activists said the resumption of air strikes showed Assad no longer fears U.S. military action.
CHEMICAL CONUNDRUM
Ever since Obama said a year ago that chemical weapons would be a "red line", the focus on these weapons by the United States has been a sore point for many Syrians, who say it disregards the tens of thousands - rebels, soldiers and civilians - already killed in every other way imaginable.
The death toll is regularly reaching 1,000 a week, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group with a network of pro- and anti-Assad sources in Syria.
Aside from putting the threat from chemical weapons into perspective, that statistic underlines how hard it will be for international inspectors to enforce any deal in the midst of a chaotic civil war. Destroying stockpiles might take years.
Syria's chemical arsenal is believed to include hundreds of tons of sarin and mustard gases, as well as VX nerve agent, spread over dozens of locations. Simply accounting for those stocks and being sure that any destruction is comprehensive will be difficult - as will shielding the inspectors from violence.
David Friedman, a former counter-proliferation official with Israel's Defence Ministry and now at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, estimates that it could take fully one to two years to decommission Syria's stockpiles.
And even then Assad might not be fully disarmed: "Guarantees are hard to come by," Friedman said, noting that toxic munitions were found in Libya after Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011 - eight years after he was supposed to have given them all up.
In Iraq, years of cat-and-mouse maneuvering between U.N. weapons inspectors and Saddam Hussein, who in 1988 was the last leader to kill hundreds of civilians with poison gas, failed to reassure the United States that Baghdad had disarmed.
Syria has accepted deals with world powers before and then argued over details, delaying implementation while continuing its war effort by battering residential districts. It called for an immediate U.N. probe into an alleged chemical weapons attack in March that it blamed on the rebels. But it then took months before the government finally let inspectors visit in August.
When the latest poison gas release happened three days after their arrival, it then took them further days of negotiations before being able to leave their hotel and reach the scene.
Aaron Stein at London's Royal United Services Institute, who said it could take a decade to destroy Assad's chemical arsenal, saw similar obstacles being put in the way of new inspections.
"Why I call this absurd is that they would require extreme cooperation from both sides," he said. "In 2003, Britain and the U.S. had Gaddafi's personal phone number," he said.
Assad, by contrast, is not on speaking terms with either London or Washington - though Moscow does seem to have his ear.
CONFUSING OUTLOOK
Others see a better chance of success and say the proposal could be step one towards an eventual settlement of the conflict; Fawaz Gerges at the London School of Economics put the chances of success for the Russian proposal at 50-50.
"It provides an opening to the international standoff over chemical weapons," he said. "A window of opportunity, a confidence-building measure to begin discussing the greater challenge - brokering a political settlement that ends the carnage in Syria, eases Assad out of power and preserves state institutions."
Obama has pledged to explore Moscow's proposal, which Syria has accepted. But he is also skeptical it will work and urged Americans to support his threat to use military force if needed.
Infantry clashes, air strikes and artillery bombardments are reported daily from nearly every province of Syria. Nearly 10 percent of its 22 million population has fled abroad and twice as many have fled homes but remain inside the country.
Through two and a half years of conflict, Assad's opponents have complained of indifference and muddled messages from the world powers. When troops gunned down demonstrators, Washington and its allies condemned the violence but did little to help.
Hopes of winning eventual foreign backing, however, helped persuade some Syrians to take up arms, rebels say.
As violence increased so too did Western condemnations of Assad - condemnations that were ignored. In June, after small instances of chemical weapons use, Washington said it would arm the rebels. But fighters say they still see little sign of it.
For Assad's opponents in the capital, the U.S. threat of air strikes against government targets following the gas attack brought both hope of victory and fear of being hit themselves. Now, with that threat receding, many are even more confused.
"People don't know whether to leave the country or stay," said one woman, who opposes Assad but lives in a part of Damascus held by his forces. "The world's hesitation has been shown - and its indifference to Syrian blood."
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Red Cross urges U.S. and Russia to help unblock aid delivery in Syria
GENEVA | Wed Sep 11, 2013 11:43am EDT
GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on the United States and Russia to also address the obstacles to delivering aid in Syria at talks on Thursday focusing on the use of chemical weapons.
Syrian government forces and opposition rebels are both preventing medical assistance in particular from reaching the sick and wounded, ICRC President Peter Maurer said on Wednesday.
"We need political and diplomatic support for independent humanitarian action," Maurer told reporters in Geneva a day before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov meet in the Swiss city.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams)
Zimbabwe to develop economy with "new friends" like China
Zimbabwe's acting Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa addresses the parliament in Harare February 5, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Philimon BulawayoBy MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE | Wed Sep 11, 2013 1:11pm EDT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will increase economic ties with friendly countries like China to develop its economy as Western nations maintain their sanctions after President Robert Mugabe's re-election, the new finance minister said on Wednesday.
Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader at 89 who won a fresh five-year term in a July 31 vote his opponents say was rigged, on Wednesday swore in his cabinet, including Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa who was named on Tuesday.
Pointing to multiple flaws in last month's election cited by domestic vote observers, Western governments, especially the United States, have questioned the credibility of the outcome and are considering whether to prolong sanctions against Mugabe.
However, African election observers broadly endorsed the voting and its result as peaceful and free.
Chinamasa told reporters the ZANU-PF party government had accepted the reality that the West would not remove financial and travel sanctions on Mugabe and his senior allies and would not release any direct financial assistance.
"Because the doors have been closed by those who used to be our traditional partners, we have to intensify new economic relationships and friendships. That means every country that is friendly to Zimbabwe, including China," he said.
After Western states imposed sanctions a decade ago against Mugabe over alleged violations of democracy and rights abuses in the former British colony he has ruled for 33 years, China has emerged as a major investor in the southern African state.
It has built the largest alluvial diamond mine in the east of the country and runs the biggest ferrochrome producer.
A Chinese-backed firm will start mining coal in western Zimbabwe and build a 600MW coal-fired power station next year. The government has also given $1.7 billion of contracts to Chinese firms to expand the country's two largest power plants.
"GET MONEY QUICKLY"
Under the now dissolved unity government that followed a disputed 2008 election, the economy had begun to recover. The International Monetary Fund said in June it agreed to monitor economic programs until the year end, paving the way for the clearing of billions of dollars of Zimbabwe's debt arrears.
Chinamasa, ZANU-PF's top legal official and a staunch defender of Mugabe's re-election, refused to comment on whether these program would continue but said the economy faced enormous challenges.
While Washington has made clear it intends to maintain U.S. sanctions, Belgium, the center of the global diamond trade, is demanding that the European Union lift sanctions on one Zimbabwean mining firm.
Mugabe later told reporters on Wednesday his new cabinet would focus on agriculture and diamond and gold mining to raise money to re-start shut industries and increase government wages.
"We should organize quick-yielding sectors of the economy and these are agriculture and mining. These are the sectors I am looking at to get money quickly," the president said.
Last month, he threatened "tit-for-tat" retaliation against companies from Britain and the United States if those Western nations persisted in pressuring his government with sanctions and what he called "harassment".
(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Andrew Heavens)
Algeria's Bouteflika names new ministers months after stroke
Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is seen at the presidential palace in Algiers December 11, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Louafi LarbiALGIERS | Wed Sep 11, 2013 12:45pm EDT
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika named new ministers for foreign affairs, the interior and justice on Wednesday in a major resumption of political activity since he suffered a stroke in April.
The North African oil and gas producer's prime minister and its finance and energy ministers kept their posts in the reshuffle, the state APS news agency reported.
Bouteflika, 76, returned from a French hospital in July, and state media have since released pictures of him meeting officials and said he was recuperating.
Observers and analysts said Wednesday's changes were likely aimed at trying to strengthen Bouteflika's allies ahead of presidential elections in April 2014 when he is not expected to stand.
APS quoted a presidential statement naming Ramtane Lamamra, an African Union official, as foreign minister, and Tayeb Belaiz as interior minister. It also named a justice and vice defense minister.
Energy minister Youcef Yousfi, finance minister Karim Djoudi and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal stayed on, APS said.
Bouteflika is part of an elite that has controlled Algeria since it won independence in a 1954-62 war.
In the early 1990s, the military-backed politicians overturned an election which Islamists were poised to win and then fought a conflict with them in which about 200,000 people were killed.
Re-elected for a third term in 2009, Bouteflika has not said whether he will run again after ruling the country for more than a decade.
(Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers; Editing by Patrick Markey and Andrew Heavens)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)