Ban Ki-moon says UN peacekeepers won’t leave Ivory Coast

Ban Ki-moon says UN peacekeepers won’t leave Ivory Coast

Ban Ki-moon says UN peacekeepers won’t leave Ivory Coast

Posted: 19 Dec 2010 12:06 AM PST

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 —UN peacekeepers will remain in Ivory Coast and fulfil their mandate despite calls by incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo for all blue helmets to leave the country, the UN chief said yesterday. "The Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) is aware of statements by Mr. Gbagbo's spokesperson calling for the withdrawal of the UN ...


Sri Lanka lifts ban on U.N. war crime panel visit

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:48 PM PST

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka said on Sunday it would allow the United Nations to send a representative to a locally appointed war crimes panel, reversing an earlier ban on international involvement, but analysts said the move would do little to add credibility to the commission.

New evidence allowed in Italy trial for Briton's murder

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:48 PM PST

PERUGIA, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian court has allowed new evidence in the trial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, in a boost for American defendant Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

South Korea not scrapping drill despite threat

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 10:33 PM PST

YEONPYEONG, Dec 19 — South Korea said today bad weather was delaying the start of a live-fire exercise that prompted North Korean threats of war, adding that it had no plans to scrap the drills despite international calls for restraint. The UN Security Council is expected to convene an emergency session today on the escalating tension between ...


Luxury Paris hotels aim to woo super rich

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:48 PM PST

A number of new luxury hotels are opening in Paris, with some charging up to 20,000 euros per night.


Foreign troop 2010 toll hits 700 in Afghanistan

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:13 PM PST

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents launched attacks in Kabul and a major northern city on Sunday as the death toll for foreign troops in Afghanistan hit 700, making 2010 the deadliest year of the nearly decade-long war.

Suicide bomber attacks Afghan soldiers in Kabul

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 10:03 PM PST

KABUL (Reuters) - Two insurgents wearing vests packed with explosives attacked a bus carrying Afghan soldiers in Kabul on Sunday, authorities said, killing at least one in the first major attack in the Afghan capital in seven months.

Up to 15 feared dead in Philippine hotel fire

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 12:03 PM PST

MANILA: Up to 15 people are missing and feared dead after a fire engulfed a hotel in the northern Philippines before dawn today, police said.

The four-hour blaze consumed the five-storey hotel, named Bed and Breakfast, in Tuguegarao city and authorities are searching for the remains of the missing, said Senior Superintendent Mao Aplasca, the provincial police chief.

"Approximately 15 persons trapped inside (are) believed to be dead," Aplasca said in a preliminary report sent to the national police headquarters in Manila.

He added that 12 injured people were taken to hospital and all were in stable condition. Police did not release the identities of the missing and the injured.

The cause of the blaze had not yet been established, Aplasca said.

Local fire officials earlier said the hotel guests included recent graduates of a nursing school in nearby Santiago, who had checked in ahead of taking professional exams.

"We don't have an update on the missing yet. Operations are ongoing," city fire officer Peter Cagurangan said.

- AFP

US Senate scraps gay military ban

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 08:30 PM PST

The United States Senate has voted to scrap the ban on gay men and women openly serving in the military.


Nine missing in Philippines hotel fire

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 12:03 PM PST

MANILA: Nine people are missing and feared dead after a fire engulfed a hotel in the northern Philippines before dawn today, rescuers said.

Nine out of about 50 guests could be accounted for after firemen put out the blaze that razed the hotel, named Bed and Breakfast, in Tuguegarao, city fire marshal Neil Caranguian told a Manila radio station by telephone.

A city fire officer, Peter Cagurangan, said the missing were believed to include recent graduates of a nursing school in nearby Santiago, who had checked in ahead of taking professional exams, but said he did not know exact numbers.

"We don't have an update on the missing yet. Operations are ongoing," he said, adding that the cause of the blaze had not yet been established.

- AFP

Lake homes buried as Cambodia's land-grab 'cancer' spreads

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:57 AM PST

By Michelle Fitzpatrick

FEATURE PHNOM PENH: Standing knee-deep in dirty water, 60-year-old Men Chhoeuy uses a crowbar to dismantle his small wooden house on the edge of a lake in the Cambodian capital.

He is the latest resident to give up the fight against a private company accused of spewing sand into lakeside homes as it fills in the 130-hectare (320-acre) site to make way for high-rise buildings and shopping centres.

"Many neighbours have already left," said Men Chhoeuy as he continued his demolition work on the northern edge of Boeung Kak lake, one of the last large open spaces left in Phnom Penh and once home to about 4,000 families.

The sand-pumping has increased significantly in recent weeks and a number of homes were fully immersed in a matter of days, leaving only the tips of roofs sticking out as startled families scrambled to save what belongings they could.

"The message that is being sent to the remaining residents at the lake is that they should accept the compensation being offered to them or else their houses too will be buried in mud," said David Pred, executive director of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, a non-governmental organisation.

The government leased the area three years ago to Shukaku Inc, a private developer headed by a ruling party politician, ignoring residents' existing land claims.

Filling the lake with sand has caused water levels to rise, flooding local dwellings with slurry and creating unsanitary conditions, according to residents and rights groups.

"Shukaku Inc is forcibly evicting lake residents by pumping sand and mud into their homes," Rolando Modina, regional director of the international pressure group Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), said.

Land disputes are a major problem in Cambodia.

Forced evictions

The communist Khmer Rouge abolished land ownership during its 1975-1979 rule and many legal documents were lost during that time and in the years of civil war that followed.

Last year, the government approved a new law allowing it to seize private property for public development projects, to the dismay of activists.

"Land-grabbing is a cancer that is eating up Cambodia," said Pred.

"Forced evictions are being driven by rapid speculative investment in the Cambodian real estate market, coupled with endemic corruption and the absence of rule of law," he added.

"The urban poor are being driven from their homes in Phnom Penh, which is becoming an exclusive domain of the wealthy."

The capital is undergoing heavy development after projects stalled during the global financial crisis.

In the countryside, meanwhile, farming land has been confiscated on numerous occasions and granted to large developers such as sugar and rubber companies.

In 2009 alone, at least 26 cases of mass evictions displaced approximately 27,000 people across the country, according to a UN report released in September.

"The manner in which land is managed and used by the government for various purposes continues to be a major problem. Land-grabbing by people in positions of power seems to be a common occurrence," it said.

Shukaku has offered some lake dwellers, though not all, financial compensation of 1,500 to 8,500 US dollars for vacating the site, but critics say the money is not enough.

"I have to accept this money because my home is flooding," Men Chhoeuy said of the 8,000 US dollars he will split with the three other families who shared his home. "I don't know where to go now. With this money we can't do anything."

Sand dune

People are leaving the lake every day but Pred estimates there are still some 1,500 to 2,000 families remaining, many of whom are poor and have nowhere else to go.

Shukaku, which was granted a 99-year lease for the development project, declined to comment.

"Please talk to the government," company spokesman Lao Vann said. "We don't know anything... We are allowed by the state to develop (the area)."

Sok Sambath, the governor of the city's Daunh Penh district, which includes the lake, described the development as "a good thing" for the area and said residents were accepting compensation.

Many of the people living on and around the lake settled or returned there in the 1980s after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.

Under Cambodian law, a person who has lived somewhere for five years or more without dispute has rights to that land, "but there have been problems in implementing this law properly," said the UN report.

Lake dwellers have in recent months organised dozens of demonstrations but their protests fell on deaf ears and they were usually quickly dispersed by police.

It's not just the residents who are complaining. Until recently, the eastern edge of Boeung Kak lake was a popular tourist stretch, with numerous guesthouses and bars lining the shore.

The lake now resembles a large sand dune and has lost its allure. Tourists are staying away and hotels are closing.

"Five months ago this was a bustling, thriving area. Now, it's dead calm," said Harry Bongers, who for the last seven years has been running the Simon's II guesthouse.

"I've made my mind up already, I'm going to close in one month," the 59-year-old Dutchman said.

- AFP

On the frontlines in Italy's 'little China'

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:49 AM PST

By Ella Ide

FEATURE PRATO: Italian police officers sweep through the mosquito-infested clothes workshop, rifling through personal belongings and cracking jokes about the foreign food as six Chinese labourers look on in fear.

Boxes filled with sparkling black shrugs and red party dresses spill onto the floor of the warehouse – one of 3,400 small Chinese businesses in Prato in central Italy that produce clothes for companies including Zara and H&M.

"I don't understand what the problem is, we did everything correctly," said Giujir, who declined to give her surname because of the police investigation, as she waited by a row of leopard-print dresses for her turn for questioning.

"There isn't much work this year because of the crisis, and we have to pay the rent. I know the police have to carry out lots of controls but it just makes the situation worse," said the worn-out 30-year-old.

This is the first raid of the week in the historic town of Prato in Tuscany – a place local authorities see as a sort of new Chinese gangland but immigrants defend as a revitalised hub of Italy's flagging textile industry.

Chinese immigrants began arriving in Prato some 20 years ago, initially working for Italian companies before setting up their own businesses.

There are now around 17,000 Chinese out of a population of 188,000 – 50,000 if you include the estimated number of undocumented immigrants.

Though Chinese workers are now involved in every stage of production – even the cloth is imported because it costs 10 times less than Italian fabric – the companies can legally sell their clothes with the "Made in Italy" label.

Mafia groups

The clothes are sold wholesale – at around five euros (US$6.50) for a dress or 10 euros for a coat – and bundled into vans from eastern and northern Europe that come and go seven days a week.

Few Italian shops remain in Prato's Chinatown, located just next to the town's historic centre. The area is dotted with Chinese restaurants and supermarkets and almost all the signs are written in Chinese.

Prato's residents last year voted in a new mayor – himself a textile business owner – who promised to tackle the Chinese community's monopoly of the textile industry and crack down on Chinese-related crime.

Police raids in what Italian media calls "little China" have increased hugely since Roberto Cenni's election, including investigations of mafia groups involved in money-laundering, loan-sharking and human trafficking.

The raid on Giujir's workshop was for a much smaller infraction – workers were living illegally inside the building in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

"There are at least six Chinese living here illegally," said Lina Iervasi, head of immigration affairs for Prato's police, pointing to made-up sofa beds, a rice-cooker, a Wii games console and the toys that littered back rooms.

"We have no choice. We'll have to evict the workers, seize the merchandise and lock up the building," she said.

"Their relatives get them over to work, they live closed up in the warehouses and never learn to speak Italian."

Deplorable conditions

According to Silvia Pieraccini, journalist and author of a book on the Chinese textile industry in Prato, the workers live in the warehouses because they labour 18 hours a day and sleep where they drop.

"The Chinese work a great deal, they are very quick to understand where the market is going, but they work in deplorable conditions, without contracts and in buildings that are unsafe and often unhygienic" she said.

"The Chinese textile sector makes a huge profit and it's obvious that the possibility to make large amounts of money is bound to attract criminals."

Forty-seven-year-old Surong Badeng from Xinjiang, a police interpreter, said the Chinese community worked hard through choice, not exploitation.

"They come to Italy to make money and have no time to integrate. They are ready to make huge sacrifices to get rich," he said.

Prato's mayor insists that the police crackdown to clean up the textile industry is about protecting exploited Chinese.

"We want to get closer to those who are being exploited in the hope that we can persuade them to rebel," Cenni said.

That is not the way the Chinese embassy sees it.

"It's wrong of Italy to carry out raids with helicopters and dogs, it's completely over the top. We're not at war, this is a civil country," Tang Youjing, a counsellor at the Chinese embassy, said in an interview.

Referring to the city's struggle to regain its status as the main centre for the Italian textile industry in the wake of the financial crisis, Tang said: "The Chinese are helping Prato to resolve its economic problems."

- AFP

What future for post-Nato Afghanistan?

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:29 AM PST

A year in review

By Farhad Peikar

KABUL: Nato's plan to transfer overall security responsibility for Afghanistan to local forces is seen by locals as a cynical ploy to extricate its forces from a seemingly never-ending war.

It could also lead to a dangerous civil conflict that risks dragging in neighbouring powers such as India, Pakistan and Iran.

At a summit in Lisbon in November, leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation agreed to begin the drawdown of their forces from June next year, in a process due to be completed by the end of 2014.

The decision came in the wake of the bloodiest period of the year, in which more international troops and Afghan civilians were killed than in any other since the ouster of the Taliban regime, in late 2001.

US President Barack Obama had previously ordered 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, hoping to turn the tide of war against the resurgent Taliban. However, a recent war assessment issued by the Pentagon stated that, despite increased pressure on the Taliban, "the insurgency has proven resilient".

US forces have now been in Afghanistan longer than Soviet troops during their invasion of the country in the 1980s.

And in an indication the occupation could keep going, the 2014 deadline is open to interpretation.

Nato officials insist the alliance wants to hand over to Afghans the responsibility of making their country safe, but will stay the course until the local police and armed forces are fit to do so.

But Afghan-based analysts believe the move is aimed at appeasing voters in the West, where support for the war is waning.

"I think they (Nato countries) are just trying to save their faces and pave the ground for a dignified withdrawal," said Wahid Muzhda, a political analyst and former Taliban official.

The Netherlands has already begun to withdraw its 1,400 troops from the south, while other allies, including the US, have hinted they will begin to do the same in 2011.

In any case, many experts argue that it would take more than just training security forces for peace to be ensured once foreign troops pull out.

"Afghanistan remained in a political crisis following the fraud- tainted parliamentary elections and it has been unable to fulfil the promises that were made by President (Hamid) Karzai in terms of fighting corruption and bringing good governance," said Haroon Mir, an Afghan political analyst.

"Unfortunately, the conditions for Nato withdrawal right now are not promising."

Mir argued that it would be far more important to have an accountable and fully functioning government in Kabul.

"I don't think we will be able to achieve that with the current administration," Mir said.

Nato's exit plan has prompted Karzai to seek new ways of protecting his country. He has formed a council to negotiate peace with the militants and has held out an olive branch to some of those he once called "irreconcilable", such as the Taliban's supreme chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

But the peace initiative, which enjoys the backing of the US and of its allies, faced a major setback when it turned out that an alleged top Taliban commander, with whom Afghan and Nato officials had been negotiating for months, was declared an impostor.

Karzai – who, like the Taliban, is Pashtun – is not the only one anxious about Afghanistan after 2014. Members of non-Pashtun groups, which helped US-led forces topple the Taliban government in Kabul in late 2001, are also said to be preparing for a post-withdrawal era.

The non-Pashtuns "feel that it is time to gather their stocks, position themselves for what could be a very long and bloody fight," said Candace Rondeaux, a senior Afghanistan analyst for International Crisis Group (ICG).

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president's half-brother, was said to be building up a personal private army to protect Karzai's Popalzia tribe in view of a possible civil war once the coalition forces withdraw, according to a confidential US diplomatic cable leaked by the online whistle-blower WikiLeaks.

A potentially violent internal struggle for power could prompt Afghanistan's neighbours, which include Pakistan, Iran, and India, to support the warring groups in order to ensure their interests in a post-Nato Afghanistan.

This means that, unless the US-led coalition can chalk up a strategy that fully involves regional powers, the next four years could see the bolstering of ethnic power bases taking precedence over the fight against the Taliban.

- dpa

 

 

 

'Dream Act' failure kills immigration reform hopes

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:22 AM PST

By Tim Gaynor

ANALYSIS PHOENIX: Defeat of a bill that would have created a pathway to citizenship for some young illegal immigrants dashes US President Barack Obama's hopes of passing broad immigration reform in the new Congress, but his popularity among Hispanics is undiminished, analysts said.

The so-called "Dream Act" giving legal status to illegal immigrants brought to the United States before age 16 was dealt a death blow in the US Senate yesterday by Republicans who said it would reward illegal activity.

Obama and Democratic supporters immediately vowed to push again for the measure. The president pledged that he would not give up on "the important business of fixing our broken immigration system".

But analysts said yesterday's outcome killed prospects of passing a comprehensive immigration bill in the next Congress, where Republicans will have control of the House of Representatives and a stronger hand in the Senate.

"Immigration reform is effectively dead in the water for Obama," said Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University.

"It will be impossible to get any progressive bill through the House in the next Congress, and it will be virtually impossible in the Senate... as it won't make sense politically," he said.

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama had promised to push for an immigration overhaul, boosting border security and offering steps to legal status for many of the nearly 11 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows.

After Republicans take control of the House next month, immigration measures are likely to focus on tightening enforcement and limiting immigration, said Steven Camarota of the pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies think-tank.

"There will be more focus on robust enforcement, more hearings designed to highlight problems in the immigration services... and efforts to try to limit chain migration" which admits relatives of immigrants already in the United States, he said.

Winning points with Latinos

The Dream Act would have provided legal residency to young people who came to the United States illegally before age 16 and who graduated from high school, completed two years of college or military service and had no criminal record.

But Obama's failure to push it through the Senate was unlikely to have damaged his support among key Latino voters as he seeks re-election in 2012, analysts said.

Latinos turned out for Obama by a 2-to-1 margin in 2008, and their support in last month's midterm congressional elections helped Democrats hold on to important Senate seats in the Southwest.

"Obama and the White House fought hard for the Dream Act and won points for doing so" among Hispanics, said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, which advocates for immigration reform.

"If you are a Republican who voted against this, you will be forever known for standing in the schoolhouse door and saying 'no' to the best and brightest," he added.

With dim prospects for pushing immigration reform legislation in the next Congress, some Hispanic activists caution that they will look to Obama to use his executive powers to help immigrant causes.

Jorge Mario Cabrera, of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, gave as an example a moratorium on immigration raids.

"He can change a lot of suffering for our community by the stroke of a pen, and we will be pressing him to do that during the next two years," he said.

- Reuters

Snow hits flights, leaves hundreds of drivers stranded

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:20 AM PST

LONDON: Heavy snow disrupted European air travel yesterday and stranded hundreds of drivers in their cars as far south as Italy as a white Christmas appeared increasingly likely for many places.

In hard-hit Britain, London Heathrow closed both runways to clear the snow, while London Gatwick reopened after a 140-strong team removed 10 centimetres (four inches) of snow from the tarmac.

Flag carrier British Airways cancelled all short-haul departures from both airports, with all long-haul flights from Heathrow scrapped until 1900 GMT and until 1700 GMT at Gatwick.

"We are keeping the situation under review and will make a decision regarding long-haul flights as soon as possible," said a BA spokesman.

Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, said its runways were closed "to allow snow clearing and to keep the airport safe.

Flights were also grounded at Stansted and Luton airports near London, at Birmingham airport in Britain's second city and Southampton airport for at least part of the day.

Eurostar, which operates high-speed passenger trains linking London with Paris and Brussels, was operating with speed restrictions that added up to an hour on journey times.

Four people were killed in traffic accidents across Britain caused by the weather.

Heavy snowfall also played havoc with the weekend's sporting calendar, with Sunday's crunch English Premier League match between Chelsea and Manchester United called off.

Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, cancelled about 170 flights on Saturday because of the severe winter weather across Europe, an airport spokesman said.

On Friday, 560 out of 1,400 flights had been cancelled for the same reason, but Frankfurt's runways were open yesterday morning.

"We are trying to control the situation," said the spokesman who expected a large number of delays and cancellations during the day as other European airports were closed.

German carrier Lufthansa advised passengers to take the train rather than fly, saying tickets for flights could be used on the railways.

But German rail operator Deutsche Bahn warned that the snowfall would also lead to delays and cancellations.

Black ice

Dozens of flights were also cancelled at Amsterdam's Schiphol, where some 3,000 people were forced to spend the night in the airport, the press office said.

Budapest's Ferihegy airport closed in the afternoon after heavy snowfall made the runways unusable, but has since reopened, the airport's operator said in a statement.

In Italy, the Tuscany region was hardest hit, with hundreds of cars stuck on highways around Florence, where up to 20 centimetres (eight inches) of snow fell.

Motorists criticised authorities for not making it clear that the motorways were blocked, so that more and more vehicles became trapped.

High-speed trains between Milan, Florence and Rome were also cancelled, leaving some 5,000 passengers sheltering in a conference hall in the Tuscan capital.

Florence airport closed until mid-afternoon, while the airport at Pisa, which is used by low-cost airlines, was likely to remain closed until today.

About a quarter of flights from the main Paris Charles de Gaulle hub will be cancelled on Sunday between 0700 and 1500 GMT, while 60% of flights were delayed yesterday, the French civil aviation authority said.

In the Bordeaux region five people were hurt on a motorway when a 38-tonne truck ploughed into two vans whose drivers had lost control on black ice, and then caught fire. A fourth vehicle then crashed into the wreckage.

The snowfall even reached as far south as Algeria, where two people died in a road accident and traffic ground to a halt on several major roads.

The city of Tizi Ouzou reported 30 centimetres of snow, causing electricity and telephone failures, authorities said.

The snowstorm that has brought the chaos is moving slowly south across Europe, but the cold weather is expected to continue in much of the continent on Sunday and into next week.

- AFP

Snow and mansion arrest fail to silence WikiLeaks chief

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:12 AM PST

By Beatrice Debut

BECCLES: Deep in the snowy English countryside, Julian Assange spends his time at a friend's mansion defending the WikiLeaks website following his release on bail from a London prison.

The irrepressible Australian spoke out yesterday after playing a cat-and-mouse game with journalists along the icy lanes of the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk while en route to a police station in the town of Beccles.

Standing at the door of the station, where he must report daily as a condition of his bail while he resides at his friend's Ellingham Hall country estate 11km (seven miles) away, he agreed to pose for photographs.

Assange, whose prematurely white hair is flecked with darker streaks, wore a green anorak to keep out the bitter cold. Although it could not be seen, he is also wearing an electronic tag as part of his bail conditions.

London's High Court released the 39-year-old WikiLeaks founder on bail on Thursday. He is fighting an extradition warrant issued by Sweden over accusations that he sexually assaulted two women, which he denies.

As he left the station, Assange took the chance to hit out at "business McCarthyism" after the Bank of America halted all transactions to the whistleblowing site over its publication of thousands of US diplomatic cables.

But he added that the website would continue to reveal more confidential documents.

"We are a robust organisation. During my time in solitary confinement we continued to publish everyday and its not going to change," he said, before climbing back into a black people-carrier.

Assange's circumstances have undergone a radical change since he spent nine days in a London jail cell, with his time now spent hiding out in the ten-bedroom Ellingham Hall or venturing out to speak to the media.

"He is settling down in the house," said the owner, Vaughan Smith, a former military officer and founder of London's Frontline Club for journalists who met Assange when he stayed at the club earlier this year.

"He is comfortable, composed, calm, confident. He works, I don't spend my time looking over his shoulder, I am a host, not his jailer," Smith said.

The estate covers around 240 hectares (593 acres) and offers fishing and private shooting facilities. Assange's lawyer joked in court this week that he would be "if not under house arrest, at least under mansion arrest".

Quiet farming region

Smith has no doubt of his guest's innocence or about the importance of Assange's website. It was Smith's offer to put Assange up that partly swayed judges to grant the Australian bail.

"He initiated developments that will change our world. There is an opportunity for governments to change. We would have a better world as a result," he said.

Around a dozen journalists braved the cold outside waiting for the latest pronouncements from Assange, who is staying at the mansion with a group of friends including WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson.

Yesterday the main entrance to the estate was blocked by a length of rope. Two gardeners employed by the Smith family who were effectively acting as security guards against the hordes of reporters who arrived on Thursday have been stood down.

Assange's arrival in this quiet farming region in eastern England has caused a bit of a stir among the locals in the hamlet of Ellingham – but not much.

"The only excitement here is that if somebody has a birthday. The bus goes through every hour. There are local farmers with tractors all the time," said Tony Game, 67, a retired engineer.

Nigel Bale, a retiree who is also 67 added: "It s a little sleepy village. This story makes life more interesting."

- AFP

UN offered Mugabe retirement exile deal

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:08 AM PST

LONDON: The United Nations offered Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe a retirement package and safe haven overseas if he agreed to stand down, according to a US diplomatic cable revealed by WikiLeaks today.

The offer was made by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general at the time in 2000, said the memo which was drawn up by US officials and cited the then-opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"Kofi Annan, in the recent meeting in New York during the millennium summit offered Mugabe a deal to step down," said the memo written in September 2000 and printed in Britain's The Observer newspaper.

"Although (the MDC source) said the MDC was not privy to the details, he surmised that Annan's supposed deal probably included provision of safe haven and a financial package from Libyan president (Moamer Kadhafi).

"The opposition party heard that Mugabe turned down the offer the following day after discussing it with the first lady."

Mugabe, 86, Africa's oldest leader and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has shared power with his arch-foe, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, since a disputed presidential election in 2008.

But the uneasy "unity" government has been on the brink of collapse for months.

Mugabe said yesterday he was "very confident" of victory after his ZANU-PF party backed him to contest a likely election next year against Tsvangirai.

- AFP

UN to meet on Koreas amid soaring tensions

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:05 AM PST

By Pierre-Antoine Donnet

NEW YORK: The UN Security Council called a meeting for today on escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula and Russia expressed anger that it was not organised earlier.

Russia has urged South Korea and the United States to call off a live-fire drill on the Korean frontier that the communist North has warned could lead to "disaster" between the two sides.

After summoning the South Korean and US ambassadors to Moscow on Friday, Russia had wanted the UN Security Council to meet in "emergency" session yesterday, said its UN envoy Vitaly Churkin.

The United States is president of the Security Council for December and Churkin said the US mission had "declined to convene such a meeting today. We regret that. We believe that such a step by the president is a departure from the practice existing in the council".

"We assume that nothing will happen in the interim that will bring about a further aggravation on the Korean peninsula," Churkin told a press conference.

The United States rejected criticism of the arrangements of the meeting however.

It said the request was received Saturday, and after consulting with Russia and the other members of the 15-nation council the Sunday morning time was set.

"This meets other Security Council members' requests to have time to consult with their capitals and meets the Russian request for a timely meeting," said US mission spokesman Mark Kornblau.

The United States and Russia are two of the five heavyweight permanent powers on the council which can veto any resolution.

The UN Security Council has not yet made any statement or taken any action over North Korea's artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong island last month in which two South Korean civilians and two South Korean marines were killed.

Blocked demands

China, another permanent member, has blocked demands for a strongly worded statement against North Korean, including any suggestion that North Korea staged the attack, diplomats said.

Talks over a statement are now in deadlock and diplomats have said it is now possible no Security Council condemnation will be made.

The North has threatened an even deadlier attack on the South if the drill scheduled for between Dec 18 and 21 is staged on Yeonpyeong, which is on the disputed sea border border between the two.

The North said the upcoming exercise "would make it impossible to prevent the situation on the Korean peninsula from exploding and escape its ensuing disaster."

It said its military has already threatened "decisive and merciless punishment" for such an action and "does not make an empty talk."

Pyongyang disputes the Yellow Sea border drawn by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 war. It claims the waters around Yeonpyeong and other South Korean frontline islands as its own maritime territory.

The first shelling of civilian areas since the war sparked outrage in the South, which rushed more troops and guns to the frontline islands.

South Korean officials said the upcoming exercise is likely to be held on Monday or Tuesday when the weather is better.

Russia and China have urged the South to cancel its plan. Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said Beijing was "deeply concerned and worried" about the situation on the peninsula, the state Xinhua news agency reported.

US politician Bill Richardson, who is visiting Pyongyang, meanwhile described the situation as a "tinderbox".

The North accused the United States of stirring up South Korea to stage a provocative act.

It said the plan for the drill was reached during a visit to Seoul last week by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The North said the United States "does not hesitate to harass peace and stability of a country for meeting its strategic interests".

US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley on Friday defended the South's right to hold the drill in the face of North Korea's "ongoing provocations".

But he said Washington trusts that its ally the South "will be very cautious in terms of what it does".

Richardson, a veteran troubleshooter with Pyongyang, said he urged North Korean officials to let the South go ahead with the drill.

"I'm urging them extreme restraint," the New Mexico governor told CNN, saying he was "very, very strong with foreign ministry officials" during a dinner on Friday.

- AFP

More revenge taken against slain activist in Mexico

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 11:02 AM PST

CIUDAD JUAREZ: Gunmen yesterday took further revenge against an activist who was shot to death earlier this week in Chihuahua, by kidnapping her boyfriend's brother, Chihuahua state officials said.

"An armed gang torched a lumber company owned by Jose Monje Amparon" and kidnapped his brother and another man, the state attorney general's office said.

Monje is the boyfriend of Marisela Escobedo, who was shot to death on Thursday outside the Chihuahua state government offices as she was protesting the release from jail in April a man convicted of murdering her daughter two years ago.

Yesterday's arson and kidnapping in Ciudad Juarez – Chihuahua's largest city across from El Paso, Texas – took place a few hours after Escobedo's body was taken in a funeral procession from Chihuahua state capital to Ciudad Juarez, 250km (155 miles) to the north.

Escobedo's murder, as she was placing posters demanding that her daughter's self-confessed murderer be put back in jail, was condemned by Amnesty International and the United Nations' human rights office.

The two organizations called on the Mexican government to address failures in the justice system that allows hundreds of women murder and kidnapping cases in Chihuahua state to go unsolved.

Amnesty International estimates that some 400 women were murdered and hundreds more were kidnapped in the 1990s in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's murder capital where drug-related violence has killed more than 3,000 people this year.

- AFP

Foreign troop death toll in Afghanistan in 2010 nears 700

Posted: 18 Dec 2010 07:33 PM PST

KABUL, Dec 19 — The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan in 2010 neared 700 with two more confirmed yesterday, by far the deadliest year of the war underscoring the renewed focus on when international forces will leave. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force said one of its troops was killed by a roadside bomb in southern ...


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