Japan's Abe in Thailand to talk economic ties, security

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Thailand on Thursday, part of a three-country Southeast Asian tour to consolidate business ties in one of the world's fastest-growing regions and counter growing Chinese assertiveness.

Tension remains high over China's claims on parts of the strategically vital and mineral-rich South China Sea that are also claimed by four Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam, which Abe visited on Wednesday.

Abe and his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra gave no indication at a news conference after talks whether any progress had been made on this issue, making only general comments about security that did not mention the South China Sea.

The Japanese premier leaves for Jakarta on Friday, where he is expected to give a major policy speech.

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have been frosty since a dispute over islands in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, flared up last year. Violent anti-Japanese protests have been staged in Chinese cities.

"China has successfully built up its own military power but for what? We celebrate China's economic growth but it's not a good idea to threaten others or urge others by coercion or intimidation," Yutaka Yokoi, a Japanese foreign ministry official, told Reuters in Bangkok.

Having taken on the role of mediator in the multi-layered South China Sea disputes, Thailand has said it would listen to what Japan has to say but would also take into consideration the views of other countries involved.

Analysts have said Abe will have to tread carefully in Southeast Asia to avoid provoking China by appearing to be trying to "contain" it. Moreover, his hosts will be keen to avoid upsetting China, now their major economic partner.

In Hanoi on Wednesday, Abe, on his first foreign trip since sweeping to power last month, agreed with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung that disputes in the region should be solved through peaceful talks and international law.

FLOOD PREVENTION

Already one of the biggest foreign investors in Southeast Asia and the largest in Thailand, with its firms pouring 312 billion baht ($10.5 billion) into the country in 2012, Japan is keen to step up its economic presence in the region.

Abe's visit to Bangkok is the first by a Japanese prime minister in 11 years and comes as more Japanese firms look at setting up shop in the emerging economies of Southeast Asia because of the soured climate in China.

Thailand is not without problems: in addition to serious, disruptive bouts of political unrest in the past few years, it suffered its worst floods in half a century in 2011, with flood walls at seven huge industrial zones breached.

That disrupted the supply chains of big Japanese firms such as car maker Toyota Motor Corp.

"This is our opportunity to reassure Japan that we are serious about flood prevention and to reiterate that the 350 billion baht ($11.72 billion) we pledged for flood management will continue to focus on early warning systems," said Damrong Kraikuan, director-general of the Thai foreign ministry's East Asia Affairs department.

Japan is showing huge interest in Myanmar, which borders Thailand and is opening up after decades of military rule.

Thai officials said Abe's trip would be an opportunity to discuss Japanese involvement in the $50 billion Dawei economic zone in southern Myanmar, which is being developed by Thailand's Italian-Thai Development Pcl.

The project has struggled to secure the initial $8.5 billion needed to finance infrastructure and utilities.

"Thailand has invited Japan to join and invest in the Dawei project in Myanmar and we hope Japan will join our two countries in this endeavor," Yingluck told the news conference.

Abe described Thailand as "the gateway to Southeast Asia" but made no comment on Dawei. Neither he nor Yingluck took questions, simply reading prepared statements.

In September a source close to the Dawei project said a state-backed Japanese soft loan totaling $3.2 billion was being secured to help kick-start construction on basic port and road infrastructure.

Ministers from Thailand and Myanmar met in November and said funding for the project's first phase would be decided by February, with construction set to begin no later than April.

Yokoi from the Japanese foreign ministry suggested Tokyo was treading carefully on the project.

"We are willing to see the outcome from the talks between Thailand and Myanmar and would like to be kept informed but we still don't know what the size of investment or opportunities will be," he said. ($1 = 29.8600 Thai baht)

(Editing by Alan Raybould, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Patrick Graham)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Kazakhstan may join WTO this year: WTO chief Lamy

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Kazakhstan may join the World Trade Organisation this year, WTO director general Pascal Lamy said on Thursday.

"Kazakhstan is at an advanced stage of its accession negotiation. My guess is that this could be doable this year," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Gaidar Forum, an economic conference in Moscow.

Kazakhstan applied to join the WTO in 1996. The oil-rich Central Asian state is one of the few countries in the world that remains outside the international trading club. Membership is expected to boost the Kazakh economy by opening it to foreign investors.

Kazakhstan's neighbor Russia was admitted to the WTO last August after 18 years of negotiations.

Lamy played down suggestions that Russia's WTO membership was not proceeding smoothly, following signs over recent months of possible trade disputes with the European Union, Russia's major trading partner.

"We don't judge results of a WTO accession that lasted 18 years in six months. Time will say whether or not it worked," he said.

(Reporting by Maya Dyakina; Writing by Jason Bush; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pakistan warns anti-government cleric to end protest

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's interior minister on Wednesday warned an anti-government Muslim cleric and thousands of protesters camped out near parliament to disperse, saying they were at risk of attack by militants.

Rehman Malik said authorities had learned militants might be planning to target the crowd, and that the cleric, Muhammad Tahirul Qadri, would be held responsible for any attacks.

"The best commandos are with me today," Malik told a news conference, saying security forces could take action against Qadri within the next two days to prevent "expected terrorism".

"I hope that he listens to me."

Qadri, who backed a military coup in 1999, is calling for the immediate resignation of the government and the installation of a caretaker administration to oversee electoral reforms.

The government was rocked on Tuesday by a Supreme Court order for the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf within 24 hours on suspicion of corruption.

Qadri's appearance at the forefront of Pakistan's political scene has fuelled speculation that the army, which has a long history of involvement in politics, has tacitly endorsed his campaign in an effort to pile more pressure on a government it sees as inept and corrupt.

Qadri and the military deny this.

Pakistan's information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said political leaders would not bow to Qadri's demands.

"All political parties are happy with the Election Commission and elections will happen on time," he said.

He added that elections would take place as scheduled between May 5 and 15.

The opposition Pakistan Muslim League led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif also rejected Qadri's call for the military to play a role in the formation of a caretaker government to oversee the run-up to elections.

"Tahirul Qadri is working on somebody's agenda to derail democracy in Pakistan and we reject all of his demands," Sharif told a news conference.

Qadri's appeal has cast fresh uncertainty over the government's effort to become the first civilian Pakistani administration to complete a full term.

The military has ruled Pakistan for over half of its 65 years since independence. Current chief General Ashfaq Kayani has vowed to keep the military out of politics.

Prime Minister Ashraf remained a free man on Wednesday since officials said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which would carry out the arrest, had not yet received direct orders.

The officials said the NAB chief would go the Supreme Court on Thursday to discuss the issue.

The ruling coalition, led by the Pakistan People's Party, has a majority in parliament and its lawmakers can simply elect another prime minister if Ashraf is ousted.

In June, Ashraf replaced Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court in a previous showdown between the government and the judiciary.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Andrew Roche)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

France launches ground campaign against Mali rebels

BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - French troops launched their first ground assault against Islamist rebels in Mali on Wednesday in a broadening of their operation against battle-hardened al Qaeda-linked fighters who have resisted six days of air strikes.

France has called for international support against the Islamist insurgents it says pose a threat to Africa and the West, acknowledging it faces a long fight against the well-equipped fighters who seized Mali's vast desert north last year.

After Islamist pledges to exact revenge for France's intervention, militants claimed responsibility for a raid on a gas field in Mali's neighbor Algeria.

Mauritanian media said an al Qaeda-linked group claimed to have seized as many as 41 hostages, including seven Americans, in the attack, carried out in retaliation for Algeria allowing France to use its air space. Three people, among them one British and one French citizen, were reported killed.

French army chief Edouard Guillaud said his ground forces were stepping up their operation to engage directly "within hours" with the alliance of Islamist fighters in Mali that groups al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM with the country's home-grown Ansar Dine and MUJWA militant movements.

Residents said a column of about 30 French Sagaie armored vehicles advanced toward rebel positions from the town of Niono, 300 km (190 miles) from the capital Bamako. With the Malian army securing the northern border region near Mauritania, Islamist fighters were pinned down in the town of Diabaly.

"Fighting is taking place. So far it is just shooting from distance," said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a spokesman for the MUJWA militants. "They have not been able to enter Diabaly."

West African military chiefs said the French would soon be supported by around 2,000 troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and other regional powers - part a U.N.-mandated deployment which had been expected to start in September but was kick-started by the French intervention.

"They are coming to fight and not for a parade. We are coming for battle and that is clear," said Ivory Coast's General Soumaila Bakayoko, who presided over a meeting on the regional force in Bamako.

The first 900 Nigerians would arrive on Thursday he said. Witnesses told Reuters they had seen another 200 troops from Niger waiting to cross into eastern Mali in a convoy including armored vehicles, artillery and fuel tankers.

Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat told Radio France International his country alone would send 2,000 troops, suggesting plans for the regional force were already growing.

Military experts say any delay in following up this week's air strikes on Islamist bases with a ground push could allow the rebels to withdraw into the desert, reorganize and mount a counter-offensive.

Guillaud said France's air strikes, involving Rafale and Mirage jet fighters, were being hampered because militants were using the civilian population as a shield.

"We categorically refuse to make the civilian population take a risk. If in doubt, we will not shoot," he said.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian acknowledged France faced a difficult operation, particularly in western Mali where AQIM's mostly foreign fighters have camps. Mauritania has pledged to close its porous frontier to the Islamists.

"It's tough. We were aware from the beginning it would be a very difficult operation," Le Drian said.

REGIONAL RISKS

President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday French forces would remain in Mali until stability returned. However France hoped to hand over to African forces in its former colony, "in the coming days or weeks", he added.

The troops from Nigeria and other regional powers will join about 1,700 French troops involved in the operation, part of a contingent expected to reach 2,500 soldiers. France is using Harfang surveillance drones to guide its strikes and also plans to deploy Tiger attack helicopters.

A Malian military source said French special forces units were taking part in the operation.

While many French troops come battle-hardened from Afghanistan, some regional African forces may need to adjust to desert combat far removed from the jungle terrain many are used to. A contingent of some 200 EU military trainers, led by a French general, is not expected before mid-February.

With African states facing huge logistical and transport challenges to deploy their troops, Germany promised two Transall military transport planes to help fly in the soldiers.

Britain has already supplied two giant C-17 military transport planes - larger than France's five C-135 planes - to ferry in French armored vehicles and medical supplies. The United States is considering logistical and surveillance support but has ruled out sending in U.S. troops.

Hollande's intervention in Mali brings risks for eight French hostages held by AQIM in the Sahara as well as the 30,000 French citizens living across West Africa. A French helicopter pilot was killed on Friday, France's only combat death so far.

Even before the attack in Algeria, security experts had warned that the multinational intervention in Mali could provoke a jihadist backlash against France and the West, and African allies.

The conflict in Mali also raised concerns across mostly Muslim West Africa of a radicalization of Islam in the region.

Many inhabitants of northern Mali have welcomed the French attacks against Islamists who have imposed a harsh form of sharia law, cutting off hands and feet for crimes, and destroyed the ancient city of Timbuktu's famed shrines.

The International Criminal Court announced on Wednesday it had launched an investigation into suspected war crimes including murder, mutilation, torture, rape, and executions committed in the north.

Despite the abuses, Mahamadou Abdoulaye, 35, a truck driver who fled from the northern Gao region of Mali into Niger, said the Islamists were still managing to attract recruits.

"We were all afraid. Many young fighters have enrolled with them recently. They are newly arrived, they cannot manage their weapons properly. There's fear on everybody's face," he said.

(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra in Bamako, Lamine Chikhi in Algiers, Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; Writing by Joe Bavier and Daniel Flynn; Editing by David Lewis and Andrew Heavens)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Floods paralyze Indonesian capital, heavy rains continue

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Heavy monsoon rain triggered severe flooding in large swathes of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Thursday, bringing the city to a halt with many government offices and businesses forced to close because staff could not get to work.

At least 20,000 people were forced from their homes in the capital and weather officials warned the rain could get worse over the next few days.

"Rain will continue to fall in the greater Jakarta area ... the potential for flooding remains," a spokesman for the Meteorology Climatology Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told Reuters. He said rain was expected to remain heavy in mountains above Jakarta, often the source of floodwater.

Four people were reported to have been killed, according to the National Disaster Prevention Agency, which urged residents to stay at home to reduce traffic congestion on blocked roads.

Torrential rain was reported across much of the country, including the main island of Java and heavily agricultural area of southern Sumatra.

However, officials said there had been no reports of any serious damage to key crops such as rice, sugar and palm oil.

An estimated more than 175 mm (7 inches) of rain fell in one part of west Jakarta between 7 a.m. and midday.

"In 30 years of my life here it has never flooded, ever. This is the very first time," said Ninuk, 30, a resident of central Jakarta.

Floods even forced the country's anti-corruption agency to move some of its most prominent prison inmates, including a former deputy head of the central bank, to a notorious women's prison, Pondok Bambu, in east Jakarta, a spokesman said

The flooding will put pressure on the capital's popular new governor, Joko Widodo, who came to office last October with promises to work to fix a huge array of basic infrastructure problems that bedevil the city of about 10 million people.

"The government has to do something to prevent floods ... If it needs to build stronger dykes, then build them," said Syaiful Bakhri, a taxi driver whose car was stuck in the flood.

In the centre of Jakarta, where streets are jammed at the best of times, long lines of idled cars waited for waist-deep water to recede. An inflatable dinghy provided by emergency services ferried people to safety across water dividing the heart of the city.

The city's main airport was open but many roads leading to it were reportedly blocked. Most commuter trains and buses were suspended.

The Jakarta Stock Exchange did open but trading was light.

Flooding was even reported at the presidential palace, forcing the postponement of a meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his visiting Argentine counterpart, Cristina Fernandez.

(Additional reporting by Michael Taylor and Janeman Latul; Writing by Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by Robert Birsel)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

London station briefly evacuated after train fire

LONDON (Reuters) - London's Victoria Station was briefly evacuated during the Thursday rush hour after a fire under a train that was pulling up to a platform, British transport police said.

There were no casualties, a spokesman said, adding the station was being re-opened.

The train was a Gatwick Express service linking central London to the international airport at Gatwick, south of the capital. The train operator said on its Twitter feed that the fire had been put out.

It and other companies operating trains in and out of Victoria - a major transport hub - issued warnings of delays and disruption.

The Victoria incident comes a day after a helicopter clipped a crane and crashed into a road in central London during Wednesday's rush hour, killing two people and causing traffic chaos. Traffic in the Vauxhall area, which is a short distance from Victoria, was still disrupted on Thursday morning.

Thursday's incident caused a flurry of tweets from stressed-out Londoners. "Helicopter crash yesterday and now Gatwick Express on fire at Victoria. What is happening #londonsburning" asked one commuter.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by John Stonestreet)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Suu Kyi's party accepts crony donations in reform-era Myanmar

YANGON (Reuters) - Cronies of Myanmar's military junta which kept democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for nearly two decades have reached a milestone in their quest to rehabilitate their image: they're now donors to Suu Kyi's political party.

While the Nobel Peace laureate's willingness to accept military-tainted funds for education projects might jar with her international image, her supporters praised the move as politically shrewd and financially necessary.

Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), accepted 211.5 million kyat ($250,000) at a fundraising concert from companies owned by Western-blacklisted businessmen who made fortunes under the military dictatorship that ruled Myanmar for almost half a century.

The donations have caused barely a stir in Myanmar, a sign of how much Suu Kyi is revered and of how successfully the cronies have repositioned themselves since a reformist government came to power in March 2011. Some see it as a sign of reconciliation after five decades of military misrule.

AGB Bank, owned by self-proclaimed billionaire Tay Za, once described by the U.S. Treasury as "a notorious regime henchman and arms dealer", donated 40 million kyat ($47,000) to Suu Kyi's party at a December concert.

The wife of Kyaw Win, a tycoon who owns the conglomerate Shwe Than Lwin and private television station SkyNet, donated a further 41.5 million kyat ($50,000) in an auction for one of two sweaters knitted by Suu Kyi, while SkyNet itself donated 130 million kyat ($151,430).

"All the money we have raised is for educational purposes, and has nothing to do with the rest of the party," said Myint Myint Sein, who is responsible for the NLD's humanitarian and education policies.

A top official said the party was "very thankful" for the donations. "I am sure all party members are happy about this," said Naing Naing, who sits on the NLD's Central Executive Committee.

Tay Za and many other well-connected businessmen remain on Western blacklists despite the suspension last year of most sanctions against the government following a year of dramatic reforms, including amnesty for hundreds of political prisoners.

Many people loathe and mistrust them for their tacit support of a brutal regime, conspicuous flaunting of wealth and continued domination of many sectors of Myanmar's economy.

"CHANCE TO MEND THEIR WAYS"

Opposition leader Suu Kyi, who spent a total of 17 years under house arrest until she was freed in 2010, defended her actions last week, saying it was better to donate money for good purposes rather than waste it.

"Anybody should be given a chance to mend their ways, no matter how much wrong they have done," she said.

Her association with what she called "those so-called cronies" seems not to have harmed her reputation, already dented by criticisms that she has not stood up for ethnic victims of state-sponsored violence.

Some supporters on Facebook, the main forum for popular political discussion in Myanmar, have nicknamed Suu Kyi "Robin Suu", a reference to the English outlaw Robin Hood who stole from the rich to give to the poor.

"I don't think it is a major scandal," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK. "We've not seen any evidence yet that receiving donations from cronies is going to have an effect on policy. The NLD don't have many policies to implement yet."

The donations are vital to a party which lacks a mechanism to raise funds from its million-plus members, most of whom are poor.

"In politics, funding is essential to survive," said Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador to Myanmar. "It has to come from local sources. Provided the 'cronies' fund the right projects, why should we complain? The Burmese people certainly won't."

By accepting donations from Myanmar's richest civilians, Suu Kyi's party is extending a hand to key players in the country's economic recovery, said Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar.

"The cronies have a tremendous economic stake in the future of the country. It's most important to bring them under the rule of law," he said.

Both Suu Kyi and her funders are planning for a 2015 general election, in which the NLD faces an unpopular but well-funded rival party established under the former junta.

(Writing by Paul Carsten; Additional reporting by Min Zayar Oo in Yangon; Editing by Jason Szep and Robert Birsel)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Firebrand cleric raises fear of "soft coup" in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - To Pakistan's ruling party, a firebrand cleric camped outside parliament with thousands of protesters is looking more and more like the harbinger of their worst fear: a plan by the military to engineer a "soft coup".

In their eyes, Muhammad Tahirul Qadri seems like the perfect candidate for such a mission. A practiced orator who has electrified crowds with his anti-corruption rhetoric, the doctor of Islamic law leapt into action to back the last power grab by the army in 1999.

The aim this time, some politicians suspect, is to use Qadri to bring down the current administration and provide a pretext for the army to hand pick a caretaker cabinet.

"What we are seeing is dangerous and evidence that unconstitutional third forces are up to their tricks again," said Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a politician who has been a frequent critic of the army's record of interfering in politics.

The military has denied any link to Qadri, and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani has built up a reputation for standing more aloof from politics than predecessors who have not hesitated to dismiss civilian governments. Pakistan has been ruled by the military for more than half of its 65 years as an independent nation.

Critics note, furthermore, that the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which has a long record of confrontation with the military, has often been quick to portray itself as a victim of bullying by the military to distract attention from its shortcomings.

But the timing of Qadri's return from six years of living in Canada, just a few months before elections are due, and his role in supporting a 1999 coup by former army chief Pervez Musharraf have nonetheless rung alarm bells.

Qadri, who led a convoy of buses carrying thousands of protesters into the capital, Islamabad, on Monday, has repeatedly demanded that the army should have a say in the formation of an interim administration that is due to oversee the run-up to elections in May.

"You meet army officers in the night; I'm asking that you consult with them on the caretaker set up under the sunlight," Qadri said in a speech on Tuesday in remarks clearly addressed to the government.

The PPP's fears over the potential for military meddling centre on the impending formation of a caretaker cabinet.

Pakistan passed a constitutional amendment last year that requires the government and opposition to agree on the composition of the temporary administration.

The amendment is designed to prevent any ruling party exploiting the advantages of incumbency to manipulate elections by using state power to skew the playing field.

The PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League, the main opposition party, have spent months negotiating a list of mutually acceptable names for the transitional cabinet, including a number of politicians noted for resisting military rule.

"The PPP has lost three generations of leaders fighting against dictatorships," said a senior member of the PPP. "You think we will give up now? We will take up this battle at all levels."

CONTEMPT

Military officers privately do little to conceal their contempt for the PPP, whose government has been unable to end militant violence, bring down sharp food price inflation or get the economy on track since it took power in March, 2008.

They are also dismissive of the Pakistan Muslim League.

One officer, speaking in a personal capacity, said the army had no desire to seize power but might be forced to play a role as mediator between political factions if the cleric's protests trigger a prolonged crisis.

"If this gets worse, then the army may have to intervene (as a moderator)," he told Reuters.

After years of suspicion and ill-will between the generals and the PPP-led coalition led by President Asif Ali Zardari, Qadri's protests have seemed to signal a shift in the political landscape, with unpredictable consequences.

"We can't say who is behind him. But all we know is that he can't pull this off without backing from someone," Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the veteran leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Pakistan's biggest religious party, said on television.

The political temperature soared even higher on Tuesday when Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in connection with a corruption case. Authorities have yet to carry out his instructions.

An aide to Ashraf said the military was behind this move as well, but the chief justice is known to be independent-minded.

If Qadri succeeds in bringing down the government, then a man whose name had faded from the limelight since he left Pakistan for Canada in 2006 will have sabotaged the PPP's bid to be the first civilian government to complete a full term.

That would undermine Pakistan's struggle to bury the legacy of decades of military dictatorship by building institutions strong enough to resolve the nuclear-armed country's multiple crises.

The military has a track record of picking interim administrations in past decades that have then overstepped their mandates by hounding the army's political opponents or manipulating elections.

Army officers in Bangladesh, which was part of Pakistan until it broke away in 1971, have used a similar approach to appoint a technocratic government to implement reforms.

But some commentators and Western diplomats argue that times have changed and the military has lost the appetite for embroiling itself in struggles with increasingly assertive political parties and a hyperactive media.

"The military has no interest in disrupting the path to elections: in fact their interest is the opposite, supporting the transfer of power from one elected government to another, which is a political milestone in Pakistan's history," said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington.

Much will depend on whether Qadri has enough rhetorical firepower left to persuade his followers to maintain their protest, or whether the government decides to order the police to apply pressure to disperse them.

"There is nothing wrong with raising your concerns and protesting," said Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira. "But if you try to hold the capital hostage and disrupt the lives of its people, the law will take its course."

(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy and Mubasher Bukhari; Editing by Michael Georgy, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Robert Birsel)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Massacre of over 100 reported in Syria's Homs

BEIRUT (Reuters) - More than 100 people were shot, stabbed or possibly burned to death by government forces in the Syrian city of Homs, a monitoring group said on Thursday, and fierce fighting raged across the country.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said women and children were among the 106 people killed by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad forces who stormed Basatin al-Hasawiya, a poor district on the edge of Homs, on Tuesday.

The massacre in the central city came the same day twin explosions killed over 80 people at Aleppo's university in the north, according to the group.

Reuters cannot independently confirm reports due to reporting restrictions in Syria.

Syrian warplanes and troops pursued a countrywide offensive on Thursday, activists and state media said, bombing rebel-held areas and clashing with insurgents who have pushed into cities.

Government forces clashed on Thursday with insurgents in the cities of Deraa, Hama, Homs, Aleppo, Damascus and east of Deir al-Zor, the Observatory said. Only the coastal Assad strongholds of Latakia and Tartous were spared violence.

Opposition activists said 15 people, including 7 children, were killed when an air strike hit a family home in Husseiniyeh, a suburb on the outskirts of the capital.

They sent Reuters footage of people dragging the limp bodies of children out of the rubble.

In Hama province, the government said it had secured some areas and displaced families were returning to the area of Zor Abi Zaid after armed forces "cleansed the area completely of terrorists", a term authorities use for the rebels.

Activists and Turkish news agencies reported renewed clashes on the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain, where rebel forces have been fighting armed Kurdish groups for control.

The local Turkish Dogan news agency said one man on the Turkish side of the border was wounded by a stray bullet overnight and that schools in the area had been closed due to the clashes on the Syrian side.

In the power vacuum, some Kurdish groups are trying to assert control over parts of Syria through fights with rebels and government forces. The Observatory said clashes broke out between Kurdish militants and the Syrian army in Rameilan, a town in the northeast.

FAMILY OF 17 REPORTED KILLED

Activists said 17 members of the Khazam family had been killed during Tuesday's raid on Basatin al-Hasawiya.

"The Observatory has the names of 14 members of one family, including three children, and information on other families who were completely killed, including one of 32 people," Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory, told Reuters.

"This needs to be investigated by the United Nations," said Abdelrahman, a Syrian who has documented human rights violations in Syria since 2006 and now reports on killings by both sides.

The United Nations says 60,000 have been killed in the 22-month-old conflict. Several massacres have been reported, most blamed on pro-Assad forces but some also on rebel fighters.

The town of Houla in Homs province was the scene in May 2011 of the killings of 108 people, including nine children and 34 women, which U.N. monitors blamed on the army and pro-Assad militia.

The United Nations sent observers to Syria in April 2011 but after several attacks on their convoys they left in August, complaining both sides had chosen the path of war.

Abu Yazen, an opposition activist in Homs, said the rebel Free Syrian Army occasionally entered the farmland of Basatin al-Hasawiya to attack a nearby military academy.

"Assad's forces punish civilians for allowing the rebels to enter the area," he said. Other activists said the raid was carried out by pro-Assad militia.

The government and opposition blame each other for two explosions at Aleppo's university on Tuesday which killed at least 87 people, many of them students attending exams, in the deadliest attack on civilians to hit the commercial hub since rebels laid siege to it over the summer.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the attack was "beyond horrific".

"According to eyewitnesses, regime jets launched the strikes," she said on her Twitter account.

Russia, which has backed Assad throughout the revolt both in rhetoric and through its veto of U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning Assad, dismissed suggestions Damascus was behind the explosions.

"I cannot imagine any bigger blasphemy," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists during a visit to Tajikistan.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon and Alex Dziadosz in Beirut, Roman Kozhevnikov in Dushanbe, Russia, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Jonathon Burch in Ankara; Editing by Andrew Roche)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More

Algerian forces launch operation to break desert siege

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Twenty-five foreign hostages escaped and six were killed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched an operation to free them at a remote desert gas plant, Algerian sources said, as one of the biggest international hostage crises in decades unfolded.

The standoff began when gunmen calling themselves the Battalion of Blood stormed the gas facility on Wednesday morning. They said they were holding 41 foreigners and demanded a halt to a French military operation against fellow al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in neighboring Mali.

The raid increased fears that jihadist militants could launch further attacks in Algeria, a vast desert country with large oil and gas reserves that is only just recovering from a protracted conflict with Islamist rebels during the 1990s which cost an estimated 200,000 lives.

Fast-moving details of the military operation to free the hostages from the gas plant were difficult to confirm. Algeria's official APS news agency said about half the foreign hostages had been freed.

A local source told Reuters six foreign hostages were killed along with eight captors when the Algerian military fired on a vehicle being used by the gunmen.

Mauritania's ANI news agency, which has been in constant contact with the kidnappers, said seven hostages were still being held: two Americans, three Belgians, one Japanese and one British citizen.

It quoted one of the kidnappers as saying that Algerian ground forces were trying to fight their way into the complex.

ANI and Qatar-based Al Jazeera reported that 34 of the captives and 15 of their captors had been killed when government forces fired from helicopters at a vehicle. Those death tolls, far higher than confirmed by the local source, would contradict the reports that large numbers of foreigners escaped alive.

Britain and Norway, whose oil firms BP and Statoil run the plant jointly with the Algerian state oil company, said they had been informed by the Algerian authorities that a military operation was under way but did not provide details.

As many as 600 Algerian workers at the site managed to flee, the official Algerian news agency said.

RAISING THE STAKES

The incident dramatically raises the stakes in the French military campaign in neighboring Mali, where hundreds of French paratroopers and marines are launching a ground offensive against rebels after air strikes began last week.

Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said the kidnappers were led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran Islamist guerrilla who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s and had set up his own group in the Sahara after falling out with other local al Qaeda leaders.

A holy warrior-cum-smuggler dubbed "The Uncatchable" by French intelligence and "Mister Marlboro" by some locals for his illicit cigarette-running business, Belmokhtar's links to those who seized towns across northern Mali last year are unclear.

The hostage takers earlier allowed some prisoners to speak to the media, apparently to put pressure on Algerian forces not to storm the compound. An unidentified hostage who spoke to France 24 television said prisoners were forced to wear explosive belts and captors had threatened to blow up the plant.

A local source told Reuters the hostage takers had blown up a petrol filling station at the plant.

Two hostages, identified as British and Irish, spoke to Al Jazeera television and called on the Algerian army to withdraw from the area to avoid casualties.

"We are receiving care and good treatment from the kidnappers. The (Algerian) army did not withdraw and they are firing at the camp," the British man said. "There are around 150 Algerian hostages. We say to everybody that negotiations is a sign of strength and will spare many any loss of life."

Ireland said later that the Irish hostage was among those freed.

NUMBERS UNCONFIRMED

The precise number and nationalities of foreign hostages could not be confirmed, with some countries reluctant to release information that could be useful to the captors.

Britain said one of its citizens was killed in the initial storming on Wednesday and "a number" of others were held.

The militants said seven Americans were among their hostages, a figure U.S. officials said they could not confirm.

Norwegian oil company Statoil said nine of its Norwegian staff and three Algerian employees were captive. Britain's BP, which operates the plant with Statoil and Algerian state oil company Sonatrach, said some of its staff were held but would not say how many or their nationalities.

Japanese media said five workers from Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp. were held, a number the company did not confirm. Paris has not said whether any hostages were French. Vienna said one hostage was Austrian, Dublin said one was Irish and Bucharest said an unspecified number were Romanian.

Spanish oil company Cepsa said it had begun to evacuate personnel from elsewhere in Algeria, an OPEC member.

Paris said the Algeria attack demonstrated it was right to intervene in Mali: "We have the flagrant proof that this problem goes beyond just the north of Mali," French ambassador to Mali Christian Rouyer told France Inter radio.

President Francois Hollande has received public backing from Western and African allies who fear that al Qaeda, flush with men and arms from the defeated forces of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, is building a desert haven in Mali, a poor country helpless to combat fighters who seized its north last year.

However, there is also some concern in Washington and other capitals that the French action in Mali could provoke a backlash worse than the initial threat by militants in the remote Sahara.

The militants, communicating through established contacts with media in neighboring Mauritania, said they had dozens of men armed with mortars and anti-aircraft missiles in the compound and had rigged it with explosives.

"We hold the Algerian government and the French government and the countries of the hostages fully responsible if our demands are not met, and it is up to them to stop the brutal aggression against our people in Mali," read one statement carried by Mauritanian media.

They condemned Algeria's secularist government for letting French warplanes fly over its territory to Mali and shutting its border to Malian refugees.

PRESSING ON

The attack in Algeria did not stop France from pressing on with its campaign in Mali. It said on Thursday it now had 1,400 troops on the ground in Mali, and combat was underway against the rebels that it first began targeting from the air last week.

"There was combat yesterday, on the ground and in the air. It happened overnight and is under way now," said Le Drian. Residents said a column of about 30 French Sagaie armored vehicles set off on Wednesday toward rebel positions from the town of Niono, 300 km (190 miles) from the capital, Bamako.

The French action last week came as a surprise but received widespread international support in public. Neighboring African countries planning to provide ground troops for a U.N. force by September have said they will move faster to deploy them.

Nigeria, the strongest regional power, sent 162 soldiers on Thursday, the first of an anticipated 906.

"The whole world clearly needs to unite and do much more than is presently being done to contain terrorism, with its very negative impact on global peace and security," President Goodluck Jonathan said.

Germany, Britain and the Netherlands have offered transport aircraft to help ferry in African troops. Washington has said it is considering what support it can offer.

Many inhabitants of northern Mali have welcomed the French action, though some also fear being caught in the cross-fire. The Mali rebels who seized Timbuktu and other oasis towns in northern Mali last year imposed Islamic law, including public amputations and beheadings that angered many locals.

A day after launching the campaign in Mali, Hollande also ordered a failed rescue in Somalia on Saturday to free a French hostage held by al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants since 2009. Al Shabaab said on Thursday it had executed hostage Denis Allex. France said it believed he died in the rescue.

(Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood)

00.25 | 0 komentar | Read More