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Argos Media

Interrogation Memos Detail Harsh Tactics by the C.I.A. - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...17detain.html

US Torture CIA ACLU Dennis Blair Leon Panetta Jay Bybee Office of Legal Counsel Abu Zubaydah John Yoo

shared by Argos Media on 17 Apr 09 - Cached
  • The Justice Department on Thursday made public detailed memos describing brutal interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency, as President Obama sought to reassure the agency that the C.I.A. operatives involved would not be prosecuted.
  • In dozens of pages of dispassionate legal prose, the methods approved by the Bush administration for extracting information from senior operatives of Al Qaeda are spelled out in careful detail — like keeping detainees awake for up to 11 straight days, placing them in a dark, cramped box or putting insects into the box to exploit their fears.
  • The interrogation methods were authorized beginning in 2002, and some were used as late as 2005 in the C.I.A.’s secret overseas prisons.
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  • Some senior Obama administration officials, including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., have labeled one of the 14 approved techniques, waterboarding, illegal torture.
  • The United States prosecuted some Japanese interrogators at war crimes trials after World War II for waterboarding and other methods detailed in the memos.
  • Together, the four memos give an extraordinarily detailed account of the C.I.A.’s methods and the Justice Department’s long struggle, in the face of graphic descriptions of brutal tactics, to square them with international and domestic law. Passages describing forced nudity, the slamming of detainees into walls, prolonged sleep deprivation and the dousing of detainees with water as cold as 41 degrees alternate with elaborate legal arguments concerning the international Convention Against Torture.
  • The documents were released with minimal redactions, indicating that President Obama sided against current and former C.I.A. officials who for weeks had pressed the White House to withhold details about specific interrogation techniques.
  • Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, had argued that revealing such information set a dangerous precedent for future disclosures of intelligence sources and methods.
  • A more pressing concern for the C.I.A. is that the revelations may give new momentum to proposals for a full-blown investigation into Bush administration counterterrorism programs and possible torture prosecutions.
  • Mr. Obama said that C.I.A. officers who were acting on the Justice Department’s legal advice would not be prosecuted, but he left open the possibility that anyone who acted without legal authorization could still face criminal penalties. He did not address whether lawyers who authorized the use of the interrogation techniques should face some kind of penalty.
  • Mr. Obama condemned what he called a “dark and painful chapter in our history” and said that the interrogation techniques would never be used again. But he also repeated his opposition to a lengthy inquiry into the program, saying that “nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.”
  • The four legal opinions, released in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the A.C.L.U., were written in 2002 and 2005 by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the highest authority in interpreting the law in the executive branch.
  • The first of the memos, from August 2002, was signed by Jay S. Bybee, who oversaw the Office of Legal Counsel, and gave the C.I.A. its first detailed legal approval for waterboarding and other harsh treatment.
  • Three others, signed by Steven G. Bradbury, sought to reassure the agency in May 2005 that its methods were still legal, even when multiple methods were used in combination, and despite the prohibition in international law against “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment.
  • All legal opinions on interrogation were revoked by Mr. Obama on his second day in office, when he also outlawed harsh interrogations and ordered the C.I.A.’s secret prisons closed.
  • They recounted the C.I.A.’s assertions of the effectiveness of the techniques but noted that interrogators could not always tell a prisoner who was withholding information from one who had no more information to offer.
  • The memos include what in effect are lengthy excerpts from the agency’s interrogation manual, laying out with precision how each method was to be used. Waterboarding, for example, involved strapping a prisoner to a gurney inclined at an angle of “10 to 15 degrees” and pouring water over a cloth covering his nose and mouth “from a height of approximately 6 to 18 inches” for no more than 40 seconds at a time.
  • But a footnote to a 2005 memo made it clear that the rules were not always followed. Waterboarding was used “with far greater frequency than initially indicated” and with “large volumes of water” rather than the small quantities in the rules, one memo says, citing a 2004 report by the C.I.A.’s inspector general.
  • Most of the methods have been previously described in news accounts and in a 2006 report of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which interviewed 14 detainees. But one previously unknown tactic the C.I.A. proposed — but never used — against Abu Zubaydah, a terrorist operative, involved exploiting what was thought to be his fear of insects.
  • “As we understand it, you plan to inform Zubaydah that you are going to place a stinging insect into the box, but you will actually place a harmless insect in the box, such as a caterpillar,” one memo says.
  • Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, cautioned that the memos were written at a time when C.I.A. officers were frantically working to prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “Those methods, read on a bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009, appear graphic and disturbing,” said Mr. Blair in a written statement. “But we will absolutely defend those who relied on these memos.”
Argos Media

North Korea: Sanctions a declaration of war - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

North Korea UN US Nuclear Proliferation

shared by Argos Media on 19 Apr 09 - Cached
  • North Korea said Saturday any sanctions or pressure applied against it following its rocket launch earlier this month will be considered a "declaration of war."
  • In an announcement on state-run television, the country said it was ready to step up efforts to develop nuclear weapons and poised for a military response to any moves against it.
  • "The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK are always keeping themselves fully ready to go into action any moment to mercilessly punish anyone who encroaches upon the sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK even a bit," it said.
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  • "The Korean People's Army will consider sanctions to be applied against the DPRK under various names over its satellite launch or any pressure to be put upon it through 'total participation' in the PSI (Proliferation Security Initiative) as a declaration of undisguised confrontation and a declaration of a war against the DPRK," the announcement on state TV said.
  • "Now that the group officially declared confrontation and war against the DPRK, its revolutionary armed forces will opt for increasing the nation's defense capability including nuclear deterrent in every way, without being bound to the agreement adopted at the six-party talks," it continued, apparently referring to the Security Council.
  • Referring to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the statement added, "The Lee group of traitors should never forget that Seoul is just 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the Military Demarcation Line."
  • A Friday report North Korea's official KCNA news agency, seemed to blame the "war hysteria" on the United States and South Korea after the two countries carried out a combined air force operation in South Korea.
  • The "'South Korea-U.S. military alliance' oft-repeated by them is, in essence, nothing but a 'war alliance' and 'alliance for aggression' aimed at invading the DPRK," the report said. "When a nuclear war will break out due to the war chariot of the 'South Korea-U.S. military alliance' is a matter of time," it said. "The U.S. and South Korean warmongers would be well advised to stop acting rashly, properly understanding who their rival is." E-mail to a friend Share this on: Mixx Digg Facebook del.icio.us reddit StumbleUpon MySpace | Mixx it | Share
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Technology | Net firms start storing user data - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7985339.stm

Privacy Online Communications

shared by Argos Media on 07 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Details of user e-mails and net phone calls will be stored by internet service providers (ISPs) from Monday under an EU directive.
  • The plans were drawn up in the wake of the London bombings in 2005.
  • All ISPs in the European Union will have to store the records for a year. An EU directive which requires telecoms firms to hold on to telephone records for 12 months is already in force.
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  • Sweden has decided to ignore the directive completely while there is a challenge going through the German courts at present.
  • The data stored does not include the content of e-mails or a recording of a net phone call, but is used to determine connections between individuals. Authorities can get access to the stored records with a warrant.
  • Isabella Sankey, Policy Director at Liberty, said the directive formalised what had already been taking place under voluntary arrangement for years. "The problem is that this regime allows not just police to access this information but hundreds of other public bodies."
Argos Media

Obama Seizes on Missile Launch in Seeking Nuclear Cuts - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...06prexy.html

North Korea Iran US China Russia Czech Republic Susan Rice Igor Schcherbak Yesui Zhang Nuclear Proliferation UN

shared by Argos Media on 06 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Mr. Obama said that his administration would “reduce the role of nuclear weapons” in its national security strategy, and would urge other countries to do the same. He pointed to the agreement he reached last week with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia to begin negotiations on reducing warheads and stockpiles, and said the two countries would try to reach an agreement by the end of the year. He also promised to aggressively pursue American ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which in the past has faced strong opposition in Congress.
  • “We think that what was launched is not the issue; the fact that there was a launch using ballistic missile technology is itself a clear violation,” said Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador.
  • China left its position ambiguous, although diplomats said that at the initial meeting it stressed that the North Koreans had a right like any other country to launch satellites. “Our position is that all countries concerned should show restraint and refrain from taking actions that might lead to increased tensions,” Yesui Zhang, the Chinese ambassador, told reporters.
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  • Igor N. Schcherbak, the Russian envoy, said that his country did not think it was a violation of the previous resolutions banning ballistic missiles, but he left some wriggle room by saying that Russia was studying the matter.
  • In his speech, Mr. Obama said he still planned to continue with missile defense, but he tied the need for such a system to any Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons. Russia opposes locating a defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, as current plans call for, and Mr. Obama has responded by pushing the Russians to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
  • “Let me be clear: Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not just to the United States, but to Iran’s neighbors and our allies,” Mr. Obama said. “The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles. As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven.”
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Lahore 'was Pakistan Taleban op' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7973540.stm

Pakistan Therik-e-Taliban Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud

shared by Argos Media on 31 Mar 09 - Cached
  • The chief of the Pakistani Taleban, Baitullah Mehsud, has told the BBC his group was behind Monday's deadly attack on a police academy in Lahore. He said the attack was "in retaliation for the continued drone strikes by the US in collaboration with Pakistan on our people".
  • Baitullah Mehsud said the attacks would continue "until the Pakistan government stops supporting the Americans".
  • Baitullah Mehsud is the supreme commander of the Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan group (Movement of Taleban in Pakistan). He operates out of a stronghold in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan and the US state department recently issued a $5m (£3.5m) reward for his capture.
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  • Baitullah Mehsud warned the attacks would continue in Pakistan and threatened future attacks on American soil, while he shrugged off the risk of "martyrdom".
  • Different Taleban factions in the border region, including Baitullah Mehsud's, have joined forces in readiness to confront the planned American troop increase in Afghanistan, she says. Meanwhile, as the Pakistan government attempts to build a national consensus to fight the Taleban, it is faced with trying to overcome deep opposition among its people to an American role in that struggle.
Pedro Gonçalves

Ad of the Day: Coca-Cola Tries to 'Open Happiness' Between India and Pakistan | Adweek - 0 views

www.adweek.com/...ad-day-coca-cola-149676

Coca-Cola India Pakistan Cola Diplomacy Branding

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 21 May 13 - No Cached
  • Cola diplomacy runs the risk of coming across as painfully naive by oversimplifying a complex issue that's tangled up in a long history of imperialism, religious conflict and nuclear stand-off, to name a few factors. Coke frames this powder keg of a problem as, on some level, simply one of miscommunication—because that's small enough that the brand can then frame itself as the solution. Sure, more understanding and common ground isn't a bad thing, and Coke takes some pains to temper the portrayal of its own success, erring on the side of aspirational everyman/everywoman voiceover platitudes throughout the spot (e.g., "We are going to take minor steps so that we are going to solve bigger issues.") But really, what the brand is taking minor steps toward is selling more sugar water in a way that isn't explicitly about selling more sugar water, and has at least the veneer of a higher purpose.
  • the social-media zeitgeist holds that doing good is good for business. Yes, a warm-and-fuzzy video like this has some entertainment value, and it's is certainly more palatable—and arguably more effective—than a hard-sell product spot. But doesn't distilling a geopolitical conflict into short-form branded content do more harm than good by trivializing it? Or if everyone just drank a Coke, would they really get along?
Pedro Gonçalves

U.S. seals $3.48 billion weapons deal with United Arab Emirates - Haaretz Daily Newspap... - 0 views

www.haaretz.com/...-united-arab-emirates-1.404721

US UAE Saudi Arabia Military Kuwait

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 31 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • The deal includes 96 missiles, along with supporting technology and training support
  • The deal includes a contract with Lockheed Martin to produce the highly sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, weapon system for the U.A.E.
  • it was the first foreign military sale of the THAAD system.
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  • Wary of Iran, the U.S.has been building up missile defenses of its allies, including a $1.7 billion deal to upgrade Saudi Arabia's Patriot missiles and the sale of 209 Patriot missiles to Kuwait, valued at about $900 million. On Thursday, the Obama administration announced the sale of $30 billion worth of F-15SA fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
  • Under the fighter jet agreement, the U.S.will send Saudi Arabia 84 new fighter jets and upgrades for 70 more.
  • All the sales are part of a larger U.S.effort to realign its defense policies in the Persian Gulf to keep Iran in check.
Pedro Gonçalves

India and Pakistan in first substantive talks since Mumbai | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSTRE6682EA20100709

India Pakistan Kashmir

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 09 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Violent anti-government protests have swept India-controlled Kashmir for almost a month. The region is under an army lockdown.
  • In comments that could reverberate in the talks, Indian officials said the protests may have been incited by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group that Delhi has blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
  • The meeting comes at a time when India has sent in the army to control weeks of violent anti-government protests in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, at the core of its dispute with Pakistan.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Egypt seeks softer US Hamas line - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7949999.stm

Egypt Israel Palestine US Omar Suleiman Middle East Hamas Gaza Fatah

shared by Argos Media on 19 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Egypt's intelligence chief is visiting Washington in what officials say is a push for a more flexible US stance on Hamas, to aid Palestinian unity talks.
  • Talks in Cairo to end the rift between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have faltered over the issue. The division between the factions is also a major barrier to reconstruction in Gaza after Israel's offensive. Cairo's influential head of intelligence, Omar Suleiman, is the chief mediator in the talks aimed at forging a Palestinian national unity government.
  • An unnamed US official told AFP news agency that Mr Suleiman had met US Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Tuesday and might meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.
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  • Egyptian and Palestinian officials told AP news agency that Egypt is suggesting the US would accept a commitment from Hamas to "respect" existing Palestinian agreements with Israel, rather than "commit" to them.
  • Hamas's charter calls for the destruction of Israel, although the group has also offered a long-term truce if Israel withdraws to its pre-5 June 1967 borders.
  • Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit is currently in Brussels for talks with officials including European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | North Korea 'holds US reporters' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7951982.stm

North Korea US

shared by Argos Media on 19 Mar 09 - Cached
  • North Korean soldiers have detained two female US journalists, according to media reports.
  • The BBC's Michael Bristow, who has just returned from the North Korea-China border, says there is a heavy military presence in the area. There are checkpoints every few kilometres, he says, with both Chinese and North Korean soldiers visible from the river banks.
  • On Tuesday the US said North Korea had refused to accept any further food aid supplies, despite the fact the World Food Programme recently estimated that nine million people were in need of food assistance. Five aid groups have been told to leave the North by the end of March, the US state department said.
Argos Media

After Gaza, Israel Grapples With Crisis of Isolation - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...19israel.html

Israel Branding Avigdor Lieberman Hosni Mubarak

shared by Argos Media on 19 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Israel, whose founding idea was branded as racism by the United Nations General Assembly in 1975 and which faced an Arab boycott for decades, is no stranger to isolation. But in the weeks since its Gaza war, and as it prepares to inaugurate a hawkish right-wing government, it is facing its worst diplomatic crisis in two decades.
  • The issue has not gone unnoticed here, but it has generated two distinct and somewhat contradictory reactions. On one hand, there is real concern. Global opinion surveys are being closely examined and the Foreign Ministry has been granted an extra $2 million to improve Israel’s image through cultural and information diplomacy.
  • But there is also a growing sense that outsiders do not understand Israel’s predicament, so criticism is dismissed.“People here feel that no matter what you do you are going to be blamed for all the problems in the Middle East,” said Eytan Gilboa, a professor of politics and international communication at Bar Ilan University. “Even suicide bombings by Palestinians are seen as our fault for not establishing a Palestinian state.”
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  • Javier Solana, foreign policy chief for the European Union, said in Brussels on Monday that the group would reconsider its relationship with Israel if it did not remain committed to establishing a Palestinian state.
  • Mr. Lieberman also has few fans in Egypt, which has acted as an intermediary for Israel in several matters. Some months ago Mr. Lieberman complained that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt had not agreed to come to Israel. “If he doesn’t want to, he can go to hell,” he added.“Imagine that Hossein Mousavi wins the Iranian presidency this spring and he names Mohammad Khatami as his foreign minister,” said Meir Javedanfar, an Iran analyst in Israel, referring to two Iranian leaders widely viewed as in the pragmatist camp. “With Lieberman as foreign minister here, Israel will have a much harder time demonstrating to the world that Iran is the destabilizing factor in the region.”
  • Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has already criticized Israeli plans to demolish Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, and her department has criticized Israel’s banning of certain goods from Gaza.This represents a distinct shift in tone from the Bush era. An internal Israeli Foreign Ministry report during the Gaza war noted that compared with others in the United States, “liberals and Democrats show far less enthusiasm for Israel and its leadership.”
  • Some Israeli officials say they believe that what the country needs is to “rebrand” itself. They say Israel spends far too much time defending actions against its enemies. By doing so, they say, the narrative is always about conflict.“When we show Sderot, others also see Gaza,” said Ido Aharoni, manager of a rebranding team at the Foreign Ministry. “Everything is twinned when seen through the conflict. The country needs to position itself as an attractive personality, to make outsiders see it in all its reality. Instead, we are focusing on crisis management. And that is never going to get us where we need to go over the long term.” Mr. Gilboa, the political scientist, said branding was not enough. “We need to do much more to educate the world about our situation,” he said. Regarding the extra $2 million budgeted for this, he said: “We need 50 million. We need 100 million.”
Argos Media

World news Feed Article | World news | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...8408792

Iran Mir Hossein Mousavi

shared by Argos Media on 18 Mar 09 - Cached
  • "Like you, I believe the correct path is reforms that return to (Islamic) principles but refine them," Mousavi said Tuesday in a message to Khatami
  • "Mousavi is seeking to win the support of both reformers and moderate conservatives," said Tehran-based political analyst Hedayat Aghaei.
  • He clashed with Khamenei — then Iran's president — over political authority and powers. The prime minister post was eliminated after Mousavi's term.
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  • He was firmly part of the political inner circle after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, serving as editor of Jomhuri Eslami, which was the state newspaper at the time. He then was prime minister from 1981-89 — spanning nearly the entire eight-year war with Iraq that left an estimated 1 million dead and plunged Iran into a crippling economic crisis. There were early hints, however, that he chafed against the system even as he was hailed as a revolutionary patriot.
  • Since leaving office, he has generally stayed in the background in advisory roles and as a member of the Expediency Council, which mediates between the parliament and the non-elected Guardian Council, which is directly influenced by the supreme leader.
  • "To hard-liners, Mousavi is a more acceptable version of Khatami. And to reformists, Mousavi is a moderate who won't seek profound changes," said Hasan Vazini, a political commentator at the conservative Tehran-e-Emrooz newspaper. But others believe that this type of middle ground approach will do little to shake Iran's establishment. "(Mousavi) is Ahmadinejad without the invective or anger," said Patrick Clawson, deputy director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "He does not appear to be a bold reformer."
  • Political analyst Vazini said that "with Khatami out of the race, conservatives are not so likely anymore to support Ahmadinejad as their sole candidate." The Islamic Iran Participation Front, the country's largest reformist party, quickly threw its support behind Mousavi, a trained architect who is known as an accomplished amateur painter.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Europe | Crowds march against Naples mafia - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7957269.stm

Italy Mafia Cosa Nostra 'Ndrangheta Camorra Sacra Corona Unita

shared by Argos Media on 22 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Thousands of Italians have marched through Naples in one of the largest anti-mafia protests of recent years. Police said 100,000 people gathered for the protest, held annually on the first day of spring.
  • They called for more police action against mafia clans, who have killed more than 900 people in recent decades.
  • Organised crime in Italy is dominated by four mafia clans: Sicily's Cosa Nostra; the Camorra around Naples; Calabria's 'Ndrangheta; and the Sacra Corona Unita, in Puglia. The Italian authorities have hit the Cosa Nostra hard in recent years, says the BBC's Mark Duff in Milan, but other groups maintain their grip and have seen their influence spread. The global economic downturn has also thrown up fresh money-making opportunities for the mafia - such as lending cash to credit-starved businessmen.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Mousavi enters Iran's June poll - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7935591.stm

Iran Mir Hossein Mousavi

shared by Argos Media on 18 Mar 09 - Cached
  • The influential former Iranian Prime Minister, Mir Hossein Mousavi, will contest the Iranian presidential election on 12 June. Mr Mousavi, who speaks Persian, English and Arabic, held office during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. His candidacy may split voters opposed to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president who is likely to stand again. His rivals include ex-President Mohammad Khatami and Mahdi Karroubi, both of whom are leading moderates.
  • Mr Mousavi was the prime minister under the presidency of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is now the Islamic Republic's supreme leader. He is also a member of Iran's Expediency Council which is the country's top political arbitration body.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | North Korea refuses US food aid - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7949785.stm

North Korea South Korea US

shared by Argos Media on 18 Mar 09 - Cached
  • The US says North Korea has refused to accept any further food aid supplies. Five aid groups have been told to leave the North by the end of March, the State Department and aid groups said.
  • Last year, the UN World Food Programme said that almost nine million people - more than a third of the North Korean population - was in need of food aid.
  • "North Korea has informed the United States that it does not wish to receive additional US food assistance at this time," state department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters in Washington.
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  • Under a deal reached in June last year, the US agreed to distribute 500,000 metric tonnes of food to North Korea - 400,000 through the UN World Food Programme and the rest through NGOs.
  • The United Nations said on Monday that 6.9 million North Koreans have not received food aid they desperately need. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the reclusive state in a famine in the 1990s, and the North has relied on outside food aid ever since.
  • Pyongyang recently put its military on full combat alert and shut its border with the South, in what it said was retaliation for the recent annual military exercise by US and South Korean forces. In January, the North scrapped a series of peace agreements with the South over Seoul's decision to link bilateral aid to progress on de-nuclearisation.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israel's Netanyahu gets more time - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7954559.stm

Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Kadima Likud Israeli Labour Party Tzipi Livni Avigdor Lieberman

shared by Argos Media on 21 Mar 09 - Cached
  • He is trying to convince the Labour Party to join, correspondents say. If he fails to do so, they say, he will be forced to form a narrow coalition with hard-line Israeli parties. The two-week extension sets 3 April as Mr Netanyahu's new deadline.
  • But Mr Netanyahu has also been seeking the support of the centrist Kadima party. If Kadima also joins the coalition line-up, party leader and current Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni could keep her position, although talks have so far proved inconclusive. Ms Livni has demanded Mr Netanyahu sign up to a two-state solution with the Palestinians before she joins the government.
  • If Kadima sees through its stated intention to lead the opposition, Likud is expected to try to bring in smaller hard-line parties like Jewish Home, National Union and United Torah Judaism. That would give it a solid right-wing majority of 65 in the 120-seat parliament.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea confirms reporters held - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7956488.stm

North Korea South Korea US

shared by Argos Media on 21 Mar 09 - Cached
  • North Korea has confirmed the arrest of two female US journalists, saying they were detained for illegally entering North Korean territory.
  • The news came after the North restored a cross-border military hotline with South Korea severed earlier this month. The North also indicated it will reopen a border crossing which links the South with a joint Korean industrial zone, just inside the North.
  • There have been conflicting reports about where the women were detained. South Korean reports have suggested they were on Chinese territory.
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  • The now restored military hotline between the two Koreas is intended as a means of direct communication at a time of high tension. It is used to co-ordinate the movement of goods and people through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, and in its absence officials resorted to exchanging notes by hand.
  • China has voiced its concern over the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's planned rocket launch. The North insists it is preparing to send up a communications satellite - and that any attempt to shoot it down would result in war. The US, Japan and South Korea have all expressed concerns that the North is actually planning to test-fire a long-range missile. North Korea is banned from firing either device under a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting it from ballistic activity.
  • The border between the two Koreas has been intermittently closed since the communication lines were cut on 9 March - when the US-South Korea drill began - stranding South Korea workers at a shared industrial estate and badly affecting businesses there. The North's move came just hours after Beijing urged North Korea to restart talks on its nuclear programme.
  • Pyongyang cut the hotline in protest at an annual US-South Korean military exercise, which it said it suspected were a prelude to an invasion.
  • China has voiced its concern over the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's planned rocket launch. The North insists it is preparing to send up a communications satellite - and that any attempt to shoot it down would result in war. The US, Japan and South Korea have all expressed concerns that the North is actually planning to test-fire a long-range missile.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iranian drone 'shot down in Iraq' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7946758.stm

Iran Iraq US Ababil 3

shared by Argos Media on 17 Mar 09 - Cached
  • US forces shot down an Iranian drone 60 miles (100km) north-east of Baghdad last month, the US military says.
  • The US accused Iran of deliberately sending the spy drone into Iraqi airspace, but a top Iraqi official suggested it had been a mistake.
  • "This was not an accident on the part of the Iranians," said US military spokesman Lt Col Mark Ballesteros, who identified the drone as an Iranian-made Ababil 3.
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  • Maj Gen Abdul Aziz Mohammed Jassim, head of military operations at the Iraqi defence ministry, told Reuters news agency he believed the plane's entry into Iraq had probably been a genuine error. "It crossed 10km into Iraq," he said. "It's most likely that its entrance was a mistake."
  • The Ababil 3 is a reconnaissance drone. Israeli forces reported downing several Hezbollah Ababils during the 2006 Lebanon War.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | China seeks export carbon relief - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7947438.stm

China Li Gao Climate Change Kyoto Treaty

shared by Argos Media on 17 Mar 09 - Cached
  • China has proposed that importers of Chinese-made goods should be responsible for the carbon dioxide emitted during their manufacture. China's top climate change negotiator, Li Gao, said his country should not pay for cutting emissions caused by the high demands of other countries.
  • In recent years China has overtaken the US as the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases.
  • Beijing argues that rich nations buying Chinese goods bear responsibility for the estimated 15-25% of China's carbon emissions that are created by its production of exports.
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  • "We are at the low end of the production line for the global economy," he said. "We produce products and these products are consumed by other countries, especially the developed countries. This share of emissions should be taken by the consumers but not the producers," he said.
  • Mr Li also criticised proposals by the US to place carbon tariffs on goods imported from countries that do not limit those gases blamed for a rises in global temperatures. "If developed countries set a barrier in the name of climate change for trade, I think it is a disaster," Mr Li said.
  • Working out quite how to put Mr Li's suggestion into practice would be a logistical nightmare, other delegates in Washington said, even if the idea was ever agreed in principle. Asking importers to handle emissions "would mean that we would also like them to have jurisdiction and legislative powers in order to control and limit those," top EU climate negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger said.
  • Japan's chief negotiator Shinsuke Sugiyama pointed out that whatever deal emerged from Copenhagen, it was vital that it involved the US and China this time around. "Japan will not repeat Kyoto," Mr Sugiyama said. "At Kyoto we were not able to involve the biggest emitters in the world by now - and that means the United States of America and China," he said.
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