Group items tagged

The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release to live in the United States, administration officials said yesterday, a decision that reflects bipartisan congressional opposition to admitting such prisoners but complicates efforts to persuade European allies to accept them.

Four Uighur detainees, Chinese Muslims who were incarcerated at the U.S. military prison in Cuba for more than seven years, arrived early yesterday in Bermuda, where they will become foreign guest workers. An administration official said the United States is engaged in negotiations with other countries, including Palau, an island nation in the western Pacific, to find places for the remaining 13 Uighurs held at Guantanamo.

Congressional Democrats yesterday reached agreement on a war-funding bill that would allow detainees to be sent to the United States for trial. The draft bill included no provision for prolonged detention without trial, a step that President Obama has said will be necessary to incarcerate detainees who are too dangerous to release but who cannot be prosecuted.

investigators uncovered evidence that LTTE fighters gunned down civilians who they believed were trying to escape and that government troops threw grenades into bunkers where they knew civilians were sheltering and used a vehicle to run over injured civilians. There are also allegations that wounded civilians may have been bulldozed into mass graves along with the dead.The most controversial claim, however, is that the government authorised a massacre of LTTE cadres after persuading them to surrender.

So we will therefore act exactly according to the Road Map, including the Tenet document and the Zinni document

We will adhere to it to the letter, exactly as written

We will proceed exactly according to the clauses. We are also obligated to implement what is required of us in each clause, but so is the other side

Its leader, Yukio Hatoyama, has quietly modified early promises to end Japan's "subservience" to US foreign policy, but he remains committed to enhancing his country's Asian identity through closer ties with China and South Korea.And while he has yet to augment his antipathy to US-led "market fundamentalism" with a clear alternative, the ambiguity that is the luxury of opposition parties looks certain to keep him safe until after the election.

A top Saudi official and member of the royal family survived an assassination attempt at his palace in Jeddah, according to the Royal Court. Prince Muhammad bin Nayef

Canada is reportedly to use the upcoming Group of Eight summit to push fellow industrialized nations to forge a unified position on Iran's nuclear program. Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper is to take the issue to the G8 summit in a bid to "come out with a coherent position to deal" with Tehran, Dimitri Soudas -- a spokesman for the premier -- said on Tuesday.

The spokesman went on to label the Islamic Republic as an "extremely dangerous" serious threat", which possesses "a nuclear proliferation program with a clear objective".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not asked the US for permission to strike in Iran, for fear the White House would to approve, two US officials told the Washington Times.

One of the officials said that Netanyahu came to the conclusion that "'it made no sense' to press the matter after the negative response President Bush gave Mr. Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, when he asked early last year for US aid for possible military strikes on Iran."  

According to the Times, "At the very least, Israel likely would have to fly over Iraqi airspace, which is still effectively controlled by the US Air Force."  

China strongly condemned the attacks on its foreign missions in Netherlands and Germany by Eastern Turkestan "elements" and other unidentified people, a Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Tuesday.

Qin's comments came as he confirmed that the Chinese Embassy in Netherlands was attacked by Eastern Turkestan groups and a consulate in Munich of Germany by some unidentified people on Monday.

A Russian newspaper is reporting that Russia has a contract to provide Syria with powerful MiG fighter jets but has not begun delivering the planes. Kommersant cited the head of Russia's state-run United Aircraft Corporation, Alexei Fyodorov, as saying a 2007 contract to sell MiG-31E interceptor fighters to Syria has not entered into force. The paper said Russian arms sales officials have denied such a contract exists.

Kommersant cited Fyodorov as saying a contract to provide Syria with Mig-29M fighters is being implemented.

State arms sales company Rosoboronexport declined to comment on the report.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says much of Africa's violence is due to foreign meddling and that Israel in particular is to blame for stoking conflicts there.  

Palestinian leaders on Monday categorically ruled out holding any peace talks with Israel until a full and lasting freeze in Jewish settlement.

"A total settlement freeze and a commitment to an independent Palestinian state will bring us back to the negotiating table immediately," Shaath said. He ruled out accepting exemptions to the freeze, including exceptions for building in East Jerusalem or expanding existing settlements to cope with "natural growth" of families there.

While Netanyahu and Obama's envoy George Mitchell are, say diplomats, discussing a freeze limited in time, to say six months or a year, Shaath said the only time limit Palestinians would accept was a freeze lasting until a final peace is signed.

Two US journalists arrested by North Korea near its border with China are to face trial, North Korea's state media has reported.

Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, who work for Current TV, were detained on 17 March. The North said it had decided to charge the women after completing an inquiry into their "crimes" - although the precise charges remain unclear. The North says the two women illegally crossed the border from China.

The BBC's John Sudworth, in Seoul, says there are concerns that the two reporters could be used by North Korea as bargaining chips at a time of heightened tension.

he government says 100,000 people have fled since Monday's military push. An estimated 60,000 people had already fled in recent months.

A UN document being circulated around diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka estimates that nearly 6,500 civilians have died and 14,000 have been injured.

On Thursday, the representative of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Colombo, Amin Awad, called on the Sri Lankan government to allow pauses in the fighting so the necessary work could be completed.

the first government-to-government talks -- lasting only 22 minutes -- between the two Koreas in more than a year.

On Tuesday, the South Korean and North Korean delegations were to discuss business deals tied to the Kaesung Industrial Complex in North Korea, which is run by both nations. The talks broke off after the North Korean delegation refused to discuss the release of a detained South Korean worker, saying he was not on the agenda, according to South Korean officials.

Fears that an Iranian ban on imports from its arch foe Israel was flouted by the sale of Jaffa oranges have sparked an inquiry in Tehran, reports say. City authorities asked the judiciary to take action after the Israeli fruit was allegedly imported in boxes marked as Chinese, local media report.

City authorities asked the judiciary to take action after the Israeli fruit was allegedly imported in boxes marked as Chinese, local media report.

Mrs Clinton said the recent upsurge in violence was a tragic signal that Iraq was in fact on the right path.

On Friday, two female suicide bombers attacked Baghdad's main Shia shrine, killing at least 60 people and injuring 125 others, Iraqi officials said. On Thursday, 84 people were killed in two separate suicide attacks in Baghdad and Baquba.

Many victims were Iranian pilgrims, and the violence was condemned in Tehran. On Saturday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused US troops of involvement in the bombings that had killed Iranian nationals, Reuters news agency reported.

Obama said he understood that intelligence officials must sometimes feel that they are working with one hand tied behind their backs. But, rebutting Hayden, he said: "What makes the United States special and what makes you special is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals even when it's hard, not just when it's easy, even when we are afraid and under threat, not just when its expedient to do so."So yes, you've got a harder job and so do I, and that's OK. And over the long term, that is why I believe we will defeat our enemies, because we're on the better side of history."

Hayden had argued that the harsher interrogation techniques had provided valuable information and said that the techniques did not amount to torture.

A Lebanese prosecutor has charged a former general and three other people with spying for Israel. Former Brig Gen Adeeb Al-Alam is accused of sending classified information to the Israeli secret service, Mossad.

The case has been transferred to a military court, and Gen Alam and his co-accused could face the death penalty if they are found guilty.

Lebanese media say Gen Alam is believed to have been spying for Israel since 1984.

North Korea has threatened to carry out nuclear missile tests unless the UN Security Council apologises for its condemnation of a recent rocket launch. Pyongyang said it would be compelled to take self-defence measures "including nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests" if no apology was made.

North Korea conducted its first and only nuclear test in 2006.

North Korea's foreign ministry said the UN should apologise for "infringing" the country's sovereignty and retract "all its resolutions and decisions" against Pyongyang. It also announced plans to build a light-water nuclear reactor, according to the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.