Markets rattled as woes of fragile countries such as Greece and Portugal start to infect other EU members; euro zone's growth outlook dims
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Obama's silent war shocks Pakistan
The latest Taliban bombing has uncovered America's low-profile funding of the Pakistan military To many Pakistanis the most shocking aspect of the latest bombing was not the death toll, or the injuries inflicted on survivors, but the question that it raised: what was a team of American soldiers doing in a tense corner of North West Frontier...
Clinton says no prisoner swap with Iran
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday ruled out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's suggestion that three detained American hikers in Iran be swapped with Iranian citizens held in the United States. Clinton said that the hikers, along with other Americans jailed in Iran, should be released immediately on...
Obama vows to get tough with China on currency
Obama vows to get tough with China on currency President Barack Obama vowed to "get much tougher" with China on trade rules, including currency rates, to ensure that U.S. goods do not face a competitive disadvantage....
China hits back at US over trade
China has hit back at the US a day after President Barack Obama promised to take a tougher line with Beijing over trade. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu accused the US of "wrongful accusations and pressure", AFP reports. Mr...
China attacks Guantanamo Uighurs' asylum in Switzerland
China has criticised a Swiss offer of asylum for two ethnic Uighur Chinese inmates at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. "The position of Switzerland will surely undermine China-Switzerland relations" a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency....
Haiti charges US missionaries with child kidnapping
Port-au-Prince: Ten US missionaries detained in Haiti were charged on Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association for trying to take children illegally out of the earthquake-hit country. After announcing the charges, Haitian deputy prosecutor Jean Ferge Joseph told the Americans their case was being sent to an investigative judge....
To win over Afghans, US must listen
Recent announcements on the war in Afghanistan - from US defence secretary Robert Gates' call for Taliban disarmament and reintegration, to the US state department's pledge to increase political, diplomatic and economic engagement, to the recent London conference of international leaders - bode well for a country riddled with violence and poverty....
Tymoshenko threatens replay of 2004 Orange revolt
KIEV, Ukraine -- Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko vowed Thursday to send her followers to the streets if her opponent steals this weekend's presidential vote in Ukraine, raising the threat of indefinite political turbulence in this former Soviet nation. "We will rally the people" a grim Tymoshenko told reporters, pledging to use "all means" to...
NATO chief denies that Afghanistan's reconciliation plan aims to 'bribe' Taliban fighters
ISTANBUL - NATO does not intend to bribe Taliban guerrillas to defect to the Afghan government side as a way to end the war, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday, dismissing concerns over the latest plan to end the country's growing insurgency. Fogh Rasmussen's comments came amid a renewed push to make peace with moderate...
MPs told to repay £1.1 million in expenses
LONDON (AFP) – MPs were ordered Thursday to repay more than one million pounds of expenses linked to their second homes, after an investigation into a scandal which rocked parliament. The long-awaited review by former civil servant Thomas Legg found lawmakers must return 1.1 million pounds in payments received for loans on second...
John Terry got secret lover pregnant
ENGLAND Captain John Terry made his lover pregnant - then paid for her to have an abortion.
Married Terry - whose bid to stop us exposing his affair was thrown out by the High Court on Friday - was at the bedside of secret mistress Vanessa Perroncel for the procedure in a private clinic.
Afterwards he gave her £20,000 to "cheer herself up".
Terry organised the abortion for his secret mistress just weeks into their affair.
READ: Are you sleeping with my man?
Lingerie model Vanessa, ex-partner of Terry's England team-mate Wayne Bridge, got pregnant at the beginning or their relationship, the News of the World can reveal.
A source close to the French beauty revealed that she was worried because the lovers hadn't used protection. A fortnight later, tests confirmed she was carrying married Terry's child. And around seven weeks into the pregnancy the pair decided the baby should be aborted.
The revelation will stun Terry's loyal wife Toni Poole, 28, and throws fresh doubt over his ability to captain England just five months before the World Cup.
After we discovered the four month affair, the Chelsea defender won a High Court gagging order last week to stop us publishing the story. But on Friday it was overturned.
Closer
Our source revealed that Terry, 29, did not pressure Vanessa to have an abortion - it was a joint decision.
She had the procedure under general anaesthetic at a private clinic in London. The News of the World understands that Terry wanted to be there and asked for special permission to leave an England training camp early so he could go.
But he was late so the operation was delayed. The experience brought them closer together, said our source. They felt the situation had bonded their relationship.
And last night Vanessa, 33, spoke for the first time about the affair.
She said Bridge - father of her three year old son - only found out about it after Terry's attempts to gag the News of the World.
She said: "Wayne rang me last weekend and started shouting at me and accusing me of having an affair. It was terrible. He was saying horrible things." She said Bridge did not believe what she said, adding: "Wayne was convinced I had been cheating on him because the court action had been taken. It was an agonising call and he was furious."
Last night we put the abortion story to Chelsea's press spokesman, who said they had nothing to add to a previous statement of support for Terry.
Vanessa is said to be considering her next move after hiring publicist Max Clifford, who refused to comment.
But the News of the World can reveal Terry has been bedding Vanessa TWICE A WEEK behind his wife's back since September.
The affair the Chelsea star tried to hide from the world began after his pal Bridge left Chelsea for Manchester City last year. Terry kept it under wraps until we caught him sneaking off to her home for secret romps after away games and training. He had already laid the groundwork by flirting heavily with leggy Vanessa while Bridge was still at Chelsea - KISSING and playing FOOTSIE with her under his wife's nose on team nights out.
As the affair gathered pace he even began canoodling with her in public.
Wayne, 29, and Vanessa eventually split last summer after his move to City in January last year. So Terry began comforting the French model.
"It may have started as a bit of friendship and support as early as last January, but it quickly grew from there last September," said another source. "He was going round there about twice a week or so, normally after training, on his way home. Or, if Chelsea had played an away game he would call Toni and say the team was due back at say 11pm, rather than 9pm.
"Then he could stop off at Vanessa's for a couple of hours."
Terry was careful to hide his car during his visits. "Vanessa has these big gates into the drive," said our source. "He would swing in in his Bentley, and tuck it behind her Range Rover.
"They couldn't really do much as a couple. He'd be recognised immediately. So they spent most of their time meeting secretly at her house."
The damning pictures here that Terry didn't want you to see were taken on January 13 at the home of Vanessa, mother of Bridge's three- year-old son, Jaydon, in Oxshott, Surrey.
OFFSIDE: Terry caught leaving the home of model Vanessa, right
Terry arrived in his dark blue £130,000 Bentley Continental at around 2pm shortly after leaving a training session at Chelsea's nearby Cobham training ground.
Parking his car alongside the brunette's £2million mock-Georgian house - hidden from the road by her black Range Rover - he went in as her young son played in the snow.
Over an hour and a half later he emerged from the five-bedroom house grinning as Vanessa saw him out. Terry, in a grey tracksuit over a white T-shirt, seemed to share a joke with her as they said goodbye. He then drove the mile or so to his own £4million home where wife Toni and their three-year-old twins, Georgie and Summer, were waiting, convinced his nasty little secret was safe.
The England star - worth £17million - has known the model and actress since her days working as a London club hostess. Close friends of the pair said there has long been a chemistry between them.
"Terry loves brunettes, and always has done," said a pal. "He would always look pretty doe-eyed when he was around Vanessa."
Even after Terry married blonde Toni at Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, in June 2007, he still flirted with Vanessa. Pals remember boozy nights when the Chelsea gang, including Terry and Toni, Bridge and Vanessa, Frank Lampard and Elen Rives, and Joe Cole and Carly Zucker would hit the town.
One friend said: "There was one night when some of them sat in a circle for a drinking game, and you had to kiss the person to one side.
"He kissed Vanessa, but the kiss was a bit longer than it should have been.
"There were other nights where he would be quite drunk on the way home in the car, and end up playing footsie with Vanessa, while Toni was there. One night when he was doing it Toni smacked his leg and said, 'That's my foot, you idiot'.
"Toni just seemed to put up with it all. I don't know if she's become more suspicious recently, but she has dyed her hair brown. Everyone thinks it's to match Vanessa."
Terry first realised he was in danger of being exposed when rumours of a rift with Bridge began to circulate.
He then called in the lawyers and on January 22 won a so-called 'super- injunction' preventing us from revealing the alleged affair, or even the fact there was an injunction.
His lawyers had argued that publishing the claims would breach his right to a 'private and family life' under EU human rights law. But on Friday Justice Michael Tugendhat ruled the rumours were too widely known in the media, footballing circles and beyond, to be protected by law. And he decided Terry was more interested in preserving his earnings than his reputation.
The judge said privacy law did not exist to protect sponsorship deals.
Terry was yesterday still insisting there had been no affair. He has told Toni they are just friends.
Our source said: "The truth is he's gutted his best mate and left his wife devastated while pretending to be a family man. But he's just a low-life cheat."
Married Terry - whose bid to stop us exposing his affair was thrown out by the High Court on Friday - was at the bedside of secret mistress Vanessa Perroncel for the procedure in a private clinic.
Afterwards he gave her £20,000 to "cheer herself up".
Terry organised the abortion for his secret mistress just weeks into their affair.
READ: Are you sleeping with my man?
Lingerie model Vanessa, ex-partner of Terry's England team-mate Wayne Bridge, got pregnant at the beginning or their relationship, the News of the World can reveal.
A source close to the French beauty revealed that she was worried because the lovers hadn't used protection. A fortnight later, tests confirmed she was carrying married Terry's child. And around seven weeks into the pregnancy the pair decided the baby should be aborted.
The revelation will stun Terry's loyal wife Toni Poole, 28, and throws fresh doubt over his ability to captain England just five months before the World Cup.
After we discovered the four month affair, the Chelsea defender won a High Court gagging order last week to stop us publishing the story. But on Friday it was overturned.
Closer
Our source revealed that Terry, 29, did not pressure Vanessa to have an abortion - it was a joint decision.
She had the procedure under general anaesthetic at a private clinic in London. The News of the World understands that Terry wanted to be there and asked for special permission to leave an England training camp early so he could go.
But he was late so the operation was delayed. The experience brought them closer together, said our source. They felt the situation had bonded their relationship.
And last night Vanessa, 33, spoke for the first time about the affair.
She said Bridge - father of her three year old son - only found out about it after Terry's attempts to gag the News of the World.
She said: "Wayne rang me last weekend and started shouting at me and accusing me of having an affair. It was terrible. He was saying horrible things." She said Bridge did not believe what she said, adding: "Wayne was convinced I had been cheating on him because the court action had been taken. It was an agonising call and he was furious."
Last night we put the abortion story to Chelsea's press spokesman, who said they had nothing to add to a previous statement of support for Terry.
Vanessa is said to be considering her next move after hiring publicist Max Clifford, who refused to comment.
But the News of the World can reveal Terry has been bedding Vanessa TWICE A WEEK behind his wife's back since September.
The affair the Chelsea star tried to hide from the world began after his pal Bridge left Chelsea for Manchester City last year. Terry kept it under wraps until we caught him sneaking off to her home for secret romps after away games and training. He had already laid the groundwork by flirting heavily with leggy Vanessa while Bridge was still at Chelsea - KISSING and playing FOOTSIE with her under his wife's nose on team nights out.
As the affair gathered pace he even began canoodling with her in public.
Wayne, 29, and Vanessa eventually split last summer after his move to City in January last year. So Terry began comforting the French model.
"It may have started as a bit of friendship and support as early as last January, but it quickly grew from there last September," said another source. "He was going round there about twice a week or so, normally after training, on his way home. Or, if Chelsea had played an away game he would call Toni and say the team was due back at say 11pm, rather than 9pm.
"Then he could stop off at Vanessa's for a couple of hours."
Terry was careful to hide his car during his visits. "Vanessa has these big gates into the drive," said our source. "He would swing in in his Bentley, and tuck it behind her Range Rover.
"They couldn't really do much as a couple. He'd be recognised immediately. So they spent most of their time meeting secretly at her house."
The damning pictures here that Terry didn't want you to see were taken on January 13 at the home of Vanessa, mother of Bridge's three- year-old son, Jaydon, in Oxshott, Surrey.
OFFSIDE: Terry caught leaving the home of model Vanessa, right
Terry arrived in his dark blue £130,000 Bentley Continental at around 2pm shortly after leaving a training session at Chelsea's nearby Cobham training ground.
Parking his car alongside the brunette's £2million mock-Georgian house - hidden from the road by her black Range Rover - he went in as her young son played in the snow.
Over an hour and a half later he emerged from the five-bedroom house grinning as Vanessa saw him out. Terry, in a grey tracksuit over a white T-shirt, seemed to share a joke with her as they said goodbye. He then drove the mile or so to his own £4million home where wife Toni and their three-year-old twins, Georgie and Summer, were waiting, convinced his nasty little secret was safe.
The England star - worth £17million - has known the model and actress since her days working as a London club hostess. Close friends of the pair said there has long been a chemistry between them.
"Terry loves brunettes, and always has done," said a pal. "He would always look pretty doe-eyed when he was around Vanessa."
Even after Terry married blonde Toni at Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, in June 2007, he still flirted with Vanessa. Pals remember boozy nights when the Chelsea gang, including Terry and Toni, Bridge and Vanessa, Frank Lampard and Elen Rives, and Joe Cole and Carly Zucker would hit the town.
One friend said: "There was one night when some of them sat in a circle for a drinking game, and you had to kiss the person to one side.
"He kissed Vanessa, but the kiss was a bit longer than it should have been.
"There were other nights where he would be quite drunk on the way home in the car, and end up playing footsie with Vanessa, while Toni was there. One night when he was doing it Toni smacked his leg and said, 'That's my foot, you idiot'.
"Toni just seemed to put up with it all. I don't know if she's become more suspicious recently, but she has dyed her hair brown. Everyone thinks it's to match Vanessa."
Terry first realised he was in danger of being exposed when rumours of a rift with Bridge began to circulate.
He then called in the lawyers and on January 22 won a so-called 'super- injunction' preventing us from revealing the alleged affair, or even the fact there was an injunction.
His lawyers had argued that publishing the claims would breach his right to a 'private and family life' under EU human rights law. But on Friday Justice Michael Tugendhat ruled the rumours were too widely known in the media, footballing circles and beyond, to be protected by law. And he decided Terry was more interested in preserving his earnings than his reputation.
The judge said privacy law did not exist to protect sponsorship deals.
Terry was yesterday still insisting there had been no affair. He has told Toni they are just friends.
Our source said: "The truth is he's gutted his best mate and left his wife devastated while pretending to be a family man. But he's just a low-life cheat."
10 Americans charged in Haiti with kidnapping
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Ten U.S. Baptist missionaries were charged with kidnapping Thursday for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti to a hastily arranged refuge just as officials were trying to protect children from predators in the chaos of a great earthquake.
Haiti charges U.S. church members with kidnap
American missionaries, accused of illegally trying to take children out of Haiti, pray before hearing the charging decision from a Haitian prosecutor in Port-au-Prince on Thursday.
Venezuelan police break up anti-Chavez protest
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Police used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannons to scatter hundreds of students protesting against the government Thursday, while President Hugo Chavez's supporters celebrated the 18th anniversary of his failed coup as an army officer.
Caracas Police Chief Carlos Meza said authorities broke up the protest because university students had not been granted permission to march. He said the denial was aimed at preventing clashes with thousands of "Chavistas" marching across the capital to mark the botched 1992 military rebellion that Chavez led as a lieutenant colonel.
"They don't have permission to march," Meza said.
Student leaders countered that they have the right to stage peaceful protests, and they said authorities loyal to Chavez frequently deny them permission to demonstrate. Before the protest was dispersed, students chanted: "We're students, not coup plotters!"
"This is one more demonstration of the government's abuse of power," student leader Roderick Navarro said.
Students started leading protests last week after the government pressured cable and satellite TV providers to drop an opposition channel. Students have organized demonstrations in cities across the country, accusing Chavez of forcing Radio Caracas Television International off the airwaves as a means of silencing his critics.
Chavez challenged the students to continue staging demonstrations, saying they won't weaken his socialist government. But he warned them against stirring up violence, suggesting authorities would break up protests that get out of control.
"Don't make a mistake with us. You'll get a firm response," Chavez said during a speech to his supporters at Venezuela's largest military fort.
Thousands of Chavez's backers gathered to listen to Chavez, who hailed the Feb. 4, 1992, military uprising against then-President Carlos Andres Perez as a justified rebellion seeking to topple a corrupt government that ignored the plight of Venezuela's poor.
More than 80 civilians and 17 soldiers were killed before troops loyal to the government quelled the coup attempt, which Chavez commemorates annually.
(Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Caracas Police Chief Carlos Meza said authorities broke up the protest because university students had not been granted permission to march. He said the denial was aimed at preventing clashes with thousands of "Chavistas" marching across the capital to mark the botched 1992 military rebellion that Chavez led as a lieutenant colonel.
"They don't have permission to march," Meza said.
Student leaders countered that they have the right to stage peaceful protests, and they said authorities loyal to Chavez frequently deny them permission to demonstrate. Before the protest was dispersed, students chanted: "We're students, not coup plotters!"
"This is one more demonstration of the government's abuse of power," student leader Roderick Navarro said.
Students started leading protests last week after the government pressured cable and satellite TV providers to drop an opposition channel. Students have organized demonstrations in cities across the country, accusing Chavez of forcing Radio Caracas Television International off the airwaves as a means of silencing his critics.
Chavez challenged the students to continue staging demonstrations, saying they won't weaken his socialist government. But he warned them against stirring up violence, suggesting authorities would break up protests that get out of control.
"Don't make a mistake with us. You'll get a firm response," Chavez said during a speech to his supporters at Venezuela's largest military fort.
Thousands of Chavez's backers gathered to listen to Chavez, who hailed the Feb. 4, 1992, military uprising against then-President Carlos Andres Perez as a justified rebellion seeking to topple a corrupt government that ignored the plight of Venezuela's poor.
More than 80 civilians and 17 soldiers were killed before troops loyal to the government quelled the coup attempt, which Chavez commemorates annually.
(Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
10 Americans charged in Haiti with kidnapping
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Ten U.S. Baptist missionaries were charged with kidnapping Thursday for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti to a hastily arranged refuge just as officials were trying to protect children from predators in the chaos of a great earthquake.
The Haitian lawyer who represents the 10 Americans portrayed nine of his clients as innocents caught up in a scheme they did not understand. But attorney Edwin Coq did not defend the actions of the group leader, Laura Silsby, though he continued to represent her.
"I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out. They were naive. They had no idea what was going on and they did not know that they needed official papers to cross the border," Coq said. "But Silsby did."
The Americans, most members of two Idaho churches, said they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans from a nation that UNICEF says had 380,000 even before the catastrophic Jan. 12 quake.
But at least two-thirds of the children, who range in age from 2 to 12, have parents who gave them away because they said the Americans promised the children a better life.
The investigating judge, who interviewed the missionaries Tuesday and Wednesday, found sufficient evidence to charge them for trying to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation, Coq said.
Each was charged with one count of kidnapping, which carries a sentence of five to 15 years in prison, and one of criminal association, punishable by three to nine years. Coq said the case would be assigned a judge and a verdict could take three months.
The magistrate, Mazard Fortil, left without making a statement. Social Affairs Minister Jeanne Bernard Pierre, who has harshly criticized the missionaries, refused to comment. The government's communications minister, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, said only that the next court date had not been set.
U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten showed up after 5 p.m. outside judicial police headquarters, where the Americans are being held and where President Rene Preval and top ministers now have temporary offices because theirs were destroyed in the quake.
"The U.S. justice system cannot interfere in what's going on with these Americans right now," he told reporters. "The Haitian justice system will do what it has to do."
U.S. consular officials have been making regular visits to the missionaries.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Americans' behavior "unfortunate whatever the motivation."
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. was open to discuss "other legal avenues" for the defendants, an apparent reference to the Haitian prime minister's earlier suggestion that Haiti could consider sending the Americans back to the United States for prosecution.
It's unlikely the Americans could be tried back home, according to Christopher J. Schmidt, an expert on international child kidnapping law in St. Louis, Mo. U.S. statutes may not even apply, he said, since the children never crossed an international border.
Silsby waved and smiled faintly to reporters but declined to answer questions as the Baptists were whisked away from the closed court hearing back to the holding cells where they have been held since Saturday. People rendered homeless by the quake sat idly under tarps in the parking lot, smoke rising from a cooking fire.
Earlier, Silsby expressed optimism about being released.
"We expect God's will will be done. And we will be released. And we're looking forward to what God is going to do," she told APTN before learning they would be charged.
Coq complained about conditions where the Americans were being held. He said they are sleeping on the floor without blankets and aren't being provided with adequate food. He said he had delivered pizza and sandwiches.
Silsby had begun planning last summer to create an orphanage for Haitian children in the Dominican Republic. When the earthquake struck she recruited other church members to help kick her plans into high gear. The 10 Americans rushed to Haiti and spent a week gathering children for their project.
Most of the children came from the quake-ravaged village of Callebas, where residents told The Associated Press that they handed over their children to the Americans because they were unable to feed or clothe them after the earthquake. They said the missionaries promised to educate the children and let relatives visit.
Their stories contradicted Silsby's account that the children came from collapsed orphanages or were handed over by distant relatives. She said the Americans believed they had all the paperwork needed _ documents she said she obtained in the Dominican Republic _ to take the children out of Haiti.
The Haitian lawyer who represents the 10 Americans portrayed nine of his clients as innocents caught up in a scheme they did not understand. But attorney Edwin Coq did not defend the actions of the group leader, Laura Silsby, though he continued to represent her.
"I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out. They were naive. They had no idea what was going on and they did not know that they needed official papers to cross the border," Coq said. "But Silsby did."
The Americans, most members of two Idaho churches, said they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans from a nation that UNICEF says had 380,000 even before the catastrophic Jan. 12 quake.
But at least two-thirds of the children, who range in age from 2 to 12, have parents who gave them away because they said the Americans promised the children a better life.
The investigating judge, who interviewed the missionaries Tuesday and Wednesday, found sufficient evidence to charge them for trying to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation, Coq said.
Each was charged with one count of kidnapping, which carries a sentence of five to 15 years in prison, and one of criminal association, punishable by three to nine years. Coq said the case would be assigned a judge and a verdict could take three months.
The magistrate, Mazard Fortil, left without making a statement. Social Affairs Minister Jeanne Bernard Pierre, who has harshly criticized the missionaries, refused to comment. The government's communications minister, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, said only that the next court date had not been set.
U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten showed up after 5 p.m. outside judicial police headquarters, where the Americans are being held and where President Rene Preval and top ministers now have temporary offices because theirs were destroyed in the quake.
"The U.S. justice system cannot interfere in what's going on with these Americans right now," he told reporters. "The Haitian justice system will do what it has to do."
U.S. consular officials have been making regular visits to the missionaries.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Americans' behavior "unfortunate whatever the motivation."
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. was open to discuss "other legal avenues" for the defendants, an apparent reference to the Haitian prime minister's earlier suggestion that Haiti could consider sending the Americans back to the United States for prosecution.
It's unlikely the Americans could be tried back home, according to Christopher J. Schmidt, an expert on international child kidnapping law in St. Louis, Mo. U.S. statutes may not even apply, he said, since the children never crossed an international border.
Silsby waved and smiled faintly to reporters but declined to answer questions as the Baptists were whisked away from the closed court hearing back to the holding cells where they have been held since Saturday. People rendered homeless by the quake sat idly under tarps in the parking lot, smoke rising from a cooking fire.
Earlier, Silsby expressed optimism about being released.
"We expect God's will will be done. And we will be released. And we're looking forward to what God is going to do," she told APTN before learning they would be charged.
Coq complained about conditions where the Americans were being held. He said they are sleeping on the floor without blankets and aren't being provided with adequate food. He said he had delivered pizza and sandwiches.
Silsby had begun planning last summer to create an orphanage for Haitian children in the Dominican Republic. When the earthquake struck she recruited other church members to help kick her plans into high gear. The 10 Americans rushed to Haiti and spent a week gathering children for their project.
Most of the children came from the quake-ravaged village of Callebas, where residents told The Associated Press that they handed over their children to the Americans because they were unable to feed or clothe them after the earthquake. They said the missionaries promised to educate the children and let relatives visit.
Their stories contradicted Silsby's account that the children came from collapsed orphanages or were handed over by distant relatives. She said the Americans believed they had all the paperwork needed _ documents she said she obtained in the Dominican Republic _ to take the children out of Haiti.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Blair offers justification for Iraq war
LONDON – An unrepentant Tony Blair defended his decision to join the United States in attacking Iraq, arguing Friday before a panel investigating the war that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks made the threat of weapons of mass destruction impossible to ignore.
The former British Prime Minister said that before Sept. 11 he thought "Saddam was a menace, that he was a threat, he was a monster, but we would have to try and make the best of it."
The attacks on New York and Washington changed everything, he said.
"After that time, my view was you could not take risks with this issue at all," he said.
This is Britain's third and widest-ranging investigation of the conflict, which triggered huge protests and left 179 British troops dead. The British military withdrew from Iraq last year.
It is not intended to apportion blame or hold anyone liable for the conflict. But it could embarrass American and British officials who argued — wrongly — the war was justified because Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and building ties with al-Qaida.
Blair appeared somber as he began his scheduled six hours of testimony. He grew feistier as the day went on, gesturing, smiling and, at times, correcting what he saw as the flawed questions of panel members. The audience in the hearing room included family members of soldiers and civilians killed or missing in Iraq — all of whom sat quietly as he testified.
Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she felt revulsion at Blair's presence.
"Actually, I felt sick," she said. "He seemed to be shaking as well, which I am pleased about — the eyes of all the families were on him."
Emotions also ran high outside, where demonstrators chanted and read the names of civilians and military personnel killed. Some 150 protesters shouted "Jail Tony" and "Blair lied — thousands died," as police officers looked on.
The five-member panel pressed Blair on when exactly he offered U.S. President George W. Bush support for an invasion. Earlier witnesses claimed he promised it in 2002, more than a year before Britain's Parliament approved military action.
Former British ambassador to Washington Christopher Meyer told an earlier hearing that an agreement had been "signed in blood" by Bush and Blair during a meeting at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002.
"The only commitment I gave — and I gave this very openly at the time — was a commitment to deal with Saddam," Blair said. He said military options were discussed, but said he told Bush that Britain wanted to exhaust diplomatic routes before an invasion was considered.
Blair said he had not been determined from the outset to remove Saddam Hussein.
"The absolutely key issue was the WMD issue," not regime change. But he added that "if necessary — and there was no other way of dealing with this threat — we were going to remove him."
Blair said other world leaders did not share his and Bush's enthusiasm for confronting the WMD threat, even after the Sept 11 attacks.
"Although the American mindset had changed dramatically — and frankly mine had as well — when I talked to other leaders, particularly in Europe, I didn't get the same impression."
Blair acknowledged that the decision to join the war — which led to the largest public protests in a generation in London — had met with opposition in the country, and in his own Cabinet.
"The one thing I found throughout this whole matter from a very early stage is that I was never short of people challenging me on it," Blair told the panel.
The former British leader arrived at the conference center in darkness shortly before 0700GMT (0200EST) Friday, dodging demonstrators by entering the conference center through a cordoned-off rear entrance.
"Blair should not be here giving his excuses for the illegal war, he should be taken to The Hague to face criminal charges because he has committed crimes against the Iraqi people," said protester Saba Jaiwad, an Iraqi who opposed the war.
Defending his stance, Blair also repeatedly warned that modern leaders must soon take similar tough choices to deal with Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
"I hold this fear stronger today than I did back then because of what Iran is doing," Blair told the inquiry. "A large part of the destabilization in the Middle East today comes from Iran
The former British Prime Minister said that before Sept. 11 he thought "Saddam was a menace, that he was a threat, he was a monster, but we would have to try and make the best of it."
The attacks on New York and Washington changed everything, he said.
"After that time, my view was you could not take risks with this issue at all," he said.
This is Britain's third and widest-ranging investigation of the conflict, which triggered huge protests and left 179 British troops dead. The British military withdrew from Iraq last year.
It is not intended to apportion blame or hold anyone liable for the conflict. But it could embarrass American and British officials who argued — wrongly — the war was justified because Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and building ties with al-Qaida.
Blair appeared somber as he began his scheduled six hours of testimony. He grew feistier as the day went on, gesturing, smiling and, at times, correcting what he saw as the flawed questions of panel members. The audience in the hearing room included family members of soldiers and civilians killed or missing in Iraq — all of whom sat quietly as he testified.
Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son Gordon was killed in Iraq in 2004, said she felt revulsion at Blair's presence.
"Actually, I felt sick," she said. "He seemed to be shaking as well, which I am pleased about — the eyes of all the families were on him."
Emotions also ran high outside, where demonstrators chanted and read the names of civilians and military personnel killed. Some 150 protesters shouted "Jail Tony" and "Blair lied — thousands died," as police officers looked on.
The five-member panel pressed Blair on when exactly he offered U.S. President George W. Bush support for an invasion. Earlier witnesses claimed he promised it in 2002, more than a year before Britain's Parliament approved military action.
Former British ambassador to Washington Christopher Meyer told an earlier hearing that an agreement had been "signed in blood" by Bush and Blair during a meeting at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002.
"The only commitment I gave — and I gave this very openly at the time — was a commitment to deal with Saddam," Blair said. He said military options were discussed, but said he told Bush that Britain wanted to exhaust diplomatic routes before an invasion was considered.
Blair said he had not been determined from the outset to remove Saddam Hussein.
"The absolutely key issue was the WMD issue," not regime change. But he added that "if necessary — and there was no other way of dealing with this threat — we were going to remove him."
Blair said other world leaders did not share his and Bush's enthusiasm for confronting the WMD threat, even after the Sept 11 attacks.
"Although the American mindset had changed dramatically — and frankly mine had as well — when I talked to other leaders, particularly in Europe, I didn't get the same impression."
Blair acknowledged that the decision to join the war — which led to the largest public protests in a generation in London — had met with opposition in the country, and in his own Cabinet.
"The one thing I found throughout this whole matter from a very early stage is that I was never short of people challenging me on it," Blair told the panel.
The former British leader arrived at the conference center in darkness shortly before 0700GMT (0200EST) Friday, dodging demonstrators by entering the conference center through a cordoned-off rear entrance.
"Blair should not be here giving his excuses for the illegal war, he should be taken to The Hague to face criminal charges because he has committed crimes against the Iraqi people," said protester Saba Jaiwad, an Iraqi who opposed the war.
Defending his stance, Blair also repeatedly warned that modern leaders must soon take similar tough choices to deal with Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
"I hold this fear stronger today than I did back then because of what Iran is doing," Blair told the inquiry. "A large part of the destabilization in the Middle East today comes from Iran
Israel Signals Tougher Line on West Bank Protests
The Israeli Army and security forces have recently begun clamping down, arresting scores of local organizers and activists and conducting nighttime raids on the homes of others.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Nigeria Muslim-Christian clashes killed 326: police
KANO, Nigeria (AFP) – Nigerian police said Tuesday that at least 326 people died in Muslim-Christian clashes last week in the central Plateau State.
Police gave the first official death toll from authorities from days of bloodshed which broke out on January 17 in Jos, the capital of Plateau, and later spread to nearby villages and towns.
"From the figures available to the police ... 326 people were killed in the recent violence," police spokesman Mohammed Lerama told AFP.
However, other estimates from medical and aid workers and religious and community leaders put the toll at more than 550.
Christian resistance to the building of a mosque in a predominantly Christian neighbourhood sparked the violence. Other reports suggest a Muslim landowner was building a house that encroached onto property owned by a Christian.
"The clashes had no religious basis but (were) rather an affray hijacked in the name of religion by demons with a human face," said Lerama.
Leaders of both faiths have said the unrest owed more to the failure of political leaders to address ethnic differences than any religious rivalries.
The military deployed to quell the violence as it became apparent the killings were spiralling out of control for the local security forces.
Police said 313 people have so far been rounded up for suspected roles in the Jos killings.
Following the clashes in which some people in full military gear were reportedly arrested for suspected involvement, troop movements have been restricted, the army chief said on Monday.
The move was taken to avoid soldiers being dragged into the clashes or national politics amid tensions arising from President Umaru Yar'Adua's protracted absence from Nigeria for medical reasons.
"We are aware of the fact that there is tension in the country," the army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Danbazzau, told reporters in Abuja.
"We also got intelligence information that some people are trying to infiltrate our ranks," Danbazzau said.
Troops have been ordered to remain at their postings and only travel with permission to avoid attempts to pull the army into the violence.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has a history of military take-overs.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Paul Dike, warned members of the armed forces to steer clear of politics.
Yar'Adua has been undergoing treatment for a serious heart ailment in Saudi Arabia for more than two months. His absence has stalled governance across the board.
Adding to the uncertainty in the world's eighth largest oil exporter, former militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta warned Monday of signs of "restiveness" in the volatile region because of perceived let-downs by government.
Thousands of militants from the delta, in southern Nigeria, laid down arms last year under a government amnesty scheme proposed by Yar'Adua with promises of re-training and re-integration into society.
In a statement, top militant leaders Ateke Tom and Government Ekpemupolo warned that Niger Delta youths see the "lull in the implementation of the promises as a betrayal" by government, a feeling that could "further escalate" the situation.
Police gave the first official death toll from authorities from days of bloodshed which broke out on January 17 in Jos, the capital of Plateau, and later spread to nearby villages and towns.
"From the figures available to the police ... 326 people were killed in the recent violence," police spokesman Mohammed Lerama told AFP.
However, other estimates from medical and aid workers and religious and community leaders put the toll at more than 550.
Christian resistance to the building of a mosque in a predominantly Christian neighbourhood sparked the violence. Other reports suggest a Muslim landowner was building a house that encroached onto property owned by a Christian.
"The clashes had no religious basis but (were) rather an affray hijacked in the name of religion by demons with a human face," said Lerama.
Leaders of both faiths have said the unrest owed more to the failure of political leaders to address ethnic differences than any religious rivalries.
The military deployed to quell the violence as it became apparent the killings were spiralling out of control for the local security forces.
Police said 313 people have so far been rounded up for suspected roles in the Jos killings.
Following the clashes in which some people in full military gear were reportedly arrested for suspected involvement, troop movements have been restricted, the army chief said on Monday.
The move was taken to avoid soldiers being dragged into the clashes or national politics amid tensions arising from President Umaru Yar'Adua's protracted absence from Nigeria for medical reasons.
"We are aware of the fact that there is tension in the country," the army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Danbazzau, told reporters in Abuja.
"We also got intelligence information that some people are trying to infiltrate our ranks," Danbazzau said.
Troops have been ordered to remain at their postings and only travel with permission to avoid attempts to pull the army into the violence.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has a history of military take-overs.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Paul Dike, warned members of the armed forces to steer clear of politics.
Yar'Adua has been undergoing treatment for a serious heart ailment in Saudi Arabia for more than two months. His absence has stalled governance across the board.
Adding to the uncertainty in the world's eighth largest oil exporter, former militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta warned Monday of signs of "restiveness" in the volatile region because of perceived let-downs by government.
Thousands of militants from the delta, in southern Nigeria, laid down arms last year under a government amnesty scheme proposed by Yar'Adua with promises of re-training and re-integration into society.
In a statement, top militant leaders Ateke Tom and Government Ekpemupolo warned that Niger Delta youths see the "lull in the implementation of the promises as a betrayal" by government, a feeling that could "further escalate" the situation.
Car bomb wounds 14 near US base in Afghan capital
KABUL – A suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. base in Kabul on Tuesday, wounding 14 people, including eight American, officials said, hours after gunmen killed four policemen in southern Afghanistan.
The car bombing was the latest attack to hit Kabul, coming just over a week after a team of Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers staged an assault that paralyzed the city and left 12 people dead. The violence has underscored fears that militants would try to stage attacks ahead of a key international conference on Afghanistan to be held Thursday in London.
The bomber detonated a minivan packed with explosives near Camp Phoenix, an American base inside Kabul, wounding at least six Afghan civilians, said Jamil Jumbish, the head of Afghanistan's criminal investigation unit.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was targeting an international military convoy, according to a text message to The Associated Press from a phone number commonly used by the militant group.
NATO forces confirmed a car bomb struck outside the main gate of Camp Phoenix, saying it was aimed at a civilian convoy that was entering the controlled checkpoint.
Eight Americans suffered minor injuries, according to a NATO official, who released the information ahead of a formal announcement on condition of anonymity. He did not say if they were troops or civilians.
Four Afghan policemen were killed overnight at a checkpoint near the Information and Cultural Affairs Ministry's directorate in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. The southern area is expected to be a major focus of fighting with the influx of 37,000 additional U.S. and NATO forces.
Taliban militants frequently target Afghan security forces and officials to undermine the U.S.-backed government, but authorities said it was not yet clear who killed the policemen.
Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said said the officers apparently had visitors and an investigation was under way into whether the attack was political or personal.
In eastern Kunar province, a NATO airstrike killed several suspected insurgents who were maneuvering into fighting position in an area previously used to stage attacks on international forces, the coalition said in a statement.
Spokeswoman Maj. Virginia McCabe said between five and 10 militants were killed.
President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that the London conference offers a major opportunity for his government to present its plans for reconciliation in an effort to drain the insurgency of support.
Karzai spoke Tuesday in Turkey after a meeting of nations that seek to help Afghanistan emerge from instability with aid, trade, training and political support. Delegates included British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that her country plans to increase its troop contingent in Afghanistan by up to 850 and focus more strongly on training local security forces.
Germany currently has nearly 4,300 soldiers in northern Afghanistan. They serve under a parliamentary mandate that sets the maximum number at 4,500; Merkel did not specify what the new upper limit might be.
In Kabul, meanwhile, security officials gave the first detailed account of how a small group of militants infiltrated the capital in the Jan. 18 attack on government buildings and a major shopping center, which left five civilians and Afghan security forces dead, along with the seven assailants.
Intelligence officials played a videotape for reporters from a man who allegedly sheltered the seven attackers — all of whom died in the attack. The alleged ringleader — who was arrested a day after the attack — said operatives from the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani militant network ordered him to the capital from his home in eastern Nangarhar province.
"I received a phone call telling me to come to Kabul," said Kamaluddin, who like many Afghans goes by one name. "The plan was organized by a commander for Jalaluddin Haqqani."
He said a man named Bashir explained that he would bring seven suicide bombers and Kamaluddin was to keep them in a house he rented in the city and help organize the attack — including painting a vehicle loaded with explosives to look like an ambulance.
Kamaluddin supplied the bombers with suicide vests and ammunition, said Sayed Ansari, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service. He said they were still trying to identify the lead bombers in the attack.
The car bombing was the latest attack to hit Kabul, coming just over a week after a team of Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers staged an assault that paralyzed the city and left 12 people dead. The violence has underscored fears that militants would try to stage attacks ahead of a key international conference on Afghanistan to be held Thursday in London.
The bomber detonated a minivan packed with explosives near Camp Phoenix, an American base inside Kabul, wounding at least six Afghan civilians, said Jamil Jumbish, the head of Afghanistan's criminal investigation unit.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was targeting an international military convoy, according to a text message to The Associated Press from a phone number commonly used by the militant group.
NATO forces confirmed a car bomb struck outside the main gate of Camp Phoenix, saying it was aimed at a civilian convoy that was entering the controlled checkpoint.
Eight Americans suffered minor injuries, according to a NATO official, who released the information ahead of a formal announcement on condition of anonymity. He did not say if they were troops or civilians.
Four Afghan policemen were killed overnight at a checkpoint near the Information and Cultural Affairs Ministry's directorate in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. The southern area is expected to be a major focus of fighting with the influx of 37,000 additional U.S. and NATO forces.
Taliban militants frequently target Afghan security forces and officials to undermine the U.S.-backed government, but authorities said it was not yet clear who killed the policemen.
Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said said the officers apparently had visitors and an investigation was under way into whether the attack was political or personal.
In eastern Kunar province, a NATO airstrike killed several suspected insurgents who were maneuvering into fighting position in an area previously used to stage attacks on international forces, the coalition said in a statement.
Spokeswoman Maj. Virginia McCabe said between five and 10 militants were killed.
President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that the London conference offers a major opportunity for his government to present its plans for reconciliation in an effort to drain the insurgency of support.
Karzai spoke Tuesday in Turkey after a meeting of nations that seek to help Afghanistan emerge from instability with aid, trade, training and political support. Delegates included British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that her country plans to increase its troop contingent in Afghanistan by up to 850 and focus more strongly on training local security forces.
Germany currently has nearly 4,300 soldiers in northern Afghanistan. They serve under a parliamentary mandate that sets the maximum number at 4,500; Merkel did not specify what the new upper limit might be.
In Kabul, meanwhile, security officials gave the first detailed account of how a small group of militants infiltrated the capital in the Jan. 18 attack on government buildings and a major shopping center, which left five civilians and Afghan security forces dead, along with the seven assailants.
Intelligence officials played a videotape for reporters from a man who allegedly sheltered the seven attackers — all of whom died in the attack. The alleged ringleader — who was arrested a day after the attack — said operatives from the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani militant network ordered him to the capital from his home in eastern Nangarhar province.
"I received a phone call telling me to come to Kabul," said Kamaluddin, who like many Afghans goes by one name. "The plan was organized by a commander for Jalaluddin Haqqani."
He said a man named Bashir explained that he would bring seven suicide bombers and Kamaluddin was to keep them in a house he rented in the city and help organize the attack — including painting a vehicle loaded with explosives to look like an ambulance.
Kamaluddin supplied the bombers with suicide vests and ammunition, said Sayed Ansari, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service. He said they were still trying to identify the lead bombers in the attack.
St. Kitts ruling party wins in early elections
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – The ruling party of St. Kitts and Nevis seized a fourth consecutive term in early elections, officials said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Denzil Douglas' Labor Party claimed six of eight parliamentary seats allotted to St. Kitts, according to preliminary results, elections supervisor Leroy Benjamin said.
The opposition People's Action Movement won two seats, one more than it had in the last elections. The Nevis-based Concerned Citizens Movement held on to its two seats, and the Nevis Reformation Party kept its single spot, he said.
Benjamin said he did not yet have a breakdown of how many votes each party received.
Neither Douglas nor opposition leader Lindsay Grant reacted immediately to the results.
Roughly 70 percent of 32,000 eligible voters participated, Benjamin said, adding that his office received no immediate reports of irregularities.
The People's Action Movement said on its Web site there were reports of people voting in the wrong districts and improperly registered voters participating.
Douglas, a physician who has been in office since 1995, campaigned on his party's efforts to boost the island's fragile economy, build roads and hospitals and continue servicing the national debt.
The People's Action Movement governed St. Kitts and Nevis from 1980 to 1995. Grant, a Harvard-educated lawyer, was named party leader in 2000.
Prime Minister Denzil Douglas' Labor Party claimed six of eight parliamentary seats allotted to St. Kitts, according to preliminary results, elections supervisor Leroy Benjamin said.
The opposition People's Action Movement won two seats, one more than it had in the last elections. The Nevis-based Concerned Citizens Movement held on to its two seats, and the Nevis Reformation Party kept its single spot, he said.
Benjamin said he did not yet have a breakdown of how many votes each party received.
Neither Douglas nor opposition leader Lindsay Grant reacted immediately to the results.
Roughly 70 percent of 32,000 eligible voters participated, Benjamin said, adding that his office received no immediate reports of irregularities.
The People's Action Movement said on its Web site there were reports of people voting in the wrong districts and improperly registered voters participating.
Douglas, a physician who has been in office since 1995, campaigned on his party's efforts to boost the island's fragile economy, build roads and hospitals and continue servicing the national debt.
The People's Action Movement governed St. Kitts and Nevis from 1980 to 1995. Grant, a Harvard-educated lawyer, was named party leader in 2000.
Germany to increase Afghan contingent by up to 850
BERLIN – Germany plans to increase its troop contingent in Afghanistan by up to 850 and focus more strongly on training local security forces, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday.
Berlin plans to send 500 extra troops to Afghanistan. It also expects to adjust the parliamentary mandate under which they serve to allow for another 350 soldiers to be deployed as a "flexible reserve," to help with events such as elections if necessary, Merkel said.
She gave the figures after meeting with ministers to thrash out Germany's position for this week's London conference on the future of Afghanistan.
Germany currently has nearly 4,300 soldiers in northern Afghanistan. They serve under a parliamentary mandate that sets the maximum number at 4,500; Merkel did not specify what the new upper limit might be.
Merkel said that Germany would step up the number of soldiers involved in training Afghan forces.
She said Berlin is not setting a withdrawal date for its troops.
Berlin plans to send 500 extra troops to Afghanistan. It also expects to adjust the parliamentary mandate under which they serve to allow for another 350 soldiers to be deployed as a "flexible reserve," to help with events such as elections if necessary, Merkel said.
She gave the figures after meeting with ministers to thrash out Germany's position for this week's London conference on the future of Afghanistan.
Germany currently has nearly 4,300 soldiers in northern Afghanistan. They serve under a parliamentary mandate that sets the maximum number at 4,500; Merkel did not specify what the new upper limit might be.
Merkel said that Germany would step up the number of soldiers involved in training Afghan forces.
She said Berlin is not setting a withdrawal date for its troops.
Germany to increase Afghan contingent by up to 850
BERLIN – Germany plans to increase its troop contingent in Afghanistan by up to 850 and focus more strongly on training local security forces, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday.
Berlin plans to send 500 extra troops to Afghanistan. It also expects to adjust the parliamentary mandate under which they serve to allow for another 350 soldiers to be deployed as a "flexible reserve," to help with events such as elections if necessary, Merkel said.
She gave the figures after meeting with ministers to thrash out Germany's position for this week's London conference on the future of Afghanistan.
Germany currently has nearly 4,300 soldiers in northern Afghanistan. They serve under a parliamentary mandate that sets the maximum number at 4,500; Merkel did not specify what the new upper limit might be.
Merkel said that Germany would step up the number of soldiers involved in training Afghan forces.
She said Berlin is not setting a withdrawal date for its troops.
Berlin plans to send 500 extra troops to Afghanistan. It also expects to adjust the parliamentary mandate under which they serve to allow for another 350 soldiers to be deployed as a "flexible reserve," to help with events such as elections if necessary, Merkel said.
She gave the figures after meeting with ministers to thrash out Germany's position for this week's London conference on the future of Afghanistan.
Germany currently has nearly 4,300 soldiers in northern Afghanistan. They serve under a parliamentary mandate that sets the maximum number at 4,500; Merkel did not specify what the new upper limit might be.
Merkel said that Germany would step up the number of soldiers involved in training Afghan forces.
She said Berlin is not setting a withdrawal date for its troops.
British, Irish hold talks to save NIreland govt
HILLSBOROUGH, Northern Ireland – The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland held a second day of talks Tuesday with political parties in Northern Ireland as they struggled to keep the fractious Catholic-Protestant government there from collapsing.
Negotiators from the opposite sides of Northern Ireland's unraveling government — the British Protestants of the Democratic Unionists and the Irish Catholics of Sinn Fein — denounced each others' positions as they arrived for separate talks with the two premiers, who launched a surprise diplomatic effort Monday.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office issued a statement saying the talks — which halted around 3 a.m. (0300GMT) Tuesday and resumed six hours later — had been "hard going," but both premiers "remain determined that progress can be made."
Government officials would not say how long Brown and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen intended to press their case for power-sharing. If they leave without brokering a deal, prospects appear dim for sustaining Northern Ireland's coalition of former foes.
Northern Ireland's 1998 U.S.-brokered Good Friday peace accord proposed power-sharing between majority Protestants and minority Catholics as the best way to end a conflict that had claimed more than 3,600 lives since the late 1960s.
A fragile peace had already taken hold thanks to mid-1990s cease-fires by Northern Ireland's rival underground armies. Those truces have been bolstered by disarmament — but power-sharing has proven to be a crisis-prone struggle.
Sinn Fein negotiators said they expected their Protestant partners in government to make long-sought commitments to agree to let Britain hand over control of Northern Ireland's courts and police. If that does not happen within hours, their Irish nationalist party would withdraw from the 2 1/2-year-old coalition, triggering its collapse.
"I would like to be optimistic but I haven't seen much cause to be. There's a fair degree of frustration about," said Sinn Fein negotiator Conor Murphy. He rejected the notion that the current effort to reach a new agreement with the Protestant side of government could run a few more weeks.
"I think the DUP (Democratic Unionists) would like to keep sitting around tables for the next five years without any movement on any issues," Murphy said. "We're rapidly reaching the point where decisions have to be taken, and that's in a matter of hours rather than days."
A Sinn Fein withdrawal would force the dissolution of the 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly and new elections that, analysts warn, could produce even more polarized results that would make power-sharing even harder to resurrect.
A previous 1999-2002 coalition led by moderate Northern Ireland parties repeatedly broke down amid arguments about when Sinn Fein's paramilitary colleagues in the Irish Republican Army would surrender their arsenal. Britain resumed direct control of Northern Ireland, the system originally imposed at the height of bloodshed in 1972.
After the outlawed IRA finally renounced violence and disarmed in 2005, a new power-sharing push created a coalition government in 2007 led by Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists, Northern Ireland's electorally popular extremes.
Sinn Fein agreed to share power on condition that Britain handed over control of Northern Ireland's courts and police.
While Britain and Ireland back handing over control of Northern Ireland's courts and police, the Democratic Unionists have steadfastly resisted — and their negotiators stressed Tuesday they aren't willing to cave in now.
"Sinn Fein have thrown their toys out of the pram (baby carriage), they've had to get the prime ministers in, and they're threatening to bring the Assembly down," said Democratic Unionist negotiator Edwin Poots. "They really need to calm down."
"No one has to make policing and justice a deal-breaker," said another Democratic Unionist lawmaker, Nelson McCausland. "The problem is that Sinn Fein try to put pressure on, to coerce people, to browbeat and threaten people. There should be devolution of justice and policing — but it has to be at the right time, on the right terms."
For its part, Sinn Fein has rejected a Democratic Unionist demand for a British government-appointed Parades Commission to be abolished. That panel has restricted Protestant groups from parading near Sinn Fein strongholds, marches that triggered widespread riots in the mid-1990s.
Negotiators from the opposite sides of Northern Ireland's unraveling government — the British Protestants of the Democratic Unionists and the Irish Catholics of Sinn Fein — denounced each others' positions as they arrived for separate talks with the two premiers, who launched a surprise diplomatic effort Monday.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office issued a statement saying the talks — which halted around 3 a.m. (0300GMT) Tuesday and resumed six hours later — had been "hard going," but both premiers "remain determined that progress can be made."
Government officials would not say how long Brown and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen intended to press their case for power-sharing. If they leave without brokering a deal, prospects appear dim for sustaining Northern Ireland's coalition of former foes.
Northern Ireland's 1998 U.S.-brokered Good Friday peace accord proposed power-sharing between majority Protestants and minority Catholics as the best way to end a conflict that had claimed more than 3,600 lives since the late 1960s.
A fragile peace had already taken hold thanks to mid-1990s cease-fires by Northern Ireland's rival underground armies. Those truces have been bolstered by disarmament — but power-sharing has proven to be a crisis-prone struggle.
Sinn Fein negotiators said they expected their Protestant partners in government to make long-sought commitments to agree to let Britain hand over control of Northern Ireland's courts and police. If that does not happen within hours, their Irish nationalist party would withdraw from the 2 1/2-year-old coalition, triggering its collapse.
"I would like to be optimistic but I haven't seen much cause to be. There's a fair degree of frustration about," said Sinn Fein negotiator Conor Murphy. He rejected the notion that the current effort to reach a new agreement with the Protestant side of government could run a few more weeks.
"I think the DUP (Democratic Unionists) would like to keep sitting around tables for the next five years without any movement on any issues," Murphy said. "We're rapidly reaching the point where decisions have to be taken, and that's in a matter of hours rather than days."
A Sinn Fein withdrawal would force the dissolution of the 108-member Northern Ireland Assembly and new elections that, analysts warn, could produce even more polarized results that would make power-sharing even harder to resurrect.
A previous 1999-2002 coalition led by moderate Northern Ireland parties repeatedly broke down amid arguments about when Sinn Fein's paramilitary colleagues in the Irish Republican Army would surrender their arsenal. Britain resumed direct control of Northern Ireland, the system originally imposed at the height of bloodshed in 1972.
After the outlawed IRA finally renounced violence and disarmed in 2005, a new power-sharing push created a coalition government in 2007 led by Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists, Northern Ireland's electorally popular extremes.
Sinn Fein agreed to share power on condition that Britain handed over control of Northern Ireland's courts and police.
While Britain and Ireland back handing over control of Northern Ireland's courts and police, the Democratic Unionists have steadfastly resisted — and their negotiators stressed Tuesday they aren't willing to cave in now.
"Sinn Fein have thrown their toys out of the pram (baby carriage), they've had to get the prime ministers in, and they're threatening to bring the Assembly down," said Democratic Unionist negotiator Edwin Poots. "They really need to calm down."
"No one has to make policing and justice a deal-breaker," said another Democratic Unionist lawmaker, Nelson McCausland. "The problem is that Sinn Fein try to put pressure on, to coerce people, to browbeat and threaten people. There should be devolution of justice and policing — but it has to be at the right time, on the right terms."
For its part, Sinn Fein has rejected a Democratic Unionist demand for a British government-appointed Parades Commission to be abolished. That panel has restricted Protestant groups from parading near Sinn Fein strongholds, marches that triggered widespread riots in the mid-1990s.
Auschwitz survivor teams up with rap band
BERLIN – Esther Bejarano says music helped keep her alive as a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz and in the years that followed.
Now, 65 years after the liberation of the Nazi death camp, the 85-year-old has teamed up with a hip-hop band to spread her anti-racism message to German youth.
"It's a clash of everything: age, culture, style," Bejarano, a petite lady with an amiable chuckle, told The Associated Press ahead of Auschwitz Liberation Day on Wednesday. "But we all love music and share a common goal: we're fighting against racism and discrimination."
The daughter of a Jewish cantor from Saarbruecken in western Germany, Bejarano grew up in a musical home studying piano until the Nazis came to power and tore her family apart. Bejarano was deported to Auschwitz, where she became a member of the girls' orchestra, playing the accordion every time trains full of Jews from across Europe arrived at the death camp.
"We played with tears in our eyes," Bejarano remembered. "The new arrivals came in waving and applauding us, but we knew they would be taken directly to the gas chambers."
Bejarano survived, but her parents and sister Ruth were killed by the Nazis.
For the past 20 years Bejarano has played music mostly from the past — Yiddish melodies, tunes from the ghetto and Jewish resistance songs — with her children Edna and Yoram in a Hamburg-based band called Coincidence.
About two years ago, Kutlu Yurtseven, a Turkish immigrant rapper from the Cologne-based Microphone Mafia, got in touch with the band to see if they'd team up with them.
"Our band wanted to do something against the growing racism and anti-Semitism in Germany," Yurtseven, 36, said in a phone interview Tuesday.
"Yoram told me that first of all he had to ask his mother Esther what she thought about a crossover project with a bunch of young rappers."
Esther Bejarano, it turned out, thought hip-hop music "was really a bit too loud," but also said she saw it as a good way to reach out to Germany's youth.
"We want to keep the memories of the Holocaust alive, but at the same time look into the future and encourage young people to take a stand against new Nazis," said Bejarano. "I know what racism can lead to and the members of Microphone Mafia are immigrants and have experienced their share of discrimination as well."
Yurtseven, a Muslim, also sees a message of religious harmony.
"All religions ask to love an respect others and that's what we do as well," Yurtseven said.
The crossover of modern hip-hop and traditional Jewish folklore turned out to be quite a hit. The rappers have mixed Jewish songs with stomping hip-hop beats and also created new lyrics for some of the songs that are more accessible for a younger audience.
Last summer, the two bands released a CD called Per La Vita and a documentary about the band that was initially scheduled for the Auschwitz liberation anniversary is now supposed to be ready later this year to be shown at high schools across Germany.
The CD was released on a small, independent label and it was not clear how many copies were sold.
Currently, the troupe is touring through Germany. Their audiences range from teenage immigrants at metropolitan youth centers to a more established, older crowd that usually favors Bejarano's classic approach to music.
"They all love it," said Bejarano. "Even some of the older guests sometimes climb on the chairs and dance."
Bejarano said it can be exhausting at her age to perform on stage with a bunch of youngsters but that she has found ways to adjust the shows to her needs.
"I've educated the boys," Bejarano said with her trademark chuckle. "We've lowered the volume and I told them to stop jumping around on stage all the time."
For Yurtseven and his fellow band members, the fact that they are performing with an Auschwitz survivor has been a unique experience as well.
"I once asked Esther how she can still make music after Auschwitz," he remembered. "And she said that if they had also taken away the music from her, she would have died."
Now, 65 years after the liberation of the Nazi death camp, the 85-year-old has teamed up with a hip-hop band to spread her anti-racism message to German youth.
"It's a clash of everything: age, culture, style," Bejarano, a petite lady with an amiable chuckle, told The Associated Press ahead of Auschwitz Liberation Day on Wednesday. "But we all love music and share a common goal: we're fighting against racism and discrimination."
The daughter of a Jewish cantor from Saarbruecken in western Germany, Bejarano grew up in a musical home studying piano until the Nazis came to power and tore her family apart. Bejarano was deported to Auschwitz, where she became a member of the girls' orchestra, playing the accordion every time trains full of Jews from across Europe arrived at the death camp.
"We played with tears in our eyes," Bejarano remembered. "The new arrivals came in waving and applauding us, but we knew they would be taken directly to the gas chambers."
Bejarano survived, but her parents and sister Ruth were killed by the Nazis.
For the past 20 years Bejarano has played music mostly from the past — Yiddish melodies, tunes from the ghetto and Jewish resistance songs — with her children Edna and Yoram in a Hamburg-based band called Coincidence.
About two years ago, Kutlu Yurtseven, a Turkish immigrant rapper from the Cologne-based Microphone Mafia, got in touch with the band to see if they'd team up with them.
"Our band wanted to do something against the growing racism and anti-Semitism in Germany," Yurtseven, 36, said in a phone interview Tuesday.
"Yoram told me that first of all he had to ask his mother Esther what she thought about a crossover project with a bunch of young rappers."
Esther Bejarano, it turned out, thought hip-hop music "was really a bit too loud," but also said she saw it as a good way to reach out to Germany's youth.
"We want to keep the memories of the Holocaust alive, but at the same time look into the future and encourage young people to take a stand against new Nazis," said Bejarano. "I know what racism can lead to and the members of Microphone Mafia are immigrants and have experienced their share of discrimination as well."
Yurtseven, a Muslim, also sees a message of religious harmony.
"All religions ask to love an respect others and that's what we do as well," Yurtseven said.
The crossover of modern hip-hop and traditional Jewish folklore turned out to be quite a hit. The rappers have mixed Jewish songs with stomping hip-hop beats and also created new lyrics for some of the songs that are more accessible for a younger audience.
Last summer, the two bands released a CD called Per La Vita and a documentary about the band that was initially scheduled for the Auschwitz liberation anniversary is now supposed to be ready later this year to be shown at high schools across Germany.
The CD was released on a small, independent label and it was not clear how many copies were sold.
Currently, the troupe is touring through Germany. Their audiences range from teenage immigrants at metropolitan youth centers to a more established, older crowd that usually favors Bejarano's classic approach to music.
"They all love it," said Bejarano. "Even some of the older guests sometimes climb on the chairs and dance."
Bejarano said it can be exhausting at her age to perform on stage with a bunch of youngsters but that she has found ways to adjust the shows to her needs.
"I've educated the boys," Bejarano said with her trademark chuckle. "We've lowered the volume and I told them to stop jumping around on stage all the time."
For Yurtseven and his fellow band members, the fact that they are performing with an Auschwitz survivor has been a unique experience as well.
"I once asked Esther how she can still make music after Auschwitz," he remembered. "And she said that if they had also taken away the music from her, she would have died."
Joanna Lumley wins "Oldie of the Year" award
LONDON (Reuters) – Actress Joanna Lumley was named "Oldie of the Year" on Tuesday by the monthly Oldie magazine for campaigning for the rights of retired Nepalese Gurkha soldiers wanting to settle in Britain.
Thanks in part to the 63-year-old's lobbying, the government announced in May, 2009 that former Gurkhas who retired before 1997 with more than four years' service would be eligible to apply to live in Britain.
The decision potentially affected up to 15,000 veterans.
"We would like to award her for her relentless efforts and continuing campaigning for Ghurkhas' rights and The Gurkha Justice Campaign," Oldie organisers said.
Broadcaster and television personality Terry Wogan, 71, who stepped down as presenter of the popular BBC Radio 2 breakfast show last month, will hand out the prizes at a ceremony in London and pick up his own award -- Retirer of the Year.
Previous Oldie of the Year Award winners include David Attenborough (2005), Ranulph Fiennes (2004), Eric Sykes (2002), John Mortimer (2001) and Spike Milligan (1994).
Thanks in part to the 63-year-old's lobbying, the government announced in May, 2009 that former Gurkhas who retired before 1997 with more than four years' service would be eligible to apply to live in Britain.
The decision potentially affected up to 15,000 veterans.
"We would like to award her for her relentless efforts and continuing campaigning for Ghurkhas' rights and The Gurkha Justice Campaign," Oldie organisers said.
Broadcaster and television personality Terry Wogan, 71, who stepped down as presenter of the popular BBC Radio 2 breakfast show last month, will hand out the prizes at a ceremony in London and pick up his own award -- Retirer of the Year.
Previous Oldie of the Year Award winners include David Attenborough (2005), Ranulph Fiennes (2004), Eric Sykes (2002), John Mortimer (2001) and Spike Milligan (1994).
Recession barely over: UK grows 0.1 pct in Q4
LONDON – Britain's worst recession since World War II is officially over — but only just.
Gross domestic product rose a feeble 0.1 percent in the final quarter of 2009, the Office for National Statistics reported Tuesday.
That was enough to officially end a grinding 18-month downturn that has seen 1.3 million people lose their jobs. Britain is the last of the major economies to return to growth after the global credit crunch.
But the figure fell short of expectations of a stronger 0.3 to 0.4 percent rise.
Capital Economics economist Jonathan Loynes said the figure, a first estimate that will be revised twice as more data is analyzed, was "a major blow to hopes that the U.K. economy had emerged decisively from recession."
The economy will be a major issue in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's bid to be releected in a general election that must be held by June. Tuesday's growth announcement had been much anticipated — leading the usually media-shy statistics office to hold a rare televised press conference in central London to announce the figure.
The statistics office's chief economist, Joe Grice, acknowledged that the first estimate, which is based on 40 percent of the data used to reach the final figure, could easily be revised up or down by around 0.1-0.2 percent.
A revision of a negative 0.2 percent in the next estimates, due at the end of February and March, would nix Britain's recovery from recession, but Grice declined to comment on the possibility of that outcome.
"We don't know on the evidence we have," he told reporters, noting his job was to analyse data as it became available, rather than make forecasts.
Hetal Mehta, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club said that the preliminary estimate appeared to be at odds with more upbeat survey data, including the expected positive impact of a yearlong reduction in sales tax on retail sales.
"There is a strong possibility that the Q4 figures will be revised up," Mehta said.
Loynes agreed that an upward revision was possible. But he said it wouldn't change the big picture of an economy operating far below pre-recession levels and major budget deficits looming.
"With household incomes under pressure, credit in short supply and a major fiscal squeeze looming, the path to a full recovery is going to be a long and bumpy one," he added.
Britain is the last of the major industrial countries to exit recession, with the French and the German economies returning to growth last summer.
It was hit particularly hard by the global credit crunch because of its huge banking and financial-services sector centered in London, which had to be propped up by the government's multibillion-pound bailout of major banks, and higher levels of personal debt among consumers. Like the U.S., it also faced a collapsed real estate bubble.
The fallout cost the country 100 billion pounds ($160 billion) in lost output as GDP shrank 6 percent over the 18 months of the downturn. Some 1.3 million people were laid off, unemployment rose as high as 7.9 percent and around 50,000 families had their homes repossessed.
Statistics office economist Grice said that the fourth quarter showed a uniform picture of small increases across the distribution, hotels and restaurants and government sectors.
Output of manufacturing and other production industries, which have had the deepest slump, rose by 0.1 percent, as did the services sector, which represents around 70 percent of the economy.
Economists had expected GDP to be supported by strong pre-Christmas sales as shoppers tried to beat an increase in the sales tax on Jan. 1, a government-sponsored vehicle scrappage program, the revival of exports and a slow recovery in the massive services sector.
IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said he now expected the economy to struggle to grow by more than 1 percent this year, adding that the Bank of England would likely keep interest rates at the current record low of 0.5 percent until the end of the year and possibly beyond.
The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee will take the GDP figures into account when it meets next week to discuss the level of interest rates and whether to extend its program of purchasing assets to boost the money supply.
The 200-billion-pound program is due to be completed by early February, just before the committee's meeting on Feb. 3-4.
Gross domestic product rose a feeble 0.1 percent in the final quarter of 2009, the Office for National Statistics reported Tuesday.
That was enough to officially end a grinding 18-month downturn that has seen 1.3 million people lose their jobs. Britain is the last of the major economies to return to growth after the global credit crunch.
But the figure fell short of expectations of a stronger 0.3 to 0.4 percent rise.
Capital Economics economist Jonathan Loynes said the figure, a first estimate that will be revised twice as more data is analyzed, was "a major blow to hopes that the U.K. economy had emerged decisively from recession."
The economy will be a major issue in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's bid to be releected in a general election that must be held by June. Tuesday's growth announcement had been much anticipated — leading the usually media-shy statistics office to hold a rare televised press conference in central London to announce the figure.
The statistics office's chief economist, Joe Grice, acknowledged that the first estimate, which is based on 40 percent of the data used to reach the final figure, could easily be revised up or down by around 0.1-0.2 percent.
A revision of a negative 0.2 percent in the next estimates, due at the end of February and March, would nix Britain's recovery from recession, but Grice declined to comment on the possibility of that outcome.
"We don't know on the evidence we have," he told reporters, noting his job was to analyse data as it became available, rather than make forecasts.
Hetal Mehta, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club said that the preliminary estimate appeared to be at odds with more upbeat survey data, including the expected positive impact of a yearlong reduction in sales tax on retail sales.
"There is a strong possibility that the Q4 figures will be revised up," Mehta said.
Loynes agreed that an upward revision was possible. But he said it wouldn't change the big picture of an economy operating far below pre-recession levels and major budget deficits looming.
"With household incomes under pressure, credit in short supply and a major fiscal squeeze looming, the path to a full recovery is going to be a long and bumpy one," he added.
Britain is the last of the major industrial countries to exit recession, with the French and the German economies returning to growth last summer.
It was hit particularly hard by the global credit crunch because of its huge banking and financial-services sector centered in London, which had to be propped up by the government's multibillion-pound bailout of major banks, and higher levels of personal debt among consumers. Like the U.S., it also faced a collapsed real estate bubble.
The fallout cost the country 100 billion pounds ($160 billion) in lost output as GDP shrank 6 percent over the 18 months of the downturn. Some 1.3 million people were laid off, unemployment rose as high as 7.9 percent and around 50,000 families had their homes repossessed.
Statistics office economist Grice said that the fourth quarter showed a uniform picture of small increases across the distribution, hotels and restaurants and government sectors.
Output of manufacturing and other production industries, which have had the deepest slump, rose by 0.1 percent, as did the services sector, which represents around 70 percent of the economy.
Economists had expected GDP to be supported by strong pre-Christmas sales as shoppers tried to beat an increase in the sales tax on Jan. 1, a government-sponsored vehicle scrappage program, the revival of exports and a slow recovery in the massive services sector.
IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said he now expected the economy to struggle to grow by more than 1 percent this year, adding that the Bank of England would likely keep interest rates at the current record low of 0.5 percent until the end of the year and possibly beyond.
The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee will take the GDP figures into account when it meets next week to discuss the level of interest rates and whether to extend its program of purchasing assets to boost the money supply.
The 200-billion-pound program is due to be completed by early February, just before the committee's meeting on Feb. 3-4.
France should denounce, ban Muslim face veils: panel
PARIS (Reuters) – France's National Assembly should pass a resolution denouncing full Muslim face veils and then vote the strictest law possible to ban women from wearing them, a parliamentary commission proposed on Tuesday.
Presenting conclusions after six months of hearings, the panel also suggested barring foreign women from obtaining French visas or citizenship if they insisted on veiling their faces.
But it could not agree whether to opt for an absolute ban on the veils, known here as burqas or niqabs, or one restricted to public buildings because some members thought a total ban would be unconstitutional.
"The full veil represents in an extraordinary way everything that France spontaneously rejects," National Assembly President Bernard Accoyer said as the commission delivered its report.
"It's a symbol of the subjugation of women and the banner of extremist fundamentalism."
While not defending the all-enclosing veils, leaders of the five-million-strong Muslim minority say a legal ban would be excessive since fewer than 2,000 women are said to wear them.
Jamel Debbouze, a highly popular Parisian-born comedian of Moroccan background, condemned the plan as xenophobic. "People who go down that path are racists," he told French radio.
The veil issue has become linked with another controversial debate about national identity that the government launched only months before regional elections in March. "This debate is sterile and dangerous electioneering," Debbouze said.
Supporters of a ban say civil servants need a law to allow them to turn away fully veiled women who cannot be identified when they seek municipal services such as medical care, child support or public transport.
"GURUS OF FUNDAMENTALISM"
Andre Gerin, a communist deputy from Lyon who headed the commission, said a total ban would also help combat what he called "gurus of fundamentalism" who he said were spreading radical Islamism and forcing women to wear full veils.
He said France needed "an Islam compatible with the Republic" and its values of secularism and sexual equality.
Eric Raoult, a conservative deputy and vice-chairman of the commission, said a resolution denouncing full veils should find wide support in parliament but a law banning them needed to be carefully drafted to ensure it is not overturned.
"There wouldn't be anything worse than proclaiming something and seeing it annulled by the Constitutional Council," he said.
The commission presented a draft resolution to denounce full face veils, examine the legal basis for a ban and characterize veiling as a radical religious practice that is contrary to French values and grounds to reject requests for citizenship.
The text said the state should study the motivations of veiled women, do more to combat violence against women and teach more about sexual equality at school.
Accoyer said the parliament would not have time to work out a solid law banning face veils and pass it before the regional elections in March.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission in London issued a statement calling the commission report "the latest in a line of racist policies and laws that target Muslims, and in particular Muslim women" and said it would "simply legitimize further acts of racism and discrimination."
Presenting conclusions after six months of hearings, the panel also suggested barring foreign women from obtaining French visas or citizenship if they insisted on veiling their faces.
But it could not agree whether to opt for an absolute ban on the veils, known here as burqas or niqabs, or one restricted to public buildings because some members thought a total ban would be unconstitutional.
"The full veil represents in an extraordinary way everything that France spontaneously rejects," National Assembly President Bernard Accoyer said as the commission delivered its report.
"It's a symbol of the subjugation of women and the banner of extremist fundamentalism."
While not defending the all-enclosing veils, leaders of the five-million-strong Muslim minority say a legal ban would be excessive since fewer than 2,000 women are said to wear them.
Jamel Debbouze, a highly popular Parisian-born comedian of Moroccan background, condemned the plan as xenophobic. "People who go down that path are racists," he told French radio.
The veil issue has become linked with another controversial debate about national identity that the government launched only months before regional elections in March. "This debate is sterile and dangerous electioneering," Debbouze said.
Supporters of a ban say civil servants need a law to allow them to turn away fully veiled women who cannot be identified when they seek municipal services such as medical care, child support or public transport.
"GURUS OF FUNDAMENTALISM"
Andre Gerin, a communist deputy from Lyon who headed the commission, said a total ban would also help combat what he called "gurus of fundamentalism" who he said were spreading radical Islamism and forcing women to wear full veils.
He said France needed "an Islam compatible with the Republic" and its values of secularism and sexual equality.
Eric Raoult, a conservative deputy and vice-chairman of the commission, said a resolution denouncing full veils should find wide support in parliament but a law banning them needed to be carefully drafted to ensure it is not overturned.
"There wouldn't be anything worse than proclaiming something and seeing it annulled by the Constitutional Council," he said.
The commission presented a draft resolution to denounce full face veils, examine the legal basis for a ban and characterize veiling as a radical religious practice that is contrary to French values and grounds to reject requests for citizenship.
The text said the state should study the motivations of veiled women, do more to combat violence against women and teach more about sexual equality at school.
Accoyer said the parliament would not have time to work out a solid law banning face veils and pass it before the regional elections in March.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission in London issued a statement calling the commission report "the latest in a line of racist policies and laws that target Muslims, and in particular Muslim women" and said it would "simply legitimize further acts of racism and discrimination."
France should denounce, ban Muslim face veils: panel
PARIS (Reuters) – France's National Assembly should pass a resolution denouncing full Muslim face veils and then vote the strictest law possible to ban women from wearing them, a parliamentary commission proposed on Tuesday.
Presenting conclusions after six months of hearings, the panel also suggested barring foreign women from obtaining French visas or citizenship if they insisted on veiling their faces.
But it could not agree whether to opt for an absolute ban on the veils, known here as burqas or niqabs, or one restricted to public buildings because some members thought a total ban would be unconstitutional.
"The full veil represents in an extraordinary way everything that France spontaneously rejects," National Assembly President Bernard Accoyer said as the commission delivered its report.
"It's a symbol of the subjugation of women and the banner of extremist fundamentalism."
While not defending the all-enclosing veils, leaders of the five-million-strong Muslim minority say a legal ban would be excessive since fewer than 2,000 women are said to wear them.
Jamel Debbouze, a highly popular Parisian-born comedian of Moroccan background, condemned the plan as xenophobic. "People who go down that path are racists," he told French radio.
The veil issue has become linked with another controversial debate about national identity that the government launched only months before regional elections in March. "This debate is sterile and dangerous electioneering," Debbouze said.
Supporters of a ban say civil servants need a law to allow them to turn away fully veiled women who cannot be identified when they seek municipal services such as medical care, child support or public transport.
"GURUS OF FUNDAMENTALISM"
Andre Gerin, a communist deputy from Lyon who headed the commission, said a total ban would also help combat what he called "gurus of fundamentalism" who he said were spreading radical Islamism and forcing women to wear full veils.
He said France needed "an Islam compatible with the Republic" and its values of secularism and sexual equality.
Eric Raoult, a conservative deputy and vice-chairman of the commission, said a resolution denouncing full veils should find wide support in parliament but a law banning them needed to be carefully drafted to ensure it is not overturned.
"There wouldn't be anything worse than proclaiming something and seeing it annulled by the Constitutional Council," he said.
The commission presented a draft resolution to denounce full face veils, examine the legal basis for a ban and characterize veiling as a radical religious practice that is contrary to French values and grounds to reject requests for citizenship.
The text said the state should study the motivations of veiled women, do more to combat violence against women and teach more about sexual equality at school.
Accoyer said the parliament would not have time to work out a solid law banning face veils and pass it before the regional elections in March.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission in London issued a statement calling the commission report "the latest in a line of racist policies and laws that target Muslims, and in particular Muslim women" and said it would "simply legitimize further acts of racism and discrimination."
Presenting conclusions after six months of hearings, the panel also suggested barring foreign women from obtaining French visas or citizenship if they insisted on veiling their faces.
But it could not agree whether to opt for an absolute ban on the veils, known here as burqas or niqabs, or one restricted to public buildings because some members thought a total ban would be unconstitutional.
"The full veil represents in an extraordinary way everything that France spontaneously rejects," National Assembly President Bernard Accoyer said as the commission delivered its report.
"It's a symbol of the subjugation of women and the banner of extremist fundamentalism."
While not defending the all-enclosing veils, leaders of the five-million-strong Muslim minority say a legal ban would be excessive since fewer than 2,000 women are said to wear them.
Jamel Debbouze, a highly popular Parisian-born comedian of Moroccan background, condemned the plan as xenophobic. "People who go down that path are racists," he told French radio.
The veil issue has become linked with another controversial debate about national identity that the government launched only months before regional elections in March. "This debate is sterile and dangerous electioneering," Debbouze said.
Supporters of a ban say civil servants need a law to allow them to turn away fully veiled women who cannot be identified when they seek municipal services such as medical care, child support or public transport.
"GURUS OF FUNDAMENTALISM"
Andre Gerin, a communist deputy from Lyon who headed the commission, said a total ban would also help combat what he called "gurus of fundamentalism" who he said were spreading radical Islamism and forcing women to wear full veils.
He said France needed "an Islam compatible with the Republic" and its values of secularism and sexual equality.
Eric Raoult, a conservative deputy and vice-chairman of the commission, said a resolution denouncing full veils should find wide support in parliament but a law banning them needed to be carefully drafted to ensure it is not overturned.
"There wouldn't be anything worse than proclaiming something and seeing it annulled by the Constitutional Council," he said.
The commission presented a draft resolution to denounce full face veils, examine the legal basis for a ban and characterize veiling as a radical religious practice that is contrary to French values and grounds to reject requests for citizenship.
The text said the state should study the motivations of veiled women, do more to combat violence against women and teach more about sexual equality at school.
Accoyer said the parliament would not have time to work out a solid law banning face veils and pass it before the regional elections in March.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission in London issued a statement calling the commission report "the latest in a line of racist policies and laws that target Muslims, and in particular Muslim women" and said it would "simply legitimize further acts of racism and discrimination."
Bombing attack in Baghdad kills at least 18
A suicide bombing attack killed at least 18 people and injured more than 80 others near an Interior Ministry building in central Baghdad Tuesday, Iraqi police said. Police and hospital officials said the bomber in Tuesday's attack tried to drive a pickup truck through a checkpoint and blast walls protecting the forensic evidence office. Among those confirmed killed were 12 police officers and six civilians who were visiting the office. According to the AP, officials said more than half the wounded were police.
On Monday, three suicide attacks on well-known Baghdad hotels killed at least 36 people.
Also on Tuesday, the nephew of the man known as Chemical Ali arrived in Baghdad to collect the body of Saddam Hussein's cousin and close deputy who was hanged Monday. A grave was dug for Ali Hassan al-Majid near his hometown of Tikrit next to Saddam's two sons and grandson
Meerut Families Caught Burying Their Children ALIVE!
Not everybody celebrates a solar eclipse with a traditional pinhole projector. The folks in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, for instance, like to commemorate the occasion by burying their children.Local authorities in Meerut were shocked to discover their local graveyard filled with families on January 15th, the day of India’s latest annular eclipse.
Chinese Wonderland Displays Chocolate Warriors
In a bid to foster a love for chocolate, Chinese confectioneries came up with a grand plan and created a chocolate replica of the Great Wall complete with edible clones of the famous Terracotta Warriors.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Dan Damon
Started out as a technical operator in the BBC radio control room.
Teamed up with his wife Sian to form a freelance news team in 1989.
Started out as a technical operator in the BBC radio control room.
Teamed up with his wife Sian to form a freelance news team in 1989.
Returned to BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service in 1996.
Between 1998-2000 he undertook two Masters degrees, in Nationalism and International law.
Passionate about horse riding.
I get most excited using new technology to produce live radio from hostile situations. Be it a roof in Gaza blasted by desert winds, using a slow mobile phone link to read scripts in an Istanbul mosque or propping a satellite dish on a car roof so Mexican voters give their views uncensored.
Returned to BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service in 1996.
Between 1998-2000 he undertook two Masters degrees, in Nationalism and International law.
Passionate about horse riding.
I get most excited using new technology to produce live radio from hostile situations. Be it a roof in Gaza blasted by desert winds, using a slow mobile phone link to read scripts in an Istanbul mosque or propping a satellite dish on a car roof so Mexican voters give their views uncensored.
Teamed up with his wife Sian to form a freelance news team in 1989.
Started out as a technical operator in the BBC radio control room.
Teamed up with his wife Sian to form a freelance news team in 1989.
Returned to BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service in 1996.
Between 1998-2000 he undertook two Masters degrees, in Nationalism and International law.
Passionate about horse riding.
I get most excited using new technology to produce live radio from hostile situations. Be it a roof in Gaza blasted by desert winds, using a slow mobile phone link to read scripts in an Istanbul mosque or propping a satellite dish on a car roof so Mexican voters give their views uncensored.
Returned to BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service in 1996.
Between 1998-2000 he undertook two Masters degrees, in Nationalism and International law.
Passionate about horse riding.
I get most excited using new technology to produce live radio from hostile situations. Be it a roof in Gaza blasted by desert winds, using a slow mobile phone link to read scripts in an Istanbul mosque or propping a satellite dish on a car roof so Mexican voters give their views uncensored.
Nigeria clash victims found
More than a hundred bodies found in a village near the Nigerian city of Jos where there have been clashes between Christians and Muslims
The World Today
A happy new year and welcome to 2010!
We’re off to a freezing cold start of the year in London and snow and transport conditions are such that we haven't seen a few of our colleagues for several days.
What will the new year bring - apart from warmer weather, hopefully? President Obama’s first anniversary in office is not far off as is his first State of the Union Address – we’ll be taking a look at whether and how America has changed.
Elections in Sri Lanka, one of our most-covered countries in 2009, are imminent, with the wartime army commander running as a candidate. Our correspondents are preparing to report from Colombo as well as from last year’s battlefieds in the north.
The World Service internet season - “Superpower” - is looming large as is the first World Cup held in Africa later in the year.
For now many of the African footballer plying their trade in Europe have escaped the freezing conditions to play in the Africa Nations Cup in Angola, another hosting debut from where we’ve just begun to report.
Amid the uncertainty of what the new year may bring, just one very safe prediction from us:
Many more editions of the World Today with reports from all walks of life and all corners of the world. Stay tuned.
We’re off to a freezing cold start of the year in London and snow and transport conditions are such that we haven't seen a few of our colleagues for several days.
What will the new year bring - apart from warmer weather, hopefully? President Obama’s first anniversary in office is not far off as is his first State of the Union Address – we’ll be taking a look at whether and how America has changed.
Elections in Sri Lanka, one of our most-covered countries in 2009, are imminent, with the wartime army commander running as a candidate. Our correspondents are preparing to report from Colombo as well as from last year’s battlefieds in the north.
The World Service internet season - “Superpower” - is looming large as is the first World Cup held in Africa later in the year.
For now many of the African footballer plying their trade in Europe have escaped the freezing conditions to play in the Africa Nations Cup in Angola, another hosting debut from where we’ve just begun to report.
Amid the uncertainty of what the new year may bring, just one very safe prediction from us:
Many more editions of the World Today with reports from all walks of life and all corners of the world. Stay tuned.
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