| 02 | Editorial |
| 03 | News and Briefs |
| 12 | Over the Top |
| 15 | cover story:
Guantanamo US
shameful blunder |
| 17 | First-hand experience at Guantanamo prison |
| 18 | A lawless enclave |
| 22 | Obama and the sinews of American power |
| 23 | Guantanamo Bay background |
| 24 | UN rights chief calls for closure of Guantanamo prison |
| 25 | features
EU brokered historic accord
between Serbia and Kosovo |
| 27 | Dangerous waters: China- Japan relations on the rocks |
| 28 | UN -France-EU Mali security challenge |
| 31 | Terrorists |
| 31 | Nigeria’s sectarian violence rages on |
| 33 | Musharraf back into custody but for how long? |
| 34 | Burma accused of blatant ‘ethnic cleansing’ |
| 35 | Libya faces serious security challenge |
| 36 | Chancellor Merkel has to save the EU |
| 37 | Environment |
| 38 | Inovation |
| 39 | Business Briefs |
| 49 | Art & Entertainment |
| 51 | Travel & Tourism |
| 53 | Science News |
| 55 | Motoring |
| 57 | Book Reviews |
| 59 | ICT |
| 63 | Sports |
Al Jazeera
|
France 24
|
BBC News
|
Reuters News
|
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
Chancellor Merkel has to save the EU One very clear lesson that the European crisis has taught us is that German power in the European Union (EU) cannot be ignored: the German government carries great responsibility in relation to the present Eurozone crisis as well, more generally, for the state of stagnation in the EU. There is European resentment, close to anger, at the self-righteous German assumption that all will be well if only feckless Greeks, Italians and Spaniards behave like austere Germans. Chancellor Merkel, it is implied, must accept that adjustments have to be symmetrical. In other words, if the most indebted members of the Eurozone are to cut their deficits, Germany in return must shed some of its surplus. Such an assumption raises the question of contracts: are these binding, whether a member is feckless or not or are they made to be broken? Features | Guy Arnold | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 37 Read more |
Libya faces serious security challenge At a time when the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been experiencing unprecedented political change and opportunities for democratic openings, many observers and analysts have turned to Libya in search of the sought-after democratic transformation. However, its domestic political scene and record on basic rights have increasingly come under scrutiny while security remains a major challenge to the Tripoli government. The French embassy car bomb last month injured two guards and caused serious damage to the building. The impact of the explosion severely damaged two villas and two cars parked near the building. This is the first such attack in Tripoli since the end of the 2011 war that ousted then Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi. France, under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, led air raids against Gaddafi's forces after the rebellion against his regime erupted. Features | Ali Bahaijoub | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 33 Read more |
Burma accused of blatant ‘ethnic cleansing’ The government of Burma (Myanmar) has encouraged and aided a campaign of ethnic cleansing against minority Rohingya Muslims in the country's western state of Rakhine, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch (HR W). Burmese officials, local community leaders and Buddhist monks coordinated mob attacks on Muslim villages in October, the New Yorkbased right group said. The group claimed it had evidence of mass graves and forced displacement. "The violence has been very systematic and widespread, but we also documented the organising and instigation of a campaign against the Rohingya," Phil Robertson, HR W's deputy Asia director, said. Features | Alan Brown | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 33 Read more |
Musharraf back into custody but for how long? Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf appeared in an antiterrorism court in Islamabad last month where he was remanded into prison custody as he faces allegations of ordering the illegal sacking and detention of a number of judges in 2007, including the country's chief justice, after declaring a state of emergency and suspending the constitution. The decision then sparked widespread protests that eventually weakened his government so much that he was forced to call new elections and eventually step down. A judge has said that decision amounts to terrorism, which is why the case was sent to an anti-terrorism court. Such courts are closed to the media and the public. Features | Ali Bahaijoub | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 32 Read more |
Nigeria’s sectarian violence rages on Nigeria faces a long-running insurgency in its predominantly Muslim north, and despite efforts by the government to bring the situation under control, the violence appears to continue to escalate, writes Franklin Adesegha. Recent intense fighting between the military and Islamist militants Boko Haram in the north eastern town of Baga, Borno State, has led to the killing of at least 185 people. In that encounter, rocketpropelled grenades and heavy gunfire were used in bombarding the remote town near the border with Chad leaving some 2,000 homes destroyed. Two Nigerian policemen and five attackers were killed in a midnight raid on a police station by suspected members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram in northeast Yobe state, the military at the end of April. Features | Franklin Adesegha | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 33 Read more |
TerroristsWhen is a terrorist not a terrorist? When, for example, he belongs to Mossad? As soon as it was established that the Tsamaev brothers were responsible for the Boston marathon bombs and were Chechens by origin although they had grown up in the United States, Vladimir Putin's appointed ruler of Chechnya, Khadzhi Ramzan Kadyrov made a public statement to the effect that any attempt to link the two brothers to Chechnya would be unfair. They grew up in America, their views and convictions were formed there. He continued: The root of the evil should be sought in America. Chechnya has its own grisly history of terrorism and wants none from America. In the meantime the Israeli author and journalist Yossi Melman was being interviewed about Israel and Iran. He said: It would be more convenient for Israel if the US attacked Iran because they have the capacity to do so. He argued that an Israeli strike on Iran was highly unlikely. Asked about Israeli spies in Iran, he responded: Iran is considered by the Israeli government and intelligence as the number one priority and Features | Guy Arnold | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 31 Read more |
UN-France-EU Mali security challenge The UN Security Council unanimously approved on 25 April the creation of a 12,600-strong peacekeeping force in Mali starting 1 July, which will be supported by French troops if needed to combat Islamist extremist threats in the West African country. France, aided by some 2,000 troops from Chad, began a military offensive in January to drive out Islamist fighters, who had hijacked a revolt by Mali's Tuareg rebels and seized two-thirds of Mali. The UN peacekeeping force, to be known as MINUS MA, will assume authority from a UN -backed African force deployed there to take over from the French. Most of the African force, known as AFISMA, is likely to become peacekeepers. The UN peacekeeping force in Mali will be the third largest, behind deployments in Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur in Sudan, and costs up to $800 million annually. Features | Ali Bahaijoub | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 32 Read more |
Dangerous waters: China-Japan relations on the rocks The world's second and third largest economies are engaged in a standoff over the sovereignty of five islets and three rocks in the East China Sea, known as the Diaoyu in Chinese and the Senkaku in Japanese, according to a report published by the International Crisis Group which examines the dangerous standoff between the two Asian countries over the sovereignty of the group of islands. Tensions erupted in September 2012 when Japan purchased three disputed islands from their private owner to keep them from the nationalist governor of Tokyo. In response, Beijing implemented a series of measures including the establishment of overlapping administration in the disputed waters. Both sides' law enforcement agencies and militaries currently operate in close proximity in disputed naval and aerial space. Unlike foreign ministries, these actors have less institutional interest in containing crises and enjoy an information monopoly allowing them to shape domestic perceptions. Features | NorthSouth | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 31 Read more |
EU brokered historic accord between Serbia and Kosovo Serbia had rejected a European Union-brokered deal on normalising ties with its breakaway province of Kosovo. The EU had given Serbia an ultimatum to relinquish its effective control over northern Kosovo in return for the start of EU membership talks. Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci returned home to consult colleagues and decide on future steps to take. After a week of reflection and consultation and in a move that would open doors to talks on European Union (EU) membership for Belgrade, Serbia and Kosovo's prime ministers agreed to a historic agreement last month to settle their fragile relations in Brussels, after over a decade of deep animosity. This constitutes a milestone for the region's recovery from the collapse of Yugoslavia. However, Thousands of demonstrators marched against the Serbian government to protest against the agreement to normalise relations with breakaway Kosovo. Flag-waving Serbs chanted "Treason, Treason", as they gathered in the capital Belgrade hours after the government unanimously approved the EU-brokered deal. Features | Alan Brown | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 32 Read more |
UN rights chief calls for closure of Guantanamo prison The UN human rights chief called on the United States last month to close down the Guantanamo prison camp, saying the indefinite imprisonment of many detainees without charge or trial violated international law. Navi Pillay said the hunger strike being staged by some inmates at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in south-eastern Cuba was a "desperate act" but "scarcely surprising". "We must be clear about this: the United States is in clear breach not just of its own commitments but also of international laws and standards that it is obliged to uphold," the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement. US President Barack Obama pledged four years ago to close the controversial facility, opened by the Bush administration in January 2002 to hold men captured in counter-terrorism operations after the deadly September 11 attacks on America. Cover Stories | NorthSouth | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 48 Read more |
Guantanamo Bay background What is now known as Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been used by the United States in the 1970s to temporarily house Cuban and Haitian refugees intercepted as they tried to get to the US from the Caribbean, Franklin Adesegha writes. In the 1990s, America used its Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay to hold refugees who fled Haiti in Camp Bulkeley until US District Court Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. declared the camp unconstitutional on June 8, 1993. As a result, the last Haitian migrants departed in late 1995. In October 2001, the US , under the administration of President George W Bush, began the war in Afghanistan to overturn the Taliban and dislodge al-Qaeda. Cover Stories | Franklin Adesegha | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 32 Read more |
Obama and the sinews of American powerOne of the earliest and most welcome pledges made by the US President Barack Obama during the election that first brought him to power was his promise to close down Guantanamo Bay. Pictures of the inmates and the ways in which they were mistreated and humiliated did nothing but damage to America's international image. Now we are well into Obama's second term and Guantanamo Bay remains to mock the liberal instincts of a president who appears to be a prisoner of his military on the one hand while he is thwarted by an antagonistic Congress on the other. What purpose, it may be asked, does Guantanamo Bay serve except to demonstrate to the world the arrogance of a super power that has neither the need nor the inclination to justify its actions? Back in the 1950s, half a century away from today's power considerations, President Eisenhower warned of the danger of a military-industrial alliance that would get out of control. His warning went largely unheeded; instead, we can examine the spread of the American hegemony: the Cover Stories | Guy Arnold | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 29 Read more |
A lawless enclave "What is at stake in this case is the authority of the Federal courts to uphold the rule of law," Judge John Gibbons said during his 2004 argument before the US Supreme Court during a trial where he represented several Guantanamo detainees versus George W. Bush and the United States. "Respondents assert that their actions are absolutely immune from judicial examination whenever they elect to detain foreign nationals outside our borders," Gibbons, a conservative judge who strongly believes that Guantanamo should be closed, continued. "Under this theory, neither the length of the detention, the conditions of their confinement, nor the fact that they have been wrongfully detained makes the slightest difference. Respondents would create a lawless enclave insulating the executive branch from any judicial scrutiny now or in the future. Cover Stories | Alan Brown | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 31 Read more |
First-hand experience at Guantanamo prison Andy Worthington, an author and filmmaker who has written extensively about Guantanamo Bay prison, reminded Al Jazeera that it was Obama who also signed an executive order that allows for indefinite detention. "48 men have been designated for indefinite detention without trial under the Obama administration," Worthington told Al Jazeera. Worthington believes that Guantanamo, as an institution, is a form of torture, as is indefinite detention without trial. In 2004, the International Committee for the Red Cross expressed concern about the mental health effects of open-ended detention on prisoners in Guantanamo. "That hasn't changed," added Worthington. "If they were worried bout their mental health eight years ago, what state are they in now?" Cover Stories | Alan Brown | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 33 Read more |
Guantanamo US shameful blunder Hunger strikes are frequent at Guantanamo Bay prison, but the current protest, which began in February, is reportedly one of the longest and most widespread. Several prisoners have joined a hunger strike at the US detention facility, bringing the total number to 84, according to US military officials. Sixteen of the protesters are being force fed, and three of them are under observation in hospital as their health is failing. The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross last month expressed opposition to the force-feeding of prisoners and said he urged Obama to do more to resolve the "untenable" legal plight of inmates held there. The US is currently holding 166 men at the Guantanamo prison without charge. Cover Stories | Ali Bahaijoub | 26 April 2013 | Hits: 31 Read more |
|
|||
All Rights Reserved.