DDMA Headline Animator

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Lithuania wants joint European response to Belarus

Tue, 04 Jan 2011

Vilnius - Lithuanian Foreign Minster Audronius Azubalis, whose country chairs the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) this year, said Tuesday that a joint European response was needed to recent disputed elections in Belarus.

"We are keeping doors open and are holding consultations with the Belorussians," Azubalis told a news conference at which Lithuania outlined its priorities for its 12-month tenure at the OSCE's helm.

Azubalis also confirmed that he had discussed on the situation in Belarus with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

"We spoke about finding an adequate and unified response," Azubalis told reporters without confirming whether or not he was in favor of renewing any form of sanctions against the Lukashenko regime following its latest brutal crackdown on the opposition.

The OSCE has harshly criticized Belarus for the December 19 poll in which incumbent President Aleksander Lukashenko won a landslide fourth term in office.

Last week, Minsk refused to renew the OSCE's mandate to maintain an office the Belorussian capital.

Azubalis said on Monday that he had started "informal consultations to find an agreement acceptable to all" that would allow the OSCE to continue its work in the country.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360693,joint-european-response-belarus.html.

Commander of aircraft carrier relieved over raunchy videos - Summary

Tue, 04 Jan 2011

Washington - The commander of a US aircraft carrier has been removed from his post following revelations he made racy videos that were shown to the crew of the ship, the Navy said Tuesday.

Captain Owen Honors showed poor judgment in the content of the videos and undermined his ability to lead, Admiral John C Harvey, the commander of US Fleet Forces based in Norfolk, Virginia, said.

"While Captain Honors' performance as commanding officer of the USS Enterprise has been without incident, his profound lack of good judgment and professionalism while previously serving as executive officer on Enterprise calls into question his character and completely undermines his credibility to continue to serve effectively in command," Harvey said.

The videos were humorous attempts to articulate lessons to sailors and boost morale, but they depicted simulated acts of masturbation and sex and women showering together and contained foul language, gay slurs and other lewd acts.

Honors had made and shown the videos in 2006 and 2007, while he was deputy commander of the Enterprise. He had since become the top officer on the carrier also based in Norfolk.

The Pentagon put an end to the videos when they were discovered four years ago but kept Honors in his position. But the Virginia Pilot newspaper obtained them and began publishing them online Saturday, sparking the controversy.

The Navy over the weekend said the material was "inappropriate" and "not acceptable" and that an investigation was underway. The videos were broadcast on the ship's internal system to a crew of more than 5,000 sailors.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360722,raunchy-videos-summary.html.

Junta warns of 'covetous' countries, Suu Kyi thanks foreigners

Tue, 04 Jan 2011

Yangon - Myanmar's junta on Tuesday used the independence day anniversary to warn of "covetous" countries bent on controlling the nation while opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the occasion to thank her foreign supporters.

"It is not strange (that) certain covetous, aggressive countries are anxious to gain political control over a geographically strategic country like Myanmar," military supremo Senior General Than Shwe said in a speech marking the 63rd anniversary of independence from Britain.

Meanwhile, recently freed democracy icon Suu Kyi used the same occasion to thank her supporters, including "national leaders, political leaders, Nobel peace laureates, United Nations, European Union, international amnesty organizations, people from America and Europe and our nationals from home and abroad."

Suu Kyi, the winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, was released from a seven and a half years of house detention on November 13, six days after the country held it first general election in two decades.

"Successful victory for democracy is a must," Suu Kyi said in a New Year's message. "Political freedom, economy freedom and social freedom are linked together," she said. "We need to unite together to achieve those freedoms."

Than Shwe, junta chief since 1992, made no mention of political freedoms in his independence anniversary day speech.

Instead he argued that Myanmar, also called Burma, fell to Britain in three wars between 1824 to 1885 "due to a lack of a strong army."

Now Myanmar has a strong army but a weak everything else.

Ranked as South-East Asia's biggest economy in the pre-World-War II era, Myanmar is now on the list of the United Nations' least developed countries.

The country has been under military rule since 1962, when former strongman General Ne Win launched his disastrous "Burmese Way to Socialism."

Mass anti-military protests in 1988 put an end to the socialist system, but failed to install democracy.

The military cracked down on the demonstrators, killing an estimated 3,000 protesters.

It allowed an election in 1990, but then refused to pass over power to the victor - the National League for Democracy party, headed by Suu Kyi. Although the junta staged a new general election on November 7, international observers criticized it for being unfree, unfair and non-inclusive.

The polls were won by the pro-junta Union Solitary and Development Party, which is packed with ex-military men and current government ministers.

Than Shwe said the successful election was "the pride of the nation and the people."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360614,suu-kyi-thanks-foreigners.html.

Indian politician stabbed to death by accuser

Tue, 04 Jan 2011

New Delhi - A legislator in India's eastern state of Bihar was stabbed to death Tuesday by a woman who had accused him of sexual harassment and rape, officials said.

Raj Kishore Kesri, 51, of the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was holding an open house at his home in the eastern district of Purnea when the woman attacked him with a knife that she had hidden under her shawl, politicians and police said.

"The police and doctors have confirmed that Mr Kesri died on the scene," district legislator Uday Singh told reporters.

"The assailant, a teacher, had last year accused Mr Kesari of raping her but had subsequently withdrawn the charges," he said.

Bihar police chief Neelmani, who uses only one name, said Kesri's supporters had beaten the woman and she was admitted to hospital with serious injuries.

BJP leaders rejected the allegations against Kesri, saying the charges were part of a "political conspiracy" before local elections in November.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, meanwhile, ordered an investigation into the crime and directed police to boost the security of state legislators.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360621,politician-stabbed-death-accuser.html.

South Korea military to practice response to island attack by North

Tue, 04 Jan 2011

Seoul - South Korea plans to conduct military exercises this week aimed at deterring an attack by North Korea on any of the five islands near the neighbors' disputed border in the Yellow Sea, a media report said Tuesday.

The maneuvers involving the navy and marines, planned for Friday and Saturday, were to be the first of their kind, the Yonhap News Agency reported, citing officials at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

They come on the heels of a November 23 artillery shelling of one of the islands, Yeonpyeong, which killed two South Korean soldiers and two civilians, ratcheted up tensions on the Korean Peninsula and prompted South Korea to send more troops and weapons to the five islands.

"This week's maneuvers are aimed at practicing our defense and ability to repel a surprise infiltration into one of the Yellow Sea border islands," an unnamed Joint Chiefs of Staff official was quoted as saying.

The officials did not say how many troops would be involved.

South Korea has held a series of military exercises since the Yeonpyeong attack, including three different exercises within one week in December. The maneuvers have irritated North Korea, which threatened a "sacred war of Korean-style justice" with nuclear weapons.

North Korea does not recognize the maritime border with South Korea drawn up by the United Nations after the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended with a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360629,response-island-attack-north.html.

Ouattara camp denies it has agreed to meet Gbagbo

Tue, 04 Jan 2011

Nairobi/Abidjan - Ivory Coast's internationally recognized president Alassane Ouattara has not agreed to meet his rival Laurent Gbagbo, his spokesman said Tuesday after Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said face-to-face talks were on the cards.

Gbagbo has resisted fierce international pressure to hand over power to Ouattara - who is trying to run an alternative government from a United Nations-protected hotel in the economic capital Abidjan - in a standoff that has claimed over 170 lives.

Odinga on Monday joined three West African heads of state representing the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the latest attempt to persuade the defiant strongman to leave power.

While the delegation, the second involving the presidents of Benin, Sierra Leone and Cape Verde, failed to budge Gbagbo, Odinga said the men had agreed to meet under certain conditions.

"This is totally wrong," Patrick Achi, spokesman for Ouattara's alternative government, told the German Press Agency dpa. "We said that once Ouattara is in office as president then he can meet former president Gbagbo as he would meet anyone else."

ECOWAS has warned Gbagbo it could use force to oust him if he does not step down, and Achi said he expected the regional bloc to stick to its word now that its second attempt at persuasion has failed.

"If he doesn't want to move quickly or peacefully they said they would use force to remove him," he said. "They asked him to leave and he didn't, so you should ask them where they are with that."

The delegation was Tuesday due to meet Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the current chairman of ECOWAS, to discuss the next step in the impasse.

However, some observers feel ECOWAS will be reluctant to insert a military force given the negative implications for regional security and upcoming elections in Nigeria, which would be the most likely candidate for providing troops.

The elections were supposed to open a more positive chapter in Ivory Coast's history eight years after civil war split the West African nation into the mainly Muslim north, which backs Ouattara, and Christian south, where Gbagbo holds sway.

Instead, the polls only highlighted north-south divisions after a Gbagbo ally on the constitutional council overturned electoral commission results proclaiming Ouattara the winner.

Gbagbo, who insists he is Ivory Coast's true leader, has defied European Union and United States travel bans, as well as aid freezes from bodies such as the World Bank and the blocking of access to public funds in regional banks.

The UN has accused pro-Gbagbo forces of extrajudicial killings and disappearances of Ouattara supporters amid unconfirmed reports of the existence of mass graves.