More than 100,000 displaced in Sudan's Blue Nile – UN

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- More than 100,000 people are estimated to have been displaced as fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and rebels in the country's Blue Nile state continues, the United Nations (UN) reported on Tuesday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that tens of thousands of displaced people cannot be reached by relief agencies due to movement restrictions against UN staff imposed by the Government in both Sennar and Blue Nile states.

Last Thursday, the Government said an assessment of humanitarian needs and the distribution of aid in Blue Nile will be coordinated by state authorities and that any humanitarian activities will be carried out by local humanitarian organizations, including the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS).

In an update that little is known about the situation in Blue Nile, particularly in the SPLM-N controlled areas due to lack of access, OCHA said that the number of displaced people could be over 100,000. In addition, the report said that while the security situation in the Blue Nile capital, Damazin, where fighting broke out at the beginning of the month, is normalizing, the city remains tense

The fighting pits government forces against the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) and was previously confined to Southern Kordofan state before it spread to neighboring Blue Nile last week.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program (WFP) has received official requests from SRCS and another local group for food assistance to communities displaced from Blue Nile. However, due to government-imposed restrictions on pre-positioning of food stocks in Blue Nile, WFP has only enough stocks to feed 20,000 people for two weeks.

While three international NGOs have reported that their compounds in Damazin were looted, police in Damazin have continued to provide protection to UN offices and warehouses to prevent such incidents.

Some 8,000 newly displaced people in the eastern areas of South Kordofan have received non-food relief items as reports arise of ongoing fighting in various parts of the region. However, no further details have been forthcoming.

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/news/more-than-100000-displaced-in-sudans-blue-nile-un.html.

Lebanon hosts Conf on cluster bombs

Tue Sep 13, 2011

The delegates from more than 100 countries are participating in a five-day conference on cluster munitions with aim to eradicate the inhuman weapon.

Organizers have said that hundreds of thousands of unexploded cluster bombs remain in Lebanon after being dropped by Israel during the July 2006 war, The Daily Star reported on Tuesday.

“These bombs have until today disabled or killed more than 400 victims, therefore constituting a form of occupation [of the country],” Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said on Monday in his inaugural address in Beirut.

The conference will last through Friday.

Sleiman added, these weapons “still threaten our citizens' lives on a daily basis while we have not yet completely removed them and obliterated their impact.”

More than 200,000 unexploded cluster bombs have been found and made harmless since 2006, but millions still remain unfound in southern Lebanon.

The president said the primary reason the conference is being held in Lebanon because the country has suffered severely because of this inhuman weapon.

The UN investigations in southern Lebanon show that Israel dropped over four million cluster munitions during the last days of Tel Aviv's war on the country in 2006.

Sleiman went on to say that the legacy of the Israeli war machine throughout its aggression against Lebanon, especially during the month of July 2006, has caused huge devastation, claimed hundreds of innocent lives, and inflicted physical and moral suffering upon the Lebanese people.

An international convention on cluster munitions has been in force for over a year that requires signatories to give up the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of the weapons.

All the countries, which are participating in the Lebanon conference, have joined the convention.

The United States, Israel and Russia manufacture and stockpile most of the world's cluster munitions. They are among countries who have not signed the treaty.

International researchers say the US has transferred hundreds of thousands of cluster munitions, containing tens of millions of bomblets, to 28 countries in the world.

The worst affected countries are Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/198994.html.

Saudi activists form political group

Tue Sep 13, 2011

Saudi activists have established a political group to launch a peaceful campaign for asserting the rights of citizens living in the eastern parts of the Persian Gulf kingdom.

The group, named “Change and Progress Society”, will be headed by Saudi prominent author Ahmad Mohammad al-Rebh from the eastern province of Qatif.

Rebh insisted that the group is part of the Saudi society and will conduct its activities based on that principle.

Saudi Arabia's east has been the scene of protests over the past months and authorities have arrested scores of people, including bloggers and writers for taking part in anti-government demonstrations.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 160 dissidents have been arrested since February in Saudi crackdowns on anti-government protesters.

According to the Saudi-based Human Rights First Society (HRFS), detainees have been subject to both physical and mental torture.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/198910.html.

Demands grow for UK to consider cutting EU ties

July 02, 2012

LONDON (AP) — Will Britain's EU membership be one more casualty of the continent's devastating debt crisis?

Senior British lawmakers warned Monday that Britain must consider a future outside the European Union as the 17 members of Europe's currency union, which the UK has stayed out of, develop closer fiscal and political ties.

Plans to exit the EU — a policy once advocated primarily on Britain's political fringe — are rapidly gathering mainstream appeal and could dominate debate at the country's scheduled 2015 national election.

"I do not believe that Britain's national interest is served by its current relationship with the EU," Britain's former Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a speech offering support to growing calls for a national vote on the issue.

Opinion polls show most Britons are deeply skeptical about closer European ties and eager to win back national decision making powers previously lost to Brussels. Britain last held a vote on its membership of the EU, then the European Economic Community, in 1975.

Fox said that European nations which don't use the euro currency should press for much looser ties to their neighbors, or contemplate quitting the bloc altogether. "Life outside the EU holds no terror," Fox said, insisting that much like non-EU members Switzerland and Norway, Britain would be able to continue to trade easily with its neighbors.

Prime Minister David Cameron has acknowledged that Britain may need a future national vote on its ties to Europe, but insists that shouldn't happen while the debt crisis is unfolding. He told lawmakers that Britain's priority must be to "deal with the instability and chaos" sweeping the eurozone, before considering its relationship with its neighbors.

"Far from ruling out a referendum for the future as a fresh deal in Europe becomes clear, we should consider how best to get the full consent of the British people," he said. However, Cameron said euroskeptics were wrong that the only option for Britain to defend its interests was to quit the EU altogether.

Cameron pointed to his decision in December to veto changes to the European Union treaty, when he was the only leader among the bloc to refuse to endorse a plan for nations to submit their budgets for central review and limit the deficits they can run.

Ex-government minister John Redwood, like Fox also a member of Cameron's euroskeptic Conservative Party, said many British people would welcome a chance to vote to leave the European Union. While residents in the Eurozone nations "want more EU power over their lives, we intend to have less. We should travel in the opposite direction," he wrote on his blog.

Britain's main opposition Labor Party has suggested it could include plans for a national referendum in its manifesto for the 2015 election. However, the Liberal Democrats — junior members of the coalition government with Cameron's Conservatives — are staunch defenders of European ties.

Spain fetes its soccer champs with happy abandon

July 02, 2012

MADRID (AP) — Swathed in the red and yellow colors of Spain, hundreds of thousands packed central Madrid to give a hero's welcome home Monday to "La Roja" — the national soccer team that erased the economically struggling country's gloomy mood by winning the Euro 2012 Championship with flair.

With the celebrated team back, it was time to party for a second straight night. After a 2 ½ hour open-air bus ride through the fan-packed streets, squad members took to a stage in Cibeles plaza against the backdrop of Madrid's majestic town hall and danced to pop music while spraying each other with sparkling wine.

"It was a merited triumph, we made history and now it's time to celebrate it," said mastermind midfielder Xavi Hernandez, adding that Spain hopes to build on the success of the past four years. "Next we*ll go for the Confederations Cup (2013) and then the World Cup in Brazil (2014), but first we want to enjoy this one."

Earlier, King Juan Carlos and members of the royal family congratulated the players at the Zarzuela Palace outside Madrid within hours of their returning from Kiev, where they crushed Italy 4-0 to defend their title Sunday night. The Iberia plane that brought them to the Spanish capital bore the logo "proud of our national team."

Team captain and goalie Iker Casillas proudly held the tournament cup as he emerged from the plane in Madrid with coach Vicente del Bosque. In the palace gardens, the king, Prince Felipe, his wife, Princess Letizia, and one of the king's two daughters, Princess Elena, chatted and laughed with the players while two of the monarch's grandchildren gazed at and touched the cup.

"Congratulations on behalf of the family and the whole of Spain," the king said. "You have made the entire country happy." Prior to reaching Cibeles, a multitude jammed the paths and roads along a near 5-kilometer (3-mile) victory route chanting "Champions! Champions! Oe, Oe, Oe!"

Blowing horns, they put up with a baking evening sun to catch a glimpse of their heroes as they paraded by on the bus, escorted by police on horseback and motorbikes. Thousands more fans cheered on from apartment balconies.

The players danced and sang, raised the trophy and sprayed drinks on the screaming, flag-waving crowds below as the bus crawled along at a snail's pace. In Cibeles, organizers sprayed the crowds with water hoses to help them keep cool.

The team's elegant performance in the Euro 2012 final raised spirits across a country drowning in financial woes and rampant unemployment. It also made them the first team ever to bookend a World Cup championship (2010) with two Euro Cup triumphs (2008, 2012).

"This is historic and I'm here to support the team. They just might be able to do it again so we can win the (2014 World Cup) in Brazil," said Jose Luis Clemente, 47, a bus inspector clad in the team jersey. "It's a rare positive point against such a terrible crisis in my country. It gives you some relief."

Still, he was realistic. "No football win is going to solve the crisis. That's work for the economists and the politicians," he added. The victory even had some Spaniards offering a tongue-in-cheek suggestion: Why not have the players run the country instead of Spain's feckless politicians?

In one newspaper cartoon, del Bosque is surrounded by Casillas and other stars such as Xavi and Andres Iniesta, who are all dressed up in suits for a new line of work. "The solution to our problems: the government of prime minister del Bosque and his ministers," read the vignette in El Mundo.

As the country recovered from a national hangover of elation, pride and booze, Spaniards soaked up sweet memories of a night no one will forget. For a few hours, the realities of 25 percent unemployment, a grinding recession and a banking bailout from the European Union to the tune of up to €100 billion ($125 billion) were put aside.

"No team has ever done what they have done, and it helps you to stop thinking about the crisis for 90 minutes during the game and the next day for the party," said Carlo del Pino, 25, a university student.

Del Pino said he hopes to teach physical education and coach one day but prospects are grim for graduates now with cutbacks in education funding, teacher pay cuts and layoffs of temporary teachers. "I don't know where I will be working when I graduate, whether it's in Spain, Portugal or some other country," he said. "But all the Spanish kids who are here cheering the team may want to do sports because of the victory, so that could help me."

Retired air force officer Ramon Ramirez, 76, looked a bit out of place, dressed smartly in long sleeve formal shirt and pressed jeans amid a sea of folks decked out in red and yellow as he waited for the team to pass.

"For Spain, the headlines around the world have finally changed to good instead of the bad we've seen for months. Let's hope it continues," he said. Maria Jose Herraiz, a 54-year-old homemaker, was so nervous she had to listen to the game on the radio instead of watching it on TV.

"When I heard people scream 'Goal!' I would run to the TV," she said. She called the victory marvelous, a potent shot of mood-boosting adrenalin for people sorely in need of it, but said reality would come back soon.

"It will be a sort of flower that blooms for just one day, because economic problems do not go away just because Spain wins," Herraiz said. Her two adult children — aged 26 and 28 — are both still living at home. They are struggling on rock-bottom salaries as low as €300 ($377) a month for half-day work despite being a computer scientist and a physicist.

Still, for one night, they came home just before dawn after a rousing celebration, their faces painted in red and yellow.

Ciaran Giles contributed to this report.

Soyuz spacecraft lands safely in Kazakhstan

July 01, 2012

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man multinational crew touched down safely Sunday on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan, bringing an end to their 193-day mission to the International Space Station.

Around a dozen recovery helicopters zeroed into the vast uncultivated land mass, where NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and Dutchman Andre Kuipers landed in the Russian-made capsule.

Russian space officials quickly surrounded the craft, which performed a perfect upright textbook landing, and erected ladders to begin the process of pulling out the astronauts. The voyage from the space station started 3 -1/2 hours earlier, when it undocked and began a slow, gentle drift away. It made a perfect landing in the still and summery weather at 2:14 pm local time (08:17 GMT), right on schedule.

Commenting on the landing, NASA TV reporter Rob Navias described it as "a bullseye." Kononenko was the first to be extracted from the descent module. He looked pale and tired, but medical staff announced him healthy. Pettit, second out of the module, was heard to say: "It's good to be home."

The three men were hoisted into recliners and posed for photos for a number of minutes before being carried into a tent for further checks. Writing on his NASA blog on the eve of his departure from the space station, Petit write: "I only hope that my small efforts here, perhaps adding one grain of sand to the beach of knowledge, will help enable a generation of people in the future to call space 'home.'"

Petit and his colleagues were part of the team that handled the arrival to the space station last month of the privately owned SpaceX Dragon capsule. That became the first private delivery to the International Space Station.

The retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet has left Russia's venerable Soyuz spacecraft as the only means to deliver crews to the orbiting laboratory. Russians Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba are expected to remain onboard the orbiting space station for a further three months.

They will be joined later this month by NASA astronaut Suni Williams, Russia's Yury Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide, who are set to take off on a Soyuz spaceship from the Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan.

Palestinians detain dozens in weapons crackdown

July 02, 2012

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian self-rule government has detained some 200 people, including security officers, in recent weeks in the biggest crackdown on illegal weapons in the West Bank in five years, a spokesman said Monday.

Officials say the campaign is unusual because it targets include alleged vigilante gunmen linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. Previously, security forces went mainly after armed supporters of rival groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Of some 200 people detained since May, just under 100 have been released after surrendering their weapons while the others remain in custody, said police spokesman Adnan Damiri. In all, about 100 guns have been seized, he said.

The weapons roundup was sparked by a shooting attack in May on the house of the governor of the Jenin district, Kadoura Mousa, who later died of a heart attack. Damiri said suspects in that shooting are among those in detention.

Others are being held on suspicion of illegal weapons dealing, extortion and attacks on security officers, he said. The operation focuses on the Jenin district, the largest contiguous area under Palestinian self-rule. Israel retains overall control of the West Bank, a territory it captured in 1967, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians have limited autonomy in 38 percent of the West Bank.

The performance of Abbas' security forces, key to buttressing Palestinian claims for independence, has won praise by Israel in recent years. At the same time, Palestinian officials complain that Israeli restrictions on the movement of the Palestinian security forces and frequent Israeli army incursions into self-rule areas hamper law-and-order efforts.

Jenin saw some of the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence during the second Palestinian uprising a decade ago. At the time, gunmen fighting Israel emerged as local heroes, but also acted with impunity at home, terrorizing other members of the community, residents say.

In recent years, the Palestinian Authority has gradually taken control in Jenin and other parts of the West Bank. However, several high-profile shootings in Jenin in the past 15 months signaled that the campaign was far from complete.

In a brazen daytime attack in April 2011, a masked gunman shot and killed Israeli actor Juliano Mer Khamis, who ran a local community theater, after stopping his car in the Jenin refugee camp. The killer remains at large.

This was followed by the attack on the governor's house in May. On Sunday, assailants fired at Palestinian lawmaker Shami al-Shami of Fatah, wounding him in the leg as he approached his home. Damiri said the motive remains unclear and that there are no suspects yet in Sunday's shooting.

Al-Shami said in an interview Sunday that he opposes taking weapons away from Fatah loyalists, arguing that the movement needs them for a possible future confrontation with Hamas and other rivals. The Islamic militant Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007, leaving Abbas with only parts of the West Bank.

In response to the Gaza takeover, Abbas cracked down on Islamic militants in the West Bank, arresting armed supporters and shutting down Hamas-linked institutions. Damiri said the current campaign is the biggest since 2007.

Associated Press writer Dalia Nammari in Ramallah contributed reporting.