Category Archives: International News

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🪖 Two Afghan boys ‘killed in Nato airstrike’ 🇦🇫

02 Saturday Mar 2013

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TEMPLATE REPORT

Two brothers who were out collecting firewood with their donkeys have been killed during an air strike from a Nato helicopter.

The new American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford said the killings were an accident. “I offer my personal apology and condolences to the family of the boys who were killed,” General Dunford said. “We take full responsibility for this tragedy.”

The victims – Toor Jan, 11, and Andul Wodood, 12 –  had been walking behind their donkeys in the Shahed-e-Hasas district of Oruzgan Province when the helicopter fired on them, according to Afghan officials in the district. The two donkeys were killed as well.

General Dunford said that coalition forces had opened fire on what they thought were insurgent forces, and killed the boys by accident.

There was some disagreement about the presence of Taliban in the area and about the details of the episode.

Haji Mohammad Esmail, head of the district shura or council, said the area was “fully under government control,” and that “we haven’t seen any engagement in the area and nor is the area threatened by the Taliban.”

This is the second airstrike to kill civilians since General Dunford assumed command in February –  In Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan, up to 11 civilians were killed, including 5 children, when airstrikes were used to destroy two homes.

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Supreme Court orders arrest of Pakistan PM

15 Tuesday Jan 2013

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TEMPLATE REPORT

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of PM Raja Pervez Ashraf and 15 others over corruption allegations, as a populist cleric led thousands of protesters in Islamabad, demanding that the government resign.

Mr Ashraf denies accepting bribes when approving power generation projects as minister for water and power in 2010.There was a mood of mass euphoria as the news of the court’s order by Giant Savings” href=”#”>reached demonstrators, led by Tahirul Qadri.

The cleric has said he wants the military and judiciary to be involved in installing a caretaker government to oversee the forthcoming elections Some jumped for joy and others hugged, some crying.

The Supreme Court order says the prime minister and the others should be arrested and produced before court within 24 hours.

There was no immediate statement from the government following the arrest order. President Asif Zardari was holding a meeting of leading figures in the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Karachi, according to state broadcaster PTV.

Mr Ashraf is set to lead the party into general elections due in May. Most observers say they expect the balance of power in the forthcoming parliamentary polls to broadly stay the same unless turnout is high, which could allow minor parties to by Giant Savings” href=”#”>translate popular support into seats.

Mr Ashraf has long been a senior figure in the PPP, and has twice been a minister in the government which has been in power since 2008.

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French Troops fighting Islamists in Mali

11 Friday Jan 2013

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TEMPLATE REPORT

French troops are taking part in operations against Islamists in northern Mali, Francois Hollande has confirmed.

“Mali is facing an assault by terrorist elements coming from the north whose brutality and fanaticism is known across the world,” the French president said. He said Mali’s existence as a state was under threat, and referred to the need to protect its own population and 6,000 French citizens living there. France ruled Mali as a colony until 1960.

The French President said the intervention complied with international law, and had been agreed with Malian President Dioncounda Traore. A state of emergency has been declared across the country.

Mr Traore used a televised by Giant Savings” href=”#”>address on Friday to call on Malians to unite to “free every inch” of the country.

He said he was to by Giant Savings” href=”#”>launch a “powerful and massive riposte against our enemies” after he “called for and obtained France’s air support within the framework of the international legality”.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the aim of the operation was to stop Islamist militants advancing any further.

“We need to stop the terrorists’ breakthrough, otherwise the whole of Mali will fall into their hands threatening all of Africa, and even Europe,”

The UN had previously approved plans to send some 3,000 African troops to Mali to recapture the north if no political solution could be found, but that intervention was not expected to happen until September.

Late on Thursday, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called for the rapid deployment of an African-led force.

The EU also said it would support the rapid deployment of an African-led mission and speed up preparations for a military training mission

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North Korea launches a Rocket

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

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TEMPLATE REPORT

The UN by Giant Savings” href=”#”>Security Council is meeting in emergency session to discuss the launch by North Korea of a long-range rocket.

A statement is expected to be issued within hours and western diplomats have said they would like this to be followed by a resolution in the coming days. However, the strength of any such resolution depends on China, which has expressed “regret” at North Korea’s action, but also urged restraint on any counter measures.

The Unha-3 rocket, launched at 09:49 local time (00:49 GMT), appears to have followed its planned trajectory, with stages falling in expected areas.

The news of the rocket launch was announced on state TV, with people in Pyongyang saying it gave them “great pride”

North Korea says a satellite has been placed in orbit; the US confirmed an object had been put into space.

US National Security Council spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said: “This action is yet another example of North Korea’s pattern of irresponsible behaviour. Given this current threat to regional security, the United States will strengthen and increase our close coordination with allies and partners.

“The international community must work in a concerted fashion to send North Korea a clear message that its violations of UN Security Council resolutions have consequences.”

The launch comes a week ahead of the South Korean presidential election and roughly a year after the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, on 17 December 2011.

The three-stage rocket blasted off from a site on North Korea’s west coast.

“The launch of the second version of our Kwangmyongsong-3 [Unha-3] satellite from the Sohae Space Centre… on December 12 was successful,” state news agency KCNA said. “The satellite has entered the orbit as planned.”

The rocket had been scheduled to pass between the Korean peninsula and China, with a second stage coming down off the Philippines.

China’s Xinhua news agency published a commentary a few hours after the launch and defended North Korea’s “right to conduct peaceful exploration” of outer space.

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Palestine, UN General Assembly, 29 November 2012

30 Friday Nov 2012

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TEMPLATE REPORT

On 29 November 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to that of a “non-member state”.

The General Assembly voted by 138-9 to recognise the Palestinians as a non-member observer state, with 41 states abstaining.

The Palestinians can now take part in UN debates and potentially join bodies like the International Criminal Court (ICC). It follows a failed bid to join the international body as a full member state in 2011 because it had to be approved by the 15-member UN Security Council.

In the face of strong lobbying by Israel’s close ally, the United States, it could not secure the nine votes it would have required, and as a permanent member of the council, the US was expected to use its veto power to stop the bid.

Israel to build 3,000 new settler homes Click here

Israel disappointed by margin of UN defeat. Click here

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Winning the Peace

23 Friday Nov 2012

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A man in his 20s, named as Anwar Qdeih has been killed today, and at least 10 other people injured east of Khan Younis, near the no-go area of Gaza

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Anyone who looks at the map of the Middle East, can not fail to notice the size of the land of the people of Israel. And whats more, she is wedged between the West Bank and Gaza, land like that of East Jerusalem, which is technically Palestinian. So, when Israel speaks of being threatened and surrounded by hostile neighbours, she does have a point. However, since the six-day war of 1967, she has been winning wars, and has been backed politically, economically and of course militarily by a Superpower that has always regarded her as special case.

The latest Gaza war and the obvious powerlessness of any of the Arab nations, including Turkey and Iran, to muster any kind of military response has meant that she remains the preeminent power in the region.

Yet, policy makers in Tel Aviv are going to have to face reality – they can not continue to behave in an appalling way towards the Palestinians, who remain the people without a land living on a land from which they wer displaced.

The astonishing thing about the Palestinians, according to those who meet them, is how little malice they actually hold towards Israel, considering how much they have suffered and had to endure since the proclamation of the Jewish state on May 14, 1948.

Even now, Israel’s leaders have an opportunity to solve the Palestinian Question.

It could start with a viable Palestinian state in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem with the long-term view to breaking down the borders to create a single whole Israel-Palestine where Jews, Muslims and Christians co-exist in the much the same as they have for centuries.

Of course, the extremists will oppose it, and unfortunately the ones who live in and control Israel’s political system are less accommodating than are Hamas.

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Gaza War 2012: Facts and Figures

22 Thursday Nov 2012

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