According to the foreign media reports, Russia and China, who vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council, voted against the resolution.
"Today, the U.N. General Assembly sent a clear message of the people of Syria: the world is with you," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said in a statement. Assad "has never been more isolated. A rapid transition to democracy in Syria has garnered the resounding support of the international community. Change must now come."
Earlier on Thursday, senior Russian diplomat Gennady Gatilov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that the draft is very close to the U.N. Security Council resolution that Russia and China vetoed on Feb. 4.
At the time, Russia had expressed concerns about the draft text, saying it feared the resolution would lead to the kind of military intervention and regime change seen in Libya after last year’s council action intended to protect civilians from attacks by forces loyal to long-time leader Moammar Gadhafi.
"Having experienced the 3/11 nuclear disaster, I changed my way of thinking. The biggest factor was how at one point, we faced a situation where there was a chance that people might not be able to live in the capital zone including Tokyo and would have to evacuate," Kan told foreign media in an interview on Friday.
"If things had reached that level, not only would the public have had to face hardships but Japan’s very existence would have been in peril", he added.
That was the fear that convinced Kan, in office for less than a year when the March 11 triple disaster struck, to declare the need for Japan to end its reliance on atomic power and promote renewable sources of energy such solar that have long taken a back seat in the resource-poor country’s energy mix.
"While many technological measures can be taken to secure safety at nuclear power plants, such measures on their own cannot cover great risks," he said. "I came to think that the safest way is to build a society that does not have to depend on nuclear power plants, and that this is possible." Kan, 65, stepped down last September after seeing his ratings sink below 20 percent due to perceived policy flip-flops and dissatisfaction with his handling of the Fukushima crisis.
Kan’s defenders, though, say a key cause of his downfall was his call to wean Japan from nuclear power -- a stance popular with the public but opposed by many including politically powerful utilities.
Kan, a fiery former civic activist known for his short temper, stressed during an hour-long interview that his priority now is promoting renewable energy rather than political maneuvering, and he steered clear of any criticism of his successor, Yoshihiko Noda.
After the March 11 accident, three reactors at the Fukushima plant suffered meltdowns and radiation spewed widely through eastern Japan, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate from near the plant and contaminating food and water. The reactors were stabilized by December. The Fukushima crisis destroyed the myth that atomic energy is safe, cheap and clean and prompted Japan to scrap a plan to boost its share of electricity demand to more than half by 2030.
The government is now crafting a new mid-term programme.
But critics have questioned whether Noda, a stolid former finance minister keen on fiscal reform, is really committed to reducing reliance on atomic energy and introducing reforms that would help give renewable energy a bigger share.
"It is not true that things have not moved forward (under Noda) ... There have been dramatic changes," Kan said. "The Noda administration is proceeding basically with what I was thinking at that time (of the accident) although there are various forms of resistance such as from some businesses. Noda and the nuclear minister are steadily proceeding with reform."
He did, however, take a swipe at politicians on both sides of the aisle for bickering rather than cooperating in the wake of the accident. "The Japanese people have acted calmly and were patient in their response to the accident," he said. "But as for whether politicians fully cooperated at the time of the accident and thereafter, unfortunately that’s not the case."
Kan stopped short of floating a target date for when Japan should exit nuclear power entirely, although he noted that reality on the ground was moving ahead of policy. All but three of Japan’s 54 reactors are off-line mostly for maintenance, and the government has yet to persuade wary local authorities that it is safe to resume operations.
"I believe that most people will seek a society that does not rely on nuclear power if we can show them specifically that (non-nuclear) energy can realistically be supplied," Kan said.
"Japan can strengthen its energy supply system outside of nuclear and fossil fuel while moving forward with energy conservation ... It is possible for Japan to become the model of a society that does not rely on nuclear power."
“As Secretary (Hillary) Clinton has said, we share Pakistan’s desire to transition our relationship from aid to trade. We strongly believe that a relationship based on private sector investment and trade will be more stable and mutually beneficial in the long term,” Office of the State Department Spokesperson said in response to a question taken at the daily breifing following the Pakistani envoy’s call for expansion in trade cooperation.
Spokesperson Victoria Nuland was asked at a daily Press briefing if the U.S. Administration was currently advocating for Congress to extend Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) status to Pakistani textiles.
“Pakistan currently is already a beneficiary of the GSP program, which provides tariff relief, including for a limited number of textile products, for many countries. We continue to work with Congress to find ways of extending additional trade preferences to Pakistan,” the State Department response said.
In her remarks to a gathering of experts at the US Institute of Peace,Ambassador Rehman argued that Islamabad wants to move its economic relations with the United States to greater trade, away from dependence on assistance.
The European Union recently okayed a preferrentail trade program for Pakistani products and Ambassador Rehman that hoped Washington would also assist her South Asian country in economic revival with a trade initiative of its own in the face of $ 78 billion losses it has suffered due to issues related to lingering Afghan conflict and it’s own fight against militancy. (APP)
The Shenzhou-9’s three crew members will board the Tiangong-1 after the docking is completed, living there and conducting scientific experiments.
An evaluation of the program was carried out following a previous rendezvous by the Tiangong-1 and the unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, showing that all relevant systems are in good condition and are ready for a manned docking, the Xinhua news quoted the spokesman.
The orbiting Tiangong-1 is ready to accommodate the astronauts, and the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and its carrier rocket, the Long-March II-F, are undergoing final checks, the spokesman said.
The Tiangong-1 went into space on Sept. 29, 2011, docking with the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft to complete China’s first space docking mission just over a month later.(APP)
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| President Barack Obama last month confirmed for the first time that US drones attacked Taliban and Al Qaeda militants on Pakistani soil. - photo: Dawn.com |
According to sources, six people were killed and two others injured when two missiles slammed into a compound in the village of Spilga near Miramshah. The identities of the persons who died could not be ascertained.
Hours later, another drone attacked a moving vehicle on the Zekerkhel-Khaisur road in Mirali tehsil.
Official sources said 15 members of a militant group were killed. Their bodies were charred.
Local people rushed to the place and carried out rescue work.
Unmanned planes kept flying over the area throughout the day.
AFP adds: A security official said Uzbek militants had been killed in the attack on the vehicle.
Those who died in the first attack belonged to Badar Mansoor and the Haqqani network, loyal to the Afghan Taliban, another official said. Last Thursday, officials said Mansoor, described as the “de facto leader of Al Qaeda in Pakistan” had been killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan.
The New America Foundation think-tank in Washington says drone strikes in Pakistan have killed between 1,715 and 2,680 people over the past eight years.
According to an AFP tally, 45 US missile strikes were reported in the tribal belt in 2009, 101 in 2010 and 64 last year.
President Barack Obama last month confirmed for the first time that US drones attacked Taliban and Al Qaeda militants on Pakistani soil.
Source: Dawn.com
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"The Taliban is a very broad group. Our primary enemy in that part of the world is al-Qaeda.
The Taliban elements, the terrorist elements that support al-Qaeda are also our enemy," Panetta said at a Congressional hearing.
"And there are some elements, obviously, of the Taliban that support al-Qaeda. And those are the ones that we’ve been targeting," Panetta said in response to a question at hearing on budget of the House Committee on Armed Services.
"Our goal is to make sure that they never again can establish a safe haven in Afghanistan from which to conduct attacks on this country, and that remains our primary goal," he said.
Panetta was responding to a question from Congressman Mac Thornberry.
"Vice President Biden has said that the Taliban is not our enemy. And I have a quote here says, that supports that. Do you agree or what -- do you believe that the Taliban is our enemy in Afghanistan? And if they are our enemy, can we leave a secure and stable Afghanistan without addressing the Taliban and their safe havens in Pakistan?" he asked.
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| in.reuters |
The merchant vessel, whose name was not revealed, opened fire at a group of Indian fishermen Wednesday off the Indian state of Kerala. But the Italian government said the merchant vessel had foiled a pirate attempt to hijack it.
Local TV footage showed fishing villagers mourned the two killed, carrying their bodies through a crowd of angry people.
A fisherman who witnessed the shooting said they were not even aware where the bullets were coming from when two of the fishermen were gunned down by machine guns.
About 36 Indian policemen and Coast Guards have boarded the merchant ship as the local authorities said they were not informed about any perceived threat of pirates beforehand.
However, the Italian embassy in New Delhi said the guards opened fire in self-defense after giving warning to the fishermen in accordance with international protocol.
Last year’s protests in Bahrain were part of the wider Arab Spring movement that resulted in the toppling of long-standing regimes in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen and has led to fighting and humanitarian suffering in Syria. In Wednesday’s statement, the secretary-General reiterated his earlier call on Bahraini authorities to do everything possible to expedite the implementation of the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, especially its provisions aimed at effective confidence-building measures. (APP)
The Foreign Office earlier said the trilateral mechanism was important for Pakistan as it would discuss matters pertaining to cooperation in counter-terrorism, curbing transnational organized crime, including drug and human trafficking, and border management.
The formal trilateral summit would be held on Friday. The three leaders will address a press conference at the end of talks.(APP)
The formal trilateral summit would be held on Friday. The three leaders will address a press conference at the end of talks.(APP)
Majid Shoukat Khan, who lived in the United States from 1996 to 2002 before returning to his native Pakistan, stands accused of helping to plan attacks on the United States and Indonesia, the Pentagon said Tuesday in a statement.
The 31-year-old, who was detained in Pakistan in 2003, is one of 14 high-value prisoners held under conditions of maximum security at the controversial US military-run prison.
He is accused of having conspired with Mohammed -- also being held in Guantanamo -- to blow up US gas stations and assassinate Pakistan's then-president Pervez Musharraf in a suicide bombing inside a mosque.
Military prosecutors also accuse him of delivering $50,000 in Al-Qaeda funds to a southeast Asia-based affiliate in Bangkok.
The funds were later given to another radical Islamist group which used them to carry out the bombing of a Jakarta hotel in 2003, killing 11 people and wounding at least 81 others, according to the US military.
Khan has been formally charged with "conspiracy, murder and attempted murder in violation of the law of war, providing material support for terrorism, and spying."
Prosecutors have recommended the charges be referred to a military commission for trial, with the maximum penalty being life imprisonment.
Khan is the seventh Guantanamo detainee to be formally charged since US President Barack Obama assumed office in January 2009 and the second to be referred to a military tribunal after Saudi Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000.
The five other detainees, including Mohammed, have been charged with planning the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington but are still awaiting trial by a military tribunal.
In a brief statement Khan's lawyers said they are "reviewing the charges and will represent Majid throughout this process. Majid is doing well considering these challenging circumstances." (AFP)
Being alert is the first order of business, said Shin Bet official Nimrod Firstenberg. Shin Bet is Israel’s internal security agency.
Firstenberg, who has been on the security teams of various embassies, gave a blunt warning: "You sleep with a gun and a flashlight under your pillow."
Israeli diplomats abroad are in a state of emergency, and even the kids are warned to stay alert, reported ynetnews.com.
An Israeli embassy car carrying the wife of a defence attache was targeted in a terror attack in New Delhi Monday while in Georgian capital Tbilisi, police defused a car bombing device attached to a vehicle belonging to a Georgian national working for the Israeli embassy. A day later, three blasts rocked Bangkok Tuesday and an Iranian was injured.
Veteran Israeli diplomat Eli Shaked suggested keeping a low profile.
"It affects everyone, from the children, who might not go to kindergarten or school...," he was quoted as saying.
Israeli diplomats have been told not to travel in cars in the immediate future, the media report said.
Shaked said diplomats should try to break their routine in order to "confuse the enemy".
"You do everything not to be where you’re supposed to be, in order to avoid the spot where (a terrorist) might be staking an ambush," he added.
"Even the young kids realize that something is off, and must be instructed to pay attention to what’s going on without panic and without scaring them," he said. "The goal is to lead a life as normal as possible in an abnormal environment."
A foreign ministry official said that Monday’s attacks were a "concrete warning" that more attacks are on the way.
"Vigilance is crucial; vehicles and routes are double-checked and triple-checked."
Former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the state government, contended that Kasab was never tortured or maltreated and there has been no violation of his constitutional rights.
"At no point of time he was tortured or maltreated by the authorities and there has been no failure of constitutional rights given to him," he submitted before a bench comprising justices Aftam Alam and C K Prasad.
Subramaniam also submitted that death sentence, which has been awarded to Kasab, is a permissible means of punishment.
Referring to the entire sequence of events leading to the 26/11 attack, he submitted that if Kasab had not been caught alive, then it would not have been possible to know that outsiders were involved in the mayhem.
24-year-old Kasab had on Tuesday pleaded with Indian Supreme Court to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who has been appointed amicus curiae by the apex court to defend Kasab, had told the bench that he was not a part of the larger conspiracy for waging war against the nation.
Stressing on Kasab’s age as an important factor to commute his sentence, he had pleaded for a lenient approach as he was drawn into it as a result of exploitation of religious faith and false ideology.
Showing steady improvement since early December, Obama’s approval rating has reached the 50 percent mark in The Times/CBS News poll - an important baseline in presidential politics and his highest approval rating since May 2010 (excepting the brief bump he received after Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011).
For the first time since the election season began in earnest in the late summer, as many Democratic voters as Republicans said they were more enthusiastic than usual about voting in the 2012 presidential election.
That would appear to wipe out the “enthusiasm gap” that promised to help Republicans greatly next fall.
Eight nominating contests, about 20 closely watched debates and several months of heavy state-by-state campaigning have seemingly failed to settle a restive Republican electorate that is highly motivated in its goal of limiting Obama to a single term but shows lingering signs of nervous indecision about whom it wants to assign the task of taking him on.
The poll shows that Romney would lose to Obama by six percentage points among all registered voters if the election were held today.
The last couple of months appear to have greatly harmed Romney’s standing with independent voters, who favored him over Obama in January by 46 percent to 39 percent, but now favor Obama over Mr. Romney by 49 percent to 38 percent.
Republican primary voters remain dissatisfied with their candidates: 62 percent say they want more choices while 34 percent say they are happy with the field. Sixty percent of GOP primary voters who have picked a candidate say they could still change their mind, while 39 percent say they have settled on a candidate.
The nationwide poll was based on telephone interviews conducted between February 8 and February 13 on land lines and cell phones with 1,197 adults, including 331 self-described Republican primary or caucus voters, and has margins of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. (APP)
imprisonment without charge by Israel, according to media reports.Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, described the situation as urgent and said the international community should intervene on Adnan’s behalf.
In view of the emergency of his situation, the Government of Israel must take immediate and effective action to safeguard Mr. Adnan’s life, while upholding his rights, Falk said in a statement. The Special Rapporteur, who is currently on a fact-finding mission to the Middle East, also urged the Israeli
Government to respect its legal obligations concerning the several thousand Palestinian prisoners in its jails.
The improper treatment of thousands of Palestinian prisoners by the Government of Israel should be of great concern to the international community, and it is a problem that I am paying close attention to in the context of my ongoing visit to the region. Falk’s comments echo those of Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, who last week called on Israel to do everything in its power to preserve Adnan’s health. (APP)
The report besides throwing light on AFSPA and PSA, also refers to Jalil Andrabi’s killing, Shopian rape and murder, killing of journalists and press censorship during the civilian unrest.
About Kashmir her report says: “The Special Rapporteur was deeply disturbed by the large number of cases brought to her attention during the course of her visit by defenders who claimed to have been targeted by the police” and troops under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act.
The Special Rapporteur was told that these laws were being arbitrarily applied to provide legal grounds for a number of human rights violations against defenders.
In addition, the Special Rapporteur is of the view that the broad and vague definitions of terrorism contained in these security laws, including the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, have allowed the State apparatus to wrongfully target defenders.”
“Parvez Imroz, an advocate and president of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, has faced repeated harassment because of his work in denouncing impunity for human rights violations by security forces in the state, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture. In 2008, security forces reportedly attacked his home at night in reprisal for having report a few months earlier published on alleged mass graves.
The same year, Imroz was arrested and beaten by police officers, along with several other persons, while monitoring a demonstration during election in Bandipora.
Imroz was also prevented from traveling abroad to receive an award for his human rights achievements by not having his passport renewed. .,” the UN report said.
It added that the lawyers, working in Jammu and Kashmir, were asked by the authorities whether they were with them or against them. Six lawyers were killed in recent years because they were representing victims of human rights violations. The President of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association in Srinagar was arrested because of his legal advocacy for the detained and disappeared in Kashmir.
“Student activism in Jammu and Kashmir is reportedly banned: for instance, students are not allowed to criticize fee hikes. Students in Kashmir are profiled by intelligence services and often branded” as militants, as was the case of one student who was falsely charged and his house raided.
About journalists, the UN report stated that no investigation was conducted in the killings of, at least 10 journalists. “Journalists who covered protests in the streets were on some occasions slapped by . authorities who branded them as “enemies”, and had their equipment damaged.”
“They also mentioned the difficulty in accessing information from the authorities and, when accessed, to publish it.” The uprising in the summer 2010 was reportedly marked by an unprecedented censorship by the authorities, the report added.
The Special Rapporteur remains disturbed by the draconian provisions of the public security laws, such as the maximum period of pre-charge detention that goes beyond internationally recognized limits, the excessive powers of the police to search and arrest, and the presumption of guilt under certain circumstances. (APP)
They said Kamal Chauhan, a disgruntled worker of the Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteer Corp), was arrested on Sunday by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) from Noida near Delhi. Read Full Story at Dawn.com
Condemning the incident, Chidambaram said diplomats of every country were entitled to live and work in India in peace and security.
"It is quite clear that a very well-trained person has committed this attack. There is reason to believe that the target was the Israeli diplomat’s wife and, therefore, one has to proceed on the basis that it was a terrorist attack," he told reporters in New Delhi.
The home minister was speaking for the first time on the terror attack on Monday in which an Israeli embassy car was targeted with a magnetic bomb that went off in a high security area in New Delhi critically injuring the woman diplomat
Chidambaram said the Delhi Police Commissioner and the officer concerned (leading the probe) briefed him this morning about the incident.
The home minister said investigation was on and it appeared that a motorcycle rider - single person - came from behind when the Innova car was stopped at a junction because the traffic signal light was red.
He said the assailant attached the device at the rear door of the car, the trunk area of the vehicle on the right side, and zipped past it presumbly turning either left on Safdurjung Road or proceeding straight on Kamal Attaturk Marg.
"The explosion, according to the eyewitness Gopal Krishnan, happened within seconds. We think it happened within four to five seconds of the device being attached," he said. Chidambaram said CCTV cameras located in the vicinity were being scanned and the investigators have got some images but so far there has been no clear image of any motorcycle or the number plate of the two-wheeler.
Special teams have been deployed to locate the motorcycle and identify the person who drove it, he said.
"We condemn the incident and, at the moment, I am not pointing a finger at any particular group or any particular organisation but whoever did it, we condemn it in the strongest terms," he said.
Chidambaram said foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai and National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon have spoken to the Ambassador of Israel in India and external affairs minister SM Krishna to his counterpart in Israel and assured them that the investigation will proceed until the perpetrators of this attack were found.
"We have friendly relations with Israel like we have friendly relations with every country. Diplomats of every country are entitled to live and work here in peace and security and any attempt to attack any diplomat and members of diplomats’ family is condemnable," he said.
As far as the medical condition is concerned, the home minister said that the Delhi Police Commissioner had told him that the condition of diplomat was stable and that she had suffered splinter injuries near the spine and got some other injuries.
"The other three (injured persons) of course are completely out of danger. Two were discharged. One is likely to be discharged. I am told, the lady is out of danger, we pray for her full and complete recovery," he said.
BEIJING: Police authorities in China’s western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region seized over two tonnes of drugs last year.Zhu Changjie, vice regional governor and also deputy chief of the region’s drug control committee has said local police seized 660 kg of heroin, 19 kg of crystal meth, 1,560 kg of marijuana and 24,000 crystal meth tablets in 2011.Local authorities also had helped drug users quit their drug addiction, Zhu told Tuesday a drug control conference held in the regional capital Urumqi,reports Xinhua news.Last year, over 2,800 drug users were put into forced isolation treatment centers and 1,800 more were offered community-based drug rehabilitation programs,he said.
The chief of the region’s drug control committee, Xiong Xuanguo, however,said local police still faced many difficulties and would step up the crackdown on traditional as well as new drugs.
The drugs trafficked from the Golden Triangle and Golden New Moon regions were on rise and the crackdown aimed to block them from entering the country’s western border region, Xiong said.
The regional government will also boost spending on rehabilitation programs and even help the drug users find jobs after they overcome their addiction, Xiong added.(APP)
In fact, incentive structures still tend to encourage unsustainable behaviour. As a result, too many companies limit their sustainability efforts to pilot programmes that never take off. Even worse, sustainability becomes more a matter of public relations than how companies operate, he added.
He lauded the nearly 7,000 corporations in 140 countries that had joined the United Nations Global Compact initiative that seeks to foster responsible business practices.
Stressing the UN’s commitment to supporting companies to carry out their businesses in a sustainable way, Mr. Ban cited the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment that been embraced by more than 900 institutional investors representing at least $30 trillion in assets. Through the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Management Education, over 400 business schools and related institutions are integrating sustainability into curriculum and research, he said, adding that the recently issued report of his Global Sustainability Panel also provided a blueprint for mainstreaming sustainability. The secretary-general also highlighted the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All Initiative that is mobilizing the private sector towards a more accessible, efficient and clean energy economy, and the fact that more than 400 business leaders had pledged their support for the Caring for Climate initiative designed to advance low-carbon solutions and help make the green economy a reality, he said.
He urged business leaders gathered at the conference to five steps to advance sustainability: Join the Corporate Sustainability Forum to be held on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Sustainable development in Brazil in June; Heed the call of a new generation of investors by publicly reporting on sustainability performance; Engage in responsible lobbying and advocacy to affirm their belief in free and fair trade; Work with governments to adopt smart regulatory frameworks and incentives that reward environmental and social performance; Work with the UN in its platforms and initiatives on sustainable business practices. (APP)