Saturday, July 28, 2012

United Nations fails to agree landmark arms-trade treaty

United Nations fails to agree landmark arms-trade treaty

United Nations fails to agree landmark arms-trade treaty

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 04:45 PM PDT

Campaigners for the Control Arms coalition set up a mock graveyard next to the United Nations building in New YorkUNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Delegations from around the world failed on Friday to agree a landmark U.N. arms-trade treaty to regulate the more than $60 billion industry, opting for further talks and a possible U.N. General Assembly vote by the end of the year, diplomats said. More than 170 countries have spent the past month in New York negotiating a treaty, which needed to be adopted by consensus, so any one country effectively could have vetoed a deal. Instead, no decision was taken on a draft treaty. ...

Angry Chinese occupy government office, smash computers in environment protest

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 12:30 AM PDT

Local residents occupy the local government building during a protest against an industrial waste pipeline under construction in QidongQIDONG, China (Reuters) - Angry demonstrators occupied a government office in eastern China on Saturday, destroying computers and overturning cars in a violent protest against an industrial waste pipeline they said would poison their coastal waters. The demonstration was the latest in a string of protests sparked by fears of environmental degradation and highlights the social tensions the government in Beijing faces as it approaches a leadership transition this year. ...

U.S. lets Myanmar import ban expire, at least temporarily

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 04:26 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. ban on imports from Myanmar expired on Thursday, at least temporarily, because of a clash between lawmakers over funding for an African trade measure. The two issues are tied together in a bill that has the backing of the Obama administration and that lawmakers hope to pass before their month long August recess. The White House has eased some sanctions on Myanmar, also known by its colonial name of Burma, in response to economic and political reforms. It does not favor lifting the import ban yet. ...

Congo wants U.N. tasked with hunting eastern rebels

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 01:57 PM PDT

Families who fled from renewed fighting between government troops and M23 rebels gather in Kibati in near eastern Congolese town of GomaKINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo said on Friday it wanted the mandate of U.N. peacekeepers strengthened so they could help to eliminate rebel groups in its lawless east, as called for by regional leaders seeking to end the nation's cycles of conflict. The statement came after Britain joined the United States and the Netherlands as donors that have cut or suspended aid to Rwanda after a U.N. report said Kigali was backing rebels in fighting that has displaced 470,000 since April. Rwanda has rejected the report, saying donors were acting on "flimsy evidence". ...

Top Venezuelan embassy official killed in Kenya

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 01:18 PM PDT

A car drives from the residence of slain charge d'affaires Fonseca at Venezuela's embassy at the Runda neighbourhood in NairobiNAIROBI (Reuters) - The head of Venezuela's embassy in Kenya was strangled to death at her official residence in the capital Nairobi, police said on Friday. Nairobi police said they believed the charge d'affaires and acting ambassador, Olga Fonseca, was killed at the mansion, which is surrounded by an electric fence and located in the exclusive Runda neighborhood. "We received reports that she was found dead in the house on her bed. What we have seen is that she has been strangled," Anthony Kibuchi, Nairobi area police commander, told reporters outside the home. ...

Injured Mali leader flies home, faces challenges

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:39 PM PDT

Former parliament speaker Traore is sworn in as Mali's interim president in the captial BamakoBAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's interim president returned on Friday from weeks convalescing abroad after he was beaten up by a mob, facing pressure to form a new government and authorize a foreign military intervention against rebels in the north. Mali needs outside support to recover from twin crises sparked by a March coup in the capital that precipitated the rebel takeover of its northern zones, occupied by Islamists dominated by al Qaeda's North African wing, AQIM. The head of the U.S. ...

Georgia freezes opposition footballer's bank funds

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:42 PM PDT

Georgian soccer player Kaladze addresses the audience during the first congress of public movement "Georgian Dream" in TbilisiTBILISI (Reuters) - A Georgian court froze the bank accounts of retired footballer and opposition leader Kakha Kaladze in a money-laundering probe on Friday that opponents foes of President Mikhail Saakhshvili's government say is a campaign of legal harassment. The football star, who won the Champions League twice with Italy's AC Milan, will stand against the ruling party in October parliamentary polls as part of a newly formed Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. Ivanishvili, 56, whose fortune is estimated at $6. ...

Sudan makes concession in oil talks but no deal in sight

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:55 PM PDT

To match Insight SOUTHSUDAN-ECONOMY/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Sudan said on Friday it had made price concessions in oil talks with newly-independent neighbor South Sudan, but the two countries remained far apart on a deal to resolve disputes that have already brought them to the brink of war. A Sudanese oil ministry official said Khartoum had lowered the amount it wanted to charge to transport Southern crude through its territory - in a bid to settle one of a long list of arguments between the rivals. South Sudan split away from Sudan last year as part of a peace deal that ended decades of civil war. ...

Four arrested over Ivory Coast U.N. peacekeeper killings

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:02 PM PDT

U.N. peacekeepers from Bangladesh carry the coffin of one of seven U.N. peacekeepers from Niger who were killed on June 8, 2012 in western Ivory coast near the Liberia border, during a ceremony at U.N. headquarters in AbidjanLONDON (Reuters) - Four men have been arrested in connection with the ambush killings in Ivory Coast of seven U.N. peacekeepers on its border with Liberia, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara said on Friday. An adviser to Ouattara said the four had been arrested in Liberia and would be extradited to Ivory Coast to stand trial. The seven United Nations peacekeepers, all from Niger, were killed on June 8 when their patrol came under fire near the town of Tai, close to the porous border, in what Ivorian authorities said was a cross-border raid. ...

CYCLING ACTIVISTS ARRESTED

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 11:08 PM PDT

A cyclist is arrested after a protest outside the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)Some cycling activists scuffled with police officers during the Olympics opening ceremony and more than 100 people were arrested, authorities said.

Opening ceremony gives Olympics a rocking start

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 10:30 PM PDT

Fireworks explode during the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 27, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)Shaken and stirred.

Romney can expect warm Israeli reception

Posted: 28 Jul 2012 12:06 AM PDT

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters in front of 10 Downing Street after meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London, Thursday, July 26, 2012. (AP PhotoCharles Dharapak)Mitt Romney's support for Israel will likely earn the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a warm welcome from Israeli leaders when he visits on Sunday — and a frosty reception from Palestinians, who fear he would do little to advance their stalled statehood dreams.

Pakistan official slams drones ahead of CIA talks

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 09:05 PM PDT

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States is calling for an end to CIA drone strikes ahead of an intelligence summit in Washington between the two countries expected next week.

Fears grow over fate of Syrian city of Aleppo

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 12:29 PM PDT

International concern was mounting Friday over a looming massacre as Syrian troops bombarded the besieged city of Aleppo with artillery, strafed it with aircraft and pulled in major reinforcements ready to crush the outgunned rebels.

Syrian troops kill 6-year-old fleeing into Jordan

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 06:44 PM PDT

A relative holds the body of a six year old Syrian boy Bilal El-Lababidi during his funeral in Ramtha, Jordan, Friday July 27, 2012. The boy was shot dead by Syrian army as his parents and a dozen other refugees tried to cross a border to seek refuge in Jordan, his mother said. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)The family crept across farmland under night's cover, heading for the border, when Syrian troops opened fire. Bullets whizzed around them as they broke into a mad dash, survivors say. The 6-year-old boy, holding his mother's hand, broke away and ran ahead. He nearly made it into Jordan when he fell dead, a bullet in his neck.

Arms treaty must wait after UN agreement fails

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 09:52 PM PDT

A U.N. treaty to regulate the multibillion-dollar global arms trade will have to wait after member states failed to an reach agreement, and some diplomats and supporters blamed the United States for the unraveling of the monthlong negotiating conference.

Nigeria's floating slum targeted by authorities

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 10:26 AM PDT

In this photo taken Thursday, July 26, 2012, a child stand in front of his demolished stilt house at Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria. The teeming, floating Makoko slum rises out of the murky lagoon water that separates mainland Nigeria from the island that gave birth to its largest city, a permanent haze of smoke rising from its homes built on timber stilts. A government-led eviction last week that saw men in speedboats destroy homes with machetes there left about 3,000 people homeless and raised new fears among activists that authorities may try to wipe it out the area entirely. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) —

Kenya police: Venezuelan envoy killed

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 01:06 PM PDT

The acting Venezuelan envoy to Kenya was found dead at her official residence in Nairobi, and police said Friday she was murdered by strangulation.

UN treaty keeps idea alive of reversing ivory ban

Posted: 27 Jul 2012 01:28 PM PDT

FILE In this Dec. 29, 2011 photo, a sixteen day old baby elephant enjoys sun at an elephant breeding centre in Sauraha in Chitwan, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal. The 175-nation U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES, is based in Geneva and regulates nearly 35,000 species of animals and plants. Experts rank wildlife smuggling among the top aims of criminal networks, along with drugs and human trafficking. CITES says wildlife crime remains poorly studied but it says international estimates of the scale of illegal wildlife trade range from between $16 billion and $27 billion a year. Tiger parts, elephant ivory, rhino horn and exotic birds and reptiles are among the most trafficked items. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)Delegates overseeing a 175-nation endangered species treaty adopted measures Friday intended to curb smuggling of elephant ivory and rhino horn, including a new plan to eventually allow ivory to be legally traded again in global markets.
Posted by Harshad at 1:15 AM

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