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Thursday, 2 february, 2012
Foreign News 17
Deaths mount as Russia resists UN drive on Syria DAMASCUS
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ReSH bloodshed swept Syria on Wednesday after Western powers and the Arab League demanded immediate UN action to stop the regime’s “killing machine” but holdout Russia said any vote needed more time. Wrangling at the United Nations came as fierce clashes raged across Syria’s powder keg regions between President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces and rebel fighters of the Free Syrian Army. At least eight civilians and 15 soldiers were killed during fierce fighting in the central Syrian city of Homs, the Syr-
ian Observatory for Human Rights said. Activists said the unrest had killed nearly 200 people nationwide over the previous three days. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, backed by her French and British counterparts and Qatar’s premier, led the charge on Tuesday for a tough UN resolution that would call on Assad to end the bloodshed and hand over power. “We all know that change is coming to Syria. Despite its ruthless tactics, the Assad regime’s reign of terror will end,” Clinton told the UN Security Council. “The question for us is: how many more innocent civilians will die before this country is able to move forward?” But on Wednesday, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Min-
ister Gennady Gatilov appeared to snuff out any hopes of an early vote. “Attempts are being made to find a text that is acceptable to all sides and would help find a political solution for the situation in Syria. Therefore there is going to be no vote in the next days,” he told Interfax news agency. The United Nations says more than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the pro-democracy uprising began in mid-March . But UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said on January 25 her organisation had stopped compiling a death toll for Syria’s crackdown on the protests because it is too difficult to get information. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-
Thani, speaking at the Security Council on behalf of the Arab League, said Assad’s regime had “failed to make any sincere effort” to end the crisis and believed the only solution was “to kill its own people.” “Bloodshed continued and the killing machine is still at work,” he said. But Russia, a longstanding ally of Assad and one of the regime’s top suppliers of weapons, declared that the UN body did not have the authority to impose such a resolution. China voiced support for Russia’s position. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, argued that Syria should “be able to decide for itself” and said the council “cannot impose the parameters for an internal settlement. It sim-
ply does not have the mandate to do so.” The key sticking point appeared to be the Arab League call for Assad’s speedy departure. “Regime change is not our profession,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a trip to Australia. The draft resolution, introduced by Arab League member Morocco, calls for the formation of a unity government leading to “transparent and free elections.” Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army said half of the country was now effectively a no-go zone for the security forces. “Fifty percent of Syrian territory is no longer under the control of the regime,” its Turkey-based commander Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad told AFP.
Freeze claims more lives in eastern Europe WARSAW afP
europe shivered in some of the coldest temperatures seen in decades Wednesday as the freeze claimed more lives overnight and countries battled to clear snow from roads and railways. At least 28 people froze to death overnight in eastern and central europe, bringing the toll to more than 80 in the region since the cold snap began last week. Italy meanwhile struggled to clear its motorways and railways after heavy snow falls ed to the cancellation of a number of top football matches on Tuesday, including Juventus-Parma. In Ukraine, officials said 13 people had died of hypothermia over the past 24 hours, bringing the overall toll to 43 over the past six days. Most were homeless people who froze to death on the streets, but seven died in their homes and more than 800 sought medical help for frostbite and hypothermia as temperatures plunged to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions. Poland reported five found dead overnight, bringing the overall toll to 20 since temperatures plummeted there on Friday. The victims, most of whom had been homeless, were four men aged 29 to 61 and an 83-year-old woman, police said. Temperatures plunged to minus 30 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, officials said. Most of the victims had been homeless, or individuals who got drunk and fell asleep outdoors, they said.
‘Trained separatists’ behind Tibetan unrest, says China BEIJINg afP
China has blamed “trained separatists” for a wave of unrest in Tibetan-inhabited areas last week that left at least two people dead and dozens injured, state press reported Wednesday. The southwestern province of Sichuan — which has big populations of ethnic Tibetans, many of whom complain of religious repression and a lack of freedom — was rocked by three violent clashes last week. Rights groups say security forces shot dead peaceful protesters in each of the incidents but China has acknowledged only two of them, and says they were triggered by a violent crowd of demonstrators. “Initial evidence showed that the riots and assaults were well planned beforehand and instigated by trained separatists against the country,” the official China Daily newspaper said, citing the Sichuan government. It said protesters attacked police stations with stones and molotov cocktails, prompting the police to take action and “defend themselves”. Chinese authorities have barred foreign journalists from going to the affected areas, making independent attempts to verify the situation there near impossible. “The riots were serious crimes plotted by Tibetan separatist forces in and outside of China,” the english-language Global Times said, also citing the Sichuan government.
SOfia: a woman protects herself from the cold on Wednesday as two more people died in Bulgaria amid a cold snap that has seen temperatures drop to their lowest levels in a century in some parts of the country. afp
Romney leads US Republicans after big florida win TAMPA afP
Mitt Romney marched ahead with a commanding lead in the US Republican race for the White House after trouncing his main rival Newt Gingrich in a bitterly-fought Florida primary on Wednesday. The margin of victory — 46 percent to 32 percent — dealt a bitter blow to former House speaker Gingrich, who faces a Herculean task to try to catch up with Romney, a multimillionaire businessman and former Massachusetts governor. Gingrich, 68, shocked the party establishment when he thumped Romney, 64, in South Carolina earlier this month, but his support sank fast in the larger and more diverse state of Florida, and Romney now has all the momentum. Romney’s double-digit win in the Sunshine State demonstrated his strength in a key general election battleground, and he used his victory speech to urge Americans to evict President Barack Obama from the White House in November. “Mr. President, you were elected to lead. You chose to follow, and now it’s time for you to get out of the way,” he said, to chants of “Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!” from hundreds of supporters in a packed Tampa ballroom. “President Obama wants to fundamentally transform
America and make it something perhaps we wouldn’t recognize. I want to restore to America the values and principles that made us the hope of the earth,” Romney said. It was a warning shot at Democrats who have been salivating over the increasingly caustic tone of the Republican campaign — marked in Florida by a heavy exchange of increasingly personal attacks between
Romney and Gingrich. “A competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us and we will win,” Romney said. “When we gather back here in Tampa seven months from now for our convention, ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for America.” But in a sign of how bitter the campaign has become, Gingrich broke with tradition by neither congratulating Romney nor calling him after the vote. The economy seemed to be on the minds of many voters in Florida, including businessman Paul Jackson, who said he voted for Romney because “he has the best chance of beating the president — the current president. “I don’t agree with everything that he stands for, but I need to see a change that satisfies my selfish needs as a small business owner,” he said. Florida has been badly hit by the “Great Recession” wrought by the 2008 financial crisis — unemployment is close to 10 percent and the state was at the epicenter of the housing collapse. Many residents have seen their homes repossessed or have mortgages now worth more than the value of their homes. Despite the stinging defeat, Gingrich promised to wage a long-haul battle all the way to the August 27-30 convention, which will formally crown a nominee to go head-to-head against Obama on November 6.
All 25 Chinese workers kidnapped in Egypt freed BEIJINg afP
China said Wednesday that 25 Chinese workers kidnapped by egyptian Bedouins demanding the release of their Islamist relatives had been released. The incident comes days after 29 Chinese nationals in Sudan were captured by rebels who attacked their camp in the volatile South Kordofan state, where they were involved in a road-building project. They have still not been released. “I can confirm that all 25 people have been released. Right now they are being taken care of by the egyptian government and are staying in army accommodation,” the assistant to the Chinese ambassador to egypt told AFP. “They are all well, with no injuries. There was no need to send them to hospital,” the Cairo-based assistant, who would not give his name, said over the phone. He refused to give details of how the workers were released. The Chinese nationals — technicians and engineers who work for a military-owned cement factory in central Sinai — were abducted on Tuesday on their way to work, an egyptian security official said. The protesters who seized them were demanding the release of five Bedouins held in connection with an attack on the tourist resort of Taba in 2004, part of a series of bombings claimed by an Islamist group. They said the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power last year when a popular uprising ousted egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, had repeatedly promised to release the Bedouins.