Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2013 — 53
EU pledges zx500 million euros to rebuild Mali T
HE European Union has pledged more than half a billion euros($650 million) to help Mali rebuild after months of conflict, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday. “Tomorrow we will commit 520 million euros for Mali between 2013 and 2014,” Barroso told reporters ahead of a conference of aid donors in Brussels today. The Malian government is seeking roughly 2 billion euros in support from the conference, which is being organized by the European Union, to help fund a 4.34 billion euro plan to keep the peace and help restore infrastructure to the country. “If we can get to 1.5-1.6 billion then I would say we are about there,” Mali’s President Dioncounda Traore told the briefing. “Mr Barroso announced a figure, I think that’s a good start. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, in a
week or in a month, it is clear that the international community, the European Union, will inject a lot more than that.” The former French colony in West Africa sought urgent
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Islamist rebels have been pushed back from the main urban centers of northern Mali into the mountains and desert, but the French action has failed to stop
rebels from waging a guerrilla war. Over a year of conflict has also resulted in the exodus of tens of thousands of refugees to the surrounding countries
of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger. France is looking to withdraw thousands of its troops and hand over security duties to a U.N. peacekeeping mission.
Syrian rebels unite to retake strategic town near Damascus S YRIAN rebels including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front have counterattacked east of Damascus to retake a town that served as a conduit for arms from Jordan into the capital before it was seized by government forces last month, rebel sources said. The rebels’ struggle to end four decades of Assad family rule has been complicated in part by internal divisions along ideological and political lines, as well as a shortage of heavy weaponry that could decisively turn the tide of conflict. But in a rare move, brigades operating in
S/Korea proposes border meeting with North OUTH Korea has proposed to hold a border meeting with North Korea to discuss bringing finished goods and raw materials from an industrial park that the two countries jointly operated until last month. The Kaesong Industrial Complex has been idle since North Korea withdrew all its 53,000 workers, accusing the United States and South Korea of plotting to invade the North. South Korea pulled out the last of its citizens from Kaesong on May 3, severing the last economic ties between the Koreas. Neither the North nor the South has officially closed the eight-year-old complex, the best-known symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. But its fate has become a test for inter-Korean relations. President Park Geunhye insisted that South Korea would not reward the North’s bad behavior over Kaesong with compromises. But she
military support from Paris in January to halt advances by Islamist rebels who had seized control of the northern two-thirds of the country. Since the intervention,
said she was open to dialogue with North Korea to “build trust.” As a token of good faith, she said North Korea should allow South Korean factory owners to return to Kaesong in order to ship out millions of dollars worth of finished goods stranded there, to help relieve their financial strain. “We call for a positive response from the North,”
Ghouta, a largely agricultural region on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, have united under one command to wrest back the town of Otaiba, two miles northeast of Damascus international airport. “This is a huge target no brigade can deliver on its own, even al-Nusra cannot do it alone, so we all agreed to unite to retake it,” said a commander whose brigade is one of the 23 taking part in the battle. “With God’s will this will be a decisive battle in rural Damascus that will stop the advance of the regime army and reopen the supply route.” Brigades from the Western-backed rebel General Command and Islamist units joined forces over the weekend and pledged to share weapons
and fighters. They took as their flag a white banner with the Muslim declaration of faith: “There is no god but God; Mohammad is God’s
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in the battle. Government forces have regained the initiative in the past few weeks, pushing rebels from areas close to central Damascus.
Free Syrian Army fighters return fire after what they say was during clashes with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Deir al-Zor.
Russia to expel ‘CIA agent’ in spy recruitment scandal
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USSIA says it will expel a US diplomat briefly detained in Moscow for allegedly trying to recruit a Russian intelligence officer as a spy. The diplomat, named as CIA agent Ryan Fogle, was held overnight before being released to US officials.
He has been declared “persona non grata” for “provocative actions in the spirit of the Cold War”, the Russian foreign ministry said on its website. Mr Fogle is said to have worked as third political secretary at the US embassy in Moscow, which has
Congo to build town in honour of Patrice Lumumba HE Democratic Republic of Congo is to build a town in honour of independence figure Patrice Lumumba, government spokesman Lambert Mende has said. The new town of Lumumbaville would be a merger of two existing communities in central DR Congo, he added. Mr Lumumba - a Soviet ally - was elected prime minister in 1960 after
prophet”. “We are fighting for the same goal and that is to topple Assad - so why shouldn’t we unite?” said a commander from an Islamist brigade involved
almost a century of colonial rule. His killing some four months later at the age of 35 was widely blamed on US and UK intelligence agencies. In April, UK House of Lords member Lord Lea said that former MI6 officer Daphne Park told him the UK had been involved in Mr Lumumba’s death. The BBC’s Maud
Jullien reports from DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa that the government’s decision is likely to be welcomed by most people, as he remains an extremely popular figure. Lumumbaville will be built in Kassai-Oriental province, the birthplace of Mr Lumumba, to “honour the memory of a great Congolese statesman”, Mr Mende said.
issued no comment on the matter so far. The diplomat was reportedly arrested with a large sum of money, technical devices and written instructions for the Russian agent he had tried to recruit. Photos purporting to show Mr Fogle’s detention have been widely circulated in the Russian media. The foreign ministry said it had ordered Mr Fogle to leave the country, in a statement posted online on Tuesday afternoon. “Such provocative actions in the spirit of the Cold War will by no means promote the strengthening of mutual trust,” the ministry said. The incident creates an uncomfortable atmosphere at a time, when the US and Russia are involved in delicate diplomacy over Syria and in taking cautious steps towards defrosting relations, the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg, in Moscow, reports.
But it is unlikely to have any long-term political consequences, our correspondent says, as both countries know that espionage did not end with the Cold War. Russia’s Federal Security Service earlier released images allegedly showing Mr Fogle during and after his arrest. Wearing a blue checked shirt and a plain baseball cap, he was shown being held on the ground with his hands bound, then being escorted away. Another photo showed him sitting at desk, his hat removed. Possessions said to be Mr Fogle’s are laid out on a table. They include a sum of money in 500-euro banknotes and two wigs, one of which he was apparently wearing at the time of his detention. Also on the table are a compass, map, knife, dark glasses and small mobile phone.