Lebanon PM Hariri to make landmark Syria visit | |
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is due to hold talks in Damascus for the first time since his anti-Syrian coalition came to power in 2005. Mr Hariri's office said he would discuss bilateral relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This is Ms Hariri's first visit to Syria since the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in Beirut in February 2005. Syria has been widely blamed for the attack - a charge denied by Damascus. Syria was forced later that year to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after 29 years. 'Brotherly ties' Saad Hariri, aged 39, is expected to visit Syria on Saturday afternoon and stay there for several hours. Last month, Mr Hariri said he was interested in forging relations with Syria based on "clarity and honesty". "The government wants to raise brotherly ties between Lebanon and Syria to a level in line with the two countries' historical ties and mutual interest," he said before his government received a vote of confidence in parliament. Lebanon's national unity cabinet was formed after five months of tough negotiations in the wake of June's election, which was won by Saad Hariri's pro-Western coalition. The government includes two members of pro-Syrian Islamist group Hezbollah | |
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Lebanon PM Hariri to make landmark Syria visit
UN 'takes note' of climate accord
| UN 'takes note' of climate accord | ||||||
United Nations member countries have stopped short of approving a climate accord during talks in Denmark, saying they would only agree to "take note" of it. The official recognition on Saturday of the non-binding pact agreed by the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa brought the 193-nation climate summit in Copenhagen to a close. Developing nations were strongly critical of the pact, saying that it was not enough to arrest climatic changes that would lead to floods and famine and kill millions. But David Doniger, policy director of the Climate Center at the US Natural Resources Defence Council, said that the UN ruling means it has adopted "the accord in such a way that those countries [who had been opposed to it] were persuaded not to object". 'Framework set' Barack Obama, the US president, hailed the agreement between the five nations as a success and said it would provide the framework for future talks.
"For the first time in history, all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change. "This progress did not come easily and we know this progress alone is not enough ... We've come a long way but we have much further to go." But Lumumba Stanislas Dia-ping, Sudan's representative and chair of a Group of 77 developing nations, said the accord meant "incineration" for Africa and likened it to the Holocaust. The agreement "is a solution based on values, the very same values in our opinion that funnelled six million people in Europe into furnaces," Dia-ping said. No specifics Obama said the signatories to the deal had agreed to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius to help meet their new objective.
The agreement also includes a commitment by the countries to give developing nations $100bn dollars in assistance from 2020 to help them deal with climate change. The deal includes some progress in helping developing nations cope with climate change, but it falls short of committing any nation to pollution reductions. But many countries are angry they were excluded from the negotiations and have criticised the accord because it is non-binding and sets no overall target or time-scale for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. "You are going to endorse this coup d'etat against the United Nations," Claudia Salerno Caldera, Venezuela's representative, told Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister and the conference chairman, in a speech from the floor. "Those of us who wish to speak have to make a point of order by cutting our hands and drawing blood," she said, opening a red-stained palm. Opposition to deal Tuvalu's Ian Fry, whose country is one of the most at risk from global warming, said the deal amounted to a betrayal. "It looks like we are being offered 30 pieces of silver to betray our people and our future," he said. Some European nations have accepted the deal, but Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, said that it was "clearly below" the goal of the European Union. "I will not hide my disappointment," he said. Jonah Hull, Al Jazeera's correspondent at the summit, said that many countries have criticised the lack of detail in the US-backed accord. "What is important about this deal is what is not in it. There are no verifiable emission cuts targets, no number or dates, and crucially no deadline for when world leaders must come back together and put the terms of this deal into a legally-binding treaty," Hull said. "The small island nations want to see a limit in temperature rises to 1.5C. They say that 2C just is not enough to save large areas of the planet from catastrophe." Lack of consensus Earlier on Friday, world leaders had appeared to mount a last-minute bid to reach a deal, but these efforts only achieved agreement on a consensus-driven agreement, with few specifics. The haggling capped two years of deadlock over crafting a new UN treaty from 2013. | ||||||
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Afghan president selects ministers
| Afghan president selects ministers | |||
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has chosen ministers for his cabinet and presented them to parliament for approval. The list of 23 was read to parliament by Anwar Khan Jigdalik, the minister for parliamentary affairs, on Saturday after a stormy session during which politicians questioned the legality of the process. Mohammad Qasim Fahim, the Afghan vice president, told MPs on Saturday the nominees were being presented to parliament for "votes of confidence". "The nominees include some former ministers who have shown excellence in their positions in their past term in office," Fahim said. Karzai's choices are seen as the first test of his stated commitment to building a clean and accountable government and eradicating corruption. Key players Hashem Ahelbarra, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said: "It is a goverment of 'appeasement' as was described to me by a member of parliament. "The key players are still there, and there are about 12 new faces who represent most of the power brokers, mujahidin and warlords who endorsed President Karzai during the election. "MPs have told me that the confirmation hearings will take some time and that they will ask for their CVs and evaluate each candidate's conduct. "They're also asking the country's chief prosecutor for a list of the people he accuses of corruption and embezzlement of public funds in order to make final assessment. "While there may be some nominees rejected, the consensus is that the key players will make or remain in the cabinet." Karzai's proposed government line-up does not include any figures from the opposition. 'Good governance' All three security offices, including the head of the National Directorate of Security, which handles intelligence, will remain in the same position at a crucial time when thousands of new police and army recruits are being trained up and deployed. Abdul Rahim Wardak, the national defence minister, who has been praised by Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, will remain in his position. The interior and finance ministers will also stay, as had been expected. Both are technocrats liked by Washington. Karzai has faced intense pressure from the West to appoint honest technocrats after being re-elected in an August 20 vote marred by widespread fraud that damaged his credibility. Darby Holladay, a US state department spokesman said in a statement on Saturday: "We are awaiting an official announcement and want to see that the nominations put forward reflect President Karzai's stated commitment to good governance and integrity and professionalism within his cabinet." Karzai was sworn into power for a second five-year term a month ago following a controversial August election tainted by fraud. | |||
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US and Russia 'close' to arms deal
| US and Russia 'close' to arms deal | |||
The United States and Russia have failed to reach an agreement on a pact to reduce Cold War stock piles of nuclear arms, but their leaders expressed hope that a deal is close. Barack Obama, the US president, and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, met on the sidelines of the climate change summit in Copenhagen on Friday to discuss the terms of a deal to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start). The treaty, which places strict limits on US and Russian nuclear arsenals, expired on December 5. The two leaders acknowledged that they were unlikely to sign a deal this year, but they pledged to continue talks on the issue. "We've been making excellent progress," Obama told reporters on Friday. "We are quite close to an agreement. And I'm confident that it will be completed in a timely fashion." 'Details remain' Medvedev said a few "details" still needed to be discussed for a new deal to be reached, though he did not elaborate. "Our positions are very close and almost all the issues that we've been discussing for the last month are almost closed," he said. "A few technical details have remained which nevertheless need to be finalised in such an important agreement and I hope that we will do this in quite a short time." Though the treaty has expired, both countries have agreed to continue to honour its main provisions, until the completion and legal ratification of a successor treaty. The broad aim of the new treaty is to reduce the number of deployed warheads below the 1,700-2,200 allowed under Start. | |||
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Nazi death camp sign stolen
| Nazi death camp sign stolen | ||
The notorious metal sign over the entrance of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland has been stolen. A reward has been offered for what has become an enduring reminder of the Holocaust. Neo-Nazis are being blamed for the crime at the camp, where more than one million people were killed. Tania Page reports. | ||
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Iraq-Iran in oilfield dispute
| Iraq-Iran in oilfield dispute | |||
Iraq has accused Iran of seizing control of a disputed oilfield along the border between the two countries. "At 3:30 this afternoon, 11 Iranian [soldiers] infiltrated the Iran-Iraq border and took control of the oil well. They raised the Iranian flag, and they are still there until this moment," he told the Reuters news agency. Khafaji said Baghdad had taken no military action against the Iranian troops and would seek a measured, diplomatic response to the situation. "We are awaiting orders from our leader," he said. "This well is located on Iraqi land, 300 metres inside Iraq. It is disputed between Iran and Iraq. There was an agreement between the two countries' oil ministers to fix this problem diplomatically." "What happens is, periodically, about every three or four months, the oil ministry guys from Iraq will go ... to fix something or do some maintenance. They'll paint it in Iraqi colours and throw an Iraqi flag up. "They'll hang out there for a while, until they get tired, and as soon as they go away, the Iranians come down the hill and paint it Iranian colours and raise an Iranian flag. "It happened about three months ago and it will probably happen again." "If there is some sort of conflict then the price reaction is too small but if it is nothing the reaction is too high." | |||
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Turkey's rough ride to EU accession
| Turkey's rough ride to EU accession | ||
Turkey's desire to join the European Union has raised questions of national identity for a country wedged between East and West. Analysts say the government's decision to ban the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party this week has not helped their cause. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr talks to the people of Istanbul about the prospect of joining the the bloc. | ||
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More bodies retrieved off Lebanon
| More bodies retrieved off Lebanon | |||
Rescue workers have retrieved 11 bodies from waters off the northern coast of Lebanon, a day after a cargo ship carrying 83 people capsized in stormy weather. Emergency workers also found 14 people alive on Friday, bringing the total number of people rescued to 39, as they continued the search for survivors near the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, authorities said. Rescue operations are still under way for 33 people missing from the Panamanian-flagged Danny Two ship, they said. "We hope that more survivors will be found," Ahmad Tamer, the Tripoli port authority chief, told the AFP news agency. The ship was transporting cattle from Uruguay to the Syrian port of Tartous when it overturned on Thursday. Rescue teams from the Lebanese navy and the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country (Unifil) rushed to the scene after the accident. One of the survivors, a Filipino national, told rescuers that the British captain of the vessel had been killed. "He told us that the ship's engine went down and the captain sounded the alarm and told everyone to jump in the water," a rescue official recounted. "He said that 10 minutes after they jumped, the ship overturned sideways in very high waves and sank with the captain still on board." Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, the Lebanese capital, said: "The problem is the weather. Severe thunderstorms are impeding the Lebanese army's efforts to try to save as many people as possible. "It's dark, pouring rain, and there are very strong winds. Sea waves are as high as three metres. "[The rescue crews] are surrounded by thousands of dead cattle, and that makes it even harder for the Lebanese army and for Unifil forces that are trying to help." | |||
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Madagascar's president sacks PM
| Madagascar's president sacks PM | |||
Andry Rajoelina, the country's president, has dismissed Eugene Mangalaza, a man he appointed as prime minister in October. The move is likely to anger international mediators and further jeopardise hopes for a solution to the island's political crisis. Haja Resampa, secretary general of the presidency, said on Friday: "The measures in the decree dated October 10 ... relating to the nomination of the leader of the government of national union are hereby annulled." But that deal and a succession of others have fallen through as Rajoelina and three former presidents squabble over the division of key jobs in a consensus government. Cecile Manorohanta, Madagascar's vice prime minister and a close ally of Rajoelina, will take over the premiership indefinitely. Analysts said Rajoelina's move would dent hopes for the unblocking of aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Unity government Hours earlier, members of Madagascar's opposition said they would form a unity government within days and called on the military to stay in their barracks. Albert Zafy, the country's former vice-president, said: "We are going to put in place our ministers and we ask the armed forces to remain neutral and stay in their barracks." Rajoelina this week called elections and said power-sharing talks were dead. Zafy was among opposition leaders who returned to the island after Rajoelina's administration lifted a ban on their re-entry following talks in Mozambique. "Rajoelina has reneged on his signature. We can no longer trust him to run the country," Zafy said. Rajoelina, who toppled former leader Marc Ravalomanana with military support in March, said on Thursday it would be impossible to share power with political enemies. He said the international community no longer needed to involve itself in Madagascar's affairs. In a statement seen by Reuters on Friday, France has called for speedy, transparent elections that are monitored by an independent electoral commission and foreign observers. While France, Madagascar's former colonial power, did not condemn Rajoelina outright, it urged all parties to resume dialogue in search of a consensus solution. Foreign countries have said they will re-engage with Madagascar only after a consensus government is established and a road map to free and credible elections is in place. Rajoelina has not set a timetable for a presidential election which, under the terms of the original power-sharing deal, must be held by late 2010. | |||
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