A US official has told reporters that the US will officially recognise the Somali government, for the first time in over 20 years. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said that the news will be made official at a meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud tomorrow. "When the secretary meets with Hassan Sheikh tomorrow, she will exchange diplomatic notes with him and recognise the Somali government in Mogadishu for the first time in 20 years," he told media. A senior US official is reported to have told Reuters that new aid measures...
Two people were killed and 41 taken hostage by Islamist militants at a gas plant in Algeria on Wednesday. The hostages were described as 'Western' and included British, French, Japanese and American citizens. The group claiming responsibility told Mauritanian media that they entered Algeria from northern Mali and carried out the attack as revenge against French intervention in Mali and Algeria's cooperation. The group which calls itself 'Signatories for Blood' said: "Algeria was chosen for this operation to teach (Algerian President Abdelaziz) Bouteflika that we will never accept the...
A Palestinian teenager was shot and killed by Israeli troops on the West Bank reports AFP. The shooting occured near a school in the village of Budrus, where a group of students had thrown stones at the soldiers after finishing their exams. The soldiers caught and tried to arrest 17-year-old Samir Ahmed Awad, firing six bullets when he tried to flee. A spokesperson for the army said that the incident was a response after Palestinians "approached the security fence near Budrus and damaged it in an attempt to infiltrate Israel". See here for full report on AFP .
The Prime Minister of Greenland Kuupik Kleist has said that his government will not favour the EU over China or other potential investors for access to the country’s rare earth minerals. Kleist said it would not be fair "to protect others' interests more than protecting, for instance, China's" according to the BBC . "All are welcome if they meet our conditions and our requirements to operate in Greenland," Mr Kleist said, adding that he would resist pressure from the EU over the highly valuable minerals. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark but unlike Denmark, is not part of the EU...
A covert intensive investigation, by the US consul general in Istanbul, Scott Fredric Kilner, into chemical weapons in Syria has concluded that the Syrian military used them against its own people, in a deadly attack last month. A confidential State Department cable , signed by Kilner, outlined the investigation's findings regarding chemical weapons usage in Syria. Kilner's investigation included interviews with doctors on the ground that concluded that chemical agents had been used. The US consulate, Kilner, warned that if the U.S government failed to react strongly to the usage of chemical...
The Swiss foreign minister has said Switzerland will file a petition on Monday to call on the International Criminal Court to open war crimes investigations in Syria. “Serious war crimes are being committed in Syria. We must make sure they not go unpunished,” Didier Burkhalter told Swiss national television TSR. “We’re submitting a proposal. Now it is up to the Security Council to decide.” The Swiss initiative is reported to have the support of 52 countries. As Switzerland is not a signatory to the ICC, the UN Security Council needs to refer the petition to the court in The Hague.
The UN Security Council and US government have given the go-ahead for M23 rebels to be involved in peace talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo government despite placing sanctions against some of the rebel leaders. The DRC's Minster of Defence and chief facilitator of the talks, Dr Crispus Kiyonga, confirmed the continuation of peace talks with the leaders, stating : “Both parties (UN and US) have assured us that they support the dialogue and sanctions don’t interfere with dialogue. As long as member of the delegation has not been affected by sanctions he can go ahead and participate.”...
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for an international investigation into human rights abuses in North Korea, labelling the situation as “deplorable”. In a statement released earlier on Monday, Pillay said, “There were some initial hopes that the advent of a new leader might bring about some positive change in the human rights situation in DPRK. But a year after Kim Jong Un became the country’s new supreme leader, we see almost no sign of improvement.” She went on to talk about the country’s nuclear programme, stating, “I am also concerned that, at the...
The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has questioned French President Francois Hollande as to why he had met one of the assassinated Kurdish activists. Sakine Cansiz was a founder member of the PKK and was shot by unknown assailants in Paris, along with two fellow activists. Erdogan has called on Hollande to explain himself, after the French president said he met one of the murdered Kurds regularly. He said Mr Hollande should "immediately disclose" why he met members of "this terrorist organisation, what was discussed, to what end he was in communication with these terrorists". "How...
Israeli police evicted Palestinian activists protesting against a planned Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Hundreds of police together with bulldozers surrounded the protest camp, named Bab al-Shams after a Palestinian village that had existed near it previously, and evicted around 200 activists. In a statement, protest organisers from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, said: “ This is not the end of the popular struggle and it will continue in its full strength .” Bab al-Shams is located in the E1 area between Jerusalem and the Ma'ale Adumim settlement, and was the site...