OmanObserver_30-06-13

More documents

Recommendations

Info

6 REGION Egyptian opposition supporters gather for a demonstration in Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square yesterday. — AFP Egypt braces for mass demo CAIRO — Egyptians were on edge yesterday ahead of mass rallies against President Mohamed Morsi, as US President Barack Obama expressed concern after an American was killed during clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters. Four people died and scores were hurt on Friday when government supporters turned out to challenge opponents, in what is seen as a prelude to possible confrontations today. The army, which has stayed aloof from politics since Morsi was elected a year ago, has warned it will intervene if there is major unrest. Speaking in South Africa, Obama said of Egypt: "We are all looking at the situation there with concern." "We would urge all parties to make sure they are not engaging in violence and that police and military are showing appropriate restraint. "Everybody has to denounce violence. We would like to see the opposition and President Morsi engage in a more constructive conversation about (how) to move their country forward." Andrew Pochter, 21, an intern with US cultural and educational group AMIDEAST, was killed as he photographed clashes in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egyptian oficials said. One man was killed during earlier clashes there, and another succumbed to his injuries yesterday. An Egyptian journalist in the Suez Canal city of Port Said was also killed and several others wounded by a small explosive device thrown at anti-government protesters, a security oficial and witnesses said. Across the country more than 130 people were reported wounded. Army launches assault on Homs Jets and mortars pound opposition-held areas of Homs State media: army making progress in Khalidiyah district Smoke rising from buildings following an air strike by government forces on northeastern city of Deir Ezzor. — AFP BEIRUT — Syrian government forces launched a major offensive yesterday against opposition ighters in Homs, a centre of the two-year-old uprising, in their latest drive to secure an axis connecting Damascus to the Mediterranean. Activists said jets and mortars had pounded opposition-held areas of the city that have been under siege by government troops for a year, and soldiers fought battles with opposition ighters in several districts. "Government forces are trying to storm (Homs) from all fronts," said an activist using the name Abu Mohammad. There were no immediate details of casualties but video footage uploaded by activists showed heavy explosions and white clouds of smoke rising from what they said were opposition-held districts. Loud, concentrated rounds of gunire could also be heard. Syrian state media said the army was "achieving great progress" in Khalidiyah but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-government monitoring group, said there were reports that opposition ighters had destroyed an army tank as troops tried to penetrate the Old City in the centre of Homs. The attack on Homs follows steady military gains by government forces in villages in Homs province and towns close to the Lebanese border. Three weeks ago government forces recapture of the border town of Qusair, a former opposition bridgehead for smuggling in guns and ighters. Last week the opposition ighters lost another border town, Tel Kalakh. Those gains have consolidated government's control over a corridor of territory that runs from the capital Damascus through Homs to the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean. They have also alarmed international supporters of the opposition ighters, leading the United States to announce that it will step up military support. Hopes of holding a US and Russian-backed peace conference have faded, with opposition ighters reluctant to negotiate while they are on the defensive militarily and tensions between Moscow and Washington exacerbating their deep differences over Syria. Despite losing ground around Damascus and Homs, opposition ighters registered a symbolic victory on Friday when they overran a major military checkpoint in Deraa, the southern city where the uprising irst erupted. Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory, said the fall of the army post was strategically signiicant and could change the balance of power in Deraa, where opposition ighters control most of the old city. The province of Deraa, on the border with Jordan, has been a conduit for arms supplies to the opposition ighters. — Reuters The ofices of the Freedom and Justice Party were torched in Alexandria and at Aga in Daqahliya. Its ofices were stormed in Beheira. Washington warned Americans against travel to Egypt as antagonism intensiies between government's supporters and the opposition. Britain urged its citizens to "avoid all demonstrations and large gatherings," while France said citizens should "limit movements to those strictly necessary". Morsi met his army chief Abdel Fattah al Sisi and Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim "to discuss the inal security plans to protect vital establishments," the oficial MENA news agency reported. The government's opponents call for nationwide protests today, demanding snap elections, prompted pre-emptive demonstrations on Friday by the government's supporters. — AFP Iran’s Rouhani looks to detente with the world TEHRAN — Iran President-elect Hassan Rouhani said yesterday his victory opened a new path for Iran to engage constructively with the international community. "Moderation in foreign policy means neither surrender nor confrontation but constructive and eficacious interaction with the world," Rouhani said in his irst live televised speech since being elected on June 14 to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Under his administration, "interaction and dialogue will be based on reciprocity, respect and mutual interest, and seeking mutual detente," Rouhani said. Rouhani pledged "moderation" in which "a balance must be achieved between realism and idealism". — AFP 10 perish in Iraq attacks BAGHDAD — Attacks in Iraq killed 10 people yesterday, the latest in spiralling violence that has left more than 420 dead this month. The surge in unrest comes as the country grapples with a prolonged political deadlock. Analysts warn that the political stand-off could persist until general elections due next year. In Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, a bomb in a market killed three people and wounded at least 10 others, while in nearby Garma, gunmen opened ire on a group of policemen and killed three before leeing. In the main northern city of Mosul, meanwhile, three civilians were gunned down in an electronics shop. Separate attacks in Taji, Sharqat and Mosul left one person dead and 13 others wounded. The latest attacks pushed the overall nationwide death toll for June to 428, the third successive month the igure has topped 400, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security and medical oficials. — AFP SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Kerry extends Middle East peace mission JERUSALEM — US Secretary of State John Kerry extended for a third day yesterday his shuttle diplomacy between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, raising speculation of progress in reviving long dormant peace talks. He took a helicopter from Jerusalem to Amman where he spent two hours in talks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas then lew back again for his third meeting in under 48 hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A US oficial said Netanyahu would be accompanied to the evening meeting by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's designated negotiator to talks with the Palestinians, and by Netanyahu's personal envoy Yitzhak Molcho. "Working hard," Kerry told a reporter who asked if he was making progress as he and Abbas began their second round of talks in as many days. In a potential sign of headway, Kerry cancelled a dinner he had scheduled for last night in Abu Dhabi, part of his separate tour in the past week through Gulf Arab states to co-ordinate support for opposition ighters in Syria's civil war. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Kerry would still head to a meeting of Asian ministers in Brunei starting tomorrow but called off the Abu Dhabi stop because his "meetings on the peace process remain ongoing". US oficials have said little on the closed-door discussions, saying public comments would risk the luid diplomacy. Kerry was expected to speak before leaving the region but Israeli public radio said his failure to hold an expected news conference in Amman on Friday suggested stumbling blocks in the talks. "(Israeli) diplomatic sources were... talking to me about the possibility of a four-way summit in Amman in the coming week," the radio's diplomatic analyst Chico Menashe reported. "Now, with the cancellation of today's planned press conference, it appears that there is still nothing to announce." Kerry has spent seven hours since Thursday sounding out Netanyahu. Kerry's aides have played down expectations of an imminent breakthrough and instead are hoping to make incremental progress to set the stage for substantive negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The two sides have not formally met for peace talks since September 2010 and even then the negotiations broke down quickly, with Abbas saying Israel was not serious about a discussion on the future. The Palestinian Authority wants Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements on occupied land and to promise any negotiations will be based on the principle of Israel withdrawing from land seized in the 1967 Six-Day War. Netanyahu has rejected such "preconditions" but insists he remains ready to talk. But Kerry heard encouraging words from Israeli President Shimon Peres over a two-hour dinner on Friday following the meeting with Netanyahu. — AFP Tunisians protest against draft law TUNIS — Hundreds of Tunisians took to the streets of the capital yesterday to protest against a draft law aimed at excluding former government oficials from taking part in future elections, an AFP journalist said. The government has been pushing for the controversial law. But opponents of the government said it is aimed at keeping them out of politics, and protesters gathered outside the National Assembly chanted slogans. "No to exclusion! No to collective punishment!" they chanted. The Ennahda party that heads the government and its coalition partners Ettakatol and Congress for the Republic say the draft law is aimed at preventing former oficials from taking part in parliamentary elections due later this year. "No one has the right to deprive Tunisian citizens from exercising their civil rights. Tunisia is for all Tunisians," said Taieb Baccouche, secretary of the key opposition party Nidaa Tounes. The head of the party has said that up to 60,000 Tunisians could be affected by the law on the pretext that they worked directly or indirectly for former government. The draft law was submitted on Thursday to the National Assembly which is due to begin a debate on a much-delayed constitution on July 1. The adoption of a constitution is needed to draw up a schedule for elections which Prime Minister Ali Larayedh has promised to hold before the end of 2013, nearly three years after the uprising. — AFP Tunisian protesters shout slogans in front of the National Constituent Assembly in Tunis during a demonstration against a draft law yesterday.
SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 AFRICA UN peacekeepers take over from African troops in Mali BAMAKO — United Nations soldiers will take over from African troops in conlict-scarred Mali from tomorrow, making up the organisation’s third-largest peacekeeping force by the end of the year. A 12,600-strong force will take over security duties from French troops who entered Mali in January to halt a dissident advance and help the government re-establish its authority over the vast country. France is winding down its deployment from its peak of nearly 4,500 but is to keep up to 1,000 troops in Mali and they will maintain responsibility for military strikes against the dissidents. “Security conditions are satisfactory, no major attack has been recorded against the Malian and African forces, and most important, despite what certain people feared, the political process has experienced a very positive evolution,” France’s UN ambassador Gerard Araud said, welcoming the handover. Rwandan General Jean-Bosco Kazura, formerly second in command of African Union troops in Sudan’s western Darfur region, will lead the force. The majority of his soldiers will be Africans already stationed in Mali but China has offered to supply more than 500 troops in what would be its biggest contribution to UN peacekeeping. Sweden will send around 70 troops for a maximum of one year while Norway is to contribute 25 soldiers and police. Bangladesh is thought to have offered the largest non-African contingent of up to 1,000 troops although no deal has yet been con- irmed. Araud said the French government would start reducing the 3,200 troops currently in Mali from the end of August. UN leader Ban Ki-moon has raised fears that the peacekeepers could face guerrilla attacks and has highlighted the lack of equipment and training among the West African troops already in Mali. Armed militias "retain the capability to pose a signiicant threat" and "still have support networks and recruitment structures in place", Ban said in a report published on June 9. The UN mission is due to play a key role in Massacre charge against minister CONAKRY — Guinean judges have charged a minister in connection with the 2009 Conakry Stadium massacre in which at least 157 protesters were killed, a judicial source said yesterday. Lieutenant-Colonel Claude Pivi was charged on Thursday with several counts of murder, rape, pillaging and arson by the three judges in charge of the case, the source said on condition of anonymity. Pivi denied the charges and is due to appear in court again next week. On September 28, 2009, tens of thousands people had gathered at the main stadium in the capital Conakry to protest against the junta led by Moussa Dadis Camara. Security forces opened ire and mowed protesters down, killing at least 157. Women were raped, hundreds of people were wounded and dozens are still missing. Pivi was not at the stadi- Five killed in Somali city as leadership dispute rages MOGADISHU — At least ive people have been killed in two days of ighting in a strategic Somali port city, a group commander said yesterday, despite talks to end a leadership row aimed at stopping a slide back into broader clan warfare. The threat of the kind of ighting that tore Somalia apart over two decades has hung over the city of Kismayu since Ahmed Madobe, leader of the Ras Kamboni group, was chosen by a regional assembly in May to lead Jubaland and its port. Dozens of people have been killed in sporadic ighting since then between backers of Madobe and a rival claimant to the leadership, Barre Hirale. "From our side, ive have died and 20 others were injured," Ibrahim Saiid, a commander in a militia backing Hirale, said by telephone, adding that the Ras Kamboni militia behind Madobi had also suffered an unknown number of casualties. Other witnesses con- irmed the clashes which erupted on Friday and extended into yesterday, but there was no oficial death toll. Poor communications to the city made it dificult to obtain a casualty count on Madobe's side. Worried that the clashes could spread and undermine fragile security gains secured by African peacekeepers in the nation, the United Nations called for an immediate halt to ighting and said talks should resolve the dispute. — Reuters um that day but the judges accuse him of masterminding the deadly crackdown that continued in the following days. Claude Pivi was a leading igure in the junta and he is now in charge of presidential security for current leader Alpha Conde, who was elected in November 2010. Local and international rights groups have welcomed the irst indictments issued in recent weeks against senior junta leaders by the special panel of judges. "This is a irst victory for the plaintiffs and more general for the struggle against impunity in Guinea," senior local rights campaigner Thierno Sow said, quoted in a statement by the International Federation for Human Rights. The current government has been criticised for not taking suficient action against the suspected masterminds of the stadium massacre. — AFP presidential polls announced for July 28 but the election commission has raised doubts over its ability to stage a free and fair vote with such short notice. The commission's president Mamadou Diamountani said this week it would be "extremely dificult" to get up to eight million voting cards to the electorate in a country where 500,000 people have been displaced by conlict. He also highlighted the instability in the northeastern town of Kidal, which is occupied by Tuareg separatists and still has no army presence despite a ceaseire between the transitional government and the dissidents. Malian military oficers staged a coup in March last year, but the weak army was overpowered by the National Movement for the 7 Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a Tuareg front which seized key northern cities before being sidelined by its allies. The MNLA sided with a French-led military intervention which reclaimed most of the lost territory from the opponents. But the Tuaregs have been reluctant to allow government troops into Kidal for the vote. An accord signed in Burkina Faso envisages a cessation of hostilities between the Malian army and the MNLA during the election period, with peace talks planned for after the vote. The UN has called on member states to contribute critical resources, including personnel and equipment, to ensure that it can support Mali in implementing the accord and preparing for the elections. — AFP
Page 1 and 2: World News P4 Ready-to-assemble she
Page 3 and 4: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Expert panel
Page 5: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 By-elections
Page 9 and 10: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Snowden's opt
Page 11 and 12: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Students serv
Page 13 and 14: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 A group of pu
Page 15 and 16: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 A boy takes a
Page 17 and 18: Inside P 19 Internet overlords clos
Page 19 and 20: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Wall Street W
Page 21 and 22: SENIOR Marketing Advertising & Medi
Page 23 and 24: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Business Aler
Page 25 and 26: RUGBY P26 Halfpenny miss hands Wall
Page 27 and 28: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 SPORT Youzhny
Page 29 and 30: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Bollywood act
Page 31 and 32: SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Lessons at ho

OmanObserver_30-06-13

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?