Hillary Clinton urges Gaddafi to deliver democracy not threats- Jul 3, 2011

Hillary Clinton urges Gaddafi to deliver democracy not threats

AFP | Jul 3, 2011, 05.14am IST

TRIPOLI: US secretary of state Hillary Clinton demanded that Muammar Gaddafi deliver democracy instead of threats after the Libyan leader warned Europe of stinging attacks unless Nato halts its air war.

"Instead of issuing threats, Gaddafi should put the well-being and interests of his own people first and he should step down from power and help facilitate a democratic transition," Clinton said Saturday on a visit to Nato ally Spain, the latest leg of a European tour.

In a speech broadcast by loudspeakers to thousands of supporters in Tripoli's emblematic Green Square on Friday, the Libyan leader had warned that his loyalists could launch stinging attacks on Europe like "locusts and bees."

"The Libyan people are capable, one day, of taking the battle to Europe and the Mediterranean," Gaddafi said.

"They could attack your homes, your offices, your families could become legitimate military targets because you have transformed our offices, headquarters, homes and children into military targets which you say are legitimate," he continued.

Spanish foreign minister Trinidad Jimenez vowed Nato would keep up the pressure on the Libyan leader, regardless of his threats.

"We are working together to protect the Libyan people from the threats and violence that Gaddafi is employing against them. We will stay until we achieve our goals," she said at a news conference alongside Clinton.

The top US diplomat, meanwhile, said "the Nato-led mission is on track and pressure on Gaddafi is mounting and the rebels have been gaining strength and momentum. We need to see this through."

Libyan state television said Nato air strikes had "destroyed infrastructure and claimed victims" Saturday in Al-Jafra, a desert region 600 kilometres (360 miles) south of Tripoli.

Explosions were heard late at night in Tajoura, an eastern suburb of the Libyan capital, witnesses told AFP. They said the blasts were due to "coalition bombing."

Some 300 children rallied in front of invited foreign media outside UN offices to condemn the air strikes.

Gaddafi's regime has earned notoriety over the four decades since he seized power in 1969, arming militant groups from Northern Ireland to the Philippines, and being held responsible for a string of bombings against Western targets, including in Europe.

The Libyan leader also urged his supporters to retrieve weapons that France supplied to rebels battling his regime from bases in an armed enclave in the strategic Nafusa Mountains, southwest of the capital.

"March on the jebel (mountains) and seize the weapons that the French have supplied," he said.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said this week's arms drop was meant only to defend peaceful civilians from Gaddafi's forces and thus fell in line with existing UN resolutions on the conflict.

"It is not a violation of the UN Security Council resolutions" under which France and other allies launched air strikes and imposed embargoes to protect civilians from Gaddafi, he said.

On Saturday, Nato said it had stepped up its air strikes against Gaddafi's forces on the front lines around the rebels' two enclaves in the mainly government-held west -- the Nafusa Mountains and Libya's third-largest city Misrata.

After a retreat from around the plains town of Bir al-Ghanam some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Tripoli, rebel spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said the rebel army would soon try to push the frontline northward.

"In the next two days the (revolutionaries) will come up with answers, things will change on the frontline," he said.

In the past four days in Gharyan, a government stronghold near the mountains, Nato aircraft struck eight targets, including a military complex used to resupply Gaddafi troops, tanks and other military vehicles, the alliance said.

In its daily report for Friday, Nato said it had launched a total of 42 strike sorties over Libya, hitting two tanks near Gharyan and two armed vehicles near Bir al-Ghanam, also near the Nafusa.

In and around Tripoli, it said it had hit a military facility, three radars, two anti-aircraft guns, a missile launcher, four tanks and a command and control vehicle.

In Syria, Protests and Disorder Grow/Demonstrators pressed their demands for regime change Friday in what observers called d country's biggest protest

In Syria, Protests and Disorder Grow

Twenty-Four Reported Dead in Broad Rallies as Lawlessness Is Said to Undercut Regime's Legitimacy

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Associated Press

An image captured by cellphone and transmitted by a group that tracks Syria news shows protesters in the northern Kfar Nebel village on Friday demanding the exit of Assad.

DAMASCUS—Demonstrators across Syria pressed their demands for regime change Friday in what some observers called the country's biggest protests here yet.

At least 24 people were killed Friday, human-rights monitors said. Violence continued as President Bashar al-Assad confronts not only mounting public anger but also a growing lawlessness across Syria—ranging from the vigilante groups and Assad supporters who have mounted deadly reprisals on protesters, to a wave of petty crime, uncollected garbage and unauthorized construction.

In three and a half months of Syrian protests, demonstrators have so far failed to reach their goal of ending Mr. Assad's rule. But some observers say the examples of disorder unleashed by protesters' actions—including the government's use of non-state actors to quash dissent—is eroding the state authority that has been a cornerstone of the legitimacy of the Assad regime, which has long portrayed itself as a guarantor of calm in a country of mixed ethnicities and religions.

"The longer the protesters continue to defy the regime and its security forces, the more scope there will be for general lawlessness," said a senior Western diplomat in Damascus. "This could undermine the regime which has consistently trumpeted its ability to provide stability."

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Reuters

Bashar al-Assa

Daily antigovernment protests increased this week and Friday's demonstrations on the day of prayer drew crowds that some activists estimated to number a half-million. Such numbers aren't possible to verify, but diplomats also estimated the turnouts to have been among the country's largest thus far. Huge protests were held in Hama and Deir Ezzor, and in areas of Damascus and other large Syrian cities.

On both Thursday and Friday—dubbed the "Friday of Departure"—protesters poured out in several areas of Syria's second city, Aleppo, a commercial hub that has so far been relatively quiet. Activists, who say discontent with the regime is widespread there but that residents have been too scared to take to the streets, called for a called for a "volcano" of protesters there to jumpstart its uprising.

Videos posted on a central activist Facebook page showed protesters in Homs holding red cards calling for Mr. Assad to go and shouting, "the people want to topple the regime." Residents and activists reported widespread tear gas and gunfire.

In Hama, where Syrian army and security forces pulled out two weeks ago, posters of Mr. Assad have been torn down and even traffic police are gone, residents say. The army continues to sweep villages in the northwestern province of Idleb, where actvists and rights groups say 10 people were killed Wednesday and detentions are continuing.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned again Friday that the Syrian regime has limited time left to usher in reforms.

The Syrian government has attempted to regain support in recent days by inviting in some foreign journalists and allowing a group of opposition intellectuals to meet. Journalists have written that they are accompanied by minders and several attendees of the conference have said they were subsequently threatened. Most of Syria's fragmented opposition has said they will refuse to attend a national dialogue on July 10, suggesting more violence may lay ahead.

At least 1,400 civilians, and more than 300 soldiers and security forces, have been killed in protests that started in mid-March, according to human-rights groups.

A significant constituency in Damascus and Aleppo have remained loyal to Mr. Assad—primarily for the social, economic and political stability his regime has brought.

But Damascus has seen an increase in petty crimes and scofflaws as government forces are busy elsewhere or reluctant to annoy the population, some Syrians believe. By day and at night, vendors with racks of clothes, shoes and purses litter the pavements of Hamra street in central Damascus, where three months ago they would have been chased off by police. Residents of Damascus's Old City complain of instances where litter hasn't been picked up, with street cleaners absent on certain days.

In the outskirts of Damascus, Homs and elsewhere, homeowners have taken advantage of the unrest to build without necessary government approval.

"I've been adding a wall around my house although the bricks have tripled in price and builders are demanding a higher wage," says one old-city trader in Damascus. "It's so much faster when you don't need to get permission."

Activists blame the government actions for the deteriorating obedience to the law, but some Syrians blame the protesters. Faced with a relentless military crackdown on protest hotspots, street protesters have widely adopted civil disobedience as a new tool of activism. This is catching on with non-protesters, too.

Residents of Douma, close to Damascus, issued a statement saying they wouldn't pay bills for publicly supplied electricity and water as part of a civil-disobedience campaign. But one non-protester in Damascus said he doesn't pay, either. "Officials are probably too busy to bother tracking me down," he said.

Some citizens in Homs say they have started to buy weapons in case they need to protect themselves. The cheapest guns on the black market now go for about $800, up from about $400 a few months ago, according to Syrians and reports from Lebanese weapons sellers.

While the majority of protests are peaceful, in the town of Tel Kalakh close to the Lebanese border, residents admit to fighting government forces with weapons smuggled in from Lebanon. Both guns and rocket-propelled grenades were used against tanks after the army moved in in May, according to residents and diplomats in Damascus. Reports have emerged from other cities, too, of frustrated protesters killing security forces.

The government hasn't commented on the growing petty crime but it has acknowledged that it has at points lost control of some areas of the country, as Hama, for example, claims it is a "liberated city." On June 6, a senior Syrian official said that the military had "intermittently" lost control of areas around Jisr al-Shughour, a northwestern city where an army assault caused thousands of refugees to flee to Turkey.

Another fear is that the government's forces, as well as civilians who have cracked down on dissent on the state's behalf, could start to act of their own accord. Videos and testimonies have repeatedly highlighted plainclothed people described by protesters, activists and Syria experts as thugs paid by or loyal to the regime working alongside the army and security forces in cities including Latakia, Banias, Homs and Damascus.

The most notorious is the "shabiha," a gang of smugglers from the coastal area, many of whom belong to the Assad clan, according to locals and diplomats.

Growing lawlessness would open space for increased chaos in the country. That would play into a government narrative that has blamed armed gangs and saboteurs for the violence and leading to the potential forming of militias or organized local revolts, analysts say.

"We are concerned if this goes on too long, because this is how militia start," says one opposition analyst in Damascus. Non-protesters from Mr. Assad's ruling Alawite sect report being fearful of the growing lawlessness and worry about backlash against them. Very few sectarian clashes have so far been reported.

Only penguins can see solar eclipse The Hindu - ‎Jun 30, 2011‎

(Penguins reminds me of beautiful animation movie-"Happy Feet",,,their "Tap Dancing"...and singing,merry making!!!...one of them couldn't had singing ability,which all other Penguins naturally had so he was quite complexed about it....suddenly he and others realized that he can dance beautifully,amazingly...better then everyone else...and he started dancing.Others spontaniously started liking it and he became "Hero from Zero"...this movie has ecofriendly messages as well in the end!!!...VT)

A peculiar partial solar eclipse will take place on Friday. It will, however, not be visible anywhere in the world except the Antarctica, where it is likely to be seen only by penguins and sea birds.

A peculiar partial solar eclipse will take place on Friday. It will, however, not be visible anywhere in the world except the Antarctica, where it is likely to be seen only by penguins and sea birds. Partial solar eclipses taking place over the polar region, such as this one over the Antarctica, are peculiar in the sense that the centre of the shadow of the moon just misses the earth, Arvind Paranjpye of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics said.

The partial solar eclipse will begin at 1.23 p.m. Indian Standard Time and will end at 2.53 p.m. It will reach its maximum at 2.09 p.m. IST.

The total duration of the celestial phenomenon will be for about an hour and a half.

The partial solar eclipse will be visible from southern latitudes and the Antarctica, Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) president C.B. Devgun told PTI.

This southern hemisphere event is visible from a D-shaped region in the Antarctic Ocean, to the south of Africa, Mr. Paranjpye said.

Tackle corruption, Hu tells party leaders/Hu Warns of Dangers From Corruption in China Party 2/7/11

Hu Warns of Dangers From Corruption in China Party

President Hu Jintao gives a speech Friday to mark the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party

TO DOWNLOAD the MP3 of this story, click on the MP3 link in the upper right corner of the page. Double-click any word to find the definition in the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary.

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

China's Communist Party is celebrating its ninetieth anniversary. A small group of intellectuals established the party in July of nineteen twenty-one in Shanghai. In nineteen forty-nine, after a long civil war, the Communist Party defeated the Nationalists and took power under Mao Zedong.

On Friday, events celebrating the party's anniversary took place in schools, offices and shopping centers across the nation.

(SOUND)

President Hu Jintao gave a speech to thousands of party officials at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. President Hu said the Communist Party, to continue its rule, must adapt to a changing nation and a changing world.

He said that without continued fast economic development and social order, the gains of the past twenty years will be lost.

President Hu urged the party to fight corruption and create what he described as a clean government. He warned that acts of corruption by party members who hold political office could cause the public to lose trust.

In his speech, the president said that in the past, the Communist Party has made mistakes and suffered setbacks. He said the party learned from its mistakes and today is leading the Chinese to a victorious future. He said that after ninety years, it is clear that only the Communist Party can properly govern China.

Millions died under the policies of the Great Leap Forward in the nineteen fifties and the Cultural Revolution in the sixties. Hundreds and perhaps thousands died when troops crushed the democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in nineteen eighty-nine.

Mao died in nineteen seventy-six. Deng Xiaoping took his place and launched a period of reforms. Today China has the world's second-largest economy. But the small group of top leaders in the party continue to crush dissent, control the media and deny basic rights.

Government data released this year showed that China spends about ninety-five billion dollars a year on police, jails and security services. That is more that the amount the government says it spends on the military.

Earlier this year China moved to suppress calls on the Internet for a "jasmine revolution" like the movements in the Middle East and North Africa.

On a separate issue, the United Nations on Thursday criticized China for welcoming Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to Beijing this week. The high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said she was "disappointed."

Mr. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court. The court has charged him with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur area of Sudan.

President Hu and President Bashir signed loan and economic cooperation agreements in Beijing on Wednesday. China is a major supplier of weapons to Sudan and its biggest purchaser of oil.

that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. For more news, go to voaspecialenglish.com, where you can read and listen to our programs and share your comments. I'm Steve Ember.

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Contributing: Peter Simpson

More urgency needed on transition: Afghan official

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KABUL | Thu Jun 30, 2011 12:46pm EDT

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's government and its international backers need urgently to put Afghans in charge of security and governance by a 2014 deadline, one of the officials in charge of the protracted handover said on Thursday.

Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister who is chairman of the security transition, dismissed fears that plans for a NATO-led coalition to bring troops home would echo the hasty Russian withdrawal in 1989 that started a slide to civil war.

He also said most of the seven areas chosen to kick off the transition would be largely under Afghan control by the time of official handovers scheduled for late July.

"We must introduce a sense of urgency both among the Afghan government ourselves, and the Afghan people and on the part of the international community," Ghani told a news conference at the end of a two-day transition conference.

The conference was held just days after a brazen assault on Kabul's Intercontinental hotel, that lasted five hours, and ended with 12 dead. The Taliban said Afghan officials attending the transition meeting were among their targets.

NATO air power had to be called in to end the attack, which raised questions about the readiness of Afghan forces to fight the battle-hardened insurgency, but Ghani said the departure of foreign forces would not be a trigger for war.

"One point must be very clear, this transition is not similar to the transition that was carried out at the time of Dr Najib, the last communist president and people should not be concerned about this," he said.

The long-term framework for cooperation with the international community, the huge investment in the police, army and intelligence services, and their growing capacity, all gave him confidence they could secure the country, Ghani said.

GOVERNANCE KEY

The meeting tackled security concerns and the thornier issues of government provision of services like education and healthcare.

In many parts of the country these are funded and run in part by the foreign countries with troops fighting there, and the security transition is supposed to be matched by a parallel civilian transition to central government control.

The details of that change worry foreign observers because they are critical to Kabul's credibility, particularly in areas where the Taliban claims to provide key services like justice.

The security transition has been thoroughly rehearsed, with many of the areas chosen for the first phase ones with few security concerns and a correspondingly low foreign military presence, like the anti-Taliban Bamiyan and Panjshir provinces.

Other areas, like the city of Lashkar Gah in the insurgent stronghold of Helmand province, have had priority on the best trained and equipped of the new security forces.

There the handover of checkpoints and other security infrastructure will go on for weeks before the ceremony, which officials say will likely be very low key.

"The exact day (for the handover) is the last week of Saratan, although this is a formality," Ghani said, speaking through a translator, and referring to the Afghan month that ends on July 22 in the Western calendar.

(Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Is Aung San Suu Kyi rethinking her tactics?India Puts Security, Trade With Burma Ahead of DemocracyJune 21, 2011

June 21, 2011

India Puts Security, Trade With Burma Ahead of Democracy

Daniel Schearf | Bangkok

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Photo: AP

Indian Foreign Minister S.M Krishna (file photo)

India's foreign minister is in Burma for meetings with top leaders that are expected to focus on security and trade. New Delhi says the trip, the first since a civilian government took office, is an opportunity to "further vitalize" the relationship.

S.M. Krishna’s visit is India’s first high-level engagement since the country’s military government was replaced with a nominally civilian leadership in March.

India says the two sides will discuss security cooperation as well as trade and investment.

Krishna is not scheduled to meet with opposition and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was banned from participating in the election.

India was once a vocal Suu Kyi supporter but changed its policy in the early 1990s in order to have better cooperation with the military government.

Professor D.S. Muni at Singapore's Institute of South Asian Studies says India realized there was a heavy security cost for supporting Aung San Suu Kyi and calls for democracy in Burma.

“Certainly as a result of change in New Dehli’s policy there has been considerable cooperation on the border, for instance," Muni said. "Lot of northeast insurgencies which have been earlier taking shelter in Myanmar - the Myanmar government’s cooperation is forthcoming.”

Muni says although there is cooperation, India has not been entirely satisfied with Burma’s border security and hopes to improve communications with the new government over the issue.

Critics say Burma’s controversial November election merely gave a civilian face to continued military rule.

A quarter of all parliament seats were reserved for the military and the military party won by a landslide amid widespread reports of voter fraud and intimidation.

Muni says although India is not pushing openly for democratic change in Burma, it has engaged in quiet diplomacy on the issue.

The engagement policy has also paid off economically for both Burma and India.

Bilateral annual trade volume shot from tens of millions of dollars in the 1980s to about a billion and a half dollars last year. Muni says Burma has also discussed brokering new deals for critical energy supplies including oil.

While that remains far less than the several billion dollars of annual Chinese trade and investment, Muni says India is more worried about Chinese naval activity in the region.

"Recently there were visit[s] of the two Chinese ships," Muni said. "Now there is a Chinese ship coming to Singapore. The Chinese are setting up a port development in Sri Lanka, they're planning a port development in Chittagong [Bangladesh]. So, I think this naval activity has suddenly alerted almost anyone who has concern for security in the Bay of Bengal.”

The Indian foreign minister’s visit coincides with a visit to Burma by a delegation from the European Union.

The EU group also met with government ministers and was to meet Tuesday evening with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Greek parliament approves bill to implement new austerity plan-2011-06-30

Greek parliament approves bill to implement new austerity plan

English.news.cn 2011-06-30 22:38:52

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ATHENS, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The Greek parliament on Thursday cleared a bill for the implementation of a new austerity plan approved by lawmakers on Wednesday amidst extensive violent clashes between protesters and police in central Athens.

The bill was ratified along party lines by a vote of 155 in favor, 136 against and five abstentions in the 300-strong assembly with 296 deputies present.

In a new sign of "dissent" within the ruling socialist party which holds 154 seats in the assembly, PASOK deputy Chryssa Arapoglou voted against some articles during Thursday's vote, but approved the overall bill at the end, while an opposition party lawmaker also backed the bill.

The outcome paves the way for the release of further aid to the debt-ridden euro zone member country by the European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders.

The 12-billion-euro (17.38-billion-U.S.-dollar) tranche of the four-year 110-billion-euro (159.31-billion-U.S-dollar) bailout pact Athens secured last year to avoid default and a supplementary package under discussion over the past few weeks, are considered as essential to the rescue of the country from economic collapse this July.

A Greek default would rock the entire European common currency zone. After the positive outcome in Athens, this Sunday in an extraordinary Eurogroup meeting European counterparts are expected to give the "green light" for the release of the fifth tranche of aid and outline the preconditions for the second rescue package.

The painful 28-billion-euro (40.55-billion-U.S.-dollar) mid- term 2012-2015 fiscal strategy plan of spending cuts, tax hikes and a parallel multi-billion privatization program was cleared by 155 positive votes to 138 negative votes on Wednesday.

Despite the positive result, in a blow to the socialist government, one ruling socialist PASOK party deputy voted against the bill and was dismissed from the parliamentary group, leaving Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou a slim four-seat majority in the legislature. The package was backed by an opposition deputy who turned independent.

During Thursday's similar roll-call vote, conservative main opposition New Democracy party deputies backed 21 in 49 articles of the bill regarding privatization of loss-making public companies during the vote procedure, but eventually rejected the package in full, insisting on the prompt renegotiation of the terms of foreign aid to Greece.

As opposition parties and labor unions warn the government that they will continue to resist to the end the implementation of the policies they regard as "recipe to disaster for Greek society," in an effort to appease critics, Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos made some last minute changes to the bill he promoted as "generous measures of social sensitivity."

The government slightly raised the tax-exempt income threshold for families with more than one child and persons with special needs.

For thousands protesters who have taken to the streets for months, denouncing the harsh policies, the changes are not adequate.

"This is like a drop of water in the ocean. They cannot expect us to accept our suffocation with a smile on the face, by giving us one more second of living," commented on Thursday pensioner Spyros Tragakis.

"I worked hard for decades to earn a better future for my children and grandchildren. I will not stop protesting. The crisis was not my fault. They should find other solutions," added Tragakis.

Labor unions scheduled a new rally in front of the parliament building later on Thursday, as the government voices determination to push through the "difficult but necessary" austerity and reform plan to lead Greece out of the crisis.

"Certainly we need measures of social coherence, but when you borrow funds you are obliged to move within a narrow context," Venizelos addressed the assembly on Thursday, repeating a plea for national unity over the austerity measures.

The situation remains difficult for Greece, since there are still no concrete decisions on the further involvement of foreigners into efforts to overcome the Greek debt crisis, he noted.

Despite the positive result at the legislature, amidst the mounting public discontent to measures, Greek media commentators and political analysts talked on Thursday about a short sign of relief which will be soon over, forecasting that new obstacles will be raised in the coming weeks and months.