France pledges help for Syrian 'Revolutionary Councils'

The French government repeated its commitment to provide humanitarian aid and cash for the provision of basic services in rebel-held areas of Syria, as representatives of elected “Revolutionary Councils” attended a Paris conference.

By Yuka ROYER (video)
FRANCE 24 (text)

 

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday reiterated France’s support for Syria’s opposition movement at a meeting with elected Syrian Revolutionary Councils to which Paris has been providing direct aid for several months.

I did 'everything’ to avoid war, Karadzic tells UN court

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic told the UN’s war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia on Tuesday that nobody could have foreseen the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica and that he “should have been rewarded” for trying to avoid war.

 

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, on trial accused of some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War Two, said he should be praised for promoting peace rather than charged with war crimes, an assertion hotly denied by some victims.
Karadzic is one of three Serb leaders brought to trial in The Hague for war crimes during the violent break-up of multi-ethnic Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1999, in which more than 100,000 people were killed and millions were displaced.
Now 67 and still recognisable by his shock of white hair, he began his own defence on Tuesday against charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and cross-examined witnesses himself.

Instead of being accused for the events of our civil war, I should have been rewarded for all the good things I've done.

Looking resigned but relax

Twitter may face legal action over anti-Semitic tweets

Following a wave of anti-Semitic posts on Twitter, anti-racism groups in France say they were looking at all legal options to target the authors of thousands of offensive tweets - and possibly Twitter itself.

By Tony Todd (text)

 

French anti-racist groups on Tuesday said they were launching wide-ranging legal action following a wave of anti-Semitic posts on microblogging site Twitter.


The move follows an explosion last week in the use of the Twitter hashtag #unbonjuif - meaning “a good Jew” - to spread anti-Semitic jokes online.
By October 10, the hashtag was trending third in France (meaning it was the third most popular tagged subject on the site in the country) and a deluge of offensive posts -- as well as tweets decrying the racist tone of many of the comments -- continued for days.

And with anti-Semitic hate crimes on the rise in France, organisations like SOS Racisme and the French Jewish Students Union (UEJF) said they were determined pursue those that took part through the courts.
“We are taking this extremely seriously,” said SOS Ra

UN condemns Syrian attack on Turkey

The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously condemned Syria's shelling of a Turkish town that killed five people, in a statement approved by all 15 council members, including Syria's most important ally, Russia.

The U.N. Security Council overcame deep divisions on Thursday to unanimously approve a statement condemning "in the strongest terms" Syria’s shelling of a Turkish town that killed five women and children.
Council members managed to bridge differences between the strong statement demanded by the United States and its Western supporters and backed by their NATO ally Turkey, and a weaker text pushed by Russia, Syria’s most important ally, after negotiations that began late Wednesday and continued through Thursday.
In the press statement, which needed approval from all 15 council members, the U.N.’s most powerful body said the incident “highlighted the grave impact the crisis in Syria has on the security of its neighbors and on regional peace and stability.”

TURKEY - SYRIA Turkey approves Syria raids, but disapproves of war

It also extended condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Turkey.
The council demanded an immediate end to such violations of international law and called on the Syrian government “to fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors.” Russia’s agreement that the Syrian shelling violated international law was a key concession by Moscow.

Thousands march after Grenoble gang killings

It was a murder that shook France – two young men with no police record and promising futures were brutally killed in a public park in Grenoble by a gang of up to 15 youths. The city, the scene of intense rioting in 2010, is reeling in shock.

By Tony Todd (text)

 

Approximately 10,000 residents of a suburb of the southwestern city of Grenoble took to the streets on Tuesday evening in a silent protest to express their horror at the brutal killings of two young men on Friday, a crime that has profoundly shocked France.
Kevin Noubissi and Sofiane Tadburt, both aged 21, were set upon by a gang of up to 15 youths wielding pickaxe handles, baseball bats, knives and hammers after an apparent sleight involving Noubissi’s younger brother.
According to reports, the youngster had been assaulted by members of the gang, and Noubissi approached them demanding an explanation and an apology.
Put out by this apparent effrontery, the gang launched their deadly assault on Noubissi, and also on Tadburt “because he happened to be there and was Noubissi’s friend,” according to a police source who said Tadburt was stabbed at least 30 times.
Neither of the young students had any police record. Friends and family said that they both had promising futures, prospects lacking for many in France’s “banlieues”, where rampant unemployment and petty criminality are often the norm.

Russia welcomes Georgia opposition victory

Russia's Foreign Ministry said it hopes recent parliamentary elections in Georgia, won by opposition coalition Georgian Dream, will help normalise the country's relations with neighbours.
"It is obvious that Georgian society has voted for changes. We hope in the end they will allow Georgia to start the normalisation, establishment of constructive and respectful relations with neighbours," Alexander Lukashevich, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Wednesday.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili conceded the shock defeat to the opposition, led by billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, ending nine years of dominance that antagonised Russia and brought Tbilisi closer to the West.
Although Saakashvili remains president, the defeat of his United National Movement in Monday's elections means he will lose control of parliament and the government.
His apparently graceful acceptance of the unexpected

Eurozone unemployment hits record 18.2 million

Official jobless figures for the eurozone hit a record 18.2 million in August, new Eurostat data showed Monday, the highest since records for the bloc began in 1995 and indicating an annual rise of more than two million unemployed.

 

Unemployment across the 17 countries that use the euro remained at its record high rate of 11.4 percent in August, official data showed Monday, renewing concerns that efforts to slash debts have sacrificed jobs.
While European leaders have managed to calm financial markets in recent months with promises to cut spending and build a tighter union, they have been unable to solve the eurozone’s deep-rooted economic problems and the rising tide of joblessness.
In August, 34,000 more people lost their jobs in the eurozone, according to data released Monday by the European statistics agency, Eurostat. The unemployment rate -- the highest since the euro was created in 1999 -- is the same as July’s, which was revised up from 11.3 Monday.
Europe’s problems are dragging down the entire global economy. The region is the U.S.’s largest export customer and any fall-off in demand will hit American companies -- as well as President Barack Obama’s election prospects.

Reports that French agent killed Gaddafi ‘nonsense’

A French intelligence expert has poured cold water on allegations that a French agent killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after making a deal with Syria to save then-President Nicolas Sarkozy from embarrassing campaign-funding revelations.

Reports that Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed by a French operative after Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad sold vital intelligence to Paris are “patent nonsense”, according to a leading French intelligence expert.
Mahmoud Jibril, who led Libya’s first post-Gaddafi government in 2011, told Egyptian television channel Dream TV last week that “a foreign agent infiltrated the [rebel] Revolutionary Brigades in order to kill Gaddafi.”
Jibril now heads the National Forces Alliance, one of Libya’s largest political groups, as the country works to produce a constitution ahead of elections expected in 2013.
Following his interview, Italian daily Corriere della Sera quoted unnamed Western diplomats saying that if Gaddafi had been killed by a foreign agent, “he would almost certainly have been French.”
These diplomatic sources went on to explain that the then French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, wanted the Libyan strongman out of the way after he threatened to reveal large cash donations to Sarkozy’s 2007
 presidential campaign.
Meanwhile on Sunday, the UK's Daily Telegraph quoted former Libyan rebel intelligence chief Rami el-Obeidi saying that the Syrian governm

Russia to expel US development agency USAID

Russia has asked the US Agency for International Development to leave the country, accusing it of trying to influence Russian elections. A portion of USAID's budget supports an independent monitoring group that has reported on widespread vote fraud.

Russia on Wednesday explained its decision to put an end to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s two decades of work in Russia by saying the U.S. government agency was using its money to influence elections.
The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that Russia has demanded USAID leave the country, a culmination of years of resentment over what Moscow sees as American interference aimed at undermining President Vladimir Putin’s hold on power.
“We are talking about attempts through the issuing of grants to affect the course of political processes, including elections on various levels, and institutions of civil society,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.
Nearly 60 percent of the aid agency’s $50 million annual budget this year has been allocated for the promotion of democracy and civil society in Russia. Some of this money has gone to support Russia’s only independent election monitoring group, Golos, which fielded thousands of observers in last winter’s parliamentary and presidential elections, and compiled reports of widespread vote fraud in support of Putin’s party.

French embassies brace for cartoon backlash

French embassies, consulates and international schools in 20 Muslim countries closed their doors on Friday for fear of a violent backlash over cartoons published earlier this week by Paris-based weekly Charlie Hebdo.

French embassies, consulates, cultural centres and schools in around 20 Muslim countries shut up shop on Friday – the Muslim holy day – for fear of retaliatory violence following weekly prayers. The order came from the foreign ministry, which anticipates violent demonstrations over the publishing Wednesday of Prophet Mohammed cartoons by satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo. The obscene cartoons exacerbated anger among Muslim communities after more than a week of deadly protests sparked by the US-made amateurish video “Innocence of Muslims”.
Security had been beefed up on security arrangements at institutions abroad and in France, with reinforcements and armed guards on standby. The French Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning urging French citizens in the Muslim world to exercise “the greatest vigilance”, avoiding public gatherings and “sensitive buildings”. Tens of thousands of French expatriates live in Muslim countries.

ANALYSIS RELIGION Punishing blasphemers: New calls on an old issue

Protests over the cartoons – which showed the Prophet Mohammed naked – had already begun Thursday in Tehran and Kabul. Demonstrators chanted “death to France” outside the
 French embassies in the two capitals. One student told TV reporters that the “doomed, nasty French” had committed an offence that the activists were willing to “sacrifice” themselves for. “What were they thinking?” he asked.
In Tunisia, French schools were shut down from Wednesday until next Monday after the ruling Islamists branded the cartoons a "new attack" on their religion. One parent outside a school in Tunis told FRANCE 24 that she was reassured by the decision. “It's better not to take any chances, given that we don