Showing posts with label tidings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tidings. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

IRELAND: Queen Elizabeth II will visit historic and highly monitored in Dublin

Queen Elizabeth II Tuesday began a historic visit to Ireland under surveillance, the first movement of a British monarch since independence in 1922 was troubled by the threat from dissident republicans.

The police are on the warpath in both London and Dublin and Belfast, fearing that Republican dissidents opposed to the peace process in Northern Ireland will build upon the movement to attempt a resounding action.

No fewer than 10,000 police and troops deployed in Ireland for a visit and several people were arrested in recent days, suspected of belonging to the dissident republican movement.

On Monday, a bomb threat from dissident Irish republicans caused a commotion of battle police in London. The "Mall" that leads to Buckingham Palace was closed for several hours after an alert, which proved unfounded.

The fear of an assassination of a dissident group was reinforced by threats brandished late April by a masked man at a rally in Londonderry, Northern Ireland."The queen is not welcome," he had started, saying speak on behalf of the Real IRA who is credited with the recent increase of attacks in Ulster, including the murder of a police officer in April.

The tumultuous relationship between Irish and British have largely subsided since the peace accords of 1998 and the first visit by a British monarch since 1911 figure is a gesture of reconciliation.But resentment still against the former colonial power.

At the time of the independence of Ireland, London has retained in her lap the province of Northern Ireland, mostly Protestant.

Sinn Féin, often accused of links with the IRA (Catholic separatists), found the visit "premature," before acknowledging that it represented a "unique opportunity" to establish "a new relationship based on equality and mutual respect ", joining the majority sentiment.81% of Irish people are friendly to visitors, according to a survey.

Tuesday, Elizabeth II is to lay a wreath at the "Garden of Remembrance (Memorial Garden), erected in honor of victims of the war of independence," a powerful symbol of reconciliation, "the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

She must decide Wednesday night a highly anticipated speech, joined for the occasion by Prime Minister David Cameron and the head of British diplomacy, William Hague. The movement will end Friday.

Friday, May 13, 2011

PAKISTAN: At least 80 dead in an attack to avenge the death of bin Laden

AFP - Two suicide bombers killed Friday at least 80 people by detonating bombs in the middle of police cadets who went on leave in the north-west Pakistan, the Taliban is claiming a "first attack" in revenge for Osama bin Laden.

These insurgents, who have pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and making an extremely deadly bombing campaign in Pakistan, had promised reprisals against Islamabad and its security forces, whom they accuse of complicity in the deadly U.S. raid Ben Laden 11 days ago in the north.

At dawn, Shabqadar, a village northwest, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his bomb when the cadets, who were dressed in their civilian clothes, were preparing to board the minibus to take them home for 10 days of leave, told AFP Nisar Khan Marwat, the police chief of District Charsadda.

The blast targeted a training center of the Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary police unit responsible for monitoring the borders.

Then, just as police and rescue workers had gathered to help the wounded, another suicide bomber on a motorcycle led a second massacre.

"At least 80 people died, 69 members of the Frontier Constabulary, and 11 civilians," said Bashir Ahmed Bilour, minister without portfolio in the province of Pakhtunkhwa-Khyber, where the tragedy occurred. Over 140 others were injured, one quarantine between life and death, according to medical sources.

"I was sitting in a minibus and waited for my colleagues," he told AFP Ahmad Ali, a cadet injured contacted by telephone to the hospital."I heard someone shout 'Allah Akbar!" (God is greatest!) Before a loud explosion, "he recalls.

"Then I heard a second, so I jumped from the van, I was bleeding," recalls Ahmad Ali yet.

This is the deadliest attack this year in Pakistan.

"This is a first action to avenge the martyrdom of Osama, it was conducted by two of our fighters," said the telephone to AFP Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Movement of Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"Expect more massive attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan," he threatened.

TTP, which has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2007, is primarily responsible for the wave of more than 450 attacks, mostly suicide, who made more than 4.300 deaths across the country in nearly four years. In summer 2007, right after bin Laden himself, TTP had declared jihad on Islamabad for supporting Washington in its "war against terrorism."

Shabqadar is located near the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani Taliban stronghold and the main sanctuary in the world of Al Qaeda.These areas are also the basis behind the Afghan Taliban, Haqqani Network in particular, bete noire of American soldiers who make up two thirds of international forces in Afghanistan.

Training camps of the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal areas are also used by Al Qaeda, who are then trained its suicide bombers who perpetrated the attacks or attempted to commit the United States or Europe, those of September 11, 2001 to those in London in 2005, to Madrid in 2004, and Times Square in New York in 2010.

It is in these mountainous border regions Experts believed ten years to find Bin Laden and not in the tidy town of Abbottabad garrison, two hours drive north of Islamabad.

That's when a lightning raid of 79 elite U.S. soldiers had dug in and killed the night of 1 to May 2

This unilateral operation performed under the auspices of the CIA who said he had not wanted to warn Islamabad for fear of leaks, has sparked a new skirmish between Washington and its allies.

The most senior U.S. officials asked Pakistan to investigate how could bin Laden into hiding for several years without complicity at the highest level in a garrison town populated by about 10,000 soldiers.Charges that Islamabad has described as "absurd", claiming that Pakistan is the country that pays the heaviest price for the "war against terrorism", with the bombing campaign of al-Qaeda loyalists.

Public opinion is overwhelmingly anti-American, whereas the U.S. has "imported" their war against Al Qaeda in Pakistan after an abortive campaign in Afghanistan.

Additional signs of defiance, Islamabad, Washington has threatened Thursday to reconsider its cooperation in fighting terrorism, and number 2 of the Pakistani Army, General Khalid Shameem Wynne, overturned Friday a planned visit to the United States "because of the climate prevail ".

Saturday, April 16, 2011

AFGHANISTAN: A suicide attack against a military base kills nine soldiers

Nine soldiers, four and five Afghan Force NATO in Afghanistan (ISAF) were killed Saturday in a suicide attack claimed by Taliban insurgents in the headquarters of the Afghan army to the east the country.

"Five ISAF soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan," said the NATO force said in a statement without specifying their nationality.

A spokesman for ISAF, Major Tim James, confirmed to AFP that the attack in question was the suicide bombing in the morning in the headquarters of the Afghan army to the east located in the area Gambires near Jalalabad, the largest city in eastern Afghanistan.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense confirmed that "four Afghan soldiers were killed and eight people injured, four translators" during the attack.

The ministry said the attack was perpetrated by a suicide bomber who donned a military uniform.

One hundred soldiers of the ISAF, primarily responsible for advising the Afghan army, stationed at this base in the province of Laghman, according to Commander James ISAF.

One of the worst attacks against NATO since 2001

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, contacted by AFP, claimed the attack, among the deadliest for the NATO forces since their arrival in the country in late 2001.

Six NATO soldiers were killed Dec. 12 in southern Afghanistan during an attack.

The attack against the Afghan base is the tenth suicide attack in Afghanistan since early April.It is also the fifth in three days targeting Afghan security forces and international across the country.

On Friday, a suicide bomber managed to penetrate the headquarters, in principle secure, the police in Kandahar, the southern Afghan city, killing the police chief of the province of the same name and two of his bodyguards.

More than 130 000 soldiers present

NATO must send Afghan forces gradually, starting in July and by late 2014, the responsibility for security throughout the territory.

Some 132,000 soldiers from the NATO support the Kabul government against the insurgency since late 2001 by the Taliban, ousted by an international coalition.

Suicide bombings and small mines placed along the road are the favorite weapons the insurgents have focused primarily on the police and Afghan army and foreign troops, but are also numerous civilian casualties.

On 14 March, at least 36 people were killed and forty wounded in a Taliban suicide attack against a military recruiting center in Kunduz, one of the major cities of northern Afghanistan.

The city of Jalalabad was the scene, February 19, one of the most deadly attacks perpetrated in the country in recent years, when many Taliban suicide bombers stormed a bank where police came to collect their wages.Thirty-eight people were killed and 70 injured.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned against a precipitous withdrawal of NATO forces and warned that spring 2011 would probably be "violent" because of Taliban efforts to resume their offensive.

Friday, April 8, 2011

THEATRE: Bertrand Cantat will not mount on Canadian boards

The former singer of Black Desire, Bertrand Cantat, convicted in Lithuania for beating to death his girlfriend in 2003, will play either in Montreal or Ottawa, said Friday the direction of the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde (TNM), following a wave of protests.

The singer was supposed to happen in the play "The Women - Trachiniae, Electra and Antigone" by Sophocles, directed by Quebec-born Lebanese Wajdi Mouawad.This friend had been commissioned to compose music to make a rock touch to the show.

The decision to present the show without Bertrand Cantat, or cancel the production, will be announced on 18 April by the director, said at a press conference the director of TNM Lorraine Pintal.

Bertrand Cantat, lead singer of former Black Desire, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for beating Lithuania in 2003 death of actress Marie Trintignant, daughter of Jean-Louis Trintignant.Transferred to France, he was released in 2007.

In Canada, a law banned for life entry to any foreigner convicted outside the country, an offense punished in Canada for at least ten years in prison. It therefore applies to the former lead singer of Black Desire, because Canadian law punishes manslaughter by life imprisonment.

Bertrand Cantat should happen in this room in Avignon in July, which the project was dropped after singer Jean-Louis Trintignant said not to participate in an event "occurs when the man who killed his daughter."

Saturday, April 2, 2011

IRELAND: A Catholic police officer killed by a bomb in Northern Ireland

AFP - A Catholic police officer was killed Saturday by a bomb apparently placed under his car in Omagh, Northern Ireland, told AFP a local politician.

"One policeman was killed outside his home by an explosive device placed apparently it under his car," said the official told AFP on condition of anonymity said the victim, confession Catholic, had finished his police training only three weeks ago.

The information was confirmed by a local MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, interviewed by British broadcaster Sky News.

"A bomb was placed under the car of a young Catholic police officer, who recently joined the police in Northern Ireland," said the elected.

"The bomb exploded and unfortunately it seems that the young policeman was killed," he added.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

LIBYA: The insurgents forced back towards the town of Ben Jawad

Syria: The government has submitted his resignation to President Bashar al-Assad, who accepted it. Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri, who headed the government since 2003, has been charged with handling current business. The composition of the new government should be known by the end of the week. Bashar al-Assad will address the nation Wednesday for the first time since the start of the contest. Libya: The insurgents were repulsed by Ben Jawad, east of Sirte, the hometown of Muammar Gaddafi, the cons-offensive by the armed forces. The latter are accused of killing at least 142 people in their offensive in Misrata, according to a doctor at the hospital in the city.Two loud explosions also rocked Tripoli in the area of ​​residence of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and seven others were heard in Tajura, a suburb east of the capital, according to an AFP reporter and witnesses. United Kingdom: A forty countries and organizations met in London in the wake of military strikes in Libya have shown their unity to build the country's political future around an almost unanimous conclusion: "Gaddafi has to leave."
Among them, the United States, France and the United Kingdom, but several Arab countries, including Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia, Turkey and the UAE.

To follow the events from a smartphone, click here.

Monday, January 31, 2011

EGYPT: Police conduct a discreet return to the streets of Cairo

Two days after leaving the army the task of maintaining order in the streets of Cairo, police made his comeback this Monday in the Egyptian capital. It was a test day to the regime of Hosni Mubarak and the demonstrators, who were violently opposed to the service of order on Friday. Started in the morning, this return took place in complete secrecy. These are the first traffic officers who have appeared in the center of the city, followed in the day by uniformed police.

The news has not pleased some of the protesters actually making a difference between the police and the army."The soldiers sympathized with us, nothing to do with police brutality, which are themselves corrupt and sadistic with the people," says Hany, a young protester posted near Tahrir Square in the heart of the capital. Other Cairenes as Imad prefer to laugh. "I admit that I have not really missed and I would have preferred that they remain stashed or on vacation," he said.

Absent subscribers

Deployed sparingly, often very close to the protective shadow of army tanks, police intervene in civil case by case basis. They refrain from provoking the people. Some of them are content to call to order bystanders taking pictures with their phones.In their sights, too, Western journalists, some of which have been confiscated equipment and cameras. Experienced a mishap the previous day by a team of France 2, on the initiative of the intelligence service of the army.

In the districts held by the Muslim Brotherhood, very active in the streets since the start of the protest on January 25, the police remained conspicuously absent. In El-Manial on the island of Rhoda, it is the district vigilance committees that manage the traffic. Sometimes armed with sticks and knives, young people will monitor suspicious movements. Day and night.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Release of twenty Cuban dissidents, including cyberjournalist Guillermo Farinas

AFP - Police on Thursday released the Cuban opponent Guillermo Farinas, 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament and a score of dissidents in custody after seven hours in Santa Clara in the center of the island , said Mr. Farinas told AFP.

"We are free. They had us arrested for coming to the aid of a family they wanted to remove.The opposition should devote themselves to peaceful protests of citizens such as we have done, "said the opponent by telephone from Santa Clara, 280 km east of Havana.

This cyberjournalist psychologist and 48 years, who had observed a hunger strike for 135 days last year, was renewed by the police at his home around midnight and ensure they were not mistreated.

"The police wanted us to sign a recognition of pre-criminal social dangerousness + +, but we did not.After three such, they can introduce you to court, "Farinas said.

The police justified the arrest by the "scandal" that opponents led by haranguing the authorities, while trying to evict a family who illegally occupied housing, he said.

Farinas had stopped eating to demand the release of political prisoners after the death of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, 23 February 2010, after 85 days of hunger strike to protest against his conditions of detention.

He had ended his fast after 135 days when the government of Raul Castro, had begun an unexpected dialogue with the Church and allowed the release of 52 of the 75 dissidents arrested in 2003.

Forty-one of them have since been released. Forty agreed to leave the country and went to Madrid and one remained in Cuba.The eleven remaining refuse to emigrate to Spain and are held in prison.

The Cuban government accuses Farinas behavior "antisocial" and considers it, like other dissidents as "mercenaries" of the United States.

Farinas was represented by an empty chair at the Sakharov prize last December 15 in Strasbourg (north-eastern France), permission to travel having been refused.

Military training, a native of Santa Clara and son of two ardent revolutionary, he had distanced himself from the regime in 1989, opposing the execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa, accused of drug trafficking.

Became an opposition activist has been imprisoned three times before police custody on Wednesday and said he observed 23 hunger strikes since 1990.