UN chief gives 'Syria civil war' warning

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Ban Ki-moon says massacres of civilians such as in Houla last weekend could set off a devastating civil war 

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has said that massacres of civilians, such as the one perpetrated in Houla last weekend, could plunge Syria into a devastating civil war. Ban cited fears raised on Tuesday by Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy, that Syria may have already reached a "tipping point" following the slaughter of 108 people in Houla last Friday. "The massacre of civilians of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into catastrophic civil war - a civil war from which the country would never recover," he said in Istanbul. Meanwhile, state media reported that 500 prisoners who were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the 14-month-old revolt had been released, two days after Annan urged President Bashar al-Assad to free detainees. "Five hundred people involved in the events taking place in Syria, without blood on their hands, have been released", a newsflash on state television read. International pressure and a six-point peace plan drafted by Annan, which calls on both the government and opposition forces to cease fire, have failed to end the conflict which has claimed thousands of lives. 'Continued slaughter' Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, said on Thursday that every day of slaughter in Syria is strengthening the case for tougher international action, yet stressed that military intervention would need international support, including from Syrian ally Russia. "The continued slaughter of innocent people, both by the military and by militias supported by the government and increasingly by the opposition... could morph into a civil war in a country that would be riven by sectarian divides, which then could morph into a proxy war in the region," she said. Speaking to Danish university students, Clinton noted that UN and international backing made possible last year's international coalition against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya but said Russia and China are standing in the way of similar action in Syria. She also suggested that a military effort against Assad's government would be far more difficult. She said the US would continue pressing its case to Russia, which has promised to block any moves at the UN to obtain a military mandate for intervention. Another key ally of Syria, China, said on Thursday that a resolution of the Syria conflict needed more time and urged support and patience for Annan's peace plan. "The situation in Syria currently is very complex and grave, at the same time Annan's mediation efforts have been productive," Liu Weimin, China's foreign ministry spokesman, said. "Due to the extreme complexity of the Syrian issue, it will take time to reach a resolution ... we should not lose our confidence and patience and we should not easily admit failure. We must be supportive of Annan's mediation efforts."

Liberia's Taylor given 50-year jail sentence

Ruling follows conviction last month of ex-president for his role in Sierra Leone civil war that kill thousands.

Judges at an international war-crimes court have handed a 50-year prison sentence to Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, following his conviction for supporting rebels in Sierra Leone who murdered and mutilated thousands during their country's civil war.
"The trial chamber unanimously sentences you to a single term of imprisonment for 50 years on all counts," Special Court for Sierra Leone Judge Richard Lussick told Taylor at the court based just outside The Hague on Wednesday.
Last month, the tribunal found Taylor guilty on 11 charges of aiding and abetting the rebels who went on a bloody rampage during the decade-long war that ended in 2002 with more than 50,000 dead.
The 64-year-old American-educated warlord-turned-president became the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since World War II.
Prosecutors had asked judges at the Special Court to impose an 80-year sentence; Taylor's lawyers however urged judges to hand down a sentence that offered him some hope of release before he dies.
Taylor will serve his sentence in a prison in the UK.
He is expected to appeal his convictions and will likely remain in jail in the Hague while the appeals process plays out.
Al Jazeera' Paul Brennan, reporting from The Hague on Wednesday, said the length of Taylor's sentence was crucial to public's perceived the sense of justice.
"The prosecution is demanding that Taylor receive an 80-year term, but the defence argues that would amount to a de-facto life sentence on the 64 year old defendant," our correspondent said before
the sentencing.
Brennan said it was highly likely that over the next 14 days, one or other of the legal teams would appeal the sentence, "thus postponing closure of a case which has already run for 6 years".
'Heinous' crimes
"The accused has been found responsible for aiding and abetting some of the most heinous crimes in human history," Judge Lussick said in handing down the sentence.
"The trial chamber noticed that the effects of these crimes on the families and society as a whole in Sierra Leone was devastating," he added.
Our correspondent said the conviction and sentencing of Taylor was "an important milestone for the International Criminal Court", that will soon begin the trial of Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivory Coast president, who faces charges of crimes against humanity.
At a sentencing hearing earlier this month, Taylor expressed "deepest sympathy" for the suffering of victims of atrocities in Sierra Leone, but insisted he had acted to help stabilise the West Africa region and claimed he never knowingly assisted in the commission of crimes.
"What I did ... was done with honour," he said. "I was convinced that unless there was peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia would not be able to move forward."
However, judges ruled that Taylor armed and supplied the rebels in full knowledge they would likely use weapons to commit terrible crimes, in exchange for payments of "blood diamonds" often obtained by slave labour.
Prosecutors said there was no reason for leniency, given the extreme nature of the crimes, Taylor's "greed" and misuse of his position of power.
Taylor stepped down and fled into exile in Nigeria after being indicted by the court in 2003. He was finally arrested and sent to the Netherlands in 2006.

Syria faces diplomatic backlash over massacre

US and others expel ambassadors in protest as UN suggests many in Houla were executed and Annan meets Assad in Damascus. Syrian ambassadors and diplomats have been expelled from countries including the US, several European Union nations and Gulf Arab states in protest over a massacre blamed by witnesses on pro-government forces. A UN report issued on Tuesday into the killings in Houla last week said that 49 children and 34 women were among the 108 people who died, with some of the victims "summarily executed". But it did not decisively say who carried out most of the killings. Other nations joining the action on Tuesday included the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands in what Washington described as a move "in co-ordination with partner countries". Victoria Nuland, the US state department spokesperson, said the US held "the Syrian government responsible for this slaughter of innocent lives". William Hague, the UK's foreign secretary, said the countries involved in Tuesday's expulsions would also push for tougher sanctions against Syria. "This is the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion of what has happened in Syria," said Bob Carr, the Australian foreign minister, in Canberra. Friday's killings in Houla, a collection of farming villages in Homs province that has become a focal point for opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad', was one of the deadliest single events in the 15-month-old uprising against Assad that has killed thousands. Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria who is currently in Damascus for crisis talks aimed at rescuing an increasingly beleaguered six-point peace plan, held talks with Assad on Tuesday to express what his spokesperson called "the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria". 'Frank' talks "He conveyed in frank terms his view to President Assad that the six-point plan cannot succeed without bold steps to stop the violence and release detainees, and stressed the importance of full implementation of the plan," said Ahmed Fawzi. Annan, a former UN secretary-general, arrived in Syria a day earlier, and held meetings with UN observers and Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister. Annan has called the Houla killing "an appalling moment with profound consequences". In his meeting with Annan, Muallem explained "the truth of what is happening in Syria and the attacks against law and order which are aimed at sowing chaos... [despite] the reforms that Syria has adopted in all areas", the official SANA news agency said. The success of Annan's peace plan depended on "the end of terrorism", Assad told him on Tuesday, state television reported. Tuesday's meeting in Damascus came as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that entire families had been shot in their homes and that fewer than 20 of the 108 Houla victims were killed by artillery. Most of the victims, including children, were shot at close range, the UN human rights office said. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the body, said the conclusions were based on accounts gathered by UN monitors and corroborated by other sources. 'Summarily executed' "Most of the ... victims were summarily executed in two separate incidents," Colville said in Geneva, Switzerland. He said witnesses blamed armed pro-government forces, known as "shabiha", for the attacks. He noted that the shabiha sometimes acted "in concert" with government forces. The UN has said that government forces fired tank shells and artillery at Houla, but has stopped short of holding the government entirely responsible. Assad's regime has denied any role in the killings, blaming them on "armed terrorists" who attacked army positions in the area and slaughtered innocent civilians. "What is very clear is that this was an absolutely abominable event that happened in Houla and at least a substantial part of it was summary executions of civilians including women and children," Colville said. Activists have posted videos of tanks and armoured vehicles in the middle of cities, a violation of Annan's six-point peace plan, and UN observers said they found spent tank and artillery shells in Houla after the massacre there.

egypt presidential elections :Shafiq and Morsi confirmed for Egypt runoff

Final results confirm that Muslim Brotherhood candidate will compete against Mubarak-era prime minister in runoff.

The Egyptian presidential election will come down to a runoff between Ahmed Shafiq, the final prime minister under deposed president Hosni Mubarak, and Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, according to final results released on Monday.
Farouq Sultan, the head of the presidential election commission, announced the results at a press conference. Morsi garnered the largest share of votes, nearly 5.8 million; Shafiq came in a close second, with 5.5 million.

The two frontrunners, Morsi and Shafiq, will compete in a runoff election on June 16 and 17.

The third-place finisher was Hamdeen Sabbahi, a former parliamentarian who had emerged as a favourite candidate for many of Egypt's liberals. He received just over 4.8 million votes.
Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a moderate former member of the Brotherhood, received just over 4 million votes, and Amr Moussa the former Arab League chief, came in fifth with 2.58 million.
Last week's election was the first free presidential ballot in Egyptian history. Around 23 million people voted, Sultan said, a turnout of roughly 46 per cent.
Sultan said that seven candidates had filed complaints about the results. Four were dismissed because of a lack of evidence; the other three were rejected because candidates missed the filing deadlines.
Several candidates, including Aboul Fotouh and Sabbahi, alleged that thousands of military conscripts - who are prohibited from voting - cast ballots during the election. But Sultan rejected that claim, saying the commission found no evidence to support it.
One final challenge remains: On June 11, Egypt's high court will rule on the constitutionality of a law which bans senior Mubarak-era officials from running for office. If upheld, the law would obviously have serious implications for Shafiq's candidacy. (Farouq Sultan, the head of the election commission, is also the chief judge on the supreme court.)
'A return to the old regime'
The frontrunners will spend the next two weeks manoeuvring to win support from the defeated candidates, ahead of the runoff on June 16 and 17.
Two of them, Moussa and Aboul Fotouh, refused to endorse either of the frontrunners during separate press conferences on Monday. Moussa lashed out at both winners, saying that "a return to the old regime is unacceptable, [and] so is exploiting religion in politics".
Aboul Fotouh also warned against returning to Mubarak-era leadership, and said he would announce his position later in the week. "The most important thing is that people don't vote for felool," he said, referring to so-called "remnants" of the old regime.
Sabbahi has not yet announced a position, though it seems unlikely that a candidate who campaigned vigorously against the old regime would endorse Shafiq.
For the liberals who helped spark last year's revolution, the outcome is a worst-case scenario, forcing them to choose between an Islamist and the scion of Mubarak's hated regime. Some have already said they will boycott the runoff altogether.
A slow trickle of protesters, many of them Sabbahi supporters, began arriving in Tahrir Square shortly after the results were announced.
But some didn't see the utility in returning to the square. Mostafa Mortada, a Sabbahi volunteer at the candidate's headquarters, was fatalistic. "Shafiq is going to be the next president. What am I going to do in Tahrir? The game was not fair."
Mostafa said Shafiq's entering the runoff represented the end of the revolution, but also said he would not vote for Morsi and give the Muslim Brotherhood all the levers of power. "Either today or after one year, when Shafiq is president, there will be another revolution," he said.
Both candidates will be eager to win support from voters who endorsed Aboul Fotouh in the first round, an eclectic mix of religious moderates, conservative salafis, and disaffected former members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Leaders of the Nour party, the largest salafi party, have already said they will vote for Morsi, calling it a "religious obligation."

al-houla massacre :52 children murdered in syria

The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists said was an artillery barrage by government forces in the worst violence since the start of a U.N. peace plan to slow the flow of blood in Syria’s uprising.
The bloodied bodies of children, some with their skulls split open, were shown in footage posted to YouTube purporting to show the victims of the shelling in the central town of Houla on Friday. The sound of wailing filled the room.

The carnage underlined just how far Syria is from any negotiated path out of the 14-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

“This morning U.N. military and civilian observers went to Houla and counted more than 32 children under the age of 10 and over 60 adults killed,” the head of U.N. team monitoring the ceasefire – which has yet to take hold – said.


“The observers confirmed from examination of ordinances the use of artillery tank shells,” Major General Robert Mood said in a statement, without elaborating. “Whoever started, whoever responded and whoever carried out this deplorable act of violence should be held responsible.”

Activists said Assad’s forces shelled the town of Houla on Friday evening after security forces killed a protester and following skirmishes between troops and fighters from the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency fighting Syria’s rulers, who belong to the minority Alawite sect.

A British-based opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Houla residents fled, fearing more shelling. It said one person was killed in the northern town of Saraqeb when troops fired on a protest against the killing.

Syrian state television aired some of the footage disseminated by activists after the killing in Houla, calling the bodies victims of a massacre committed by “terrorist” gangs.

It also showed video of bodies with what looked like gunshot wounds to the head, sprawled on bloodstained mattresses.

Activists distributed footage appearing to show protests in Aleppo, the largest city in the north.

FAMILIES KILLED
A member of the fragmented exile group that says it speaks for Syria’s political opposition said Assad’s forces had killed “entire families” in Houla in addition to the shelling.

“The Syrian National Council (SNC) urges the U.N. Security Council to call for an emergency meeting … and to determine the responsibility of the United Nations in the face of such mass killings,” SNC spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said.

Although Annan’s six-week old ceasefire plan has failed to stop the violence, the United Nations is nearing full deployment of a 300-strong unarmed observer force meant to monitor a truce.

The plan calls for a truce, withdrawal of troops from cities and dialogue between the government and opposition.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the violence as a “massacre”, and said he wanted to arrange a meeting in Paris of the Friends of Syria, a group that brings together Western and Arab countries keen to remove Assad.

Fabius said that “U.N. observers need to be able to complete their mission and the U.N.-Arab League’s joint special envoy’s exit plan has to be implemented immediately”.

In a statement, Arab League head Nabil Elaraby called the killing in Houla a “horrific crime”, urging the U.N. Security Council – where Russia and China have protected Syria – to “stop the escalation of killing and violence by armed gangs and government military forces.”

Syria calls the revolt a “terrorist” conspiracy run from abroad, a veiled reference to Sunni Muslim Gulf powers that want to see weapons provided to an insurgency led by Syria’s majority Sunnis against Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect.

“TERRORIST GROUPS”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday that recent bomb attacks may have been the work of “established terrorist groups” and urged states not to supply arms to either the government or rebel forces.

“Those who may contemplate supporting any side with weapons, military training or other military assistance, must reconsider such options to enable a sustained cessation of violence,” he told the Security Council in a letter.

The United Nations has accused Assad’s forces and insurgents alike of grave human rights abuses, including summary executions and torture.

Ban has also expressed fear that Syria’s conflict will destabilize neighboring Lebanon, whose delicate sect-based politics has been shaken by tensions among Lebanese foes and friends of the uprising in Syria.

In the latest episode, gunmen in northern Syria snatched a group of Lebanese Shi’ites this week as they were returning from a religious pilgrimage, sparking the worst unrest in years in the Lebanese capital.

Uncertainty over their fate increased tension in Beirut on Saturday, a day after Lebanon’s top officials said the release of the hostages and their return home was imminent.

The prime minister said on Friday afternoon they had been freed, but by Saturday there was still no sign of them. A member of the SNC said they were still in captivity, further angering a crowd that had gathered at Beirut’s airport to meet them.
 
It’s a shame Syria does not have oil rich deposits because then The United States Of America would swoop in and stop the massacre of women & children.

Syria shelling 'kills at least 90

Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers in Yabroud,                                                                                                                                                                      At least 90 people, including many children, have been killed after Syrian forces shelled and attacked the town of Houla in Homs province, according to anti-government activists.

The death toll reported on Friday was one of the highest in one area of the country since an internationally brokered ceasefire came into effect last month.
The violence began when security forces opened fire on an opposition protest in Houla, activists said. Anti-government forces retaliated and the army began shelling the area.
A local activist giving his name as Abu Yazan, reached via Skype, said 12 people died in shelling and 106 were killed when pro-regime thugs known as shabiha stormed the area.
"They killed entire families, from parents on down to children, but they focused on the children," he said.
Amateur videos posted online showed many children among the dozens of dead laid out in different rooms and covered with sheets and blankets. One video showed 14 dead children lined up on a floor, shoulder to shoulder.
A spokesman for the United Nations' envoy to Syria told the Associated Press in an email on Saturday that international monitors were travelling to Houla "as we speak" to investigate.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued an unusually harsh statement in the wake of the deaths, accusing Arab nations and the international community of being "partners" in the killing "because of their silence about the massacres that the Syrian regime has committed".
The surge in violence came as Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, told the UN security council there had been some progress in reducing violence, but the overall situation remained very serious.
"There is a continuing crisis on the ground, characterised by regular violence, deteriorating humanitarian conditions, human rights violations and continued political confrontation," he reported to the security council in a letter.
In his report to the security council, Ban wrote that the size and sophistication of some recent bomb attacks in Syria suggest that "established terrorist groups" may have been behind them and urged groups and countries not to supply weapons to either side in Syria.
Ban said the UN observers noted that "significant parts of some cities appear to be under the de facto control of opposition elements".
"There is an overall atmosphere of tension, mistrust and fear," Ban said. "The overall level of violence in the country remains quite high."
In other areas of Syria, activists said that a further 33 people were killed. The Syrian government news agency said that 17 people had been killed by anti-government gunmen. None of the figures could be independently verified.

Syrian troops continue protest crackdowns

Syrian forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands of protesters calling for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, reportedly killing two people in the northern city of Aleppo, opposition groups have said.
Crackdowns on protests, such as Friday's violence in Aleppo and other cities, are routine despite the deployment of more than 250 UN observers who have fanned out around Syria to monitor a ceasefire brokered by international envoy by Kofi Annan.
Despite the daily violations, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that there was no "plan B" for the Annan initiative.
Friday's violence during weekly anti-government protests was reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground, and by the opposition Local Coordination Committees.
Boy 'killed'
The Observatory said one person was killed and another wounded in Aleppo, a major economic hub which has remained largely supportive of Assad throughout the uprising but where anti-regime sentiment has been on the rise in recent weeks.
Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said one of the protesters later died of his wounds, raising the number of those killed in the city's Boustan al-Qasr district to two.
He said more than 10,000 people were protesting in the city.
"The regime is desperately trying to put down the protests in Aleppo but all this violence will backfire," he said.
Amateur videos posted online by activists showed several wounded people, including a teenage girl, being carried away by other protesters.
The Observatory said a boy was also killed by snipers fire in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen ahead of a protest there.
Protesters wounded
In northwestern Idlib province, tens of thousands of people marched in the rebel-held localities of Maaret al-Numan, Saraqe, Kafrnoubol, Hass and Sarge, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Observatory.
Clashes reportedly pitted regime forces against army deserters in the Idlib village of Maarshurin.
In the southern town of Inkhel, several people were wounded when troops opened fire at protesters, while in the central Homs region, seven people were reported wounded as a result of security forces' gunfire.
In the capital Damascus, troops fired tear gas to disperse a large demonstration that started as protesters emerged from the Daqaq Mosque in the restive Midan district in Damascus.
Earlier, government forces shelled the Qusour and Jobar neighborhoods in the city of Homs, but there was no immediate word on casualties.
The UN estimated in March that more than 9,000 people have been killed in the revolt against Assad, which began in March 2011 as a largely peaceful protest movement calling for reforms but has since morphed into an insurgency. The death toll rises every day.
'Dampening effect'
The UN's Ban said on Thursday that Annan's peace plan is the only option right now for ending the violence in Syria.
The former UN secretary-general's plan calls for a complete cessation of violence but Ban said "unfortunately, this has not been implemented".
He said the deployment of UN observers to Syria has had "some dampening effect" but the violence hasn't stopped.
Ban said this requires "strong political will" by Syrian President Bashar Assad and full cooperation by opposition forces.
Ban said he spoke Wednesday to Annan, who said he will be going to Syria soon but no date has been fixed.

Libya's PM says ex-intelligence chief knows who killed PC Yvonne Fletcher

Libya's prime minister lays a wreath at the spot where PC Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead outside the country's London embassy in 1984.                                                                                                              

Libya's interim prime minister said on Friday that his country's former intelligence chief was "directly or indirectly involved" in the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher and knew the identity of her killer.
In an interview with the Guardian, Abdurrahim El-Keib said that Abdul Senussi – who fled Libya last year and escaped to Mauritania – was the key to solving Fletcher's murder nearly three decades ago. "He's the black box," Keib said.
He added: "I guarantee he was almost directly or indirectly involved in most if not all of the crimes [of the former regime]. That doesn't mean others weren't involved. But he definitely knows who they were."
Senussi is wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity in Libya. In addition, France wants to try him in connection with the 1989 bombing of an airline over Niger in which 170 people died. Britain is also interested in talking to him about the Lockerbie bombing, in which Senussi is suspected of involvement.
Keib said he was convinced Senussi could name the person who shot Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984. He laid a wreath on Friday at the spot in St James's Square, bowing his head. "This is a crime we have all been affected by," he said. "Yvonne Fletcher was doing her duty as a policewoman, trying to protect both sides."
Libya's leader met David Cameron on Thursday. He told him that several of his friends had been demonstrating that day in 1984 and pledged to work closely with Britain to achieve justice. A team of detectives from the Metropolitan police will now fly to Libya to continue its inquiry into Fletcher's murder. Asked whether her killer was most probably still alive and in Libya, Keib said: "I leave this to the investigation."
He urged Downing Street to help Libya extricate Senussi from Mauritania, where he fled last year. Senussi is Muammar Gaddafi's brother-in-law. He is accused of numerous crimes including a massacre in Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison, which left around 1,200 inmates dead.
He appeared this week at a secret court hearing in Mauritania, charged with entering the country illegally, and is currently being held in a villa in the capital, Nouakchott. Keib promised Senussi his day in court: "This person needs to be tried in Libya soon so we can close the books on many of the crimes committed by the past regime."
The Libyan prime minister shrugged off reports that Gaddaffi's son Saif al-Islam had been mistreated in custody, and said that he would be tried in open court according to international standards. Saif's trial would take place in Libya, he said: "I met with him. I made sure he was well-treated." Asked whether Saif was likely to be executed, if found guilty, he said: "Our intention is not to kill people, you know. Our intention is to bring this issue to closure and move forward.'
Keib said he was optimistic about Libya's future. He said elections to create a new national assembly due on 19 June might be postponed by a week or two but would definitely take place over the summer. "The Libyan people did it [the overthrow of Gaddafi] against all odds. We will surprise the world again by going through the election peacefully," he predicted.
But the prime minister conceded that former regime elements, operating from both inside and outside Libya, were actively trying, as he put it, to destabilise the situation. "They are plotting against the Libyan people. They want to take us back to the Dark Ages," he said. Asked why Gaddafi loyalists would want to cause trouble, since their leader was dead, he replied: "They are in a state of denial."
Keib refused to be drawn on what role he might play in any future government. "I would serve Libya even as a garbage collector, if that helps Libya," he said. Libya's interim ruling body, the National Transitional Council will hand over to the new national assembly, whose chief task will be to draw up a constitution.
Since the fall of Tripoli last summer, the NTC has struggled to assert its authority. Human rights abuses have continued, with bloody clashes between rival militias. There is also a growing divide between Libya's regions, with some towns such as Misrata becoming virtual city-states. There are also serious divisions between different ministries in Tripoli.
Keib, however, rejected the claim that Libya was hurtling towards disaster and becoming inexorably Balkanised. He said the new constitution might result in a federal Libya; another option was a system of provinces and municipalities. Secessionism wasn't just a Libyan problem, he said, adding: "There are a group of people in Texas who want to separate."
In addition, Keib said it was wrong to suggest that Gaddafi's overthrow last year was exclusively the result of western-engineered regime change – as Moscow claims. "It's unfair to say that Nato liberated Libya. It takes away from the energy, lives, determination and tremendous effort that the Libyan people have done," he said.
Speaking earlier at Chatham House, Keib – a professor of electrical engineering who became interim prime minister last October – described Britain as a beautiful country. He said he first visited London as a child in 1965, when he went to a summer school to learn English and lived in Adelaide Road, Swiss Cottage.
Keib said he was keen that young men and women from Libya studied at British universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. Asked about the London School of Economics, which unwisely accepted £1.5m from Saif al-Islam, he joked: "LSE even better."

Iran nuclear talks in Baghdad

An Iranian delegation official has said world powers are hindering talks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, with Iran over its nuclear programme, creating a "difficult atmosphere" as the negotiations come down to the wire.
"We believe the reason P5+1 [the permanent UN Security Council members,  Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany ] is not able to reach a result is America," the official, who asked not to be named, told the Reuters news agency.
"[P5+1] came to Baghdad without a clear mandate so we think the atmosphere is difficult."
The meetings spilled into a second day on Thursday in apparent efforts to avoid an impasse that could derail the most promising nuclear dialogue with Iran in years.
Iran reportedly threatened to scupper efforts to defuse the crisis over Tehran's nuclear programme in the final hours of crunch talks after world powers stopped short of offering sanctions relief.
The P5+1 want to persuade Iran to get into a process of regular meetings, hashing out details of measures aimed at easing suspicions that Tehran wants nuclear weapons.
"It seems that the basis for another round of negotiations doesn't exist yet, unless ... the two sides reach an agreement" in the final session, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The official added that before the final full plenary session of all participants began, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili held a bilateral meeting in which Ashton "didn't say anything new".
'Not comprehensive'
This week's talks were the second round in the latest series between the P5+1 and Iran over the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear programme, with earlier negotiations held in Istanbul last month.
On the table on Thursday was an incentive package by the six-nation group that seeks to halt the most sensitive part of Iran's nuclear fuel production.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, but Western powers suspect it is masking attempts to join the elite club of nations with nuclear weapons.
Iranian state media ran reports attacking the P5+1 package presented by Ashton on Wednesday, with the IRNA news agency calling it "outdated, not comprehensive, and unbalanced".
Ashton's spokesman gave no details on what the incentives included, but reports said they fell short of meeting Iran's key demand for an easing of the sanctions piled on the country in recent years - more are due on July 1.
Both reportedly exchanged unusually detailed proposals in Baghdad hoping to defuse the standoff.
After a 15-month diplomatic freeze and exploratory talks in Istanbul last month, envoys for Iran and the P5+1 group convened with both sides publicly upbeat about the scope for an outline deal.
The powers' overall goal is an Iranian agreement to curb uranium enrichment in a transparent, verifiable way to ensure it is for peaceful purposes only. Iran's priority is to secure an end to sanctions isolating the country and damaging its economy.
On Tuesday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano said an agreement with Iran over nuclear inspections was expected "quite soon" after his recent talks in Tehran.

Doctor shakil afridi Who Helped Find Bin Laden Given Jail Term

A Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Intelligence Agency pin down Osama Bin Laden's location under cover of a vaccination drive was convicted on Wednesday of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison, a senior official in Pakistan said : A tribal court in northwestern Pakistan here found the doctor, Shakil Afridi, guilty of acting against the state, said Mutahir Zeb Khan, the administrator for the Khyber tribal region. Along with the jail term, the court imposed a fine of $3,500. Dr. Afridi, who may appeal the verdict, was then sent to Central Prison in Peshawar.

He had been charged under a British-era regulation for frontier crimes that unlike the national criminal code does not carry the death penalty for treason. Under Pakistani penal law, he almost certainly would have received the death penalty, a Pakistani lawyer said.

Dr. Afridi's fate has been an added source of tension between Pakistan and United States, at a time when the two countries remain at loggerheads over reopening supply lines through Pakistan to Afghanistan.

In January, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta confirmed that the United States had been working with Dr. Afridi while trying to confirm the location of Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in the months before the raid. American officials had previously said that the doctor been running a hepatitis B vaccination program as a ruse to obtain DNA evidence from members of Bin Laden’s family, who were thought to be hiding in the city. American officials say Dr. Afridi did not know the identity of his target.

According to Pakistani security officials, Dr. Afridi admitted to helping the C.I.A. before the raid by Navy Seals that killed Bin Laden in May 2011. That operation angered Pakistani officials, who had not been informed ahead of time and who viewed it as a violation of the country's sovereignty.

Dr. Afridi, 48, was detained by Pakistan’s military intelligence agency near Peshawar in the weeks following Bin Laden's killing. A judicial commission in Pakistan investigating the circumstances leading to the death of Bin Laden had recommended in October that Dr. Afridi be charged with high treason.

American officials have said that while Dr. Afridi never gained DNA samples from inside the compound, his work aided the mission that led to Bin Laden's death. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called for Dr. Afridi to be released.

Mr. Panetta expressed anger in a television interview in January that Dr. Afridi had been charged with treason, insisting that the man's work in informing on terrorists helped protect Pakistanis, too. “For them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part,” he said.

moroccan Sahara issue reached new stage after withdrawal of confidence in Christopher Ross, official

Communication Minister and government spokesman, Mustapha El Khalfi, affirmed that the issue of the Moroccan Sahara has reached a new stage after Morocco’s decision to withdraw its confidence in UNSG personal envoy for the Sahara Christopher Ross.

In a program by TV channel “Al Jazeera”, El Khalfi called for serious and real talks based on the Moroccan initiative to grant broad autonomy to the southern provinces, as a political solution of “no winner, no loser”.

The minister said that Morocco took this decision after it made sure that the informal talks reached a dead end, under the aegis of Christopher Ross, following 9 sets of talks that spanned over three years without making any headway.

He urged the UNSG to appoint someone capable of supervising the negotiations which should be real, positive and fruitful, insisting on the fact that the talks cannot continue under the aegis of a biased person.

 He also recalled the statements by the UN official on the registration of Sahrawis which, according to Ross, does not fall within the prerogatives of UNHCR, and his stubbornness to overlook human rights’ positive developments in the Sahara.

 The minister said he was disappointed with how Ross managed the talks on the Sahara and how he marginalized the Moroccan autonomy initiative which enjoys a large international support.

A step towards democracy in Egypt?

Egypt's recent presidential debate, reportedly the first in Arab history, represents an important milestone for the region. In just minutes, the centuries-old image of a distant, infallible dictator as head of state was erased. Two candidates - former foreign minister and secretary-general of the Arab League Amr Moussa and former Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh - were brought face-to-face to answer set questions and rebut each other's criticisms. For the first time, potential Arab leaders were forced to defend themselves in front of a people who can now hold them accountable for their words.
As the moderators opened the debate, they emphasised that the Egyptian citizen is to be the ultimate judge - and that their choice will be made on election day. The remarkable shift in dynamics between ruler and ruled, one unimaginable a little more than a year ago, is testament to the achievements of the popular revolution that shook the region.
The debate and the circumstances under which it took place, however, are far from ideal. Critics question the unexplained reasoning behind the choice of the two candidates and suggest that it reveals the biases of the host media outlets. While many suspect that Moussa and Aboul Fotouh are the two leading candidates, polling data are variable and unreliable. Further criticisms were raised in regards to the partiality of TV station owners, some of whom have stated their support for certain candidates in the past. The lack of a live audience and the inability of members of the public to contribute with questions is also a point of disagreement. Some viewed the debate, which was broadcast for several hours, as a primarily commercial effort.
But more problematic than these relatively minor flaws in the debate is the larger framework in which the elections are proceeding. For Egyptian expatriates, voting has already begun. Some activists, however, remain sceptical. The elections are not what many revolutionaries envisioned: They will take place under military rule, much of the Mubarak regime is still in place, and a constitution has yet to be written.

Cannes rolls out the carpet for a bumper 65th year

Like the Godfather of film festivals that it is, Cannes keeps its friends close and its enemies closer. Over the 65th edition's early days, Cannes clawed back any deserters or doubters with a storming selection, confirming it as the best showcase for challenging cinema from around the world.

Andrea Arnold, the British director whose career Cannes nurtured by promoting her films Red Road and Fish Tank, showed her version of Wuthering Heights at Venice last year. Cannes immediately installed her as a member of this year's jury.

Regulars such as Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, neither of whom have a film showing here, have instead been rewarded with warmly respectful documentaries, made and populated by high-profile friends and fans.
The festival president, Gilles Jacob, whose written memoir was entitled Citizen Cannes, showed a charming documentary called A Special Day, chronicling the festival's 60th anniversary when all extant previous winners of the Palme d'Or reassembled on the Cannes stage.
While celebrating its own rich history, it was also confirming the flourishing careers of Cannes "graduates", such as Matteo Garrone, Jacques Audiard and Apichatpong Weerasetakul (the Thai film maker who won for Uncle Boonmee in 2010). Cannes is facing the future by firmly restating its brand; one of the best films here, Rust and Bone, is even partly set in Cannes.
Opening with Moonrise Kingdom was a sweet move. A singularly distinctive film-maker such as Wes Anderson invites the viewer into his little worlds, like a lonely boy asking you to come over and play with his dolls. It's a tender tale at heart, one of young love between our two 12-year-old leads, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, with the boy splitting scout camp on a New England island to be with the girl of his dreams – with whom he fell in love after spying her playing a raven in a church production of Benjamin Britten's Noah's Flood.

Deadly violence flares in Beirut

Deadly clashes have erupted in the Lebanese capital Beirut and residents blocked roads in the country's northern region of Akkar near the city of Tripoli after soldiers there killed two members of a Syrian opposition alliance.
Gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns early on Monday in intense street battles in Beirut, killing two people and wounding at least 18 others.
"There is an uneasy calm.. streets are relatively empty," Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reported from Beirut.
"The situation overnight, the clashes that were witnessed in Beirut, were the worst since January 2001 when we saw people take to the streets in protest following the collapse of the government of the former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.
"People who took to the streets were supporters of Saad al-Hariri's movement, mainly Sunnis. they were protesting the death and killing of a Sunni cleric and his bodyguard in northern Lebanon," Khodr said.
The clashes erupted hours after Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid, a Sunni Muslim cleric, and Muhammed Hussein Miraib, both members of the March 14 alliance, were shot in their car near Tripoli on Sunday as they "sped through a Lebanese army checkpoint without stopping".
The fighting, some of the worst in Beirut in years, exacerbated deep political and sectarian divisions, as fears mounted that the conflict in neighbouring Syria was spilling across the border.
Our correspondent, reporting from Tripoli on Sunday, said that people in the area had already drawn their own conclusions about the incident and believed the army officer who carried out the shootings was allied with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Crisis in Syria
"The bottom line is this: Syria yet again is a dividing issue in this country. The rival groups are divided in their support and opposition to the Syrian government. And this is where the fear lies," Khodr said on Monday.
"The very fact that the Lebanese army is at the centre of the conflict makes the situation more dangerous. Because the army has always been seen as the neutral institution, the only institution that can hold this politically unstable country together."
Over the past week Alawites, the sect to which Assad belongs, and Sunnis have been fighting each other in Tripoli, Khodr said.
"What has become clear here is that Lebanon can no longer continue with its policy of disassociating itself with the turmoil just across the border," Kodr said.
"The Sunni cleric's funeral will be held later today [Monday] and already there are tensions in the north. It's not clear if we will witness more violence, but what is clear is that as long as there is no solution to the Syrian crisis, this country will be in danger."
Najib Mikati, the Lebanese prime minister, tried to quell growing tensions on Sunday.
"The government is determined to continue to shoulder its national responsibilities amid this critical period in Lebanon and the region, and it will take all measures necessary to preserve civil peace," he said in a statement.
The clashes in Beirut occurred in the neighbourhood of Tarek Jadidah. Sources said they pitted two Sunni factions against each other; one that opposes Assad, and another loyal to a Sunni political figure, Shaker Berjawi, who supports the Syrian president.
'Direct targeting'
Lebanon's army released a statement confirming the deaths at the checkpoint but did not give any information on who was responsible or what led to the shooting.
"The leadership of the army expresses deep regret for the death of the two victims ... It will immediately form an investigative committee comprised of senior officers and military police under the relevant court," the statement said.
Some troops had recently pulled out of Akkar to prevent tensions from escalating after sporadic fighting over the past week, a security source said.
Khaled Daher, a member of parliament from the Future Movement party, which is part of the March 14 alliance, said the two men were targeted.
"If shots were fired at the tyres, we would say there was a mistake. But we consider this a direct targeting from the army," he told Reuters news agency.
"Frankly, we do not want to see the army here because it works at the service of the Syrian regime," he said.
Many Sunni Muslims in Lebanon's north sympathise with Syria's uprising against Assad and say that the Lebanese army is taking orders from Damascus.
Syrian government troops were garrisoned in Lebanon until 2005.
Beirut-based political commentator Rami Khouri said the recent violence in Tripoli that killed at least eight people and wounded dozens had been linked to events in Syria.
"You have tensions in the area going back years but this has been exacerbated by the situation in Syria ... Syria is not the primary factor, but it is related," he said.

Withdrawal from Afghanistan key issue at NATO summit

THE NATO ALLIANCE that has fought for a decade in Afghanistan is helping that nation shift toward stability and peace, but there will be “hard days ahead,” President Barack Obama said today.
Alliance leaders insisted the fighting coalition will remain effective despite France’s plans to pull its combat troops out early.
With a global economic crisis and waning public support for the war in the backdrop, world leaders opened a NATO summit confronted by questions about Afghanistan’s post-conflict future: money for security forces, coming elections and more. They were also papering over the crack in the fighting alliance with the planned French withdrawal.
“We still have a lot of work to do and there will be great challenges ahead,” Obama said. “The loss of life continues in Afghanistan and there will be hard days ahead.”
The end of the war is in sight, Obama said following a lengthy discussion with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the sidelines of the NATO summit. The military alliance is pledged to remain in Afghanistan into 2014, but will seal plans Sunday and Monday to shift foreign forces off the front lines a year faster than once planned.
Afghan forces will take the lead throughout the nation next year, instead of in 2014, despite uneven performance under US and other outside tutelage so far. The shift is in large part a response to plummeting public support for the war in Europe and the United States, contributors of most of the 130,000 foreign troops now fighting the Taliban-led insurgency. A majority of Americans now say the war is unwinnable or not worth continuing.
Karzai said his nation is looking forward to the end of war, “so that Afghanistan is no longer a burden on the shoulder of our friends in the international community, on the shoulders of the United States and our other allies.”
Obama said NATO partners would discuss “a vision for post-2014 in which we have ended our combat role, the Afghan war as we understand it is over, but our commitment to friendship and partnership to Afghanistan continues.”
Newly elected French President Francois Hollande has said he will withdraw all French combat troops from Afghanistan by year’s end — a full two years before the timeline agreed to by nations in the US-led NATO coalition.
“There will be no rush for the exits,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said. “Our goal, our strategy, our timetable remain unchanged.”
Rasmussen denied there were fresh cracks in the alliance. He suggested a deal will emerge for France to move into a noncombat role but continue to support the international mission.

Several killed in Italian earthquake

At least seven people have been killed and up to 50 others injured in a 6.0-magnitude earthquake near the northern Italian city of Bologna, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.
The strong quake struck at 4:04am local time (02:04 GMT) on Sunday in the country's industrial heartland, while most people were sleeping, prompting thousands to run into the streets in panic.
Hospitals were evacuated as a precautionary measure.
Al Jazeera's Sabina Castelfranco, reporting from the worst affected town of Finale Emilia, said: "Scared people are out on the street and have refused to go back to their homes."
"There are apparently 13,000 people that have been displaced, and it is unclear whether there is going to be more victims found," she said.
"Authorities in the area have schools closed down until the situation stabilises," Castelfranco said.
"The new buildings are intact but mediaeval buildings, some of the bell towers and churches, have completely collapsed. You can see huge mountains of rubble in front of these beautiful buildings."
One person, believed to be a Moroccan man working a night shift in a polyester factory, died when he was hit by falling debris.
Two men, also working a night shift, were killed when part of a modern ceramics factory made of steel collapsed in the town of Sant'Agostino.
"He wasn't supposed to be there. He changed shifts with a friend who wanted to go to the beach," the mother of one of the victims told state television.
A woman was reported to have died after suffering a heart attack because of the quake, and several dozen people suffered minor injuries.
Rescue officials were checking reports that other people were buried under rubble and were preparing to house people
whose dwellings had been damanged or destroyed.
In the town of Finale Emilia, firefighters rescued a five-year-old girl who was trapped in the rubble of her house after a rapid series of phone calls between a local woman and emergency services.
"We were very afraid, all the village went out into the street after the first shock, after the second many took shelter in their cars, but fortunately the damage was fairly limited, above all affecting churches," Umberto Mazza, the mayor of Ostiglia, near Mantua, told the Italian news agency ANSA.
Heaps of rubble 
First television footage showed half-collapsed houses with heaps of rubble on the roads and serious damage to historic buildings and churches in the province of Modena.
One badly damaged building was the 14th century Estes Castle in the town of San Felipe Sul Pan, near the quake's epicentre.
There were fears that one of the towers of the famous mediaeval castle, the town's biggest attraction, could collapse. The town's main church was also severely damaged.
The quake also shook the major cities and towns of Bologna, Modena, Ferrara, Rovigo, Verona and Mantua, though none reported serious damage.
A series of strong aftershocks hit the area, the strongest measuring 5.1, and local mayors ordered residents to stay out of doors.
The quake was centred 35km north-northwest of Bologna at a relatively shallow depth of 10km, the US Geological Survey said.
The epicentre of the quake, the strongest to hit Italy in three years, was in the plains near Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of the Po River Valley, and the tremor was felt in nearby regions of Lombardy and Veneto.
The last major earthquake to hit Italy was a 6.3-magnitude quake in the central Italian city of L'Aquila in 2009, killing nearly 300 people.
In January, a 5.3-magnitude quake in northern Italy was felt in Genoa, Bologna, Turin and Milan.

the parliamentary election in syria

the parliamentary election held in Syria is "ludicrous", the credible elections are not possible when the country is beset by continuing violence.
"It's not really possible to hold credible elections in a climate where basic human rights are being denied to the citizens and the government is continuing to carry out daily assaults on its own citizens," he said at a regular news briefing.
"So to hold a parliamentary election in that kind of atmosphere borders on ludicrous," he added.
The Monday election, the first of its kind in Syria under a new constitution that ends the monopoly on power of President Bashar al-Assad's Baath Party and allows a multi-party system, is part of the government's reform program aimed at quelling the bloody unrest that has raged across the country since mid-March 2011.
Syrian authorities said 7,195 candidates from 12 political parties were competing for the 250 parliamentary seats. However, the main opposition groups boycotted the vote amid fighting with the government security forces.
UN observers are being deployed in Syria to monitor a ceasefire brokered by Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy.

UN observers in syria

The United Nations has recruited only half the 300 military observers it needs to staff its unarmed monitoring force in Syria, a cease-fire mission that one Security Council diplomat said is designed to fail.

The UN is making repeated calls to member states seeking personnel as it tries to deploy the full force by the end of May, said Herve Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. The 24 monitors now deployed are tailed by Syrian police as they try to assess the cease-fire, which Ladsous said both sides are breaking.
The deployment is hindered by the acknowledgment of U.S. and other Security Council diplomats that the mission is likely to fail and that its purpose is to convince Russia and China that stronger measures, which they previously blocked, are needed to force President Bashar al-Assad to stop killing his opponents and civilians. The U.S. will not support extending the mission beyond an initial 90 days if Assad isn’t meeting his obligations, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said last month.
“The point of the mission is not for what the observers will see or do, but instead for what it will allow you to do in the coming months,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a policy group in Washington.