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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: La Norvège a fermé sa représentation diplomatique en Iran après l’attaque de la mission diplomatique britannique par des manifestants islamistes.
Le royaume scandinave est le premier pays à annoncer la fermeture de sa chancellerie dans le sillage de l’attaque de la représentation britannique.
Le personnel diplomatique norvégien se trouve toujours à Téhéran et aucune décision d’évacuation n’a encore été prise, a déclaré Hilde Steinfeld, une porte-parole du ministère norvégien des Affaires étrangères. » | AFP | mercredi 30 novembre 2011
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Selon les premières estimations rapportées par la presse égyptienne, les islamistes arrivent largement en tête des élections législatives historiques qui se sont terminées mardi.
L’influent mouvement des Frères musulmans arrive en tête au premier tour des législatives historiques clôturé mardi, selon des premières estimations rapportées mercredi par la presse. Les résultats officiels de la première phase sont attendus dans la journée de mercredi.
«Les islamistes et les libéraux en tête, recul des anciens partis», titrait le quotidien gouvernemental «Al Ahram», au lendemain de deux jours de vote marqués par une participation sans précédent pour les premières législatives organisées après la chute du président Hosni Moubarak en février.
La façade politique des Frères musulmans, «le Parti de la liberté et de la justice (PLJ) et le parti salafiste Al Nour (fondamentaliste musulman) viennent en tête dans six gouvernorats», des neuf concernés dans le premier tour devançant le Bloc égyptien, une coalition de partis laïques, selon le journal. » | ATS/AFP | mercredi 30 novembre 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The daughter Muammar Gaddafi has urged the Libyan people to rise up and overthrow the transitional government which toppled her father's regime.
In an audio message broadcast on Syria's al-Rai television station, Aisha Gaddafi called for a revolt against Libya's new rulers, a government that she said "arrived with the planes of Nato."
"My father has not left, he is always among us," she said, following the traditional 40-day mourning period after his death. "Don't forget the orders of your father urging you to continue fighting, even if you no longer hear his voice." » | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
THE HUFFINGTON POST: Aisha Gaddafi, Daughter Of Former Libya Leader, Calls For Overthrow Of New Rulers: ALGIERS, Algeria — Moammar Gadhafi's daughter urged Libyans on Tuesday to overthrow their new rulers, possibly violating the terms of her exile in Algeria. » | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
YNET NEWS: Iceland 'first Western European country to take this step,' FM boasts; Abbas reaffirms statehood bid
Iceland's parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of recognizing the Palestinian territories as an independent state, the first Western European country to do so according Iceland's foreign minister.
The vote paves the way for formal recognition by the small north Atlantic island, which led the way in recognizing the independence of the three Baltic States after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.
"Iceland is the first Western European country to take this step," Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson told Icelandic state broadcaster RUV. "I now have the formal authority to declare our recognition of Palestine." » | News agencies | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Foreign secretary says Tehran breached Vienna convention in failing to protect diplomatic mission
William Hague has warned Iran it faces "serious consequences" over the attack on the British embassy in Tehran.
Hundreds of protesters surged onto two compounds this afternoon, putting the safety of staff at risk and causing "extensive damage" to property, the foreign secretary said.
"Clearly there will be other, further, and serious consequences. I will make a statement updating parliament on this tomorrow [Wednesday]."
Iranian police protected Britain's ambassador and some staff earlier from a large crowd outside, Hague said.
He added: "There has been a confusing situation at times as to the whereabouts of certain staff. I wouldn't use the term hostage. Clearly there have been situations where the Iranian police have intervened to try to ensure the safety of our staff.
"We are grateful for that but this situation should never have been allowed to arise in the first place." » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan and agencies | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: British relations with Iran sink to lowest in decades as Tehran embassies are stormed: Britain’s relations with Iran were plunged into their worst crisis in decades after protesters [stormed] two British embassy compounds in Tehran, ransacked offices and forced diplomatic staff to seek refuge in secure rooms. ¶ The most extraordinary scenes came at Britain’s embassy near Tehran’s central bazaar, where riot police simply stood by as demonstrators broke into the main building and tore down pictures of The Queen, looted sensitive documents, smashed windows and even threw petrol bombs. ¶ Chanting “death to England”, the protesters - many of them organised by a student branch of the pro-regime Basiji militia - burned the British flag and set a car on fire in protest at sanctions imposed last week on the Iranian banking system. ¶ Diplomats were forced to seek refuge in a secure room behind reinforced doors and windows, from where they managed to use secure communications to alert London. According to one report, six embassy staff had to be rescued by police after being held hostage by the protesters for several hours. » | Damien McElroy, Amad Vahdat | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
They believe he was in a psychotic state both during and after the twin attacks on 22 July that led to the deaths of 77 people and injured 151.
Their report must still be reviewed by a panel of forensic psychiatrists.
Breivik will still be tried in April but it seems likely he will be placed in psychiatric care rather than prison.
Breivik admits carrying out the attacks but has pleaded not guilty to charges, arguing that that the attacks were atrocious but necessary for his campaign to defend Europe against a Muslim invasion. (+ video) » | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
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«Le Roi Mohammed VI a reçu mardi en début d’après-midi à Midelt (centre), Abdelilah Benkirane, secrétaire général du PJD, et l’a nommé chef du gouvernement, conformément aux dispositions de la nouvelle Constitution. Il l’a également chargé de former le nouveau gouvernement», indique un communiqué du palais.
Le PJD qui a obtenu 107 des 395 sièges lors des élections législatives anticipées du 25 novembre va pour la première fois diriger un gouvernement de coalition, sous le contrôle du roi, comme le veut la constitution.
Un journaliste sur place a précisé à l’AFP que M. Benkirane (57 ans) a prêté serment devant le roi lors d’une brève cérémonie.
Né à Rabat dans un quartier populaire, M. Benkirane, qui est membre du Conseil supérieur de l’enseignement, est marié et père de six enfants. » | AFP | mardi 29 novembre 2011
Iranische Demonstranten haben am Dienstag in Teheran auf das Gelände der britischen Botschaft gestürmt. Laut unbestätigten Agenturberichten griffen sie auch eine zweite britische Vertretung im Stadtgebiet an. Wie die Nachrichtenagentur Irna meldet, befinden sich auf dem zweiten Gelände im Norden der iranischen Hauptstadt Gästehäuser für britische Diplomaten sowie deutsche, britische und französische Schulen.
Am Vormittag waren mehr als 20 Demonstranten in das Botschaftsgebäude eingedrungen. Sie rissen die britische Flagge herunter und verwüsteten Büros, wie ein AFP-Reporter berichtete.
Das iranische Staatsfernsehen zeigte, wie Demonstranten Fensterscheiben mit Steinen einwarfen. Ein Demonstrant war zu sehen, wie er mit einem Porträt von Queen Elizabeth II. die Mauer des Gebäudes hinaufkletterte. Die iranische Bereitschaftspolizisten standen während des Angriffs teilnahmslos daneben. » | Quelle: hcr. mit AFP | Dienstag 29. November 2011
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THE NEW YORK TIMES: TRIPOLI, Libya — Tripoli is no longer the capital of a police state. But what it has become, in just a matter of weeks, can be both exhilarating and disturbing.
Hashish dealers are openly hawking their wares in the center of the city, Martyrs’ Square, known as Green Square before Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was overthrown. Drivers run red lights without giving it a thought, while political demonstrations snarl traffic. Irregular militia members who have replaced the hated Tripoli police in many neighborhoods are still showing poor discipline with their weapons, firing them accidentally or into the air all too frequently.
Tripoli is a vibrant city of nearly two million people with a bustling port, and it is graced by Roman ruins and old fortification walls built by the Ottomans and other conquerors. But while it has gone through other abrupt changes over the centuries, what is happening these days was unthinkable only weeks ago when Colonel Qaddafi tried to control even the smallest details of daily life.
Tinted windows were prohibited on cars; now, drivers everywhere are pasting dark green tinted plastic on their windows to keep out the searing sun but also as a sign of their new liberty. Fruit and vegetable vendors were restricted from selling their wares on most streets; now, throngs of them are out selling bananas and oranges beneath highway overpasses and on the sides of traffic circles, helping them feed their families but also worsening congestion.
English was largely prohibited from public signs by Colonel Qaddafi. Now, English signs have sprung up almost everywhere around town, even though few Libyans understand what they say. The signs are another expression of liberation, as well as the country’s readiness to open itself to the outer world. » | Clifford Krauss | Monday, November 28, 2011
THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — In the latest sign of deteriorating relations with the West, around 20 Iranian protesters entered the British Embassy compound in Tehran chanting “death to England,” tearing down a British flag and ransacking offices, news reports said.
The episode came a day after Iranenacted legislation on Monday to downgrade relations with Britain, in retaliation for intensified sanctions imposed by Western nations last week to punish the Iranians for their suspect nuclear development program. Britain promised to respond “robustly.”
The British Foreign Office in London said it was “aware of the reports” from Tehran about its embassy on Tuesday, but declined to comment further.
The Associated Press indentified [sic] the intruders as hard-line Iranian students, who were said to have burst into the building and thrown documents from windows. They also chanted: “The Embassy of Britain should be taken over.”
The episode was shown live on Iranian state television. The invaders threw stones at windows, and one was seen climbing over the highwall around the compound with an apparently looted portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. While some reports said the protesters clashed with riot police, other accounts said the authorities did nothing to prevent the attack. Read on and comment » | Alan Cowell and Rick Gladstone | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Psychiatrists have found that Anders Behring Breivik was insane at the time of the crime.
The finding by the two forensic psychiatrists will help determine whether Breivik is sentenced to prison or psychiatric care. Prosecutor Svein Holden says the report shows Breivik was "psychotic" during the attack.
If that assessment is upheld by the court then Breivik cannot be sentenced to prison for the attacks.
"The conclusion is ... is that he is insane," Holden told a news conference. "He lives in his own delusional universe and his thoughts and acts are governed by this universe." Read on and comment » | Barney Henderson | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Bahraini medical staff accused of trying to overthrow the government of the Gulf state earlier this year, and who had hoped charges against them might now be dropped, faced new accusations in a court hearing.
Twenty staff from the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama had thought their ordeal might be ending on Monday after the release of last week's report detailing human rights abuses by Bahrain's security forces during the Pearl revolution in February.
The report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) found allegations that the medics "assisted the demonstrators by supplying them with weapons" to be unfounded.
But prosecutors produced guns, swords, knives and chains and claimed this was proof against the doctors, nurses, and paramedics. These weapons had not been presented previously – and led to an incredulous response in court. "It was really hilarious," one of them, Dr Nada Dhaif, [see photo] told BBC Radio 5. "The government has missed the chance that anyone will take this seriously." » | Staff and agencies | Monday, November 28, 2011
THE INDEPENDENT: Four million newspaper pages have been put online as part of a massive history project.
The British Newspaper Archive website includes pages from more than 200 different papers from across the UK and Ireland with first hand accounts of events including the wedding of Victoria and Albert and the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Ed King, the British Library's Head of Newspapers, said it opened up the collection "as never before".
He said: "Rather than having to view the items on site at the Library, turning each page, people across the UK and around the world will be able to explore for themselves the goldmine of stories and information contained in these pages - and the ability to search across millions of articles will yield results for each user, that might previously have been the work of weeks or months, in a matter of seconds and the click of a mouse." » | Robert Dex | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Queen Victoria’s funeral »
Josef Stalin's daughter, who denounced communism after defecting during the cold war, has died in the US after living out her remaining years there in seclusion.
Svetlana Peters, whose quest to find her own identity saw the only daughter and last surviving child of the dictator take on three names, had described her father as "a moral and spiritual monster" after the CIA helped her to escape the Soviet Union in 1967 which caused a diplomatic furore.
Born Svetlana Stalina, she adopted her mother's last name, Alliluyeva, following her father's death in 1953. But she ended her life as Lana Peters – the identity she adopted after claiming political asylum in the US.
After living many years in the public eye, she spent her final days in seclusion. She died of colon cancer on 22 November in Richland County, South Carolina, it emerged. She was 85.
Frequently moving countries, sampling religions from Hinduism to Christian science, the four-times married Peters lived a life which could grace the pages of any novel, and saw her tales inside the Soviet Union earn her two best-selling autobiographies. » | Staff and agencies | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The former pizza executive strenuously denied the detailed claims made by Ginger White, a woman he described as "an acquaintance who I thought was a friend".
Miss White said they met after a business presentation by Mr Cain in the late 1990s and that for more than a decade he had flown her to cities around the United States where they had sex in upmarket hotels.
The single mother of two said that their physical relationship had ended eight months ago, shortly before he declared his presidential bid, but that they had spoken as recently as September.
Her mobile phone bills showed she had contact with him 61 times in recent months, often receiving calls or texts in the early hours of the morning.
"He made it very intriguing. It was fun. It was something that took me away from my humdrum life at the time," she told Fox Atlanta. » | Tuesday, November 29, 2011
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