NEW YORK – As U.S. officials struggle to control damage from the secret cables, Russia is planning to block a similar dump about the Kremlin. And they will be ruthless, Philip Shenon reports.
American intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, outraged by their inability to stop WikiLeaks and its release this week of hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables, are convinced that the whistleblowing website is about to come up against an adversary that will stop at nothing to shut it down: the Russian government.
National-security officials say that the National Security Agency, the U.S. government’s eavesdropping agency, has already picked up tell-tale electronic evidence that WikiLeaks is under close surveillance by the Russian FSB, that country’s domestic spy network, out of fear in Moscow that WikiLeaks is prepared to release damaging personal information about Kremlin leaders.
“We may not have been able to stop WikiLeaks so far, and it’s been frustrating,” a U.S. law-enforcement official tells The Daily Beast. “The Russians play by different rules.” He said that if WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, follow through on threats to post highly embarrassing information about the Russian government and what is assumed to be massive corruption among its leaders, “the Russians will be ruthless in stopping WikiLeaks.”
A U.S. military official said the U.S. assumed that WikiLeaks had access to sources who could supply the site with detailed, damaging information about Russian leaders; those sources would likely include wealthy Russian expatriates who have had the resources over the years to conduct far-ranging private investigations of graft among Kremlin leaders, including their movement of assets outside Russia.
“We may not have been able to stop WikiLeaks so far, and it’s been frustrating,” says a U.S. law-enforcement official. “The Russians play by different rules.”
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Anatol Lieven, a professor at King’s College in London who specializes in Russian and military affairs, said he believed the Russians would be ready to consider aggressive cyberwarfare techniques to shut down WikiLeaks and its website, as well as violence and other threats against Russians who were believed to be informants. (American officials have said they have no direct evidence to suggest that Russia was behind the cyberattack that has shut down the WikiLeaks website since Sunday.)
• 9 Most Shocking WikiLeaks Secrets
“I doubt that they would consider assassination against Westerners who are involved in WikiLeaks, but as for informants in Russia, they would be in very serious danger,” he said.
The London-based Russian billionaire and newspaper magnate Alexander Lebedev suggested that a government raid on the Moscow headquarters of his National Reserve Bank this month may have been a response to recent contacts between his Moscow newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, and WikiLeaks.
Gallery: 9 Fun WikiLeaks Revelations
Lebedev, who is outspoken in his criticism of government corruption in his homeland—which he has described as comparable to the “evils of apartheid” in South Africa—has acknowledged that one of his reporters recently traveled to Sweden to meet with Assange.
Assange has courted attacks from the Russian government, telling a reporter from the pro-government daily newspaper Izvestia last month that WikiLeaks had obtained damaging information “about Russia, about your government and businessmen” and “we will publish these materials soon.” Another WikiLeaks spokesman was quoted as describing the Russian government as “despotic.”
The trove of State Department documents made public this week by WikiLeaks includes several cables in which U.S. diplomats are critical of Russian leaders, describing President Dmitry Medvedev as “pale and hesitant,” serving as “Robin” to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s “Batman.” In another, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is quoted as saying that “Russian democracy has disappeared and the government is an oligarchy run by the security services.”
Lieven, a former journalist who reported extensively in the former Soviet Union, said the State Department cables had, it appeared, created no significant embarrassment for Russian leaders or for U.S.-Russian relations. “So far, what’s come out has not surprised or shocked anybody,” he said.
The alarm in Moscow, he said, would be over what comes next, especially if WikiLeaks has obtained bank records or other detailed evidence of corruption among Russian leaders—the sort of information that WikiLeaks and its supporters have said that the site is eager to obtain and publish.
The Russian government has so far dismissed the threat posed by WikiLeaks. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters this week that he was perplexed by the amount of interest shown in Assange—a “petty thief running around on the Internet.”
Russian intelligence agencies have suggested, none too subtly, that WikiLeaks could be destroyed through cyberwarfare methods if the whistleblowing site did begin to create trouble in Moscow. Last month, the Russian news agency Life News quoted an official from the FSB’s Center for Information Security as saying that the government would be capable of organizing “the right team” to target WikiLeaks and “shut it down forever.”
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Nigeria summons Shell, Halliburton over graft cases
LAGOS (AFP) – Nigerian anti-corruption authorities have summoned top officials from Shell and Halliburton as part of separate investigations into alleged bribery, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
"The (local) managing director of Shell and that of Halliburton are to appear in our Lagos office today for questioning over bribery cases," said Femi Babafemi, spokesman for Nigeria's anti-graft agency.
"Apart from these two chief executives, there are 21 other people, both expatriates and Nigerians, that are to appear in Abuja today for questioning over the scandals."
Authorities also raided Halliburton's office in Lagos last week and detained 10 people -- eight Nigerians and two expatriates -- who have since been released as investigations continue, he said. Documents were taken as well.
He said the Shell executive would be questioned over recent cases settled in the United States that saw oil services companies and freight forwarding firm Panalpina World Transport Holding Ltd. pay nearly 240 million dollars.
The allegations involved alleged bribery in a range of countries, including Nigeria. Shell agreed to pay some 48 million dollars as part of the settlements.
A Shell spokesman in Nigeria declined to comment in detail, but said the company would cooperate.
"We will cooperate with the authorities over any investigation they make, but the company will not comment on specifics," Tony Okonedo said.
The Halliburton executive would be questioned over an alleged 182 million dollar cash-for-contract scandal involving construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in southern Nigeria, Babafemi said.
US authorities said last year that Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) had agreed to pay 579 million dollars in fines related to the case.
It was one of the biggest fines ever paid by US companies in a foreign corruption case.
In October, a Nigerian court charged a personal aide to ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo in a probe linked to the case.
Halliburton's office in Lagos on Tuesday said no one was available to comment.
Nigeria is an OPEC member and one of the world's largest oil exporters.
"The (local) managing director of Shell and that of Halliburton are to appear in our Lagos office today for questioning over bribery cases," said Femi Babafemi, spokesman for Nigeria's anti-graft agency.
"Apart from these two chief executives, there are 21 other people, both expatriates and Nigerians, that are to appear in Abuja today for questioning over the scandals."
Authorities also raided Halliburton's office in Lagos last week and detained 10 people -- eight Nigerians and two expatriates -- who have since been released as investigations continue, he said. Documents were taken as well.
He said the Shell executive would be questioned over recent cases settled in the United States that saw oil services companies and freight forwarding firm Panalpina World Transport Holding Ltd. pay nearly 240 million dollars.
The allegations involved alleged bribery in a range of countries, including Nigeria. Shell agreed to pay some 48 million dollars as part of the settlements.
A Shell spokesman in Nigeria declined to comment in detail, but said the company would cooperate.
"We will cooperate with the authorities over any investigation they make, but the company will not comment on specifics," Tony Okonedo said.
The Halliburton executive would be questioned over an alleged 182 million dollar cash-for-contract scandal involving construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in southern Nigeria, Babafemi said.
US authorities said last year that Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) had agreed to pay 579 million dollars in fines related to the case.
It was one of the biggest fines ever paid by US companies in a foreign corruption case.
In October, a Nigerian court charged a personal aide to ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo in a probe linked to the case.
Halliburton's office in Lagos on Tuesday said no one was available to comment.
Nigeria is an OPEC member and one of the world's largest oil exporters.
Netanyahu told U.S. he supported land swap with Palestinians, WikiLeaks reveals
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Cable recounts February 2009 meeting with Senator Benjamin Cardin, where premier laid out economic peace plan and said he did not want to govern West Bank and Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Obama administration just two weeks after elected to Knesset that he supported the idea of a land exchange and had no desire to govern Palestinian territories, according to a diplomatic cable released by the online whistleblower WikiLeaks on Sunday.
"Netanyahu expressed support for the concept of land swaps, and emphasized that he did not want to govern the West Bank and Gaza but rather to stop attacks from being launched from there," read a February 2009 diplomatic cable describing a meeting between Netanyahu and a delegation led by Senator Benjamin Cardin.
According to the cable, Netanyahu laid out to the U.S. lawmakers a framework for his economic peace plan as the best option for a future peace deal with the Palestinians.
His idea was to begin "rapidly building a pyramid from the ground up" to allow the Palestinian West Bank to develop a strong and independent infrastructure.
Netanyahu presented this program for "economic peace," which he said would improved the quality of life for Palestinians in the West Bank, well before elections. Palestinian officials, however, refused to meet with their Israeli counterparts.
Another cable released earlier this week indicates that Israel tried to coordinate the Gaza war with the Palestinian Authority and that both the PA and Egypt refused to take control of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The whistle-blowing website obtained some 250,000 diplomatic cables between the U.S. and its allies, which Washington had urged the site not to publish.
In a June 2009 meeting between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a U.S. congressional delegation, Barak claimed that the Israeli government "had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas."
"Not surprisingly," Barak said in the meeting, Israel "received negative answers from both."
While similar reports of such attempts to link the PA and Egypt to Israel's war with Hamas had already surfaced in the past, the cable released by WikiLeaks on Sunday represents the first documented proof of such a move.
In the document, Barak also expressed his feeling that "the Palestinian Authority is weak and lacks self-confidence, and that Gen. Dayton's training helps bolster confidence."
The meeting which the cable documents took place just days before U.S. President Barack Obama's Cairo speech, and a few weeks after Netanyahu's first visit to the United States, a visit which revealed the deep differences between Obama and himself.
The cable also refers to what Barak describes as the debate within the Israeli cabinet in regards to a "development of a response to President Obama's upcoming speech in Cairo."
Friday, November 26, 2010
Oil-rich south Sudan weighs cost of progress
BENTIU, Sudan (AFP) – South Sudan officials are concerned at the environmental damage being caused by the oil industry and are promising a tough new line if the oil-rich region gains independence next year.
Their potentially rich but grossly underdeveloped region is in a quandary. Its desperately poor people, mostly subsistence farmers and cattle grazers, need oil money but officials say livelihoods are being threatened by pollution.
In January, southerners will have a chance to take a step towards redressing that problem, voting in a referendum on whether to separate from the rest of the country and form a new state.
The oil industry will then, at least legally, be under their control, and they might be able to do something.
Taban Deng Gai, governor of the southern state of Unity, puts it this way.
"We shall continue with (the oil industry) but under new terms that shall protect the environment of the area."
"We know this oil is finishing soon and we don't want to be left over with polluted environment and soil. We shall work very hard to make the government of south Sudan impose regulation on oil companies."
Yet the government will have to walk a very fine line. The bulk of Sudan's estimated six billion barrels in oil reserves is located in the south and oil revenues account for nearly all of the southern government's income.
"We cannot stop exploiting those resources," Gai says.
"South Sudan is depending on oil revenue at a rate of ninety-seven to ninety-eight percent of the budget. People need services: they need schools, roads etc."
But he also says the oil companies "have done a lot of damage to the people, to their cattle."
Gai's new environment minister, William Garjang Gieng, recently went to see was happening on his turf, accompanied by experts from NGO Sign of Hope and a team of AFP journalists.
The Germany-based group has spent the past three years denouncing oil pollution in Sudan.
Before heading out into the field to inspect three installations operated by the mostly foreign-owned Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. (GNPOC), a company executive said "we respect the environment."
But on site, north of the state capital Bentiu, among vast marshlands and plains, Garjang Gieng was not happy with what he saw.
At Al Nar, discarded containers were leaking oil into an adjacent marsh.
"This is bad practice, my friend. This is what we don't want," he said to a supervisor at the site, leading to an embarrassing silence.
Garjang Gieng was also angered over filtration ponds built to separate petroleum from water.
The problem, says Sign of Hope's Klaus Stieglitz, is that "some of these ponds are heavily contaminated, and the fact that there is no plastic lining" means there is seepage into the ground water layer.
At another installation, Toma South, Garjang Gieng saw a pond containing six containers from which a thick tar-like substance was leaking and oozing into the soil.
He spent a quarter of an hour haranguing a GNPOC engineer about what he had seen.
After the man promised to pass on Gieng's concerns to GNPOC management, the minister replied curtly: "That's right. Tell them."
Last year, Stieglitz visited another part of the south, where White Nile Petroleum Operating Co, jointly owned by Malaysia's Petronas and Sudan's Sudapet, had built a processing plant.
He said concentrations of salts and contaminants such as cyanides, lead, nickel, cadmium and arsenic had reached critical levels in the water.
Speaking of one village, he said the "inhabitants do not use the water coming from their boreholes."
"Locals who drink this kind of water can get diarrhoea and a subsequent dehydration of the body which might lead to death if untreated."
AFP contacted GNPOC for comment regarding the latest complaints, but received no reply.
The company is 40-percent owned by China National Petroleum Corp, one of the biggest investors in Sudan's oil industry. Another 30 percent is held by Petronas and 25 percent by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
The remaining five percent is owned by Sudan-based company Sudapet.
Unity Governor Gai, looking ahead to the day when there is no more oil, says "we don't want to be left over with polluted environment and soil.
"We shall work very hard to make the government of south Sudan impose regulations on oil companies."
His environment minister is more to the point.
"By whatsoever means, south Sudan is going to be an independent state, so any company that wants to be working with us will have to obey us from now on," Garjang Gieng said.
Their potentially rich but grossly underdeveloped region is in a quandary. Its desperately poor people, mostly subsistence farmers and cattle grazers, need oil money but officials say livelihoods are being threatened by pollution.
In January, southerners will have a chance to take a step towards redressing that problem, voting in a referendum on whether to separate from the rest of the country and form a new state.
The oil industry will then, at least legally, be under their control, and they might be able to do something.
Taban Deng Gai, governor of the southern state of Unity, puts it this way.
"We shall continue with (the oil industry) but under new terms that shall protect the environment of the area."
"We know this oil is finishing soon and we don't want to be left over with polluted environment and soil. We shall work very hard to make the government of south Sudan impose regulation on oil companies."
Yet the government will have to walk a very fine line. The bulk of Sudan's estimated six billion barrels in oil reserves is located in the south and oil revenues account for nearly all of the southern government's income.
"We cannot stop exploiting those resources," Gai says.
"South Sudan is depending on oil revenue at a rate of ninety-seven to ninety-eight percent of the budget. People need services: they need schools, roads etc."
But he also says the oil companies "have done a lot of damage to the people, to their cattle."
Gai's new environment minister, William Garjang Gieng, recently went to see was happening on his turf, accompanied by experts from NGO Sign of Hope and a team of AFP journalists.
The Germany-based group has spent the past three years denouncing oil pollution in Sudan.
Before heading out into the field to inspect three installations operated by the mostly foreign-owned Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. (GNPOC), a company executive said "we respect the environment."
But on site, north of the state capital Bentiu, among vast marshlands and plains, Garjang Gieng was not happy with what he saw.
At Al Nar, discarded containers were leaking oil into an adjacent marsh.
"This is bad practice, my friend. This is what we don't want," he said to a supervisor at the site, leading to an embarrassing silence.
Garjang Gieng was also angered over filtration ponds built to separate petroleum from water.
The problem, says Sign of Hope's Klaus Stieglitz, is that "some of these ponds are heavily contaminated, and the fact that there is no plastic lining" means there is seepage into the ground water layer.
At another installation, Toma South, Garjang Gieng saw a pond containing six containers from which a thick tar-like substance was leaking and oozing into the soil.
He spent a quarter of an hour haranguing a GNPOC engineer about what he had seen.
After the man promised to pass on Gieng's concerns to GNPOC management, the minister replied curtly: "That's right. Tell them."
Last year, Stieglitz visited another part of the south, where White Nile Petroleum Operating Co, jointly owned by Malaysia's Petronas and Sudan's Sudapet, had built a processing plant.
He said concentrations of salts and contaminants such as cyanides, lead, nickel, cadmium and arsenic had reached critical levels in the water.
Speaking of one village, he said the "inhabitants do not use the water coming from their boreholes."
"Locals who drink this kind of water can get diarrhoea and a subsequent dehydration of the body which might lead to death if untreated."
AFP contacted GNPOC for comment regarding the latest complaints, but received no reply.
The company is 40-percent owned by China National Petroleum Corp, one of the biggest investors in Sudan's oil industry. Another 30 percent is held by Petronas and 25 percent by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
The remaining five percent is owned by Sudan-based company Sudapet.
Unity Governor Gai, looking ahead to the day when there is no more oil, says "we don't want to be left over with polluted environment and soil.
"We shall work very hard to make the government of south Sudan impose regulations on oil companies."
His environment minister is more to the point.
"By whatsoever means, south Sudan is going to be an independent state, so any company that wants to be working with us will have to obey us from now on," Garjang Gieng said.
Burkina Faso president re-elected by landslide
UAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – President Blaise Compaore, one of Africa's last remaining 'Big Men' who seized power in a bloody coup 23 years ago, was re-elected by a landslide in a vote rejected by the opposition.
The country's electoral commission said Thursday that Compaore won Sunday's presidential poll with 80.2 percent of the vote, according to provisional results.
Compaore, a former army captain who took power in 1987 after a hit squad gunned down the country's former leader in his office, was widely expected to win the election in the landlocked nation.
On Tuesday, four of the seven candidates in the race said they would not recognize the poll's results, claiming the vote was rigged in Compaore's favor. They cited serious irregularities that allowed ineligible people to vote and asked that results be invalidated.
"We are happy," said Compaore's campaign director Assimi Koanda. "This results shows the confidence, the loyalty and fidelity of the populations to our candidate. Not only does the population accept what he has done before, but also adheres to his coming program."
His closest competitor, Hama Diallo, received 8.2 percent of the vote.
Opposition parties have 48 hours from the time the results are released to file a complaint. Earlier on Thursday, a judge ruled that some voting cards used in Sunday's election 'were illegal' in response to a lawsuit filed last week challenging the legality of the voting materials.
"The cards were not in conformity with the electoral code. People have voted with illegal cards," Judge Rene Bagoro, the president of the administrative tribunal told The Associated Press by telephone. He said the cards were missing key information such as place of birth.
The suit was filed by four opposition parties who argued that the voting card, which mentions only date of birth, could have led to massive fraud. In Burkina Faso, many people share the same last name, making it difficult to establish identity without other information.
Stanislas Benewinde Sankara, one of the opposition candidates, had refused to cast his ballot on Sunday in protest over the irregular voting card.
Opposition parties, who did not attend the ceremony, called for the invalidation of the results, the resignation of the president of the election commission and the holding of new elections
The country's electoral commission said Thursday that Compaore won Sunday's presidential poll with 80.2 percent of the vote, according to provisional results.
Compaore, a former army captain who took power in 1987 after a hit squad gunned down the country's former leader in his office, was widely expected to win the election in the landlocked nation.
On Tuesday, four of the seven candidates in the race said they would not recognize the poll's results, claiming the vote was rigged in Compaore's favor. They cited serious irregularities that allowed ineligible people to vote and asked that results be invalidated.
"We are happy," said Compaore's campaign director Assimi Koanda. "This results shows the confidence, the loyalty and fidelity of the populations to our candidate. Not only does the population accept what he has done before, but also adheres to his coming program."
His closest competitor, Hama Diallo, received 8.2 percent of the vote.
Opposition parties have 48 hours from the time the results are released to file a complaint. Earlier on Thursday, a judge ruled that some voting cards used in Sunday's election 'were illegal' in response to a lawsuit filed last week challenging the legality of the voting materials.
"The cards were not in conformity with the electoral code. People have voted with illegal cards," Judge Rene Bagoro, the president of the administrative tribunal told The Associated Press by telephone. He said the cards were missing key information such as place of birth.
The suit was filed by four opposition parties who argued that the voting card, which mentions only date of birth, could have led to massive fraud. In Burkina Faso, many people share the same last name, making it difficult to establish identity without other information.
Stanislas Benewinde Sankara, one of the opposition candidates, had refused to cast his ballot on Sunday in protest over the irregular voting card.
Opposition parties, who did not attend the ceremony, called for the invalidation of the results, the resignation of the president of the election commission and the holding of new elections
Four Nigerians charged with abduction of nine foreigners
ABUJA (AFP) – Four Nigerians, including the elder brother of the suspected mastermind of last month's deadly car bombings here, were on Thursday formally charged with the abduction of nine foreigners working for the Addax oil firm.
Charles Okah and the three other suspects allegedly "conspired to attack by force of arms, four Indians, three French nationals, two Russians at Bonny anchorage between August 1 and October 2, 2010," according to the charge sheet read in an Abuja magistrate court .
Addax Petroleum Nigeria is an affiliate of Geneva-based Addax and Oryx Group, an international oil and gas exploration company focused on West Africa and the Middle East.
The four accused all pleaded not guilty to charges of "criminal conspiracy, to wit abduction, criminal intimidation and threat to life and causing grievous hurt."
Magistrate Oyebola Oyewumi adjourned the case till December 23 and ordered their remand in custody of the state security service.
Henry Okah, ex-leader of MEND, accused by Nigeria's intelligence agency of being behind the October 1 Independence Day bomb attacks in Abuja, is the younger brother of Charles Okah.
MEND -- the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta -- which claims to be fighting for a fairer distribution of oil revenue, has also been seen as an umbrella organisation for criminal gangs.
It is believed to have splintered, particularly over the amnesty granted by government to more than 20,000 ex-militants last year.
The recent attacks come ahead of elections set for next April. President Goodluck Jonathan, who is running in the elections, is from the Niger Delta and faces pressure to resolve the situation in the region.
The younger Okah who lives in South Africa, was arrested there on October 2, a day after the Abuja blasts that killed 12 people.
A South African court on Friday denied him bail after prosecutors accused him of orchestrating the independence day blasts.
He has said he is innocent. He will be put on trial on terrorism charges next year.
Charles Okah and the three other suspects allegedly "conspired to attack by force of arms, four Indians, three French nationals, two Russians at Bonny anchorage between August 1 and October 2, 2010," according to the charge sheet read in an Abuja magistrate court .
Addax Petroleum Nigeria is an affiliate of Geneva-based Addax and Oryx Group, an international oil and gas exploration company focused on West Africa and the Middle East.
The four accused all pleaded not guilty to charges of "criminal conspiracy, to wit abduction, criminal intimidation and threat to life and causing grievous hurt."
Magistrate Oyebola Oyewumi adjourned the case till December 23 and ordered their remand in custody of the state security service.
Henry Okah, ex-leader of MEND, accused by Nigeria's intelligence agency of being behind the October 1 Independence Day bomb attacks in Abuja, is the younger brother of Charles Okah.
MEND -- the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta -- which claims to be fighting for a fairer distribution of oil revenue, has also been seen as an umbrella organisation for criminal gangs.
It is believed to have splintered, particularly over the amnesty granted by government to more than 20,000 ex-militants last year.
The recent attacks come ahead of elections set for next April. President Goodluck Jonathan, who is running in the elections, is from the Niger Delta and faces pressure to resolve the situation in the region.
The younger Okah who lives in South Africa, was arrested there on October 2, a day after the Abuja blasts that killed 12 people.
A South African court on Friday denied him bail after prosecutors accused him of orchestrating the independence day blasts.
He has said he is innocent. He will be put on trial on terrorism charges next year.
Zimbabwe's premier takes Mugabe to court
HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe's prime minister has asked the high court to revoke President Robert Mugabe's appointment of provincial governors, court papers said Thursday.
"In my humble view, submission and plea, all of this is plain, clear and simple. Wherever the Constitution obliges the President to act ?in consultation? with me as Prime Minister, he must first secure my agreement," Morgan Tsvangirai said.
"In this instance, the first respondent (Mugabe) did not even consult me on the names appointed. The first respondent is aware of his constitutional obligations. He is aware that he cannot appoint provincial governors without my agreement," Tsvangirai said in the court papers seen by AFP.
A source at Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party confirmed that the prime minister had filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, a move likely to strain the shaky power-sharing government even more.
Tsvangirai formed a government with Mugabe last year to ease tensions in the aftermath of a bloody presidential election and mend an economy ravaged by a nearly decade-long economic crisis.
The work of the government has been hamstrung by haggling over the allocation of top government posts.
The lawsuit came as mediator Jacob Zuma, the South African president, was expected in Harare on Friday to attend to differences threatening the compromise government.
Presidential spokesman and Mugabe's ZANU-PF party officials were not available for comment
"In my humble view, submission and plea, all of this is plain, clear and simple. Wherever the Constitution obliges the President to act ?in consultation? with me as Prime Minister, he must first secure my agreement," Morgan Tsvangirai said.
"In this instance, the first respondent (Mugabe) did not even consult me on the names appointed. The first respondent is aware of his constitutional obligations. He is aware that he cannot appoint provincial governors without my agreement," Tsvangirai said in the court papers seen by AFP.
A source at Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party confirmed that the prime minister had filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, a move likely to strain the shaky power-sharing government even more.
Tsvangirai formed a government with Mugabe last year to ease tensions in the aftermath of a bloody presidential election and mend an economy ravaged by a nearly decade-long economic crisis.
The work of the government has been hamstrung by haggling over the allocation of top government posts.
The lawsuit came as mediator Jacob Zuma, the South African president, was expected in Harare on Friday to attend to differences threatening the compromise government.
Presidential spokesman and Mugabe's ZANU-PF party officials were not available for comment
Nigeria charges Iranian, 3 others in arms seizure
ABUJA, Nigeria – A Nigerian court on Thursday charged an Iranian and three Nigerians for arms trafficking in connection to an arms shipment officials seized last month at Nigeria's busiest port.
The Magistrate Court in Abuja said it had charged Iranian national Azeem Aghajani for attempting to import prohibited arms into Nigeria with the intent of sending them to nearby Gambia.
The court also charged three Nigerians, Ali Usman Abass Jega, Aliu Oroji Wamakko and Mohammed Tukur in connection to the seizure.
Aghajani said he needed his embassy to represent him before he could present his plea. The three Nigerians pleaded not guilty, but only one of them was represented in court.
The Nigerian's lawyer argued for bail, but the prosecutor contested the request.
"This is a matter of great national importance, and if I may add, it has international implications," said prosecutor Matthew Idakwo. "These arms were imported from Iran to our country. It is of great interest to the world. In fact, the United Nations has interest in this matter."
Nigeria reported Iran to the United Nations after Nigerian security officials in October seized a hidden shipment of military-grade arms that originated in Iran and passed through Nigeria's busiest port in Lagos.
Artillery rockets and other weapons, loaded in 13 shipping containers that were labeled as building supplies, were seized Oct. 26.
Magistrate Judge Hafsat Soso said the four men would remain in the custody of Nigeria's State Security Service as investigations continued.
The Magistrate Court in Abuja said it had charged Iranian national Azeem Aghajani for attempting to import prohibited arms into Nigeria with the intent of sending them to nearby Gambia.
The court also charged three Nigerians, Ali Usman Abass Jega, Aliu Oroji Wamakko and Mohammed Tukur in connection to the seizure.
Aghajani said he needed his embassy to represent him before he could present his plea. The three Nigerians pleaded not guilty, but only one of them was represented in court.
The Nigerian's lawyer argued for bail, but the prosecutor contested the request.
"This is a matter of great national importance, and if I may add, it has international implications," said prosecutor Matthew Idakwo. "These arms were imported from Iran to our country. It is of great interest to the world. In fact, the United Nations has interest in this matter."
Nigeria reported Iran to the United Nations after Nigerian security officials in October seized a hidden shipment of military-grade arms that originated in Iran and passed through Nigeria's busiest port in Lagos.
Artillery rockets and other weapons, loaded in 13 shipping containers that were labeled as building supplies, were seized Oct. 26.
Magistrate Judge Hafsat Soso said the four men would remain in the custody of Nigeria's State Security Service as investigations continued.
Russia opens key plant to destroy chemical weapons
POCHEP, Russia – Russia will miss a 2012 deadline for destroying all of its chemical weapons, officials said Friday as they inaugurated a major new plant to dispose of them.
The facility at Pochep, in the western Bryansk region, is the latest of several plants built in Russia in recent years to dismantle its Cold War-era chemical weapons arsenals — the world's largest.
As a signatory of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, the country already has destroyed about half of its chemical weapons, according to Russian officials.
It is facing an April 2012 deadline for destroying all its chemical weapons, but Viktor Kholstov, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade's official in charge of chemical disarmament, said Friday the nation will need two or three more years.
He said the delay had been caused by a shortage of funds in the last two years.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a similar warning in August, saying that, because of the global financial crisis, Russia had run into "financial and technical difficulties" that would stretch the time required for completing the disposal of chemical weapons stockpiles by up to three years.
The United States has acknowledged it will miss the deadline, too. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said at the United Nations last month that the U.S. had destroyed 78 percent of the chemical weapons stockpiles and is on pace to destroy 90 percent of its arsenal destroyed by April 2012.
Pochep is home to a stockpile of 7,500 tons of nerve agent — nearly 19 percent of the chemical weapons Russia is committed to destroy. Col.-Gen. Valery Kapashin, a military official in charge of storage and elimination of Russia's chemical stockpiles, said Pochep is expected to destroy its stock of chemical weapons by the end of 2014.
The facility at Pochep, in the western Bryansk region, is the latest of several plants built in Russia in recent years to dismantle its Cold War-era chemical weapons arsenals — the world's largest.
As a signatory of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, the country already has destroyed about half of its chemical weapons, according to Russian officials.
It is facing an April 2012 deadline for destroying all its chemical weapons, but Viktor Kholstov, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade's official in charge of chemical disarmament, said Friday the nation will need two or three more years.
He said the delay had been caused by a shortage of funds in the last two years.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a similar warning in August, saying that, because of the global financial crisis, Russia had run into "financial and technical difficulties" that would stretch the time required for completing the disposal of chemical weapons stockpiles by up to three years.
The United States has acknowledged it will miss the deadline, too. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said at the United Nations last month that the U.S. had destroyed 78 percent of the chemical weapons stockpiles and is on pace to destroy 90 percent of its arsenal destroyed by April 2012.
Pochep is home to a stockpile of 7,500 tons of nerve agent — nearly 19 percent of the chemical weapons Russia is committed to destroy. Col.-Gen. Valery Kapashin, a military official in charge of storage and elimination of Russia's chemical stockpiles, said Pochep is expected to destroy its stock of chemical weapons by the end of 2014.
Saudi Arabia arrests 149 suspected of Qaeda links
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia arrested 149 people from 19 cells linked to al Qaeda over the past 8 months and foiled attacks against government and security officials as well as journalists, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
It said in a statement it had confiscated 2.24 million riyals ($597,237) from al Qaeda when it tried to collect money and spread its ideology during the Muslim pilgrimages of Haj and Umra in Saudi Arabia.
"In the past eight months 149 people linked to al Qaeda were arrested, among them were 124 Saudis and 25 were from other nationalities," Mansour Turki told journalists at a news conference.
He said the attackers were also planning to target government facilities but did not say whether they included oil installations.
Al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi wings merged in 2009 into a new group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen. A Saudi counter-terrorism drive halted an armed campaign in Saudi Arabia by al Qaeda from 2003 to 2006.
The arrests announced on Friday follow one of the largest al Qaeda sweeps in years by Saudi Arabia earlier this year. In March, the kingdom arrested 113 al Qaeda militants including suicide bombers who had been planning attacks on energy facilities in the world's top oil exporter.
The March arrests netted 58 suspected Saudi militants and 52 from Yemen. The militants, who also came from Bangladesh, Eritrea and Somalia, were backed by the Yemen-based AQAP.
It said in a statement it had confiscated 2.24 million riyals ($597,237) from al Qaeda when it tried to collect money and spread its ideology during the Muslim pilgrimages of Haj and Umra in Saudi Arabia.
"In the past eight months 149 people linked to al Qaeda were arrested, among them were 124 Saudis and 25 were from other nationalities," Mansour Turki told journalists at a news conference.
He said the attackers were also planning to target government facilities but did not say whether they included oil installations.
Al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi wings merged in 2009 into a new group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen. A Saudi counter-terrorism drive halted an armed campaign in Saudi Arabia by al Qaeda from 2003 to 2006.
The arrests announced on Friday follow one of the largest al Qaeda sweeps in years by Saudi Arabia earlier this year. In March, the kingdom arrested 113 al Qaeda militants including suicide bombers who had been planning attacks on energy facilities in the world's top oil exporter.
The March arrests netted 58 suspected Saudi militants and 52 from Yemen. The militants, who also came from Bangladesh, Eritrea and Somalia, were backed by the Yemen-based AQAP.
China issues warning ahead of U.S.-South Korea drills
SEOUL (Reuters) – China warned on Friday against military acts near its coastline ahead of U.S.-South Korean naval exercises that North Korea, days after shelling a South Korean island, said risked pushing the region toward war.
Beijing's warning came as the Seoul government named a career soldier as its new defense minister amid mounting criticism of the response to Tuesday's attack by North Korea, its heaviest bombardment since the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korean artillery shells rained down on the small South Korean island of Yeonpyeong on Tuesday, killing four people and destroying dozens of houses.
"The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage again war exercises targeted against the (North)," the North's official KCNA news agency said.
The aggressive language is typical of North Korean state-owned media, but the heightened tension was enough to depress the won as much as 2.2 percent. The stock market closed 1.3 percent down, in line with the wider region.
The United States is sending in an aircraft carrier group led by the nuclear-powered USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea for military exercises with South Korea starting on Sunday.
Planned before this week's attack, the four-day maneuvers are a show of strength which, besides enraging North Korea, have unsettled China, its neighbor and only real ally.
"We oppose any military act by any party conducted in China's exclusive economic zone without approval," China's Foreign Ministry said in an online response to a question regarding China's position on the George Washington participating in joint naval exercises.
The exclusive economic zone is a maritime zone up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast.
Washington is pressing China to use its influence to rein in Pyongyang to help ease tension in the world's fastest-growing economic region.
GOVERNMENT CRITICISED
South Korea's presidential Blue House appointed Kim Kwan-jin, 61, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to replace Kim Tae-young, who had tried to resign the defense portfolio in May following criticism of the government's response to a torpedo attack on a South Korean warship blamed on the North.
"(We) think nominee Kim, well-respected for professionalism and conviction, is the right person for the post in order to restore trust from people and boost morale in the entire military," presidential secretary Hong Sang-pyo told a news briefing.
There was brief panic in the capital Seoul in the afternoon when television reported sounds of artillery fire near Yeonpyeong. But the military said the artillery fire was distant and no shells landed in South Korea.
"Investors are growing more jittery ahead of the joint military exercise," said Kim Hyoung-ryoul, a market analyst at NH Investment & Securities. "The key concern is, whether North Korea will again take unforeseen, rash actions."
Reclusive and unpredictable North Korea has defied international efforts to halt its nuclear ambitions. But Tuesday's artillery barrage was a major ramping-up of tension between to two Koreas, who remain technically still at war.
South Korean troops fired back 13 minutes later, causing unknown damage. Members of Lee's own party and opposition lawmakers accused the military of responding too slowly.
Hundreds of former South Korean soldiers held a protest rally in the border town of Paju on Friday, accusing the government of being too weak. A small anti-North Korea protest was held in Seoul.
"The lazy government's policies toward North Korea are too soft," said Kim Byeong-su, president of the association of ex-marines, in Paju. "It needs to take revenge on a bunch of mad dogs."
Beijing's warning came as the Seoul government named a career soldier as its new defense minister amid mounting criticism of the response to Tuesday's attack by North Korea, its heaviest bombardment since the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korean artillery shells rained down on the small South Korean island of Yeonpyeong on Tuesday, killing four people and destroying dozens of houses.
"The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage again war exercises targeted against the (North)," the North's official KCNA news agency said.
The aggressive language is typical of North Korean state-owned media, but the heightened tension was enough to depress the won as much as 2.2 percent. The stock market closed 1.3 percent down, in line with the wider region.
The United States is sending in an aircraft carrier group led by the nuclear-powered USS George Washington to the Yellow Sea for military exercises with South Korea starting on Sunday.
Planned before this week's attack, the four-day maneuvers are a show of strength which, besides enraging North Korea, have unsettled China, its neighbor and only real ally.
"We oppose any military act by any party conducted in China's exclusive economic zone without approval," China's Foreign Ministry said in an online response to a question regarding China's position on the George Washington participating in joint naval exercises.
The exclusive economic zone is a maritime zone up to 200 nautical miles from a country's coast.
Washington is pressing China to use its influence to rein in Pyongyang to help ease tension in the world's fastest-growing economic region.
GOVERNMENT CRITICISED
South Korea's presidential Blue House appointed Kim Kwan-jin, 61, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to replace Kim Tae-young, who had tried to resign the defense portfolio in May following criticism of the government's response to a torpedo attack on a South Korean warship blamed on the North.
"(We) think nominee Kim, well-respected for professionalism and conviction, is the right person for the post in order to restore trust from people and boost morale in the entire military," presidential secretary Hong Sang-pyo told a news briefing.
There was brief panic in the capital Seoul in the afternoon when television reported sounds of artillery fire near Yeonpyeong. But the military said the artillery fire was distant and no shells landed in South Korea.
"Investors are growing more jittery ahead of the joint military exercise," said Kim Hyoung-ryoul, a market analyst at NH Investment & Securities. "The key concern is, whether North Korea will again take unforeseen, rash actions."
Reclusive and unpredictable North Korea has defied international efforts to halt its nuclear ambitions. But Tuesday's artillery barrage was a major ramping-up of tension between to two Koreas, who remain technically still at war.
South Korean troops fired back 13 minutes later, causing unknown damage. Members of Lee's own party and opposition lawmakers accused the military of responding too slowly.
Hundreds of former South Korean soldiers held a protest rally in the border town of Paju on Friday, accusing the government of being too weak. A small anti-North Korea protest was held in Seoul.
"The lazy government's policies toward North Korea are too soft," said Kim Byeong-su, president of the association of ex-marines, in Paju. "It needs to take revenge on a bunch of mad dogs."
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
New Zealand mine: 'No survivors' after second blast
All 29 miners trapped in a New Zealand coal pit since Friday are believed to be dead after a second explosion.
Police Supt Gary Knowles said there was no hope that anyone could have survived the "massive" underground blast at the Pike River mine on South Island.
Prime Minister John Key said the loss of life was a national tragedy.
There had been no contact with the men - 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African - since the first explosion on Friday.
The Britons were Peter Roger, 40, and Malcolm Campbell, 25, who were both originally from Scotland.
The mayor of Greymouth, the town nearest the mine, said the miners' families were in "absolute despair" after hearing of the news.
'Still hoping'
Supt Knowles, who was leading the rescue operation, said there had been another explosion at 1437 local time (0137 GMT) inside the mine
"It is our belief that no-one has survived and everyone will have perished," he told reporters.
"I was at the mine myself when this actually occurred and the blast was horrific, just as severe as the first blast and we're currently now moving into recovery phase,"
"This is one of the most tragic things I have had to do as a police officer."
Rescuers had been preparing to go into the mine on Wednesday, but information suggested the levels of methane gas were too high.
Shortly afterwards, the second explosion happened. It was larger and stronger than Friday's blast, and lasted about 30 seconds, officials said.
The chief executive of Pike River Coal, Peter Whittall, said it would make every effort to retrieve the bodies of the men.
"We want our boys back and we want to get them out," he told reporters.
Mr Whittall said the families were ''absolutely devastated by the news".
''They had all held out hope that their son, their brother would be the lucky one,'' he said, before adding with tears welling up in his eyes: "I'm unlikely to see my workmates again".
Family members wept, shouted and fell to the floor after hearing the news, Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn said.
"People shouted out in anger, they are sickened by the whole thing. A lot of them felt misled," he added. "It's unbelievable. This is the West Coast's darkest hour. It doesn't get worse than this."
Lawrie Drew, the father of 21-year-old miner Zen Drew, later told reporters: "I am still hoping that somebody can be found that is still alive."
'Agonising blow'
The prime minister said he would travel to the area on Thursday to meet the miners' families and thank the resue crews.
"New Zealand is a small country, a country where we are our brother's keeper, so to lose this many brothers at once strikes an agonising blow," Mr Key told a news conference in Wellington.
"The 29 men whose names and faces we have all come to know, will never walk amongst us again. We are a nation in mourning."
He also offered his condolences to Australia, South Africa and the UK.
Mr Key praised all those involved in the rescue attempt, and said there would now be a full inquiry into how the tragedy had happened, with the aim of making sure that it did not happen again.
Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand said the disaster would be felt at many levels, and was a great personal loss for the individual families and friends of those who died.
"There will be few on the West Coast who do not have a shared connection of some kind with those on whom this tragedy has impacted most directly," he said.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the second blast. However, Mr Whittall said it was not thought that any rescue work caused it.
"To the best of my knowledge, absolutely nothing that was being done up there has caused this," he added. "This has come from somewhere up in the mine. We weren't doing anything in the mine other than in the fresh air and that wouldn't have caused any explosion."
Air samples taken from inside the mine through a 162m (530ft) bore-hole completed on Wednesday had shown dangerous levels of methane and carbon monoxide, preventing rescuers from entering the mine.
Two robots had been sent into tunnels of the mine and a third was on its way in the hope of gaining a clearer pictures of the conditions underground.
Relatives of some of the miners had earlier questioned why rescuers had not immediately entered the mine after the first blast.
But Mr Whittall defended the decision to keep rescue workers out of the mine. "It's dangerous and it's hazardous and the rescue teams would be putting their lives gravely at risk," he said.
"While we were there and making that assessment, exactly what we said could happen, happened."
Mining expert David Feickert told TVNZ it was likely the men became unconscious from carbon monoxide prior to the second explosion and so would not have felt the blast.
Pike River is not far from the Strongman Mine, where an underground explosion killed 19 men in January 1967.
New Zealand's worst mining disaster was in 1896, when a gas explosion at the Brunner mine, also near Greymouth, left 65 miners dead. It accessed the same coal seam as the Pike River mine.
U.S. aircraft carrier heads for Korean waters
INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) – A U.S. aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday, a day after North Korea launched artillery shells on a South Korean island, a move likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of over 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo and would join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, U.S. officials in Seoul said.
"This exercise is defensive in nature," U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. "While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-U.S. alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence."
The move appeared aimed at reinforcing heavy pressure on China to rein in North Korea after the reclusive nation fired dozens of artillery shells at the South Korean island. Two South Korean soldiers were killed and houses set ablaze in the heaviest attack in the region since the Korean War ended in 1953.
But Seoul was bustling as normal on a sunny autumn day, although developments were being closely watched by office workers on TV and in newspapers. Editorials stepped up pressure on President Lee Myung-bak to respond more toughly than he has to past provocations by the North and two small groups held anti-North Korea protests.
Pyongyang said the firing was in reaction to military drills conducted by South Korea in the area at the time but Seoul said it had not been firing at the North.
President Barack Obama, woken up in the early hours to be told of the artillery strike, said he was outraged and pressed the North to stop its provocative actions.
Although U.S. officials said the joint exercise was scheduled before the attack by North Korea, it was reminiscent of a crisis in 1996 when then President Bill Clinton sent an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan Strait after Beijing test-fired missiles into the channel between the mainland and Taiwan.
"An aircraft carrier is the most visible sign of power projection there is...you could see this as a form of pre-emptive deterrence," said Lee Chung-min of Yonsei University in Seoul.
Tuesday's bombardment nagged at global markets, already unsettled by worries over Ireland's debt problem and looking to invest in less risky assets.
But South Korea's markets, after sharp falls, recovered lost ground.
"If you look back at the last five years when we've had scares, they were all seen as buying opportunities. The rule among hedge funds and long-only funds is that you let the market sell off and watch for your entry point to get involved," said Todd Martin, Asia equity strategist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
SEMI STATE OF WAR
"We're in a semi state of war," South Korean coastguard Kim Dong-jin told Reuters in the port city of Incheon where many residents of Yeonpyeong island fled in panic as the bombardment triggered a fire storm.
"My house was burned to the ground," said Cho Soon-ae, 47, who was among 170 or so evacuated from Yeonpyeong on Wednesday.
"We've lost everything. I don't even have extra underwear," she said weeping, holding on to her sixth-grade daughter, as she landed at Incheon.
Despite the rhetoric, regional powers made clear they were looking for a diplomatic way to calm things down.
South Korea, its armed forces technically superior though about half the size of the North's one-million-plus army, warned of "massive retaliation" if its neighbor attacked again.
But it was careful to avoid any immediate threat of retaliation which might spark an escalation of fighting across the Cold War's last frontier.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called on China to help rein in the hermit state.
China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership, worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability to its own borders and also wary of a unified Korea that would be dominated by the United States, the key ally of the South.
In a clear prod to Beijing during a visit to the Chinese capital, North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth said: "We call on all members of the international community to condemn the DPRK's (North Korea's) acts and to make clear that they expect the DPRK to cease all provocations and implement its denuclearization commitments."
On Tuesday, Obama said he would urge China to tell Pyongyang "there are a set of international rules they must abide by."
Beijing said it had agreed with the United States to try to restart talks among regional powers over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
A number of analysts suspect that Tuesday's attack may have been an attempt by North Korean leader Kim jong-il to raise his bargaining position ahead of disarmament talks which he has used in the past to win concessions and aid from the outside world, in particular the United States.
"It's Mr Kim's old game to get some attention and some economic goodies," said Lin Chong-pin, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.
Several analysts believe the attacks may also have been driven by domestic politics, with the ailing Kim desperate to give a lift to his youngest son, named as heir apparent to the family dynasty in September but who has little clear support in the military.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of over 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo and would join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to the following Wednesday, U.S. officials in Seoul said.
"This exercise is defensive in nature," U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement. "While planned well before yesterday's unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK (South Korea)-U.S. alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence."
The move appeared aimed at reinforcing heavy pressure on China to rein in North Korea after the reclusive nation fired dozens of artillery shells at the South Korean island. Two South Korean soldiers were killed and houses set ablaze in the heaviest attack in the region since the Korean War ended in 1953.
But Seoul was bustling as normal on a sunny autumn day, although developments were being closely watched by office workers on TV and in newspapers. Editorials stepped up pressure on President Lee Myung-bak to respond more toughly than he has to past provocations by the North and two small groups held anti-North Korea protests.
Pyongyang said the firing was in reaction to military drills conducted by South Korea in the area at the time but Seoul said it had not been firing at the North.
President Barack Obama, woken up in the early hours to be told of the artillery strike, said he was outraged and pressed the North to stop its provocative actions.
Although U.S. officials said the joint exercise was scheduled before the attack by North Korea, it was reminiscent of a crisis in 1996 when then President Bill Clinton sent an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan Strait after Beijing test-fired missiles into the channel between the mainland and Taiwan.
"An aircraft carrier is the most visible sign of power projection there is...you could see this as a form of pre-emptive deterrence," said Lee Chung-min of Yonsei University in Seoul.
Tuesday's bombardment nagged at global markets, already unsettled by worries over Ireland's debt problem and looking to invest in less risky assets.
But South Korea's markets, after sharp falls, recovered lost ground.
"If you look back at the last five years when we've had scares, they were all seen as buying opportunities. The rule among hedge funds and long-only funds is that you let the market sell off and watch for your entry point to get involved," said Todd Martin, Asia equity strategist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
SEMI STATE OF WAR
"We're in a semi state of war," South Korean coastguard Kim Dong-jin told Reuters in the port city of Incheon where many residents of Yeonpyeong island fled in panic as the bombardment triggered a fire storm.
"My house was burned to the ground," said Cho Soon-ae, 47, who was among 170 or so evacuated from Yeonpyeong on Wednesday.
"We've lost everything. I don't even have extra underwear," she said weeping, holding on to her sixth-grade daughter, as she landed at Incheon.
Despite the rhetoric, regional powers made clear they were looking for a diplomatic way to calm things down.
South Korea, its armed forces technically superior though about half the size of the North's one-million-plus army, warned of "massive retaliation" if its neighbor attacked again.
But it was careful to avoid any immediate threat of retaliation which might spark an escalation of fighting across the Cold War's last frontier.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called on China to help rein in the hermit state.
China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership, worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability to its own borders and also wary of a unified Korea that would be dominated by the United States, the key ally of the South.
In a clear prod to Beijing during a visit to the Chinese capital, North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth said: "We call on all members of the international community to condemn the DPRK's (North Korea's) acts and to make clear that they expect the DPRK to cease all provocations and implement its denuclearization commitments."
On Tuesday, Obama said he would urge China to tell Pyongyang "there are a set of international rules they must abide by."
Beijing said it had agreed with the United States to try to restart talks among regional powers over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
A number of analysts suspect that Tuesday's attack may have been an attempt by North Korean leader Kim jong-il to raise his bargaining position ahead of disarmament talks which he has used in the past to win concessions and aid from the outside world, in particular the United States.
"It's Mr Kim's old game to get some attention and some economic goodies," said Lin Chong-pin, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.
Several analysts believe the attacks may also have been driven by domestic politics, with the ailing Kim desperate to give a lift to his youngest son, named as heir apparent to the family dynasty in September but who has little clear support in the military.
Obama pledges US to defend its ally South Korea
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Tuesday pledged the United States would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with South Korea after what the White House branded a provocative, outrageous attack by North Korea on its neighbor. Its options limited, the U.S. sought a diplomatic rather a military response to one of the most ominous clashes between the Koreas in decades.
"South Korea is our ally. It has been since the Korean war," Obama said in his first comments about the North Korean shelling of a South Korean island early Tuesday. "And we strongly affirm our commitment to defend South Korea as part of that alliance."
Working to head off any escalation, the U.S. did not reposition any of its 29,000 troops in the South or make other military moves after North Korea fired salvos of shells into the island, setting off an artillery duel between the two sides.
The president, speaking to ABC News, would not speculate when asked about military options.
Obama called South Korean President Lee Myung-bak later Tuesday night, saying the U.S. would work with the international community to strongly condemn the attack that killed the two South Koreans and injured many more, the White House said.
The White House said the two presidents agreed to hold combined military exercises and enhanced training in the days ahead to continue the close security cooperation between the two countries.
Obama assured Lee that "the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with our close friend and ally, the Republic of Korea," the White House statement said.
"President Obama said that North Korea must stop its provocative actions, which will only lead to further isolation, and fully abide by the terms of the armistice agreement and its obligations under international law," the statement said.
The U.S. has relatively few options when dealing with the Pyongyang government. Military action is particularly unappealing, since the unpredictable North possesses crude nuclear weapons as well as a huge standing army. North Korea exists largely outside the system of international financial and diplomatic institutions that the U.S. has used as leverage in dealing with other hostile countries, including Iran.
North Korea has also resisted pressure from its major ally, China, which appears to be nervous about the signs of instability in its neighbor.
"We strongly condemn the attack and we are rallying the international community to put pressure on North Korea," Obama said in the ABC interview, specifically citing the need for China's help. Obama said every nation in the region must know "this is a serious and ongoing threat."
An administration official said Tuesday evening that U.S. officials in Washington and in Beijing were appealing strongly to China to condemn the attack by arguing that it was an act that threatened the stability of the entire region, not just the Korean peninsula. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates phoned South Korea's defense minister to express sympathy for the deaths of two of the South's marines in the artillery shelling of a small South Korean island and to express appreciation "for the restraint shown to date" by the South's government, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Obama called North Korea's action "just one more provocative incident" and said he would consult with Lee on an appropriate response.
In his phone call to South Korea's defense minister, Gates said the U.S. viewed recent attacks as a violation of the armistice agreement that ended the Korea War in 1953, and he reiterated the U.S. commitment to South Korea's defense, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.
Obama was awakened at 4 a.m. Tuesday with the news. He went ahead with an Indiana trip focused on the economy before returning to the White House after dark.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. would take a "deliberate approach" in response to what he also called provocative North Korean behavior. At the same time, other administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the emerging strategy, said the White House was determined to end a diplomatic cycle that officials said rewards North Korean brinksmanship.
In the past, the U.S. and other nations have sweetened offers to North Korea as it has developed new missiles and prototype nuclear weapons. North Korea is now demanding new one-on-one talks with the United States, which rejects that model in favor of group diplomacy that includes North Korea's protector, China.
"We're not going to respond willy-nilly," Toner said. "We believe that it's important that we keep a unified and measured approach going forward."
Both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill accused North Korea of starting the skirmish.
The violence comes as the North prepares for a dynastic change in leadership and faces a winter of food and electricity shortages. It is the latest of a series of confrontations that have aggravated tensions on the divided peninsula.
The incident also follows the North's decision last week to give visiting Western scientists a tour of a secret uranium enrichment facility, which may signal an expansion of the North's nuclear weapons program. Six weeks ago, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il anointed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as his heir apparent.
The administration official said the U.S. did not interpret North Korea's aggression as a desire to go to war, but as yet another effort to extract concessions from the international community.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said no new equipment or personnel have been relocated to South Korea, while Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz seemed to shrug off the latest incident as something that Seoul can handle on its own.
"The North Koreans have undertaken over time a number of provocations that have manifested themselves in different ways," Schwartz said.
The USS George Washington carrier strike group will join South Korean naval forces in the waters west of the Korean peninsula Nov. 28-Dec. 1 to conduct air defense and surface warfare readiness training that had been planned well before Tuesday's attack, the White House said.
The artillery exchange was only the latest serious incident between the two nations. In March, a South Korean naval ship, the Cheonan, exploded and sank in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 sailors. South Korea accused the North of torpedoing the vessel; the North denied the allegation.
In August, the South Korean military reported that the North had fired 110 artillery rounds into the Yellow Sea near the disputed sea border but said the shells fell harmlessly into North Korean waters.
South Korean officials said Tuesday's clash came after Pyongyang warned the South to halt military drills near the small South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.
When Seoul refused and began firing artillery into the water near the disputed sea border, the North bombarded Yeonpyeong, which houses South Korean military installations and a small civilian population.
Recent joint U.S.-Korean naval exercises and strenuous denunciations of the North may only have provoked the regime in Pyongyang. Some experts say the secretive regime may be trying to promote Kim Jong Un as a worthy successor who, like his father, is capable of standing up to the U.S.
"I think it may be all wrapped in this succession planning, in the way the North is looking at it," said Robert RisCassi, a retired Army general who commanded U.S. forces in Korea from 1990-93.
The U.S.-South Korea exercises also angered China. Beijing is regarded as the key to any long-term diplomatic bargain to end North Korea's nuclear program and reduce tensions on the peninsula.
But U.S. officials say the North's motives and internal politics are opaque and sometimes appear inconsistent.
"I don't know the answer to any question about North Korea that begins with the word 'why,'" Gates told reporters Monday.
India district bans cell phones for unmarried women
NEW DELHI (AFP) – A local council in northern India has banned unmarried women from carrying mobile telephones to halt a series of illicit romances between partners from different castes, media reports said Wednesday.
The Baliyan council in Uttar Pradesh state decided to act after at least 23 young couples ran away and got married over the last year against their parents' wishes.
"The panchayat (assembly) was convinced that the couples planned their elopement over their cell phones," village elder Jatin Raghuvanshi told the Calcutta Telegraph.
The rules of inter-caste marriages are complicated and extremely rigid in many rural communities in India, with some lovers even murdered in "honour killings" by relatives trying to protect their family's reputation.
"All parents were told to ensure their unmarried daughters do not use cell phones. The boys can do so, but only under their parents' monitoring," said Satish Tyagi, a spokesman for the village assembly.
Caste discrimination is banned in India but still pervades many aspects of daily life, especially outside the cities.
Traditional Hindu society breaks down into brahmins (priests and scholars), kshatriya (soldiers), vaishya (merchants) and shudra (labourers). Below the caste system are the Dalits, formerly known as "Untouchables".
Caste categories often determine Indians' life prospects, and conservative families will only marry within their own caste sub-division.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
North Korea shells South in fiercest attack in decades
INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) – North Korea fired scores of artillery shells at a South Korean island on Tuesday, killing two soldiers, in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.
The barrage -- the South fired back and sent a fighter jet to the area -- was close to a disputed maritime border on the west of the divided peninsula and the scene of deadly clashes in the past. South Korea was conducting military drills in the area at the time but said it had not been firing at the North.
The attack came as the reclusive North, and its ally China, presses regional powers to return to negotiations on its nuclear weapons program and revelations at the weekend Pyongyang is fast developing another source of material to make atomic bombs.
It also follows moves by leader Kim Jong-il to make his youngest, but unproven, son his heir apparent, leading some analysts to question whether the bombardment might in part have been an attempt to burnish the ruling family's image with the military.
"Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can't see very well because of plumes of smoke," a witness on the island told YTN Television before the shelling, which lasted about an hour, ended.
YTN said at least 200 North Korean shells hit Yeonpyeong, which lies off the west coast of the divided peninsula near a disputed maritime border. Most landed on a military base there.
Photographs from Yeongyeong island, just 120 km (75 miles) west of Seoul, showed columns of smoke rising from buildings. Two soldiers were killed in the attack, 17 wounded. Three civilians were also hurt.
News of the attack rattled global markets, already unsettled by Ireland's debt woes and a shift to less risky assets.
Experts say North Korea's Kim has for decades played a carefully calibrated game of provocation to squeeze concessions from the international community and impress his own military. The risk is that the leadership transition has upset this balance and that events spin out of control.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who has pursued a hard line with the North since taking office nearly three years ago, said a response had to be firm following the attack.
But he made no suggestion the South would retaliate further, suggesting Seoul was taking a measured response to prevent things getting out of hand.
The North has a huge array of artillery pointed at Seoul that could decimate an urban area home to around 25 million people and cause major damage to its trillion dollar economy.
The two Koreas are still technically at war -- the Korean War ended only with a truce -- and tension rose sharply early this year after Seoul accused the North of torpedoing one of its navy vessels, killing 46 sailors.
North Korea said its wealthy neighbor started the fight.
"Despite our repeated warnings, South Korea fired dozens of shells from 1 p.m. ... and we've taken strong military action immediately," its KCNA news agency said in a brief statement.
South Korea said it had been conducting military drills in the area beforehand but had fired west, not north.
The international community was quick to express alarm at the sudden rise in tension in a region that is home to three of the world's biggest economies -- China, Japan and South Korea.
A French diplomatic source said the U.N. Security Council would call an emergency meeting in a day or two over North Korea, against which it has imposed heavy economic sanctions for previous nuclear and missile tests.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the escalation in tensions a "colossal danger.
China was careful to avoid taking sides, calling on both Koreas to "do more to contribute to peace.
"China hopes that the relevant parties will do more to contribute to peace and stability in the region ... it is imperative now to resume the six-party talks," a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, told reporters.
Those talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program -- involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States -- have long been on ice.
But the North has recently been pushing to resume the talks, which previously it has used to win massive aid in return for promises to end its weapons program.
WON TUMBLES
News of the exchange of fire sent the won tumbling in offshore markets with the 1-month won down about four percent at one stage in NDF trading. U.S. 10-year Treasury futures rose and the Japanese yen fell.
The South Korean central bank, after an emergency meeting, said it planned to cooperate with the government to take measures to stabilize markets if necessary. Many traders expect South Korea's financial markets to fall further when trading opens on Wednesday.
The attack comes just as a U.S. envoy is in Beijing on a tour of the region and is expected to ask China to use its influence over North Korea.
Washington has branded the North a danger to the region and expressed concern Pyongyang would sell nuclear weapons technology to other states. It has said it was ready to return to talks but wants to see more commitment to denuclearization by the North beforehand.
The White House condemned the attack, telling the North to halt its "belligerent action" and saying it was committed to defend the South.
It has about 28,000 troops in South Korea, their combined forces facing an estimated one million North Korean soldiers who make up one of the world's biggest standing armies.
"UNBELIEVABLE"
"It's unbelievable," said Zhu Feng, professor of international relations at Peking University. "Today's news proves that North Korea, under unprovoked conditions, shot these South Korean islands. It's reckless provocation. They want to make a big bang and force the negotiations back into their favor. It's the oldest trick."
The North depends heavily on China for economic and diplomatic support and Kim Jong-il has visited China twice this year, in part to gain backing for the anointment of his son as heir.
Those ties have become a sore point with Washington after reports that North Korea appears to have made big steps toward enriching uranium, possibly using technology that passed through or even originated in China.
China has urged returning to the nuclear disarmament negotiations but has also fended off calls from Washington and its regional allies to use its vital food and energy aid to North Korea as a lever.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Officials find 2,000 fetuses at Bangkok temple
BANGKOK – On the grounds of a Buddhist temple, dozens of white plastic bags lay in carefully arranged rows. Each sack was knotted at the top and contained the remains of a fetus. Thai authorities found about 2,000 remains in the temple's mortuary, where they had been hidden for a year — apparently to conceal illegal abortions.
A strong stench had drawn police to the temple in Bangkok's old city Tuesday, and authorities searching the mortuary — where bodies awaiting cremation are normally kept — initially found more than 300 fetuses. They returned Friday to find more than five times that number, according to police Lt. Col. Kanathud Musiganont.
Health officials, police and charity workers counted the fetuses, placing each one in a white plastic bag bearing the charity's name in red Thai script and Chinese characters. The group is often involved in the handling of remains, including recovering bodies from accident scenes and organizing burials.
As the remains were laid out, Buddhist worshippers left offerings for the fetuses: milk and bananas to nourish their spirits in the afterlife.
Abortion is illegal in Thailand except under three conditions — if a woman is raped, if the pregnancy affects her health or if the fetus is abnormal.
Although Thailand is home to a huge and active sex industry, many Thais are conservative on sexual matters, and Buddhist activists especially oppose liberalizing abortion laws.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Friday that more must be done to prevent illegal abortions but that his government would not revise the laws. He said his government has discussed the matter and believed that "the existing laws are appropriate and flexible enough."
Several people have already been arrested in the case: two undertakers for hiding bodies to conceal the cause of death and an abortion clinic employee on charges of operating an unlicensed medical clinic and performing abortions. The undertakers could each be sent to prison for up to a year and fined 2,000 baht ($67). The clinic employee — who police said confessed she had delivered the fetuses to the morgue workers starting early this year — could face up to five years in jail and a fine of 10,000 baht ($333).
Suchart Poomee, 38, one of the undertakers being questioned, confessed Tuesday he had been hired by illegal abortion clinics to destroy the fetuses, police said. He said he had been collecting the fetuses since November 2009. It was not clear why they had not yet been cremated.
Police Col. Sombat Milintachinda said the fetuses found Friday seemed to have been hidden for a longer period of time than those found earlier in the week.
Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanavisith said around 1 million Thai women get pregnant each year, with 60,000 suffering miscarriages and another 80,000 getting legal abortions. He gave no estimate for the number of illegal abortions.
Illegal abortion "requires efforts from both the government and the private sector to promote better understanding about sex among the Thai youngsters," Jurin said.
Suriyadeo Tripathi, the director of Thailand's National Institute for Child and Family Development, said young people were getting mixed messages, and sex education needs to be improved.
"On the one hand, you see many campaigns trying to promote safer sex, but on the other, a lot of people still strongly encourage abstinence and retain a stigma against premarital sex," he said
Pentagon says "aware" of China Internet rerouting
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Defense Department is aware that Internet traffic was rerouted briefly through China earlier this year, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday, referring to what a congressionally appointed panel has described as a hijack.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission charged in its annual report on Wednesday that state-owned China Telecom advertised erroneous network routes that instructed "massive volumes" of U.S. and other foreign Internet traffic to go through Chinese servers during an 18-minute stretch on April 8.
Marine Colonel David Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters, "We're aware that on the 8th of April ... Internet traffic was rerouted through China."
He added at one point that he did not know if "we've determined whether that particular incident ... was done with some malicious intent or not."
Moments later, he said there was no evidence that anything malicious had occurred, a position he repeated when pressed about the discrepancy in his remarks.
The U.S.-China Commission in its 2010 report said the incident affected traffic to and from U.S. government and military sites, including those for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' office, the armed forces and some commercial websites.
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned the commission's report on China's military capabilities and economic policies, saying it distorted reality and was symptomatic of Cold War thinking.
China Telecom separately has denied the charge that it "hijacked" U.S. Internet traffic by sending false notifications that prompted other servers to route traffic through China on the assumption that it was the most efficient path.
The commission said the evidence did not clearly show whether the incident was perpetrated intentionally "and, if so, to what ends. However, computer security researchers have noted that the capability could enable severe malicious activities," the report said.
Commissioner Larry Wortzel, a retired U.S. Army colonel who served two tours as a military attache in China, told reporters that the incident could have let someone mine email addresses and then send authentic-looking messages bearing attachments with malicious code or other harmful software.
"When I see things like this happen, I ask: 'Who might be interested in all the communication from the entire Department of Defense and the federal government? It's probably not a graduate student from Shanghai University,'" Wortzel said on Wednesday.
Lapan, the Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department's internal networks would not have been affected by any improper rerouting of traffic through Chinese servers.
"We do have tools to protect any of the traffic that goes outside" the internal networks, he added, referring to encryption and devices that warn when Internet traffic is being rerouted.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who led a Senate Intelligence Committee cyber task force that submitted a classified report to the panel in July on cyber threats, said on Wednesday that certain threats cannot be countered without the U.S. government's unique "authorities and capabilities."
In a Senate floor speech, the Rhode Island Democrat reiterated a proposal to create a "dot.secure" domain to protect crucial U.S. services such as power grids, financial networks, transportation and communications hubs.
"We simply cannot leave that core infrastructure on which the life and death of Americans depends without better security," Whitehouse said.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission was set up in 2000 to examine the security implications of growing economic ties with China.
Dean Cheng, an expert on Chinese security issues at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the alleged Internet hijacking appeared to be part of what he described as a disturbing pattern of aggressive Chinese cyber activities.
"All of this suggests that, from China's view, a global conflict is already underway - in the virtual world of cyberspace," he wrote. "The ability to redirect vast amounts of data constitutes a threat, not only to national security, but also to private companies and individuals, as their information, too, has now been put at risk."
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission charged in its annual report on Wednesday that state-owned China Telecom advertised erroneous network routes that instructed "massive volumes" of U.S. and other foreign Internet traffic to go through Chinese servers during an 18-minute stretch on April 8.
Marine Colonel David Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters, "We're aware that on the 8th of April ... Internet traffic was rerouted through China."
He added at one point that he did not know if "we've determined whether that particular incident ... was done with some malicious intent or not."
Moments later, he said there was no evidence that anything malicious had occurred, a position he repeated when pressed about the discrepancy in his remarks.
The U.S.-China Commission in its 2010 report said the incident affected traffic to and from U.S. government and military sites, including those for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' office, the armed forces and some commercial websites.
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned the commission's report on China's military capabilities and economic policies, saying it distorted reality and was symptomatic of Cold War thinking.
China Telecom separately has denied the charge that it "hijacked" U.S. Internet traffic by sending false notifications that prompted other servers to route traffic through China on the assumption that it was the most efficient path.
The commission said the evidence did not clearly show whether the incident was perpetrated intentionally "and, if so, to what ends. However, computer security researchers have noted that the capability could enable severe malicious activities," the report said.
Commissioner Larry Wortzel, a retired U.S. Army colonel who served two tours as a military attache in China, told reporters that the incident could have let someone mine email addresses and then send authentic-looking messages bearing attachments with malicious code or other harmful software.
"When I see things like this happen, I ask: 'Who might be interested in all the communication from the entire Department of Defense and the federal government? It's probably not a graduate student from Shanghai University,'" Wortzel said on Wednesday.
Lapan, the Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department's internal networks would not have been affected by any improper rerouting of traffic through Chinese servers.
"We do have tools to protect any of the traffic that goes outside" the internal networks, he added, referring to encryption and devices that warn when Internet traffic is being rerouted.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who led a Senate Intelligence Committee cyber task force that submitted a classified report to the panel in July on cyber threats, said on Wednesday that certain threats cannot be countered without the U.S. government's unique "authorities and capabilities."
In a Senate floor speech, the Rhode Island Democrat reiterated a proposal to create a "dot.secure" domain to protect crucial U.S. services such as power grids, financial networks, transportation and communications hubs.
"We simply cannot leave that core infrastructure on which the life and death of Americans depends without better security," Whitehouse said.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission was set up in 2000 to examine the security implications of growing economic ties with China.
Dean Cheng, an expert on Chinese security issues at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the alleged Internet hijacking appeared to be part of what he described as a disturbing pattern of aggressive Chinese cyber activities.
"All of this suggests that, from China's view, a global conflict is already underway - in the virtual world of cyberspace," he wrote. "The ability to redirect vast amounts of data constitutes a threat, not only to national security, but also to private companies and individuals, as their information, too, has now been put at risk."
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Congo general 'profits from blood gold'
A senior officer in the Democratic Republic of Congo has used the military to illegally profit from a gold mine, sources have told the BBC.
The BBC has evidence that Gen Gabriel Amisi Kumba installed a mining firm at the Omate mine in return for a 25% cut.
Following a mining ban in September, production is continuing at the mine under direct military control.
The general refused to answer questions about his role and the firm involved, Geminaco, denies there was a deal.
The lure of profits from mines in eastern DR Congo has turned the area into a battlefield.
Rebels target civilians in the surrounding villages near the border with Rwanda and Uganda and there have been reports of kidnapping, massacres and mass rapes, fuelled by the profits from minerals.
The military was sent in to suppress the rebels and ensure security for the local people.
Raw gold
During the last 12 months, Geminaco approached Gen Amisi, the second in command of the army, asking him to help it take over Omate.
Rene Mwinyi, head of Geminaco, told the BBC the company had the rights to mine the area.
In February, the general wrote to the regional army commander in North Kivu, telling him to evict a rival company, Socagrimines, in favour of Geminaco.
The BBC has a copy of the letter, which says: "I order you to proceed to the eviction of the administration in place and all military involved in mining activities and to reinstate Geminaco in its initial positions."
But the head of the government's mining division in North Kivu, Emmanuel Ndimubanzi, said the general should have had no role in the dispute between the two companies.
He added that neither Socagrimines nor Geminaco had the right to mine at Omate.
A well-placed source in the industry told the BBC the general benefited from the arrangement.
"The head of Geminaco in Congo, Rene Mwinyi, is a friend of General Amisi, or 'Tango Fort' as they call him," he said.
"They struck a deal to exploit Omate gold mine, which would give Amisi 25% of the monthly production of the raw gold."
A soldier, who spent over two months at the mine, also told the BBC: "At Omate there is the company Geminaco which exploits the minerals… and there are also soldiers who were sent by our chief of staff, General Tango Fort, who are also mining."
"The gold goes to the brigade commander in charge of units which are supposed to hunt down rebels…it also goes to Kinshasa. This is very serious: Instead of benefiting the state, this money goes to unknown pockets."
Mr Mwinyi said no such deal was done with Gen Amisi.
However, the 25% arrangement was confirmed by a provincial government source. Like many of the people who spoke to me, he would not go on the record because of fear of reprisals.
A source at Socagrimines said the company had tried and failed to do a deal with Gen Amisi itself. He said it was impossible to mine in the area without military support.
'Soldiers desert posts'
In September, Congolese President Joseph Kabila ordered a ban on mineral production in the east of the country, to root out what he called "mafia groups" who control the trade.
Geminaco has since been evicted, and its manager at the mine was arrested in October.
A source told the BBC that the manager was arrested because Gen Amisi was not getting his promised cut of the profits. The manager himself denied there was any deal between the company and the general.
He said Geminaco's ejection from the mine was related to the ban - which contradicts Mr Mwinyi's statement that the firm has an exemption from it.
Despite the ban, mining has continued at Omate - now under direct control of the military.
A gold digger confirmed that he was working at the Omate mine very recently. Armed soldiers control the mine and often beat the diggers, he said.
I was unable to visit the mine myself because of the heavy deployment of soldiers. However, a friend visited on foot and confirmed that production is continuing.
When the BBC contacted Gen Amisi, he refused to answer questions about Omate, saying he was not entitled to talk to the media.
He referred us to the army's spokesman who said we had no authority to investigate the general's interests.
DR Congo remains one of the world's poorest countries, despite its rich resources of minerals like gold, cassiterite and coltan.
The east of the country was ravaged by many years of war involving Congolese, Ugandan and Rwandan forces.
An estimated five million people died and the area has suffered continuing conflict involving armed groups who have committed numerous atrocities.
Just this summer, more than 300 civilians were raped in this area by a coalition of rebel groups.
An internal memo from the UN peacekeeping mission in DR Congo suggested that the villages attacked were vulnerable because there were no Congolese soldiers to protect them.
The soldiers deployed there had left their posts to go to mining areas nearby, including Omate.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sweden opens probe of U.S. embassy surveillance
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden is investigating to see whether the U.S. embassy has committed any crime by carrying out surveillance measures, the prosecutor's office said on Monday in a case similar to one that has blown up in neighboring Norway.
The probe to see if illegal intelligence gathering has taken place was launched after the Swedish Security Police at the weekend confirmed the U.S. embassy had a surveillance system in place since 2000, without informing the local authorities.
The Swedish office of public prosecution said in a statement that a preliminary probe had been opened to see whether the U.S. measures constituted a crime and to see who had carried out such a crime, if one had been committed.
"The investigation concerns American measures to protect the U.S. embassy in Stockholm and American personnel," the statement said.
The U.S. embassy in Stockholm said in a statement at the weekend that it did have a program to detect suspicious activities around its facilities. It said the system was neither secret nor an intelligence program.
The issue first came up in Norway last week when television network TV2 reported that a team of U.S. agents and retired Norwegian security officers had been conducting illegal systematic surveillance from a base near the U.S. embassy in Oslo.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry has said it is seeking an explanation from the U.S. side.
The probe to see if illegal intelligence gathering has taken place was launched after the Swedish Security Police at the weekend confirmed the U.S. embassy had a surveillance system in place since 2000, without informing the local authorities.
The Swedish office of public prosecution said in a statement that a preliminary probe had been opened to see whether the U.S. measures constituted a crime and to see who had carried out such a crime, if one had been committed.
"The investigation concerns American measures to protect the U.S. embassy in Stockholm and American personnel," the statement said.
The U.S. embassy in Stockholm said in a statement at the weekend that it did have a program to detect suspicious activities around its facilities. It said the system was neither secret nor an intelligence program.
The issue first came up in Norway last week when television network TV2 reported that a team of U.S. agents and retired Norwegian security officers had been conducting illegal systematic surveillance from a base near the U.S. embassy in Oslo.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry has said it is seeking an explanation from the U.S. side.
Indictment: Somali gangs trafficked girls for sex
MINNEAPOLIS – Twenty-nine people have been indicted in a sex trafficking ring in which Somali gangs in Minneapolis and St. Paul allegedly forced girls under age 14 into prostitution in Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.
The 24-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee, said one of the gangs' goals was recruiting females under age 18, including some under age 14, and forcing them into prostitution so the defendants could get money, marijuana or liquor.
The indictment details several instances in which young Somali or African American girls were taken from place to place and forced to engage in sex acts with multiple people. One girl was under 13 when she was first prostituted. Another girl was 18 when she was raped by multiple men in a hotel room, the indictment said.
John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the case is significant because the girls were repeatedly victimized over several years and transported to many places. The indictment lists incidents involving four victims, but says "other minor children" were involved. It's not clear how many victims there were in all.
"Human traffickers abuse innocent people, undermine our public safety, and often use their illicit proceeds to fund sophisticated criminal organizations," Morton said. "ICE is committed to bringing these criminals to justice and rescuing their victims from a life in the shadows."
Van Vincent, the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, wouldn't comment on the status of the girls, other than to say they were safe.
The indictment claims the ring involved three Minneapolis-based gangs — the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws — and that all three gangs are connected. The men and women charged were either gang members or associates of the gangs, the indictment said. They range in age from 19 to 38.
The indictment says the sex trafficking ring operated for 10 years, with the defendants recruiting young girls to engage in sex acts.
One girl was just 13 when, in 2005, she was taken from the Minneapolis area to an apartment in Nashville to engage in prostitution, it said. The girl was also taken to Columbus, Ohio, and other locations for prostitution.
In another case, a girl was under age 13 when she was first forced to engage in sex acts in November 2006. Two defendants had sex with her the next month at an apartment in St. Paul, and then other males arrived and were charged money to do the same, the indictment said. That scenario happened on many occasions.
The indictment refers to the girl as Jane Doe Two. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sex crimes.
"Jane Doe Two was informed ... that selling Jane Doe Two for sex would be called a 'Mission.' It was a rule that members of the (gangs) would not be charged for sex with Jane Doe Two as they were fellow gang members," the indictment said.
One defendant, Haji Osman Salad, nicknamed "Hollywood," later made Jane Doe Two "his girl," picking her up from school, engaging in sex acts with her, and then instructing her to engage in sex acts with other men, the indictment said.
Over the course of two-day period in April 2009, the girl was forced to engage in sex acts at least 10 times with nine different men, it said. Then, she was driven to Nashville. On the way there, Salad made a cell phone video of her engaging in sex acts with some of the occupants of the vehicle, the indictment said.
Law enforcement officials said Monday that 12 of the indicted people were arrested in Minnesota, eight in Tennessee, and six were already in various jails. Three of the defendants were at large.
Jerry Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said the defendants traveled back and forth easily between Nashville and St. Paul, and some may have been related. Both cities, as well as Columbus, have large Somali refugee populations.
Along with sex trafficking, the indictment charges some of the defendants with conspiring to obstruct the investigation by lying to a federal grand jury. It also alleges some stole a motor vehicle, committed burglaries, and engaged in credit card fraud — causing one credit card company to lose $231,000 over a one-year period.
The 24-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee, said one of the gangs' goals was recruiting females under age 18, including some under age 14, and forcing them into prostitution so the defendants could get money, marijuana or liquor.
The indictment details several instances in which young Somali or African American girls were taken from place to place and forced to engage in sex acts with multiple people. One girl was under 13 when she was first prostituted. Another girl was 18 when she was raped by multiple men in a hotel room, the indictment said.
John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the case is significant because the girls were repeatedly victimized over several years and transported to many places. The indictment lists incidents involving four victims, but says "other minor children" were involved. It's not clear how many victims there were in all.
"Human traffickers abuse innocent people, undermine our public safety, and often use their illicit proceeds to fund sophisticated criminal organizations," Morton said. "ICE is committed to bringing these criminals to justice and rescuing their victims from a life in the shadows."
Van Vincent, the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, wouldn't comment on the status of the girls, other than to say they were safe.
The indictment claims the ring involved three Minneapolis-based gangs — the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws — and that all three gangs are connected. The men and women charged were either gang members or associates of the gangs, the indictment said. They range in age from 19 to 38.
The indictment says the sex trafficking ring operated for 10 years, with the defendants recruiting young girls to engage in sex acts.
One girl was just 13 when, in 2005, she was taken from the Minneapolis area to an apartment in Nashville to engage in prostitution, it said. The girl was also taken to Columbus, Ohio, and other locations for prostitution.
In another case, a girl was under age 13 when she was first forced to engage in sex acts in November 2006. Two defendants had sex with her the next month at an apartment in St. Paul, and then other males arrived and were charged money to do the same, the indictment said. That scenario happened on many occasions.
The indictment refers to the girl as Jane Doe Two. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sex crimes.
"Jane Doe Two was informed ... that selling Jane Doe Two for sex would be called a 'Mission.' It was a rule that members of the (gangs) would not be charged for sex with Jane Doe Two as they were fellow gang members," the indictment said.
One defendant, Haji Osman Salad, nicknamed "Hollywood," later made Jane Doe Two "his girl," picking her up from school, engaging in sex acts with her, and then instructing her to engage in sex acts with other men, the indictment said.
Over the course of two-day period in April 2009, the girl was forced to engage in sex acts at least 10 times with nine different men, it said. Then, she was driven to Nashville. On the way there, Salad made a cell phone video of her engaging in sex acts with some of the occupants of the vehicle, the indictment said.
Law enforcement officials said Monday that 12 of the indicted people were arrested in Minnesota, eight in Tennessee, and six were already in various jails. Three of the defendants were at large.
Jerry Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said the defendants traveled back and forth easily between Nashville and St. Paul, and some may have been related. Both cities, as well as Columbus, have large Somali refugee populations.
Along with sex trafficking, the indictment charges some of the defendants with conspiring to obstruct the investigation by lying to a federal grand jury. It also alleges some stole a motor vehicle, committed burglaries, and engaged in credit card fraud — causing one credit card company to lose $231,000 over a one-year period.
Gunmen attack rig off Nigeria, take five foreign hostages
KET, Nigeria (AFP) – Gunmen attacked an oil rig off Nigeria's coast on Monday, taking two Americans, two French and one Canadian hostage while wounding two other people, company and security sources said.
The pre-dawn attack occurred in the country's turbulent Niger Delta region, the heart of one of the world's largest oil industries, and it was not immediately clear whether a ransom had been demanded.
"A security breach has occurred on the High Island VII jackup rig, which had recently arrived on location, preparing to commence infill drilling at the Okoro field," said a statement from Afren, the company that oversees the rig.
"Two crew members are stable after receiving wounds to the leg, and have been evacuated by helicopter to a shore-based clinic. It is believed that five crew members have been taken hostage."
It did not provide the nationalities of the victims, but a company source said later that they included two Americans, two French and one Canadian. A security source also provided the same nationalities.
Afren added in its statement that a second "security breach" occurred at a support vessel, but did not provide details. The statement said "the vessel and rig are both under the control of the company."
Preparations for drilling operations on the rig had been temporarily suspended.
The security source said a crew member was shot in the leg after resisting the attackers.
The Okoro field is located some 12 kilometres (eight miles) off the coast off Nigeria's Akwa Ibom state. Afren is headquartered in Britain and works with a local partner, AMNI International, while the rig is owned by Transocean.
Nigerian security officials could not provide precise details on the attack, the latest in the Niger Delta.
The pre-dawn attack occurred in the country's turbulent Niger Delta region, the heart of one of the world's largest oil industries, and it was not immediately clear whether a ransom had been demanded.
"A security breach has occurred on the High Island VII jackup rig, which had recently arrived on location, preparing to commence infill drilling at the Okoro field," said a statement from Afren, the company that oversees the rig.
"Two crew members are stable after receiving wounds to the leg, and have been evacuated by helicopter to a shore-based clinic. It is believed that five crew members have been taken hostage."
It did not provide the nationalities of the victims, but a company source said later that they included two Americans, two French and one Canadian. A security source also provided the same nationalities.
Afren added in its statement that a second "security breach" occurred at a support vessel, but did not provide details. The statement said "the vessel and rig are both under the control of the company."
Preparations for drilling operations on the rig had been temporarily suspended.
The security source said a crew member was shot in the leg after resisting the attackers.
The Okoro field is located some 12 kilometres (eight miles) off the coast off Nigeria's Akwa Ibom state. Afren is headquartered in Britain and works with a local partner, AMNI International, while the rig is owned by Transocean.
Nigerian security officials could not provide precise details on the attack, the latest in the Niger Delta.
Netanyahu presses U.S. for military threat on Iran
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday that only a credible military threat can deter Iran from building a nuclear weapon, Israeli political sources said.
In comments signaling growing Israeli impatience with diplomacy, the sources said Netanyahu, beginning a five-day U.S. visit, argued that economic sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear program.
However, Biden said after the talks that the sanctions "have a bite" and were having a "measurable impact," though he expressed frustration that Tehran had brushed aside overtures by President Barack Obama's administration.
Netanyahu and Biden met on the sidelines of an American Jewish conference in New Orleans, and also discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks suspended in a dispute over building in settlements in the West Bank.
"The only way to ensure that Iran will not go nuclear is to create a credible threat of military action against it if it doesn't cease its race for a nuclear weapon," one of the sources said Netanyahu told Biden.
"The economic sanctions are making it difficult for Iran, but there is no sign that the Ayatollah regime plans to stop its nuclear program because of them."
In remarks to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, Biden said the door to diplomacy remains open for Iran "but there is a price to walk through that door -- acting rationally."
"We continue to seek a peaceful resolution and to hope Iranian leaders will reconsider their current destructive and debilitating course," he said. "But let me be very clear about this: We are also absolutely committed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."
The tough talk from the Israelis swiftly raised speculation in Israeli media that Netanyahu, who has rebuffed U.S. and international calls to reimpose a freeze on building in West Bank settlements, was trying to shift the focus of his visit away from stalemate.
The West believes that Iran aims to use its uranium enrichment program to build atomic weapons, and both Israel and the United States have said all options are on the table in dealing with its nuclear ambitions.
But Netanyahu had made clear that Israel wanted to see if tough economic sanctions could eliminate what it has described as a threat against its existence.
Tehran denies it is out to produce nuclear arms.
In comments signaling growing Israeli impatience with diplomacy, the sources said Netanyahu, beginning a five-day U.S. visit, argued that economic sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear program.
However, Biden said after the talks that the sanctions "have a bite" and were having a "measurable impact," though he expressed frustration that Tehran had brushed aside overtures by President Barack Obama's administration.
Netanyahu and Biden met on the sidelines of an American Jewish conference in New Orleans, and also discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks suspended in a dispute over building in settlements in the West Bank.
"The only way to ensure that Iran will not go nuclear is to create a credible threat of military action against it if it doesn't cease its race for a nuclear weapon," one of the sources said Netanyahu told Biden.
"The economic sanctions are making it difficult for Iran, but there is no sign that the Ayatollah regime plans to stop its nuclear program because of them."
In remarks to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, Biden said the door to diplomacy remains open for Iran "but there is a price to walk through that door -- acting rationally."
"We continue to seek a peaceful resolution and to hope Iranian leaders will reconsider their current destructive and debilitating course," he said. "But let me be very clear about this: We are also absolutely committed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."
The tough talk from the Israelis swiftly raised speculation in Israeli media that Netanyahu, who has rebuffed U.S. and international calls to reimpose a freeze on building in West Bank settlements, was trying to shift the focus of his visit away from stalemate.
The West believes that Iran aims to use its uranium enrichment program to build atomic weapons, and both Israel and the United States have said all options are on the table in dealing with its nuclear ambitions.
But Netanyahu had made clear that Israel wanted to see if tough economic sanctions could eliminate what it has described as a threat against its existence.
Tehran denies it is out to produce nuclear arms.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Indonesia volcano blasts searing gas; 122 now dead
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – Searing gas avalanched down an Indonesian volcano with a thunderous roar, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled Mount Merapi's worst eruption in a century. Scores of bodies found Friday raised the death toll to 122.
The injured — with clothes, blankets and even mattresses fused to their skin by the 1,400 degree Fahrenheit (750 degree Celsius) heat — were carried away on stretchers following the first big explosion just before midnight.
All Friday, Merapi shot towering plumes of ash that dusted the windshields of cars 300 miles (480 kilometers) away. Bursts of hot clouds occasionally interrupted aid efforts, with rescuers screaming "Watch out! Hot cloud!"
The intensifying eruptions have baffled scientists who have monitored the mountain for years and left them uncertain what to expect. Dozens of explosions that followed Merapi's initial blast Oct. 26 had been predicted to ease pressure behind a magma dome.
The danger zone where residents have been ordered to flee has now been expanded to 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the crater.
Friday's explosion — said by volcanologists to be the biggest since the 1870s — hit hardest in Bronggang, a village nine miles (15 kilometers) from the crater. Soldiers joined the rescue operations, pulling at least 78 bodies from homes and streets blanketed by ash up to one foot (30 centimeters) deep.
Crumpled roofs, charred carcasses of cattle and broken chairs — all layered in white soot — dotted the smoldering landscape.
The volcano, in the heart of densely populated Java island, has erupted scores of times in the past, killing more than 1,500 people in the last century alone. But tens of thousands of people live on its rolling slopes, drawn to soil made fertile by lava and volcanic debris.
China quarantine bureau rejects U.S. corn cargo
BEIJING (Reuters) – China's quarantine bureau confirmed on Tuesday it had discovered traces of an unapproved genetically modified organism (GMO) in a U.S. corn cargo and had refused it entry into China.
"A genetically-modified element which is not approved by the Agriculture Ministry has been identified in the cargo and according to the relevant State Council regulation, the cargo will be returned," an official with the Shenzhen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau told Reuters, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
The official declined to identify the buyer of the cargo, but said the unapproved GMO strain was MON89034.
One trading manager at a feed mill in Guangdong said the cargo belonged to COFCO Co. Ltd, which bought on behalf of several feed mills in the province.
The cargo arrived at the port of Chiwan in September and was discharged into silos at ports, but feed mills were not allowed to take the goods, said the manager, who is one of the end-users.
"We have paid COFCO for delivery at port in Guangdong, but now we are not allowed to take the goods," said the manager, who declined to be identified.
China, the world's second largest consumer, has booked the largest volume of U.S. corn in a decade after tight supply drove up domestic prices higher than U.S. prices in the first half of the year.
The official said the cargo was most likely resold to the overseas market. COFCO bought the cargo from a Japanese trading house, Mitsubishi Corp, three trading sources said.
Traders from both companies could not be immediately reached for comment, and both companies have earlier declined to comment on the Reuters story.
"A genetically-modified element which is not approved by the Agriculture Ministry has been identified in the cargo and according to the relevant State Council regulation, the cargo will be returned," an official with the Shenzhen Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau told Reuters, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
The official declined to identify the buyer of the cargo, but said the unapproved GMO strain was MON89034.
One trading manager at a feed mill in Guangdong said the cargo belonged to COFCO Co. Ltd, which bought on behalf of several feed mills in the province.
The cargo arrived at the port of Chiwan in September and was discharged into silos at ports, but feed mills were not allowed to take the goods, said the manager, who is one of the end-users.
"We have paid COFCO for delivery at port in Guangdong, but now we are not allowed to take the goods," said the manager, who declined to be identified.
China, the world's second largest consumer, has booked the largest volume of U.S. corn in a decade after tight supply drove up domestic prices higher than U.S. prices in the first half of the year.
The official said the cargo was most likely resold to the overseas market. COFCO bought the cargo from a Japanese trading house, Mitsubishi Corp, three trading sources said.
Traders from both companies could not be immediately reached for comment, and both companies have earlier declined to comment on the Reuters story.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Iranian woman to be hanged Wednesday: rights group
BERLIN (Reuters) – An Iranian woman whose sentence of execution by stoning for adultery provoked a worldwide outcry will instead be hanged for murder on Wednesday, a human rights group said.
"The authorities in Tehran have given the go-ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," the International Committee against Stoning, a German-based campaign group, said on its website.
"It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday, 3 November."
Officials in Iran were not available to confirm or deny the report.
British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt spoke to Iran's charge d'affaires in London, Safar Ali Eslamian Koupaei, by phone on Tuesday to press for an update on Ashtiani's case.
But the Iranian diplomat was unable to confirm whether reports about her imminent execution were accurate, the Foreign Office said.
"I ... took the opportunity to remind him that the UK government would regard the execution of Ms Ashtiani as utterly unacceptable," Burt said in a statement.
The White House said the case showed a fundamental disregard for human rights. "We condemn in the strongest terms the government of Iran's apparent plans to move forward in executing Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," it said Tuesday.
Ashtiani's stoning sentence was suspended after prominent political and religious figures called it medieval, barbaric and brutal. Brazil, a close ally of Iran, offered to give the 43-year-old mother of two asylum.
A government spokesman said in September Ashtiani's adultery conviction was under review but the charge of being complicit in the murder of her husband was still pending.
Under the Islamic law in force in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, murder is punishable by hanging, adultery by stoning.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fended off questions about the case from reporters when he attended the U.N. General Assembly in September, saying it had been fabricated by hostile Western media and called the United States hypocritical for its record on executions.
The case has worsened relations between Iran and the West, which are locked in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, and was further complicated last month when two Germans were arrested in Iran while conducting an interview with Ashtiani's son.
The men entered Iran with tourist visas and were not authorized to act as journalists, judicial officials said. The German government is trying to secure their release.
In August, Iranian television aired an interview with a woman it said was Ashtiani admitting a relationship with a man who then murdered her husband. The International Committee Against Stoning, called the TV show "toxic propaganda."
The United States has imposed sanctions on eight senior Iranian officials, including the commander of the Revolutionary Guards and several cabinet ministers, for human rights abuses.
That is in addition to the sanctions over Iran's nuclear activities, which it fears is aimed at making an atomic bomb, something Tehran denies.
According to Amnesty International, Iran is second only to China in the number of executions it carries out. It put to death at least 346 people in 2008.
"The authorities in Tehran have given the go-ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," the International Committee against Stoning, a German-based campaign group, said on its website.
"It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday, 3 November."
Officials in Iran were not available to confirm or deny the report.
British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt spoke to Iran's charge d'affaires in London, Safar Ali Eslamian Koupaei, by phone on Tuesday to press for an update on Ashtiani's case.
But the Iranian diplomat was unable to confirm whether reports about her imminent execution were accurate, the Foreign Office said.
"I ... took the opportunity to remind him that the UK government would regard the execution of Ms Ashtiani as utterly unacceptable," Burt said in a statement.
The White House said the case showed a fundamental disregard for human rights. "We condemn in the strongest terms the government of Iran's apparent plans to move forward in executing Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," it said Tuesday.
Ashtiani's stoning sentence was suspended after prominent political and religious figures called it medieval, barbaric and brutal. Brazil, a close ally of Iran, offered to give the 43-year-old mother of two asylum.
A government spokesman said in September Ashtiani's adultery conviction was under review but the charge of being complicit in the murder of her husband was still pending.
Under the Islamic law in force in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, murder is punishable by hanging, adultery by stoning.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fended off questions about the case from reporters when he attended the U.N. General Assembly in September, saying it had been fabricated by hostile Western media and called the United States hypocritical for its record on executions.
The case has worsened relations between Iran and the West, which are locked in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, and was further complicated last month when two Germans were arrested in Iran while conducting an interview with Ashtiani's son.
The men entered Iran with tourist visas and were not authorized to act as journalists, judicial officials said. The German government is trying to secure their release.
In August, Iranian television aired an interview with a woman it said was Ashtiani admitting a relationship with a man who then murdered her husband. The International Committee Against Stoning, called the TV show "toxic propaganda."
The United States has imposed sanctions on eight senior Iranian officials, including the commander of the Revolutionary Guards and several cabinet ministers, for human rights abuses.
That is in addition to the sanctions over Iran's nuclear activities, which it fears is aimed at making an atomic bomb, something Tehran denies.
According to Amnesty International, Iran is second only to China in the number of executions it carries out. It put to death at least 346 people in 2008.
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