Syrian troops push back in fight on Damascus edges
Map locates violence in Damascus, Syria Map locates violence in Damascus, Syria This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT Protesters shout slogans as they carry pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Syrian flags during a demonstration in front of the Russian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, to express gratitude for the Russian position in support of Syria. Russia has said it will use its Security Council veto to block any resolution threatening Syria with sanctions or lacking a clear ban on any foreign military interference. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) Buy AP Photo Reprints BEIRUT (AP) â” Syrian forces pushed dissident troops back from the edge of Damascus in heavy fighting Monday, escalating efforts to take back control of the capital’s eastern doorstep ahead of key U.N. talks over a draft resolution demanding that President Bashar Assad step aside. Gunfire and the boom of shelling rang out in several suburbs on Damascus’ outskirts that have come under the domination of anti-regime fighters. Gunmen â” apparently army defectors â” were shown firing back in amateur videos posted online by activists. In one video, a government tank on the snow-dusted mountain plateau towering over the capital fired at one of the suburbs below. As the bloodshed increased, with activists reporting more than 40 civilians killed Monday, Western and Arab countries stepped up pressure on Assad’s ally Russia to overcome its opposition to the resolution. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the British and French foreign ministers were heading to New York to push for backing of the measure during talks Tuesday at the United Nations. “The status quo is unsustainable,” Clinton said, saying the Assad regime was preventing a peaceful transition and warning that the resulting instability could “spill over throughout the region.” The draft resolution demands that Assad halt the crackdown and implement an Arab peace plan that calls for him to hand over power to his vice president and allow creation of a unity government to …
Libya: Justice Ministry to take over prisons
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) â” Libyan judicial police have started taking control of makeshift prisons in the country after human rights organizations complained of rampant torture of inmates, the country’s deputy justice minister said on Sunday. The deputy minister, Khalifa Ashour, said uniformed police have been dispatched to some prisons where former rebels have been holding people accused of being loyalists of deposed ruler Moammar Gadhafi. During last year’s civil war, former rebels trying to protect their neighborhoods held anyone deemed suspicious of being a Gadhafi loyalist or mercenary, locking them up in makeshift prisons in schools, homes and empty government buildings. According to the U.N., various former rebel groups are holding as many as 8,000 prisoners in 60 detention centers around the country. Bringing all the prisons under control of the new government illustrates the challenge of reuniting Libya after the ouster of Gadhafi. Ashour said that on Sunday his ministry took over one prison in Misrata and another in Tripoli, but didn’t have information on any other prisons which were taken over. “Some of the prisoners are loyalists of the former regime detained during the revolution, and others were captured after liberation for murder and drug or alcohol possession,” Ashour told The Associated Press. The move comes after the U.N.’s top human rights official said Friday that Libya’s transitional government must take control of all makeshift prisons to prevent further atrocities against detainees. “There’s torture, extrajudicial executions, rape of both men and women,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday. Pillay said she was particularly concerned about sub-Saharan African detainees whom the brigades automatically assume to be fighters for former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Aid group Doctors Without Borders suspended its work in prisons in the Libyan city of Misrata on Thursday because it said torture was so rampant that some detainees were brought for care only to make them fit for further interrogation and abuse. Amnesty International said Thursday it had recorded widespread prisoner mistreatment in other cities that led to the deaths of several inmates. The allegations, which come more than three months after Gadhafi was captured and killed, were an embarrassment to …
Euro, rich-poor gap proved key issues at Davos
The mountain resort of Davos pictured during the last day of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. The overarching theme of the Meeting, that took place from Jan. 25 to Jan. 29 was “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”. (AP Photo/Keystone/Laurent Gillieron) The mountain resort of Davos pictured during the last day of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. The overarching theme of the Meeting, that took place from Jan. 25 to Jan. 29 was “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”. (AP Photo/Keystone/Laurent Gillieron) Workers remove material during the last day of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Keystone/Jean-Christophe Bott) Buy AP Photo Reprints DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) â” Europe’s crippling debt crisis dominated the world’s foremost gathering of business and political leaders, but for the first time the growing inequality between the planet’s haves and have-nots became an issue, thanks largely to the Arab Spring uprisings, the Occupy movement and other protests around the globe. The mood at the end of the five-day meeting in Davos was somber, and more than 2,500 VIPs headed home Sunday concerned about what lies ahead in 2012. Plenty of champagne flowed in this alpine ski resort â” but the atmosphere was flat and the bubbling enthusiasm of some past World Economic Forums was noticeably absent. Despite some guarded optimism about Europe’s latest attempts to stem the eurozone crisis, fears remain that turmoil could return and spill over to the rest of the world. And there were no answers to the widening inequality gap, but a mounting realization that economic growth must include the poor, that job creation is critical, and that affordable food, housing, health care and education need to part of any solution. Just before the forum began, the International Monetary Fund reduced its forecast for global growth in 2012 to 3.3 percent from the 4 percent pace it projected in September. Many other economic forecasters also predict a slowing economy, including New York University’s Nouriel Roubini, who is widely acknowledged to have predicted the crash …
Syrian troops storm areas near capital of Damascus
This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT This image from amateur video made available by the Ugarit News group and shot on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, purports to show a funeral in Damascus, Syria. The Syrian military launched an offensive to regain control of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus on Sunday, storming neighborhoods and clashing with groups of army defectors in fierce fighting that sent residents fleeing and killed at several people, activists said. (AP Photo/Ugarit News Group via APTN) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS MATERIAL. TV OUT Buy AP Photo Reprints BEIRUT (AP) â” In dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, Syrian troops stormed rebellious areas near the capital Sunday, shelling neighborhoods that have fallen under the control of army dissidents and clashing with fighters. At least 62 people were killed in violence nationwide, activists and residents said. The widescale offensive near the capital suggested the regime is worried that military defectors could close in on Damascus, which has remained relatively quiet while most other Syrian cities descended into chaos after the uprising began in March. The rising bloodshed added urgency to Arab and Western diplomatic efforts to end the 10-month conflict. The violence has gradually approached the capital. In the past two weeks, army dissidents have become more visible, seizing several suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus and setting up checkpoints where masked men wearing military attire and wielding assault rifles stop motorists and protect anti-regime protests. Their presence so close to the capital is astonishing in tightly controlled Syria and suggests the Assad regime may either be losing control or setting up …
Sudan says to release ships seized from South Sudan (Reuters)
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Sudan said on Saturday it would free tankers carrying cargoes of South Sudanese crude it had seized earlier this month, in a push to defuse a row over transit fees between former civil war foes that both depend on oil for almost all their income. Landlocked South Sudan, which became independent in July after seceding from Sudan, has to use a northern pipeline and the port of Port Sudan to export its crude, and the two countries are in dispute over the transit fees it should pay. The row heated up this month when Sudan said it was confiscating some of South Sudan’s oil exports to make up for what it called unpaid fees. South Sudan retaliated by saying it would shut down its crude output by Saturday. Oil is the lifeline of both countries’ economies, and the south’s secession left Khartoum with output of about 125,000 barrels per day and South Sudan with production that has fallen slightly to 350,000 bpd from 375,000 bpd in June. Oil revenue is about 98 percent of South Sudan’s income, and is vital if the government is to develop a country devastated by years of civil war and one of the world’s poorest nations. China is the biggest buyer of oil from the two countries, taking some 12.99 million barrels last year – five percent of overall 2011 crude imports by China, which is also the biggest investor in South Sudan’s oilfields. “President Bashir is ready to make this gesture. Sudan is going to release the vessels detained in Port Sudan,” Sayed El-Khatib, deputy head of Sudan’s negotiating team, told a media conference in the Ethiopian capital on Saturday. “By taking this step, we expect the cover agreement to be signed, the shutdown to be halted, and the terms of the cover agreement to be respected,” said El-Khatib. “Before the end of today, we could be able to sign the cover agreement. We, at least, are ready to sign.” A South Sudanese official, asked to comment, told Reuters: “We are studying the claim. We are waiting for confirmation from the shipping companies.” He did not want to be named. LEADERS FOUND NO ANSWER Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir met on the sidelines of a meeting of East African officials in Ethiopia on Friday, but failed to resolve their differences over the oil transit tariff. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a broker between the two sides, met…
Nigeria army says kills 11 Boko Haram insurgents (Reuters)
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – Nigeria’s army killed 11 suspected Boko Haram insurgents during a gun battle at a checkpoint in the Islamist sect’s heartland of Maiduguri on Saturday, the field operations officer in the remote northeastern city said. Nigerian forces are reeling from a sharp uptick of increasingly sophisticated and coordinated attacks by Boko Haram. Human Rights Watch says it has killed hundreds of people since launching an uprising against the government in 2009, including an attack on the city of Kano that killed 186. “Eleven BH (Boko Haram) members have been shot dead by the JTF (joint military taskforce) in Maiduguri today, following a shootout with the sect members at a checkpoint in a stop and search operation,” field operations officer Colonel Victor Ebhamelehe said told Reuters. “One member of the sect who was wounded is receiving treatment at the hospital.” Boko Haram began as a clerical movement opposed to western cultural influences in Maiduguri, a dusty town in the northeast region bordering Chad, Niger and Cameroon, on the cusp of the Sahara. It has since spread to much of Nigeria’s north and has become the top security threat in Africa’s biggest oil producer. Suspected sect members attacked a police station in Mandwari, in north Nigeria’s Kano state, on Friday, police and witnesses said, leading to more than an hour of running gun battles that fatally wounded one policeman. “We lost one of our men in the attack in Mandwari inside the city. He is a corporal and he died on the way to hospital. The gunmen were repelled,” Kano police commissioner Ibrahim Idris told Reuters on Saturday. In an audio tape posted on the Internet on Thursday, the purported leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, threatened to kill more security personnel and kidnap their families, and accused U.S. President Barack Obama of waging war on Islam, in an apparent effort to strike a chord with global jihadists. He denied that the group, which is loosely modeled on the Taliban, had been responsible for most of the civilian casualties in last Friday’s attack on Kano. Police say most of those casualities were shot dead by sect members.
Basua community battles for survival
Kampala, Uganda (IRIN) – The marginalized western Ugandan Basua community is fighting extinction; forcibly removed from their forest home two decades ago, they have struggled to cope with modern life and have been ravaged by health crises, including HIV. Uganda has two indigenous forest communities – the Batwa people of the southwest, a larger group originally from Rwanda and Burundi, and the Basua in the west who came from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Already marginalized for their short stature and for being traditional forest dwellers, the Basua have continued to receive less assistance than the Batwa because they are more geographically isolated and have a smaller population, numbering just 100. Forced resettlement Western Uganda’s Semliki Forest – the historical home of the Basua – became a National Park in 1993, and as a result, the community has lost its hunter-gatherer existence; they now have to request permission to fish and collect medicinal herbs and firewood, and are forbidden from hunting. The Basua have been moved around ever since, most recently to a village outside the small trading town of Bundimasoli in 2007, after a local NGO won a grant from the European Union to build a village for them, but the project collapsed under corruption allegations before it was completed. The community still has no clear rights to the land where it was resettled, and struggles to access basic services such as clean drinking water and healthcare. “Imagine someone is used to maybe going to the office, working, making phone calls, going to the ATM, withdrawing money… then you dump them in the forest instead,” said Fred Lulinaki, a program director at the East and Central Africa Association for Indigenous Rights (ECAAIR). “If they survive, it will be just by luck.” Some Basua men and women find casual jobs such as hauling wood, but most sit around the village with nothing to do. Some have turned to alcohol. Of the 40 children, Lulinaki said only two attend school, either because they are orphaned or their parents cannot afford the cost of pens and school fees. Fifteen of the community’s children are orphans. HIV Ezekiel Mugisa, local coordinator of the Organization for the Survival of the Basua (OSIBA), said the first documented case of HIV among them was in 1985, but the virus really established a foothold when the Allied Democratic Forces – a…
The true burden of cancer
London, Britain, United Kingdom (IRIN) – Breast cancer continues to be misunderstood, under-diagnosed and fatal, particularly in developing countries, say researchers, despite more than one million official annual diagnoses and almost half a million recorded deaths annually. Even with growing efforts from donors and health agencies to draw more attention to chronic non-communicable diseases , awareness about cancer still lags, said Sara Stulac, clinical director in Rwanda for the US-headquartered Partners in Health NGO. “Just bringing up the fact that there are children suffering from cancer in Rwanda, the reaction I often get is ‘Oh, cancer – Africa – I never thought about that’.” “We’re victims of our own success, which is very good news,” Harvard University’s director of Global Equity Initiative, Felicia Knaul, told IRIN, referring to declining numbers of deaths from some communicable diseases in developing countries. The downside of that success is, “You go on to live through other risks and get other diseases”, she added. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency on Research on Cancer estimated in 2008 that breast cancer was the most frequently officially diagnosed cancer among women, with an estimated 1.38 million cases. It was also the most frequently reported cause of death by cancer for women. Eighty percent of up to 3.7 million of deaths by cancer – all types – are reported in developing countries, according to recent research Knaul co-authored with the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries at Harvard University. Costly care Women who reached Rwinkwavu Hospital in Kayonza District in eastern Rwanda, where Stulac works, may have already unsuccessfully sought care elsewhere – often at informal or ill-equipped health centers, she added. As a result, they frequently arrive at hospital with advanced stages of breast cancer that are harder, more expensive and more painful to cure, said Stulac. An estimated 70-80 percent of breast cancer cases are diagnosed at late stages in lower- and middle-income countries, according to Knaul. But even with early diagnosis, breast cancer can mean a painful and debilitating death in cash-strapped countries where specialists are few and costs are high, said Stulac. “Over the course of just seeking a diagnosis, [patients] have depleted their family’s resources.” Cancer prevention and awareness campaigns are infrequent in low-income countries. And when cancer is diagnosed, treatment options can often include palliative care, which is scarce, expensive and stigmatized, according to 2011 oncology research. . The Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board says 90 percent of the world’s opiate supply for pain relief is consumed in the most developed countries, leaving little for poorer countries. Gathering data Knaul urged combating disease with data. “We have to help women to diagnose more…
Tiger Woods starts 2012 season with hefty appearance fee at HSBC
Tom Edrington – AHN Sports Reporter Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (AHN Sports) – The stars of the golf world are aligned this week at the HSBC Championship and while Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy top the rankings, it is Tiger Woods garnering the bulk of the attention. Woods is making his 2012 debut and collecting a hefty appearance fee in the process, perhaps as high as $3 million. Woods, who ended his long winless streak last year at his own event, the Chevron Challenge, is healthy and well into his swing restructuring. “It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been physically fit,” Woods said. “So I’m looking forward to getting out there and then playing and give it a full season, which I haven’t done in a while, so I’m really looking forward to it.” There are still questions surrounding Woods’ swing and he struggled in the winds that blew Wednesday during the pro-am event at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. While there is curiosity about the state of Woods’ game there is no question as to who has been the dominant player at this event. Germany’s Martin Kaymer, the fourth-ranked player in the world, is looking for his third straight win here. “Abu Dhabi is a special championship for me, obviously I love the course and I’ve played some of my best golf here,” Kaymer said. Kaymer will be paired the first two rounds with Westwood and Sergio Garcia but the featured pairing for the first two rounds will be Woods, Donald and McIlroy. With the top four and Woods in action, the field is the best of the season this year — PGA Tour or European Tour. One player overshadowed by the name stars is Brandon Grace, who is arguably the hottest golfer on either tour right now. The 23-year-old rookie from South Africa has won the last two events on the European Tour. Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved
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