WORLD_ Syrian rebels kill 100 government soldiers as they repudiate UN ceasefire

Syrian rebels kill 100 government soldiers as they repudiate UN ceasefire
 
Syria's rebels said they had killed as many as 100 government soldiers in the most ferocious opposition offensive of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad as they announced a formal repudiation of the UN-backed ceasefire.


 
Kofi Annan yesterday conceded that his plan is not being implemented by either side and may have to adjusted Photo: EPA


By Adrian Blomfield, Tom Parfitt in Moscow and Ruth Sherlock in Beirut
7:58PM BST 04 Jun 2012


The Free Syrian Army declared that it was no longer bound by a ceasefire plan brokered by Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League special envoy to Syria, who was yesterday struggling to salvage international backing for his efforts .

Rebel leaders said they had authorised the resumption of full-scale military operations after the Syrian leader ignored their ultimatum to comply with the terms of Mr Annan's plan by last Friday.

"We have decided to end our commitment to this (plan)," Maj Sami al-Kurdi, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, said.

Given free rein and determined to avenge the massacre of 108 people in the town of Houla last month, the rebels overran six army checkpoints in the northern province of Idlib, killing scores of soldier, and mounted a series of ambushes close to the capital Damascus. There were reports of operations elsewhere in the country as well.

The attacks killed at least 80 soldiers over the weekend alone, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition watchdog, which said its death toll was based on reports from local doctors. The rebels themselves claimed to have killed more than 100 members of the security forces.


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Mr Annan yesterday conceded that his plan is not being implemented by either side and may have to adjusted.

"The time may have to come to review the situation and the international community has to decide what measures it can take to ensure implementation of the plan," his spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said.

Mr Annan is due to hold talks with Hillary Clinton, the American Secretary of State, and Arab League officials in Washington on Friday but it is uncertain what scope for progress remains.

The surge in violence raised renewed fears that Syria was sliding ever closer to civil war, with the rebels' offensive likely lead to merciless retaliation both by Mr Assad's forces and by the pro-regime Shabiha militia accused of carrying out the Houla massacre and others like it. Fighting continued on Monday, although it was unclear to what extent the death toll had mounted.

While Mr Annan's six-point plan, which came into force on April 12th, never succeeded in ending hostilities, it did cause the bloodshed to recede a little.

But with both sides openly in defiance of the agreement, its survival will again be called into question.

Despite the setbacks, Arab League officials have privately spoken of their desire to see the plan broadened by bolstering the 300-monitor observer mission presently operating in Syria and giving them more sweeping powers.

Mr Annan indicated yesterday that he did not favour the proposal, which is likely to be rejected by the Syrian government in any case. It would also divide the international community.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, appeared to be in no mood to soften his support for the Syrian regime when he met European Union officials at a summit in St Petersburg yesterday.

Mr Putin failed to mention Syria at all and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, curtly rebuffed questions over a change in Russia's stance. He said: "I don't think so."

Efforts by Mrs Clinton in recent days to persuade Russia to agree to Mr Assad's departure were given short shrift.

Moscow has consistently refused to countenance any solution to the Syria crisis that involves a forced exit for Mr Assad, saying that such a solution would amount to interference in the affairs of a sovereign state.

The Syrian National Council, the main opposition political front, urged Russia to adopt a more "constructive" approach.

"Russia has the ability to influence this regime and it has the ability to contribute to a rapid transfer of power," said Bassma Kodmani, the council's principal spokesman. "Russia has heard very clearly the demands and aspiration of the Syrian people. This is not a regime that it can continue to defend without losing its credibility."




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WORLD_ Syria violence flares after rebel deadline

Syria violence flares after rebel deadline

 

By Oliver Holmes
BEIRUT | Mon Jun 4, 2012 1:48pm EDT


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels killed at least 80 army soldiers in a surge of attacks at the weekend, an opposition watchdog said on Monday, carrying out their threat to resume fighting if President Bashar al-Assad failed to observe a U.N.-backed ceasefire.

The May 25 massacre of at least 108 people, nearly half of them children, in the Houla area of Homs province dealt a possibly fatal blow to envoy Kofi Annan's proposed ceasefire, which was supposed to take effect on April 12 but never did.

A Free Syrian Army spokesman said the rebels were no longer bound by the truce after their Friday deadline passed.

"We have decided to end our commitment to this (ceasefire)," Major Sami al-Kurdi, told Reuters from Syria, adding that rebels had begun attacking government forces to "defend our people".

He said a U.N. observer mission should be turned into a "peace-enforcing mission", or that the world should impose a no-fly zone and a buffer zone to help bring Assad down.

Such ideas have gained little traction previously with Western powers, let alone their Russian and Chinese critics.

The latest violence and a defiant speech by Assad on Sunday raised questions about how long Annan can pursue his threadbare peace plan on behalf of the United Nations and the Arab League.

But U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Reuters Annan's mission "remains central" to resolving the Syrian crisis.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said local doctors had confirmed the names of 80 dead government soldiers.

Insurgents told the British-based group they had killed more than 100 soldiers and destroyed some tanks in clashes across Syria, including Damascus and Idlib province in the northwest.

Syria's state news agency reported the burial on Monday of 30 members of the security forces killed by rebels.

A Syrian troop pullback was at the top of Annan's six-point plan to halt hostilities, allow peaceful protests, supply humanitarian aid and start a political transition in a country controlled by the Assad family with an iron fist for 42 years.

RUSSIA, CHINA ADAMANT

"The Annan mission is essentially dead, and of course most Western powers admit that," said Michael Stephens, researcher at the Royal United Services Institute's branch in Qatar.

"Houla changed the game completely in terms of what people were willing to accept and what they were not."

However, Russia and China, wary of any Western-led military intervention in Syria, say Annan's plan is the only way forward. They have twice blocked U.N. Security Council resolutions which would have condemned Damascus and perhaps led to sanctions.

Western powers have no appetite for Libya-style military action, but have provided no alternative to Annan's efforts.

Assad has rebuffed criticism of the carnage in his country. "When a surgeon performs an operation to treat a wound, do we say to him: 'Your hands are covered in blood'?" he asked in his speech on Sunday. "Or do we thank him for saving the patient?"

Annan, who has inserted 300 U.N. observers into Syria to verify the non-existent truce, will brief the Security Council on Thursday. A U.S. official said the envoy would see Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington the next day.

Ban, speaking on the sidelines of an Islamic Development Bank meeting in Jeddah, urged Assad's government to stop the violence immediately "in the name of humanity" and to start a political dialogue with his foes.

"We are deeply troubled by what has been going on," the U.N. chief told Reuters. "Annan's plan remains central to the resolution of the Syrian crisis."

U.N. diplomats in New York say it is not clear whether the Security Council will renew the increasingly risky U.N. observer mission to Syria when its 90-day mandate expires around July 20.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby has asked the Security Council to expand the size and beef up the force's mandate, but one diplomat said council members saw many risks involved in that idea, which the Syrians were anyway unlikely to accept.

COAXING MOSCOW

U.S. officials do not appear ready to give up on Annan's Syria mission, instead hoping that Russia, Assad's staunchest backer among major powers, can be coaxed into discussing a diplomatic solution that might lead to his departure.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by telephone to Annan while in Stockholm on Monday, briefing him on her efforts to engage Russia on a "political transition" to remove Assad from power, a senior State Department official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Clinton had invited Annan to Washington for talks on Friday and that Clinton expected to meet senior officials from Europe and the Middle East to discuss Syria on Wednesday in Istanbul.

The latest flare-up can only intensify alarm that Syria is sliding deeper into a civil war envenomed by sectarian rancor between Assad's minority Alawites and the Sunni Muslim majority.

France's foreign minister said Syria's troubles must not be allowed to spread to its neighbors, such as Lebanon where 13 people were killed last week in Sunni-Alawite clashes.

"France has an attachment to Lebanon and we very strongly wish to avoid a situation where the people of Lebanon suffer anew from what is happening Syria," Laurent Fabius said after meeting his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle in Berlin.

Both said their governments were urging Russia to step up pressure on Syria to comply with Annan's plan.

Rami Abdelrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters several army checkpoints were overrun in heavy overnight clashes in Idlib province, a rebel bastion.

"A minimum of 4 to 6 checkpoints in the village of Ariha were attacked and destroyed in the last 24 hours," he said.

Clashes also broke out in the city of Deraa, one of the focal points of the revolt, he said.

Syria's uprising, inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere, began with peaceful protests, but the United Nations says Assad's forces have killed more than 10,000 people since March, 2011.

Damascus accuses armed "terrorists" of killing more than 2,600 soldiers and other members of the security forces.

Moscow has broadly backed Assad's narrative, highlighting rebel violence, criticizing sanctions and saying political decisions cannot not be imposed from outside.

China's top state newspaper, the People's Daily, warned that any Western-backed military intervention would unleash even bloodier chaos, and said that abandoning Annan's plan could push Syria into the "abyss" of full-scale war.


(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Asma Alsharif in Jeddah, Denis Dyomkin in St Petersburg, John O'Donnell in Brussels, Chris Buckley in Beijing, Arshad Mohammed in Stockholm and Mahmoud Habboush in Dubai; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Angus MacSwan)




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WORLD NEWS_ 153 feared dead as plane crashes in Lagos

153 feared dead as plane crashes in Lagos
AFP Updated June 4, 2012, 7:46 am


A plane carrying 153 people has plunged into a heavily populated residential area of Nigeria's largest city


LAGOS (AFP) - A plane carrying 153 people plunged into a residential area of Nigeria's largest city on Sunday, with all those aboard feared dead, an inferno igniting at the scene and buildings badly damaged.

A number of people on the ground were also believed killed, an emergency official said, as around 10 burnt bodies had been removed from a building damaged in the crash.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared three days of national mourning for victims of the crash and pledged an investigation as rescuers rushed to pull out survivors from the neighbourhood near the airport.

The cause of the crash of the Dana airline Boeing MD83 plane was unclear, but the emergency official as well as an aviation official said the cockpit recorder had been located and handed over to police.

Officials confirmed no survivors from the plane had been found by 10:00 pm Sunday evening (2100 GMT) -- more than six hours after the crash.

They said they did not believe any would be located, but search-and-rescue missions continued.

Thick smoke rose from the area and flames could be seen shooting from a two-storey building in the afternoon. The plane crashed in a plot containing what residents described as a church, a printing shop and the two-storey residential building.

Chaos broke out as thousands of residents swarmed the area and authorities sought to restore calm, with rocks and wood planks being thrown back and forth. Some residents tried to help by guiding firehoses through the crowds.

"I just saw the plane -- it was going down and down and down," said 23-year-old Gift Onibo.

Another resident, Tunji Dawodu, said, "I was just coming out of church around 3:30 pm when I heard a loud noise.

"I thought it was an explosion," he said. "Then there was a huge flame from the building where the plane has crashed into."

Some residents said it appeared that the plane had nose-dived into the neighbourhood while others described it as swaying back and forth before crashing.

"It was waving, waving, waving," Yusuf Babatunde, 26, said at the scene. "The pilot was struggling to control it. It crashed -- it just started burning."

Wreckage including a detached wing could be seen in the neighbourhood as the inferno burned.

Residents reported seeing bodies being taken out of the area as rescue workers rushed in and a helicopter landed.

"It was a Dana (airline) flight out of (the capital) Abuja to Lagos with about 153 people on board," Nigeria's head of civil aviation Harold Demuren told AFP.

"I don't believe there are any survivors."

Late Sunday evening, Demuren said rescuers had so far found no survivors from the plane. A spokesman for Nigerian airline Dana, Tony Usidamen, said the same.

An aviation official at the scene who declined to be named said after viewing the wreckage that he believed it was impossible for any passengers to have survived.

The official with the National Emergency Management Agency said the plane had crashed onto two buildings: a church and the two-storey residential structure.

At least three people had been transported for treatment with relatively minor wounds, he said, in addition to the approximately 10 burnt bodies pulled from a badly damaged building.

The president's office said in a statement that Jonathan had "directed that the Nigerian flag be flown at half-mast for the three days of national mourning.

"Meanwhile, the president has ordered the fullest possible investigation into the crash," the statement added.

Aviation Minister Stella Adaeze Oduah said in a statement that the flight had declared an emergency with the control tower at 3:43 pm local time (1443 GMT) when it was 11 nautical miles from the airport. It disappeared from the radar screen a minute later.

Lagos, the largest city in Africa's most populous nation, is home to an estimated 15 million people.

The accident came after another plane crash on Saturday night in the capital of the nearby West African nation of Ghana, which saw a cargo plane overshoot a runway and hit a passenger bus, killing at least 10 people.

The Allied Air cargo plane had departed from Lagos and was to land in Accra.

Nigeria has a spotty aviation record, though Dana had been considered to be a relatively safe and reasonably efficient domestic airline.

It began flights in 2008 and had been operating up to 27 daily flights.




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WORLD_ Rights group: Stop new business with Syrian arms suppliers

Rights group: Stop new business with Syrian arms suppliers
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 3, 2012 -- Updated 0627 GMT (1427 HKT)

  

Gruesome video details Syria horror

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
. Human Rights Watch: The U.N. Security Council should impose a global arms embargo
. 33 civilians and 61 members of government forces are killed, an opposition group says
.The head of the Arab League calls for a peace plan timetable and "more audacious steps"


(CNN) -- Human Rights Watch is calling for a boycott of new arms contracts with companies supplying the Syrian regime as the nearly 15-month government crackdown forced the country to the brink of a civil war.

The call comes after United Nations envoy Kofi Annan said Syria is "at a turning point" and that "the specter of all-out civil war, with a worry sectarian dimension, grows by the day."

Human Rights Watch on Sunday singled out Rosoboronexport, a Russian state-owned weapons supplier, for sending arms to the Syrian regime.

"The (U.N.) Security Council should impose a mandatory international arms embargo on Syria, and Russia and China should not block it," the group's executive director, Kenneth Roth, said in a statement. He accused the Syrian regime of crimes against humanity and said "other governments and companies around the world should use whatever leverage they have to stop further arms supplies that could contribute to these crimes."

Rosoboronexport did not immediately respond to the rights group's allegations.

But iIn February, a Rosoboronexport spokesman told The New York Times that since there were no international decisions and no sanctions from the U.N. Security Council, its trade with Syria was "quite active and dynamic."

Russia and China have opposed several U.N. efforts to address the situation, including sanctions that implicated and targeted al-Assad and his government.

In recent days, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Russia of providing arms to and "propping up (Syria's) regime." But Russian President Vladimir Putin fired back, denying such military sales or that his government was taking sides.

Meanwhile, a U.N.-backed peace initiative continued to founder in Syria. Arab leaders signaled the need over the weekend for more robust measures to end the violence there.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani said envoy Kofi Annan's peace initiative should be placed under Chapter VII of the U.N. charter, Qatar's news agency reported. Such a move would allow the U.N. Security Council to take action that can include the use of military force.

He spoke Saturday before Arab League foreign ministers in the Qatari capital of Doha. Meeting a week after a massacre in the town of Houla sparked global outrage, they discussed ways to keep the conflict from deteriorating into a full-fledged civil war.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby said "more audacious steps are needed" in Syria.

"We should have a timeline for the peace plan -- this is a must," el-Araby said.

"The international community needs to take immediate action after the massacre in Houla and take all necessary measures in order to protect the Syrian civilians."

Burhan Ghalioun, outgoing president of the opposition Syrian National Council, said the regime doesn't want a "political resolution" -- despite the groundwork laid by Annan and the Arab League in recent months.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 33 civilians and 61 government forces were killed across Syria on Saturday, and two rebel soldiers died.

CNN cannot independently confirm death tolls or reports of violence from Syria because the government limits access to the country by foreign journalists.

Over the border in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, fighting between pro- and anti-Syrian regime gunmen on Saturday left 12 dead and approximately 50 injured, according to the state-run National News Agency.

The sectarian violence in Tripoli mirrors the tensions in Syria between Sunnis, who make up the majority of the Syrian opposition, and Alawites, who are dominant in al-Assad's government.

Annan made reference Saturday to such flare-ups in neighboring countries, after many Syrian civilians have fled over the border to escape violence.

Annan said he recently urged al-Assad "to radically change his military posture," saying the government has the prime responsibility to halt the violence.

Annan said he plans to brief the U.N. General Assembly and U.N. Security Council about the crisis on Thursday.

The crisis in Syria began nearly 15 months ago, when a tough government crackdown on protesters spiraled out of control and spawned a national anti-government uprising. The United Nations for months has said more than 9,000 people have died in Syria. But death counts from opposition groups range from more than 12,000 to more than 14,000. Tens of thousands have been displaced.

CNN's Saad Abedine, Holly Yan and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.



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WORLD_ UN official rules out Syria amnesty

UN official rules out Syria amnesty
Belfast Telegraph
Saturday, 2 June 2012

Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, left, and Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani discuss Syria at the Arab League (AP)

The UN's top human rights official has said that there should be no amnesty for serious crimes committed in Syria, even if the threat of prosecution might motivate members of the regime to cling to power at all costs. Asked if Syrian President Bashar Assad should be allowed to leave power in exchange for safe haven, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said international leaders seeking peace may be drawn to "politically expedient solutions which may involve amnesty or undertakings not to prosecute."

But she said that would be wrong under international law.

"You cannot have amnesty for very serious crimes," she told The Associated Press during an interview in Brussels. "So my message is very clear - there has to be accountability."

Lawyers for former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was sentenced on Wednesday by the Special Court for Sierra Leone to 50 years in prison, had argued that giving him a long sentence would send the wrong message to Assad.

Courtenay Griffiths, an attorney for Taylor, criticised the court for refusing while setting Taylor's sentence to take into account his decision to step down from power after his indictment in 2003.

"What lesson does that send to President Assad?" Mr Griffiths asked. "Maybe the lesson is: If you are a sitting leader and the international community wants to get rid of you, either you get murdered like Col. Gaddafi, or you hang on until the bitter end." Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed by a mob in October.

In Doha, Qatar, international envoy Kofi Annan held talks with Arab League officials and said the "spectre of an all-out war with a worrying sectarian dimension grows by the day."

Qatar's prime minister Sheik Hamid bin Jassim Al Thani urged the UN to set a deadline for Annan's peace efforts and warn Assad that failure could mean invoking Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which allows for possible military action. Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby suggested an option could be converting the Arab-led observer mission in Syria into a peacekeeping force.

Activists say as many as 13,000 people have died in Assad's crackdown against a popular uprising that began in March 2011. One year after the revolt started, the UN put the toll at 9,000, but many more have died since.


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/un-official-rules-out-syria-amnesty-16167360.html#ixzz1wgEsMGt3          





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WORLD_ Can Syria avoid sliding into 'catastrophic civil war'?

Can Syria avoid sliding into 'catastrophic civil war'?

By Jim Muir
BBC News, Beirut

 
More than 100 civilians, many of them children, were killed in Houla last week


Horrified by the Houla massacre, other atrocities and the remorseless daily violence, the outside world is desperately casting around for a way to prevent Syria from sliding inexorably towards a disastrous civil war, and to secure the launching of some kind of political process.

But despite huge international frustration, it keeps coming back to the same thing: at least for the moment, there is no alternative to UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's peace mission, which has made little headway despite enjoying the support of the entire world, including, at least in theory, the Syrian regime.

Mr Annan's talks with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday have failed so far to produce any sign of the "bold steps" that he wants the Syrian leader to take to demonstrate that he is serious about implementing the six-point peace plan.

By the time he found himself repeating that plea for "bold action" from Mr Assad three days later in Beirut, confessing himself "frustrated and impatient", Mr Annan had dropped reference to the need for the opposition side also to fall into line.

His public focus was clearly on prodding the regime, as the stronger party, to take significant steps such as withdrawing troops and heavy weapons back to barracks - something that should have been implemented weeks ago as the first stage in pacifying the situation on the ground. That has not happened, despite written assurances from the Syrian foreign minister to Mr Annan in April that it had.

The regime is concerned that the resulting vacuum would be filled by rebel fighters or otherwise go over to the opposition, and that it would lose control of substantial parts of the country.

In other words, as events on the ground have indicated, it cannot afford to implement any peace plan that requires withdrawing the military, because that would be to seal its own fate.

Which leaves Mr Annan trying against the odds to convince the regime that the opposition would respect a truce - and that countries backing rebel fighters would halt the flow of arms to them.

Hence, after Damascus, his visits to the countries neighbouring Syria, where his talks focused in part on efforts to stop arms smuggling across the borders.

 
The Syrian opposition says protests against the government are continuing

Achieving the reality, or even credible assurances, of that happening, and being able to persuade the regime to put away its troops, tanks and artillery, seem pretty forlorn hopes, given the venomous and worsening situation on the ground.

Russia's role

What seems to be missing from the equation at the moment is the kind of pressure on Damascus from Russia that was crucial in persuading the regime to accept the Annan plan in the first place, and to drop impossible conditions it later placed on implementing it.

For the time being, despite mounting international pressure on their own position in the wake of the Houla massacre, the Russians are continuing to argue against the idea that the UN Security Council should consider tougher action such as mandatory sanctions.

Blocking off such action increases the onus on Moscow to help secure Syrian compliance with the Annan plan, which the Russians continue to insist is the only way forward.

The level of hostilities around the country has been creeping back towards - and sometimes beyond - where they were when the Annan truce came into effect on 12 April”

If Syria... descends into open-ended confessional strife, it could, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon warned, be plunging into 'a catastrophic civil war from which the country would never recover'”

If Syria is indeed now bent on a downhill course towards disintegration and an ugly and protracted sectarian civil war with dire regional consequences, Russia may soon have to choose between trying to foster a peaceful and serious transition in the hope of salvaging a relationship with whatever Syria emerges from the crisis, and sticking by the current leadership whatever the cost as things fall apart around it.

After months of bloody stalemate between an uprising that would not go away and a regime that seemed immovable, there are some signs that things may be starting to change.

For the first time, the Sunni merchants in the souks or markets of Old Damascus - previously a staunch pillar of support for the regime - have for the past several days shut up shop and gone on strike over the Houla massacre, despite attempts by regime enforcers to make them reopen.

That could mean that a combination of economic collapse and sectarian atrocities may have carried dissent into the heart of the capital and the core of the regime's power base.

Alarm bells

Some Damascus residents say that the shabiha militia has taken on a high-profile repression role in the centre of the city, dressed in the uniforms of riot police and alienating the middle-class public by brutal and intrusive behaviour.

The regime's sense of vulnerability and readiness to lash out may have been aggravated if it is true that some of its insiders - including the President's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat - are still seriously ill after being poisoned by an opposition infiltrator at a top-level security meeting last month.

The initial opposition claims, on 20 May, were denied and ridiculed by the authorities, but some sources have said it is true.

Whatever the case, the level of hostilities around the country has been creeping back towards - and sometimes beyond - where they were when the Annan truce came into effect on 12 April.

And events such as the Houla massacre and other atrocities attributed by the opposition to the shabiha - a regime militia drawn almost entirely from the Alawite minority from which Mr Assad's ruling clan hails - have intensified the already strongly sectarian aspect of a struggle in which the uprising is by its nature based largely among the poorer sections of the majority Sunni community.

This is why, as daily violence continues relentlessly, the alarm bells have begun to ring so loudly in chanceries around the world.

For if Syria, with its patchwork of sects and minorities, descends into open-ended confessional strife, it could, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned, be plunging into "a catastrophic civil war from which the country would never recover".

Lebanon, just next door and sharing many of the same confessional fault lines, provides a stark example.

It erupted into sectarian strife in 1975, ushering in 15 years of conflict and opening rifts which still threaten to explode today.

For the same thing to happen in Syria would have incalculable consequences not just for the country itself, but for the wider region. That is why world leaders are so alarmed. But they seem powerless to stop it happening.



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WORLD_ General Assembly to meet on Houla

General Assembly to meet on Houla
June 1 2012 at 08:52pm
By Louis Charbonneau

 
The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly is planning to meet next week to discuss the escalating crisis in Syria and the recent massacre in the town of Houla, reflecting the growing international outrage over the killings, envoys said on Friday. Picture: Jacoline Prinsloo


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United Nations - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly is planning to meet next week to discuss the escalating crisis in Syria and the recent massacre in the town of Houla, reflecting the growing international outrage over the killings, envoys said on Friday.

International mediator Kofi Annan and U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay are expected to address the assembly on Thursday, U.N. diplomats told Reuters. Annan will also speak to the 15-nation U.N. Security Council that day about the lack of progress implementing his six-point peace plan.

News of the assembly meeting emerged after the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva condemned Syria on Friday for the massacre in Houla and called for a U.N. investigation to identify the perpetrators and gather evidence for possible criminal prosecution. Speaking on condition of anonymity, diplomats said that the meeting would be informal but was intended to demonstrate to the Syrian government that the vast majority of U.N. member states find the recent mass killings believed to be caused by the government and allied militia unacceptable and repulsive.

“I can confirm that Kofi Annan and Navi Pillay will address an informal session of the General Assembly next Thursday,” a diplomat said.

Nihal Saad, spokeswoman for Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser of Qatar, president of the General Assembly, said that discussions about such a meeting were still underway but nothing has been decided.

It was not clear if the assembly planned to adopt a resolution or declaration of some kind. While General Assembly decisions are not legally binding, it represents almost all nations on the planet and has the ability to rachet up political pressure on Damascus.

Syria has complained repeatedly about Nasser, accusing him of using the assembly to push Qatar's agenda. Qatar is one of the harshest critics of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has suggested it could arm the rebels.

Damascus has accused Qatar and Saudi Arabia of arming the rebels, who it says are terrorists.

More than 100 men, women and children were massacred in Houla last week, most of them shot at point-blank range or slashed with knives.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said earlier this week that the people who died from artillery and tank fire were clearly victims of government shelling while the others most likely killed by pro-Assad “shabbiha” militia.

Damascus has blamed the massacre on the opposition, which Assad has tried unsuccessfully for 14 months to crush, killing over 10,000 people in the process, according to the United Nations. Russia, which has used its veto powers to prevent the Security Council from sanctioning Syria, blames Islamist militants for the Houla massacre.
- Reuters




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WORLD_ Hague sticks to peace plan but doesn't rule out intervention

Hague sticks to peace plan but doesn't rule out intervention

Britain cannot rule out military intervention in Syria if the current peace plan fails, foreign secretary William Hague said on Friday.

 
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary Photo: REX FEATURES

By Ruth Sherlock, Beirut
11:20AM BST 01 Jun 2012

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme the Foreign Secretary said Britain was not yet prepared to arm Syria’s rebel opposition, but that if the UN-led peace plan were to collapse “other options” would have to be looked at.

For the moment Britain is giving full backing to UN envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan. While the Syrian regime has ignored the peace plan it remained “much the best option,” said Mr Hague.

He urged Russia, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, to push the Syrian regime into complying with the plan. “What I have put to the Russians is the case that for their own interests it would be better to use their leverage to make sure that even now the Assad regime implements that plan”.

In the face of a crumbling ceasefire, Mr Hague has travelled to Turkey to hold talks with Syrian opposition groups. He warned that were the Annan plan Syria would be in a “state of collapse” and ravaged by sectarian civil war.

Any foreign intervention would be on a much larger scale than the operations in Libya, the Foreign Secretary warned. Echoing the position of US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, he said any military action in Syria would need backing from the United Nations.


Related Articles
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  _ Syrian regime resumes Houla bombardment - 31 May 2012


Arming Syria’s opposition would occur only with broad international support, and would depend on the UN and on what is “practical and effective”.

Last week’s massacre in the Syrian town of Houla where more than 100 people were murdered in cold blood caused an international outcry against the Syrian government. The UN Human Rights Council will hold an emergency meeting in Geneva today at the UK’s request to discuss the situation new diplomatic action.

Downing Street has said it is also looking at other options, including further sanctions against the Syria, but it warned President Assad that Britain would not “abandon” the Syrian people.




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WORLD_ US says Syria massacre probe is a lie

US says Syria massacre probe is a lie

From correspondents at the United Nations
From: AP June 01, 2012 9:33AM

 
A handout picture released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows the bodies of 92 people including 32 children before their burial in the central Syrian town of Houla.

The US has dismissed a Syrian investigation that blames rebel fighters for the massacre of more than 100 people in Houla as "another blatant lie".

Susan Rice, the US representative to the United Nations, said today UN observers reported Syrian heavy weapons were used in attacks on Houla, and that "in all likelihood" pro-government shabiha militias were responsible "for the door-to-door killing of innocents execution style".

She said "there is no factual evidence ... that would substantiate" the Syrian Government's investigation of the incident.

At a news conference in Damascus on Thursday, Qassem Jamal Suleiman, who headed the investigation, categorically denied any regime role and blamed rebel gunmen.

He said their aim was to frame the Government and ignite sectarian strife in Syria. He said up to 800 rebel fighters carried out the slaughter after launching a co-ordinated attack on five security checkpoints.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday called for "a transparent, independent and impartial international investigation" so those responsible for the massacre could be held accountable.

Ms Rice said the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council was discussing a resolution that would establish an independent investigation to ensure that facts are established so the perpetrators can be prosecuted.

Russia, Syria's most important ally, has vetoed two Security Council resolutions raising the threat of sanctions against President Bashar Assad's government. But there are no vetoes in the Human Rights Council, which is holding an emergency meeting today.

Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the US ambassador to the Rights Council, said yesterday that support from all 47 members is "unlikely but not impossible".

In New York, Ms Rice was asked about a Russian ship that docked in the Syrian port of Tartous, reportedly loaded with weapons for the government.

She said it was not a violation of international law because there was no arms embargo against Syria.

"But it's reprehensible that arms would continue to flow to a regime that is using such horrific and disproportionate force against its own people," Ms Rice said.

In Istanbul yesterday, Mr Ban called on Syria to stop its attacks, saying UN observers monitoring the ceasefire were not there to watch the killing of innocent people.

"We are there to record violations and to speak out so that the perpetrators of crimes may be held to account," Mr Ban told a summit of the Alliance of Civilizations, a forum promoting understanding between the Western and Islamic worlds.

"The more the international community knows," Mr Ban said, "the more likely it is that we can advance on our most important goal: to help find a political solution, a solution that safeguards the lives and interests of all the Syrian people."

"Let me state plainly, however: The UN did not deploy in Syria just to bear witness to the slaughter of innocents. We are not there to play the role of passive observer to unspeakable atrocities."

Mr Ban said that UN envoy Kofi Annan has expressed his concern that a "tipping point" may have been reached in Syria.

"The massacre of civilians of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war - a civil war from which the country would never recover," Mr Ban said.

"I demand that the government of Syria act on its commitments under the Annan peace plan. A united international community demands that the Syrian Government act on its responsibilities to its people."


Read more:
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/us-says-syria-massacre-probe-is-a-lie/story-e6frfku0-1226378966337#ixzz1wWzhgZjW




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Chagas: Is tropical disease really the new AIDS?

Chagas: Is tropical disease really the new AIDS?

Dylan Stableford Yahoo! US,
Yahoo!7 June 1, 2012, 9:40 am


Mosquito


Chagas, a tropical disease spread by insects, is causing some fresh concern following an editorial published earlier this week in a medical journal—that called it "the new AIDS of the Americas."

More than 8 million people have been infected by Chagas, most of them in Latin and Central America. But more than 300,000 live in the United States.

The editorial, published by the Public Library of Science's Neglected Tropical Diseases, said the spread of the disease is reminiscent of the early years of HIV.

"There are a number of striking similarities between people living with Chagas disease and people living with HIV/AIDS," the authors wrote, "particularly for those with HIV/AIDS who contracted the disease in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

Both diseases disproportionately affect people living in poverty, both are chronic conditions requiring prolonged, expensive treatment, and as with patients in the first two decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, "most patients with Chagas disease do not have access to health care facilities."

Unlike HIV, Chagas is not a sexually-transmitted disease: it's "caused by parasites transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects," as the New York Times put it.

"It likes to bite you on the face," CNN reported. "It's called the kissing bug. When it ingests your blood, it excretes the parasite at the same time. When you wake up and scratch the itch, the parasite moves into the wound and you're infected."

"Gaaah," Cassie Murdoch wrote on Jezebel.com, summing up the sentiment of everyone who read the journal's report.

Chagas, also known as American trypanosomiasis, kills about 20,000 people per year, the journal said.

The problem is once the heart symptoms start, which is the most dreaded complication—the Chagas cardiomyopathy—the medicines no longer work very well," Dr. Peter Hotez, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and one of the editorial's authors, told CNN. "Problem No. 2: the medicines are extremely toxic."

And 11 per cent of pregnant women in Latin America are infected with Chagas, the journal said.




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