Legion of Angels News Archive

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The head of South Africa’s ruling party and favorite to win the 2009 presidential election, Jacob Zuma, has called for Zimbabwe’s rival leaders to implement a power-sharing package for the sake of the country.

Speaking after discussing the crisis in Zimbabwe Tuesday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Zuma said: “I think we share the same views that a quicker solution in Zimbabwe is desirable for the sake of the Zimbabwean people and the country.”

“We also agreed that the Zimbabwean leaders should be urged to complete the package which is already on the table so that it is implemented for the sake of the Zimbawean people.”

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai on September 15 agreed on a power-sharing accord that divides the government ministries among them and would keep 84-year-old Mugabe as president and make Tsvangirai the prime minister.

However, negotiations to break a five-week deadlock to form a unity government were postponed on Monday after Tsvangirai refused to go to Swaziland for a meeting with Mugabe and four other regional leaders, saying he did not believe Mugabe’s side was negotiating in good faith.

Washington has threatened new sanctions against Zimbabwe if Mugabe does not respect the September 15 agreement.

Tsvangirai has not been granted a full passport for nearly a year and is only allowed to travel on emergency travel documents valid for a single trip.

Source — Yahoo!

BANGKOK, Thailand – A Thai court found former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty of corruption and sentenced him Tuesday to two years in prison, adding a new twist to the country’s paralyzing political crisis.

The guilty verdict was the first against the country’s former leader since he was ousted by a 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Thaksin, 59, jumped bail and fled to England two months ago along with his wife, Pojaman, 51, who was also charged. The Supreme Court acquitted her on Tuesday.

From his home near London, Thaksin condemned the conviction but said it was hardly a surprise.

“It was politically motivated since the court is a carry-forward of the coup d’etat,” Thaksin told The Associated Press. “I’m a politician and after I was toppled by the coup, it’s normal that they will try every means to justify it.”

The ruling was greeted with excitement by the political movement trying to force out the current government, which they accuse of being controlled by Thaksin.

Raucous cheers erupted among several thousand members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, which has occupied the grounds of the prime minister’s offices since August. They chanted, “Go to jail, go to jail!”

The charges stemmed from allegations that Thaksin facilitated his wife’s purchase of lucrative Bangkok real estate from a state agency in 2003, while he was prime minister.

“The defendant was the prime minister at the time. He should have been honest and ethical and should not have violated counter-corruption laws,” Thongloh Chomngam, head of the court’s nine-judge panel, said in reading from the lengthy verdict.

A prosecutor said the attorney-general’s office “will speed up” its effort to extradite Thaksin, who remains the country’s most influential politician. A formal request has yet to be made.

“We set up a special task force to handle Thaksin’s extradition process some time ago,” said Seksan Bangsomboon. “Tomorrow we will come and get the verdict and have it translated into English and then send it with our request to the British government asking for the extradition of Thaksin.”

Extradition across borders is usually a lengthy and complicated process, and many countries make an exception for cases where there may be reason to believe that politics played a part in the legal proceedings.

Thaksin said he was confident he would be able to remain in Britain.

“I was waiting for today before planning my life,” he said. “I want to be a prominent businessman in the U.K. if the British people will welcome me.”

The Supreme Court’s widely expected ruling made Thaksin the first politician convicted of corruption committed while prime minister, but it was unlikely to ease the political tensions that have been boiling since the protesters took over Government House on Aug. 26 and staged militant street demonstrations.

“We still will not leave Government House, and we still call for political reform to get rid of the Thaksin regime and the current political system plagued with corruption and abuse of power,” said Pipob Thongchai, a protest leader.

The protest leaders say they want to stamp out political corruption. But their critics say their plans would disenfranchise the country’s poor majority and put more power in the hands of the traditional elite.

The court found Thaksin guilty of violating several laws barring bar public officeholders and their spouses from holding a contract with the state. Thaksin’s lawyers had argued that the agency from which the land was purchased was an independent body.

Thaksin built up a political base in the countryside during his 2001-2006 time in office by implementing a raft of populist programs.

His brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, is the current prime minister and has been labeled a Thaksin puppet by protesters demanding his ouster.

Somchai’s government has been virtually paralyzed by the protests.

Former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin turned politician faces a string of court cases and investigations into alleged corruption and abuse of power during his six years in office.

Thaksin has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, saying the charges were politically motivated.

The court also Tuesday ordered a fresh arrest warrant for Thaksin, who already has several warrants out for him in connection with other corruption cases.

Source — Yahoo!

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence Tuesday for a journalism student accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women’s rights under Islam. But the judges still sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

The case against 24-year-old Parwez Kambakhsh, whose brother has angered Afghan warlords with his own writings, has come to symbolize Afghanistan’s slide toward an ultraconservative view on religious and individual freedoms.

“I don’t accept the court’s decision,” Kambakhsh told The Associated Press as he was leaving the courtroom. “It is an unfair decision.”

The case can be appealed to the Supreme Court, the highest court in Afghanistan.

John Dempsey, a U.S. lawyer working for six years to reform the Afghan justice system, said Kambakhsh has yet to get a fair trial.

“Procedurally, he did not have many of his rights respected,” said Dempsey, who attended the trial. “He was detained far longer than he should have been legally held. The defense lawyer was not even allowed to meet the witnesses until a night before the trial.”

Kambakhsh was studying journalism at Balkh University in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and writing for local newspapers when he was arrested in October 2007.

Besides the accusation that Kambakhsh disrupted class with his questions, prosecutors also said he illegally distributed an article he printed off the Internet that asks why Islam does not modernize to give women equal rights. He also allegedly wrote his own comments on the paper.

In January, a lower court sentenced him to death in a trial critics have called flawed in part because Kambakhsh had no lawyer representing him. Muslim clerics welcomed that court’s decision and public demonstrations were held against the journalism student because of perceptions he had violated the tenets of Islam.

On Tuesday, five witnesses from Mazar-e-Sharif — two students and three teachers — appeared before the three-judge panel.

The first witness, a student who gave only one name, Hamid, told the court he had been forced into making a statement accusing Kambakhsh of blasphemy by members of Afghanistan’s intelligence service and a professor. He said the professor threatened him with expulsion.

Other witnesses, however, testified that Kambakhsh had violated tenets of Islam.

The head of Tuesday’s panel, Abdul Salaam Qazizada, struck down the lower court’s death penalty and sentenced Kambakhsh to 20 years behind bars.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentence.

“Even though Kambakhsh’s death penalty was overturned, today’s sentencing is a great disappointment and a setback for the rights of free expression in Afghanistan,” Bob Dietz, the Asia program coordinator for the committee, said in a statement.

The committee said earlier this year it was concerned that Kambakhsh may have been targeted because his brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, had written about human rights violations and local politics.

Ibrahimi told the AP on Tuesday that his brother was sentenced because of the pressure from warlords and other strongmen in northern Afghanistan, whom he has criticized in his writings.

Source — Yahoo!

TEHRAN, Iran – Russia, Iran and Qatar made the first serious moves Tuesday toward forming an OPEC-style cartel on natural gas, raising concerns that Moscow could boost its influence over energy markets spanning from Europe to South Asia.

Such an alliance would have little direct impact on the United States, which imports virtually no natural gas from Russia or the other nations.

But Washington and Western allies worry that closer strategic ties between Russia and Iran could hinder efforts to isolate Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. In addition, the United States opposes a proposed Iranian gas pipeline to Pakistan and India, key allies.

In Europe — which counts on Russia for nearly half of its natural gas imports — any cartel controlled by Moscow poses a threat to supply and pricing.

Russia, which most recently came into confrontation with the West over its five-day war with Georgia in August, has been accused of using its hold on energy supplies to bully its neighbors, particularly Ukraine.

Moscow cut natural gas exports to the former Soviet republic over a price dispute during the dead of winter in 2006 — a cutoff that caused disruptions to European nations further down the pipeline.

The 27-nation European Union expressed strong opposition to any natural gas cartel Tuesday, with an EU spokesman, Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, saying: “The European Commission feels that energy supplies have to be sold in a free market.”

Together Russia, Qatar and Iran account for nearly a third of world natural gas exports — the vast majority supplied by Russia — according to U.S. government statistics. The three hold some 60 percent of world gas reserves, according to Russia’s state-controlled energy company Gazprom.

The United States — the world’s largest consumer of oil and gas — produces most of its natural gas needs at home, importing only from Canada and Mexico.

Russia is also a major oil producer, though not an OPEC member. For its part, Iran, in its standoff with world powers over its nuclear program, has threatened to choke off oil shipments through the Persian Gulf if it is attacked.

A gas cartel could extend both countries’ reach in energy and politics, particularly if oil prices bounce back to the highs seen earlier this year, prompting renewed interest in cleaner-burning natural gas and other alternative fuels.

Tuesday’s gathering in Tehran appeared to be the most significant step toward the formation of such a group since Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, first raised the idea in January 2007.

“Big decisions were made,” said Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari. His Qatari counterpart, Abdulla Bin Hamad al-Attiya, said at least two more meetings were needed to finalize an accord, according to the Iranian Oil Ministry’s Web site. No timeframe was given.

Calling the grouping the “big gas troika,” the chief executive of Russia’s state-controlled energy company Gazprom, Alexei Miller, said it would meet three or four times a year.

“We are consolidating the largest gas reserves in the world, the general strategic interests and — what is very important — the high potential for cooperation on three-party projects,” Miller said.

Already, Russia has built Iran’s first nuclear reactor, which Iranian officials say could begin operating later this year. The West fears Iran’s nuclear program could lead to development of atomic weapons; Iran insists it is only for peaceful energy production.

Experts say a natural gas cartel would not have the same influence on prices as OPEC has on oil since natural gas is not subject to the same severe fluctuations.

“There’s always some worry when these guys get together that they’ll try to replicate OPEC, but they know that’s not doable,” said Robert Ebel, senior adviser to the Energy and National Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “They can try to get more control over gas, but it’s not OPEC.”

That’s because gas, unlike oil, is traded on much longer-term contracts, of as much as 25 years.

“Gas is a regional commodity and oil is an international commodity,” Ebel said. “If you want to buy a tanker of crude, you can buy one at today’s prices. When you want to build a natural gas pipeline, you have to have two things: enough gas to justify building a pipeline that will operate for 25 years, and … customers that will agree to buy that gas at a range of prices for 25 years.”

Still, a natural gas cartel could wield some influence on world prices, particularly in Europe and Asia, said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla.-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com.

“To try to maneuver the supply … makes perfect sense,” he said. “Just because it doesn’t have the clout of oil, it’s still in their best interest to deliver natural gas where it needs to go and manage supply in order to help manage the price.”

Liquefied natural gas — a rapidly growing segment of the market — could be traded as a commodity similar to oil at some point in the future, and the move by Russia, Iran and Qatar appears to anticipate that, said Konstantin Batunin, an analyst with Moscow’s Alfa Bank.

Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, is looking to make the U.S. one of its prime markets for liquefied natural gas, and sent senior executives to Alaska last week to discuss energy projects.

Source — Yahoo!

SYDNEY (AFP) – The world is on the brink of an avalanche in the spread of devastating weaponry, a new global non-proliferation group warned Tuesday, saying that a nuclear incident would dwarf the September 11 attacks.

The Middle East, particularly Iran, is a potential tipping point, according to Gareth Evans, co-chair of the newly formed International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

Evans, a former Australia foreign minister, said the world had been “sleepwalking” on the issue of atomic weapons for a decade.

“The devastation that could be wreaked by one major nuclear weapons incident alone puts 9/11 and almost everything else (in) to the category of the insignificant,” he said, referring to the attacks inflicted on the United States in 2001.

Evans was speaking as the commission, which was first proposed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd after a visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima in June, entered the second and final day of its inaugural meeting in Sydney.

The group, chaired by Evans and Japan’s former top diplomat Yoriko Kawaguchi, is tasked with reinvigorating the global debate on the spread of nuclear weapons and disarmament.

Evans told reporters there were between 13,000 and 16,000 nuclear warheads actively deployed around the world and that it was “really a bit of a miracle” that a nuclear catastrophe had not occurred during the Cold War or afterwards.

“But unless we energise ourselves, unless we re-invigorate a high level political debate which is then accompanied by effective action, we potentially have very alarming consequences staring us in the face,” he said.

“We are on the brink of… an avalanche or a cascade of proliferation unless we are very, very careful indeed and find ways collectively to hold the line.”

Evans, Australia’s foreign minister from 1988 to 1996, said the world had failed to address the rise of nuclear-armed India and Pakistan and the assumption that Israel also possesses such weapons.

But he pointed to the Middle East as a key area of concern.

“If there is a breakout by Iran, or a perceived breakout by Iran, the Middle East alone is the cockpit in which we can anticipate such a cascade of proliferation by a number of other countries,” he said.

A change in leadership in the US, however, may provide a breakthrough in international talks, before comparing possible changes under Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

“An Obama administration would, on the face of it… be one that’s likely to be more substantially focused on this but even with an McCain administration, it would be an improvement,” said Evans. “There’s not much to beat frankly.”

He said if the US were to sign up to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty the implications would be “quite profound” and could lead to China finding itself under “irresistable pressure” to do likewise.

“That in turn would, I think, have ripple effects right throughout the international community,” he added.

The commission, whose members include former US secretary of defence William Perry and Norway’s former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, is working towards building consensus ahead of a 2010 conference on the 40-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Source — Yahoo!