Syria ready to participate in peace talks
Syria ready to participate in peace talks Syria ready to participate in peace talks Syria is ready to take part in peace talks in Geneva and hopes that the dialogue will help it form a national unity government, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday during a visit to Beijing. The U.N. Security Council […]
Syria ready to participate in peace talks
Syria ready to participate in peace talks
Syria is ready to take part in peace talks in Geneva and hopes that the dialogue will help it form a national unity government, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday during a visit to Beijing.
The U.N. Security Council last Friday unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syrian peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives.
The U.N. plans to convene peace talks in Geneva toward the end of January.
Moualem, who spoke to reporters in English, said he had told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that Syria was “ready to participate in the Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva without any foreign interference”.
“Our delegation will be ready as soon as we receive a list of the opposition delegation,” he said.
“We hope that this dialogue will be successful to help us in having a national unity government,” Moualem said, standing next to Wang at the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
“This government will compose a constitutional committee to look for a new constitution with a new law of election so the parliamentary election will be held within the period of 18 months, more or less.”
Afghanistan: ‘Dozens of Taliban killed’ in battle for Sangin
A local Taliban commander and 50 fighters have been killed in overnight fighting in Sangin in Helmand province, the Afghan interior ministry said.
Afghan forces have been trying to recapture the area from the Taliban, who claim to control the district.
Afghan officials said they retook key buildings in a counter-attack, while the US carried out air strikes.
The ministry named the dead commander as Mullah Nasir, a confidant of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
Strategically located, and a centre for opium production, Sangin would be a significant gain for the Taliban.
Fighting around the town has escalated in the past week, and by Wednesday the militants said they had captured all of Sangin, pinning down government troops in an army barracks.
This was denied by the Afghan defence ministry, who said fighting was continuing and that reinforcements had been sent.
The interior ministry said the Afghan army and police commandos launched an operation late on Wednesday, leading to the deaths of the Taliban commander and his fighters.
British PM to ‘look into’ US denial of entry to British Muslims
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s office says he will “look into” the cases of British Muslims who were denied permission at the last minute to fly to the United States.
The Prime Minister’s statement Wednesday stemmed from a complaint made by a British lawmaker on behalf of a family in her constituency, who were denied permission to travel to southern California on December 15. A member of the family of 11 says they were forced to forfeit the value of $13,000 in airfare because they were banned from boarding their plane.
A U.S. government source told Britain’s Sky News that one man in the family had been deemed as prohibited from flying, but all 11 were banned because they had booked their tickets together.
British Parliament member Stella Creasy, who represents northeast London, says she is concerned that a growing number of British Muslim families are being denied entry to the United States with no reason given.
A spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection told VOA religion, faith, or spiritual beliefs of an international traveler are not determining factors about admissibility into the county.
The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act lists more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility divided into several major categories, including health-related, prior criminal convictions, public charge, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds, the spokesman said.
U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump raised international ire earlier this year when he proposed a ban on Muslims traveling to the United States, in response to a mass shooting in California in November. He said “at this time there is a Muslim problem in the world.”
Prime Minister Cameron called those remarks “divisive and wrong.”
63 dead, 15 missing in Indonesian shipwreck
Rescuers have recovered 63 bodies and kept searching for 15 missing people whose chance of survival was slim five days after a boat sank in eastern Indonesia, officials said on Thursday.
The search and rescue operation was intensified and expanded Thursday, head of National Disaster Management Agency in Wajo district of South Sulawesi Alamsyah said.
“Today the operation is maximized, hence it has discovered 103 victims with 40 of them alive and 63 others dead. So there are 15 more people to be searched for,” Alamsyah told Xinhua from Wajo district.
“The opportunity to find the victims alive still exists, but it is too small,” Zainul Tjahar, spokesman of the national search and rescue office said.
The search operation is carried out through waters and air, involving planes, helicopters, ships and boats.
KM Marina Baru 02B was en route from Kolaka in southeast Sulawesi to Siwa seaport in South Sulawesi. The boat with 108 passengers and 10 crew members aboard sank near the Gulf of Bone after being hit by a storm on Saturday.
Western countries issue rare Christmas security alerts for Beijing
At least four Western countries took the unusual step on Thursday of issuing Christmas security warnings for Westerners in a popular Beijing diplomatic and entertainment district as police stepped up patrols.
The U.S. Embassy said in a brief statement it had “received information of possible threats” against Westerners in Sanlitun, also home to many embassies, on or around Christmas Day, December 25.
The French Embassy, Britain’s Foreign Office and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs issued similar warnings. None of them elaborated.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he was aware of the reports and that the government paid great attention to foreigners’ safety.
Beijing police, in a statement on their official microblog, said they had issued a “yellow” security alert for Christmas and New Year, the second lowest level, focused on areas like malls, which are likely to see more people visiting during the festivities.
Saudi hospital fire leaves 25 dead, 107 injured
An early-morning fire at a hospital in Saudi Arabia has killed 25 people and injured 107, but is now under control, according to Saudi officials.
The fire early Thursday took place in the southwestern port city of Jazan. The Saudi civil defense agency said it broke out in the intensive care unit and the maternity ward.
The injured have been transferred to other hospitals in the area. No details have been released about those who died in the blaze.
Photographs posted on Twitter show an intense fire that appears to have done severe damage to the hospital’s interior. An investigation is underway.
Ghana demands return of $500,000 spent on bus rebrand
Ghana has demanded a $500,000 (£350,000) refund after its transport ministry spent $1m to paint more than 100 buses with portraits of the country’s recent leaders.
The contractor, Smartty’s Management Limited, has been asked to return the excess payment, the government said.
On Wednesday, Transport Minister Dzifa Attivor resigned following a public outcry over the deal. Ghana is struggling with a large budget deficit and a widening public debt.
The branding involved respraying the 116 imported passenger buses and adding portraits of the current President John Mahama, his three immediate predecessors and Ghana’s first head of state, Kwame Nkrumah.
US storms: At least seven dead in trail of destruction
A storm described by forecasters as “particularly dangerous” has hit the South and Mid-west of the US, killing at least seven people and injuring scores more ahead of Christmas.
Four people were killed as tornadoes moved through northern Mississippi, officials said, and two in Tennessee and one in Arkansas.
There have been reports of at least 20 tornadoes of varying severity.
The high winds have also caused significant damage to homes.
Authorities in parts of Mississippi – where a seven-year-old was among those killed – are conducting a house-by-house search-and-rescue operation after the state was hit by multiple tornadoes.
El Gordo: Senegal refugee wins €400,000 in Spain lottery
A migrant from Senegal who travelled to Europe by boat has won a stake of some €400,000 (£294,000; $436,000) in Spain’s Christmas lottery.
The man, named Ngagne, travelled from Morocco to Spain in 2007.
Ticket-holders in his coastal town of Roquetas de Mar won first prize, and a share of €640m (£470m), in the “El Gordo” (The Fat One) lottery.
Ngagne told one Spanish newspaper that he and his wife often did not have even €5 to last the day.
The 35-year-old and his wife were rescued when they made the journey by boat in 2007, and taken to the island of Tenerife. They now live in Roquetas de Mar, which is on Spain’s south coast.
“There were 65 people on that boat,” he told the La Voz de Almeria newspaper (in Spanish). “I want to give thanks to Spaniards and the Spanish government for rescuing me when I was in the sea.”