Christof
Heyns, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions, fears that Barack Obama's CIA-run programmes in
, Yemen and elsewhere will encourage other states to flout long-established international
law.
In his strongest critique so far of drone strikes, Heyns suggested that some attacks may constitute war crimes.
Thursday 21 June 2012
A Syrian fighter pilot flew his plane to Jordan today and asked for
political asylum, the first defection of an air force pilot with his
plane during the 15-month uprising against President Bashar Assad.
Jordanian Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah confirmed that the pilot had defected.
Initially,
three Jordanian officials said the Russian-made MiG-21 made an
emergency landing at the northern King Hussein Air Base in Mafraq, 43
miles north of the Jordanian capital and near the Syrian border.
Greece to seek bailout extension
irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 13:09
Greece's new government is to ask lenders for two more years to hit
fiscal targets, responding to huge public pressure for a softening of an
international bailout but setting up a showdown with its euro zone
partners.
An official from the small Democratic Left party
attending three-party talks before the announcement of a new coalition
government said the delay of the bailout deadline and an extension of
unemployment benefits were key elements of a new government policy
document.
Fossil hunters unearth massive mega-wombat graveyard
Scientists have found a huge deposit of bones of the rhino-sized
wombats that roamed Australia in the time of super-kangaroos and
tree-crocodiles.
Australian scientists have unveiled the biggest-ever graveyard of an
ancient rhino-sized mega-wombat called diprotodon, with the site
potentially holding valuable clues on the species’ extinction.
The
remote fossil deposit in outback Queensland state is thought to contain
up to 50 diprotodon skeletons including a huge specimen named Kenny,
whose jawbone alone is 70cm long.
Scott Hocknull from the
Queensland Museum in Brisbane, the lead scientist on the dig, said Kenny
was one of the largest diprotodons he had ever seen and one of the best
preserved specimens.
Burundi sentences journalist to life for interviewing 'rebel' leader
Reuters | 21 June, 2012 12:06
A Burundian court has sentenced a journalist to life
imprisonment for "participating in a terrorist attack", his lawyer said,
in a growing clampdown on media in the east African nation.
Hassan Ruvakuki was arrested in November, accused of involvement in a
deadly gun attack by militants on the eastern town of Cankuzo that was
launched from neighbouring Tanzania.
The prosecution alleged he was complicit in the attack because he had
travelled to Tanzania earlier that month and interviewed the rebel
group's proclaimed leader, a former Burundian police officer.
Baseless controversy over
Thailand's U-TapaoBy John Cole
and Steve Sciacchitano
Controversy over a
United States request for the expanded use of
Thailand's civil-military U-Tapao air base has
exposed political divisions and raised new
questions about the state of relations between the
two long-time strategic allies.
Washington's request, which has set off a
firestorm in the local media, was twofold: to
establish a humanitarian assistance and disaster
relief (HA/DR) center in response to an earlier US
request, as well as a separate overture from the
US space agency NASA, made several years ago under
the previous Democrat party-led Thai government,
to conduct climate research flights.
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