Exclusive: How Syria's rebel fighters were sold exploding rifles – by a mystery Briton named ‘Emile’
Opponents of Bashar al-Assad suspect they have been duped by a double agent posing as an arms dealer
To the Syrian rebels, the offer was enticing: Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles and ammunition at below-market price, with supplies plentiful. The dealers were convincing: two of them had European passports, one a British passport, and they claimed to have been involved in supplying arms during the Bosnia war.
Three meetings took place in Istanbul between representatives of the rebels and the dealers, including the Briton, calling himself Emile, to organise shipments. An initial payment of around $40,000 was made.
The delivery was on time, as had been a previous shipment. But it soon became apparent that something was wrong.
Cutting CarbonIs Europe's Emissions Trading System Broken?
By Joel Stonington
Emitting CO2 into the atmosphere is dirt cheap in Europe these days. At just 8 euros per ton, the low price is undermining the European Union's effort to establish an effective cap and trade system. Implementing necessary fixes to the system, however, won't be easy in the face of industry opposition.
Europe's carbon market is in deep trouble and it's not just environmentalists sounding the alarm. Back in April, the CEO of Shell said that the European Union's system for trading allowances for the emission of greenhouse gases was "in danger." But that's about as direct as anyone will get in this world of bureaucratese. Most simply talk of "price weakness" (meaning that emission credits are absurdly cheap), a desire for "long-term policy certainty" (the system needs a fix!), and the need to "restore confidence" (and the fix has to come fast!).
The simple fact is that the most important tool in Europe's fight against climate change needs a major fix. When it was introduced in 2005, the idea was to make pollution expensive. And in the summer of 2008, the price for emitting a ton of carbon peaked at a price of around €30.
Long path to peace in Myanmar
October 27, 2012 - 7:36PM
Natalie Bochenski
It’s hard to imagine any Burmese person being violent. As a recent visitor to the country, I was greeted with nothing but grace and hospitality. Women called me beautiful, a chief monk told me I had good teeth, and children held my hand with so much excitement I almost felt like Angelina Jolie.
But my ethnicity was just a curiosity and an intrigue in a country still opening up to tourists. In the country’s western Rakhine state, close to Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh, deep-rooted conflict between two groups with different skin tone, language and religion is causing only terror and death.
The United Nations says sectarian violence between the Buddhist Burmese and Muslim Rohingya minority this week has cost at least 88 lives, with 70,000 displaced.
Amnesty: More than 200 held and tortured in Cote d'Ivoire
A rights group says more than 200 people have been detained and tortured in Cte d'Ivoire, urging President Alassane Ouattara to respect human rights.
The victims included members of former president Laurent Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) who "have faced illegal detention and torture with many still languishing behind bars", Amnesty International said after a month-long mission to the West African country.
"We were able to meet dozens of detainees who told us how they have been tortured by electricity or had molten plastic poured on their bodies. Two of them have been sexually abused," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's researcher on West Africa.
"Some have been held for many months [and] denied contact with their families and access to lawyers."
In a first reaction, Human Rights Minister Gnenema Coulibaly said the president was "committed to fighting impunity".
Cuba to welcome back many who left
In order to normalize relations with Cubans abroad, Cuba's most recent policy is expected to allow the return of many now banned from the island, estimated any anywhere from 70,000 to 300,000.
Cuba said Thursday it will welcome back tens of thousands of its citizens who left illegally – including rafters, doctors, and baseball players – in the second round of a migration reform it claims will help normalize relations with Cubans abroad.
Havana has barred the return of rafters since its 1994 migration accord with the US government in order to deter risky escapes across the Florida Straits. But the ban is not part of the accord and is not expected to affect the agreement or US policy.
"We will normalize the temporary entry to the island of those who emigrated illegally after the 1994 migration accords," Homero Acosta, secretary of the ruling Council of State, announced in a television appearance late Wednesday.
The West Bank's most impressive Yasser Arafat lookalike
Eight years after the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died, he still remains a towering figure in Palestinian society. And he hasn't completely disappeared.
Picture the scene: You have popped down your local fruit and veg market to pick up a packet of potatoes, possibly a pepper, a couple of onions.
You are beginning to daydream about the corned beef hash you are planning to rustle up later.
When who should emerge from behind a pile of peaches, but Yasser Arafat.
Decked out in green military fatigues and his trademark chequered black and white headscarf, Chairman Arafat saunters through the crowds pausing occasionally to admire the cherry tomatoes or a nice looking melon.
"Two for a fiver, Abu Ammar," shouts a trader, in what I assume must be something akin to cockney Arabic.
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