Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With C.I.A. Aid
By C. J. CHIVERS and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: March 24, 2013
With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against PresidentBashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.
The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.
Euro zone finance ministers agree €10bn Cyprus bailout deal
Small depositors protected as Island’s second largest bank to be wound down
Irish Times Reporters
Cyprus secured a bailout package early today that will protect depositors under €100,000 and which will see the island’s second largest bank, Laiki, wound down.
As a result , deposits of more than € 100,000 will be faced with losses, possibly up to 40 per cent.
“We’ve put an end to the uncertainty that has affected Cyprus and the euro area over the past week,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the meetings of euro zone finance ministers.
In return for the€ 10 billion package of rescue loans, Cyprus must drastically shrink its outsized banking sector, cut its budget, implement structural reforms and privatise state assets, he said.
Xi: 'China's approach to Africa is different from the West'
President Xi Jinping was due in Tanzania on Sunday at the start of a tour of Africa that underscores Beijing's growing presence on the continent.
Xi will visit Tanzania's economic capital Dar es Salaam, where he is set to give a keynote speech on relations with Africa, before heading to Durban on Monday to join a emerging economies summit.
He wraps up the African tour, part of his first overseas trip which started in Russia, with a visit to the Republic of Congo.
"China-Africa cooperation is comprehensive," Xi said ahead of his trip, adding that Beijing valued "friendly relationships with all African countries, no matter whether they are big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor".
Buddhists-Muslims violence spreads in Myanmar
MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AP) — Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar spread to at least two other towns in the country's heartland over the weekend, undermining government efforts to quash an eruption of violence that has killed dozens of people and displaced 10,000 more.
President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the region on Friday and deployed army troops to the worst hit city, Meikhtila. But even as soldiers were able to impose order there after several days of anarchy that saw armed Buddhists torch the city's Muslim quarters, unrest was reported in two other towns to the south.
25 March 2013 Last updated at 02:05 GMT
Mozambique: From Marxism to market
British journalist Paul Fauvet came to Mozambique in 1980 just as the country was plunged into a civil war. He has witnessed every key event since. Here he describes the transformation of his adopted country from revolutionary Marxist state to embracing the market and the exploitation of its resource riches.
After its independence in 1975, Mozambique became known for the colourful and militant murals decorating public buildings in Maputo.
Workers, peasants and soldiers were shown marching firmly towards the socialist future. "Long live Marxism-Leninism!" declared some of the slogans.
Israel fires into Syria after Golan attack on troops
By Dan Williams and Jeffrey Heller, Reuters
JERUSALEM — Israel said it fired into Syria on Sunday and destroyed a machinegun position in the Golan Heights from where shots had been fired at Israeli soldiers in a further spillover of the Syrian civil war along a tense front.
It was not immediately clear whether Israel held Syrian troops or rebels responsible for what a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said had been a deliberate attack on Israeli patrols in the occupied territory.
Israeli forces "destroyed a Syrian machine gun nest that fired twice in the last 24 hours on Israeli patrols operating to safeguard the border," the spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, said on his Twitter page.
Shells have fallen several times inside Israeli-controlled territory during Syria's civil war. Some of the incidents have drawn Israeli return fire.
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