US politicians weigh intervention in Syria |
Senate panel says draft authorisation for use of military force addresses time limits and ban on use of ground troops.
Last Modified: 04 Sep 2013 09:26
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Among other provisions, the draft, which was obtained by Al Jazeera on Tuesday, sets a 60-day limit on military action in Syria, with a possibility for a single 30-day extension subject to conditions.
The deal reached by Senator Robert Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the panel, and Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican, includes a provision banning any use of US armed forces on the ground.
Vladimir Putin: gay people are not discriminated against in Russia
Russian president seeks to allay fears ahead of 2014 Winter Olympics but officials say new anti-gay law will still be enforced
Vladimir Putin has sought to ease concerns that Russia's new anti-gay law will be used to punish athletes who display rainbow flags during the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The president insisted that gay people were not discriminated against in his country.
"I assure you that I work with these people, I sometimes award them with state prizes or decorations for their achievements in various fields," Putin said in an interview with Associated Press and Russia's state Channel 1 television.
US intelligence reveals Pakistan plot to kill human rights activist Asma Jahangir
DIA notes that such a plot 'would result in an international and domestic backlash as the ISI is already under significant criticism for intimidation and extra-judicial killings'
Elements within Pakistan’s security establishment plotted to kill the celebrated human rights campaigner Asma Jahangir, according to a leaked US intelligence report.
US agencies discovered in May 2012 that Pakistani officers were hatching a plan that involved recruiting militants to kill her while she was on a visit to neighbouring India or else “militants or criminals” to kill her while she was in Pakistan.
The details of the US intelligence report appear to confirm claims made last summer by Ms Jahangir, a leading lawyer and campaigner and a former president of the country’s Supreme Court Bar Association, that she had learned of a plot against her from “a responsible and highly credible” source.
DRC's M23: 'We didn't start the war'
The M23 rebels have written to UN the secretary general saying they are not responsible for the DRC war, adding the world body's Monusco is to blame.
The Movement of March 23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo has written to the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, seeking to clear themselves of any blame for the conflict that ravaged that country’s North Kivu province last week.
M23 chairperson Bertrand Bisimwa claimed in the letter that his movement did not start the war; they did not shoot into neighbouring Rwanda or Goma and other towns. Instead, Bisimwa said UN peacekeeping unit Monusco is "committed to pursue war against our movement".
"This war initiative of which the Republic of France has become the torchbearer is being directed against our movement on three dimensions: on the military front by attacks from the Intervention Brigade, through the media by unfounded and biased news reports and fabrications by Monusco," said Bisimwa.
Protests against Chevron highlight Argentine energy woes
Argentina is a net energy importer, but plans to tap vast oil deposits with the help of foreign investment could spark more environmental protests.
Activists in southern Argentina are threatening to intensify protests against a deal struck between state-run energy firm YPF and international oil giant Chevron.
Lawmakers in Neuquén province approved the $1.2 billion pact last week amid violent protests outside the provincial legislature, where police fired rubber bullets at around 5,000 anti-fracking demonstrators. Mapuche natives also blockaded a YPF plant, and one of the community’s leaders said Monday that “We’re not ruling out further action.”
Opposition to developing the Vaca Muerta in southwest Argentina – one of the world’s largest nonconventional hydrocarbon deposits – reflects similar clashes across Argentina. Energy and mining projects, often foreign investment-led, are frequently resisted by environmental, social, and political movements here.
King Richard III suffered from roundworm infection, scientists say
By Melissa Pandika
King Richard III may have suffered from a parasite as nasty as his reputation. The remains of the medieval monarch -- villainized by William Shakespeare as a tyrant who killed his nephews in order to seize the throne -- show signs of roundworm infection, scientists say.
Archaeologists have undertaken careful analysis of Richard III’s remains since excavating them from a parking lot in the English town of Leicester in 2012. They’ve discovered several roundworm eggs in the soil around his pelvis, suggesting that the parasite lived in the king’s intestines.
Roundworms infect humans when they ingest food or water contaminated with fecal matter containing their eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae, which migrate to the lungs, where they mature. They then crawl up the airways to the throat to be swallowed back into the intestines, where they can grow into adults around a foot long.
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