Kiev withdraws military from Crimea and asks UN to make Russia follow suit
Ukraine warns it will take ‘technical and technological’ retaliation unless servicemen are freed
Daniel McLaughlin
Kiev is moving to withdraw its military from Crimea and to distance itself dramatically from Russia, as Moscow’s troops and local allies seize Ukrainian bases on the Black Sea peninsula.
One Ukrainian soldier and one pro-Russian militiaman were killed when one facility was stormed, and Ukraine’s acting president Oleksandr Turchinov said “technical and technological measures” would be taken unless Crimean authorities freed Kiev’s servicemen.
It is not clear how many Ukrainians were taken captive yesterday, but Mr Turchynov said the commander of the country’s navy, Admiral Serhiy Haiduk, was among them.
Mr Turchynov did not specify how he would retaliate if the men were not freed, but Crimea gets the vast majority of its water, energy and other supplies from elsewhere in Ukraine.
Crimea has no land link with Russia, which has moved to annexe the region of two million people, and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin yesterday ordered the urgent construction of a bridge across the straits that divide them.
Manus Island human rights inquiry to be assisted by Amnesty International
Rights group and legal experts allowed to take part in inquiry into claims of human rights violations against asylum seekers
Amnesty International, assisted by the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) in Melbourne, has been granted leave to participate in an ongoing Papua New Guinean court inquiry into conditions inside the Manus Island detention centre, raising hopes that serious allegations of human rights violations within the centre will be addressed.
The PNG court inquiry, led by Justice David Cannings, has been examining conditions inside the centre after initiating an investigation following the unrest on 17 February, which left one man, Reza Barati, dead and dozens injured.
The inquiry is interviewing asylum seekers detained on Manus Island as well as a host of PNG immigration officials and has broad powers to order changes to the site’s management if human rights violations are uncovered.
Erdogan and the Traitors: Scandal and Protests Threaten Turkey's AKP
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing the most difficult challenge of his premiership. Corruption scandals, a weakening economy and a draining battle with the Gülen movement have the leader reeling ahead of important local elections.
It took a while before the surveillance cameras in Mehmet Baransu's office became apparent. But the audio bugs remained elusive. Perhaps they are hidden behind the electrical outlets, or above the windows that offer a view of the Bosporus. They are definitely there, Baransu believes. He is, after all, the most hated journalist in Turkey at the moment.
UN Security Council authorizes nations to board rebel Libyan oil vessels
The UN Security Council has authorized member states to board ships suspected of carrying oil from Libyan rebel-held ports. The decision follows the US seizure of a tanker with oil from a rebel zone in eastern Libya.
The 15-member UN Security Council unanimously adopted the resolution Wednesday that "condemns attempts to illicitly export crude oil from Libya," and authorizes UN member states to board ships with contraband Libyan oil and return it to the government.
The decision comes just three days after US special forces seized a North Korean-flagged tanker off Cyprus. The vessel contained Libyan oil that a militia controlling the country's oil ports was trying to export in defiance of the government in Tripoli.
Militia commander Ibrahim Jedran and his fighters took over control of three Libyan oil terminals last summer to press for greater autonomy in the eastern half of the country. The group has since attempted to sell the oil.
West threatens sanctions against South Sudan's warring sides
South Sudan's main Western backers threatened on Wednesday to impose targeted sanctions against the African state's warring sides, warning them that patience was fraying a day before the resumption of so-far futile peace talks.
The negotiations have made scant headway beyond a ceasefire deal signed in January but which later collapsed. Some Western diplomats question the commitment of either side to end the conflict, with each blaming the other for truce violations.
Negotiations mediated by the east African grouping IGAD are due to resume in Addis Ababa on Thursday after a two-week break, but diplomats said it was unclear if both sides would be there.
"If the government and any other actor tries to undermine the peace process and rebuff the IGAD heads of state, they will face consequences," said a joint statement by the United States, Britain, Norway and the European Union read by Donald Booth, the US envoy to Sudan and South Sudan.
Mexico's rising threat: extortion
Mexico state, which features many poor Mexico City suburbs, reports of extortion jumped 58 percent between 2012 and 2013. Some say it's driving away business investment.
When the phone rang at a small community center in a poor Mexico City suburb, the voice on the other end of the line belonged to a member of the criminal group, La Familia Michoacana – or so the caller claimed. He was demanding money, and when the director of the center, Raúl Solís Pineda, said he had none, the extortionist said he wasn't asking for "millions" and that Mr. Solís Pineda must pay.
This type of call is common in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, or Neza, as the locals refer to it. The poor municipality is located in the State of Mexico, which wraps around three sides of Mexico City. It had the highest number of reported extortions in 2013 – a year when that crime surged in the country as a whole.
Although Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto has pointed to successes in his country’s fight against organized crime, extortion has become more common, as has kidnapping. In fact, the number of reported incidences for both of these crimes was higher in 2013 than any other year in the last decade. The small sums frequently demanded in these anonymous calls, as well as their unknown origin, often mean police are slow to react – if they pursue the allegation at all.
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