Cuba: Removal from US terror sponsor list is fair
US leader tells Congress that Cuba "has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism".
15 Apr 2015 07:32 GMT
US President Barack Obama's move to drop Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism was "fair", the Cuban foreign ministry in Havana has said.
"The government of Cuba acknowledges the fair decision of the president of the United States to take Cuba off a list on which it should never have been included," said a statement signed by Cuba's top official for relations with Washington.
Obama on Tuesday submitted to Congress a "report and certifications" indicating that the US plans to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a key step to normalising relations between the two nations.
The move follows the December announcement of policy changes related to Cuba, in which the US president instructed the State Department to "undertake a review of Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism based on an assessment of the available facts," a White House statement said.
Ancient skeletons found in India provide new insight into mindset of world's earliest humans
Nine die in wave of anti-foreign violence in South Africa
Comments by Zulu king – later retracted – believed to have sparked wave of attacks
Bill Corcoran
Xenophobic violence, which has erupted across Durban’s townships over the past few days, is being blamed for the death of nine people. The violence followed reported remarks by Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini that foreigners should “pack their bags and go home”.
The violence began shortly after remarks were made by prominent local leaders King Zwelithini and South African president Jacob Zuma’s eldest son, Edward. Both reportedly called for all undocumented foreigners to go home.
King Zwelithini has subsequently said his remarks were misinterpreted and that foreigners should not be attacked and driven out of South Africa.
Undocumented foreigners are often blamed for much of the crime in townships, and they are also seen as competition for scant resources in these predominately poor areas
Could Oman be next domino in Middle East's arc of instability?
April 15, 2015 - 11:39AMThessa Lageman
Khasab, Oman: The gorge just outside Khasab on Oman's northern Musandam Peninsula is deserted except for two shepherds. Nevertheless, the twentysomethings in their long white robes cast a furtive look around when asked about their next monarch.
"It's top secret," says one of them, playing with his phone. "We don't talk about that." Everyone knows the stories about loose-lipped Omanis who are never heard from again.
Yet the question of who will succeed the sultan has become more pressing than ever. Qaboos bin Said al-Said, 74, has ruled Oman for 45 years and has no children and no siblings.
The "Arab Spring" of 2011 did not leave Oman untouched. Unlike protesters in Tunis and Cairo, Omanis demanded the "reform" - and not the fall - of the regime. Most wanted a constitutional monarchy to replace the absolute monarchy they live under.
Why did China just release five feminist activists? (+video)
The five women, all veteran activists, were arrested in Beijing last month for planning a public campaign against sexual harassment. China has previously resisted criticism from abroad towards its detention policies.
BEIJING — Sidestepping a snowballing international public relations disaster, China on Monday evening freed five women who had been detained since early March for organizing a campaign against sexual harassment.
Their fate had drawn widespread attention at home and criticism from US officials and human rights groups. Advocates for the women say this external pressure paid off with their release after the prosecutor decided not to press charges. China is preparing to co-host a United Nations meeting on women’s rights in New York in September.
Still, such campaigns can backfire since China is generally reluctant to bow to public pressure. International protests against the trials of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and later of Ilham Tohti, a prominent moderate advocate of Uyghur rights, did nothing to save them from heavy jail sentences.
U.S.-Japan guidelines said to specify Senkakus' defense
TOKYO —
Japan and the United States will likely include an explicit reference to defense of far-flung islands in an update of security cooperation guidelines amid concerns about China’s increasing military assertivness, a Japanese newspaper reports.
The daily Yomiuri Shimbun said that Japan had requested the revision include a clear commitment by U.S. forces in the event of an attack on Japanese islands. Tokyo is locked in a long-running dispute with Beijing over islets in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
The allies are expected to announce agreement over the revised guidelines later this month. U.S. President Barack Obama is due to meet Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington on April 28 for a summit.
U.S. President Barack Obama has said the Japanese-controlled isles are covered by a bilateral security treaty obliging the United States to defend Japan, but Washington has also made clear it does not want to get dragged into a Sino-Japanese conflict.
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