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July 22 (Reuters) – The United States announced on Thursday it was dropping a more than decade-old ban on ties with Indonesia’s special forces, imposed over human rights abuses in the 1990s.
The decision, made public by U.S. officials during a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Jakarta, was taken after Indonesia took steps requested by Washington including the removal of convicted human rights violators from the organisation’s ranks. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Sara Webb)
(For more stories on the Japanese economy, click [ID:nECONJP])
TOKYO July 14 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund will propose to Japan’s government that it raise taxes soon to help lower its bulging public debt, the Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The proposal could come as early as this week, the Asahi reported, citing sources with ties to the IMF. The non-binding recommendation would be part of the IMF’s annual economic assessment of the individual countries that make up the fund, the Asahi said. (Reporting by Stanley White)
June 2 (Reuters) – Turkey said on Wednesday it was ready to normalise ties with Israel if the Jewish state lifts a blockade on Gaza and said “it was time calm replaces anger” in the wake of Israel’s deadly raid on a Turkish-backed flotilla.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutogu, in Ankara after a visit to the United States to discuss the diplomatic crisis, also told a news conference that the future of Turkish-Israeli ties depended on Israel’s attitude. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel following Monday’s storming of Gaza bound aid ships. (Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Russia and Kazakhstan agreed to launch a customs union from July 1, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday, cutting Belarus out of the first stage of the union.
“We agreed to launch the customs regulations for the… union on a bilateral basis,” Putin told reporters at a briefing in Russia’s second city, St Petersburg.
The absence of Belarus at the first stage of the customs union indicates worsening ties between Moscow and Minsk, though Putin said Russia and Kazakhstan would be open to talks on Belarus joining the union at a later stage.
It was not immediately clear how the customs union with Kazakhstan would affect Russia’s talks on joining the World Trade Organisation.
(Reporting by Dasha Korsunckaya, writing by Dmitry Sergeyev, editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
China’s Foreign Ministry repeated its call for calm and restraint on the Korean peninsula, but refused to be drawn on the sinking of a South Korean ship by a Northern torpedo in March.
Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said China had no first-hand information on the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan in March, which international investigators officially ruled last week was due to a North Korean torpedo.
China was still evaluating the information, Zhang said.
“We have always believed that dialogue is better than confrontation,” Zhang said, the day after North Korea said it would cut all ties with the South.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Writing by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Polokwane, May 23 (IANS) South Africa’s Polokwane city is abuzz with activities as it gears up to host eight matches of the FIFA World Cup starting in June in the country.
Deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe is impressed with the city’s preparations for the World Cup.
Teams from France, Argentina, Paraguay and Mexico will play their matches at the city’s Peter Mokaba Stadium.
Motlanthe, who chairs an inter-ministerial task group on the World Cup, Saturday visited the project sites to get a first hand information on the preparation, BuaNews reported.
The city infrastructure is being upgraded for the benefit of the visitors coming for the event.
A ‘cultural village’ is also being developed for the visitors.
Organisers said 10 different African countries would showcase their heritage and culture at the village. The aim is to strengthen ties among the African countries beyond the World Cup.
‘I am highly impressed with what I’ve seen and I’m convinced Polokwane will produce excellent shows during this World Cup,’ Motlanthe told reporters.
Thousands of visitors are expected in South Africa for the month-long event.
London, May 19 (ANI): In an impassioned letter to the President of an African relief fundraising group, US President Obama’s former pastor has written that he is considered “toxic” by the Obama administration, and accused the US President of “throwing him under the bus”.
The embittered pastor Jeremiah Wright, made the statements in relation to his pleas to the Obama administration to release frozen funds for earthquake ravaged Haiti, which the pastor believes will be ignored in all likelihood.
Wright is known for shooting off his mouth and has made absurd claims earlier when at a National Press Club appearance in April 2008, he said that the US government could plant AIDS in the black community, praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and suggested Obama was putting his pastor at arm”s length for political purposes while privately agreeing with him, The Telegraph reports.
Following these remarks Obama had condemned Wright as a “divisive and destructive” man and had severed all ties with him. (ANI)
Melbourne, May 18(ANI): Baywatch star David Hasselhoff has paid 325,000 dollars to ex wife Pamela Bach in hard cash to take ownership of their marital home.
According to TMZ.com, he is severing all ties with his ex-wife and actress Bach, reports the Daily Telegraph.
His attorney, Mel Goldsman, filed documents in Los Angeles County Superior Court stating that Bach gave up their 3.25-million-dollar property in Los Angeles in exchange for Hoff”s compensation payment in cash.
The two divorced in 2006 over irreconcilable differences but Bach accused Hoff of violent behavior later.
On June 15, 2007, Hoff was awarded custody of their daughters – Hayley, 17, and Taylor Ann, 20. (ANI)
Washington, May 14 (ANI): US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has rubbished reports of the ambitious Kandahar reclamation operation having a devastating effect on the city and its people.
Clinton maintained that Washington has learnt its lessons after the counter-insurgency operations in Iraq.
“They want to have a successful counter-insurgency operation that doesn”t destroy Kandahar in the effort to save Kandahar,” BBC News quoted Clinton as saying with reference to US commanders in Afghanistan.
“We”re not fighting the Afghan people,” she added during a visit to the US Institute of Peace with President Karzai.
The goal was “to help the people of Kandahar to recover the entire city to be able to put it to the use and the benefit of the people of Kandahar,” she said.
Meanwhile the Obama administration has expressed its willingness to accept the surrender of militants who have cut ties with Al-Qaeda, as long as they renounce their obsolete views regarding women and display respect for women’s rights.
It was “essential that women”s rights and women”s opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled on in the reconciliation process,” said Clinton, earlier on Thursday to three senior female Afghan officials travelling with Mr Karzai, the report said. (ANI)
New York, May 14 (ANI): After cutting all ties with her mother, Heidi Montag has decided to file a restraining order against her following an incident at home.
The New York Daily News reports that Montag had called the cops after Darlene Egelhoff refused to leave their property.
“My mom just showed up to the house unannounced … and after what she did to me on national TV, I have no desire to see her,” said Montag.
In a recent episode of “The Hills”, Egelhoff criticized her daughter”s new look resulting from 10 plastic surgery procedures.
Montag said that she immediately notified her personal security team when Egelhoff began “pounding on the door.”
“Her showing up is completely out of line and psychotic,” the reality star told TMZ. “I”m getting a restraining order against her.” (ANI)
Florida (US), May 13 (ANI): South Carolina Governor. Mark Sanford has revealed that he spent last weekend in Florida with his Argentine girlfriend, hoping to rekindle their relationship.
The governor and his girlfriend, Maria Belen Chapur, were spotted by tipsters for the website Gawker over the weekend, and Sanford confronted the rumors head-on Wednesday, conceding during a news conference back home that he had seen the woman.
“As a matter of record, everybody in this room knows exactly who I was with over the weekend,” Politico quoted Sanford, as saying.
“That is no mystery to anybody given what I said last summer. And, you know, the purpose was obviously to see if something could be restarted on that front, given the rather enormous geographic gulf between us. And time will tell. I don”t know if it will or won”t,” he added.
Sanford called Chapur his “soul mate” during an emotional press conference last June in which he admitted that he had been unfaithful to his wife, Jenny.
The governor said little else about his relationship with Chapur, though he suggested to reporters Wednesday that it was time to back off. (ANI)
Washington, May 13 (ANI): US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has rated Washington’s relationship with Pakistan as six on a scale of ten, adding that he expects a sustained progress in ties between both countries.
In an interview aired on CNN, Gates stressed that ties between Islamabad and Washington have improved ‘significantly’ in the recent past, and that he would give the relationship “six or a seven now.”
Gates noted that the Obama Administration is well aware about its responsibilities and respects Pakistan’s stand on its sovereignty.
“The Pakistanis are very sensitive to the size of the American footprint, the number of Americans on the ground in a training capacity or whatever. They’re also extremely sensitive about their sovereignty. And we have to respect those things,” The Daily Times quoted Gates, as saying. (ANI)
London, May 12 (ANI): The Yemen unit of Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack attempt on Britain’s Ambassador to that country, Tim Torlot.
It identified Uthman Noman al-Salwi as the would be assassin.
Ambassador, Tim Torlot, a 52-year-old career diplomat, who has served in the Arab state since July 2007 escaped injury when al-Salwi, dressed in a schoolboy’s shirt and suicide vest threw himself at the ambassador’s armour-plated vehicle in the capital, Sanaa.
The Times quotes the terrorist monitoring organisation SITE, as saying that it was in possession of a communiqué from AQAB which identfied al-Salwi as a member of the organisation’s ‘Brigade of Sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi,’.
Al-Salwi, 22, had previously been jailed for two years for suspected ties to al-Qaida.
His father said in an interview after the April 26 bombing that authorities had agreed to release his son into parental custody as long as he checked in with police daily and attended school. Instead, he said his son disappeared without notifying his family of his whereabouts.
Torlot was reportedly about 600 yards from the embassy in the new part of Sanaa, close to the heavily fortified US mission, when he was attacked.
The attack has heightened concerns about security in Yemen, where AQAB, a relatively new organization. (ANI)
New York, May 7 (ANI): The Times Square car-bomb suspect, Faisal Shahzad, is boasting of his connections to global terrorists, giving authorities a who”s-who list of Islamic mad men he”s met with, sources said Thursday night.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, has waived his right to a lawyer and is chatting so much about his ties to anti-American fanatics that federal investigators are rolling their eyes, the New York Daily News quoted the sources, as saying.
“Maybe it”s true, but none of it has been verified at all,” a U.S. counter-terrorism official briefed on the interrogation told the paper.
Shahzad has said that he met with radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, exchanged e-mails with Fort Hood, Texas, and met with Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.
“He”s just blabbing away,” the official said. (ANI)
Kolkata, May 6 (ANI): Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee has reiterated that her party is still a part of the UPA coalition at the Centre despite snapping ties with the Congress party for the upcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls.
Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, Banerjee said: “We made commitments to support the UPA government. We had the commitment that we would be part of the UPA government if we would win the Parliamentary elections. We have been working according to our commitment.”
Mamata claimed that she and her party have always tried to maintain the alliance and worked hard accordingly.
She, however, virtually accused the Congress of being an unreliable ally which had even formed a government with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) in the past.
All this, even as she lured state Congress working president Subrata Mukherjee into the Trinamool fold, signaling a coup ahead of the civic polls in Bengal on May 30.
Mukherjee had resigned from his post and joined TMC on the contention the Congress party had shown soft corner for the ruling Left Front in the state.
On May 2, while announcing candidates for all 141 seats in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections, Banerjee had blamed the Congress party, which has already released a list of 88 candidates, for the collapse of alliance in the civic polls.
The break-up between the TMC and the Congress party for the Kolkata civic polls is a dent to the consolidation of an anti-communist front in the state. (ANI)
Islamabad, May 5 (ANI): Noting that India and Pakistan are the two major countries in the subcontinent and play an important role in international affairs, China has clarified that improving ties between the two countries is in their own and the region’s interest.
During an interview, China’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Islamabad Huang Xilian said the resumption of talks between India and Pakistan is important for both countries and added that Beijing would also like the talks to restart soon.
Describing Pakistan as his country’s close friend, Xilian said Beijing has been assisting Islamabad in over 120 development projects and would continue to help that troubled nation.
He said China was also ready to provide financial support to Pakistan for establishing hydel power projects in order to help it overcome the massive energy crisis facing the country.
“We have to strengthen and substantiate our cooperation to further strengthen our relations. We have been working closely with the Pakistan government in this regard to ensure peace and security in the region,” The Daily Times quoted Xilian, as saying.
He said China is also providing necessary assistance to Pakistan in its fight against terrorism and extremism. (ANI)
New York, April 29 (ANI): Britney Spears-founded 10-day summer camp for economically weak students is running out of money, it has been reported.
Accoridng to myFOXboston.com, located in South Yarmouth, Mass., the camp, which was meant for 250 “economically disadvantaged students”, is now looking for new sponsors to fund the organization to keep it going.
The camp is facing closure and the bosses are finding it difficult to collect 250,000 dollars to keep it open, reports The New York Post.
It was originally named the Britney Spears Camp for the Performing Arts, until Spears cut ties with the organization in 2004 and was renamed Summer Stars Camp. (ANI)
London, April 21 (ANI): Ellen DeGeneres recently discovered that she and pop star Madonna are distant cousins but was too busy to delve into her ancestry. But now Lisa Kudrow has done the work for her.
The former ‘Friends star’ has appeared on ”Who Do You Think You Are?” – the reality show that traces the ancestry of popular celebrities, reports the Daily Express.
So she put her family tree expertise to good use during a recent appearance on Degeneres” U.S. talk show – by researching the host”s ties to the ‘Material Girl’ hitmaker.
Appearing on the comedienne’s daytime show, Kudrow revealed, “You”re 11th cousins (with Madonna). What you share is your 10th great grandfather, his name was Martin Aucoin, from France… He had two daughters, Jean… That”s your side. And another daughter, Michelle, and that gave rise to Madonna”s side, and they moved to Canada.
“Then your fifth great grandfather… he”s the one who moved the family to Louisiana in the late 1700s.”
DeGeneres said: “That”s pretty far back, that”s pretty amazing.” (ANI)
Thailand has protested to the Australian government over the airing of a documentary critical of the Thai royal family and warned that the broadcast could affect ties between the nations.
A senior representative from the Thai embassy met with officials from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday to express his concern at the programme aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“The concern is that it might affect the good relations between Thailand and Australia, especially the people to people relations,” Saksee Phromyothi,minister-counsellor at the Royal Thai Embassy, told AFP.
“We consider this an issue matter of national security… because the royal family, the monarchy, in our constitution is above politics.”
Thailand’s ambassador designate Kriangsak Kittichaisaree has also written to ABC managing director Mark Scott to complain about the programme which could breach Thailand’s lese-majeste laws which prohibit criticism of the royals.
“I regret that an organisation of the ABC’s stature has lowered its own standard by airing the said documentary which is presented in a manner no different from tabloid journalism,” he wrote.
The programme, which aired late Tuesday, was broadcast on the state-funded station only in Australia and cannot be viewed over the Internet outside the country.
ANKARA, April 14 (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he had not received a request for asylum from Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, despite suggestions the ousted leader could seek refuge in Turkey.
Erdogan also told reporters that his government was ready to assist in any efforts to resolve the political crisis in Kyrgyzstan, a country with whom Turks share ethnic and linguistic ties. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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