MOSCOW (AP) – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday approved a draft bill for the annexation of Crimea, one of a flurry of steps to formally take over the Black Sea peninsula.
Crimea on Sunday voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and seek to join Russia. The West and Ukraine described the referendum which was announced two weeks ago as illegitimate.
The United States and the European Union on Monday announced asset freezes and other sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the Crimean crisis. President Barack Obama warned that more would come if Russia didn’t stop interfering in Ukraine.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who served 27 years in prison for anti-apartheid activities and led his country into democracy and a new era, and became its first black president, died Thursday in his home at age 95.
“He is now resting,” said South African President Jacob Zuma. “He is now at peace.”
“Our nation has lost its greatest son,” he continued. “Our people have lost a father.”
A state funeral will be held, and Zuma called for mourners to conduct themselves with “the dignity and respect” that Mandela personified.
“Wherever we are in the country, wherever we are in the world … let us reaffirm his vision of a society in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another,” he said as tributes began pouring in from across the world.
US and Russia reached a deal that calls for Syria to destroy all of its chemical weapons
Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart have reached a deal that calls for Syria to destroy all of its chemical weapons. The plan, which Kerry announced in a news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, gives Syria a week to detail its chemical arsenal.
MATTHEW LEE Sep 13, 2013 5:36 AM
“The world will now expect the Assad regime to live up to its public commitments,” Kerry said. “And as I said at the outset of these negotiations, there can be no games, no room for avoidance, or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime.”
The apparent breakthrough comes on the third day of talks between Kerry and Lavrov, which began in Geneva on Thursday. It includes a contingency plan to authorize sanctions on Syria if the country does not comply with the deal’s requirements that it list, and then destroy, its complete stockpile of chemical weapons.
Syria would have until the middle of 2014 to finish destroying all of the weapons, Kerry said Saturday. He said that international inspectors must be given access to the arsenal by November.
Chemical weapons inspectors are expected to brief senior U.N. officials this weekend about their report on what the U.S. and others have called an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack that left more than 1,000 Syrian citizens dead.
“I believe that the report will be an overwhelming, overwhelming report that chemical weapons (were) used, even though I cannot publicly say at this time before I receive this report,” Ban said during a U.N. meeting Friday, Reuters reports.
The U.N. inspection team is led by Sweden’s Ake Sellstrom; many of its conclusions might be made public Monday, after Ban briefs the Security Council, the AP says. Sellstrom told the new agency that he is presenting his findings to Ban this weekend.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s entire cabinet has opened Facebook pages in what is seen as a move toward greater government openness — even though the social media site is blocked in the Islamic Republic.
The Facebook pages of 15 ministers could be viewed in Tehran through a proxy server. Newspapers on Monday hinted the move might herald the lifting of some Internet barriers.
“It seems the ‘key’” — Rouhani’s electoral symbol in his presidential campaign — “may turn the lock of (Internet) filtering,” the pro-reform Shargh daily said.
With the exception of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who joined Facebook in 2009, the cabinet members signed up this August after the inauguration of centrist- and reformist-backed President Hasan Rouhani.
Rouhani’s office has also opened a page on Facebook that was “liked” by all the ministers.
Saeed Leilaz, a Tehran-based political analyst, said it was likely the start of the lifting of Internet “filters,” which block specific sites. “Definitely filtering on Facebook will be lifted, and we will witness the elimination of filters (on the rest of) Internet,” said Leilaz.
Rouhani had promised greater openness and transparency during his presidential campaign in June. The move also suggests that his administration is looking toward social media to push its policies.
Nearly six in 10 Americans think Congress should not authorize limited military action in Syria, with roughly seven in 10 saying that air strikes against Syria would not achieve any significant goals for the U.S. and that the U.S. does not have any national interest in Syria. If Congress authorizes military action against Syria, a 55% majority would still oppose air strikes against Syrian military targets — and if Congress does not do so, opposition to U.S. air strikes rises to 71%.
So far, public debate about the intervention in Syria has centered on the immediate scope and aims of any U.S.-led military operation, and whether the U.S. Congress should be involved. But no matter how the possible intervention and its aftermath play out, one thing is certain: the eastern Mediterranean — where exploratory drilling has unearthed vast reserves of natural gas, and where competition over the rights to tap those resources is already fierce — will become less stable.
