Syrie: une 1ère liste d'armes chimiques, pas d'accord sur une résolution

Damas - La Syrie a fourni une première liste d'armes chimiques à l'Organisation pour l'interdiction des armes chimiques (OIAC), au moment où d'intenses tractations diplomatiques sont en cours en vue de l'adoption d'une résolution à l'ONU sur le désarmement chimique de Damas.
La remise de cette liste est un premier pas dans l'application de l'accord russo-américain sur le démantèlement de l'arsenal chimique syrien signé à Genève le 14 septembre, mais les diplomates se heurtent toujours aux désaccords sur le projet de résolution à présenter au Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies.
L'OIAC, qui devait se réunir dimanche pour étudier le début de ce programme de destruction, et la demande d'adhésion de la Syrie à la Convention de 1993 sur l'interdiction des armes chimiques, a reporté la réunion sine die.
Selon des sources diplomatiques, le texte devant servir de base de travail à la réunion, qui fait l'objet de discussions entre Américains et Russes, n'est pas encore prêt.
Et tant que la réunion de l'OIAC n'a pas lieu, il semble exclu que le Conseil de sécurité puisse sortir sa résolution.
Le secrétaire d'Etat américain John Kerry et le chef de la diplomatie russe Sergueï Lavrov se sont pourtant longuement entretenus vendredi à ce sujet.
Au cours d'une «longue conversation» téléphonique, ils ont parlé de leur «coopération, non seulement pour adopter les règles de l'OIAC mais aussi pour une résolution ferme et forte au sein des Nations unies», a déclaré M. Kerry en recevant au département d'Etat son homologue néerlandais Frans Timmermans.
Les cinq membres du Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU ne parviennent pas à se mettre d'accord sur un projet de résolution malgré plusieurs réunions sur le sujet. L'inscription ou non d'une telle résolution sous le chapitre VII de la Charte des Nations unies, qui prévoit des «mesures coercitives» allant de sanctions économiques à l'usage de la force, cristallise les positions des uns et des autres.
Selon des diplomates à l'ONU, les Occidentaux cherchent à convaincre la Russie, opposée à toute mention d'un éventuel recours à la force, que leur projet de texte n'implique pas la menace d'une action militaire immédiate.
D'après son entourage, le président français François Hollande défendra mardi à l'Assemblée générale de l'ONU «une résolution aussi contraignante que possible».
Trêve à Azaz
Une équipe d'enquêteurs mandatés par l'ONU, dont neuf experts de l'OIAC, affirme avoir trouvé des «preuves flagrantes et convaincantes» de l'utilisation de gaz sarin lors d'un massacre le 21 août près de Damas ayant fait des centaines de morts, selon leur rapport, publié lundi.
Les pays occidentaux accusent le régime syrien d'avoir mené cette attaque ainsi que 13 autres à l'arme chimique depuis le début de la guerre civile en Syrie en mars 2011. Moscou, de son côté, a toujours cherché à dédouaner son allié syrien.
Sur le terrain, l'Armée syrienne libre (ASL) et un groupe de jihadistes lié à Al-Qaïda, qui se battaient pour la conquête de la ville d'Azaz, dans le nord, sont parvenus à une trêve.
Parrainé par la Brigade Tawhid, puissant groupe armé basé à Alep (nord) qui est sous commandement de l'ASL, cette accord ne stipule cependant pas qui va contrôler la ville, et ne met pas fin aux tensions entre les rebelles non jihadistes et l'Etat islamique d'Irak et du Levant (EIIl), lié à Al-Qaïda.
L'opposition syrienne a accusé les groupes jihadistes de privilégier leur projet d'instauration d'un Etat islamique au combat contre le régime, et d'avoir «renoncé à combattre le régime dans différentes zones et de s'employer à renforcer son emprise sur des zones libérées».
C'est la première fois que la Coalition de l'opposition, qui regroupe un large éventail de tendances, s'est élevée aussi fortement contre un groupe jihadiste.
Le régime de Damas ne cesse d'affirmer que la rébellion est sous l'emprise quasi-totale des jihadistes liés à Al-Qaïda.
L'allié iranien de la Syrie a quant à lui proposé de faciliter le dialogue entre Damas et la rébellion, pour favoriser une solution politique du conflit qui a fait depuis trente mois, plus de 110.000 morts.
Le président iranien Hassan Rohani a d'ailleurs demandé à rencontrer le président français mardi à New-York. La rencontre bilatérale, une première de ce niveau entre les deux pays depuis 2005, portera notamment sur la crise syrienne, a indiqué vendredi l'entourage de M. Hollande.
                   news; www.20minutes.fr

Qatar summer World Cup 'impossible'

Member countries of UEFA support moving 2022 World Cup in Qatar to winter, according to FIFA vice president.

 

European football federations have agreed it would be "impossible" to stage the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in summer as planned and a task force will be set up to find an alternative.

"Obviously there are certain reservations regarding the World Cup in Qatar but everyone agrees that it would be impossible to play in the severe heat of Qatar in the summer," FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce told Sky television.

"It is very important that we get this right," he added, speaking in a phone interview after a meeting of the 54 European football federations in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

"They all agree that to play the World Cup, to take thousands of fans to the biggest sporting event in the middle of summer would be impossible."

Switch likely

FIFA is expected to agree in principle to the switch at its next executive committee meeting in October.

"I think what will happen is that they will probably agree for everyone, including the people in Qatar of course, to sit round a table and come up with a solution," said Boyce.

 "What has happened has happened. It is in Qatar and at the end of the day what has to happen here is that the best interests of football are sorted out and I am confident that will happen. It is purely a one-off."

Last week, the association representing European clubs said they would not be opposed to a re-scheduling of the tournament but added they wanted to be consulted about the new timing.

Qatar has said, despite the searing temperatures, it can stage the World Cup in the summer by building air-conditioned stadiums using newly environmentally-friendly technology.

Stadiums would be cooled to around 28 Celsius.

However, there are still worries about how fans will deal with the heat away from the stadiums.

In recent interviews, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said that his organisation had never specially stated that the World Cup had to be held in summer when it awarded the hosting of the tournament in 2010.

His comments came after suggestions that the other countries bidding for the tournament could take legal action, or call for a re-vote, if the timing of the tournament was changed.

Warning

On Tuesday, Australia's football chief Frank Lowy warned FIFA not to rush a decision on switching the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to the northern hemisphere winter and said other bidders should be compensated if the move goes ahead.

Japan, South Korea and the United States, which itself suffers from scorching summer weather in many parts of the country, lost out in the race to host the event.

Re-scheduling would force a change of the European domestic calendar and clubs and leagues fear they could lose out financially.

UEFA president Michel Platini, who has publicly said he voted for Qatar, is among those in favour of a change, suggesting that January-February would be the best time.

However, this could clash with the Winter Olympics, also to be staged in 2022.

SA report: Police lied about miners' killings:

Government panel investigating 2012 shootings in Marikana implicates force in withholding and doctoring of documents.

 

A government commission investigating the massacre of 34 striking miners by South African police says the force has lied, withheld documents and apparently doctored other papers.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Marikana commission also said it had to search computer hard drives of officers to discover documents relating to the 2012 shootings that recalled the worst excesses of South Africa's apartheid era.
The Marikana massacre was the most deadly police action since the end of white minority rule in 1994.
The commission, which was appointed by President Jacob Zuma to investigate the deaths, said documents show the police version of events at the platinum mine "is in material respects not the truth".

The statement said the thousands of pages of new evidence include documents the police had previously said did not exist and material which should have been disclosed earlier by police.
Police acknowledged "over-reacting" at Marikana during an inquiry held in October last year.
In an opening statement to the inquiry, police officials said that "the response of some police officers may have been disproportionate to the danger they faced from the group of more than 200 armed protesters".
The Marikana commission adjourned until Wednesday to study the new evidence.
                                                          "news aljazeera "

JPMorgan agrees to pay $920m in penalties (news aljazeera)

Investment bank admits to wrongdoing and agrees to settle trading-losses case with US and British regulators.

JPMorgan Chase, the US investment bank, has agreed to pay $920m in penalties in the US and Britain after admitting wrongdoing.
Settlements with four US and British regulators - made public on Thursday - resolve the biggest civil probes of the bank's $6.2bn of derivatives trading losses last year.
Citations against JPMorgan include poor risk controls and failure to inform regulators about deficiencies in risk management identified by bank management.
JPMorgan called the settlements "a major step in the firm's ongoing efforts to put these issues behind it".
The case came to light after Bruno Iksil, a trader, made huge losses, earning him the nickname the London Whale.
Iksil has signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Two other traders who worked with Iksil in London, Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout, have been criminally charged by US prosecutors over their role in the scandal, accused of trying to hide the mounting losses.
The penalties announced on Thursday include $300m to be paid to the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, $200m to the Federal Reserve, $200m to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and $219.74m to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority.
US regulators also ordered the company to refund about $309m to credit-card customers who were billed for identity-theft protection services that they did not receive.
Besides, the bank must pay a $20m penalty to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $60m to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

 

aljazeera: Bangladesh strike enters second day

Jamaat-e-Islami supporters stage protests against death sentence handed to one of its top leaders for 1971 war crimes.

 

A nationwide strike in Bangladesh has entered a second day after a senior Islamist leader was handed the death sentence for crimes committed during the country's 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
Thursday's strike was the latest to hit Bangladesh, which has been reeling from deadly violence over the sentences given to Jamaat-e-Islami party members for atrocities committed during the independence war.
Protests erupted across the country on Wednesday leaving one person dead, police said.
Supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami hurled bricks and small, home-made bombs during protests in southern and northern Bangladesh, while police retaliated with rubber bullets and tear gas, officers said.
A police officer was shot and seriously wounded by activists who attacked a police camp near the port city of Chittagong, a senior police officer said.
Molla death sentence
The violence came as towns and cities shut down for the strike called by the Jamaat-e-Islami party over the death sentence handed on Tuesday to Abdul Quader Molla for mass murder during the war of independence.
An auto-rickshaw driver died after being hit with stones in the southern coastal district of Noakhali as Jamaat activists protested Molla's sentence, which they say is politically motivated.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court enhanced the sentence originally given to Molla by the country's war crimes tribunal, and rejected an appeal for acquittal by his defence lawyers.
Molla, 65, the fourth-highest leader of Jamaat, had been given a life sentence in February by the tribunal.
Molla was convicted of rape, murder and mass murder including the killing of more than 350 unarmed Bengali civilians, a poet and a top journalist during the war, when he was a physics student at Dhaka University.
Prosecutors described him as the "Butcher of Mirpur", a Dhaka suburb where he committed most of the atrocities.
The tribunal has since January convicted six Islamists of crimes related to the 1971 war, in which pro-independence fighters battled Pakistani forces.
Jamaat sided with Pakistan during the liberation struggle, but denies any role in the atrocities.
The opposition has criticised the trials as a politically motivated exercise aimed at settling old scores rather than meting out justice.
An estimated 300,000 people were killed and 250,000 women raped during the nine-month-old liberation war.

France in bid to ban child beauty contests -news aljazeera

Senate approves proposal to ban pageants for girls under 16 to prevent "hyper-sexualisation" of children.

The French senate has approved a proposal to ban beauty contests for girls under 16 to prevent what a parliamentary report called the "hyper-sexualisation" of children.
The proposal was backed by MPs 196 to 146. It will now become law after being passed in the National Assembly.
The measure follows a parliamentary report "Against Hyper-Sexualisation: A New Fight For Equality" which called for a ban on child-size adult clothing, such as padded bras and high-heeled shoes, and an end to beauty competitions for the under-16s.
"Let us not make our girls believe from a very young age that their worth is only judged by their appearance," said the author of the report, the former sports minister Chantal Jouanno.
According to the proposal, organisers of such beauty pageants could face up to two years in prison and a 30,000-euro ($40,000) fine.
The measure was prompted by controversy over a Vogue magazine photographic shoot featuring provocative images of a 10-year-old French girl in December 2010.
The girl and two others were photographed with heavy make-up and wearing tight dresses, high heels and expensive jewellery.
Vogue defended the pictures, saying it merely portrayed a common fantasy among young girls to dress like their mother.

 

Singapore police arrest 14 over match-fixing "aljazeera"

Interpol praises raids against members of alleged crime ring, in latest match-fixing scandal to hit sport of football.

 

Police in Singapore have arrested 14 people suspected of being members of an organised crime ring, in the latest match-fixing scandal to hit football. A joint statement issued late on Wednesday by the Singapore Police Force and the Corrupt Practises Investigation Bureau said 12 men and two women had been detained after an operation lasting 12 hours. "Police confirm that the suspected leader and several other individuals who are the subject of ongoing investigations in other jurisdictions for match fixing were among the persons arrested," the statement said. It said the 14 people are being investigated for offences related to match-fixing activites under the city-state's Prevention of Corruption Act, as well as for their involvement in "organised crime activities". Interpol, the France-based international police cooperation organisation, commended the arrests, which come after   Europol said in February that it had smashed a network rigging hundreds of games, including in the Champions League and World Cup qualifiers. Europol, the European police agency, said at that time that a five-country investigation had identified 380 suspicious matches targeted by a Singapore-based betting cartel, whose illegal activities stretched to players, referees and officials across the world. In April, three Lebanese officials were dropped from refereeing an Asian Football Confederation Cup match in Singapore, hours before kickoff. Referee Ali Sabbagh was jailed for six months in Singapore for accepting sexual favours to fix the game between Singapore's Tampines Rovers and India's East Bengal. FIFA also issued global bans on players from Estonia and Tunisia as well as match officials from Armenia in connection with attempts to manipulate games. World governing body FIFA has warned that match-fixing is threatening football on a global scale and has handed down heavy punishments to players and officials found guilty. Suspected ringleader arrested Singapore authorites did not give the nationalities of those arrested on Wednesday, who were said to be aged between 38 and 60. Five of the 14, including the suspected leader, have been detained for further investigations, while the rest will be released on police bail, the joint statement said. Police would not comment if Dan Tan, a suspected Singaporean boss of a major football match-fixing ring, was one of those arrested because they said investigations were still underway. Tan, whose full name is Tan Seet Eng, has been assisting investigators in Singapore since Europol announced its findings in February. He was charged in May in Hungary in relation to the alleged manipulation of 32 games in three countries. Tan is also wanted in Italy in connection with the wide-ranging "calcioscommesse" scandal. The statement said Singapore is "committed to eradicate match-fixing as a transnational crime and protect the integrity of the sport". "We appreciate the assistance rendered by the Interpol Global Anti-Match-fixing Taskforce thus far, and will continue to work with the Taskforce and the global community in our fight against global match-fixing," it said. Interpol Secretary General Ronald K Noble said: "Singaporean authorities have taken an important step in cracking down on an international match-fixing syndicate by arresting the main suspects in the case, including the suspected mastermind; no person should doubt Singapore's commitment to fighting match-fixing."