World – Page 34 – praag.org

Indian Court reinstates law against gays

India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a lower court’s ruling that had decriminalized gay sex, a surprise setback for the gay-rights movement in this largely conservative country.

In 2009, the Delhi High Court ruled that a 19th-century provision in the nation’s penal code that effectively banned gay sex shouldn’t apply to consensual acts.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected that decision, saying the old law was still constitutionally valid and could only be changed or erased by Parliament, not the courts.

Rights groups say the law—known as Section 377 for its place in a 150-year-old Indian penal code—had been used for decades to harass homosexuals.

“We hold that Section 377 IPC does not suffer from the vice of unconstitutionality and the declaration made by the Division Bench of the High court is legally unsustainable,” the two supreme-court judges who presided over the case said in their 98-page judgment, released late Wednesday.

Gays across India were shocked by the decision. Most had expected the country’s highest court to uphold the landmark decision, which had been seen as a crucial first step in empowering India’s gay community.

“I think this is a dark day for the constitution,” said Gautam Bhan, a gay-rights activist and Delhi-based urban planner who came to India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday expecting to celebrate. “Never before has a Supreme Court taken away an expansion of rights to Indian citizens and reversed a move toward inclusion.”

The Indian government had no official reaction to the judgment Wednesday. Some officials said they needed more time to study the court decision.

“India’s reputation is taking a beating,” Madhu Mehra, the executive director of Partners for Law in Development, a New Delhi-based legal-advocacy group, said. “This is the last thing we needed, particularly after the movement for greater freedom and equality in India.”

The colonial-era law at the heart of the decision Wednesday has existed since 1860. It prohibits people from engaging in “carnal acts against the order of nature,” and was used against same-sex couples.

Many Commonwealth countries inherited the Victorian-era law during British colonial rule. Countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, among others, still have some version of it on their statute books, said Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

Australia, Fiji, Hong Kong and New Zealand are among Commonwealth countries that had the law, but abolished it, she said.

“Human-rights advocates were looking to India to take the lead on this so that similar changes could be made in other countries,” said Ms. Ganguly.

India’s retreat on the rules now in effect makes consensual sex between same-sex adults punishable by a fine and a prison term of up to 10 years. – WSJ

South African, French, African foreign ministers to meet today

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane arrived in Paris, France, yesterday morning, 04 December 2013, where she is leading a South African Government delegation to the France-Africa Summit taking place from 06-07 December 2013.

The summit will be preceded on 05 December 2013 by a meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

It is expected that the summit will focus on three identified themes; namely (i) Peace and Security, (ii) Economic Partnership and Development and (iii) the Environment.

It is further expected that the summit will examine policies for preventing conflicts, trafficking and piracy, how to deter the formation of armed movements and terrorist groups, and the strengthening of African security mechanisms.

South Africa’s participation at the summit will be informed by its foreign policy, which champions, amongst other things, peace, security and development as well as the African Agenda.

The South African Government delegation to the summit includes Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and senior officials. – DIRCO press release

Drones in DRC ‘major game-changer’

The United Nations officials see the launch of the much-anticipated deployment of unmanned surveillance drones in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a major game-changer.

The primary role of the Unarmed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) will be to gather intelligence on armed groups in the region and better assist the peacekeeping force Monusco in its primary responsibility of protecting civilians. It is the UN’s new eyes in the sky.

The vast mineral rich region is at the heart of a conflict zone where millions have died over the past two decades.

Speaking from the launch site in Goma in the eastern DRC, UN’s head of peacekeeping operations Herve Ladsous says. “The United Nations has entered the 21st century from the technological point of view. This is something we never had but this is now in use in many armies around the world and many organizations. I think we had to get it to allow our people to do a better job in the fulfilment of the mandate.”

The Monusco mission will start with two UAVs but up to five could be in operation after trials are completed. Council President Ambassador Gerard Araud of France hinted that the drones could become more widespread.

“There are other missions who are saying already we will need drones that will considerably improve protection of the soldiers to see if threats are out there and also to ensure protection of civilians, clearly imagine South Sudan – where there are few roads, maybe 100km throughout the country of paved roads so drones would make it possible to much better know what the threats are and to better ensure protection of civilians,” says Araud.

Specific to the eastern DRC and weeks after the defeat of the M23, the UAVs will play a critical role in the targeting of several other armed groups in the region. While, with more eyes in the sky for the UN globally, peacekeeping could see major changes in the years ahead.

“On December 19, the Pakistani mission is organizing a day of thinking, brainstorming on peacekeeping and among the subjects the Ambassador of Pakistan wants to raise there will be the new technologies. Let us be clear, our battalions are still back in 1945, they patrol like they did in 1945. So there are many things that have changed from a technological stand point and that would make it possible to be more effective but also make it possible to use fewer soldiers, so clearly France and other countries are saying that the UN should modernize its actions naturally,” adds Araud.

Drones are by no means new to the theatre of conflict. Armed and surveillance drones are familiar tools having been used in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with often deadly consequences.

The UN’s deployment of these vehicles could prove catalytic by fundamentally shifting the advantage in their favour in the various volatile arena it finds itself in globally. – SABC

France provides maps of Africa’s real borders

France has provided maps from its archives on African borders to the African Union.

France was one of the top colonisers of Africa and was involved in creating borders of most of the countries.

The AU’s Director for Peace and Security, Wane El-Ghassim, says knowing this kind of information will help curb some of the conflicts we still see today.

He says when borders are not clearly defined there is a huge risk of tensions resulting in conflict.

El-Ghassim says borders were defined by treaties signed by colonisers as a result these countries have a lot of information on Africa.

This is why the AU is trying to generate as much information as possible from the colonisers.

Africa has 80 000km of borders, but only 30% are precisely demarcated and this has been a source of disagreements among many countries in the continent.

Meanwhile, Analyst and Senior lecturer at Wits University, Koffi Kouakou, says Africa should not be relying on outsiders to give them information. He says it is important for Africans to have their own information.

Yellen had a passion for psycology, not economy

She’s about to become one of the most influential financial leaders in the world, but a classmate who sat in front of Janet Yellen at Brooklyn’s Ft. Hamilton HS says he was “shocked” at her career path.

“I didn’t think she had a passion for economics,” recalled Ron Vincent, a former Wall Street guy who took the same economics class as the incoming Federal Reserve Bank chair and who now heads Hi Investors Capital.

“I was shocked. She was in the psychology club.” Now, he added in awe, “She’s going to be the world’s most powerful woman.”

Yellen’s yearbook entry shows she was editor of the school paper, The Pilot, as well as a member of the Arista honor society, the Boosters basketball program, the Minutemen history club and the psychology club.

As head of the Fed, Yellen will help guide US monetary policies, affecting the pocketbooks of Americans and consumers across the globe.

Yellen’s four-year term begins Feb. 1. President Obama nominated her to the post in October. She is currently the Fed’s vice chair. Source: NYP

Thai protesters capture army HQ

Some 1,000 anti-government protesters in Bangkok have broken into the compound of the Royal Thai Army headquarters in their bid to topple the current government. The largely non-violent action has been going on since Monday.

“We want to know which side the army stands on,” shouted one protester, according to Reuters.

Elsewhere in the capital, hundreds of people seeking to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra gathered outside the headquarters of her ruling part, shouting for them step down.

In the last few days, protesting crowds have taken over several ministerial buildings and cut power at the Royal Thai Police Force headquarters.

The opposition advancement saw little response from government’s security forces so far, with PM Yingluck calling on the protesters to commence negotiations.

“The government does not want confrontation and is ready to cooperate with everybody to find a solution,” she said in a televised address on Thursday.

However the opposition crowds remain adamant in their intention to destabilize the government.

“Our only goal is that there must be no Thaksin regime in Thailand anymore,” the protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said, rejecting the prime minister’s call for talks, while a lawmaker from the ruling Puea party said that “the government will not instigate a violent situation because that is exactly what Suthep wants… we will not be provoked.”

The protesters are currently stationed around five points in the city, three of which are in the historic heart, one to the north and another at the Finance Ministry, where they have been since Monday.

Protesters accuse Yingluck of being a mouthpiece for her brother and former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. The public outrage was sparked by an amnesty law, which would allow Thaksin – who was convicted in Thailand on abuse of power charges – to return from self-imposed exile.

The main opponents of the former leader are the middle class who sharply disagree with the current government’s authoritarian rule. That class is comprised mainly of generals, aristocrats, big businessmen and royal advisers, embittered because of the party’s perceived disloyalty to the monarchy.

The group demonstrating against the current rule calls itself the Movement for Democracy and numbers about 200,000 people. It also represents some 45 unions, one of which represents Thai Airways. The carrier on Thursday threatened that any harm coming to protesters will result in the cancellation of all its flights. Its president, Damrong Waikanee, warned that if the confrontation turns physical, the union “will increase the pressure by stopping the plane wheels from turning.”

Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications mogul who built his political power via a series of populist measures, has ensured the unfaltering allegiance of the rural poor, who twice voted him into office in 2001 and 2005. In 2006, he was ousted in a military coup. – RT

Zim crimes ruling a ‘landmark decision’

A court ruling that the SA Police Service (SAPS) can investigate alleged Zimbabwean crimes against humanity was described as a landmark decision on Wednesday.

“The court’s decision makes it clear that South Africa has a legal obligation to investigate the perpetrators of international crimes wherever those crimes were committed,” said Priti Patel, deputy director of the SA Litigation Centre (Salc).

Salc said the finding by the Supreme Court of Appeal earlier in the day was a landmark decision for local and international justice.

Salc and the Zimbabwe Exiles’ Forum (ZEF) brought the case to the South African courts.

Patel said the ruling confirmed that the dispensing of international justice was not restricted to international forums.

“It commits the South African authorities to play their part in ensuring that torturers and other international criminals are held accountable for their actions.”

Salc submitted a document to the National Prosecuting Authority in 2008 containing evidence of the alleged involvement of key Zimbabwean officials in perpetrating crimes against humanity in relation to the torture of opposition party members in March 2007.

They wanted the NPA and the SAPS to initiate an investigation into the alleged crimes. The NPA and the SAPS refused to investigate and Salc and the ZEF appealed to the high court. It found in Salc’s favour.

The SAPS and the NPA appealed against the finding to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The SCA held that the SAPS was empowered to investigate alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe.

The court dismissed the appeal of the national police commissioner and national director of public prosecutions in the matter.

The SCA rejected the police’s submission that crimes against humanity were deemed to have been committed only once the perpetrators set foot in South Africa.

The court held that the police could investigate, irrespective of whether the alleged perpetrators were in the country.

It further found that, under international law, the SAPS was obliged to initiate an investigation into the alleged offences.

The court found that, on the police’s own version, there was enough evidence to initiate an investigation. This included determining whether the alleged perpetrators were in South Africa.

“No doubt, in conducting that investigation, the police will consider issues such as the gathering of information in a manner that does not impinge on Zimbabwe’s sovereignty,” the judgment read.

The court said it could not tell the police how to investigate such issues. – Sapa

Appeal Court orders South Africa to investigate torture in Zimbabwe

South Africa’s top appeals court on Wednesday ordered the police to investigate Zimbabwean officials who are accused of carrying out torture in the neighbouring country.

The case was brought before the Supreme Court of Appeal following allegations of torture of opposition party members in March 2007 in Zimbabwe.

The allegations include charges of water-boarding and electrical shocks being applied to the genitalia of activists opposed to long-serving President Robert Mugabe.

“This decision is really significant and is very much a precedent,” said Priti Patel, the deputy director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), which had filed the suit.

“The court’s decision makes it clear that South Africa has a legal obligation to investigate the perpetrators of international crimes wherever those crimes were committed,” she said.

According to SALC, the suspects visit South Africa, and therefore the government had an obligation to investigate the allegations.

The South African National Prosecuting Authority had claimed before the court that it was not required to investigate the alleged perpetrators because they were not presently in the country, but this was rejected by Judge Mohammed Navsa.

The NPA can still appeal the decision to the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court.

Mugabe, who won elections this year to extend his 33 years at the helm of Zimbabwe, has denounced the attempts to investigate the 17 officials accused of torture as an assault on his country’s sovereignty.

An investigation could strain relations between the two countries. – dpa

DRC police arrest youth gangs in Kinshasa

Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo were Tuesday on the offensive against youth gangs in the capital, long accused of robbing, beating up and even murdering residents, police said.

“Operation Likofi (“punch” in Lingala) began in Kinshasa on November 15 and will end on February 15,” police colonel and spokesman Pierre Mwana Mputu told AFP. “We have mapped out the hotbeds of criminal activity.”

The youths known as “kuluna” roam the streets in packs, often under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They violently snatch bags, jewellery and mobile phones. Victims who resist face being clubbed or hacked with machetes. Several have been killed.

“The threat has grown in scale. It’s as if there was no state… it pleased the supreme authority (President Joseph Kabila) to instruct the police to eradicate this phenomenon… and clean up the town,” Mwana Mputu said.

Most people in Kinshasa, a city of some 10 million, live in dire poverty. But the authorities have urged them to help by denouncing gang members, who include the children of police officers and soldiers, several residents told AFP.

On the streets, police officers — some of them masked — have been arresting many young bandits, who will be sent before magistrates especially assigned to the task. State television has shown footages of dozens of youths, including women, handcuffed with bands of cloth.

“Let us hope that this lasts, because in Kinshasa the authorities often don’t go through with their missions to the end,” a women resident said.

“This is a really good idea. The kuluna sometimes kill pregnant women for no reason. They even wreck the stalls of people selling bread and fritters,” she added.

The more notorious gang leaders have sought to evade the police crackdown by disguising themselves, locals said.

Some residents claimed that police officers have carried out several summary executions of youths, sometimes in front of the homes of the alleged gang members. Human rights organisations told AFP that they had received reports of such killings, without being able to confirm them.

Mwana Mputu denied the allegations and said that if any breaches of regulations came to the notice of authorities, these would be punished. – AFP

US defies China’s fly zone with B-52 flight

Two American B-52 bombers flew over a disputed area of the East China Sea without informing Beijing, challenging China’s claims to an expanded air defense zone, officials said Tuesday.

The flight of the giant, long-range Stratofortress planes sent a clear warning that Washington would push back against what it considers an aggressive stance by Beijing in the region.

The move also signaled staunch US support for Japan, which has been locked in a mounting feud with Beijing over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

The unarmed bombers took off from Guam on Monday on a scheduled flight, as part of what defense officials insisted was a routine exercise dubbed “Coral Lightning Global Power Training Sortie.”

“Last night we conducted a training exercise that was long-planned. It involved two aircraft flying from Guam and returning to Guam,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.

Although China has insisted it has a right to police the skies over the area, no flight plan was submitted beforehand to the Chinese and the mission went ahead “without incident,” Warren said.

The two aircraft spent “less than an hour” in China’s unilaterally-declared Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and did not encounter Chinese planes, he said.

A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP the two US planes were B-52 bombers.

The military flight carried important symbolism as it came a week before US Vice President Joe Biden’s scheduled trip to China, Japan and South Korea next month.

China announced the expanded air defense zone amid a sovereignty dispute with Japan over the island chain in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

The area also includes waters claimed by Taiwan and South Korea, which also have both denounced Beijing’s move.

Without taking sides in the territorial argument, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called on China and Japan to negotiate an end to their dispute.

Ban on Tuesday said tensions should be handled “amicably through dialogue and negotiations.”

Under the rules declared by China, aircraft are expected to provide a flight plan, clearly mark their nationality and maintain two-way radio communication to allow them to respond to identification queries from Chinese authorities.

Pentagon officials said the United States views the area as international air space and American military aircraft would operate in the zone as before without submitting flight plans to China in advance.

Japan, the United States and several other governments promptly rejected China’s announced air defense zone after it was announced Saturday.

The US State Department renewed its criticism Tuesday, saying China’s action appeared to be an attempt to “unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea.”

The move “will raise regional tensions and increase the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and accidents,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Australia summoned Beijing’s ambassador to express its opposition and Japanese airlines said Wednesday they had stopped following China’s new rules.

The reversal came after pressure from the Japanese government, which insisted China’s announcement was invalid, and after governments around the world lined up alongside Tokyo.

France and Germany each expressed concern and urged restraint on all sides.

“We are committed to a peaceful resolution through dialogue to this dispute, in accordance with international law,” French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

The territorial dispute over the islands has simmered for decades but in September 2012, Japan nationalized three of the islands, in what it portrayed as an attempt to avoid a more inflammatory step by a nationalist politician.

Beijing, however, accuses Tokyo of disturbing the status quo, and has sent ships and planes to the islands in a show of force.

In response, Japan has mobilized vessels and aircraft, raising fears the tensions could trigger an accidental clash.

Beyond the East China Sea, Beijing has taken an assertive approach to a number of territorial disputes, particularly in the strategic South China Sea.

In response to China’s growing military might and influence, the United States has sought to shift its strategic focus to Asia, planning to expand America’s military presence across the Pacific.

But a spate of crises in the Middle East and budget woes have often hampered Washington’s attempt at a so-called “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific. – AFP

Japan: China’s new air defense zone ‘very dangerous’ escalation

The government branded as “very dangerous” China’s announcement Saturday that it has set up an East China Sea air defense identification zone that includes the Japan-held Senkaku Islands.

The Chinese Defence Ministry said the zone was created to “guard against potential air threats,” but the move will only inflame a bitter sovereignty row over the islets, which China claims as Diaoyu.

Later Saturday, China scrambled air force jets, including fighter planes, to patrol the new zone.

Its outline is shown on the ministry website and a Chinese state media Twitter account — pic.twitter.com/4a2vC6PH8O. It covers a wide area of the East China Sea between South Korea and Taiwan, and includes the Senkaku islets.

In Tokyo, Junichi Ihara, head of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, lodged a protest by phone with Han Zhiqiang, a minister at the Chinese Embassy, according to a statement issued by the ministry.

Ihara was quoted as telling Han that Japan can “never accept the zone set up by China,” as it includes the Senkakus. He further said the new zone will “escalate” already fraught bilateral ties over the uninhabited but potentially resource-rich islet chain, branding China’s move “very dangerous,” the statement said.

Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki plans to summon Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua as early as possible Monday to state Tokyo’s position on the matter.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said Saturday that the establishment of the zone, which China said entered into force as of 10 a.m. Saturday, was aimed at “safeguarding state sovereignty, territorial land and air security, and maintaining flight order.”

“It is a necessary measure in China’s exercise of self-defense rights. It has no particular target and will not affect the freedom of flight in relevant airspace,” Yang said in a statement on the ministry’s website.

“China will take timely measures to deal with air threats and unidentified flying objects from the sea, including identification, monitoring, control and disposition, and it hopes all relevant sides positively cooperate and jointly maintain flying safety,” he said.

Along with the new zone, the Chinese ministry released a set of aircraft identification rules that it says must be followed by all aircraft entering the area, under penalty of intervention by China’s military.

Aircraft are now expected to provide their flight path, clearly mark their nationality and maintain two-way radio communication in order to “respond in a timely and accurate manner to identification inquiries” from Chinese authorities.

Shen Jinke, spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, reported late Saturday that it had conducted a sweep of the area using early warning aircraft and fighter jets. “The patrol is in line with international common practices, and the normal flight of international flights will not be affected,” Shen said.

Four Chinese Coast Guard boats briefly entered Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkakus on Friday, after multiple incursions at the end of October and the beginning of this month further aggravated tensions between Beijing and Tokyo.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera in late October said the repeated incursions are a threat to peace and fall in a “gray zone (between) peacetime and an emergency situation.”

A few days earlier, his Chinese counterpart had threatened Japan that any bid to shoot down China’s drones would constitute “an act of war.” That move came after a report said Japan had drafted plans to destroy foreign drones that encroach on its airspace if warnings to leave are ignored.

Sino-Japanese relations have remained icy for more than a year because of the Senkakus dispute, which was revived when Japan purchased three of the five main islets in September 2012, effectively nationalizing the entire chain. Since then, China has regularly sent coast guard vessels to the islets, which lie 400 km west of Okinawa and 200 km northeast of Taiwan. – AFP

Ruling party candidate leads in Honduras presidential vote

by Alberto Arce

The ruling party candidate held the lead in early vote counting to become Honduras’ next president, while two of his four main opponents began crying foul early Monday over the results in the violent and impoverished Central American nation.

With just over half the ballots tallied by late Sunday, Juan Orlando Hernandez of the governing National Party had a comfortable edge over Xiomara Castro, whose husband Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a 2009 coup that has left the country politically unstable.

Hernandez and Castro went into Sunday’s election neck-and-neck in opinion polls, and expectations of a close finish raised fears that a disputed result would produce more instability and protests. Voting went off peacefully amid a heavy turnout, however, and the uncertainty of the final results plus a cold, rainy night kept the streets quiet.

The winner will likely have no more than a third of the vote and face a divided congress, whose 128 members were also up for election. As a result, the political situation is unlikely to change in the failing state of 8.5 million people, which is home to the world’s highest homicide rate and a transit point for much of the South American cocaine heading to the U.S.

Both candidates claimed victory, with Hernandez saying he would start Monday with the job of leading Hondurans out of the misery they’ve endured. Poverty and violence have climbed in the last four years under President Porfirio Lobo, also of the National Party.

Castro said her campaign’s numbers gave her a victory by 3 points, then left her election-night party at a hotel and was not heard from the rest of the night. Zelaya urged her supporters to stay at the polls and keep monitoring the count.

“We don’t accept the results,” Zelaya said early Monday. “There are more than 1 million votes that have yet to be counted.”

Salvador Nasrallah, a popular sportscaster and candidate of the Anticorruption Party who was in fourth place, also questioned the official returns.

“Our data do not match the official data that the system is transmitting,” Nasrallah said.

David Matamoros, president of Honduras’ electoral court, said final results were not expected until Monday morning.

“The preliminary results we have given so far do not show any tendency or declare any winner,” he said Sunday night.

Both U.S. Ambassador Lisa Kubiske and Ulrike Lunacek, head of the European Union observer mission, said reports from the polls indicated the vote and subsequent count so far were regular.

“We had 110 observers in almost all Honduras states, and we have seen a transparent process with all parties represented at the table,” Kubiske said, noting that there is a system in place for people to peacefully file complaints or contest the results.

Castro, 54, had led the race for months portraying herself as the candidate for change, promising relief from violence and poverty and constitutional reform that would make the country more equitable.

“From the data from our surveys and vote counts, I am the president of Honduras,” she said early in the night. “The victory is overwhelming and irreversible.”

Hernandez, 45, erased Castro’s early lead in a field of eight candidates as he focused his campaign on a promise to bring law and order. As president of Congress, Hernandez pushed through legislation creating a military police force to patrol the streets in place of the National Police, which are penetrated by corruption and often accused of extrajudicial killings.

“Today the people voted to leave behind the political crisis of 2009 that left thousands in Honduras jobless, migrating and divided, that left us alone and isolated,” Hernandez said.

The number of people working for less than minimum wage of $350 a month in Honduras has grown from 28 percent in 2008 to 43 percent today.

“There is insecurity, fear, violence, hunger and unemployment. There are problems that are so deep that I doubt anyone can really solve them,” said Jose Barreiro, a voter. – AP

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Associated Press writer Freddy Cuevas contributed to this report.

Israeli, Palestinian clashes leave 15 dead

Clashes across the occupied Palestinian West Bank are continuing for the second day between protesting Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces.

Israeli soldiers have shot 15 Palestinians with live ammunition after the Palestinians had initially clashed with Israeli settlers.

Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets, and dozens of others suffered from tear gas inhalation in clashes in Jalazun refugee camp, north of Ramallah, on Saturday.

Clashes broke out after Palestinians tried to stop Israeli settlers from throwing rocks at passing cars on the road between Nablus and Ramallah.

Palestinians threw rocks at settlers in order to prevent their attacks on passing vehicles.

Meanwhile, Palestinian activists made a huge hole in the separation barrier near the village of Al Khader in the West Bank to protest the occupation. – SABC

Central African Republic ‘on brink of genocide’

The United States is calling for deeper international involvement to halt violence in Central African Republic, amid growing alarm that the impoverished nation is on the brink of a possible genocide.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday unveiled $40 million in new funding to help the country, with the bulk of the aid going to support the African Union-led peacekeeping mission known as MISCA.

“It’s a very, very serious situation right now,” a top State Department official told AFP, asking not to be named.

“It will require extensive, continued and deepened international commitment working with the CAR government to address the humanitarian crisis, to strength MISCA so that it can carry out its security mission, civil protection mission and lay the ground work for” elections set to take place in February 2015, the official added.

In the latest in a long line of rebellions and coups, the Seleka rebel coalition ousted president Francois Bozize in March and put the CAR’s first Muslim leader, President Michel Djotodia, in power.

But the move has unleashed unprecedented sectarian bloodshed, with fighting between the mainly Muslim former rebels who seized power in March and militia groups set up to protect Christian communities, which make up about 80 percent of the population.

The unrest has displaced almost 400,000 of the country’s estimated 4.6 million people, left 2.3 million in need of assistance and some 1.1 million scrambling to find food, according to the latest UN figures.

France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday that the country was “on the verge of genocide,” while a Kerry deputy told US lawmakers this week that it was in a “pre-genocidal” phase.

“The needs are so extensive, it’s really hard to say one is greater than the others,” the US official said in an interview.

“One area there’s going to be a serious need in over the coming year is in food aid, and that’s because the population has been so terrorized and traumatized by what’s happening in the country, that it’s had a serious impact on the planting season and necessarily that’s going to cause greater food insecurity in the months ahead.”

The US is supporting moves at the United Nations to boost an AU-led force to some 3,652 troops made up of soldiers from Chad, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville and Equatorial Guinea with a contribution also expected from Burundi.

“The mandate is excessively broad given the very extensive challenge in front of them,” the official said, stressing that it was felt the AU force would be better placed to restore order and stability than a UN peacekeeping mission.

Apart from being quicker to set up and equip, “often the UN missions are more peacekeeping and this is not a peacekeeping situation, this is more enforcement,” he said.

The UN Security Council plans to vote in early December on a resolution to allow CAR’s neighbors, the African Union and France to intervene in the sprawling nation.

French President Francois Hollande said Paris was planning to “significantly increase” its contingent in the country, where it already has 400 soldiers in place to help protect the airport in Bangui and French nationals. – AFP