The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Canada court rules against China's most wanted man
- Libya's Gaddafi rules out talks
- James Murdoch denies "mistaken" evidence to UK lawmakers
| Canada court rules against China's most wanted man Posted: 21 Jul 2011 07:17 PM PDT VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - The Federal Court of Canada cleared the way on Thursday for the extradition of China's most wanted man, dismissing concerns that he could be tortured or executed back home. Judge Michel Shore refused a request to stay the deportation of Lai Changxing, accused by Beijing of running a multibillion-dollar smuggling operation in China in the 1990s.
Lai fled to Canada with his family in 1999 and claimed refugee status, saying the allegations against him were politically motivated. Canada rejected his refugee claim, and after years of legal wrangling government lawyer Helen Park said on Thursday he could be sent back early as Saturday. China says Lai bribed Chinese officials to avoid paying taxes and duties on everything from fuel to cigarettes that were shipped into China's southeastern Fujian province. Lai admitted in a 2009 interview with the Globe and Mail newspaper that he had avoided taxes by taking advantage of loopholes in the law, but he denied bribery charges. He said if he were not in Canada he would have been executed by now. (Reporting by Greg Joyce; writing by Randall Palmer; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. | ||
| Libya's Gaddafi rules out talks Posted: 21 Jul 2011 05:45 PM PDT SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ruled out on Thursday talks with the rebels seeking to end his 41-year-rule, casting doubt on a flurry of Western efforts to negotiate an end to a deepening civil conflict.
"There will be no talks between me and them until Judgment Day," Gaddafi told a crowd of thousands of his supporters in his home city of Sirte in a remotely delivered audio message. "They need to talk with the Libyan people ... and they will respond to them." The rally in the quiet seaside city drew men wearing green hats, women waving flags and children whose faces were painted with pro-Gaddafi slogans. Their vociferous support for Gaddafi -- and rebel declarations earlier that the war could not be ended through talks -- showed how far Libya may be from a negotiated end to its five-month-old conflict. Rebels who have struggled to arm and organise themselves have suffered losses in the past week near the insurgent stronghold of Misrata and the eastern oil hub Brega, but are pushing ahead with their campaign to unseat the longtime leader. On Thursday the rebels said their advance towards the capital had been slowed by the laying of hundreds of thousands of mines at Brega, but the frontline at Zlitan advanced to the closest it has ever been to the western city's outskirts. Foreign diplomatic efforts to find a solution have intensified as the fighting drags on. China said it would work with the African Union, which has proposed a plan seen as less hostile to the Libyan leader than a Western plan that insists on his stepping down. Chinese President Hu Jintao told his visiting South African counterpart Jacob Zuma that the Africans had played an important role in pushing a political solution. "China greatly appreciates this and is willing to continue remaining in close touch and to coordinate closely with South Africa and the African Union on the Libya issue," Hu said. France said on Wednesday Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he gave up power, an apparent softening of the West's stance in a new effort to find a diplomatic end to the war. The United States said Gaddafi must quit, but whether he remained in Libya after that would be up to the Libyan people. But Libyan officials have said before now that Gaddafi's departure was not up for negotiation and the rebels said on Thursday that no one seriously expected talks to end the crisis. "No one talks about a political solution. Impossible. He closed all the doors," said Colonel Ahmed Bani, a rebel military spokesman. "What do we tell the widower? What do we tell the mother who lost her children ... We can't negotiate, people will devour us." MINES AND TRENCHES Bani said he expected a breakthrough in Brega in a few days, and in the western town of Zlitan within two days. "We are advancing slowly and clearing the mines ... but we know that at the end, we will enter it (Brega)," he told Reuters in an interview in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi. "The fall of Brega is the end of the regime." Libya's front line near the oil town of Brega, one of the last strongholds of Gaddafi's forces, has been deadlocked for weeks. Bani estimated that 400,000 mines had been planted around Brega and said the rebels, mostly volunteers with no military experience, were working to clear them with almost no help from experts. Gaddafi's forces have pushed back the rebels by filling trenches with petrol and setting them ablaze. The rebel forces are now about 20 kms from the edge of Brega, but Gaddafi's forces still control the city and its oil installations, he said. The rebel forces are dug in east and south of Brega. In Zlitan, on the coast road 160 km (100 miles) east of the capital, the rebel front line has advanced 4 kms in the past 24 hours, a major gain that leaves the rebels around 5 kms from the city's outskirts. This is the nearest the rebels have ever come to Zlitan, a source familiar with the battles said. Three rebel fighters were killed and 25 wounded on Thursday in fighting outside Zlitan, according to hospital figures. Five rebels were killed on Wednesday by mines, the rebels said. State TV showed what it said were fresh pictures from Zlitan and Brega in an apparent bid to show the towns were still firmly in Tripoli's hands. In Zlitan, dozens of Gaddafi supporters were shown chanting slogans of support. Some analysts have said Gaddafi is running short of fuel and food, which could stoke popular unrest ahead of the Muslim month of Ramadan which begins next week. During Ramadan, people prepare nightly feasts after fasting by day. The state news agency JANA said officials met on Thursday to ensure food supplies "reach consumers as soon as possible before the start of Ramadan". Gerald Howarth, British Minister for International Security Strategy, said there would be no pause in the war for Ramadan. "There will be no let-up in the coalition activities to protect the people of Libya," he said. "It would be highly irresponsible to give Gaddafi any excuse to inflict the kind of brutality that he has displayed in the past." (Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal in Benghazi, Souhail Karam in Rabat, Lutfi Abu Aun in Tripoli, Sui-Lee Wee and Ben Blanchard in Beijing, Brian Love and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Patrick Worsnip in New York; writing by Richard Meares and Lin Noueihed, editing by Tim Pearce) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. | ||
| James Murdoch denies "mistaken" evidence to UK lawmakers Posted: 21 Jul 2011 05:14 PM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - James Murdoch gave "mistaken" testimony to a British parliamentary committee, two senior ex-News of the World executives said on Thursday, the most direct accusation made so far against News Corp's
Murdoch said he stood behind his testimony to the committee, which had asked what he knew of a scandal that has forced senior News Corp executives and two senior police chiefs to quit and raised questions over press barons' influence on politicians. The statement by Tom Crone, the British news group's top legal officer until last week, and Colin Myler, editor of the News of the World tabloid until it was shut down earlier this month, was the first open challenge by former senior executives of Rupert Murdoch's global media empire. "I stand behind my testimony to the Select Committee," James Murdoch said in response to the assertion by Myler and Crone that they told him of an email from a News of the World reporter to "Neville" containing transcripts of hacked voicemails. Neville Thurlbeck was chief reporter on the weekly when it published a story about English soccer executive Gordon Taylor. Murdoch later approved a large payout to Taylor, but told the committee this week he had not been in possession of all the facts when he approved it. The phone-hacking scandal has led News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's global media empire, to drop its $12 billion bid for the 61 percent of pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB it does not own after public revulsion over allegations that dead soldiers' families and a missing schoolgirl were among those whose voicemails were hacked. MURDOCH "NOT AWARE" During three hours of questioning on Tuesday, James Murdoch, News Corp's deputy chief operating officer, was asked by lawmaker Tom Watson: "Did you see or were you made aware of the full Neville email, the transcript of the hacked voicemail messages?" "No, I was not aware of that at the time," Murdoch told the committee, adding he was only aware of "key facts and evidence" that came to light at the end of 2010 when detectives re-launched a probe into phone-hacking and allegations that reporters had bribed police officers. An initial police inquiry led to the jailing of a News of the World reporter and a private detective in 2007. British police are now investigating allegations that about 4,000 people had their phones hacked by journalists from the News of the World -- among them politicians and celebrities as well as a missing schoolgirl, later found murdered, and families of victims of the 2005 London bombings. Crone and Myler said in their statement: "Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday's CMS Select Committee hearing, we would like to point out that James Murdoch's recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken. "In fact, we did inform him of the 'for Neville' email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor's lawyers." Watson, reacting to the two men's statement, told the Independent newspaper: "If these allegations are true, you can only reach the conclusion that James Murdoch misled parliament." John Whittingdale, chairman of the committee, said lawmakers could push Murdoch for clarification. "I haven't seen the statement but if it is the case that Colin Myler and Tom Crone are in conflict on a serious issue then that is a matter we would want to obtain a response from James Murdoch on," he told Reuters. "James Murdoch has already said he will provide written evidence on other issues and we could ask for this to be clarified this way." ANOTHER EXECUTIVE SAID SACKED In a sign of further turmoil at News Corp, the BBC reported on Thursday that a senior executive at the News of the World's sister paper, The Sun, had been sacked for matters relating to his previous job at the News of the World. Sun features editor Matt Nixson, previously deputy features editor at the News of the World, was marched out of the building that houses all News Corp's London newspapers, a senior journalist from Murdoch broadsheet the Times of London tweeted. "Understand at one time Nixson worked on NOTW news desk under Ian Edmondson and Andy Coulson," the Times's Assistant News Editor David Rose wrote on his Twitter feed. Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief until he resigned in January. He denies any knowledge of hacking but his connection to the investigation has encouraged the opposition Labour party to question Cameron's judgment in employing him and provoked questions about Cameron's relations with News Corp. (Additional reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Tim Pearce) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
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