The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Tunisian minister resigns as pressure grows on government
- Iran grants Syria $3.6 billion credit facility to buy oil products
- China's Bo to plead guilty, but maybe not to all charges - sources
| Tunisian minister resigns as pressure grows on government Posted: TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian Education Minister Salem Labyedh has resigned, the prime minister's spokesman said on Wednesday, as pressure mounts on the Islamist-led government to step down. Labyedh, a secular leftist, had said he was considering resigning after the killing of fellow leftist Mohamed Brahmi last week. The secular opposition has blamed the ruling Ennahda party for the killing and has called for the government to go. (Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Janet Lawrence) |
| Iran grants Syria $3.6 billion credit facility to buy oil products Posted: AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian authorities and Iran signed a deal this week to activate a $3.6 billion credit facility to buy oil products with long term payment terms, officials and bankers said on Wednesday. The deal, which was agreed last May between the two allies and will allow Iran to acquire equity stakes in investments in Syria, was part of a package to extend Iranian aid to President Bashar al Assad's government, its main political ally. Another $1 billion credit line to Damascus has already been extended to buy Iranian power generating products and other goods in a barter arrangement that has helped Syria export textiles and some agricultural produce such as olive oil and citrus, trade officials say. Syria is short of diesel for its army and fuel to keep the economy running because of U.S. and European Union sanctions imposed after a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Its main supplier of petroleum products by sea has been Iran. Despite political support from China and Russia, which have blocked U.N. draft resolutions which could have led to further sanctions on Syria and opposed military intervention to end the conflict, Assad's fuel and cash lifelines have all but dried up Iran has steadily expanded economic ties with Syria to help it withstand Western economic sanctions and sealed a free trade deal that granted Syrian exports a low 4 percent customs tariff. Last January, Tehran agreed during a visit by Prime Minister Wael al-Halki to deposit $500 million in Syria's central bank vaults, banking sources say. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by Keiron Henderson) |
| China's Bo to plead guilty, but maybe not to all charges - sources Posted: BEIJING (Reuters) - Disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai has agreed to plead guilty at a trial likely to be held within weeks, three sources said, in an apparent bid to earn a more lenient sentence and allow authorities to close the door on the country's biggest political scandal in decades. But it was not clear if he would plead guilty to all or only some of the charges of accepting bribes, corruption and abuse of power. Bo's downfall is the country's most divisive political scandal since the 1976 downfall of the Gang of Four at the end of the Cultural Revolution. President Xi Jinping is keen for Bo's trial to go off smoothly as he pushes major economic reforms ahead of a closed-door party plenum in September or October where he will need unstinted support from the party. Reuters reported in February that Bo, one of the Communist Party's high-flyers who fell from grace in early 2012, had refused to cooperate with government investigators, staged a hunger strike twice and refused to shave his beard in protest against what he deemed unfair treatment. "Bo Xilai had initially refused to admit guilt and insisted on defending himself," said a source with ties to the leadership and direct knowledge of the matter, requesting anonymity due to the political sensitivity of the case. "But in a change of heart, he cooperated and will plead guilty (at his trial) in the hope that he will receive a relatively lenient sentence," the source told Reuters. It remains to be seen if his decision to plead guilty will hold until the trial. In China, defendants are presumed guilty until proven innocent and those who refuse to cooperate are often given harsher sentences. Other sources indicated Bo may not plead guilty to the abuse of power charge. A source close to the family, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Bo will plead guilty, but should not be held accountable for crimes committed by immediate family members. The source declined to elaborate. The abuse of power charge is believed to be linked to the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood by Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, when Bo was the party chief in sprawling Chongqing city. Gu was convicted of the murder last August and Bo's police chief, Wang Lijun, was jailed for trying to cover up the crime. A third source, also with ties to China's leadership, said Bo will plead guilty to accepting bribes and corruption while he was mayor and Communist Party boss of the north-eastern city of Dalian between 1992 and 2000. But Bo will deny the charge of abuse of power when he was party boss of Chongqing, the source added. "By pleading not guilty to the abuse of power charge, Bo wants to show that he is a victim of a power struggle," the source told Reuters, also requesting anonymity. The source did not elaborate. After his appointment as party boss of Chongqing in 2007, Bo turned the region into a showcase of revolution-inspired "red" culture, as well as state led economic growth. He also won national attention with a crackdown on organised crime. Bo's populist ways and crime clean-up were welcomed by many of Chongqing's 30 million residents, as well as others who hoped Bo could take his Maoist policies nationwide. But his ambition and brash self-promotion irked some top leaders. Bo's lawyers Li Guifang and Wang Zhaofeng did not answer telephone calls seeking comment on what his strategy will be at the trial. He will be represented in court by his family-appointed lawyer Li, as opposed to having a state-appointed attorney forced upon him as happened to his wife, a fourth source with direct knowledge of the case told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Bill Powell and Raju Gopalakrishnan) |
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