The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- African leaders tell Congo insurgents to "renounce rebellion"
- Police search New Jersey mall for shooter, no injuries reported
- Nobel winner Ebadi urges EU, U.S. to ban Iran from TV satellites
| African leaders tell Congo insurgents to "renounce rebellion" Posted: PRETORIA (Reuters) - African leaders told Congo's M23 rebels on Tuesday they must publicly declare an end to their 20-month insurgency to allow the signing of a peace agreement with President Joseph Kabila's government. The recommendation was made by heads of state from southern Africa and the Great Lakes region who met through Monday night in the South African capital Pretoria to lend their weight to an international push to end the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite growing calls for peace, the M23 rebels and government forces were involved in artillery clashes on Monday near Congo's border with Uganda. Both sides blamed the other for the shelling. A statement released by the South African-hosted summit in Pretoria said a peace agreement in eastern Congo could be signed "on condition that the M23 makes a public declaration renouncing rebellion, after which the Government would make a public declaration of acceptance." "Five days after this is done, then a formal signing of the agreement would be done," the statement said. It was signed by Malawian President Joyce Banda and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni representing the southern African and Great Lakes region leaders. M23's political leader Bertrand Bisimwa said on Monday the group was ready to sign the peace deal, but he accused the army of attacking rebel positions with heavy weapons. Congolese President Kabila was present at the Pretoria meeting. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who has fiercely denied repeated reports by U.N. experts that his country backs and helps the M23 rebels, did not attend but sent his foreign minister. The summit congratulated Congolese government forces and a beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo for "recapturing M23 strongholds and restoring government control". A rapid Congolese army advance in recent weeks has driven the M23 rebels from towns and cornered them in the steep, forested hills along the Ugandan border, raising the prospect of peace in Congo's violence-plagued east. (Writing by Pascal Fletcher) |
| Police search New Jersey mall for shooter, no injuries reported Posted: (Reuters) - A person with a gun opened fire on Monday evening in a massive New Jersey shopping mall shortly before closing time, leading police to evacuate the mall and search for the shooter, a county official said. No injuries were reported. Witnesses said they heard multiple shots seconds apart inside the Garden State Plaza mall in the northern New Jersey town of Paramus, while CNN reported that the shooter had fired at security cameras. Televised images from outside showed a heavy police presence with dozens of cruisers converging at the mall. "Multiple gunshots were heard. We believe it is one shooter. I know there is an active shooter near the Nordstrom area," said Jeanne Baratta, Chief of Staff at Bergen County, where the town is located. She added that a police SWAT team was on site. The police "believe the gunman is still in the mall," Baratta said. "Right now the Bergen County SWAT team along with the K-9 unit and other law enforcement are going store by store. It's a very large mall with multiple levels." Jonathan Astacio, a witness who was inside the mall, told CNN he heard several shots: "We heard two loud booms ... Then we heard two more shots and saw people running." The mayor of Paramus, Richard LaBarbiera, told reporters that no injuries had yet been reported. One woman at a store in the mall, who asked Reuters not to disclose what store she was hiding in, reported hearing shots. "I heard the shooting. We're still stuck in the stock room right now. I personally heard five shots," said the woman. Afraid the shooter may still be free, she said: "I haven't gone out again." (Additional reporting by Eric Johnson and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Eric Walsh and Philip Barbara) |
| Nobel winner Ebadi urges EU, U.S. to ban Iran from TV satellites Posted: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Monday called on the European Union and United States to ban Iran from using U.S. and European satellites to broadcast what she described as the Islamic Republic's propaganda. Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and former judge who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work promoting human rights in Iran, accused Western powers of focusing too little attention on rights abuses as they pursue a deal with Tehran aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions. She criticized the economic and financial sanctions regime against Iran, a web of U.S., EU and U.N. measures aimed at crippling Tehran's nuclear and missile programs and pressuring the government to abandon what Western powers and their allies suspect is a quest to develop an atomic weapons capability. "Economic sanctions have impacted powerfully," Ebadi, 66, told Reuters in an interview. "People have become very poor. Some kinds of medications cannot be found in Iran. The price of food is higher in Iran than in the U.S. or Europe." The sanctions that are harming ordinary Iranians should be replaced with ones that weaken the government but not the people, she said. One example she gave involved barring Iran from using U.S. and European satellites to broadcast programs in more than a dozen non-Farsi languages outside the country. "We have to stop the government of Iran from being able to use the satellites," Ebadi said through an interpreter. "This way we can close down the propaganda microphones of the government." She also said that senior government officials, from deputy minister up, should face travel bans and asset confiscations when they have funds deposited with European and American banks. In a response to Ebadi's remarks, Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran's U.N. mission, said that after Iran's recent presidential election "held in an open, free, fair, transparent and democratic way, the Islamic Republic of Iran has entered into a new stage of democracy and the rule of law." Ebadi, who has been living in exile in Britain since 2009, expressed disappointment with Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, widely seen as more moderate than his stridently anti-Western predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "The motto of Mr Rouhani was that he was going to change the conditions and this is why people voted for him," she said. "Unfortunately that's not what happened." IRAN SAYS RIGHTS SAFEGUARDED Miryousefi said that "Iran, especially after the election of President Rouhani, has put a new emphasis on its unwavering dedication towards the promotion and protection of all human rights inside and outside the country." "Iran has taken a long-term approach and genuine measures to safeguard all human rights of its people including through ensuring their compliance with all its relevant commitments under international law, taking into account principles enshrined in the constitution," he said in an emailed response. One example of Iran's new approach, Miryousefi said, is that Rouhani has instructed his government to draft a "Charter of Citizenship Rights" and ordered that all government complaints against journalists be withdrawn, leading to the release and pardon of 86 inmates. He added that Rouhani has appointed a special assistant on minority affairs to ensure that ethnic and religious minorities' rights are safeguarded. Ebadi said the number of executions in Iran since Rouhani's June election was twice what it was a year ago, when Ahmadinejad was still in power. Nearly all of the opposition activists in prison before he was elected are still in prison and religious and ethnic minorities continue to be persecuted, she added. Ebadi cited figures from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), which reported that over 200 people, including as many as four minors, were executed between June 14 and October 1. She said it was double the number of executions that took place in the same period in 2012. "Unfortunately the world focuses on nuclear energy more than human rights and does not pay attention to the situation of violations of human rights in Iran," she said. "And this is why the human rights conditions are worsening in Iran." Later this week, senior officials from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and Germany will meet with Iranian negotiators in Geneva to discuss the possibility of a deal on Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is purely peaceful. The United States has said that last month's six-power talks with Iran aimed at ending the decade-long standoff over Tehran's nuclear ambitions have been more productive than previous rounds. Western diplomats say that is because of the sting of sanctions, which Tehran is keen to remove. Ebadi, who will be meeting with U.N. officials and diplomats while she is in New York, said the six powers should be discussing more than nuclear centrifuges in Geneva. She warned EU nations not to rush to restore ties with Tehran's government without improvements in Iran's human rights record. "My question for European countries is - what if they agree with the government of Iran on nuclear issues," she asked. "Are you willing to shake hands with a government that stones women? Are you going to trust a government that executes its political opposition? Are you willing to compromise standards of human rights, that you believe in, for your own security?" (Editing by Paul Simao) |
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