News: Asia
» 2009
February 22, 2010
Dutch to pull troops out of Aghanistan following government collapse
Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende said on Sunday (22 February) that his country's troops are likely to be pulled out of Afghanistan by the end of this year, a move he said may prompt other wavering states - including EU members - to think about doing the same. "If nothing else will take its place, then it ends," Mr Balkenende told Buitenhof, a domestic current affairs television programme, reports Reuters. The centre-right leader was speaking a day after his government collapsed over the issue. The Labour Party quit the the coalition on Saturday, saying it could not agree to a Nato request to extend the Dutch mission beyond 2010. The Netherlands is among the top ten contributors to Afghanistan. Twenty-one of its soldiers have been killed there. Currently, there are around 2000 Dutch troops the dangerous Afghan province of Uruzgan. They are due to start leaving the country in August.
Read article at euobserver.com
February 10, 2010
Secret papers could contradict Iraq evidence: Chilcot
Tens of thousands of secret documents could contradict evidence given by members of the Blair government to the inquiry into the Iraq war, its chairman, Sir John Chilcot, has suggested as the former prime minister lashed out at the hunt for a ''scandal'' and a ''conspiracy'' over his controversial decision to back the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Sir John disclosed that the panel was examining far more documents than previously thought. He said the papers would form the core of the inquiry and show ''what really went on'' in the build-up to the start of the conflict. He said that the inquiry team would examine the documents ''over the next few months'', adding: ''That will enable us to see where the evidence joins together and where there are gaps.''
Read article in the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
February 7, 2010
Russia should consider joining the EU and NATO, says Medvedev’s institute
According to a paper released on 3 February by the Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR), a think tank headed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia will join NATO and the EU, reduce its military, reintroduce gubernatorial elections and four-year presidential terms and disband its Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service, news agencies reported.
Read article on the New Europe website
February 6, 2010
Memo 'shows Blair Iraq war deal with Bush'
The leader of Plaid Cymru's MPs has said he has a memo showing Tony Blair and George Bush struck a secret deal to invade Iraq a year before the 2003 war. Elfyn Llwyd told the BBC's Straight Talk he had written to Iraq Inquiry chair Sir John Chilcot to say he would be prepared to hand the document over. He said the memo, which is marked "Top Secret and Confidential" contradicted statements made by Mr Blair. Mr Blair previously told the inquiry he made no "covert" deal with Mr Bush.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)
February 6, 2010
Blix: Straw 'gave incorrect answers' to Iraq inquiry
Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw gave some incorrect answers to the UK's Iraq war inquiry, former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has said. Mr Blix told the BBC he was "puzzled" by some of the evidence that Mr Straw gave to the panel. He said that Mr Straw had been incorrect to suggest, in 2002, that UN weapons inspectors were not being allowed access to certain sites.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)
February 2, 2010
Iraq to sue U.S., Britain over depleted uranium bombs
Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the U.S. over their use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq, an Iraqi minister says. Iraq's Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Mikhail Salim, told Assabah newspaper that the lawsuit will be launched based on reports from the Iraqi ministries of science and the environment. According to the reports, during the first year of the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq, both countries had repeatedly used bombs containing depleted uranium. According to Iraqi military experts, the U.S. and Britain bombed the country with nearly 2,000 tons of depleted uranium bombs during the early years of the Iraq war. Atomic radiation has increased the number of babies born with defects in the southern provinces of Iraq. Iraqi doctors say they' have been struggling to cope with the rise in the number of cancer cases -- especially in cities subjected to heavy U.S. and British bombardment.
Read article in the Tehran Times (Iran)
February 2, 2010
Iraq inquiry: Tony Blair ‘lied’ and misled Parliament, claims Clare Short
Tony Blair 'lied' to his Cabinet and misled Parliament over the war in Iraq, Clare Short, the former international development secretary has said. Giving evidence before the Chilcot Committee into the war, she repeatedly accused the former prime minister of personally “misleading” and “conning” her, and of being “deceitful” with Cabinet, Parliament, and the public. Miss Short claimed that Mr Blair broke the ministerial code by misleading Parliament, and accused Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general who gave the “green light” to war, of failing to tell the Cabinet the truth of his reservations about the legality of an invasion.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
February 1, 2010
Russia to tighten labeling requirements for GMO food products
Russian food producers will be required to label their products with "This product contains GMOs" inscription, according to Russian media reports. Such proposal has recently been introduced by some members of the Russian Parliament. According to the bill, the size of inscription must be at least 20% of the advertising space of the package. Many of the Russian officials believe that the absence of such information confuses the Russian consumer and violates the right of consumers to receive truthful information about the products they use.
Read article at foodbizdaily.com
January 30, 2010
Chilcot War Inquiry: Professor to launch 'Nuremberg' war crimes prosecution against Blair
Plans to bring a war crimes prosecution against Tony Blair based on last week’s bombshell evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry have been launched by a leading law professor. The move could see Mr Blair follow former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic into a dock in The Hague. Professor Bill Bowring says the revelation that the Government rejected Foreign Office warnings not to invade Iraq means there is a good chance Mr Blair can be ‘investigated, at the very least’ for war crimes.
Read article in the Daily Mail (UK)
January 30, 2010
Tony Blair accused of putting war with Iran on the electoral agenda
Former prime minister slammed for trying to shift focus onto threat from Tehran during appearance at Chilcot inquiry
Tony Blair has been accused of warmongering spin for claiming that western powers might be forced to invade Iran because it poses as serious a threat as Saddam Hussein. Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Iran, accused Blair of trying to make confrontation with Iran an electoral issue after the former prime minister repeatedly singled out its Islamic regime as a global threat in his evidence to the Iraq war inquiry yesterday. Blair said many of the arguments that led him to confront the "profoundly wicked, almost psychopathic" Saddam Hussein seven years ago now applied to the regime in Tehran.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)
January 29, 2010
Bush decided UN backing not necessary, says Blair
United Nations backing for the Iraq war would have made "life a lot easier", Tony Blair said today. But the former prime minister said US President George Bush decided the UN Security Council's support "wasn't necessary".
Read article in the Independent (UK)
January 29, 2010
Protesters call for Blair to face war crimes charges
In the shadow of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and surrounded in all directions by monuments to the British establishment, protesters called Friday for Tony Blair to face war crimes charges as the former prime minister gave evidence to the Iraq inquiry. "Blair lied, thousands died!" and "Tony Blair! War criminal!" chanted the few hundred who had gathered under gray and damp early morning skies, separated from the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre by chain-link fencing and dozens of police officers. Some protesters donned rubber Blair masks and posed behind bars, their hands covered in theatrical blood representing those killed during the war in Iraq. Many said they wanted to see Blair put on trial at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Read article at cnn.com
January 24, 2010
North Korea accuses South of declaring war
North Korea on Sunday accused the South of declaring war by warning earlier this month that it would launch a preemptive strike if it thought its impoverished neighbor was preparing a nuclear attack.
Read news report at reuters.com
January 23, 2010
David Kelly post mortem to be kept secret for 70 years as doctors accuse Lord Hutton of concealing vital information
Vital evidence which could solve the mystery of the death of Government weapons inspector Dr David Kelly will be kept under wraps for up to 70 years. In a draconian – and highly unusual – order, Lord Hutton, the peer who chaired the controversial inquiry into the Dr Kelly scandal, has secretly barred the release of all medical records, including the results of the post mortem, and unpublished evidence. The move, which will stoke fresh speculation about the true circumstances of Dr Kelly’s death, comes just days before Tony Blair appears before the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. It is also bound to revive claims of an establishment cover-up and fresh questions about the verdict that Dr Kelly killed himself.
Read article in the Daily Mail (UK)
Comment: Dr David Kelly died days after being exposed as the source of a controversial BBC story on the Iraq war, which alleged that evidence against Iraq had been "sexed up" by the British Government in order to justify the 2003 invasion. Some reports suggest that Dr Kelly, 59, had been writing a book exposing highly damaging government secrets before his mysterious death. Significantly, therefore, convinced that the original verdict of suicide is unsafe and should be overturned, six senior doctors have recently begun legal action in an attempt to force a new inquest into Kelly’s death.
January 13, 2010
Drug firm made to pay for pollution
SHANGHAI: Authorities have made a pharmaceutical company in Zhejiang province pay a compensation of 2.2 million yuan ($322,200) after it dumped more than 1,000 barrels of unprocessed, noxious waste in two counties in neighboring Anhui province last December. Environmental protection authorities held the company, Zhejiang Apeloa Tospo Pharmaceutics, responsible for the pollution in Lixin and Woyang counties, along with its waste processing contractor Xing Binghua, who is now wanted by the police. The chemical waste dumped in the two counties contains dichloromethane methanol and methane, which are categorized as hazardous waste chemicals under national regulations. The chemicals can cause eye diseases, blood poisoning and damage to the central nervous system, experts said.
Read article at chinadaily.com.cn (China)
January 13, 2009
Iraq Inquiry: Lord Goldsmith 'materially' changed legal advice in days before war
Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, "materially" changed his advice on the legality of military action against Saddam Hussein in the final days before the 2003 invasion, the Iraq war Inquiry has been told. Lord Turnbull, who was the Cabinet Secretary at the time, said there were important differences between the final legal opinion Lord Goldsmith presented to the Cabinet and an earlier version he gave privately to Tony Blair.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
January 12, 2009
Dutch inquiry says Iraq war had no mandate
An inquiry into the Netherlands' support for the invasion of Iraq says it was not justified by UN resolutions. The Dutch Committee of Inquiry on Iraq said UN Security Council resolutions did not "constitute a mandate for... intervention in 2003". The inquiry was launched after foreign ministry memos were leaked that cast doubt on the legal basis for the war. The Netherlands gave political support to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but has denied having any military role. The report demolishes the Dutch case for supporting the invasion, says the BBC's Europe correspondent Jonny Dymond. It could also be taken to reinforce the international case against the Iraq war, he says.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)