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Saturday, December 18, 2010

Israeli air strike kills five in Gaza Strip

Trails of rockets fired from Gaza – January 2009

Rocket fire from Gaza has dropped sharply since 2008

Israel and the Palestinians

An Israeli air strike has killed five people in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources and the Israeli military.

The five killed were militants, Palestinian hospital sources said.

The strike targeted "a squad of terror operatives", Israel said, "who were preparing to launch rockets towards Israeli territory".

Rocket fire from Gaza has dropped sharply since Israel's devastating 22-day offensive in December 2008.

Hamas, the Islamist group which controls the Gaza Strip, says it has tried to stop rocket fire aimed at Israel.

Palestinian sources later identified the five dead as members of a small militant group, Ansar al-Sunna, Reuters news agency reported.

In the past 18 months one person in Israel, a Thai farm worker, has been killed by a rocket fired from Gaza.

According to Israeli Defence Force figures, 180 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel by militants in 2010.

The United Nations says...

Russia 'seriously concerned' over Korea tensions

A South Korean marine stands guard on Yeonpyeong island

The exercises on Yeonpyeong island are due to be held in the coming days

Russia says it is seriously concerned that tensions between North and South Korea will escalate further.

Pyongyang is threatening to retaliate if the South goes ahead with planned military exercises on an island near the two countries' disputed sea border.

Last month four people were killed when the North attacked the island during similar exercises.

The UN Security Council is preparing discuss the situation at an emergency meeting, scheduled at Russia's request.

Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said his country was "seriously concerned about possible further escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula".

"We believe that the Security Council must send a restraining signal... and help launch diplomatic activity with a view to resolving all issues of dispute between the two Korean sides by political and diplomatic means," he said.

'Catastrophe'

Russia has already urged South Korea to cancel the live-fire exercises on Yeonpyeong island.

The South has said...

Bank of America stops handling Wikileaks payments

The facade of a Bank of America office in Washington. File photo

The Bank of America said it stopped "transactions of any kind" for Wikileaks

Wikileaks Revelations

Bank of America has stopped handling payments for whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, joining several other major financial institutions.

It said it acted because "Wikileaks may be engaged in activities that are... inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments".

In response, Wikileaks urged its supporters to stop doing business with the bank - one of the world's largest.

MasterCard, PayPal and other companies earlier cut off Wikileaks' payments.

The financial institutions acted after Wikileaks - together with several major media organisations - began publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, causing tension between Washington and some of its allies.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was earlier this week freed on bail in the UK while facing.....

S Korea military drills to go ahead

As the threat of war looms, there are widespread calls for South Korea to halt military exercises with the US [Reuters]

South Korea has vowed to go ahead with artillery drills on a border island shelled by North Korea last month despite Pyongyang's threat to retaliate again.

A South Korea official said on Saturday that the military is ready to respond to any possible provocation.

He also said the drills were not expected over the weekend because of bad weather but would be conducted by Tuesday.

The one-day, live-fire drills are to be held on Yeonpyeong Island near the tense sea border with North Korea.

North Korea has warned that if the South goes ahead anyway, it will strike back even harder than in the November 23 attack that killed four people.

Meanwhile, North Korean defectors have launched propaganda flyers into the North from Yeonpyeong Island.

They released balloons with 200,000 leaflets, and one thousand US dollar bills. The pamphlets condemned the North's shelling of the island and the potential succession of Kim Jong-il's youngest son as leader.

Deadly force

North Korea ramped up the tensions on Friday with its warning of....

Read more...

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Wikileaks: US monitors 'aggressive' China in Africa

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping in South Africa. 18 Nov 2010

The Forum on China-Africa Co-operation recently celebrated its 10th anniversary

Wikileaks Revelations

The US is closely monitoring China's expanding role in Africa, the latest secret US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveal.

A cable from February quotes a senior US official in the Nigerian capital, Lagos, describing China as "aggressive and pernicious".

However, the official says the US does not consider China a military, security or intelligence threat.

Wikileaks has so far released more than 1,100 of 251,000 secret US cables.

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent says the latest documents provide a fascinating insight into Washington's rivalry with Beijing in Africa.

The cable, published by the Guardian newspaper, quotes Johnnie Carson, US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, who had been meeting oil company representatives in Lagos.

He describes China as "a very aggressive and....

Wikileaks: Australia FM blames US

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Kevin Rudd, Australian foreign minister: "US personnel responsible for cable leak"

Australia's foreign minister has said the US is to blame for the release of thousands of diplomatic cables on Wikileaks, not its Australian founder, Julian Assange.

Kevin Rudd said the release raised questions about US security.

Mr Rudd said he did not "give a damn" about criticism of him in the cables.

Mr Assange, arrested in the UK over sex crime allegations in Sweden, has accused the Australian government of "disgraceful pandering" to the US.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard had earlier called Mr Assange's release of the cables "grossly irresponsible".

Over the past two weeks, Wikileaks has released thousands of classified messages from US envoys around the world, from more than 250,000 it has been given.

Washington has called their.....

Wikileaks cables show Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang details

Mr Xi - expected to be China's next president - spoke of a love of US war films

US diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks have revealed more about the attitudes and concerns of the two men expected to lead China from 2012.

Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang - tipped as China's next president and premier - had separate dinners with US Ambassador Clark Randt in March 2007.

Both spoke proudly of economic advances in their respective regions.

Mr Xi was revealed as a US war film fan, while Mr Li said residents' biggest worry was corruption.

At that time Mr Xi was Communist Party secretary in Zhejiang province and Mr Li held the same position in Liaoning.

Both are now members of the nine-strong Politburo Standing Committee and are widely seen as China's leaders-in-waiting.

According to one cable, Xi Jinping had a "frank and friendly" conversation with Mr Randt, much of which focused on economic development in Zhejiang.

Residents were most concerned about education, affordable housing and healthcare, Mr Xi reportedly said, and also about "the working style of government and.....