France to ban full Islamic veil from public spaces
The French government will ban Muslim women from wearing a full-face veil in public, despite a warning from experts that such a law could be unconstitutional, it announced Wednesday.The spokesman for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government said a bill would be presented to ministers in May and would seek to ban the niqab and the burqa from streets, shops and markets and not just from public buildings. “We’re legislating for the future. Wearing a full veil is a sign of a community closing in on itself and of a rejection of our values,” Luc Chatel told reporters, on leaving a cabinet meeting chaired by Sarkozy.
Last month, the State Council – France’s top administrative authority – warned Sarkozy against a full ban on the veil, suggesting instead an order that women uncover their faces for security checks or meetings with officials. “It appears to the State Council that a general and absolute ban on the full veil as such can have no incontestable judicial basis,” it said, suggesting a full ban could be declared unconstitutional and overturned in court. Prime Minister Francois Fillon insisted the government would go ahead anyway, taking the risk that the eventual text would be struck down by the constitutional court, because of the importance of the issue. “If we are convinced that it’s a question of human dignity we can’t let ourselves be over-cautious about respecting laws that are no longer appropriate for today’s society,” he said.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to stay in Ukraine until 2042
This week the English newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that the Kremlin has scored a major diplomatic victory, striking a deal that will allow Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to stay in Ukraine for another thirty years, a full quarter of a century after it was supposed to leave. Russia capitalised on its growing soft power and substantial energy reserves to clinch the deal, agreeing to give Ukraine multi-billion dollar discounts to the price it pays for Russian natural gas in return. The deal is controversial in the extreme and means that the Russian fleet will no longer have to abandon its famous base in the city of Sevastopol in Crimea in 2017 as originally planned. Instead, it can remain until 2042 with a possible option to stay on until 2046. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, savoured the moment, revelling in a diplomatic victory that is certain to bolster Russia’s geopolitical influence in the former Soviet Union in the face of what it sees as growing encroachment by Nato and the United States. “This was a step we have awaited for a long time,” Mr Medvedev said, before trying to play down the cheap gas for military base link. The fleet and gas deals were “directly connected,” he conceded but it was “a technical link.”
Obama Official Defends U.S.-Syria Engagement After Scud Reports
A top State Department official defended the Obama administration’s policy of engaging with Syria against criticism from Congress following allegations that Syria transferred missiles to Hezbollah terrorists. Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, faced questions yesterday at a House panel hearing from Democrats and Republicans who questioned the logic of President Barack Obama’s efforts to talk with a regime the U.S. accuses of weapons proliferation, links to terrorist groups and ties to Iran.Representative Dan Burton of Indiana, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee for the Middle East and South Asia, compared sending an ambassador to Damascus to appeasing Adolf Hitler before World War II. President George W. Bush withdrew the last U.S. ambassador in 2005, following Syria’s alleged involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.It’s “rewarding Syria for kicking the U.S. in the teeth,” Burton said, referring to the administration’s decision in February to name career diplomat Robert Ford as ambassador to Damascus, after a reported meeting between leaders of Syria, Iran and Hezbollah.Feltman defended the decision, saying the Obama administration believes diplomacy can change Syria’s behavior. “An ambassador is not a reward; it’s a tool,” he said.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is already listening to the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah, Feltman said, and he “needs to listen to us, too.”
German troops in Afghanistan call on Angela Merkel to explain why they’re at war
German soldiers are wearing their hearts on their sleeves – in the form of a badge that protests their country’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan. Some troops have taken to wearing the cloth accessory that states – ironically – ‘I fight for Merkel’ in a bid to persuade the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to explain exactly what they are fighting and dying for. Four more troops were killed, and five badly injured, in Afghanistan last week. Seven soldiers have died there so far this month, bringing the total to 43 in all since they were first deployed eight years ago.Unable to engage the Taliban directly on the ground, frustrated by their government’s inability to acknowledge they are even engaged in a war and angered by the lack of popular support for their mission, the badges are a low-key mutiny that has sent shock waves through the top brass of the Bundeswehr.
America reacts to former ISI chief’s assertion that America killed Bhutto
The Obama Administration on Thursday termed as “outrageous” and “baseless” the allegation of Pakistan’s former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) head Hamid Gul about the US’ involvement in assassination of Benazir Bhutto. “That is outrageous. He is frequent commentator on television, and certainly has an anti-American agenda,” P J Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, told reporters here after the US Embassy in Islamabad dismissed the allegation coming from Gul about Bhutto’s murder and the UN report on it. “General Gul made an outrageous suggestion that the US was responsible for assassination of Benazir Bhutto. “Such comments are baseless and irresponsible and should be examined by Pakistani media objectively. The US and Pakistan were fighting and our citizens were dying at the hands of these common enemies,” he said.
Brazil and India pile pressure on China to appreciate its currency
Brazil and India have joined the call for China to appreciate its currency, seen by critics in the United States as grossly undervalued. Brazil and India are members of the BRIC group of emerging economies, which also includes Russia and China. The four held a summit this month in Brazil. The call from Brazil and India comes at a time when China is already under intense pressure from the Untied States to let the yuan appreciate, since an undervalued yuan against the U.S. dollar is seen as giving Beijing an unfair export advantage. The call makes Brazil and India unexpected allies of the United States on the currency issue, the Financial Times reported. Speaking prior to Thursday’s meeting of finance ministers and central bank heads of the Group of 20 countries in Washington, Brazil’s Henrique Meirelles said a stronger Chinese currency is “absolutely critical for the equilibrium of the world economy,” the Times reported. India’s central bank head Duvvuri Subbarao said, “If some countries manage their exchange rate and keep them artificially low, the burden of adjustment falls on some countries that do not manage their exchange rate so actively.”
22/4/2010