The Prime Minister of Greenland Kuupik Kleist has said that his government will not favour the EU over China or other potential investors for access to the country’s rare earth minerals. Kleist said it would not be fair "to protect others' interests more than protecting, for instance, China's" according to the BBC . "All are welcome if they meet our conditions and our requirements to operate in Greenland," Mr Kleist said, adding that he would resist pressure from the EU over the highly valuable minerals. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark but unlike Denmark, is not part of the EU...
A covert intensive investigation, by the US consul general in Istanbul, Scott Fredric Kilner, into chemical weapons in Syria has concluded that the Syrian military used them against its own people, in a deadly attack last month. A confidential State Department cable , signed by Kilner, outlined the investigation's findings regarding chemical weapons usage in Syria. Kilner's investigation included interviews with doctors on the ground that concluded that chemical agents had been used. The US consulate, Kilner, warned that if the U.S government failed to react strongly to the usage of chemical...
The Swiss foreign minister has said Switzerland will file a petition on Monday to call on the International Criminal Court to open war crimes investigations in Syria. “Serious war crimes are being committed in Syria. We must make sure they not go unpunished,” Didier Burkhalter told Swiss national television TSR. “We’re submitting a proposal. Now it is up to the Security Council to decide.” The Swiss initiative is reported to have the support of 52 countries. As Switzerland is not a signatory to the ICC, the UN Security Council needs to refer the petition to the court in The Hague.
The UN Security Council and US government have given the go-ahead for M23 rebels to be involved in peace talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo government despite placing sanctions against some of the rebel leaders. The DRC's Minster of Defence and chief facilitator of the talks, Dr Crispus Kiyonga, confirmed the continuation of peace talks with the leaders, stating : “Both parties (UN and US) have assured us that they support the dialogue and sanctions don’t interfere with dialogue. As long as member of the delegation has not been affected by sanctions he can go ahead and participate.”...
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for an international investigation into human rights abuses in North Korea, labelling the situation as “deplorable”. In a statement released earlier on Monday, Pillay said, “There were some initial hopes that the advent of a new leader might bring about some positive change in the human rights situation in DPRK. But a year after Kim Jong Un became the country’s new supreme leader, we see almost no sign of improvement.” She went on to talk about the country’s nuclear programme, stating, “I am also concerned that, at the...
The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has questioned French President Francois Hollande as to why he had met one of the assassinated Kurdish activists. Sakine Cansiz was a founder member of the PKK and was shot by unknown assailants in Paris, along with two fellow activists. Erdogan has called on Hollande to explain himself, after the French president said he met one of the murdered Kurds regularly. He said Mr Hollande should "immediately disclose" why he met members of "this terrorist organisation, what was discussed, to what end he was in communication with these terrorists". "How...
Israeli police evicted Palestinian activists protesting against a planned Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Hundreds of police together with bulldozers surrounded the protest camp, named Bab al-Shams after a Palestinian village that had existed near it previously, and evicted around 200 activists. In a statement, protest organisers from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, said: “ This is not the end of the popular struggle and it will continue in its full strength .” Bab al-Shams is located in the E1 area between Jerusalem and the Ma'ale Adumim settlement, and was the site...
The British government has deployed Royal Air Force planes to assist France in their effort against rebels in Northern Mali. Britain has sent the first of two RAF C17 cargo planes into Paris, where it will be loaded with military equipment before making its way to Mali. Downing Street stressed however that UK troops would not be involved in combat operations British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed "deep concern" over the situation in the West African state, saying , "I welcome the military assistance France has provided to the Malian government, at their request, to halt this advance...
Britain will spend some of its budget training an Ethiopian paramilitary security force, which stands accused of numerous human rights abuses, according to an internal document of the Department For International Development (DFID). Described as a 'peace-building mission', the document states that the funding is to be provided for the Ethiopian government’s counter insurgency campaign in Ogaden, in order to train security forces in the Somali region of Ogaden, despite noting the “reputational risks of working alongside actors frequently cited in human rights violation allegations.” The...
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have backed a United Nations proposal to deploy unmanned surveillance drones along Congo’s eastern border. The head of the UN peacekeeping mission, Herve Ladsous, said he had asked for the drones after thousands of U.N peacekeepers failed to prevent rebels from capturing the strategic Congolese city of Goma. Congo’s information Minister Lamber Mende, welcomed the proposition, suggesting, “The deployment of three unarmed drones will allow international troops to refine their management of the problematic border which separates DRC and Rwanda.” Uganda...