6 July 2011
Last updated at 09:45 ET

Somalia’s militant Islamist group al-Shabab has lifted a ban on foreign aid agencies, as the region is hit by its worst drought in 60 years.

Al-Shabab imposed the ban in 2009, accusing them of being anti-Muslim.

It now says all charities, whether “Muslims or non-Muslims”, can give emergency aid as long as they have “no hidden agenda”.

The UN told the BBC it welcomed al-Shabab’s announcement, but it would need security guarantees for its staff.

About a quarter of Somalis have been displaced by the drought, with many fleeing to neighbouring countries.

An al-Shabab spokesman, Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, said the group had formed a committee to deal with the drought and aid agencies would have to liaise with it.

Embarrassed

“Whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims, [if] their intention is only to assist those suffering, they can contact the committee which will give them access to the drought-hit areas,” Mr Rage said at a press conference in the capital, Mogadishu.

“Anyone with no hidden agenda will be assisted… and those who intend to harm our people will be prevented to do so,” he said.

Analysts say the move may have been prompted by the embarrassment al-Shabab feels about the exodus of Somalis leaving areas they control in search of food.

However, it is not clear how charities will operate, as al-Shabab wants them to give emergency relief with its approval, they say.

Al-Shabab rules over large swathes of south and central Somalia.

It is fighting for Islamic rule in Somalia, and warned aid agencies in 2009 not to work with the weak central government, which only controls parts of the capital.

An estimated 12 million people in the Horn of Africa have been hit by this year’s drought.

Its effects have been compounded by the violence in Somalia, which has been racked by constant war for more than 20 years – its last functioning national government was toppled in 1991.

In north-east Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp, some 1,400 refugees from Somalia are arriving every day. Aid agencies fear numbers could rise to half a million.

UN officials say more than 50% of Somali children arriving in neighbouring Ethiopia are malnourished.

Young children are dying on their way to or within a day of arrival at refugee camps, the officials say.

6 July 2011
Last updated at 08:15 ET

The European Commission has strongly criticised international credit ratings agencies following the downgrade of Portugal by Moody’s.

The Commission said the timing of the downgrade was “questionable” and raised the issue of the “appropriateness of behaviour” of the agencies in general.

Earlier, Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Lambridinis said the agencies’ actions in the debt crisis had been “madness”.

Ratings agencies have downgraded Greece and Portugal many times recently.

The three main agencies are Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a news conference that he wanted to “break the oligopoly of the ratings agencies” and limit their influence.

‘Speculation’

On Tuesday, Moody’s downgraded Portugal’s debt to “junk” status, citing worries that the country may need a second bail-out.

“The timing of Moody’s decision is not only questionable, but also based on absolutely hypothetical scenarios which are not in line at all with implementation,” said Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj.

“This is an unfortunate episode and it raises once more the issue of the appropriateness of behaviour of credit rating agencies.”

Commission President Manuel Barroso added that the move by Moody’s “added another speculative element to the situation”.

He also said it was strange that none of the ratings agencies were based in Europe.

“[This] shows there may be some bias in the markets when it comes to the evaluation of specific issues of Europe,” he said.

‘Self-fulfilling prophecy’

Earlier, Mr Lambridinis told a conference in Berlin that the agencies had exacerbated an already difficult situation.

He told the conference that Moody’s decision to downgrade Portugal’s rating was not based on any failure to implement economic reforms.

He said Moody’s made an “assumption that Portugal would need a second bail-out”, a move that had “the wonderful madness of self-fulfilling prophecy” – because it made it harder for Portugal to borrow to keep afloat.

Portugal’s downgrade has led to the yield on its 10-year bonds exceeding 11%. German 10-year bonds – deemed the safest in the eurozone – have a yield of about 3%.

Avoiding default

Greece and Portugal – with the Irish Republic – are the eurozone countries whose finances are so weak that they have received assistance from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Greece is currently in the process of negotiating a second bail-out. Rating agencies are watching this closely, as commercial lenders are discussing how they can contribute to the bail-out.

Later on Wednesday, senior executives from European lenders will hold a meeting to discuss how to agree repayment terms which would fulfil both their need for repayment and Greece’s need to access funds.

The agencies have voiced doubts that this can be done without them declaring that Greece has defaulted on its debts.

That would spark a round of write-downs of Greek debts held by state and commercial banks, potentially causing mayhem on the financial markets.

6 July 2011
Last updated at 05:37 ET

Amnesty International has called for a UN-backed investigation into the violence in Syria, saying the regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters may constitute crimes against humanity.

The group has documented several cases of torture, deaths in custody and arbitrary detention in a new report.

All relate to a military sweep in the western village of Tell Kalakh in May.

Amnesty says the UN Security Council must refer Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

Syrian human rights groups have said that more than 1,350 civilians and 350 security personnel have been killed across the country since protests began in mid-March against the repressive rule of President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting off the most serious challenge to his family’s four decades in power.

The Syrian government has not responded to the report, but it claims that many of those who have died were the victims not of the army, but of armed criminal gangs.

Syrian state media has also reported on what it said was a large pro-government demonstration in Tell Kalakh late last month.

‘Targeted abuse’

“The accounts we have heard from witnesses to events in Tell Kalakh paint a deeply disturbing picture of systematic, targeted abuses to crush dissent,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.

Witnesses have told Amnesty that Syrian security forces fired on fleeing families on 14 May, the day the army entered Tell Kalakh, near the Lebanese border, following a demonstration in the village calling for the downfall of the regime.

At least one person, 24-year-old Ali al-Basha, was killed, apparently by snipers, and the ambulance carrying his body came under fire, witnesses said by phone and in Lebanon. Amnesty has not been allowed to enter Syria.

In the following days, scores of male residents were rounded up and detained. Most were tortured, Amnesty says, some even as they were being arrested.

In one incident, soldiers transporting detainees counted how many they had arrested by stabbing lit cigarettes on the backs of their necks, Amnesty said in its report, titled Crackdown in Syria: Terror in Tell Kalakh.

Interrogation tactics

The report highlights the case of a 20-year-old, identified only as Mahmoud, who says he was jailed for nearly a month, including five days at a detention centre in Homs, where he was tied up in stress positions and tortured.

“Each day [was] the same story,” he told Amnesty researchers. “They tied me up in a shabah position [strung up by the wrists and forced to stand on tiptoes] and applied electricity to my body and testicles. Sometimes I screamed very loudly and begged the interrogator to stop. He didn’t care.”

Witnesses say at least nine people from Tell Kalakh died while in custody. Their bodies showed signs of torture, including cuts to the chest, slashes on the thighs and apparent gunshot wounds on the legs, Amnesty was told.

The London-based international rights group says that a number of Tell Kalakh residents remain in detention, including a 17-year-old boy. It called on the authorities to free them immediately.

“Amnesty considers that crimes committed in Tell Kalakh amount to crimes against humanity as they appear to be part of a widespread, as well as systematic, attack against the civilian population,” Mr Luther said in a press statement that accompanied the report.

The organisation reiterated its call on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC prosecutor in the Hague so that legal proceedings could be taken.

The call comes as the Syrian authorities continue their crackdown in the central city of Homs, killing at least nine people in two days and arresting around 500 across the country over the past few weeks, according to Syrian human rights groups.

On Tuesday, France again called for the UN to act against the “ferocious armed repression”, but the French campaign for UN condemnation has met resistance from Russia and China.

The Syrian authorities – who blame “armed gangs” and “terrorists” for the unrest – are pushing for a national dialogue next week. But the opposition has refused to participate while the violence continues.

Print Sponsor

6 July 2011
Last updated at 05:23 ET

The head of a major New Zealand employers’ group has been fired after he caused public outrage by linking women’s productivity to menstruation.

Alasdair Thompson of the Employers’ and Manufacturers’ Association made his comments on a radio show last month.

Mr Thompson said women were paid less than men because they took more sick leave and “have children they have to take time off to go home” to care for.

Prime Minister John Key said Mr Thompson’s dismissal was inevitable.

“I don’t think it’s surprising,” Mr Key told reporters. “In the end that’s a matter for EMA, but I’m not shocked by it.”

Asked if the decision took too long, Mr Key said employment matters were often complex and it was as matter for the EMA.

“But in the end this situation he got himself into didn’t look like it was sustainable.”

‘Brain explosion’

Mr Thompson’s comments were made during a NewstalkZB interview on 23 June, during a debate on recent figures that showed New Zealand women were paid about 12% less than men.

“Who takes the most sick leave? Women do, in general,” he said.

“Why? Because once a month they have sick problems. Not all of them, but some do.

“They have children that they have to take time off to go home and take leave of. Therefore it’s their productivity. It’s not their fault.”

He continued: “I’m sorry, I don’t like saying these things because it sounds like I’m sexist, but it’s the facts of life.”

Mr Thompson later apologised for his comments.

Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson described the comments at the time as a “brain explosion”.

Women’s Affairs Minister Hekia Parata said on Wednesday that people would be pleased there had been a resolution.

“I think that it’s been pretty clear from the response that the remarks made were unacceptable to a wide range of people and my own experience of talking to businesses and across the country is it was a generally felt view that they were unacceptable,” she said.

6 July 2011
Last updated at 06:38 ET

Japan is to conduct safety tests on all its nuclear reactors in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima plant following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said Japan’s 54 reactors would undergo “stress tests” to determine how well they can withstand major disasters.

Only 19 reactors are still operating, causing a drawn-out energy crisis.

Engineers are still working to shut down the Fukushima plant, which continues to leak radioactive material.

Japan was hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake – the country’s most powerful on record – creating a massive tsunami that levelled towns along the country’s north-east coast.

Waves from the tsunami caused back-up generators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to fail, disabling reactor cooling systems and leading to meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks.

The plant’s operator Tepco has come under heavy criticism for failing to sufficiently prepare for the natural disasters.

The crisis has led to great public concern over the safety of nuclear energy.

“The safety of nuclear power plants has been secured, but this is to gain a further sense of security among the people,” Mr Kaieda was cited as saying by Jiji Press news agency.

Speaking on television, Mr Kaieda said: “We are planning the stress tests to gain the understanding of local residents. We will get further confidence from the people and will restart operations at some plants.”

He did not say when the stress tests would begin; however, he promised there would be enough energy available for the peak usage during the summer months.

Beleaguered leader

To avoid unexpected blackouts, the government has ordered large companies in Tokyo and north-eastern Japan to cut their peak power use by 15% or face fines.

Before the March disaster, nuclear energy accounted for about 30% of Japan’s power supply, making it the world’s third-biggest nuclear generating country after the US and France.

Meanwhile, Japan’s government has approved a second budget of 2tn yen ($24.7bn; £15.4bn) for reconstruction.

The money will be spent on rebuilding, and on compensating victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis. About 85,000 people have been forced to evacuate the area around the plant.

This emergency budget will be sent to parliament for approval later this month.

Last month, Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence motion brought by MPs critical of his handling of the reconstruction process.

Mr Kan, who is just over a year into his post, has vowed to step down soon, but only once several key bills on disaster recovery and renewable energy are passed.

6 July 2011
Last updated at 07:17 ET

A Somali man has appeared in a civilian court in New York, charged with assisting al-Qaeda and militants from Somalia’s al-Shabab group.

It has emerged that Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame was held on a US warship offshore for two months following his capture in the Gulf of Aden.

Officials say Mr Warsame was not read his legal rights while in detention.

Mr Warsame, who has pleaded not guilty, is the first foreign terrorism suspect to be flown to the US for trial.

Suspects were previously flown to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but President Barack Obama has promised to close down the controversial detention facility.

The BBC’s Tom Burridge in Washington says the case is a sign of how the Obama administration intends to deal with such suspects post-Guantanamo.

‘Double’ interrogation

Mr Warsame was detained on 19 April in the waters between Somalia and Yemen, prosecutors say.

He was transferred to a US Navy ship where he was interrogated by intelligence officials “on an all but a daily basis”, the Washington Post newspaper cited court documents as saying.

He was accused of providing support to the Yemen-based militant group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and also to al-Shabab militants.

The interrogation sessions were “very, very productive”, officials told reporters – Mr Warsame gave up what was described as important evidence about the relationship between the two militant groups.

One senior official told the Washington Post that Mr Warsame had been questioned at sea because interrogators “believed that moving him to another facility would interrupt the process and risk ending the intelligence flow”.

Officials said he was questioned in line with the Geneva Convention but was not read his Miranda rights.

These are the rights which, under US law, must be read to all suspects to inform them of their right to remain silent, to have access to a lawyer and that anything they say can be used in court.

After two months, interrogations of Mr Warsame were halted for a few days. The FBI then questioned him from scratch in way that could be used in a civilian court.

Court papers say Mr Warsame waived his right to remain silent. He was flown to the US on Monday night.

Congress criticism

Mr Warsame has pleaded not guilty to nine charges of providing support to terror groups. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

President Obama has pledged to close both Guantanamo and the CIA’s network of secret prisons abroad and to use civilian courts to prosecute terror suspects.

Our correspondent says that having so far failed to shut down Guantanamo, Mr Obama is unlikely to want to increase its prison population by sending Mr Warsame there.

President Obama’s Guantanamo plans have met with stiff opposition in Congress and the decision to move Mr Warsame to the US mainland has sparked further criticism.

The chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Republican Representative Howard P McKeon, said the transfer “directly contradicts Congressional intent and the will of the American people” and that it was “unacceptable” that Congress was only informed after Mr Warsame had been moved.

Senator Susan Collins, the senior Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said a foreign national captured overseas by the military “should be tried in a military commission, not a federal civilian court in New York or anywhere else in our country”.

Officials told reporters on Tuesday that there were no other detainees being held on US ships offshore.

6 July 2011
Last updated at 07:59 ET

The Obama administration has urged Texas to delay the execution of a Mexican man, saying it would put the US in breach of international obligations.

Humberto Leal Garcia, 38, faces lethal injection on Thursday for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1994.

He was not told he could have access to Mexican consular officials, in violation of the Vienna Convention.

The parole board refused to halt the sentence and Texas Governor Rick Perry has indicated he will not intervene.

A state department spokeswoman said that the federal government had filed a brief on Friday with the US Supreme Court, supporting Leal’s argument for a stay of execution until the end of the year.

“The imminent execution of petitioner would place the United States in irreparable breach of its international law obligation,” US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli wrote in the brief.

It would have “serious repercussions for United States foreign relations, law enforcement and other co-operation with Mexico, and the ability of American citizens travelling abroad to have the benefits of consular assistance in the event of detention”.

The Obama administration wants a delay to allow Congress to consider legislation covering foreign nationals who were not given proper consular access before being tried for crimes that carry the death penalty.

‘Heinous crime’

The Mexican government says it regards the planned execution as a violation of international law.

“This is about the right that each person has under the Vienna Convention to be able to enjoy the support of their country of origin when they face criminal proceedings in a foreign country,” the Mexican Foreign Ministry said.

Leal, who moved to the US when he was a small child, is one of 51 Mexican nationals on death row who were the focus of a 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The court said that their convictions should be reviewed because they were denied consular access.

President George W Bush told Texas officials they should comply with the ICJ order but the Supreme Court ruled that he had overstepped his authority.

In August 2008, Texas, which argued that its courts were not bound by the rulings of the ICJ, executed Mexican Jose Medellin.

With the Texas parole board’s decision, Leal’s fate now rests with Governor Rick Perry or the Supreme Court.

Mr Perry’s office has said he has no plans to stop the execution.

“if you commit the most heinous of crimes in Texas, you can expect to face the ultimate penalty under our laws, as in this case,” spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said.

6 July 2011
Last updated at 09:15 ET

Canadian troops have begun to return home from Afghanistan, as the country’s nine-year combat mission comes to a close.

At a flag-lowering ceremony on Tuesday, troops officially handed over control of their last district to US forces.

Canada’s 2,800 troops are mandated by parliament to return home in 2011.

Other countries have also announced troop withdrawals, but the Canadians are the first major contributor to begin a pull-out this year.

Training mission

Canadian troops were first deployed in Afghanistan in 2002, only months after the US-led invasion, but forces took on a bigger role in 2006.

The official end of Canada’s mission comes on Thursday.

At the ceremony at the Forward Operating Base Ma Sum Ghar in Kandahar province, Brig Gen Ahmad Habibi, Afghan commander in the area, paid tribute to the soldiers.

“You have all earned a great name in the heart of people in Afghanistan and please take that with pride to your homes,” he said.

A separate Canadian training mission, involving some 950 troops, will be based in Afghanistan to train local security forces.

The US plans to withdraw 33,000 of its soldiers by the end of 2012, while several other countries, including France, Belgium and the UK, also have plans for a pull-out.

As of last month, the Nato mission in Afghanistan included about 132,000 troops from 48 countries, according to Nato. The biggest contributors were the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy.

6 July 2011
Last updated at 08:49 ET

A report into the high-profile death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky says a senior investigator and a prison chief prevented him receiving medical care.

The report said there was reasonable suspicion that his death was triggered by beatings while in police custody.

The report, by a human rights council, was presented to President Dmitry Medvedev, who said it showed the death was probably criminal.

Magnitsky, who died in 2009, had accused officials of massive tax fraud.

No-one has been charged over the death of the 37-year-old lawyer or the tax fraud he alleged.

He was later accused of tax fraud himself, arrested and imprisoned without trial in November 2008, and died a year later, amid reports of terrible abuse in prison and denial of medical help.

His death sparked outrage among rights activists and was condemned by Western governments.

‘Taken to room’

The interim report by the Human Rights Council of President Medvedev singled out senior interior ministry investigator Oleg Silchenko and prison chief Ivan Prokopenko as being at fault for neglect over the lawyer’s death.

The document said they “obstructed” his medical care by moving him to another prison just before he was due to have an operation, where there was a criminal failure to provide him with care in the last days of his life.

This, it said, “can be seen as a deliberate worsening of his detention conditions and hindering of provision of medical care”.

The council said that an hour before his death, Magnitsky had been taken to a small room by eight guards. There was no first aid provided.

“Before his death, Magnitsky was completely deprived of medical help. Additionally, there are grounds to suspect that Magnitsky’s death was the result of a beating,” the report said.

“His relatives afterward found that he had broken fingers and bruises on his body. Moreover, there is no medical record for the last hour of his life,” it said.

Conflict of interest

And it pointed to a conflict of interest in the case, as some of those investigating Magnitsky were the very same people he had accused of massive corruption.

Earlier this year, Mr Medvedev promised a full inquiry into his death.

Responding to the report on Tuesday, he said: “A person has died, and it appears that there were crimes that led to that outcome.”

“Magnitsky’s case is a very sad one,” he said. “Ailing people shouldn’t die in prison. If they fall ill, they must be taken out for treatment before a court decides their fate.”

He said the report would be handed to investigators for further action.

Magnitsky was a lawyer for a large US investment fund operating in Russia, Hermitage Capital, that Russian officials say evaded paying taxes.

Hermitage boss William Browder accuses Russian officials of using his company to operate a $230m (£143m) tax fraud.

Magnitsky claimed to have unearthed evidence that implicated the police, officials and bankers in the fraud.