Storm warning for south of England

The Met Office has warned that a storm forecast for Monday could cause disruption in the south of England.

An amber alert for wind has been issuedand there is also concern that heavy rain could cause flooding.

The Met Office said the public in the affected area "should be prepared for the risk of falling trees as well as damage to buildings and other structures" caused by strong winds.

There is uncertainty about the timing of the storm at this stage.

Colin Seddon from the BBC Weather Centre said it "is certainly the worst storm we've seen this year".

He said there is potential for gusts of wind over 80mph, especially on exposed coasts in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent.

There is uncertainty as to what time the storm will hit at this stage

Rain warning

Northern England, the Midlands, southern England and Wales have also been issued with a yellow warning for rain on Monday.

Yellow alerts are the lowest level of the three warnings.

The Met Office said people in those areas should "be aware of the potential for surface water flooding" because of the rain.

The Met Office's chief forecaster said: "A strong, high-level jet is expected to engage warm low level air to give rise to a rapidly moving low pressure system later on Sunday.

"This is expected to run north-eastwards, probably across England and Wales, with very strong winds on its southern and western flanks.

"There is the potential for gusts of over 80 mph, especially on exposed coasts, both in south-westerly winds ahead of the low and west to north-westerly winds behind it."

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Spying row: Merkel demands US trust at EU summit

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has said it is "really not on" for friends to spy on each other, referring to alleged US snooping on her phone calls.

On arrival at an EU summit in Brussels Mrs Merkel said "we need trust between allies and partners, and such trust needs to be restored".

She said she had given that message to US President Barack Obama when they spoke on Wednesday.

Other EU leaders also voiced concern about the scale of US surveillance.

The spying row threatens to overshadow EU talks on the economy and migration. Mrs Merkel has demanded a "complete explanation" of the claims, which came out in the German media.

She grew up in former communist East Germany, where secret police surveillance was pervasive.

The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the alleged spying on Mrs Merkel's mobile phone calls was "serious" and added: "I will support her (Merkel) completely in her complaint and say that this is not acceptable - I think we need all the facts on the table first".

Finland's Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen echoed him, saying "we have to get clarification of what has happened and we also need a guarantee that this will never happen again, if it has happened".

Germany summoned the US ambassador in Berlin over the alleged spying.

Angela Merkel has asked for an "immediate explanation" from the US

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was meeting US envoy John Emerson in what is seen as an unusual step between close allies.

Mrs Merkel discussed the issue with President Obama on Wednesday. He told her the US was not monitoring her calls and would not in future, the White House said.

However, it left open the question of whether calls had been listened to in the past.

Cutting red tape

The formal agenda for the summit focuses on efforts to consolidate Europe's fragile economic recovery and to create a single market in digital services.

British PM David Cameron will also call on the EU to cut red tape on business.

But France's President Francois Hollande is pressing for the spying issue to be put on the agenda, following reports that millions of French calls have been monitored.

The veteran French EU Commissioner Michel Barnier told the BBC that "enough is enough", and confidence in the US had been shaken.

Mr Barnier, the commissioner for internal market and services, said Europe must not be naive but develop its own strategic digital tools, such as a "European data cloud" independent of American oversight.

The digital economy is on the official summit agenda for Thursday evening.

One of the key initiatives of the European Commission is its Digital Agenda for Europe, which it says "aims to reboot Europe's economy and help Europe's citizens and businesses to get the most out of digital technologies".

Council officials say investment in the digital economy is vital to boost growth, which is creeping back to the European economy. They want to address market fragmentation and a perceived shortage in IT skills.

Mr Cameron is likely to use the economic discussion to raise what Britain sees as a proliferation of red tape.

He said last week: "All too often EU rules are a handicap for firms," and that small business owners "are forced to spend too much time complying with pointless, burdensome and costly regulations".

Shop owner Roger George says red tape and regulations are a burden on his business

The European Commission - which makes the rules - has recognised that it may have gone too far in some places.

President Jose Manuel Barroso says he wants the EU to be "big on big things and smaller on smaller things".

He says the Commission has cut more than 5,000 legal acts in the past five years and wants to do more.

On Friday the leaders will discuss relations with central European countries, ahead of a November summit in Lithuania, where new agreements will be signed.

Migration will also be discussed, following the loss of hundreds of lives among migrants trying to reach Europe from Africa and the Middle East.

The Commission has called on EU countries to offer "additional and urgent contributions" to prevent further tragedies at sea.

Sources : BBC

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Vatican suspends 'bishop of bling' Tebartz-van Elst

The Vatican has suspended a senior German Church leader dubbed the "bishop of bling" by the media over his alleged lavish spending.

Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is accused of spending more than 31m euros (£26m; $42m) on renovating his official residence.

The Vatican said it deemed "appropriate... a period of leave from the diocese" for the bishop.

The suspension comes two days after he met the Pope to discuss the matter.

The BBC's Stephen Evans: "Outside the cathedral, people expressed some satisfaction that the bishop had been suspended"

"A situation has been created in which the bishop can no longer exercise his episcopal duties", a Vatican statement said.

The bishop's official residence in Limburg has been described as luxurious

It said a Church commission would rule on the matter, but did not say where Bishop Tebartz-van Elst, 53, would go or what he would do while the inquiry was held.

The head of Germany's main lay Catholic group, the Central Committee of German Catholics, Alois Glueck, welcomed the Vatican's decision.

He said: "Pope Francis's decision offers the chance of a first step toward a new beginning in the Limburg diocese, because the situation has become an increasing burden for the faithful there, and in all of Germany, over recent weeks."

First-class flight

Bishop Tebartz-van Elst - and his spending habits - had become infamous in Germany, where many people pay Church tax to the state. The tax raised 5.2bn euros for Catholics and 4.6bn euros for Protestants in 2012.

Calls were made for the bishop to resign after he was accused of lying under oath about his spending.

He was criticised for a first-class flight to India to visit the poor.

But his official residence is at the heart of the criticism, after renovations were originally costed at 5.5m euros.

German media are reporting that the residence was fitted with a bath that cost 15,000 euros, a conference table for 25,000 euros and a private chapel that cost 2.9m euros.

The story has attracted heavy coverage and has stoked controversy among Catholics.

It was in Germany that Martin Luther launched the Reformation five centuries ago in response to what he said were excesses and abuses within the Church.

The BBC's Alan Johnston, in Rome, says all this was bound to play badly with the new Pope, who has repeatedly expressed his disapproval of senior clerics whose lifestyles seem a little too lavish.

Pope Francis has also signalled his intention to clean up the Vatican's finances, appointing a commission to advise him on reforms.

There is no surprise in Rome that the Vatican has ordered the bishop's suspension from his duties while the spending row is investigated, our correspondent adds.

Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is the daughter of a Protestant pastor, said that she had expressed "hope that there will be an answer for believers, for people's confidence in their Church".

In his absence, the bishop's diocese will be administered by Limburg's vicar general, Wolfgang Roesch.

Sources : BBC

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Clashes, Arrests at Russian Gay Rights Rally

Gay rights activist shouts during protest, St. Petersburg, Oct. 12, 2013.

Police arrested 67 people after a fight broke out between gay rights activists and their opponents at a demonstration in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Saturday.

Gay rights campaigners in Russia have held several small protests since the adoption of a law in June banning homosexual "propaganda" directed at minors.

Critics say the law curtails homosexuals' rights to free speech and assembly.

The issue has attracted growing international attention ahead of Russia's hosting of the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year. Gay rights activists have called for participants and sponsors to boycott the games in protest at the law.

The disturbance in central St Petersburg began after a group of around 15 gay rights activists tried to hold a demonstration to mark International Coming Out Day.

They were far outnumbered by the anti-gay demonstrators, including several dressed as Cossacks and Orthodox priests, who had occupied the site of the planned demo.

The anti-gay demonstrators included several elderly women who chanted Russian Orthodox prayers.

"The homophobes broke up the action with the help of the police," said Natalia Tsymbalova, one of the organizers of the gay rights demonstration.

Another demonstrator named Maria told Reuters that when a pro-gay demonstrator tried to unfurl a rainbow-colored flag, she was manhandled to the ground and the flag torn from her.

A police representative told Reuters that 67 people had been detained.

They included both gay rights activists and their opponents.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has denied the new law is aimed at cracking down on homosexuals' rights.

Opinion polls suggest it is backed by a majority of Russians, including many conservative Russian Orthodox believers who regard homosexuality as a sin.

Sources

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Chemical Weapons Watchdog Wins Nobel Peace Prize for Syrian Mission

Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjorn Jagland announces the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Oct. 11, 2013.

The global chemical weapons watchdog working to eliminate chemical arms stockpiles around the battlefields of Syria's civil war won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a relatively small organization with a modest budget, dispatched experts to Syria after a sarin gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus in August.

Their deployment under a U.N. mandate helped avert a U.S. strike against President Bashar al-Assad and marked an unusual  step into the limelight for a group more used to working behind the scenes overseeing the destruction of chemical weapons worldwide.

“We were aware that our work silently but surely was contributing to peace in the world,” OPCW head Ahmet Uzumcu said. “The last few weeks have brought this to the fore. The entire international community has been made aware of our work.”

Nobel Peace Prize committee head Thorbjoern Jagland said the award was a reminder to nations such as the United States and Russia to eliminate their own large stockpiles, “especially because they are demanding that others do the same, like Syria”.

“We now have the opportunity to get rid of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction...That would be a great event in history if we could achieve that,” he said.

The OPCW is funded by its member states and has a budget of some $100 million. It employs about 500 people at its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. It says it has conducted more than 5,000 inspections in 86 countries, with 100 percent of the declared chemical weapons stockpiles inventoried and verified.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot on a school bus by the Taliban last October for campaigning on the education of girls, sits on the sidelines of a news conference convened by 'A World at School' in New York,

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head a year ago by the Taliban, had been the bookmakers' favorite to win the prize for her campaign for girls' right to education.

The OPCW Syria mission was unprecedented in taking place in the heat of a civil war that has riven the country and killed more than 100,000 people. Members of the Hague-based OPCW team themselves came under sniper fire on Aug. 26.

While the inspection and destruction of chemical weapons continues, with a team of 27 in the field, Assad forces and rebels clash across the country using conventional weapons. Human Rights Watch said this week rebels had killed at least 190 civilians in Latakia province in August.

On Friday, government forces were trying to regain control of an area around Safira, about 20km southeast of Aleppo. The town, controlled by rebels including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, is close to a major suspected chemical site.

Friday's award marks a return to the disarmament roots of the prize after some recent awards including the European Union last year and U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009.

Those awards led to criticism that the committee was out of line with the spirit of the prize, founded by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.

His 1895 will says the prize should go to one of three causes - “fraternity between nations”, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.

Choking, burns, convulsions

The process of destroying chemical weapons can be hazardous and is costly. The chemicals can be burnt, but with care not to disperse poisonous toxins, or chemically neutralized. U.N. head Ban Ki-moon said this week the weapons would be “dangerous to handle, dangerous to transport and dangerous to destroy”.

“Chemical weapons are horrible things and they must never be used and that contributes not just to disarmament, but to strengthening the humanity within us,” Malik Ellahi, political adviser to the OPCW director general, told Reuters.

“It has always been our position, that quintessentially we work for peace. Not just for peace, we work to strengthen humanitarian norms.”

The Hague-based OPCW was set up in 1997 to implement a 1992 global Chemical Weapons Convention to banish chemical arms and most recently helped destroy stockpiles in Iraq and Libya. It has about 500 staff and an annual budget under $100 million.

The United States and Russia had committed to destroying their arsenals by 2012 but have as yet failed to do so.

OPCW head Uzumcu told Norway's NRK television: “I am sure...(the prize) will give encouragement to our staff to demonstrate more what they could do in terms of contributions to global peace and security.”

He said 80 percent of stockpiles under the oversight of the OPCW, excluding Syria, had already been disposed of.

“Still, 20 percent will have to be destroyed,” he said.

Chemical weapons can inflict considerable suffering and death, with choking, chemical burns and convulsions, and can be dispersed easily by winds making civilian populations vulnerable. They were widely used in World War One.

More recently, in 1998, 5,000 people were gassed to death by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the town of Halabja.

Russia and Assad

Washington accused President Assad of conducting the August sarin attack, a charge he denied, while Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed rebels. Facing the threat of a U.S. strike, Assad eventually agreed to destroy Syria's sizeable chemical weapons program and allow in OPCW inspectors.

Putin's spokesman said he had no comment on the award. But a senior lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, Vyacheslav Nikonov, praised the decision and suggested some past awards, an apparent reference to the award to Obama, had been misguided.

“This is one of the best choices made by the Nobel Laureate committee in its history,” Nikonov said on state television.

“They didn't want to make a mistake this time because there have been too many.”

The $1.25 million prize will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

The OPCW, which has 189 member states, said Syria was cooperating and it could eliminate its chemical weapons by mid-2014, provided they received support from all sides in its civil war.

Chemical weapons experts believe Syria has roughly 1,000 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve gas, some of it stored as bulk raw chemicals and some of it already loaded onto missiles, warheads or rockets.

Under a Russian-U.S. deal struck last month, Syria must render useless all production facilities and weapons-filling equipment by November, a process begun over the past several weeks.  

Sources

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Canadian Wins Nobel Literature Prize

Canadian Author Alice Munro is seen at a press conference at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, June 25, 2009.

Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In announcing its decision Thursday, the Swedish Academy called the 82-year-old author the "master of the contemporary short story."

Munro began writing in her teens, and published many collections of stories over the decades. She has won numerous literary prizes, including the Governor General's prize, Canada's highest literary honor. The Nobel is likely to be the capstone of her career. She said earlier this year that she was "probably not going to write anymore."

Munro is the 13th woman to win the Literature prize. She said she hoped the award "would make people see the short story as an important art; not just something you played around with until you get a novel written."

The Nobel announcements continue Friday with the Peace Prize.

Sources

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Moscow concerned over use of chemical weapons by Syrian opposition

Moscow expressed deep concern Tuesday over the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian opposition forces.

"Information coming from Damascus indicates that the use of chemical weapons by the armed opposition was recorded in the Aleppo province early on March 19," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in an online statement, referring to a detonation of a possible war gas ammunition bomb that left 16 people killed and some 100 injured.

Describing the incident as "a new and extremely alarming and dangerous turn in the events in the Syrian crisis," the ministry said Moscow was "seriously concerned by the fact that weapons of mass destruction have gotten into militants` hands."

The situation in the war-torn country was worsening with confrontation brought to "a new level," it said.

Moscow urged again all relative forces in Syria to stop violence and start a political settlement with the government within the framework of the Action Group`s Geneva Communique reached on June 30, 2012.

Sources

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Britain says evidence growing that Assad using chemical weapons

Britain said on Thursday there was a growing body of evidence showing that the President Bashar al-Assad had used and was continuing to use chemical weapons.

"There is a growing body persuasive evidence showing that the regime used - and continues to use - chemical weapons, including sarin," a spokesman for the Foreign Office said.

"The room for doubt continues to diminish. Assad must grant the UN investigation unrestricted access to investigate on the ground in Syria and establish the full facts," the spokesman added.

Sources

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Putin, Cameron discuss Syria by phone: Russian media

Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister David Cameron discussed reports of chemical weapons use in Syria by telephone Monday, Russian news agencies said.

The conversation "focused mainly on the situation in Syria against the backdrop of media reports on the possible use of chemical weapons near Damascus," the Ria-Novosti agency said, quoting the Kremlin press office.

Western nations have upped the rhetoric since reports that chemical weapons were used in Syria last week and Britain has said there was evidence suggesting the regime was responsible.

Cameron already spoke with US President Barack Obama over the weekend to formulate a response to the escalation in the 29-month-old Syrian conflict.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said an international response was possible without the formal backing of the United Nations.

Russia, also a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, has repeatedly warned Washington and its allies against military action in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied using chemical weapons and warned Monday that any Western strikes against his regime would be doomed to failure.

Moscow, which has backed him throughout the crisis, urged Washington not to preempt the results of the UN inspection and warned that any military action would be a "tragic mistake".

Sources

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Death toll rises to 39 in Italy coach crash

Italia tourists bus crashed.

At least 39 people died after a tourist bus crashed through a guard rail in southern Italy Sunday evening, local media reported.

The accident happened near the city of Avellino in Campania region at around 08:30 p.m. local time (1830 GMT), when a bus carrying 48 tourists from nearby towns ran over some cars.

Local police told Italian television RAI news that 39 passengers were killed, including several children.

The driver was reported to be among the dead, while nine others were seriously injured and being treated at local hospitals.

Most victims were reportedly found inside the bus while a few others were pulled out from the wreckage. Firefighters and medical teams were still working at the scene early Monday.

The accident is still under investigation. Italy`s ANSA news agency reported that the bus may have brake problems when the crash happened.

Sources

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Moscow strongly condemns terrorist acts against civilians in Northeastern Syria

Moscow strongly condemned the barbaric acts committed by terrorists against the civilians in northeastern Syria.

A statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow condemns the barbaric acts and atrocities committed by international terrorism and extremists against peaceful Kurd civilians in northeastern Syria who are not involved in any way in the ongoing political and armed conflict in Syria.

The Ministry referred to the increasing tension in Ras al-Ein and Tal Abyad areas on the Syrian-Turkish borders, pointing out that terrorists kidnapped 500 civilians and beheaded many of them, and that the terrorists are still holding around 200 civilian hostages and using them as human shields.

Sources

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60 tonnes of Eiffel tower trinkets seized in Paris

Eiffel Tower.

Paris police have seized 60 tonnes of miniature Eiffel Towers that black-market vendors were hoping to sell to tourists.

Paris is one of the world`s top destinations, visited by about 29 million tourists a year, but with the holidaymakers comes an influx of bootleg souvenirs, from replica towers to fake Hermes scarves.

Police play a cat and mouse game with the mostly immigrant sellers who flood the top tourist sites, taking business from the authorised vendors and paying no taxes.

Police said on Thursday the tin trinkets, brightly coloured and barely 8cm high, were seized on Tuesday from a warehouse near Le Bourget airport north of Paris. A woman of Chinese nationality was in police custody.

Authorities say Chinese gangs, many based in the east of Paris, import the trinkets from China before selling them to other groups who control the sellers.

Up to 300 to 400 black-market sellers hawk their wares around the Eiffel Tower at the height of the summer season, say police, who circulate flyers to tourists encouraging them not to buy from street sellers.

Police said in a statement they had also raided an office in Paris` Marais district where some 100 black-market sellers per day would buy replica Eiffel Towers to sell on, seizing thousands more models and over 150,000 euros in cash.

However, police are hindered by the inability of over-stretched courts to prosecute the waves of illegal sellers, many of whom come from Senegal and India.

When sellers are caught, their goods confiscated but they are released because most are unable to pay a maximum fine of 3,750 euros ($5,000). Few are sent back to their home country - a bureaucratic process plagued by delays, authorities say.

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Snowden Submits Asylum Request to Russian Government

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden on Tuesday submitted a request for temporary asylum in Russia, his lawyer said.

Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer who is a member of the Public Chamber, a Kremlin advisory body, said that Snowden submitted the asylum request to Russia’s Federal Migration Service. The service had no immediate comment.

Kucherena told The Associated Press that he met Snowden in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and Snowden made the request after the meeting.

He said Russian law contains no specific time frame for considering an asylum request.
Snowden has been stuck in Sheremetyevo’s transit zone since he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong on June 23. He said Friday at a meeting with Russian rights activists and public figures, which Kucherena attended, that he would seek at least temporary refuge in Russia until he could fly to one of the Latin American nations that have offered him asylum.

It wasn’t immediately clear why it took Snowden so long to formally submit the request.
Snowden’s stay in Russia has strained already chilly relations between Moscow and Washington. 

Granting him asylum would further aggravate tensions with Washington less than two months before Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama are to meet in Moscow and again at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg.

Putin on Monday described Snowden’s arrival as an unwelcome present foisted on Russia by the United States. He said that Snowden flew to Moscow intending only to transit to another country, but that the U.S. intimidated other countries into refusing to accept him, effectively blocking the fugitive from flying further.

Snowden previously had sought Russian asylum, which Putin said would be granted only if he agreed not to leak more information. Snowden then withdrew the bid, the Kremlin said.

During Friday’s meeting in Sheremetyevo’s transit zone, Snowden argued that he hadn’t hurt U.S. interests in the past and has no intention of doing that.

Putin did not say Monday if that would be sufficient grounds for asylum, adding that Snowden apparently did not want to stay in Russia permanently.

Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered Snowden asylum, but getting there from Moscow without passing through U.S. airspace or that of Washington’s allies would be difficult. The U.S. has annulled his passport.

Sources

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Russian Whistleblower Posthumously Convicted

A tombstone on the grave of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in jail, at a cemetery in Moscow, November 2012.

In Russia, a court has convicted dead lawyer Sergei Magnitsky of tax evasion.

In what looked like a sort of Stalin-esque show trial, Magnitsky was convicted of tax evasion charges, though he has been dead for nearly four years.

The whistleblower worked as an attorney for Russia's largest western investment fund, Hermitage Capital. Magnitsky said he had uncovered a massive scheme by interior ministry officials to fraudulently receive refunds for $230 million in taxes paid for by that firm.

In 2008, Magnitsky was arrested for tax evasion by the same officials he accused of tax fraud. A year later, he died in jail at age 37 of pancreatitis. An investigation by Russia's Human Rights Council found that Magnitsky was denied medical treatment and severely beaten.

Imposing visa ban

As a result, the United States passed the Magnitsky Act. The legislation imposes a visa ban and financial sanctions on Russians accused of violating human rights. In response, Russia passed a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children.

In July 2011, Russia's Constitutional Court made it possible to try deceased people. Russian officials say this allows families of late defendants to seek exoneration.

Kirill Kabanov is head of Russia's Anti-Corruption committee. Speaking on state-run television, Kabanov said Magnitsky's case is of great importance.

Kabanov said this case is such a big deal because Magnitsky exposed a huge scandal and named those who were involved.

Retribution beyond grave

Magnitsky's lawyers and family have called the posthumous trial absurd, saying that no one will benefit from the verdict.

Critics say that the conviction shows that anyone, either alive or dead, who speaks out against the Kremlin, could face charges.

Russian judge Igor Alisov said, in announcing his verdict, that Magnitsky masterminded a massive tax evasion scheme.

Sources

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Report: Ex-Soviet States Return People to Torture in Central Asia

Russian opposition activist Leonid Razvozzhayev is escorted into a court room in Moscow, Russia, April 1, 2013. Amnesty International says he was abducted by Russian state security agents operating in Ukraine.

Amnesty International accused Russia, Ukraine and the five Central Asian states on Wednesday of colluding in abductions and unlawful transfers of asylum-seekers and refugees back to Central Asia where they faced the risk of torture.

In a report, the London-based human rights group enumerated cases of asylum-seekers in Russia and Ukraine being spirited away from their apartments or picked up on the street and being forcibly flown back to the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan.

In a separate statement, Amnesty said that when intervention of the European Court of Human Rights obstructed the handover of individuals, “cynical subversions of international law” were used to secure the transfer.

“In the name of national security, member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States are increasingly cooperating in returning people to Central Asian countries where they are at real risk of torture or other ill-treatment,” the report said.

Abductions and attempted abductions of asylum-seekers from Central Asia by security services of ex-Soviet states - often operating on each other's territory - was occurring with such regularity that they amounted to a “region-wide extraordinary renditions program,” it said.

Officials in Moscow and Tashkent were not immediately available to comment.

In Ukraine, the state migration service reacted sharply to the charges and denied that Kiev deported refugees.

“Are you asking us to justify ourselves? If they have facts, let them show these facts and we will look at them. We do not deport refugees,” said Sergiy Gunko, the service's spokesman. “It is not the first time that Amnesty International is giving out information that is not quite objective.”

Among cases cited in the report was that of Azamatzhon Ermakov, an Uzbek national, who fled Uzbekistan to Russia in March 2009 after being charged with alleged involvement in extremist religious groups.

After his request for asylum in Russia was turned down, the European Court for Human Rights issued an order requiring Russia to stay his extradition.

He was later detained by Russian police for illegal possession of weapons - though Ermakov said police had planted a grenade on him to support a trumped-up charge.

In January this year Amnesty was told that Ermakov had taken a flight back to the Uzbek capital of Tashkent after being released from detention.

“There is strong circumstantial evidence to indicate that he was abducted following his release from detention and put on a plane back to Uzbekistan,” the report said.

“Twenty years after the break-up of the Soviet Union, old collegiate ties, common institutional cultures and the shared perception across the region of the threat from Islamist extremist groups bind together the successor institutions to the Soviet KGB,” said John Dalhuisen, the group's Europe and Central Asia program director, in a comment issued by Amnesty.

In the past two years, the report said, authorities in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan had particularly intensified their efforts to “forcibly return members, or suspected, members of certain groups to Tajikistan and Uzbekistant notwithstanding the fact that they would face a real risk of torture”.

The report also highlighted the case of a Russian opposition activist, Leonid Razvozzhayev, who disappeared in Kyiv last October after consulting with a partner organization of the United Nations refugee agency.

He is now in Moscow where Russian investigators say he has been charged with preparing mass disorder. The Amnesty report said he had been abducted by Russian state security agents operating in Ukraine.

 

Sources

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Snowden: Obama Trying to Block Efforts to Seek Asylum

FILE - Edward Snowden, who has been working at the National Security Agency for the past four years, speaking during an interview with The Guardian newspaper at an undisclosed location in Hong Kong, June 6, 2013.

U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden has accused President Barack Obama of trying to block his efforts to seek asylum.
In a statement released by the website WikiLeaks, Snowden said Obama has ordered Vice President Joe Biden to pressure the leaders of countries where he has requested asylum to deny his petitions.
The statement marked Snowden's first public announcement since fleeing Hong Kong for Russia eight days ago.
On Monday, a Russian immigration official said Snowden has applied for political asylum in that country. The official said a WikiLeaks activist who is traveling with Snowden handed his application to a Russian consulate in the transit area at Moscow's airport on Sunday. Snowden has been stuck there since arriving from Hong Kong.
Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor, had been thought to be seeking asylum in Ecuador in a bid to escape extradition to the United States, which has annulled his passport.
Also Monday, President Obama played down a related controversy about whether the U.S. had spied on its European allies.
Speaking in Tanzania,  Obama said all intelligence services around the world seek to understand what other nations are thinking.  He also said the U.S. is evaluating reports in the German weekly Der Spiegel about the surveillance program, and will contact European counterparts to provide the information they are requesting.
European leaders including French President Francois Hollande and EU Parliament President Martin Schulz have expressed anger at allegations the U.S. National Security Agency bugged EU offices and gained access to its internal computer networks.
Snowden fled the U.S. to Hong Kong in May and disclosed key documents about National Security Agency programs to thwart terrorism.  

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Croatia Becomes Newest EU Member

A Croatian, right, and a EU flag fly in downtown in Zagreb, Croatia, Sunday, Jun. 30, 2013.

Tens of thousands celebrated across Croatia as it became the 28th member of the European Union.
Fireworks lit the sky as the membership became effective at midnight (22:00 GMT). At Croatia's borders with other members, officials began unveiling EU sign and removing customs checkpoints.
More than 100 European dignitaries attended the event at the Zagreb main square.
The country of 4.4 million people is only the second of the seven states carved from federal Yugoslavia to enter the EU, following Slovenia in 2004. It is the bloc's first addition since Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007.
It represents a milestone in Croatia's recovery from a 1991-95 war to secure independence in which some 20,000 people died.
The celebrations, however, were overshadowed by economic worries. Croatia's tourism-oriented economy has been either in recession or stagnant for the past four years.
EU figures show that the country, where unemployment stands at around 20 percent, is now among the bloc's poorest.  

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German Magazine Says US Spied on EU

A general view of the large former monitoring base of the U.S. intelligence organization National Security Agency (NSA) in Bad Aibling south of Munich, June 18, 2013.

A German magazine is reporting that a U.S. spy agency has bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, the latest in a series of exposures of alleged U.S. spy programs.
Der Spiegel says its Sunday report was based on a classified U.S. National Security Agency document obtained from fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The September 2010 document details how the NSA had planted microphones in EU offices in Washington, the U.N. and Brussels, and how the spy agency had infiltrated the EU computer network and accessed e-mails and documents.
The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, released a statement demanding full clarification of the story and further information from U.S. authorities. Schulz said if true, the story would have a severe impact on relations between the EU and the U.S.
Snowden fled from the U.S. to Hong Kong in May and then disclosed key documents about the surveillance programs being conducted by the secretive National Security Agency to thwart terrorism.
Earlier this month, he flew to Moscow and is believed to be staying in a transit zone at the airport while seeking asylum in Ecuador.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke to Ecuador's president about Snowden on Friday. President Rafael Correa says Biden asked him to reject Snowden's asylum request.
Earlier this month, Snowden flew to Moscow and is believed to be staying in a transit zone at the airport, while seeking asylum.

 

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Snowden’s Stay in Moscow Souring Relations with US

Edward Snowden, who has been working at the National Security Agency for the past four years, speaking during an interview with The Guardian newspaper at an undisclosed location in Hong Kong, June 6, 2013.

Edward Snowden, the fugitive American intelligence leaker, missed another plane to Havana on Thursday.  As an overnight stopover in Moscow drags on, Snowden’s stay is taking a toll on the U.S.-Russia relationship.

President Obama took time out on a trip to Africa to prod the Kremlin to turn over Snowden.

“My continued expectation is that Russia or other countries that have talked about potentially providing Mr. Snowden asylum recognize that they are part of an international community, and that they should be abiding by international law," Obama told reporters in Senegal.

Separately, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters in Washington: “I would hope that the Russians do the right thing here and turn Snowden over to the United States. He has broken laws and I think, as far as I know, the decision of the Russian Government, at least a final decision, hasn't been made yet.”

American congressmen have come out with a series of statements sharply critical of the Kremlin.

“Snowden has overstayed his welcome at the Moscow airport,” Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, said Thursday. “I call on the Russian government, in the interest of justice, as well as U.S.-Russian relations, to release him into the custody of the U.S. government today.”

Kremlin showing no sign of cooperating.

“For political reasons it is impossible for both China and Russia to extradite him to the United States,” said Fyodor Lyukanov, who edits Russia in Global Affairs magazine. “That will make enormous damage to their reputations because at least half of the world believes Snowden is a hero because he revealed this big brother practice of the state.”

American intelligence experts worry that Russian officials have copied the memories of the four laptops that Snowden brought with him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects U.S. pressure over Snowden.

“He's in the transit hall as a transit passenger now,” President Putin said on a visit to Finland Wednesday. “Our special services have never worked with Mr. Snowden and aren't working today."

In Hong Kong, Snowden told journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras with The Guardian newspaper he rejects accusations that he leaked America’s secrets to help foreign powers.

“Anyone in the position of access with the technical capability that I had could suck out secrets and pass them on the open market to Russia,” Snowden said in a videotaped interview. “They always have an open door, as we do.”

The longer Snowden stays in Russia, the more he is winning conservative support in the country. Russian lawmakers and some human rights leaders now want the Kremlin to grant Snowden asylum. One Russian Senator, Ruslan Gattarov, invited Snowden to address a parliamentary working group set up to explore allegations of American wiretapping of Russian citizens.

President Putin says he will not extradite Snowden to the United States. But he wants the fugitive to keep moving. "Mr. Snowden is a free man,” he said in Finland. “The sooner he chooses his final destination, the better it would be for us and for himself."

Possible Eventual Destination

If Snowden keeps missing flights to Havana, a new solution could be on the horizon.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that he is considering granting Snowden asylum. Next week, President Maduro is to fly to Moscow in Venezuela’s presidential jet, an Airbus, to attend a conference of gas-producing nations.

In the roomy jet, he could bring along two other left-leaning leaders of South American gas-producing nations, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Ecuador has said it is reviewing an asylum request from Snowden.

Conceivably, Snowden could fly directly from Moscow to Caracas with this high level entourage. Perhaps aware of this possibility, President Obama promised not to take extraordinary measures.

“No, I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” he said, referring to Snowden who turned 30 last week in Hong Kong.  

 

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EU Membership Fails to Spark Enthusiasm in Croatia

Croatia joins the European Union on July 1 - marking the end of its journey to accession, and a remarkable turnaround for a country that was ravaged by war during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. But there has been a marked absence of enthusiasm for E.U. membership among much of the population.
In Brussels, the fireworks are already being set off as the Croatian flag joins 27 other member countries in the political heart of the European Union.
So how will life change for the ordinary Croatian? James Ker-Lindsay from the London School of Economics and Political Science explains.
“A lot of the day-to-day elements of life, if you like, have already probably come into force with the laws that have been changed as part of E.U. harmonization," said Ker-Lindsay. "But, of course, it is that sense of actually being there, being part of the club, having that freedom of movement across the European Union.”

Full membership means that Croatia will be able to sell its products tariff-free across the E.U. President of the Croatian Chamber Of Commerce, Nadan Vidosevic, says the country is joining the E.U. with its eyes open.
“We will jump in the cold water and start swimming, you know," said Vidosevic. "But, we decide to jump in the water, because we believe it will be at the end, something that will make pleasure to us. What is the meaning of pleasure, it is the welfare for the citizens of my country."
But after five years of economic crisis in Europe, polls show a lack of enthusiasm by Croatians. Again, James Ker-Lindsay.
“Polls show in actual fact trust in European institutions is lower in Croatia than even in the United Kingdom, which is really saying something."
Croatia is enduring its own economic crisis. Government debt is growing, and two ratings agencies have downgraded government bonds to junk status. The E.U. has already set aside $855 million to subsidize Croatia this year.
While Croatia will gain access to the E.U. market, the reverse also applies - and many analysts, including European Policy Center's Corina Stratulat, say uncompetitive businesses will struggle with the competition.
"We have worked very hard during the ten-year-long engagement and now both parts, I think, are entering this marriage very much aware of the fact that hard work lies ahead," said Stratulat.
The E.U. funds will help renovate Croatia’s heritage in cities like Dubrovnik.
In 1991, the city came under siege from the Yugoslav army and navy. Over the following years Croatia and her neighbors were consumed by the Balkan conflict.
Ker-Lindsay says many believe the E.U. should have done more back then.
“There were a lot of voices in southeast Europe which were appalled when the E.U. was awarded the Nobel (Peace) Prize last year," he said. "They just felt that this was completely unacceptable, that the E.U. hadn’t done nearly as much as it could have done in the 1990s. But I think it’s fair to say that a lot of the peace and stability that we see in the region now is a direct consequence of the project, the process of E.U enlargement.”
Ker-Lindsay says that transformation is providing encouragement for other E.U. candidates like Serbia.  

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