Briefs, November 1, 2012
KABUL - Representatives of the Taliban and other insurgent leaders can stand as candidates in Afghanistan's next presidential election, to be held in April 2014. President Hamid Karzai, who is serving his second term, is constitutionally barred from running again and no clear candidate to succeed him has emerged. Fazil Ahmad Manawi, head of the Independent Election Commission, insisted the poll would be impartial. "We are even prepared to pave the ground for the armed opposition, be it the Taliban or Hezb-i-Islami, to participate in the election, either as voters or candidates," he said. AFP
JERUSALEM - Two new Jewish settlement outposts have been created in the West Bank in the first such development since 2005, Israel's Peace Now watchdog said. Despite the fact they have been set up without permits, both are already connected to power and water supplies, indicating backing from the Israeli authorities, Peace Now said. The international community considers all settlements built in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to be illegal because they are built on territory Israel occupied during the 1967 Six Day War. AFP
PRISTINA - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence, fiercely opposed by Serbia, was not debatable and urged their leaders to show "courage". Reiterating Washington's strong support for Kosovo's ethnic Albanian authorities on a visit to Pristina, she said: "We will oppose any discussion of territorial changes or reopening Kosovo's independent status. These matters are not up for discussion." Washington is one of the main supporters of Kosovo's independence, which it proclaimed in 2008. AFP
PARIS - French President Francois Hollande said he wanted "concrete acts" from Iran to prove it was not pursuing nuclear arms, after his first direct meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Addressing a press conference with Netanyahu, whose aim during the two-day visit is to press for more pressure on Tehran, Hollande warned that Paris would back "other sanctions" if Tehran failed to convince on its contested nuclear programme. "This is a threat which cannot be accepted by France," Hollande said. AFP
KANO - Armed robbers shot dead 20 people in northern Nigeria's Zamfara state, an area plagued by violent clashes between vigilante and criminal groups. After several people had been killed, the area's chief appealed to the gunmen to stop firing. But they turned their weapons on him instead, according to the spokesman. A gang of robbers killed 23 people in nearby villages in June. Northern Nigeria has also been hit by attacks by radical Islamist group Boko Haram, but there was no indication it was involved. AFP
ADDIS ABABA - The African Union urged the UN Security Council to bolster its peacekeeping force in Somalia and lift arms-import and charcoal-export bans. As many as 12,000 soldiers from Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Djibouti are helping government forces fight the al-Shabaab militia, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, in Somalia, which hasn't had a functioning government since 1991. Bloomberg
100,000 evacuated as storm hits south India
CHENNAI - More than 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes yesterday as a tropical storm hit southern India from the Bay of Bengal, officials said. Rain lashed the region and strong winds uprooted trees in some places. Weather officials said the storm packed winds of up to 100km/h as it made landfall near Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state. A storm surge of up to 1.5 metres was expected to flood low-lying areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states, the India Meteorological Department said. AP
Islamists on Tunis streets after clashes
TUNIS - Dozens of Islamists, some of them armed, took to the streets of the Tunisian capital after deadly clashes at night, but there was no sign of any additional security as claimed by the authorities. A crowd gathered near the Ennour mosque in the Tunis suburb of Manouba, where the interior ministry said a radical Salafist militant was killed in Tuesday night's clashes. The government said earlier that police and soldiers had deployed heavily, but there were no such forces visible, and Islamist militants - some of them wielding knives - said they were ready for more confrontations. AFP
UN warns of threat from new rebel group
JUBA - A new South Sudanese rebel group is threatening to reignite violence in Jonglei state where at least 1,600 people died in ethnic clashes last year, according to the UN and Archbishop Daniel Deng. A 3,000-member militia led by David Yau Yau, a former theology student and candidate for governor, has killed at least 100 government troops since August, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey said in a report. The violence in Jonglei, an eastern state bordering Ethiopia where Total SA has a stake in an oil exploration concession, has marred South Sudan's year-old independence from the north. Bloomberg
Russia warns West of 'bloodbath' in Syria
PARIS - Russia warned that the "bloodbath" in Syria would continue if the West stuck to its demand for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the statement after talks with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius, who said that France and Russia had failed to bridge their differences over Assad's role in any future transition government. AFP
