Fresh allegations of abuse by the UK military in Iraq do not warrant a new public inquiry, the Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell has said.He told the BBC the claims were taken seriously and would be investigated but that allegations did not mean facts. He said a special unit within the Ministry of Defence, overseen by him, had been set up to examine the claims. Lawyers for former Iraqi detainees want an inquiry into 33 abuse claims, which include the rape of a 16-year-old boy. 'Sexually humiliated'Mr Rammell said there should not be a wider public inquiry because each case first had to be examined and disciplinary action taken if there was evidence of wrongdoing. He said: "There is no credible evidence that endemic abuse was a coherent part of the way our military operated."
Fresh allegations of abuse by the UK military in Iraq do not warrant a new public inquiry, the Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell has said.
He told the BBC the claims were taken seriously and would be investigated but that allegations did not mean facts.
He said a special unit within the Ministry of Defence, overseen by him, had been set up to examine the claims.
Lawyers for former Iraqi detainees want an inquiry into 33 abuse claims, which include the rape of a 16-year-old boy.
'Sexually humiliated'
Mr Rammell said there should not be a wider public inquiry because each case first had to be examined and disciplinary action taken if there was evidence of wrongdoing.
He said: "There is no credible evidence that endemic abuse was a coherent part of the way our military operated."
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is investigating 33 cases of alleged abuse, including rape and torture, of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers. The lawyer representing the alleged victims, Phil Shiner, said there could be hundreds of uninvestigated claims of abuse.One claimant alleges that soldiers based the abuse they allegedly subjected him to on photographs of the abuse at the notorious US detention centre at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, the Independent reported. In one case, British soldiers are accused of piling up Iraqi prisoners on top of one another before subjecting them to electric shocks.Shiner served a pre-action protocol letter on the Ministry of Defence last week and is asking for a judicial review of the cases. In the letter, it was reported, Shiner said the allegations raised questions of collusion between Britain and the US over the ill-treatment of Iraqis.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is investigating 33 cases of alleged abuse, including rape and torture, of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers. The lawyer representing the alleged victims, Phil Shiner, said there could be hundreds of uninvestigated claims of abuse.
One claimant alleges that soldiers based the abuse they allegedly subjected him to on photographs of the abuse at the notorious US detention centre at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, the Independent reported. In one case, British soldiers are accused of piling up Iraqi prisoners on top of one another before subjecting them to electric shocks.
Shiner served a pre-action protocol letter on the Ministry of Defence last week and is asking for a judicial review of the cases. In the letter, it was reported, Shiner said the allegations raised questions of collusion between Britain and the US over the ill-treatment of Iraqis.
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pledged Saturday to deepen dialogue with China rather than seek to contain the rising power, as he laid out a vision for greater engagement with a vibrant Asia-Pacific region. Calling himself "America's first Pacific President," Hawaii-born Obama signaled his commitment to the region, but gave no new specifics on how to reinvigorate a U.S. trade agenda many see as stalled. Obama reaffirmed Washington's decades-old alliance with Japan, its most important ally in the region, strained lately by a dispute over a U.S. military base and questions about the future of the ties as both countries adapt to a rising China. "But while our commitment to this region begins in Japan, it does not end here," Obama said in a speech to 1,500 people in the Japanese capital, his first stop on a nine-day Asian tour. "So I want every American to know that we have a stake in the future of this region. This is where we engage in much of our commerce and buy many of our goods. "And this is where we can export more of our own products and create jobs back home in the process," Obama said.
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pledged Saturday to deepen dialogue with China rather than seek to contain the rising power, as he laid out a vision for greater engagement with a vibrant Asia-Pacific region.
Calling himself "America's first Pacific President," Hawaii-born Obama signaled his commitment to the region, but gave no new specifics on how to reinvigorate a U.S. trade agenda many see as stalled.
Obama reaffirmed Washington's decades-old alliance with Japan, its most important ally in the region, strained lately by a dispute over a U.S. military base and questions about the future of the ties as both countries adapt to a rising China.
"But while our commitment to this region begins in Japan, it does not end here," Obama said in a speech to 1,500 people in the Japanese capital, his first stop on a nine-day Asian tour.
"So I want every American to know that we have a stake in the future of this region. This is where we engage in much of our commerce and buy many of our goods.
"And this is where we can export more of our own products and create jobs back home in the process," Obama said.
The Chinese government had a special message for President Obama on Thursday: He is black, he admires Abraham Lincoln, so he, of all people, should sympathize with Beijing's effort to prevent Tibet from seceding and sliding back into what it was before its liberation by Chinese troops: a feudalistic, slaveholding society headed by the Dalai Lama. "He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln's major significance for that movement," Qin Gang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news conference. Mr. Qin added: "Thus, on this issue we hope that President Obama, more than any other foreign leader, can better, more deeply grasp China's stance on protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity." For many Americans, Mr. Qin's analogy might sound like a stretch, but it revealed which issues Chinese leaders see as among their top priorities, ones that Mr. Obama will no doubt have to grapple with after he arrives in China on Sunday for his first trip here. <...> Since 1949, it has resolved 17 of 23 border disputes, offering concessions in 15 of those instances and, over all, receiving less than half of the contested territory, said M. Taylor Fravel, an associate professor of political science at M.I.T. The compromises have generally come at times of regime instability, when the Communist Party has felt threatened by external or internal forces, he added. The big question, then, is whether Chinese leaders will continue to show flexibility on border issues as China becomes a greater world power, and as it stamps out internal threats. China's maritime disputes have proven harder to settle than those on land. ...
"He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln's major significance for that movement," Qin Gang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news conference.
Mr. Qin added: "Thus, on this issue we hope that President Obama, more than any other foreign leader, can better, more deeply grasp China's stance on protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
For many Americans, Mr. Qin's analogy might sound like a stretch, but it revealed which issues Chinese leaders see as among their top priorities, ones that Mr. Obama will no doubt have to grapple with after he arrives in China on Sunday for his first trip here.
<...>
Since 1949, it has resolved 17 of 23 border disputes, offering concessions in 15 of those instances and, over all, receiving less than half of the contested territory, said M. Taylor Fravel, an associate professor of political science at M.I.T. The compromises have generally come at times of regime instability, when the Communist Party has felt threatened by external or internal forces, he added.
The big question, then, is whether Chinese leaders will continue to show flexibility on border issues as China becomes a greater world power, and as it stamps out internal threats.
China's maritime disputes have proven harder to settle than those on land. ...
The CCP propaganda machine obviously has hired some fresh talent since they embarrassed themselves with such Cultural Revolution-era ludicrosities as calling the Dalai Lama a "horned devil" during the Lhasa riots last year.
I have to admit, I never quite understood the legality of using violent force to subjugate the Confederate states into staying within the Union. La Chine dorme. Laisse la dormir. Quand la Chine s'éveillera, le monde tremblera.
... On pollution and consumer safety, several Chinese asked: Doesn't American demand for cheap goods drive manufacturing? Don't Americans worry less when it's someone else's dirty air and water? On the economy: Why should Americans criticize the Chinese for how they manage their currency when the U.S. can print more money and expect China and Japan to prop it up?Many Chinese like seeing Americans doing business here. While Obama talks about supporting free trade, however, they see his tariffs on Chinese tires as evidence that he'll usher in more protectionism if his political base demands it. Never mind the current trade imbalance that tilts a huge surplus China's way."He talks really nice, saying stuff about how he's going to change everything . . . but on the other hand bashing Chinese trade," said Wang Guanjun, 50. Wang's an information technology consultant from Sichuan province who was visiting Super Brand Mall in Pudong, Shanghai's modern half on the east side of the Huangpu River."China is a partner with the U.S. If we compromise, it's good for both countries. If America still doesn't want to do free trade, China is still going to become stronger," Wang said. "We have 1.3 billion people. We'll win."Yang Pei Ming, managing director of the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre, which specializes in Chinese art from the Maoist period of 1949-'79, said that many Chinese are viewing Obama's arrival with a quintessentially Chinese mix of superstition and pragmatism: "They hope he will bring good luck and stocks will go up.""The Chinese stock market is very strange, it's not really like America," Yang said.Chinese overwhelmingly say that Tibet should remain under China's control and that the U.S. is misguided in its openness toward the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.Yang said some Chinese also worry about the U.S. in Afghanistan. "All these tribes: You never know who is the bad guy, who is the good guy." Eyeing his walls of posters depicting Mao, revolution and anti-American campaigns, Yang said, "Personally I don't like war. It destroys the history."Obama "is a good man, but I don't know if he's wise enough to solve these problems."
... On pollution and consumer safety, several Chinese asked: Doesn't American demand for cheap goods drive manufacturing? Don't Americans worry less when it's someone else's dirty air and water? On the economy: Why should Americans criticize the Chinese for how they manage their currency when the U.S. can print more money and expect China and Japan to prop it up?
Many Chinese like seeing Americans doing business here. While Obama talks about supporting free trade, however, they see his tariffs on Chinese tires as evidence that he'll usher in more protectionism if his political base demands it. Never mind the current trade imbalance that tilts a huge surplus China's way.
"He talks really nice, saying stuff about how he's going to change everything . . . but on the other hand bashing Chinese trade," said Wang Guanjun, 50. Wang's an information technology consultant from Sichuan province who was visiting Super Brand Mall in Pudong, Shanghai's modern half on the east side of the Huangpu River.
"China is a partner with the U.S. If we compromise, it's good for both countries. If America still doesn't want to do free trade, China is still going to become stronger," Wang said. "We have 1.3 billion people. We'll win."
Yang Pei Ming, managing director of the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre, which specializes in Chinese art from the Maoist period of 1949-'79, said that many Chinese are viewing Obama's arrival with a quintessentially Chinese mix of superstition and pragmatism: "They hope he will bring good luck and stocks will go up."
"The Chinese stock market is very strange, it's not really like America," Yang said.
Chinese overwhelmingly say that Tibet should remain under China's control and that the U.S. is misguided in its openness toward the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
Yang said some Chinese also worry about the U.S. in Afghanistan. "All these tribes: You never know who is the bad guy, who is the good guy." Eyeing his walls of posters depicting Mao, revolution and anti-American campaigns, Yang said, "Personally I don't like war. It destroys the history."
Obama "is a good man, but I don't know if he's wise enough to solve these problems."
"In most respects, the People's Republic of China, of course, inherits the fixed boundaries of its predecessor nation-state, the Republic of China, which declared as its territorial boundaries what had been mostly the messy frontiers of the Qing empire," Alice Miller, a political scientist and research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, wrote in a China discussion forum posting that she agreed to make public. "Messy" is the operative word here. In the age of empires, there were no hard and fast borders, whether the imperial rulers were the Ottoman Turks or the Manchus or the Moghuls. The seat of empire had its sphere of influence, radiating outward, with tributary states occupying the borderlands but rarely being governed in the same way as regions within a modern nation today. Trying to define national borders along the contours of an old empire is a daunting task. If, for example, Tibet paid tribute to the Qing emperor at certain points in history, should Tibet be part of modern China? If Tawang did the same with Tibetan rulers in Lhasa, should Tawang be part of modern Tibet? Along with India and Indonesia, China is one of a handful of vast, multiethnic nations that follow the contours of fallen empires. Because of their size and history, all three nations grapple with the same issues: border disputes, ethno-nationalism, occasionally violent movements by disaffected ethnic or religious minorities.
"In most respects, the People's Republic of China, of course, inherits the fixed boundaries of its predecessor nation-state, the Republic of China, which declared as its territorial boundaries what had been mostly the messy frontiers of the Qing empire," Alice Miller, a political scientist and research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, wrote in a China discussion forum posting that she agreed to make public.
"Messy" is the operative word here. In the age of empires, there were no hard and fast borders, whether the imperial rulers were the Ottoman Turks or the Manchus or the Moghuls. The seat of empire had its sphere of influence, radiating outward, with tributary states occupying the borderlands but rarely being governed in the same way as regions within a modern nation today.
Trying to define national borders along the contours of an old empire is a daunting task. If, for example, Tibet paid tribute to the Qing emperor at certain points in history, should Tibet be part of modern China? If Tawang did the same with Tibetan rulers in Lhasa, should Tawang be part of modern Tibet?
Along with India and Indonesia, China is one of a handful of vast, multiethnic nations that follow the contours of fallen empires. Because of their size and history, all three nations grapple with the same issues: border disputes, ethno-nationalism, occasionally violent movements by disaffected ethnic or religious minorities.
I have to admit, I never quite understood the legality of using violent force to subjugate the Confederate states into staying within the Union.
Legality under which law? I think they were working de novo, and under the theory that the citizenry of the various states, through their representatives, had voted to join the union, a decision that the state legislatures couldn't overturn.
"Once you're a Jet, you're a Jet for life!" (from the West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein, an early rock opera...)
... In a July meeting, Chinese officials asked their American counterparts detailed questions about the health care legislation making its way through Congress. The president's budget director, Peter R. Orszag, answered most of their questions. But the Chinese were not particularly interested in the public option or universal care for all Americans. "They wanted to know, in painstaking detail, how the health care plan would affect the deficit," one participant in the conversation recalled. Chinese officials expect that they will help finance whatever Congress and the White House settle on, mostly through buying Treasury debt, and like any banker, they wanted evidence that the United States had a plan to pay them back.It is a long way from the days when President George W. Bush hectored China about currency manipulation, or when President Bill Clinton exhorted the Chinese to improve human rights. Mr. Obama has struck a mollifying note with China. <...> "Obama is still a positive guy, and all over the world most people think he's more energetic, more sincere, than Bush, more a reformist," said Shi Yinhong, a professor and an expert on United States-China relations at People's University in Beijing. "But in China, Obama's popularity is less than in Europe, than Japan or Southeast Asia." In China, he said, "there is no worship of Obama." ...
... In a July meeting, Chinese officials asked their American counterparts detailed questions about the health care legislation making its way through Congress. The president's budget director, Peter R. Orszag, answered most of their questions. But the Chinese were not particularly interested in the public option or universal care for all Americans.
"They wanted to know, in painstaking detail, how the health care plan would affect the deficit," one participant in the conversation recalled. Chinese officials expect that they will help finance whatever Congress and the White House settle on, mostly through buying Treasury debt, and like any banker, they wanted evidence that the United States had a plan to pay them back.
It is a long way from the days when President George W. Bush hectored China about currency manipulation, or when President Bill Clinton exhorted the Chinese to improve human rights.
Mr. Obama has struck a mollifying note with China.
"Obama is still a positive guy, and all over the world most people think he's more energetic, more sincere, than Bush, more a reformist," said Shi Yinhong, a professor and an expert on United States-China relations at People's University in Beijing. "But in China, Obama's popularity is less than in Europe, than Japan or Southeast Asia." In China, he said, "there is no worship of Obama." ...
Peru and Chile are embroiled in a serious diplomatic row, after two Chilean military officials were allegedly found to be spying in Peru. The espionage claims forced the cancellation of Sunday's APEC meeting in Singapore between Peru's President, Alan Garcia, and his Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet.A Peruvian court has begun extradition proceedings against the two Chilean officers, while the government has launched an official inquiry, justice officials said.The Chileans, identified as Daniel Marquez Torrealba and Victor Vergara Rojas, were allegedly working with an officer of the Peruvian Air Force, Victor Ariza Mendoza, whose detention officials announced on Thursday.
A Peruvian court has begun extradition proceedings against the two Chilean officers, while the government has launched an official inquiry, justice officials said.
The Chileans, identified as Daniel Marquez Torrealba and Victor Vergara Rojas, were allegedly working with an officer of the Peruvian Air Force, Victor Ariza Mendoza, whose detention officials announced on Thursday.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is asking millions of people to give small amounts of cash to beat hunger, as donor governments are hit by the financial crisis.Josette Sheeran, head of the UN food aid body, said the Internet appeal launched on Saturday invites one billion people living in the developed world to give just 1 euro ($1.50) a week to the campaign, which would be enough to end world hunger. It is the first time the WFP, which is mainly funded by national governments, has launched such an appeal.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is asking millions of people to give small amounts of cash to beat hunger, as donor governments are hit by the financial crisis.Josette Sheeran, head of the UN food aid body, said the Internet appeal launched on Saturday invites one billion people living in the developed world to give just 1 euro ($1.50) a week to the campaign, which would be enough to end world hunger.
It is the first time the WFP, which is mainly funded by national governments, has launched such an appeal.
Hamid who? That would appear to be the subtext of much official comment about Afghanistan in the US capital these days, where that country's fraud-tainted, and poorly-reelected president, Hamid Karzai, has apparently become unmentionable. Exhibit A: Barack Obama, the US president, gave an interview to a national television network this week, and managed to talk about Afghanistan without using the words "president," "Karzai" or "election." Instead, Obama, who is intensively reviewing a proposal to increase US military presence in that country, said his administration was looking for new people in Afghanistan to talk to. "...we are identifying not just a national government in Kabul, but provincial government actors that have legitimacy right now," Obama told the network.
That would appear to be the subtext of much official comment about Afghanistan in the US capital these days, where that country's fraud-tainted, and poorly-reelected president, Hamid Karzai, has apparently become unmentionable.
Exhibit A: Barack Obama, the US president, gave an interview to a national television network this week, and managed to talk about Afghanistan without using the words "president," "Karzai" or "election."
Instead, Obama, who is intensively reviewing a proposal to increase US military presence in that country, said his administration was looking for new people in Afghanistan to talk to.
"...we are identifying not just a national government in Kabul, but provincial government actors that have legitimacy right now," Obama told the network.
