Effort by Iran And Britain To Repair Ties

In an effort to repair long-strained relations, Britainand Iran announced Tuesday that each would appoint a chargé d’affaires, a rank below ambassador, to work toward resuming full diplomatic ties. The diplomats will remain in their own countries, but will discuss reopening embassies in London and Tehran.

Relations between the countries were downgraded to the lowest level short of a break in 2011 after protesters in Tehran attacked the British Embassy.

Iranians still consider Britain, the former colonial power there, a powerful agent of opposition to Iranian independence and the Islamic Revolution.

The move to restore relations came after the British foreign secretary, William Hague, met with Iran’s new foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the United Nations. The two men spoke on the telephone on Monday, Mr. Hague told Parliament on Tuesday.

“I’ve made very clear to Mr. Zarif that we are open to more direct contact and further improvements in our bilateral relations,” Mr. Hague said.

The new Iranian government of President Hassan Rouhani has spoken of greater openness to the West as Tehran prepares for new negotiations next week with the United Nations Security Council on Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Iran is eager for the United States and the Europeans to lift harsh economic sanctions, which were imposed in response to Iran’s regular flouting of Security Council resolutions that it halt uranium enrichment and comply with International Atomic Energy Agency demands that it fully disclose its nuclear activities.

The Obama administration, while skeptical of Mr. Rouhani’s message of openness, would like to resolve tensions with Iran through negotiations, while Israel has warned that Iran may be trying to buy time for developing a nuclear weapon.

Mr. Rouhani, like the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insists Iran has no intention of building a nuclear bomb. But for Western and Israeli experts, the Iranian program has no other logic, though American officials say they believe Iran has not yet decided to build a nuclear weapon.

Confirmation of the British announcement came from Tehran and the foreign ministry spokesman there, Marziyeh Afkham.

“Issues pertaining to the historical Iranian perception of the U.K. and its role in Iran, disagreements between the two countries on the nuclear issue, human rights and the Middle East are among points that Iran will discuss with the U.K. in their future talks,” Mr. Afkham said, an Iranian news agency reported.

Credits: nytimes

Putin demands Dutch arrest apology as ties worsen

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded an apology after police in the Netherlands briefly detained a Russian diplomat for alleged domestic abuse.

Moscow said Dmitri Borodin had been badly beaten in front of his children and Mr Putin said those involved should be punished.

The Dutch foreign minister said the matter was still being investigated.

Ties between the countries have been strained by the detention of Greenpeace activists in Russia last month.

The Netherlands launched legal action last week to free the activists, who were charged with piracy after a protest on an Arctic oil rig owned by state-controlled firm Gazprom.

The 30 people, two of them Dutch citizens, were arrested aboard the Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise.

Mr Borodin, a minister counsellor at the Russian embassy, told Russian media earlier that the men who arrested him had said they were responding to an alert raised by neighbours that children were being maltreated in the flat.

'Flat stormed'

Speaking during a visit to Indonesia, Mr Putin told reporters: "This is the most gross breach of the Vienna Convention [on Diplomatic Relations].

"We are waiting for explanations and apologies and also for those guilty to be punished. We will react depending on how the Dutch side behaves."

Every country has its own style, and the Dutch style is to remain calm and investigate the affair”Frans TimmermansDutch Foreign Minister

The foreign ministry in Moscow said the diplomat's flat in The Hague had been stormed by "armed people in camouflage uniform" and Mr Borodin had been beaten "in front of his children, on the absolutely made-up excuse that he allegedly mistreated them".

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained that the diplomat had been held for several hours after somebody had alleged he had been abusing his son, aged two, and his four-year-old daughter.

"That this happened in The Hague, the seat of the international court of justice, is absolutely absurd," he said.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans insisted no conclusions would be drawn before he had heard the results of an investigation into Saturday night's events.

"We're going to find out calmly exactly what happened. If there is a reason, then we will apologise," he told Dutch broadcaster NOS.

"Every country has its own style, and the Dutch style is to remain calm and investigate the affair," he added.

Mr Borodin expressed indignation at his alleged rough treatment by Dutch police on his private Twitter account, insisting he loved his children.

Thanking sympathisers for their messages of support on Tuesday, he said in a tweet he would not be commenting further as it was no longer a private matter.

The Russian foreign ministry's twitter account bitterly criticised the Dutch "silence", saying that Moscow awaited a "real apology & effective measures against this provocation's masterminds".

The incident comes at an awkward time for the two countries, ahead of a 9 November royal visit to Russia by King Willem Alexander.

The trip, expected to include a meeting with President Putin, brings an end to a year of cultural, economic and business events marking their bilateral relations.

Before abdicating, Queen Beatrix hosted President Putin in Amsterdam in April

Credits: bbc

Second group of chemical weapons inspectors is heading to Syria

Additional experts will reinforce the 19 inspectors and 16 U.N. logistics and security personnel who began work last week to destroy or impound banned weapons.



Syrian state television broadcast video Tuesday of what it said were chemical weapons inspectors at work at a plant at an undisclosed location. (Syrian state television / October 8, 2013)

A second wave of chemical weapons inspectors is heading to war-battered Syria this week as the international effort to disarm President Bashar Assad's poison gas program races to meet its United Nations-ordered deadlines, officials said Tuesday.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the lead technical agency in the operation, said additional experts will reinforce the 19 inspectors and 16 U.N. logistics and security personnel who started work in Damascus last week on a plan to dismantle, destroy or impound Syria's toxic stockpiles.

Operating under supervision of the inspectors, Syrian personnel began disabling the arsenal over the weekend, using cutting tools and grinders to ruin or destroy unfilled warheads, bombs and laboratory equipment used to mix precursor chemicals to make lethal nerve gases. The U.N. has set a Nov. 1 deadline for destroying Syria's ability to produce chemical weapons.

"These developments present a constructive beginning for what will nonetheless be a long and difficult process," Ahmet Uzumcu, director general of the Netherlands-based chemical weapons organization, said in a statement Tuesday.

Syrian state television broadcast images of the inspectors at work. The video showed two men in protective gear examining what appeared to be a chemical plant at an unidentified site. The pair scrutinized and tagged switches, and peered beneath a row of metal drums like those used to store chemicals.

U.N. officials said the disarmament effort will grow to about 100 experts over the next few months. Under a U.S.-Russian plan endorsed by the Security Council, Syria has until June 30 to eliminate its stockpiles of lethal gases, including mustard, VX and sarin.

But with security arrangements still unclear, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council that only essential personnel will be deployed to Syria "to conduct an operation the likes of which, quite simply, have never been tried before."

Ban said Syria needs to complete an agreement to guarantee that inspectors can work safely despite the country's civil war. The fighting has left broad swaths of Syria in ruins and resulted in more than 100,000 dead, according to U.N. estimates.

"Without sustained, genuine commitment by the Syrian authorities, the joint mission will fail in its objectives," Ban said in a report released late Monday.

Hours before the inspectors' advance team arrived in Damascus on Oct. 1, two mortar shells struck close to their hotel. "Heavy artillery, airstrikes, mortar barrages and the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas are commonplace, and battle lines shift quickly," he said.

Ban said he would appoint a special coordinator to head the mission, and he proposed to base it in the island nation of Cyprus, west of Syria in the Mediterranean Sea. The Cypriot government has agreed to host the base — which would serve as a training center, storage facility and logistics hub — if the 15-member Security Council endorses the plan, he said.

Until now, OPCW and U.N. teams have entered Syria from neighboring Lebanon, often by road because the Damascus airport area has seen clashes between Assad's forces and rebels battling to overthrow the government. U.N. officials declined to explain why Ban chose to establish the base in Cyprus instead.

"For us the basic issue is finding a place that we can rely on as a good jumping-off point," said an aide to Ban who wasn't authorized to be quoted by name. "Cyprus fit that, but any number of places could have been a base."

The Syrian military, as well as unarmed U.N. guards, are supposed to protect the inspectors as they travel around Syria. But in an interview Monday with Japan's Kyodo News, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said his government would not guarantee their safety.

"We shall have no responsibility," Mekdad was quoted as saying. "We tell them in that place there are armed groups, and you have to take measures" to ensure security.

Ban said the U.N. would request technical, logistical and security help from unspecified countries in coming weeks. Germany and Italy provided transportation for the first two teams of inspectors in Syria.

The Obama administration accuses Assad's forces of firing sarin-loaded rockets into rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Aug. 21, an attack that Washington says killed more than 1,400 people. Syria denied launching the attack, but agreed to relinquish its chemical stockpiles under international supervision.

The State Department emphasized Tuesday that it has not changed its position that Assad must leave power even though he is cooperating with the disarmament plan.

"We have said repeatedly that the Assad regime must go," said Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman. "If and when there's a transitional government in place, they will assume responsibility for implementation of the Security Council resolution."

Credits: latimes

'Narendra Modi most searched politician on Google in India in Mar-Aug'

BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was the most searched politician, followed by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, on Google in India during March-August period of this year, the Internet giant said today.

According to the Website's search trends during the period, BJP was the most searched political party on Google India, while Congress and Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party came in the second and the third positions.

Google India also released a survey 'Urban Indian Voters', which said 42 per cent of respondents were undecided about who to vote for in elections.

The trends showed that the three-time Gujarat Chief Minister is the most searched. Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is second, while UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi occupies the third position.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, TN Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj and Congress leaderDigvijay Singh were the other most searched politicians.

In terms of political parties, BJP was the most searched, followed by Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bahujan Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena in that order.

How to get an election card was the most searched query, followed by how to find electoral roll number. Getting election card online, how to vote were the other top queries.

Google India's survey 'Urban Indian Voters' was conducted offline by research firm TNS during July-August 2013. It covered 41,000 people, with a focus on 7,042 respondents who were registered voters and active Internet users.

"Interestingly, a large proportion of the urban Indian registered voters (42 per cent) were undecided about whom to vote for in the upcoming elections," the study said.

Thirty five per cent respondents said their decision will be based on the party, while, 36 per cent said local candidate matters to them, the study said.

"Interestingly, 11 per cent said the prime ministerial candidate of the political party will play an important role in their final voting decision. In the west, the preference for the local candidate was the highest at 45 per cent and was the lowest in east at 27 per cent," it added.

Sixty eight per cent of respondents were in the age group of 18-35 years. Male respondents were 63 per cent, while female respondents were 37 per cent.

The study also said young urban Indian voters are heavily engaged online and actively involved in the electoral process, with 85 per cent respondents saying they have voted in the previous elections and 64 per cent for this question were in age group of 18-25 years.

Credits: economictimes