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Dozens dead as Syria regime pounds Homs: activists
02/08 | 10:12 GMT
©AFP/Youtube
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on February 7, 2012 shows what Syria's Local Coordination Committees, a loose umbrella organisation of opposition activists, described as shelling on a school in Homs. Dozens of civilians were killed on Wednesday as government troops pressed a relentless assault on the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs for a fifth straight day.
©AFP/Youtube
Dozens of civilians have been killed as government troops press a relentless assault on Homs, activists say
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syrian forces pressed a relentless assault on the protest city of Homs Wednesday, with dozens of civilians reported killed, hours after President Bashar al-Assad said he was committed to ending the bloodshed.
The barrage of gunfire, mortars and shells came at daybreak and flattened many buildings in the flashpoint neighbourhood of Baba Amr, a stronghold of army defectors the regime is targeting for a fifth straight day.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the overall toll amounted to around 50 dead, including three entire families slain overnight by regime forces and government-backed thugs known as Shabiha.
"We expect the death toll to rise ... given the fact that many victims remain under the rubble," Abdel Rahman told AFP.
All power and communications were cut off.
The three families were killed in the same neighbourhood and included at least three children aged five, seven and 15.
Activists in the besieged central city claimed the widespread shelling was a clear bid to pave the way for a ground assault.
"Since dawn the shelling has been extremely intense and they are using rockets and mortars," Omar Shaker, who was reached by satellite telephone from Beirut, told AFP.
"They have destroyed all infrastructure and bombed water tanks and electricity poles. The humanitarian situation is extremely dire and food is lacking.
©Syrian TV
Lavrov says Assad 'committed' to ending violence. Duration: 00:28
"We are trying to set up a field hospital but we have no medical supplies."
Later in the morning, the shelling intensified as tanks moved toward the city from the capital Damascus, said Hadi Abdullah, another activist.
"We fear a new massacre," he told AFP by satphone.
The Britain-based Observatory has reported several hundred civilians killed since the onslaught on the protest hub was launched overnight Friday.
Related article: 'God help us': appeal from Syria's Homs
It said new clashes killed at least one person in northwestern Idlib province, and added that 18 soldiers defected in the southern region of Daraa, cradle of the popular uprising against Assad's 11 years of iron-fisted rule.
©AFP/YouTube
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube allegedly shows Syrian army tanks near Zabadani
Rights groups estimate more than 6,000 people have died in nearly a year of upheaval in the Middle Eastern country, as Assad's hardline regime seeks to snuff out the revolt that began in March with peaceful protests amid the Arab Spring.
Western and Arab efforts to end the violence have met resistance from Russia, whose foreign minister said after meeting Assad in Damascus on Tuesday that the Syrian leader was "fully committed" to ending the bloodshed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who flew into Damascus to a hero's welcome on Tuesday, said President Assad "assured (us) that he is fully committed to the task of a cessation of violence, from whatever source it comes."
The Arab League, which in January pulled its observers from Syria after just one month amid spiralling violence, has put forward a plan for Assad to hand power to his deputy and for the formation of a unity government ahead of polls.
The six Arab states of the Gulf went a step further on Tuesday, withdrawing their envoys from Damascus and expelling Syria's ambassadors from their own countries in protest over the "mass slaughter" of civilians.
That came after the United States closed its embassy in Damascus this week, and several European nations recalled their ambassadors to the Syrian capital.
Related article: Diplomatic moves against Syria
On Wednesday, Lavrov said in Moscow that said recalling envoys from Damascus did not help promote the Arab League's plan.
©AFP / -
New clashes were also reported in northwestern Idlib province
"I do not think that recalling ambassadors helps create conditions that would be favourable to the realisation of the Arab League's initiative," he said.
But he pointedly declined to say whether Moscow had asked the embattled leader to go during their talks on Tuesday, stressing that Syrians themselves should decide his fate.
"Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians," Lavrov told reporters.
Russia, which along with China over the weekend vetoed a UN resolution condemning the government crackdown, has staunchly stood by its last ally in the region, a key buyer of Moscow's military hardware that hosts a strategic Russian naval base.
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Redknapp cleared in tax evasion trial
02/08 | 12:52 GMT
©AFP / Justin Tallis
Manager of Tottenham Hotspur football club Harry Redknapp arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London. Redknapp was found not guilty of tax evasion following a three-week trial into allegations he stashed hundred of thousands of dollars in an offshore bank account.
©AFP / Justin Tallis
Redknapp denied two counts of cheating the public revenue by failing to declare £189,000 kept in a Monaco bank account
LONDON (AFP) - Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp was found not guilty of tax evasion on Wednesday following a three-week trial into allegations he stashed hundreds of thousands of dollars in an offshore bank account.
Redknapp's co-accused Milan Mandaric was also unanimously acquitted of all charges in dramatic scenes at a packed Southwark Crown Court.
Redknapp and Mandaric hugged each other in the dock following the conclusion of a two-and-a-half-week trial which had seen both men's reputations at stake.
After his acquittal, Redknapp said his case should never have been brought to court, describing his prosecution as a five-year "nightmare."
"I'm looking forward to getting home, and getting away from all this," Redknapp said outside court. "It really has been a nightmare, I've got to be honest. It's been five years and it should never have come to court.
"It's unbelievable really. It was horrendous. But it was unanimous, there was no case to answer. I'm pleased that I can go home."
The most successful English manager currently working in football, Redknapp is regarded as the favourite to replace England boss Fabio Capello later this year with his Spurs side currently third in the Premier League table.
Any guilty verdict against Redknapp would have effectively ended his chances of becoming England boss, a job he has previously said he would be unable to turn down if offered to him.
But Wednesday's acquittal leaves Redknapp free to pursue his dream of managing England. Bookmakers immediately slashed their odds on him taking over from Capello following the verdict.
"These unfounded allegations should never have been brought to court," Mandaric said in a statement outside court amid a scrum of media.
©AFP / Justin Tallis
Milan Mandaric was also unanimously acquitted of all charges in dramatic scenes at a packed Southwark Crown Court
"I need to go and find somewhere to wake up from this horrible dream."
Redknapp, 64, and Mandaric, 73, had denied two counts of cheating the public revenue by failing to declare £189,000 kept in a Monaco bank account.
Prosecutors alleged the money was paid to Redknapp by Mandaric when the two men were manager and owner of Portsmouth respectively as part of a bonus arising from the sale of striker Peter Crouch.
But Redknapp said the money was paid by Mandaric to help with investments in the United States, and that he believed any taxes owing on the amount had already been paid by his chairman.
Redknapp's defence barrister John Kelsey-Fry QC had argued the case against the Spurs boss was "repugnant to all our basic instincts of fairness."
Addressing jurors in his closing remarks on Monday, Kelsey-Fry said there was an "inherent absurdity" in the prosecution's reliance on "primarily despicable" evidence gathered by a News of the World reporter.
Lawyers for Mandaric meanwhile argued the prosecution's claim that the money paid into the Monaco account was a bonus "simply doesn't make sense."
"We say the evidence against him is hopelessly weak," Mandaric's barrister Lord MacDonald told the court.
"In Milan Mandaric's mind this was not money for Crouch, this was Milan Mandaric coming through on money he had promised months before - for a portfolio," the barrister said.
After the acquittal, reporting restrictions on an earlier tax evasion case involving Mandaric and former Portsmouth chief Peter Storrie were lifted. Both men were acquitted.
Sports
Redknapp cleared in tax evasion ...Displaced Afghan children face bitter winter
02/08 | 10:32 GMT
©AFP
Fleeing NATO bombardment and Taliban intimidation, thousands of Afghans in refugee camps in the capital Kabul face a new enemy: an unusually bitter winter that is killing their children. Duration: 00:43
©AFP
Fleeing NATO bombardment and Taliban intimidation, thousands of Afghans in refugee camps in the capital Kabul face a new enemy: an unusually bitter winter that is killing their children. Duration: 00:43
Video Gallery
Displaced Afghan children face bitter ...Ai Weiwei to build London 2012 pavilion
02/08 | 05:34 GMT
©AFP/File / Peter Parks
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, pictured here in 2010, is reuniting with the Swiss architects with whom he created Beijing's spectacular Bird's Nest Stadium, to build a pavilion for this year's London Olympics.
©AFP/File / Peter Parks
Ai Weiwei, along with the Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron, will join forces again to design a pavilion
LONDON (AFP) - Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is reuniting with the Swiss architects with whom he created Beijing's spectacular Bird's Nest Stadium, to build a pavilion for this year's London Olympics.
Ai, along with the Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron, will join forces again to design a pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in London's Kensington Gardens park, the gallery said on Tuesday.
"It is a great honour to be working with Herzog and de Meuron and Ai Weiwei," said gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones.
"We are delighted that our annual commission will bring this unique architectural collaboration to Europe to mark the continuity between the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Games."
In a joint statement, Ai and the architects said the project would involve digging some five feet (1.5 metres) into the park's soil to collect rainwater, which would be incorporated into the design.
The resulting construction will be "the perfect place to sit, stand, lie down or just look and be amazed," they said.
Britain's Guardian newspaper said Ai had been coordinating the project with the architects using online phone service Skype.
Ai -- whose activism has made him a thorn in the side of China's communist authorities -- disappeared into custody for 81 days last year as police rounded up dissidents and lawyers amid online calls for Arab-style protests in China.
Upon his release in June, the world-renowned artist was charged with tax evasion. He is currently battling Chinese demands that he pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) which he allegedly owes in back taxes.
The 54-year-old artist -- whose installation of 100 million sunflower seeds, made out of porcelain, was exhibited at London's Tate Modern last year -- denies the charges and insists the case is a politically motivated attempt to silence his activism.
The Serpentine Gallery has commissioned artists and architects to create a summer pavillion for the elegant 111-hectare (275-acre) park every year since 2000. Previous designers include the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
This year's pavillion will be part of the London 2012 festival, a series of 1,000 cultural performances and events across Britain to mark the London 2012 Olympics.
People
Ai Weiwei to build London 2012 ...Egypt risks 'disastrous' rupture in ties: US senators
02/08 | 06:23 GMT
©AFP / Marco Longari
Egyptian demonstrators gather next to a concrete barricade during confrontations outside Cairo's security headquarters on February 6, 2012, as clashes continued in the Egyptian capital. Washington currently provides some $1.3 billion a year in aid to its key Arab ally -- one of the biggest aid packages offered to any nation.
©AFP / Marco Longari
Egyptian demonstrators gather next to a concrete barricade during confrontations outside Cairo's security headquarters
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A trio of leading US senators warned Egypt that the risk of a "disastrous" rupture in ties had "rarely been greater" amid an escalating row over the planned trial of US pro-democracy activists.
Echoed by a bipartisan chorus of anger from US lawmakers, Republican senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte, joined by independent Joe Lieberman, also warned that US congressional "support for Egypt -- including continued financial assistance -- is in jeopardy."
Washington currently provides some $1.3 billion a year in aid to its key Arab ally -- one of the biggest aid packages offered to any nation.
"The current crisis with the Egyptian government has escalated to such a level that it now threatens our long-standing partnership," the senators wrote in a joint statement.
"There are committed opponents of the United States and the US-Egypt relationship within the government in Cairo who are exacerbating tensions and inflaming public opinion in order to advance a narrow political agenda," they said.
"A rupture in relations would be disastrous, and the risks of such an outcome have rarely been greater," the senators added.
©AFP/File / Filippo Monteforte
Egyptian soldiers stand guard in front of the US National Democratic Institute, an NGO rights group in downtown Cairo
Egyptian justices have announced plans to put dozens of pro-democracy activists, including 19 Americans, on trial over alleged illegal funding to foreign aid groups -- a move that has clearly left US lawmakers seething.
The row has led some to openly question the crucial Egypt-US partnership that has anchored America's Middle East policy for a generation and helped keep the peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Democrat John Kerry, influential chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, berated Egypt's leaders for what he said was a "slap in the face to Americans who have supported Egypt for decades and to Egyptian individuals and NGOs who have put their futures on the line for a more democratic Egypt."
He accused unnamed figures of "engaging in a very dangerous game that risks damaging both Egypt's democratic prospects and the US-Egyptian bilateral relationship."
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham warned that US aid to Egypt could be cut if activists end up being imprisoned.
"If anybody goes to jail I think there'll be a backlash you can't contain," Graham told reporters.
©AFP/File / Saul Loeb
Senator Joe Lieberman has warned US support for Egypt is in jeopardy
Asked if that meant scrapping the aid Washington provides to Egypt, Graham replied: "Yes, I think very much at risk."
"The red line for me is incarceration. If any American or NGO (non-governmental organization) staff member is pre-trial confined or post-trial confined, that's just an absolute overreaction," he added.
There was anger in the House of Representatives as well, with congresswoman Kay Granger, who chairs a subcommittee on foreign appropriations, warning that "the harassment of Americans who are in Egypt trying to help build their democracy is unacceptable.
"Not one more dollar should flow to the government of Egypt until the secretary of state can assure the American people that this issue is resolved," she said.
The offices of several local and international NGOs including Freedom House and the International Republican Institute were raided in December by Egyptian authorities as part of a probe into alleged illegal funding.
Then last month, several US members of the NGOs were barred from leaving the country, including Sam LaHood, the son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood who is the IRI's country director for Egypt.
American officials said "a handful" of the pro-democracy activists subsequently took refuge inside the US embassy in Cairo, fearing arrest.
McCain and colleagues in their statement called for a resolution of the crisis "that ends the harassment and prosecution of the employees of US non-governmental organizations operating in Egypt."
"We continue to believe that a solution to this crisis is achievable, and it is clearly in both Egypt's and America's national interests to do everything we can to bring it about as soon as possible," the senators added.
If no resolution is reached soon, however, "consequential damage could be done to the US-Egypt partnership."
Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Egypt of holding the civil society groups "hostage" with a law dating back to ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime, and called for the charges against the accused to be dropped.
"Egyptian authorities should scrap a Mubarak-era law used to prosecute civil society and ensure its planned replacement upholds the right to freedom of association," the London-based group said.
