US: More countries ready to back Syria action
US Secretary of State says number of countries ready to take military action against Assad regime runs in double digits.
Last Modified: 08 Sep 2013 04:08
The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has said that many countries were prepared to take part in US-led military strikes against the Syrian regime for an alleged chemical attack near a Damascus suburb last month.
“There are a number of countries, in the double digits, who are prepared to take military action,” Kerry said at a press conference on Saturday with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.
“We have more countries prepared to take military action than we actually could use in the kind of military action being contemplated.”
Kerry also said he was encouraged by a European Union statement calling for a “strong” response to the alleged Syrian chemical attack.
Shi Tao: China frees journalist jailed over Yahoo emails
Shi Tao was sent to prison in 2005 after Yahoo informed Chinese authorities he leaked Tiananmen memo to human rights forum
Associated Press in Beijing
theguardian.com, Sunday 8 September 2013 05.44 BSTA Chinese reporter who was sentenced to prison in 2005 after Yahoo disclosed details of his email has been released, a writer’s group has announced.
Shi Tao had been released on 23 August, 15 months before the end of his sentence, the Independent Chinese Pen Centre said in a statement. There was no indication why Shi was released early.
Shi was arrested in 2004 and sentenced to prison the following year on charges of disclosing state secrets. He had sent details of a government memo about restrictions on news coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary to a human rights forum in the United States.
Shell close to deal over ‘ruinous’ oil spill in Niger Delta
Five years after fishing and farming livelihoods were ruined, oil giant is ready to agree compensation which could reach £100m
SAM MASTERS SUNDAY 08 SEPTEMBER 2013
For five years a London law firm and Anglo-Dutch oil giant have argued over reparations for one of the world’s worst spills in Africa’s oil heartland. But now, as fishing villages on the banks of the Niger Delta continue to count the cost of the leaks, compensation claims are finally due to be settled.
Royal Dutch Shell will tomorrow seek to reach an “acceptable agreement” with inhabitants of the cluster of Nigerian fishing villages over claims their livelihoods were ruined by the spills in 2008.
Navalny challenges Putin-backed rival in Moscow poll
ELECTIONS
Polls have opened in the Russian capital, Moscow, for mayoral elections seen as a key political barometer for the whole country. Main challenger Alexei Navalny is one of President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critics.
The election sees anti-corruption blogger Navalny take on the incumbent mayor and Putin ally Sergei Sobyanin, who has held the post since 2010.
About 40 million people, or half of all Russian voters, are eligible to cast ballots in local-body elections across Russia. The polls are the biggest political test for Putin since he faced down mass protests a year and a half ago.
Israel becomes a ‘Promised Land’ for non-Jewish geeks
By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer
Tel Aviv is home to a growing number of non-Jewish expats drawn by the optimism and openness of its technology start-up scene.
With a good job at Viacom back in London and no cultural or religious ties to the country, he didn’t plan to stay beyond his two-week vacation – let alone move here.
But today he is married to his Facebook sweetheart and serves as CEO of a Tel Aviv-based social advertising start-up, Adquant, which is planning to open a San Francisco office and expand from 30 to 80 employees over the next eight months.
Tony Abbott: Australia’s pugnacious new prime minister
By Peter Shadbolt, CNN
September 8, 2013 — Updated 0046 GMT (0846 HKT)The pugnacious style of Tony Abbott, the winner of Australia’s election, has played well with the electorate.
He may have run a gaffe-prone campaign against the bookish Kevin Rudd, the incumbent Labor prime minister, but his knockabout style, which harkens back to older, safer times, proved popular with an electorate exhausted by years of Labor infighting.
Having successfully deflected accusations of sexism — dismissing a campaign gaffe in which he lauded a Liberal female candidate for her “sex appeal” as a “dad moment” — Abbott has presented himself as an unreconstructed male who loves his sport and beer.
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