Posts Tagged ‘South’

Carla Bruni embarrassed by Berlusconi’s ‘tanned Obama’ comment

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

Carla Bruni, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has criticised the prime minister of Italy for referring to American President-elect Barack Obama’s ’suntan.

‘When I hear Silvio Berlusconi… joke about the fact that Obama is ‘always tanned’, that makes me feel funny,’ she told ‘le Journal du Dimanche’ newspaper.

‘That will be put down to humour. But often, I am very happy that I have become French,’ said Bruni, who became a French citizen after marrying Sarkozy, The Times newspaper reported Monday.

Prime Minister Berlusconi, on a visit to Moscow last week, said the relative youth of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, 43, and Obama, 47, should make it easier for Moscow and Washington to work together.

‘I told the president that (Obama) has everything needed in order to reach deals with him: He’s young, handsome and even tanned,’ he was reported to have said through an interpreter.

Berlusconi, who has been slammed in Italy, defended the remark against critics, calling it ‘a great compliment.

‘If they have the vice of not having a sense of humour, worse for them,’ he said.

The outspoken Bruni, while backing a campaign called ‘Yes, we can’ for affirmative action in France, also attacked France’s failure to integrate black and African immigrants.

‘Power (in France) has often had the same face: that of men who are white and ageing. That is why I can identify with this appeal. Without political measures we will be waiting too long,’ she said.

Bruni revealed that during a modelling assignment in the American state of South Carolina in 1992, she was asked to eat in private with her fellow-models as the local restaurant would not accept the presence of one of her colleagues – black supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Russian peacekeepers prepare for pullout from Georgia

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

(IANS)

Moscow, Oct 3 (RIA Novosti) Russian peacekeepers are preparing to withdraw from Georgian buffer zones bordering the breakaway province of South Ossetia in line with international agreements, a senior military official said Friday.

Under the agreement, brokered by the European Union (EU) last month, Russia has pledged to pull all troops out of the undisputed parts of Georgia within one month, leaving peacekeepers in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia has agreed to pull all its remaining peacekeepers out of the area by Oct 10.

‘All diplomatic agreements on the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Georgian buffer zones, bordering South Ossetia, will be implemented on time,’ Lt. Col. Vitaly Manushko, a spokesman for the peacekeeping forces, said.

Moscow launched a five-day military operation to ‘force Georgia to accept peace’ after Tbilisi attacked South Ossetia on Aug 8 in an attempt to regain control over the breakaway province that had split from Georgia in the early 1990s. A number of Russian peacekeepers and about 1,600 South Ossetian residents lost their lives during the conflict.

Russia’s response to the Georgian attack was called disproportionate by a number of Western powers.

On Aug 26, Russia drew further criticism when it recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian republic, as independent states. So far, only Nicaragua has followed suit.

Medvedev hurts feelings in Georgian critique

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Monday 18th August, 2008

President Dmitry Medvedev has referred to the Georgian political elite as “morons who are ready to kill innocent and defenseless people in order to satisfy their self-serving interests, by using the most terrible solution by exterminating an entire people.

President Medvedev was speaking at a visit to Russian military headquarters near the Russian-Georgian border.

While both sides have accused each other of ethnic cleansing during the current conflict, Georgia has claimed the Russian push into Georgia had been

long planned.

Georgian Ambassador to the US, Vasil Sikharulidze, has said: “You just don’t move more than 1,200 tanks and 15,000 soldiers into a country within 12 hours without previous planning.

Russia’s military says its withdrawal from Georgia has begun, but a senior Pentagon official told reporters Monday evening that there has been little evidence of Russian troops pulling out.

Nevertheless, Russian military officials have said their troops are being pulled away to the borders of South Ossetia, away from Georgian territory.

The conflict has devastated parts of Georgia and South Ossetia, with many casualties reported.

The UN refugee agency said more than 158,000 people had been displaced by fighting in Georgia.

Indian mission in South Africa to outsource visa services

Monday, August 18th, 2008

The Indian mission in South Africa will soon begin outsourcing visa services to prevent ‘annonying’ delays for tourists, India’s Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni said here.

‘Tourism between India and South Africa is growing, but I want it to grow faster,’ Soni told IANS during her two-day visit to South Africa.

‘My vision is that within 48 hours, anyone wanting to visit India must get a visa. Since 2006 there has been a focus on India, resulting in us developing new tourism products, making it more exciting for both types of travellers – the backpacker and the higher end tourist.

‘We now have not only tourists on pilgrimage or who come to India to visit family, like many South Africans do, but also rural tourism, shopping tourism, and what is very, very popular is our Ayurvedic tourism. For the West Asian market, we are even developing monsoon tourism, so we are promoting India as a 365 days tourism destination.

Soni signed a Programme of Cooperation in the fields of arts and culture with her South African counterpart Pallo Jordan to strengthen links in fields such as handicrafts, literature, music, dance and films.

‘This agreement will facilitate further exchanges of artefacts, textiles, handicrafts and other art forms,’ Soni told IANS.

At a cultural programme to celebrate India’s 62nd Independence Day, a dance group from the Radhakrishna Music and Dance Academy performed a modern interpretation of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous devotional song ‘Ragupathi raghava raja ram’.

Soni reacted to the interpretation by saying: ‘I don’t know how people who are devout singers of Gandhi’s bhajans would take to that, but that’s how you make people, ideologies, and value systems relevant to the younger generation; otherwise you would shut them out altogether.

Soni, who had been an international observer here in 1993 and then during the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, said after visiting the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg that it had been a ‘particularly moving experience’.

During her stay, Soni attended a colourful reception on Aug 15 at the Indian high commission, hosted by High Commissioner Rajiv Bhatia on the occasion of the 62nd Independence Day.

She also led a march in Johannesburg Aug 16 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s historic march against an oppressive discriminatory law in 1908. The event was attended by African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and the arts and culture minister. A large number of community representatives and students also participated.

As part of the celebration, Soni led a walk from Museum Africa to the Hamidia Mosque in Fordsburg, where a symbolic bonfire of registration certificates took place. The original march was prompted by the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance of August 1906, requiring any person of Indian origin to register by a certain date or forego the right to live in then Transvaal province of South Africa.

Ethnic violence surges in South Ossetia

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

(IANS)

Tskhinvali/Behind the lines of the Russian troops controlling the Georgian separatist region of South Ossetia, ethnic enclaves have been torn apart by revenge killings and looting.

Along the road from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali most of the houses are charred and gates and doors left open by looters. Returning residents said houses were still burning.

Russian soldiers are camped on freshly painted basketball courts – the only things not burnt in what had been one of the most wealthy parts of the region of 70,000 inhabitants.

Fatima Gazeyeva, 42, saw the house of her former dentist burning when she returned to the capital Friday. ‘It’s the second time. It burnt first in 1991 but then he came back to rebuild it.

The first burning was during the war of secession fought between Georgia and South Ossetia in the early 1990s.

‘I went to see him three months ago by taking the detour road because peacekeepers’ checkpoints already wouldn’t let us through.

Residents taking stock of their devastated capital after days of cowering in their cellars were too angry to forgive.

‘There is no way on earth that we could live with the Georgians again, even him,’ Fatima said, referring to the dentist. ‘There are so many dead. It’s over between us.

Several irregular volunteer fighters told DPA that they were undertaking ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Georgian hamlets in the breakaway region.

Houses were burning in Georgian villages and looters breaking into empty homes.

‘We are not politicians, but we know we don’t need the Georgians … we are cleansing them like mines,’ one irregular fighter, Vadim Farnyev, 25, said on his way back to his native Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia after fighting across the border in Georgia.

‘I didn’t kill anybody,’ he added. The other fighters laughed and clapped him on the back.

Russian soldiers are aware of revenge killings, but ‘we can’t be here, there, everywhere,’ said Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Vobrum of the Russian 58th Army in Georgian town of Gori.

The bodies of Georgian soldiers, naked or half dressed in civilian clothes, are decomposing along the road to Gori.

‘Ossetians aren’t going to bury them, right? It’s not their dead,’ the colonel said.

Two Western photographers said they had seen elderly Georgian men with their hands tied behind their backs being brought from the Ossetian interior ministry building at night to clear the streets.

In Gori, Russian soldiers and emergency ministry officials unloaded elderly and invalid Georgians from South Ossetia.

Old men and women, hunched and unable to walk, were carried by Russian soldiers into a boarding school and placed in child-size beds with rose-coloured sheets.

‘The Russians are helping us a lot,’ said Vardo Kopadze, 74, who was evacuated from the Georgian enclave of Khathabedti near the South Ossetian capital.

She said an Ossetian looter looking for weapons shot dead her 84-year-old husband Giorgi Monday.

‘He spoke with us in Russian, but I’m sure he wasn’t Russian. He was very dark skinned,’ she said.

Vardo’s frail neighbour, Alexei Chalaidzhe, 76, said he buried Giorgi in the yard.

‘I slept with fear afterwards and then … demons were flying at me.

Russia intensifies attacks on Georgia

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

Moscow/Tbilisi(Georgia): Russia on Sunday intensified airstrikes and a naval blockade against Georgia, as international diplomats were exploring ways to establish a ceasefire in the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia.Three Russian air force Su-25 bombers struck an airfield adjacent to a military aircaft factory outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi shortly after dawn, causing damage but inflicting no casualties, a senior Georgian official said.Russian bombers also struck a Georgian military base near the town of Bolnisi and in the remote Kodori valley near the border of Abkhazia, Georgia's Rustaveli-2 television reported.The war widened Saturday with Abkhazia, like South Ossetia a separatist Georgian province supported by Moscow, attacking Georgian forces.Warships from Russia's Black Sea fleet by Sunday morning had clamped down a naval blockade on Georgia's coast line, turning back "several civilian ships," said Aleksander Lomaia, Georgia's national security council chief, in a statement.Among freighters halted with warning shots was a Moldovan-flagged vessel carrying wheat to the port Poti, threatening Georgia's food supplies, Lomaia claimed.Georgian intelligence gave the elements of the Russian squadron as three amphibious assault vessels, two anti-submarine warfare vessels, a reconnaissance ship, two minesweepers, two missile boats, and a missile cruiser.The Russian flotilla is substantially larger than Georgia's tiny navy, currently bottled up in Poti, military observers said.The site of the fiercest ground fighting over the last three days, the unofficial South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, saw infantry battles throughout the night as Russian forces engaged Georgian troops holding heights overlooking the town.Heavy artillery fire on the city, a feature of fighting since the war's outbreak, had practically halted by early Sunday morning, according to a South Ossetia army statement.Some civilians remained trapped in the city, most of whose buildings are now badly damaged or destroyed, witnesses said.Corpses in some cases three days old still were lying in Tskhinvali's streets, as artillery fire from both sides made burial impossible, the Interfax news agency reported.Georgia gave its military losses as of Saturday at some 50 men dead and 450 wounded. Russia had admitted to 12 men dead and 150 injured.Estimates of civilian dead in the fighting have exceeded 1,600 people. The Tskhinvali town hospital alone as of Sunday morning was treating 200 injured and had more than 50 dead in its morgue, according to the report.

Israel considers halting arms sales to Georgia

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

Jerusalem, Aug 10 (Xinhua) Israel is planning to halt arms sales to Georgia amid fears of Russian retaliation, daily Ha'aretz reported Sunday.'Israel needs to be very careful and sensitive these days,' an unnamed senior Israeli political source was quoted as commenting on the country's stance over the fighting between Georgian and Russian forces in South Ossetia.The Israeli foreign ministry last week held a meeting on the issue, and decided to recommend to the defence ministry to stop sales of military equipment to Georgia because the country was now a 'combat zone,' said the report.The newspaper added that the Jewish state is concerned that its continued military support for Georgia would spur Russia to retaliate by lifting restrictions on its arms transfers to Iran and Arab states.'The Russians are selling many arms to Iran and Syria and there is no need for them to offer an excuse to sell even more advanced weapons,' the source said.He highlighted that Israel is particularly concerned about Russia's interest in transferring advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, which Israel considers to be its main strategic threat.The Israeli defence ministry imposed significant limitations on the arms transfers to Georgia about six months ago, only allowing defensive equipment and advisers, in view of the growing friction between Georgia and Russia, Ha'aretz reported.Also in the day, the defence establishment held a special meeting to discuss the various arms deals held by Israelis in Georgia, yet no change of policy has been announced, according to another daily Yedioth Ahronoth.'The subject is closely monitored,' the newspaper quoted defence sources as saying. 'So far, we have placed no limitations on the sale of protective measures.Israel began selling arms to Georgia about seven years ago, and the value of the defence deals between the two countries stands at $200 million, said the newspapers.South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and was governed by a secessionist government since then although its independence has not been internationally recognised.Georgian troops Friday mobilised army against South Ossetia in an attempt to re-establish control over the region.The development drew Russia into a war with Georgia and Russian jets and tanks drove into South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali to secure it from the Georgian invasion.Comments on this story Israel considers halting arms sales to GeorgiaIsrael Beware !!! The USA will turn it’s back on You !!!of the USA in Iraq !!arms and ammmo to the Islamists ic China !!Russia wants to Destroy Israel !!!!Wake up before it’s your end !!Guess Israel doesn’t want to enrage the Russia bear…Has Georgia Overreached in Ossetia? 09, 2008 – The victims, of course, are the civilians of Georgia and its breakaway South Ossetia region, caught in the escalating battle between the Georgian military and South Ossetian separatists and their more powerful Russian backer.Hundreds are alleged to have been killed in two days of heavy fighting that has shown no sign of abating by late Saturday, and thousands more are confronting the resulting humanitarian crisis. But the battle that began to rage in Georgia as world leaders were treated to the pyrotechnics of the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony may be the most serious challenge to the post-Cold War balance of power since the collapse of the Soviet Union.Georgia and South Ossetia have been squared off in an uneasy peace for more than a decade, now, since the region broke away from Georgia in the early '90s, following its independence from the Soviet Union. After a protracted war that killed around 1,000 people and displaced thousands more ethnic Georgians from the territory, Georgia was compelled to sign a cease-fire agreement that left South Ossetia — a tiny mountainous territory a few football fields smaller than Rhode Island — effectively autonomous, but unable to secure recognition by the international community. Still, Russia has protected the region, providing finance, military protection and even passports, and has used South Ossetia’s secession, together with that of Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia, as leverage against Tblisi’s desire to join NATO. Moscow sees Georgia’s move towards NATO as part of a strategy of hostile encirclement of Russia by Western powers, and when the Western alliance enabled Kosovo’s secession from Serbia earlier this year despite the fact that its independence is not recognized by the United Nations, many analysts expected Russia to retaliate by further stoking the fires of secession in Georgia.Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili has a different agenda — he won election in 2004 on promise to recover the breakaway territories, and to join NATO. So closely has he courted the U.Russia Ready to Negotiate10, 2008 — Russia declared itself ready to make peace with Georgia and U.The United Nations Security Council was meeting Sunday morning for the fourth time in as many days trying to resolve a conflict that began when U.-allied Georgia tried to control South Ossetia then said its troops had retreated in the face of Russia’s tanks and aircraft.Russia is “ready to put an end to the war," said Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who also accused the U.“They’re ready for immediate talks with the Russian Federation," confirmed U. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynne Pascoe during a briefing to the Security Council. He said Georgia’s “humanitarian corridor” for civilians, refugees and troops would help facilitate the negotiations.Responding to Churkin’s remarks, British Deputy Ambassador Karen Pierce defended U.Many of the council members take sides with Georgia, which is not a council member. Georgia’s ambassador, who was present Sunday, can only join the council’s open meetings, not its private talks, and then again only by invitation.But Russia is one of five nations with veto power on the 15-nation council.

Georgia could withdraw from Games: Official

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

Georgia could withdraw from the Beijing Olympics in protest at the fighting in the troubled enclave of South Ossetia, a spokesman for the 35-strong delegation said."At the moment, we don't know anything. It is being discussed. We should know more in a few hours," Giorgi Tchanishvili, the press attache for the team, said on Saturday.Earlier on Saturday, the Georgia National Olympic Committee, issued a statement condemning Russian air raids which left scores of people dead."While the fireworks were exploding over China's capital's starlit sky (during Friday's opening ceremony here), Georgia was dealing with bombings and explosions in many of its villages and towns: Gori, Kareli, Poti, Senaki, Kutaisi, Bolnisi and Marneuli," said the statement."Georgian airspace has been repeatedly violated by military aircraft of the Russian Federation and now, this deliberate strategy of aggression has grown into a full-scale military intervention involving all regions of Georgia."Georgia calls upon the international community to make it clear, with the utmost seriousness, to the Russian Federation that intrusion into and bombing of the territory of a sovereign state is unacceptable in the 21st century and that such acts cannot and will not be tolerated."We hope that the dove that was released on Friday from the 'Bird's Nest' stadium will make its way to the Caucasus and restore peace in the region.Russia's latest military action took place as the former Soviet state of Georgia tried to wrest control of the disputed province of South Ossetia from Moscow-backed separatists.

Bush says fighting in Georgia must stop

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

Saturday 9th August, 2008 President George Bush is urging an end to the fighting in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.President Bush says the fighting must stop."I am deeply concerned about the situation in Georgia," he said. "The United States takes this matter very seriously.He says he is particularly troubled by the fact the conflict is spreading to other parts of Georgia – a reference to Russian bombings beyond the borders of South Ossetia."The violence is endangering regional peace," said President Bush. "Civilian lives have been lost and others are endangered.South Ossetia's autonomous status was abolished by the Georgian government in 1990, then reinstated in 1992. The current government in Tblisi has vowed to bring it back into the fold and on Thursday launched a military operation to do just that.But South Ossetia has strong ties to Moscow, which supports the separatist movement. When Georgia sent its forces in, the Russians responded by sending in more troops and bombers.President Bush says all sides need to step back, stop hostilities, and work with mediators to resolve the conflict."Georgia is a sovereign nation and its territorial integrity must be respected," he said. "We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops.White House officials say President Bush re-enforced the U. position in separate conversations with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. In his brief comments to reporters in Beijing, Mr. Bush called on Russia to stop bombing and start cooperating with peace efforts."Russia needs to support these efforts so that peace can be restored as quickly as possible," he said.Russian officials claim 1,500 lives have been lost and tens of thousands have fled to bordering North Ossetia in Russia.The feud between Russia and Georgia has pitted two former Soviet Republics against each other, drawing international concern.The United States, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe announced Friday they were sending a delegation to Georgia in hopes of securing a cease-fire. Security Council is expected to meet again Saturday to discuss the crisis.Comments on this story Bush says fighting in Georgia must stopWhere oh where did the lil pundit find religion this time?He been 'saved' a second time!Is that possible? Or was the first time a lil fibber?Boy he’s sure got it this time! Must be the water in China! He sure is on the high road! Peace is good he now says! Just one lil mountain bike ride was all it took!"The United States takes this matter very seriously.“President Bush says the fighting must stop.“The violence is endangering regional peace," said President Bush. “Civilian lives have been lost and others are endangered.And that does not apply for the palestinian people?

Ambika Soni to lead historic Gandhi march in South Africa

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

India's Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni will join a number of South African community leaders in leading a march here Aug 16 to commemorate the centenary of a historic march organised by Mahatma Gandhi against an oppressive discriminatory law.The march will be part of a series of events organised by the Indian mission here in conjunction with a range of community bodies. The original march was prompted by the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance of August 1906, requiring any person of Indian origin to register by a certain date or forego the right to live in then Transvaal province of South Africa.Every Indian man, woman or child older than eight years was required to register with a government official called the Registrar of Asiatics. This registrar would also take the fingerprints of the people registered and issue them with registration certificates, which they had to show to any policeman who asked to see them. An Indian who could not produce a certificate could be fined and sent to prison.Outraged by this new discriminatory law, the Transvaal Indian Congress asked Gandhi, then resident in Durban, to come to Transvaal to assist in fighting this injustice legally.Among Gandhi's first actions was to publish an interpretation of the new Act in Indian languages, pointing out how insulting the law was in demanding that Indians give prints of their ten fingers, as if they were criminals.Gandhi was also instrumental in engaging with and getting the support of the Chinese community, to whom these laws also applied.But probably Gandhi'smost famous tool for resistance, Satyagraha, was also born during this time.This passive resistance saw the government of the day trying to engage the community through Gandhi, but after long negotiations with Prime Minister Jan Smuts failed, drastic action was agreed upon.Gandhi led a group of some 3,000 citizens on a protest march against the infamous Registration Certificates, which culminated at the Hamidia Mosque in the suburb of Newtown here with a symbolic bonfire as infuriated Indians burnt about 800 registration certificates in a large cauldron outside as an act of defiance against the registration and immigration laws.'The events of Aug 16, 1908 are regarded as an important milestone in the evolution of passive resistance as a form of protest against racial discrimination and apartheid and will be commemorated in several ways,' Indian Consul-General Navdeep Suri told IANS.'The centerpiece of these commemorative events is of course the March, but the Indian Consulate has also brought in a wide range of community, civil society and other organizations because Mahatma Gandhi's message of non-violence and passive resistance against injustice remains as relevant today as it was in 1908.The recent incidents of (xenophobic) violence in Johannesburg, Cape Town and other areas make it especially poignant'.