|
|
|
|
|
Putin’s authority on the wane
US envoy: Troops can stay in Afghanistan post-2014
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Protests pitch Russian blogger against Putin 
Moscow, December 11If Vladimir Putin is to face a Russian rebellion, its spiritual leader may be a 35-year-old blogger named Alexei Navalny. At Saturday's protests, the biggest of Putin's 12-year rule, some of the loudest cheers were for the anti-corruption campaigner, who has warned Russia's paramount leader he could face an Arab Spring-style revolt.
Though Russian blogger Alexei Navalny is nowhere near Vladimir Putin in terms of popularity, he is considered a potential future leader
by foreign diplomats.
Gilani denies talks with Pak Taliban
Libya’s army chief escapes bid on life
|
|
Putin’s authority on the wane
Moscow, December 11 Demonstrators took to the streets of dozens of cities across the vast country in largely peaceful rallies which called for an end to his rule and a rerun of a parliamentary election which they say was rigged to favour his ruling party. From the Pacific port of Vladivostok in the east to Kaliningrad in the west, nearly 7,400 km away, they shouted slogans such as "Putin must go!" and "Swindlers and thieves - give us our elections back!" In a sign of recognition that the people's mood has changed, the security forces hardly intervened and city authorities allowed the protests to go ahead. State television broadcast footage of a huge protest in Moscow, breaking a policy of showing almost no negative coverage of the authorities. But a statement from Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, gave no hint that the prime minister was about to shift direction to answer the protesters' demands or bow to their calls to annul the December 4 election and allow it to be rerun. It also made no reference to the protesters' calls for Putin to go. "We respect the point of view of the protestor, we are hearing what is being said, and we will continue to listen to them," Peskov said in a statement released late on Saturday. That is unlikely to appease protesters who issued a list of demands at the Moscow rally, which police said was attended by 25,000 people and the organisers said attracted up to 150,000. The demands included a rerun of the election, sacking the election commission chief and freeing people the protesters define as political prisoners, and the organisers called for a new day of protests on December 24. "I am happy. December 10, 2011 will go down in history as the day the country's civic virtue and civil society was revived. After 10 years of hibernation, Moscow and all Russia woke up," Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader, wrote in his blog. "The main reason why it was such a big success is that a feeling of self-esteem has awakened in us and we have all got so fed up with Putin's and Medvedev's lies, theft and cynicism that we cannot tolerate it any longer ... Together we will win!"
|
|
US envoy: Troops can stay in Afghanistan post-2014 Washington, December 11 The ambassador, Ryan Crocker, said if the Afghan government wanted American troops to stay longer, the withdrawal could be slowed. “They would have to ask for it,” he said. “I could certainly see us saying, ‘Yeah, makes sense.’ “He emphasised, however, that no such decision had been made, the New York Times reported. White House officials said that Crocker’s comments were consistent with its previously stated position. “The President never excluded the possibility that there would be some US forces here, but he stressed that security would be under Afghan lead by 2014,” said the embassy spokeswoman, Eileen O’Connor. “The President has always spoken of a responsible winding down of the efforts here, so talk of the possibility of some troops still being here post-2014 is not a change in policy.” But Crocker’s comments were an explicit acknowledgment that the post-2014 forces may include combat troops, not just the trainers and advisers who had been publicly mentioned before, the Times pointed out. His comments came as the administration was engaged in discussions with the Afghan government on arrangements after 2014. At a conference in Bonn, Germany, last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan officials called for political and military support for at least another decade. In June, Obama announced that American troop withdrawals would begin the following month, with 10,000 of the roughly 101,000 American troops then in the country to leave by December 31, and an additional 23,000 to follow by the summer of 2012. “We are on a timeline, as you know,” Crocker said. “Ten thousand out by the end of the year, that is being met.” With the additional 23,000 by September 2012, he added, “that basically recovers the surge” - the reinforcements Obama ordered two years ago. “Beyond that, there are no decisions,” he said, adding, “And as far as I’m aware, there are no formal recommendations yet.” Asked if that meant that the United States would not necessarily withdraw all combat troops by 2014, Crocker said, “I don’t know what we’re going to be doing in 2014.”
— PTI
|
|
Protests pitch Russian blogger against Putin
Moscow, December 11 Though he was absent from the rallies, sitting in jail since a protest last week against vote-rigging in the December 4 parliamentary election, Navalny is in the vanguard of a mood change among Russia's urban youth against Putin's rule. "You cannot beat up and arrest hundreds of thousands or millions," Navalny said in a statement from jail that was read out to demonstrators on Saturday. "We are not cattle or slaves. We have a voice and we have the strength to defend it." The message, issued while he serves out a 15-day sentence for obstructing police during a demonstration, was also posted on his blog. Navalny represents a new, Internet-savvy generation and is seen as a potential threat to Putin, even though the prime minister and former KGB spy runs a tightly controlled political system that he has crafted since his rise to power in 1999. Asked about his own ambitions during an interview with Reuters in May, Navalny winced but his blue eyes twinkled: "I would like to be President," he said. "But there are no elections in Russia." With a courage that some would say borders on folly, Navalny dismissed the dangers of challenging Putin: "That's the difference between me and you: you are afraid and I am not afraid," he said. "I realise there is danger, but why should I be afraid?" He has no political party but Navalny has become possibly Russia's most popular political blogger by using his computer keyboard to illustrate the absurdities of a corrupt bureaucracy. Yet his character and politics are also more complex - some might call them contradictory - than admiring Western liberals might expect of a Yale-educated lawyer who has taken to buying small stakes in some of Russia's biggest companies in order to demand greater transparency for shareholders, and the public. While his time in the United States on a fellowship at Yale has forced him into denying accusations from Putin supporters that he is a CIA plant, his hostile views on Muslim and Asian migration into Russia's Slavic heartland have also seen him obliged to rebuff suggestions that he has "fascist" tendencies.
— Reuters
|
|
Gilani denies talks with Pak Taliban Islamabad, December 11 "Our policy is that if someone doesn't resort to violence against us, if they denounce violence and surrender to the political agent (in the tribal areas) and say that they won't do such things, then they come to the mainstream," he said. "But as such, we are not talking with any militants," Gilani said during an interview with BBC Urdu. He was responding to questions about senior Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad's claims that the militants were in talks with the government. Asked if the government had secretly engaged the militants, Gilani said, "Nothing will be done behind the curtains, whatever we do will be in the open." Gilani said his government had a ‘3D policy’ for tackling militancy that comprised dialogue, development and deterrence. This policy was the basis for talks held with Maulana Fazlullah, the former commander of the Taliban in the Swat Valley, and an agreement between the two sides. "When that agreement was violated, we were left with no choice but to carry out a military action," Gilani said. Interior Minister Rehman Malik too denied that the government was talking to the Taliban and said there had been no change in the government's stance that dialogue could be held only if the militants laid down their weapons and surrendered to authorities.
— PTI
|
|
Libya’s army chief escapes bid on life
Cairo, December 11 The gunmen, believed to be from renegade groups of former revolutionary fighters, tried to kill Maj-Gen Khalifa Haftar when he was on his way to the military headquarters in Tripoli yesterday. A group of armed men at a mock checkpoint tried to stop them, but Haftar convoy swerved from the checkpoint and drove over a nearby bridge where they were shot at by two gunmen positioned on the other side, military spokesman Sgt. Abdel Razik el-Shibahy was quoted as saying by the Al Arabiya news.
— PTI
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
