Russia in ground-breaking talks with Syrian opposition

                                       

Ground breaking talks have been held between the Russian Foreign Minister and the Syrian opposition leader, as part of a global push to end the conflict in Syria.
After this first meeting, Moscow has said it will keep in regular contact with the Syrian National Coalition Leader Moaz Al-Khatibib.

Syrian National Coalition Leader Moaz Al-Khatibib.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier met US Vice President Joe Biden in relation to the on-going crisis in Syria.

There is strong disagreement between the US and Russia over how to end the 22-month conflict, which the UN believes has claimed up to 60,000 lives.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

Moscow said Saturday it wanted to keep in regular contact with the Syrian opposition, after its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz al-Khatib met for the first time.

"I reminded Khatib that after the creation of the coalition and the appointment of their leader, we immediately demonstrated our interest in maintaining regular contact," Russian news agencies quoted Lavrov as saying after the meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

"We will make that happen," he added.

Lavrov had earlier Saturday held talks with US Vice President Joe Biden and UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi amid strong disagreement between Moscow and Washington about ways to end the 22-month Syria conflict, which according to the United Nations has claimed upwards of 60,000 lives.

Khatib, who became the head of the coalition late last year, reiterated on the opening day of the Munich talks Friday an earlier surprise announcement that his group is ready for dialogue with the Damascus regime -- subject to conditions including the release of 160,000 detainees.

Lavrov said Moscow welcomed the initiative, adding: "If we take into account the fact that the coalition was founded on a refusal to engage in a dialogue with the regime, it's a very important step."        

Biden, in his meeting with Lavrov, called on Washington and Moscow to put aside "serious differences" and stressed the need for US-Russian cooperation, including over Syria, the White House said.

Moscow's engagement with the Syrian opposition comes just days after Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev took the rare step of criticising Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Assad made a "grave, perhaps fatal error" in not reaching out more quickly to the Syrian opposition "which was ready to sit at the negotiating table with him", Russian news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying on Sunday last week.

"It seems to me that his chances of staying (in power) are shrinking day by day," Medvedev told CNN television.

Biden also met Khatib and Brahimi in Munich on Saturday.

He "urged Khatib to continue his efforts to maintain unity among the SOC (Syrian Opposition Coalition) leadership, to isolate extremist elements within the broader opposition, and to reach out to, and be inclusive of, a broad range of communities inside Syria, including Alawites, Christians and Kurds", according to a White House statement.

Earlier the US vice president insisted Assad was a "tyrant" and must go.

The United States and its allies have made repeated calls for Assad's ousting. Key Damascus ally Russia has resisted any international action, arguing that the Syrian people must decide their own fate.

Lavrov, whose country has blocked three UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning Assad for the violence, called for another meeting of the Syrian action group led by Brahimi to try to reach agreement on a transition, saying he believed progress was possible.

He said Moscow shared Washington's concern about the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria.

"We coordinate this issue with the Americans on a daily basis. We have reliable information that for now, the Syrian government has control of the chemical weapons, that the situation is safe," Lavrov said in his address to the conference.

"I think that this (the use of chemical weapons) is a 'red line' for everyone. We are categorically against the use of any arms."

In a dramatic development last week, Syria said Israeli air strikes hit a weapons research centre near Damascus and threatened to retaliate.

Israel has not commented on the reports, but a US official said an Israeli raid struck surface-to-air missiles and a nearby military complex on the capital's outskirts.

Israel has frequently warned that if Syrian chemical weapons fall into the hands of the Shiite movement Hezbollah, its arch-foe and close Damascus ally, this would be a casus belli.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told AFP that Washington is also concerned the "chaos" in Syria could allow Hezbollah to obtain sophisticated weaponry.

On the ground on Saturday, rebels were reported to have taken control of the Sheikh Said district of Aleppo, Syria's second city, in a strategic victory securing a key route to its international airport.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists and medics on the ground for its information, said at least 114 people were killed on Saturday: 46 civilians, 33 rebels and 35 soldiers.

Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official visiting Damascus reiterated that his country stood squarely behind the Syrian regime.

     

Word for the Day: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter- Martin Luther King Jr.

Syria Air Strike........... Israel Claims Responsibility!

Defense Minister Ehud Barak

Israel‘s defence minister indicated Sunday that his country was behind an air strike on Syria that U.S. officials said targeted anti-aircraft weapons bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah; which he refereed to as “proof that when we say something, we mean it."

“We say that we don’t think it [Syria] should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon,”

It was the first public comment by an Israeli government official on the Wednesday strike. He told top international diplomats and defence officials at a conference Sunday in Germany with top Diplomats and Defence officials from around the world.

Damage done to cars and an office after an Israeli air raid

Barak however, did not bluntly say that Israel had carried out the strike, skirting the issue by saying, “I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago,” 

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the Israeli government for its alleged airstrike in Syria, saying that "those who treated the Israeli government like a spoiled child should know that history will not forgive the Israeli state."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish Huriyet Daily News quoted Erdogan as saying, “It is unacceptable to us, it is against every international law.”

Word For the Day: To manage men, one ought to have a sharp mind in a velvet sheath - George Eliot

Cuba Elections

               

A total of 8,631,836 Cubans are summoned to the polls on Sunday to elect the 612 members of parliament, said the president of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Alina Balseiro.

Using the free, equal and secret suffrage, according to the Electoral Act 1992, those in the register of voters will also elect the 1269 delegates to 15 provincial assemblies of People's Power, in nearly 30,000 polling stations enabled in the country, Prensa Latina reported.  Balseiro told reporters that they have created the conditions to ensure a massive attendance for election, as is tradition in Cuba.  Over 225,000 election officials were appointed to these elections, about 150,000 of them will work at the polling stations directly. Those citizens received the necessary training to ensure the success of the elections, and the system was subjected to a dynamic test on Sunday, which allowed us to detect and correct problems, said the president of the CEN. The election for members of parliament and provincial deputies is the second part of the general elections 2012-2013, convened in Cuba last July by the State Council.  Critics howbeit, note that the number of candidates vying for seats in the legislature's next five-year-long term is identical to the number of open seats, leaving little suspense about the outcome. However, about two thirds of this year's candidates are running for the first time, raising hopes that the election will bring some change to the country. Also up for grabs on Sunday are 1,269 seats in 15 provincial assemblies. "It is a farce," former political prisoner Oscar Espinosa Chepe told the AFP news agency. Another prominent opposition figure, Elizardo Sanchez, called the election "a race with only one horse" - since the Communist Party is the only one running. Cuban authorities, however, hail the electoral system as a grass-roots democracy since all nominees are elected by municipal delegates and by citizen assemblies. Word for the Day: Be known for pleasing others, espcecially if you govern them...Ruling others has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else - Baltasar Gracián

20 years old Nigerian Woman Defaced with acid in U.K!

20 year old Nigerian woman, Naomi Oni was disfigured for life when a unknown person wearing a muslim niqab threw acid in her face as she walked home from work on Sunday December 30th in Lodge Avenue Dagenham, east London.

Naomi told news men, that she was on her way back from work when  she heard someone behind her. She explains: 'I’d been working a late shift and was talking to my boyfriend about what we were going to do for New Year when I saw this Muslim woman wearing a niqab covering her face. I thought it was a bit strange at that time of night, but she didn’t say anything and I kept on walking. 'Then I felt a splash on my face. It burned and I screamed out. I started running and screaming, holding my face, all the way home. I didn’t look back. I got home and I was screaming and banging on the door. I was hysterical. Luckily my godmother, who is a pharmacist, was at home with my mum and she helped me and kept dipping my face in water and trying to calm me down until the police and ambulance got there. 'I was in shock. Saying: "Who would do that? Who would do that?" How could anyone do this?'.

Naomi recently released photos of her disfigured face after police failed to find the person who did this to her. She's now appealing to the public to help her catch her attacker. She said she would never feel safe with her attacker still at large. She also said the attack has destroyed her life 'I look in the mirror and it just isn’t me. I’ll never look the same again. I’ve always been outgoing and confident in my job and in my personal life, used to getting attention for the way I dress or my hair, but now I don’t want anyone looking at me. I don’t want people to see me in public. I don’t want to get the Tube or the bus. If I have to go to the hospital I take a taxi. 'I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to my job. I was planning to go to college in September to study media and fashion, but I don’t even know if I’ll be able to do that. Even with the support of my family and friends and boyfriend I feel very alone,' she said. 'Nothing is going to be same anymore.'Naomi faces years of skin grafts and plastic surgery.

Word for the Day: Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

Brazil Memorial!

Special services are being held in Brazil, in memory of the 237 people who died in a nightclub fire in the city of Santa Maria a week ago.

More than 4,000 people attended a service in Santa Maria itself on Saturday night, and a silent vigil was held in front of the nightclub, Kiss.

Santa Maria's mayor says he plans to turn the building into a memorial site.

The death toll rose to 237 on Sunday after a 22-year-old man died of injuries sustained in the fire.

More than 100 people remain in hospital. Medical kits have been flown in from the US to treat survivors who were exposed to the dangerous fumes.

      

Two owners of the nightclub and two band members have been arrested.

Word for the Day: After a storm comes a calm- Matthew Henry

Halliburton Bribe: Paris Court Sentences TECHNIP!

 A Paris court, Friday, sentenced two former executives of French engineering and construction giant, Technip S.A, for their role in the Halliburton  scam.  

Meanwhile, No bribe recipient has been jailed in Nigeria; and no  Nigerian official implicated in the $180 million (N27 billion) Halliburton bribery scam has been convicted.

TSKJ, a consortium of four international companies (Technip; Snamprogetti; KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton; and JGC), paid the bribe to Nigerian officials over a ten-year period to secure the construction contract worth $6 billion (N900 billion).

TSKJ partners admitted paying $132 million (N9.8 billion) to a Gibraltar corporation controlled by London-based lawyer, Jeffrey Tesler, and $51 million (N7.65 billion) to Marubeni of Japan. The money was meant as bribes to Nigerian government officials.

Jean-Marie Deseilligny, Technip’s General Manager; and Etienne Gory, the company’s Commercial Manager for Africa were ordered to pay fines of €10, 000 (N2.15 million) and €5,000 (N1.1 million) respectively. Prosecutors had asked the court to fine the accused €100, 000 (N21.5 million) each.

Jeffery Tesler, the main go-between for the consortium, is serving a 21-month sentence in the United States prison while Jack Stanley, KBR’s former Chief Executive Officer, is serving 30 months.

Using the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, FCPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Security and Exchange Commission has made the companies and individuals that paid the bribe to pay more than $1.7 billion in penalties and disgorgement.

Halliburton, in January 2009, paid a $559 million (N84 billion) fine to the U.S government after the company was found guilty of bribing Nigerian officials.

While the bribe givers have all been convicted and fined, and in some cases jailed in their countries of origin and in the U.S., no Nigerian bribe recipient has been convicted or jailed.

The beneficiaries of the bribe, as revealed by several investigations, include three successive heads of state, former petroleum ministers, officials of the Nigerian oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and other government officials.

Culled from Premium Times

Word for the day: Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.- Mahatma Gandhi

Nigeria's 'YAHOO BOYS' Arrested!

Twenty suspected internet fraudsters, otherwise called yahoo-yahoo boys were recently arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The arrest which was carried out in a joint operation with officers of the 4 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Benin, followed intelligence report on their activities.

They were nabbed in a surprise raid on their Caber office tucked in an old building located on Silk Road , Benin City- Nigeria .

At the point of arrest, the fraudsters had in their possession forty five (45) laptops of different make, twenty eight (28) telephone sets, eight (8) internet mobile modems and one Nissan car with registration number USL 375 AG.

Internet Fraudsters populary known as 'Yahoo Yahoo boys' at work

The suspected fraudsters who are mostly in their twenties includes: Idehen Obabueki, Adesa Lucky, Usuagu Uche, Eloghosa Olikiabor, Larry Edomwonyi, Amowie Maike, Francis Ezegbede, Itua Samuel and Endurance John Egbeifo. Others are Amego Ovenseri, Iyen Ighodaro, Philip Agbodori, Lucky Robinson, Nnadi Obinna, Osabuohien Osahon, Chinenu Eze, Peter Sunday, Solomon Ogu, Niyi Femi and Osagie Aghedo.

The suspects have made useful statements.

Most of them confessed to be engaged in online dating of foreigners particularly widows.

They also confessed to using different pseudo names and faces to deceive their prospective victims.

EFCC said they will be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded.

Word for the Day; I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become - Oprah Winfrey