Though Golden Dawn members have been blamed for racially-motivated beatings and stabbings, this is the first known politically-motivated attack that can be directly linked to the far-right group.John Kolesidis/Reuters
Police raided the offices of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party Wednesday after a man who identified himself as a party member was arrested in the fatal stabbing of a 34-year-old musician described as an anti-fascist activist.
While the party has often been blamed for numerous violent attacks in the past, the overnight stabbing is the most serious instance of violence directly attributed to a member of the extremist group.
For Ireland, Long Road to an Exclusive Cricket Club
By HUW RICHARDS
Little is more exasperating to the cricket fan or administrator than a rain delay. But even as stoppages truncated the early stages of Ireland’s match against Scotland in Dublin this past week, Cricket Ireland chief Warren Deutrom could see some saving graces.
“We’ve got a nice group of young fast bowlers coming through,” he said after Craig Young in his debut and 20-year-old Graeme McCarter had ripped through Scotland’s top order, “and that’s very encouraging.”
Their arrival is another step in Ireland’s long, patient progress toward its declared ambition of becoming the 11th member of cricket’s elite — the group of nations permitted to play five-day test matches.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has welcomed a Russian-US deal on dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, calling it “a significant step” ahead of a meeting in Beijing on Sunday with his Chinese counterpart.
Ahead of a bilateral meeting in Beijing on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and his Chinese counterpart welcomed a Russian-US deal on dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. Fabius said the deal – which gives Damascus a week to declare the locations of its chemical weapons stockpiles – was “a significant step forward”. "Only a few days ago, Syria was denying having chemical weapons and having used them," he said. "From now on, we are in a new phase." Fabius cautioned, however, that there was still a long way to go, calling Saturday's agreement "only a first stage". Fabius is in Beijing as part of a larger diplomatic push to secure international support for bringing an end to Syria’s two-and-a-half-year civil war. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the deal offered another chance to address the chemical weapons issue “through peaceful means”.
“We believe the framework agreement will ease the current tense situation that may be triggered at any moment in Syria and creates new prospects for resolving the chemical weapon issue in Syria through peaceful means,” Wang said. Following a third day of intense negotiations in Geneva, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed Saturday on a deal to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons. Elements of the accord include a mid-2014 deadline for disarmament, an outline of Syria's compliance requirements and a clause stipulating that, if Syria falls short of its commitments, Russia and the United States would jointly seek recourse at the UN Security Council. But the deal has been categorically rejected by anti-regime rebel forces who warn that it will not bring an end to a civil war that has already killed more than 110,000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and displaced millions more. "We cannot accept any part of this initiative," said Free Syrian Army chief General Selim Idriss. "Are we Syrians supposed to wait until mid-2014, to continue being killed every day and to accept [the deal] just because the chemical arms will be destroyed in 2014?" he asked. Opposite sides France, which has strategic and historic interests in the Middle East, firmly backs Syria's opposition rebels and has urged military action following an August 21 chemical attack that both Paris and Washington believe was launched by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In contrast, Russia has blamed the rebels for the attack while Moscow and Beijing have consistently blocked UN resolutions aimed at sanctioning the Assad regime. A statement on the Foreign Ministry website said that Fabius will be discussing details of the deal’s implementation at a meeting in Paris on Monday with Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague. The ministry statement said a report by UN inspectors on the chemical weapons attack outside Damascus would also probably be published on Monday. (FRANCE 24 with wires)
In pictures: Costa Concordia shipwreck hauled upright
By News Wires the 17/09/2013 - 07:12
Salvage crews set the wrecked Costa Concordia cruise ship upright in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after a 19-hour-long operation off Italy’s Giglio island. Thirty-two people were killed when the liner ran aground on January 13, 2012.
Salvage crews completed raising the wreck of the Costa Concordia in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a 19-hour-long operation on the Italian island of Giglio where the huge cruise liner capsized in January last year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Syria to turn over its chemical weapons to avoid a strike by the U.S.
Michael Klimentyev/Ria Novosti/Reuters/Landov
For months, Russia has been playing a defensive game on Syria, blocking U.N. resolutions that could have led to the ouster of its ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.
But Russia is now on the offense, running with a plan that could avert U.S.-led strikes against Syria by having Syria place its chemical weapons under international control.
LONDON — Norway’s incoming conservative prime minister, Erna Solberg, on Tuesday prepared for tricky coalition talks with an anti-immigrant party jockeying to enter government for the first time.
The fact that the anti-immigrant Progress Party appears to hold the key to securing a majority in Parliament has caused unease in Norway because Anders Behring Breivik, a far-right militant who massacred 77 people in 2011, was once among the party’s members.
LONDON — Europeans, who prided themselves on a muscular foreign policy in Libya, arrive at this week’s meeting of the Group of 20 nations deflated and divided, waiting for the United States to take the lead on Syria and wondering just how much resistance to intervention Russia will ultimately muster.
Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, left, will attend the Group of 20 gathering this week.
After his parliamentary defeat last week, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain has lost much of his leverage to address the Syrian conflict, analysts said, while France’s president, François Hollande, is struggling to persuade a skeptical public of the need for military strikes against Syria after what is suspected to be its use of chemical weapons.
That makes the two-day summit meeting, which begins Thursday, the site for a potential standoff between the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin — the host of the gathering in St. Petersburg and a prominent ally of the Syrian leader, President Bashar al-Assad — and President Obama, with the Europeans largely on the sidelines.
