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Former UN Chief Named Special Envoy to Syria

Carmen Cox — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:31:30 +0000

Jason Kempin/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) -- The United Nations and Arab League on Thursday named Kofi Annan, former secretary-general for the U.N., a joint special envoy to Syria.

The 73-year-old Ghanaian diplomat will be tasked to promote peace on behalf of the United Nations-Arab League in Syria as President Bashar al-Assad continues a violent crackdown on Syrian citizens.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moom and Arab League Secretary General Nabil El-Araby made the announcement of Annan's appointment Thursday in a joint statement. The statement said a deputy from the Arab world would be chosen later to assist Annan, according to the U.N. website.

Annan's appointment was announced following the release of a U.N. report that found a significant decrease in human rights in Syria.

Annan served as U.N. chief from 1997 to 2006.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Despite Public Animosity, US and Pakistan Cooperate Behind the Scenes

Carmen Cox — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:04:37 +0000

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- When Charles Arthur Williams, a 41-year-old from Mississippi, showed up for a flight in Peshawar, Pakistan, with 9mm bullets in his bag, he could have quickly become a poster child for Americans who behave badly in Pakistan. Pakistani television channels compared him to Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore and sparked widespread anger and anti-American protests.

But after a brief detention, Williams was released, and the brief fury of press coverage quickly dissipated. Pakistani and American officials worked together behind the scenes, diffusing what could have easily become another talking point for Pakistanis looking to criticize U.S. actions in Pakistan. He quickly left the country the same day.

“Thanks to good Pakistani partners for a sane resolution,” tweeted Richard Hoagland, the deputy U.S. ambassador in Islamabad.

“We didn’t want Ray Davis again, did we?” joked a police officer in Peshawar.

Compare that low-key resolution to the avalanche of public fury when Rep. Dana Rorchbacher, R-Calif., introduced a non-binding, unlikely-to-pass resolution suggesting the secession of Pakistan’s largest province. Pakistan’s prime minister derided the bill as a challenge to Pakistan’s sovereignty and Pakistan’s foreign minister called it an “an unfriendly and irresponsible attempt…aimed at creating distrust between the people of the two countries.”

Rorchbacher’s resolution touched the third rail in Pakistani politics -- and was much more public than Williams’s brief detention. Nonetheless, the two stories help reveal the state of Pakistan-U.S. relations: working behind the scenes, broken in public.

In a dozen interviews with Pakistani and American officials, most agree on two things: At a working level, two allies that have struggled through a string of high-profile setbacks are conducting business relatively normally (75-percent normally, says a senior U.S. official, including on intelligence sharing). But at a public level, Pakistan’s government and military cannot admit to helping the U.S. in a war that is still widely referred to in Pakistan as “America’s war on terror.”

But why is this important? Until the Pakistani government and military believe they can help the U.S. publicly without risking the wrath of their own people, they will never be able to give the level of cooperation that the United States is looking for as it begins to withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan. (The U.S. currently has a lower popularity rating in Pakistan than BP did in the U.S. during the massive oil spill that dumped thousands of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.)

Thursday, for the first time since American jets killed 24 Pakistani troops in November, the two countries resumed high-level dialogue when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in London.

Behind the scenes, Pakistan has been helpful in bringing senior Afghan insurgents living inside Pakistan to the negotiating table, U.S. and Afghan officials say. And going into the meeting, Khar expected that Pakistan’s “enabling and facilitating role in Afghanistan” would be acknowledged, according to a senior Pakistani official.

But the official also said Khar would bring up Rohrbacher’s resolution, showing just how upset Pakistan remains and just how important the government believes it is to object publicly to U.S. actions. “We will be discussing the recent statements and attacks on Pakistan vis-à-vis Baluchistan and inform Secretary Clinton in no uncertain terms that this is extremely unhelpful,” the Pakistani official said before the meeting.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Au Revoir 'Mademoiselle': French Forms Get a Makeover

Carmen Cox — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:54:40 +0000

Hemera/Thinkstock(PARIS) -- Farewell to lovesick maidens and damsels in distress. Farewell to discrimination and sexism -- well, at least on French forms.

French Prime Minister François Fillon ordered this week that the term “mademoiselle” be removed from all official forms and registries after months of campaigning by two feminist organizations, Osez le Féminisme (Dare To Be Feminist) and Les Chiennes de Garde (The Watchdogs).

The decision marks a great victory for French feminists who say the use of “mademoiselle” is demeaning to women, insisting that their marital status need not be known every time they sign a form. Men in France are referred to as “monsieur” regardless of marital status.

“Have you ever wondered why we do not call a single man ‘Mondamoiseau’ or ‘young virgin?’ Not surprisingly, this type of distinction is reserved for women,” the campaign wrote on their joint website. “This campaign was intended to end this inequality, but also to inform women of their rights.”

According to the New York Times, Fillon wrote that the use of “mademoiselle” made reference “without justification nor necessity” to a woman’s “matrimonial situation,” whereas “monsieur” has long signified simply “sir.”

Women must indicate their marital status on almost every form in France, by choosing “madame” or “mademoiselle” -- including when opening a bank account, paying taxes, shopping online and even ordering groceries.

With this battle won, the feminist groups are now encouraging private organizations to also remove “mademoiselle” from their forms.

Feminist groups fought a similar battle in the United States and won, said Kathy Spillar, the executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and executive editor of Ms. Magazine.

“Women want to be known for who they are, not for their marital status,” Spillar said. “They should be recognized as their own person, not just the property of a man, whether that’s her father or her husband.”

While the term “miss,” which is comparable to the French “mademoiselle,” was never officially banned from U.S. documents, “Ms.” was added, giving women the choice whether or not to indicate their marital status.

Spillar said the founders of Ms. Magazine -- including noted feminist Gloria Steinem -- decided to take the name “Ms.” because “it was a very poignant statement about this movement … It really says it all in two little letters.”

In regards to France’s decision to take “mademoiselle” off of official documents, Spillar says it’s a significant step for feminists worldwide.

“Some may say it’s petty but words matter. How you address people matters,” Spillar said. “French society will see how much it matters when you are no longer having to use terms that are really, quite frankly, antiquated.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

White House Defends Apology to Afghanistan; Criticism from Gingrich, Palin

Carmen Cox — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:46:59 +0000

Comstock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The White House Thursday defended President Obama’s decision to apologize for the recent incident of Koran burning at a U.S. airbase in Afghanistan, saying it was “wholly appropriate” given the “understandable sensitivities” to the issue.

“The error was inadvertent,” Obama wrote in a letter to his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, according to Karzai’s office. “I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible.”

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, however, said it was “an outrage” for the president to issue an apology on the same day two U.S. troops were killed by Afghan soldiers.

“It is Hamid Karzai who owes the American people an apology, not the other way around,” Gingrich said in a written statement. “This destructive double standard whereby the United States and its democratic allies refuse to hold accountable leaders who tolerate systematic violence and oppression in their borders must come to an end.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney defended the apology.

“[The president's] primary concern as commander-in-chief is the safety of American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there. And it was absolutely the right thing to do,” Carney told reporters.

The improper disposal of the sacred text of Islam have sparked anti-U.S. riots in Afghanistan.

“The actions here, while inadvertent, do not reflect the great respect that our military personnel have for the religious traditions of the Afghan people,” Carney said.

Gingrich was not the only prominent Republican to slam the president’s decision. “Obama apologizes for inadvertent Koran burning; now the U.S. trained & protected Afghan Army can apologize for killing our soldiers yesterday,” 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin tweeted Thursday afternoon.

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney has not spoken directly about the apology to Karzai, but vowing no apology is a key line of his stump speech.

“Let me make this very clear. As president of the United States, I will devote myself to an American Century. And I will never, ever apologize for America,” the former Massachusetts governor said in October.

The White House says the president’s apology was conveyed before the U.S. troops were killed Thursday.

Furthermore, the administration notes that the apology, which was included in a lengthy three-page letter from Obama to Karzai on a range of issues, is not unprecedented. In 2008, President Bush apologized to Iraq’s prime minister for an American sniper’s shooting of a Koran.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Two US Troops Killed by Man Wearing Afghan Army Uniform

Jeanette Torres — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:59:51 +0000

ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images(KABUL, Afghanistan) -- A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot and killed two members of NATO's International Security Assistance Force -- said to be Americans -- in eastern Afghanistan Thursday, the military coalition said.

The presumed Afghan soldier opened fire on his foreign mentors, who have not yet been identified, on a base near the border with Pakistan.

It's not clear whether the gunman shot the two service members in retaliation to the inadvertent burning of Korans and other religious materials earlier this week by coalition forces in Afghanistan. The ISAF is investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, demonstrations over the accidental destruction of the religious texts continued for a third straight day on Thursday. Afghan police fired into the air and used water cannons against more than 2,000 protesters outside another base.

The protests show no signs of slowing down and have already claimed at least 10 lives.

On another note, it was reported later Thursday that President Obama sent a letter that day to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, apologizing for the burning of Korans.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said, "Following up on their February 20 phone call, the President sent a letter to President Karzai to continue their discussion on a range of issues related to our long-term partnership. In the letter, delivered by Ambassador [Ryan] Crocker this afternoon in Kabul, the President also expressed our regret and apologies over the incident in which religious materials were unintentionally mishandled at Bagram Airbase."

Scientists: Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Experiment Needs Do-Over

Joshua Cohan — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:52:00 +0000

Still unmatched. Albert Einstein in 1951. Ernst Haas/Ernst Haas/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- When scientists reported in September that they had measured subatomic neutrinos traveling faster than light, they used the word “anomaly.” The anomaly, they now concede, may have been in their own equipment -- perhaps a bad connection between a GPS unit and a computer when they shot beams of neutrinos from the CERN laboratory in the Swiss Alps to a detector 450 miles away near Gran Sasso, Italy.

Last year’s experiment, done with a giant apparatus called OPERA, showed the neutrinos making the trip 60 nanoseconds faster than a light beam would. That would have been a major challenge to Einstein’s theory of relativity, which said light, moving at 186,000 miles per second, was at a sort of cosmic speed limit. Einstein’s work has proved durable over the years, which was why the neutrino experiment had the physics world talking.

“The feeling that most people have is this can’t be right, this can’t be real,” James Gillies, a spokesman for CERN, said back on Sept. 23.

In a statement CERN said the scientists were concerned about, “the optical fibre connector that brings the external GPS signal to the OPERA master clock, which may not have been functioning correctly when the measurements were taken. If this is the case, it could have led to an underestimate of the time of flight of the neutrinos.”

New experiments, CERN said, are now scheduled for May.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Dozens Dead, Hundreds Wounded After Multiple Bombings in Iraq

Jeanette Torres — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:44:37 +0000

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(BAGHDAD) -- Iraq came under siege on Thursday as dozens were killed and hundreds wounded in a coordinated series of attacks throughout the country.

At least 43 people died as the result of 16 car bombings as well as roadside explosions that seemed to mainly target Iraqi security forces, who’ve been criticized for not being able to contain al-Qaeda and radical militias since U.S. forces withdrew at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, the number of injured will likely reach 300 as hospitals fill up in and around Baghdad and in other Iraqi provinces.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the widespread assaults with many of the fatalities occurring in the capital. At a Baghdad checkpoint, attackers used both guns with silencers and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to kill six police officers.

In one of Thursday’s most violent attacks, a car bomb in Musayab, south of the capital, left two people dead and wounded 95 others.

Multiple bombings were also reported in Diyala province east of Baghdad, in northern Salahidine province and in the Kurdish city of Kirkuk, where insurgents struck two police patrols with car bombs, taking the lives of eight officers and injuring two dozen more.

'Lonely' Starvation Deaths Prompt Soul-Searching in Japan

Joshua Cohan — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:40:00 +0000

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(TOKYO) -- Japanese police say the family of three – a couple in their 60s and a son in his 30s -- likely starved to death in their own apartment in Saitama Prefecture, just outside of Tokyo, and it took more than a month to discover the bodies. Their refrigerator was empty, their electricity and gas shut off, their rent had gone unpaid for six months.

Police only arrived at their home this week after rent collectors called, asking them to check on the family. The bodies were badly decomposed. A few one yen coins, some candy, and water bottles were all that remained.

Neighbors oblivious to the plight of the family said they hadn’t seen the three in months, but never checked in on them. One neighbor told reporters that the mother asked her for financial help, saying she was in trouble because of her husband’s illness. The neighbor declined and encouraged the woman to apply for welfare instead, but she never did.

The troubling case has raised questions about the safety net in place for the neediest families in Japan, the world’s third-richest country. It has also prompted soul-searching among those who see community ties thinning, and a society increasingly looking inward.

“This is not something you’d expect in a developed country like Japan, but people are struggling to find jobs,” Norimichi Goishi of the Tokyo Institute for Municipal Research said in an interview with broadcaster NHK. “Local officials can’t always reach those in need. Deaths related to starvation are a lot more common than we think.”

More than 700 people have died of hunger since 2000, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, although experts suspect the actual numbers are higher.

The cases are known as kodokushi or “lonely deaths” in Japan -- and the stories are familiar: Unreported deaths, unpaid rents, no food, no electricity, and few ties to family and friends. Many are too ashamed to ask for help.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Iranian Pastor May Soon Face Death for Converting to Christianity

Jeanette Torres — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(TEHRAN, Iran) -- A pastor in Iran could face death within days for renouncing Islam and bringing others to the Christian faith.

Youcef Nadarkhani, a convert to Christianity, has reportedly received his final execution order. The American Center for Law and Justice says he is in imminent danger, with a rising chance his sentence will be carried out.

The case had stalled for months after a global outcry. The White House and a Congressional resolution have both called for Nadarkhani's release.

Eight Bodies Recovered from Costa Concordia Cruise Ship

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:34:43 +0000

STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images(ROME) -- Teams searching the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner have found another eight bodies, more than a month after the ship capsized off the coast of Italy.

Italian officials had previously put the number of those killed at 32, though only 17 bodies had been recovered, according to the BBC.

The ship struck a patch of rocks on the night of Jan. 13, causing a large gash in the ship’s exterior. The vessel took on water as the ship’s passengers and crew raced to escape, some of them jumping in the water in hopes of swimming to shore.

The ship’s captain and a number of other crew members are currently being investigated for their respective roles in the disaster.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

World’s Biggest Mortars ‘Weapon of Choice’ Against Homs?

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:52:46 +0000

JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images(LONDON) -- For almost three weeks, Syria’s central city of Homs has been pounded by shelling from the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, leaving hundreds dead, according to opposition activists. Judging from a video clip posted online, one weapons analyst says Assad’s forces are using the biggest mortars in the world.

The video was first flagged in the Christian Science Monitor, which was told by a Human Rights Watch official that the regime forces are using the Russian-made 240mm “Tulip.” In the clip, two men are standing in rubble holding up the fanned tails of the exploded ordnance.

Peter Falstead of Jane’s Defence Weekly says the tail fins look, “very much like the tail fins from SM-240,” also known as the “Tulip Tree” developed by the Soviets in the 1970s. Today it is the largest mortar system used by any military in the world, and the Syrian army is believed to have up to 10 in service.

“If you wanted to strike at rebel-held positions in a built-up area to which you had no line of sight, and you had no regard whatsoever for the killing of innocent civilians, then I guess the SM-240 would be a weapon of choice,” Falstead told ABC News.

Few of the self-propelled SM-240s -- also known as the M-1975 -- remain in service, Jane’s says, due to its short range and slow firing (around one shell per minute). All-told, the system weighs 60,000 pounds, its range is between 2,600 and 5,900 feet, and it can fire shells weighing between 300 and 500 pounds.

By comparison, Falstead says the largest mortars used by the U.S. Army are 120mm, noting that they do have howitzers of a larger caliber.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Argentina Train Crash Leaves Dozens Dead, Hundreds Injured

Joshua Cohan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:02:22 +0000

JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images(BUENOS AIRES, Argentina) -- At least 49 people were killed and another 600 injured when a packed commuter train crashed into a retaining wall at the terminal in Argentina’s capital city at the height of rush hour Wednesday morning.

The crash at the Once train station in Buenos Aires happened around 8:30 a.m. local time when the train, carrying approximately 1,200 passengers, reportedly had braking problems and crashed into a barrier. The train is said to have been traveling from anywhere between 12 to 20 miles per hour at the time of the accident.

"There are people still trapped, people alive," Argentina’s transportation secretary J.P. Schiavi told reporters Wednesday, according to the BBC.

The first two cars -- and the passengers in them -- took the brunt of the crash. Traditionally, commuters pack the first few cars and move up as the train approaches its final stop, so as to get a head start in exiting the approaching station.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Anti-US Protests Pop Up in Afghanistan over Accidental Koran Burning

Jeanette Torres — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:46:32 +0000

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(KABUL, Afghanistan) -- Several anti-American protests sprung up across Afghanistan Wednesday in response to the inadvertent burning of Korans and other religious materials by coalition forces there.

The books were mistakenly thrown out with the trash at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul and were on a burn pile Monday night before Afghan laborers intervened around 11:00 p.m., according to NATO and Afghan officials.

Upon hearing the news, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside of Bagram and on the outskirts of Kabul Tuesday morning. The protests continued the following day, growing in intensity and size.

In Jalalabad, demonstrations began in two different locations on Wednesday. After the situation became a little heated, police opened fire and, according to health officials, one person was killed and eight others were injured.

Over in Kabul, people gathered in front of U.S. base Camp Phoenix started burning tires and tried to burn public assets before the Afghan National Police arrived and got the situation under control. One person died and 10 got hurt, according to officials from the Ministry of Public Health.

Protests were also reported in the provinces of Laghman and Parwan.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul tweeted on Wednesday, "The Embassy is on lockdown; all travel suspended. Please, everyone, be safe out there."

Camp Phoenix and all other U.S. installations in Kabul were also placed on lockdown.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has formed a commission to investigate the matter and has asked parliament for a special meeting on Thursday to discuss the incident.

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Two Western Journalists Killed in Syria

Jeanette Torres — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:34:03 +0000

Dave M. Benett/Getty Images(PARIS) -- A U.S. and a French journalist were killed in the central Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday, the 19th day of intense shelling by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad bent on quashing a growing opposition.

The deaths of American Marie Colvin and Frechman Remi Ochlik were confirmed by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe. They come less than a week after New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid died in northern Syria from an apparent asthma attack and a day after well-known Syrian opposition journalist Rami al-Sayed died in Homs.

A Long Island native, Colvin wrote for the British Sunday Times. Like Shadid, she was considered one of the best foreign correspondents in the world, covering global conflicts for decades. Ochlik was a freelance photographer who recently won a 2012 World Press Photo prize for a photo from the Libyan revolution.

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In a statement, the editor of the Sunday Times called Colvin an "extraordinary figure."

"She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice," John Witherow wrote. "Above all, as we saw in her powerful report last weekend, her thoughts were with the victims of violence."

Colvin and Ochlik were in a house in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, the district hit hardest by what residents have described as almost three weeks of relentless shelling that has left hundreds dead. Video posted to YouTube purported to show their bodies in a house destroyed by tank shelling.

Activists say 10 Syrians were also killed and three other journalists were injured, including Colvin's photographer Paul Conroy, who the Times believes is "not too seriously hurt."

Colvin filed a report for the BBC on Tuesday, saying Baba Amr and its residents are besieged.

"It's absolutely sickening," she said. "The Syrians will not let them out, and are shelling all the civilian areas. There's just shells, rockets and tank fire pouring into civilian areas of this city. It is just unrelenting."

Colvin lost an eye from a shrapnel wound in Sri Lanka in 2001, an injury that she said "is worth it" in a 2010 speech on the dangers of conflict reporting.

"Covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction, and death...and trying to bear witness," she said at a memorial for fallen journalists. Someone has to go there and see what is happening. You can't get that information without going to places where people are being shot at, and others are shooting at you."

Solar Eclipse, Seen Only By US Satellite

Carmen Cox — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:34:00 +0000

NASA(WASHINGTON) -- A NASA probe caught a solar eclipse Tuesday. Though we earthlings could not see it, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory traveling 22,000 miles overhead was in the right place at the right time.

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The moon’s odd motion -- seeming to come in from the top of the picture and then skittering off to the right -- is created by the relative motion of the moon and the satellite. The moon orbits about 240,000 miles from Earth, circling us once every 29 days, while SDO is in a geosynchronous orbit, circling us once every 24 hours. Put their motions together and it gets complicated.

If you want to be pedantic, what SDO saw was really a transit instead of an eclipse. While the moon appeared to pass over the face of the sun, the word eclipse is often reserved for when that’s seen from Earth. The next eclipse visible from down here (mostly over the Pacific, but ending at dusk over the southwestern U.S.) will be May 20, and it will be an unusual annular eclipse -- the moon, whose orbit is not quite circular, will be far enough away that even when standing in the right place, the sun will appear to form a bright ring around the moon’s disc.

After a period of relative quiet, the Sun is becoming more active this year, with more sunspots and charged gas, or plasma, being hurtled out into space. But in truth, it’s never quiet. SDO, which has been keeping watch for two years, has returned pictures showing a 30-hour period on the sun’s surface Feb. 7-8, and the video has gone viral online.

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