ICC seeks Sudan defence minister arrest over Darfur

Sudan's Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant for Sudan's defence minister for alleged crimes in Darfur.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein was suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2003-04.
The Hague-based ICC has already indicted Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on genocide charges in Darfur.
A senior Sudanese official has dismissed the warrant as "ridiculous".

Rabbie Abdal Attie told the BBC the ICC was a "tool of the West" and was trying to destabilise Sudan but that the warrant would not affect the country.
In another development, Kenya and Sudan have resolved their diplomatic row triggered by a Kenyan court issuing its own warrant for President Bashir after he was allowed to visit Nairobi in August in defiance of the ICC request.

The latest warrant request was made by Mr Moreno-Ocampo's office in a statement on Friday.
It asked the ICC "to issue an arrest warrant against the current Sudanese Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur from August 2003 to March 2004".

The statement added that Mr Hussein was among those who "bear greatest criminal responsibility" for atrocities in Darfur.
At the time, Mr Hussein was both Sudan's interior minister and its representative in Darfur.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he was requesting the warrant now "to encourage further public focus" on Sudan's policy and actions, and to "promote cooperation" to arrest the three Sudanese officials the ICC has already indicted.

Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein is very much part of President Omar al-Bashir's inner circle, so for those close to him, this is another attempt to destabilise their man - and the country.
That is not helping matters at a time when Sudan wants its $40bn (£25bn) or so of foreign debt forgiven.
ICC judges will now study the prosecutor's request before deciding whether to issue a warrant.
Together with President Bashir, the court has also indicted another former Interior Minister Ahmad Muhammad Harun and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, a suspected leader of the Janjaweed militia, over alleged atrocities in Darfur.

The ICC says that Mr Harun reported directly to Mr Hussein.
They all deny the charges and refuse to surrender to the ICC.
The mainly Arab Janjaweed militia is accused of carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Darfur's black African population after rebels took up arms in 2003, accusing the government of ignoring the region.

According to the ICC, attacks followed a pattern, with Sudan's military surrounding a village, the air force bombing it and then soldiers and Janjaweed fighters going in on foot, killing, raping and looting.
The Hague-based court has also indicted two Darfur rebels, who are accused of attacking African Union peacekeepers in Darfur. The suspects surrendered to the court last year.

Despite the warrant, Mr Bashir has visited several countries, especially in Africa, without being arrested.
After the Kenyan court issued a warrant for Mr Bashir's arrest on Monday, Sudan ordered the expulsion of Kenya's ambassador in Khartoum, and threatened to expel Kenyan peacekeepers from Sudan and not to allow planes flying to Kenya to go through Sudanese airspace.

But on his return from an emergency trip to Khartoum, Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula on Friday said relations were now "back to normal" and that no diplomats would be expelled.
He said that while the government respected the court, he said he would guarantee that Mr Bashir would not be arrested on Kenyan territory.

Mr Wetangula said Kenya would not withdraw from the ICC but, like other African countries, it was concerned that the court was unfairly targeting the continent.

"We have voiced concerns about the manner in which the ICC has been pursuing African leaders and leaving leaders with much, much heavier responsibility of human rights and murderous actions," he said, pointing to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The African Union has urged the UN Security Council to defer the warrant against Mr Bashir in order to help the search for peace in Darfur.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo is set to be replaced as ICC chief prosecutor by his deputy, Fatou Bensouda, from The Gambia.

She is the only candidate in the 12 December election and is to take up her new duties in June 2012, the ICC says.

Some 2.7 million people have fled their homes since the conflict began in Darfur in 2003, and the UN says about 300,000 have died - many from disease.

Sudan's government says the conflict has killed about 12,000 people and the number of dead has been exaggerated for political reasons.
(Story : BBC)
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Row over Pakistan actress Veena Malik nude 'ISI' photo

FHM cover with Veena Malik

A row has erupted over an image of Pakistani actress Veena Malik sporting the initials ISI on her arm, with FHM India insisting it is not fake.

It has caused a sensation in Pakistan for both the nudity and the initials of Pakistan's controversial Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
Pakistani media have quoted a spokesman for Ms Malik as saying she never took part in such a photoshoot.

But FHM India's editor told the BBC that nothing had been doctored.
"We have video footage of the shoot as well as emails from Veena about how she's looking forward to the cover," Kabeer Sharma told the BBC's Nosheen Abbas in Islamabad.

"The idea to have ISI written on her arm was mine, and it was Veena's idea to have it in block letters," he added.
He said that the image was intended to be playful, saying that: "In India we joke about this... if anything goes wrong... we say the ISI must be behind this."
The ISI has been in the headlines in recent months after senior US officials accused it of supporting militants based in Pakistan's tribal areas who target Western troops in Afghanistan.
In September the most senior US military officer Adm Mike Mullen said that the Haqqani militant network "acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency".
Pakistan has vehemently denied such allegations.

Pakistan outrage

Correspondents say that the image, which is the cover of the December issue of the Indian edition of the global men's magazine, has caused a storm in Pakistan with many people expressing outrage over the nudity and the boldness of the photo.
Many Pakistanis on the micro-blogging site Twitter are also expressing bemusement at the image.
The Express Tribune newspaper in Pakistan said a representative of Ms Malik had denied she posed for the shoot.
"Veena knows her limits. I know we have done quite bold stuff/shoots, those which are available on our website, but she knows her parameters," Sohail Rashid is quoted as saying.
FHM's editor said he had never heard of the representative and added that Ms Malik had not got in touch to ask him to modify or remove the image.
The actress has been at the centre of controversy before.
She caused outrage among conservative circles in Pakistan for appearing on the Indian reality show Bigg Boss in 2010. She hit the headlines again in March this year by challenging the views of a Pakistani cleric on television

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Benetton's controversial ads

World leaders are shown kissing in digitally manipulated images that are part of Benetton's new "unhate" ad campaign promoting tolerance. The retailer withdrew an advertisement using an image of Pope Benedict kissing an imam on the mouth after the Vatican protested at its inappropriate 'shock value.

World leaders are shown kissing in digitally manipulated images that are part of Benetton's new "unhate" ad campaign promoting tolerance. Here, U.S. President Barack Obama and China's President Hu Jintao are shown. Benetton Group is known for its controversial ads.

credit: Good Morning America Photo By Fabrica

Other world figures include Pope Benedict XVI and Dr. Ahmed al Tayyeb, the grand sheikh of Cairo's Al Azhar Mosque. This image was pulled from the campaign after a complaint by the Vatican.The Vatican has issued a stern condemnation of a new global ad campaign by Italian clothes company Benetton after a photo montage of Pope Benedict XVI kissing a leading imam. (AFP Photo/Patrick Kovarik)

A digitally altered advertisement by United Colors of Benetton depicting President Barack Obama kissing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is seen in a handout image. credit: REUTERS/Benetton/Handout

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak.
credit: Good Morning America Photo By Fabrica 9 hrs ago

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 credit: Good Morning America Photo By Fabrica

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

credit: Good Morning America Photo By Fabrica

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Ex-Israeli president to serve 7 years for rape

Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered former President Moshe Katsav to spend seven years in prison after rejecting the disgraced politician's appeal of a rape conviction and other sex crimes.

The unanimous decision of the three-judge panel capped a long and sordid chapter in Israeli politics that captured the country's attention for more than five years and ended with Katsav becoming the highest-ranking Israeli official ever sentenced to prison. He is to start serving his sentence on Dec. 7.

The ruling was seen as a major triumph for women's rights — and specifically, rape victims' rights — and for a legal system willing to take on some of the country's most influential figures.
Katsav, who has proclaimed his innocence throughout the affair, sat stone-faced throughout Thursday's ruling, briefly smiling wryly as it became clear his appeal was being rejected. He left the court grim-faced, surrounded by supporters, and made no comment to reporters.

Katsav, 65, was convicted last December of raping a former employee when he was a Cabinet minister and of sexually harassing two other women during his term as president from 2000 to 2007. He received a seven-year prison sentence in March, but was allowed to stay out of jail pending his appeal.
The court had not been expected to overturn the conviction, though experts had said there was a chance the sentence would be revised. Reading their opinions, the judges said Katsav's testimony had not been credible and accused him of exploiting his status as a high public official.
The former president "fell from the loftiest heights to the deepest depths," Judge Salim Joubran told the hushed court. "Such a senior official should be a role model to his subordinates. Every woman has a right to her own body. A right to dignity. A right to freedom. No one has the liberty to take any of those from her."
Katsav's attorney, Avigdor Feldman, said he "did not agree" with the outcome of the appeal and faulted the judges for believing the rape victim despite serious holes in her testimony.

"They would have believed her if she said the rape occurred on Venus," Feldman said.
But prosecutor Naomi Granot saw a triumph for the Israeli legal system. "This Supreme Court ruling confirms that in the state of Israel, all are equal before the law," she declared.
Katsav has maintained he was the victim of a political witch hunt.
Israel's presidency is a largely ceremonial office, typically filled by a respected elder statesman who is capable of rising above politics and serving as the country's moral compass.
The case against Katsav, which broke in 2006 after he told police one of his accusers was trying to extort money from him, shocked Israelis by portraying a man widely seen as a bland official as a predatory boss who repeatedly used his authority over female employees to force sexual favors.
Katsav reluctantly resigned two weeks before his seven-year term was to expire in 2007 under a plea bargain that would have allowed him to escape jail time.

He was replaced by Nobel peace laureate and former prime minister Shimon Peres, whom he had bested in the 2000 presidential race, decided in the Israeli parliament. Then, in a dramatic reversal, Katsav rejected the plea bargain, vowing to prove his innocence in court.
Judges, however, were not convinced, accused him of lying and sentenced him to jail in March. His long record of public service did not factor in his favor, they said, instead accusing him of exploiting his lofty positions to become a sexual offender.
Katsav's conviction was a stunning fall from grace for a man who rose from humble beginnings to become a symbol of success for Mizrahi Jews, those of Middle Eastern descent who for decades were an underclass in Israel. The country's elite has long been dominated by Jews of European origin.
In one of the more bizarre moments in the case, Katsav accused prosecutors and the media of plotting his demise and accused them of being out to destroy him because he didn't belong to the European-descended elite.

After his sentencing in March, one of Katsav's lawyers said the former president was so distraught over his impending prison sentence that he was at risk of committing suicide.
The verdict against Katsav was seen as a victory for women's rights in a decades-long struggle to chip away at the nation's macho culture, which once permitted political and military leaders great liberties.
Miriam Schler, director of the Tel Aviv Rape Crisis Center, told Israeli Channel 10 news that Katsav's sentence was "very meaningful."
"This is a day with a very important message to rape victims in the state of Israel, that the justice system can be trusted," Schler said.
It also highlighted the justice system's increased willingness to prosecute powerful figures who see themselves as above the law.
In recent years, Israel has seen a former finance minister sent to prison for embezzling funds and a justice minister convicted of forcibly kissing a female soldier. Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was forced to resign to face corruption charges. His trial is still in court.

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Sarkozy called Israeli PM 'liar'

French President Nicholas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama shake hands as they attend an event in Cannes, France on Nov. 4, 2011. The French leader has worked to strengthen his country's relationship with Israel since 2007. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "liar" in remarks to US President Barack Obama overheard by journalists.
"I can't stand him any more, he's a liar," Mr Sarkozy said in French.
"You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day," Mr Obama replied.

The exchange at the G20 summit was quoted by a French website, Arret sur Images, and confirmed by other media.
The remarks - during a private conversation - were overheard by a few journalists last week but were not initially reported, the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says.

Journalists at the bilateral press conference had been handed translation boxes but had been told not to plug in their headphones until the backroom conversation had finished. But those who did heard the revealing comments.
For several days there was media silence in France about the exchange - a decision had been taken not to embarrass the French president, our correspondent says.
A correspondent for Le Monde newspaper referred to the conversation without the quotes.
But Israeli newspapers have reported it in full.

It is said Mr Obama was taking Mr Sarkozy to task for voting in favour of the Palestinian bid for full membership of the UN cultural organisation, Unesco, a bid that was approved despite American opposition.
The remarks indicate a breakdown of trust with the Israeli leader which could have wider implications for the Middle East peace process, our correspondent says.
BBC NEWS

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Donald Trump: 'I Don't Know' If Obama Birth Certificate Is Authentic

Donald Trump, who made headlines months ago by questioning the authenticity of President Obama's birth certificate, is back in the spotlight with more skepticism about the document.
Trump and the birth certificate issue were brought up again in Parade Magazine's recent interview with GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry. Below is the key excerpt from the interview:
Governor, do you believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States? I have no reason to think otherwise.
    That's not a definitive, "Yes, I believe he"--
    Well, I don't have a definitive answer, because he's never seen my birth certificate.
    But you've seen his.
    I don't know. Have I?
    You don't believe what's been released?
    I don't know. I had dinner with Donald Trump the other night.
    And?
    That came up.
    And he said?
    He doesn't think it's real.
    And you said?
   I don't have any idea. It doesn't matter. He's the President of the United States. He's elected. It's a distractive issue.
National Review pressed Michael Cohen, a senior Trump adviser, about Perry's comments. Cohen said that "serious questions remain" about Obama's birth certificate. Cohen provided similar statements to Talking Points Memo.
Trump released his own statement about the birth certificate, saying, "Is it authentic? - I don't know - but I am proud of the fact that I was able to get him to do something that nobody else was able to get him to do - release the 'certificate.'"
Trump went on to say that "more important issues need to take center stage; such as our failing economy, unemployment and our unsustainable debt."
Back in April, when the President released his "long form" birth certificate, Trump stated that he was "proud" of himself because he "accomplished something that no one else has been able to accomplish."
On Monday, Republican strategist Karl Rove slammed Perry's interview comments, saying, "You associate yourself with a nutty view like that, and you damage yourself." Rove went further, explaining that Perry's birth certificate skepticism could "maginalize" him with voters.

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