In the message of Easter, the Pope urged diplomacy in Libya - Los Angeles Times

Pope Benedict XVI has offered a prayer of Easter Sunday for diplomacy to prevail over the war in Libya and for the citizens of the Middle East to build a new society based on respect.

He also called European refugees in North Africa.

"In the sky, all is peace and joy." But, alas, all not so on Earth! "the Pope said he gave the traditional" Urbi et Orbi "message from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to a crowd of more than 100,000 which is outside the place Saint-Pierre."

"In" the current conflict in Libya, may diplomacy and dialogue replace weapons and may those who suffer as a result of the conflict provide access to humanitarian aid, he said. "".

Referring to North Africa and the Middle East, the Pope prayed that all citizens, especially the young, would "work to promote the common good and build a society where poverty is defeated and each policy choice is inspired by respect for the human person".

Uprisings, repression and civil war have caused an exodus of people to the Italian shores and other countries of the region. Europe has been split on whether to accept or to expel tens of thousands of migrants, many of them elsewhere in North Africa and Libya.

Beno?t has rallied to the side of refugees, urging the people of good will to "open their hearts to welcome them."

"Here in this world that is ours, the Easter alleluia still contrasts with the Cree and the complaints arising particularly painful situations: deprivation, hunger, disease, war, violence," said the Pontiff, resplendent, dress Golden, while he was sitting on a Chair and read his speech in Italian.

This year, Easter falls on the same day in Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox calendars and Jerusalem, Orthodox and Catholics worshipped at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered as the burial site and the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection Friday Easter Sunday. Protestants held their own ceremonies outside the old walled city at the Garden Tomb, which some identify as the site of the burial of Jesus.

At Cagliari, Sardinia, a Sardinian cheese Easter, pasta and lamb dinner was served by Caritas, Catholic charity, some 20 Tunisian ANSA reported Island Italian press agency. The guests were among the more than 26 000 Tunisian who have entered illegally Italy since unrest in their homeland in January.

Most is waiting for Italy temporary travel documents they hope will be left to reach France, where many have friends and relatives. France warned Tunisians that they will be sent backed up unless you have jobs or provide savings.

The dispute between Rome and Paris on the fate of Tunisians should dominate a large part of a French-Italian Summit in the Italian capital Tuesday.

Call for solidarity as of Benedict XVI is also "words for those who keep the doors closed" migrants, Bishop Albert Mario Careggio, Bishop of Ventimiglia, a comune of the French border, said Sky CBC TV.

In Rome, the tragedy of unwanted society played in one of the main of the Basilic city, where some 150 Gypsies sought refuge from city officials who are dismantling illegal settlements of Roma trailer. The Gypsies say that City Hall will split their families by sending women and children to a shelter in a Rome suburb, but not men.

In Easter, several dozen solidarity Romans have milk, diapers and baby food to the refugee camp improvised inside St. Paul outside the walls Basilica.

Voice of 84 years Benedict XVI to cracked at times during the mass, but he completed his two-hour appearance Sunday by reading aloud wishes in 65 languages.

Some potted plants 41 000 broadside to the square, including Narcisse 10 000 plants, many of them in yellow and white, the colours of the Vatican official, are arranged in rows cared, the slope towards the altar.

Beno?t returns to place in a week to direct that a host should be the participation rate of at least Easter double when he beatifies John Paul, that the Pontiff born in Poland, of long-standing service on the last step before possible canonization official.

View the original article here

Violence spreads to the Yemen as foreign diplomats strive to put an end to the crisis - Los Angeles Times

Anti-government demonstrators shout slogans during a demonstration demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a. (Mohammed Huwais / AFP/Getty Images)Reports of Manama, Bahrain - shooting and funerals were spread across the Yemen as the international negotiators have yet to come up with a plan on Board President Ali Abdullah Saleh of power and prevent protests generalized to switch the impoverished nation into a civil war that could stimulate unrest in all the region.

Main cities of the country explosion almost daily violence as security officials and the thugs loyal to the Government attacked demonstrators anti-Saleh with tear gas and live ammunition. On Wednesday, a man armed motorcycle fired on a crowd in the city of port of Hudaydah West, killing a demonstrator.

As the protest movement approaches its third month, the international community, including the United States and Arab States, forced not Saleh to resign from his reign of 32 years, while the tribes and the Government representatives have abandoned him. Volatile leader, whose popularity has fallen in the midst of corruption and has no economic policy, has for weeks as contradicting the signals which have exasperated his allies and a growing list of enemies.

Saleh was quoted by the news agency saying that he would not be overthrown by "conspiracies or blows...." Those who want power or to gain the seat of power should be towards the ballot box. ?

A day after that of the United Nations Security Council could not agree on a statement on the Yemen, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters Wednesday sweeping the old streets of the capital, Sana'a. The demonstrators have is emboldened in recent days, pushing close to the heavily protected government offices.

The cooperation Council of the Gulf, which is composed of Saudi Arabia and five other Persian Gulf States, is concerned by the prospect of economic chaos and civil war from a Yemen already with a divided army, a secessionist movement, and a growing threat of Al Qaeda. As leader Libyan Muammar al-Gaddafi and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Saleh is in relying on the brutality and veiled hints of compromise to silence dissent.

"We are close to a consensus of the GCC on the significance of departure of this regime," said Sultan Atawani, leader of the opposition of the nasserite Unionist Party, who met this week with senior diplomats from the United Arab Emirates United and other neighbouring countries.

The difficulty centred on the research of a mixture of solicitations will persuade Saleh to resign. One of the elements under discussion proposes the President and his family, including his son and parents who control the military and intelligence units, the immunity from prosecution in the deaths of more than 100 demonstrators. Western countries are calling on Saleh to hand power to his Vice President and for the elections to be held within 60 days after his departure.

"The issue of such guarantees may be used by the President to gain more time and commit new crimes," said Atawani. "We say to our brothers in the Gulf that such an approach can be made to the table of negotiations, but only by a new Government when it comes".

Officials insist on the fact that a post-Saleh scenario emerges. Under proposals supported by the countries of the Gulf, of Yemen, an incongruous collection of Socialist, Islamic and other opposition, would take the Presidency in a transitional Government. Representatives of the Party of the President Tuesday officials GCC in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in what appeared to foreshadow the eventual exit of Saleh met separately.

"The President has to negotiate to ensure a transfer of power now, or he will never have the chance," said Murad Azzani, policy analyst at the University of Sana'a. "What he wants to do now is to avoid the Egyptian scenario the President under arrest and his party dissolved." Saleh wants his party to survive and to exercise power through it. ?

But the General Congress of the people of the Saleh is in danger. Prominent members broke away to form the Justice and development. This political insurgency challenges directly control of near-monopoly of the ruling party of the Government to reach out to hundreds of thousands of young demonstrators angry with poverty and high unemployment.

"Above all, solidarity with the popular claims we represent and see that the Yemeni common interest lies with the immediate resignation of the President," said Abdul Aziz Jabbari, a former member of Parliament and founding member of the new party.

However, many young demonstrators, Don't feel represented by any political group. Slogans of "Not to the parties" and no impartiality glued to the tents of the demonstrators in Sana'a indicate that a new Government will have to deal with a powerful voice, deprived of their rights. It was the demonstrators, opposition groups or other parties, which forced the international community to intervene and put Saleh on the edge.

"Future leaders will have to have some resonance with the people," said Azzani. "These parties go anywhere if they are not anchored in the culture of the movement to the Yemen has been the witness".

Jeffrey.Fleishman@LAtimes.com

A special correspondent of Sana contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Israel under pressure to offer peace plan - Los Angeles Times

反序列化操作 "translate" 的响应消息的正文时出现错误。读取 XML 数据时，超出最大字符串内容长度配额 (8192) 。通过更改在创建 XML 读取器时所使用的 XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas 对象的 MaxStringContentLength 属性，可增加此配额。 第 1 行，位置为 9056。
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, talks to Israeli soldiers during a visit to Ashkelon, where an Iron Dome missile defense system is deployed. (Ariel Schalit, Associated Press / April 19, 2011)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to unveil a new plan for solving the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict or risk having the U.S. and international community move ahead with a strategy of their own.

Israel won some breathing space with the postponement last week of a meeting of international powers in Berlin, but American and European Oxford are continuing to prod Netanyahu to lay out his vision for restarting peace talks and ending the occupation of the West Bank. If he does not, Oxford warned, the so-called Mideast quartet--the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - may attempt to jump-start the process by formally endorsing, for the first time, the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borderswith East Jerusalem as its capital. Netanyahu's government has vehemently opposed such a move.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signaled last week that international patience over the stalled peace process was growing thin and that the recent Arab world unrest made a resolution of the conflict more pressing. She promised "active American leadership" and a reinvigorated U.S. approach that would be announced in coming weeks.

"The status quo between Palestinians and Israelis is no more sustainable than the political systems that have crumbled in recent months," Clinton told an audience at the U.S. - Islamic World Forum in Washington. Some viewed the statement as a signal to Netanyahu to move quickly with his own plan.

"the israelis are facing a bit of pressure with the way things are proceeding," said a Western diplomat in Israel, who did not want to be identified while speaking about the sensitive matter. "People are starting to look to the U.S. for some kind of action."

Netanyahu's conservative government formally endorsed a two - state solution at the start of his term two years ago, but U.S. - brokered peace talks later collapsed when Israel resumed settlement construction in the West Bank and the Palestinians walked away from negotiations in protest.

Netanyahu has been hinting that he plans to announce a bold initiative by May, when he is expected to visit the U.S. and may unveil his proposal during a speech to Congress. But his Cabinet, which includes right-wing parties opposed to ceding land for peace, appears divided.

Last month, Israeli government aid floated the idea of an interim peace plan with temporary borders, but the Palestinians rejected it. Now Netanyahu is considering handing the Palestinian Authority more control over some areas in the West Bank or calling for an international conference aimed at restarting talks.

In a speech to European Union envoys last week, Netanyahu offered no. clues. "I have not decided what to say, and when to say it," the prime minister reportedly told the group. On Thursday, Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, saying he would not succumb to outside pressure. "we will stand firm against anyone who attempts to dictate conditions to us that will leave us without security and without peace."

Government spokesman Mark Regev said the international community should be holding the Palestinians more responsible for the breakdown in talks.

"In some circles there is an automatic knee-jerk siding with the Palestinian position, and it makes Palestinians think they have a free pass," Regev said. "people are inadvertently hurting the peace process." "If there were a serious message from the international community that the time has come to return to negotiations, there would be a much better chance at negotiations."

Moderate members of Netanyahu's Likud Party are urging the prime minister to sixteen the moment by offering a fresh approach.

"We should take an initiative," said Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor. "time passing is not helping."

President Obama has said he wants to welcome a Palestinian state into the U.N. in September. Not coincidentally, that's also when the Palestinians are promising to take their statehood bid to the U.N. General Assembly, which most predict will approve it.

Though such a step may not change the reality in the Middle East, it would create momentum that many Israelis fear would reduce their leverage at future negotiations over borders and security guarantees.

Palestinian officials expressed disappointment at the delay in this month's quartet meeting. Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the decision regrettable.

U.N. and EU representatives were hoping to use the meeting to push for a quartet statement endorsing the pre-1967 war borders, with agreed-upon swaps, as a basis for future talks. But U.S. officials argued for a delay, saying they first wanted a guarantee from the Palestinians that if such a statement were released, they would return to the negotiating table. The U.S. also worried that the move might lead to boycott talks Israel.

The Palestinians gave no clear indication that a quartet statement would be enough to persuade them to resume talks, officials said. Some Palestinian leaders are insisting that Israel must also agree to halt all settlement construction on land it seized during the 1967 Middle East War.

"Why should the quartet go out on a limb when there is no hard and fast insurance that the Palestinians would return to the table?" the Western diplomat in Israel said.

Public skepticism about peace talks among Palestinians has only hardened in recent months, with most urging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to boycott the process unless Israeli settlement construction is halted, according to Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki.

"If he returns to talks, he makes the public very angry," Shikaki said. "my conclusion is he will not."

Palestinian leaders are nonetheless increasingly confidant that their September statehood strategy is gaining steam. At an international donors conference in Brussels last week to aid the Palestinians, a U.N. report was released that praised Palestinian Authority institutions dealing with finance, law, education and infrastructure as being ready for statehood. But U.N. officials worry that progress could stall if a peace deal is not reached soon.

Israel staunchly opposed U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, saying the Palestinians are trying to avoid the difficult decisions that should be made at the negotiating table.

Israeli analysts say Netanyahu's alternative plan, if he announces one, would need to be ambitious and detailed enough to rival the Palestinians' initiative. U.S. and European officials are pushing Netanyahu to formally embrace using the 1967 borders as a basis for talks, as some of his predecessors have done, and agree to East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

Opposition leaders expressed doubt that Netanyahu's coalition would be able to overcome its differences to propose such a plan.

"I don't see in the current government a political plan for moving forward," said lawmaker Shaul Mofaz of the opposition Kadima party. Yet, he added, "a do-nothing policy is very dangerous for the future of Israel."

Edmund.Sanders@LATimes.com

View the original article here

The Afghan Taliban intelligence network embraces the Los Angeles Times - New

Reports from Kabul, Afghanistan - The Taliban has deepened its infiltration of Afghan institutions and sharpen its surveillance of Afghan troops and foreign it seeks to exploit a step ahead in the war of the information that will help decide the fate of the insurgency.

A large part of the structure of the Taliban has been destroyed or dispersed by the invasion led by the United States 2001, which forced the militant group of power. Intermediate level commanders have been hit in recent months by Western forces, and responsible for NATO say that leadership-based Pakistanis has been undermined by infighting.

But, as the Afghanistan has floundered in recent years, the movement has rebounded, in part by the refocusing on its centuries-old skills by exploiting the links tribes and family, using foot messengers and keep an eye on his enemies.

The Taliban use the information it gathers to probe for the openings for the suicide attacks, to monitor the movements of Western and Afghan forces and hamper efforts to improve public services to help the Government to establish credibility for civilians.

But analysts also point to a key weakness: even if a new generation of militants is more apt at using the Internet, cell phones and social media, Taliban decentralized structure makes it difficult to synthesize information and to act in a unified way.

Western experts and Taliban agree on the importance of the information warfare as the United States aims to withdraw in 2014. The efforts of activists are based on an understanding that dates back to the days governing Taliban under Mullah Mohammed Omar.

"Mullah Omar said the first power in Afghanistan is information", said a Western military official in Kabul, the Afghan capital, which is familiar with the issues of information, citing officials former Taliban who knew leader of long standing of the movement. "He who controls the information control the will of the people."

Western forces and their Afghan allies to lead their own extensive intelligence operations. U.S. drones constantly circle the sky, and the monitoring of the electronic communication is ubiquitous. The Afghan Government has also claimed some success to thwart attacks.

But the Taliban is capable of maintaining a presence, even in those regions of the country who are most hostile to it. Hazara ethnic and religious Shiite Daikundi province, which for years was seen as a refuge against the Sunni Pashtun-dominated Taliban, the Governor said that he knew that the militants were close by.

In "night letters" distributed to homes the civilian warned insurgents only step to contribute to community projects and truckers not way to do business with the Government. "All that would happen in the local Council or the Government, they would know about it in two or three hours,", said Sultan Ali Oruzgani, a former Governor of Daikundi. "In the field of my power, they had infiltrated the army, the local government and the Parliament."

Activists have reached behind the stone walls high of Pul-i-Charki prison, which houses of Taliban and agents of Al-Qaeda, including some returned from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"There are people in uniform on the payroll,", said an insider in the prison compound is of Kabul, who spoke the condition of anonymity, fear will endanger. "The black turban is always watching us."

The source, which is in centres of detention Afghanistan for years, said sympathizers among the help of guards detained Taliban remain in contact with ground contacts. Doctors, among the few outsiders with access to the prisoners, also help.

"Stuff is brought to them, all ways to communicate," said the Insider. "They have Internet wireless." They distribute and analyze video clips of operations. ?

Experts and former officials point out evidence of infiltration of the police and the Afghan army.

"In terms of entering the Afghan security forces, they had success more, using family ties and the resentments and against foreigners," said Arturo Munoz, a former analyst for the CIA who is now studying Afghanistan for the Rand Corp..

A U.S. military classified report published by WikiLeaks, a commander of the local police in the province of Paktia has been quoted as saying that the Taliban in the region was led by a member of the local government who have provided information on both sides.

Another report said a commander of the Haqqani network was the son of a colonel of the national police. Often, families place a son in the Taliban and the other in the army to cover their bet, said several analysts in Kabul.

"They know where the Government does not provide justice, so that they provide courts." "They know where the police are predatory, so that they provide an alternative," said Andrew Exum, a former agent of special forces in Afghanistan which is now at the Centre of a new American security, a Washington think tank.

View the original article here