Mes: agosto 2019

(AP) AZAZ, Syria – Residents of this north Syrian border town like to snap photos of their children atop the tank parked downtown, one of more than a dozen captured or destroyed by rebels in the battles last month that “liberated” the area from President Bashar Assad’s army. Across the street in air-conditioned offices once occupied by Assad’s Baath party, a new political order is emerging. Local rebels have formed committees to fix power lines, fire up bakeries and staff the nearby border crossing with Turkey. They also run security patrols and a prison with some 60 captives. Two men were executed by firing squad recently after a judge and Islamic clerics found them guilty of murder. “We run a state system here,” said Samir Hajj Omar, the silver-haired former teacher who heads the rebel political office for Azaz, a town of 35,000. “We’re enforcing the law.” In recent months, Syria’s rebels have extended control over a large swath of territory in the northeastern corner of the country after forcing the army from town after town in a string of bloody street battles. As a result, for the first time in Syria’s 17-month conflict, rebels have a cohesive enclave in which they can move and organize with unprecedented freedom, plus a long stretch of the border with Turkey key for moving out refugees and smuggling in weapons. They also...

(CBS/AP) QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador’s foreign minister is alleging that Britain threatened to storm his country’s London embassy to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Ricardo Patino told a news conference that Ecuador received a written threat Wednesday from Britain that “it could assault our embassy” if Assange was not handed over. He said the threat was delivered to Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry and 인제출장샵 ambassador in London. The Press Association reports Patino released details of the letter it got from the British Foreign office. The letter stated: “You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the Embassy. We sincerely hope that we do not reach that point, but if you are not capable of resolving this matter of Mr Assange’s presence in your premises, this is an open option for us.” The Australian has been holed up in the embassy since June 19, taking refuge to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning for alleged sexual misconduct. Assange’s supports say the charges are trumped up and believe the U.S. has secretly indicted him and would extradite him from Sweden. Ecuadorian officials have said they will announce Wednesday whether or not Assange will be given asylum. British authorities have...

(CBS News) – The State Department tells CBS News it believes Syrian rebels’ claims that 48 Iranians they are holding hostage are members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard military unit. Iran has flatly denied the claim that the hostages are military personnel, insisting they are all civilians who were in Syria to visit the Sayyida Zainab shrine, south of Damascus, when they were abducted. The shrine has been frequented by Shiite Muslim pilgrims in the past, including many from Iran. On Wednesday, however, Iran’s foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by the Islamic Republic’s government-controlled media as saying, “some retired individuals from the Guards and army” were among those being held. More in After the Arab Spring “After some time in which pilgrims from Iran were not being dispatched to Syria… we took steps to send retired forces from various organizations,” he was quoted as saying by Iran’s state news agency and other state-run media. “Some retired individuals from the Guards and army were dispatched to Syria to make a pilgrimage.” A day before admitting the hostages’ links to the elite Iranian military unit, Salehi sent a formal letter to United Nations Secretary-General, to “seek the cooperation and the good offices of Your Excellency for securing the release of these hostages.” Rebels took the Iranians hostage recently, 바카라사이트 claiming they are members of the IRGC. In a video...

(CBS/AP) QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador’s foreign minister is alleging that Britain threatened to storm his country’s London embassy to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Ricardo Patino told a news conference that Ecuador received a written threat Wednesday from Britain that “it could assault our embassy” if Assange was not handed over. He said the threat was delivered to Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry and 인제출장샵 ambassador in London. The Press Association reports Patino released details of the letter it got from the British Foreign office. The letter stated: “You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the Embassy. We sincerely hope that we do not reach that point, but if you are not capable of resolving this matter of Mr Assange’s presence in your premises, this is an open option for us.” The Australian has been holed up in the embassy since June 19, taking refuge to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning for alleged sexual misconduct. Assange’s supports say the charges are trumped up and believe the U.S. has secretly indicted him and would extradite him from Sweden. Ecuadorian officials have said they will announce Wednesday whether or not Assange will be given asylum. British authorities have...