TOP NEWS
· Syria: women ‘targets of abuse and torture’
· CAR: ‘descending into chaos’-UN
· Indonesia: 18,000 flee erupting volcano
MIDDLE EAST
Syria and region
Women 'targets of abuse and torture'
Women in Syria are increasingly the targets of violent abuse and torture by government forces and armed groups. Some 6,000 women have been raped since the start of the conflict in March 2011, the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) says. A spokeswoman for the group said these women were then socially stigmatised, and often forced to flee their homes. Women are being targeted by snipers and used as human shields, often with their children, the report also says.
Violence against Women, a Bleeding Wound in the Syrian Conflict is based on interviews with victims and medical staff in the first half of 2013. The report describes how hundreds of Syrian women have been subjected to arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances and have undergone various forms of torture, in state detention facilities. "They are being used as privilege, not in the sense that they are favoured, but because sometimes of their relationship to opposition members or government-related members," EMHRN spokeswoman Hayet Zeghiche told the BBC. "They are deliberately targeted because of political issues and also because they are vulnerable victims." The report also says the kidnapping of women has also become a strategy of exchanging prisoners and exacting revenge, and that the nature of the crimes - rape and gang-rape - leaves many women isolated. (BBC)
WHO: polio cases spread to Damascus and Aleppo
The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that additional polio cases had been confirmed in two new areas of Syria, including near Damascus and in northern Aleppo, near Turkey, according to the agency's twitter account. "In addition to 15 polio cases in Deir al-Zor province, Syria, two additional cases have been confirmed, one each in rural Damascus and Aleppo," the tweet said. (Reuters)
France: peace talks to take place without Assad
Long-delayed Syria peace talks due in January will take place without the presence of President Bashar Assad or radical opposition groups, France's foreign minister said on Tuesday. "The purpose of Geneva-2 is not to have an armchair discussion about Syria, it's to have mutual agreement between regime representatives -- without Assad -- and the moderate opposition in order to form a transitional government," Laurent Fabius told French radio. "It's very difficult, but it's the only solution that allows us at once not to have Mr Bashar al-Assad and not to have the terrorists," he said, referring to the jihadist members of Syria's fractured opposition. (Daily Star)
US: Geneva peace talks ‘best chance’
Syrian peace talks planned for January are the "best opportunity" to form a transitional government, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said. He was speaking shortly after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that Syria's government and opposition would meet on 22 January in Geneva. On Monday, Mr Kerry said in a statement that the Geneva talks could help end the Syrian conflict. But he warned: "We are well aware that the obstacles on the road to a political solution are many, and we will enter the Geneva conference on Syria with our eyes wide open." Mr Kerry added that Washington would "continue to work in concert with the UN and our partners on remaining issues, including which countries will be invited to attend and what the agenda will be". (BBC)
Free Syrian Army says no ceasefire for Geneva talks
The head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Tuesday that rebel forces loyal to him would not join a planned peace conference in Switzerland in January and would continue their fight to topple President Bashar al-Assad throughout the talks. General Salim Idriss's rejection highlights how challenging it will be for international mediators to get Syria's warring and divided parties to the negotiating table. "Conditions are not suitable for running the Geneva 2 talks at the given date and we, as a military and revolutionary force, will not participate in the conference," Idriss told the pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera. "We will not stop combat at all during the Geneva conference or after it, and what concerns us is getting needed weapons for our fighters." (Reuters)
Iran: ready to join peace talks if invited
Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday Iran was prepared to take part in the Syria peace talks in Geneva, slated for Jan. 22, if invited. "Participation of Iran in Geneva 2 is in our view an important contribution to the resolution of the problem. We have said all along that if Iran is invited, we will participate without any preconditions," Zarif said on Press TV (Reuters)
Iraq
UN Envoy: Syria war fueling Iraq terrorist threat
The conflict in Syria is helping fuel terrorism and sectarian tensions in neighboring Iraq, enabling groups like al-Qaida to forge links with similar factions across the border, the U.N. envoy to Iraq said Monday. Nickolay Mladenov told the U.N. Security Council that resolving the Syrian crisis and adopting a regional strategy against all forms of religious or sectarian extremism "are vital to bringing stability to Iraq." "Today, more than ever, Iraq's challenges cannot be considered in isolation from the broader risks that face the region," he said, noting that more than 202,000 Syrian refugees are registered in Iraq, 98 percent of them in Kurdistan. (AP)
AFRICA
CAR
UN: CAR ‘descending into chaos’
The Central African Republic (CAR) is descending into "complete chaos", the UN deputy secretary general has warned, calling for urgent action. Jan Eliasson urged the Security Council to strengthen the African Union-led force in the country, and to turn it into a UN peacekeeping operation. "We cannot have a country fall apart like that," he told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday. "There is the violence, massacres and humanitarian chaos that follow a collapse." . He added that - as was the case in Mali - the troops would be deployed for "a short period, in the range of six months". Mr Eliasson said there had been an surge in sexual violence, torture, summary executions and sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians. "The CAR is becoming a breeding ground for extremists and armed groups in a region that is already suffering from conflict and instability," he said. "If this situation is left to fester, it may develop into a religious and ethnic conflict with long-standing consequences, even a civil war that could spread into neighbouring countries." The UN Security Council is expected next week to adopt a resolution authorising the deployment of African Union troops with French support in the impoverished nation. (BBC)
France to deploy 1,000 troops for six months
France's defence minister said Tuesday that Paris would deploy about 1,000 soldiers to Central African Republic for six months to support an African peacekeeping force. "France will support this African mission with about 1,000 soldiers," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Europe 1 radio. Le Drian said French troops would act only "in support" of an African stabilisation force in Central African Republic "for a short period, in the range of about six months." (AFP)
ASIA
Indonesia
18,000 flee erupting volcano
Almost 18,000 people have now fled their homes as a volcano violently erupts in western Indonesia, an official said, as it spewed more red-hot gas and rocks Monday. Authorities at the weekend issued the highest safety alert for Mount Sinabung on the island of Sumatra after it erupted spectacularly, urging everyone in a five-kilometre (3.1-mile) radius of the volcano to evacuate. On Monday, Sinabung erupted six times more, spewing columns of ash as high as 2,000 metres (6,500 feet), national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. "The number of displaced increased a lot because we lifted the alert level," he said, adding 17,713 people had now fled their homes up from around 12,000 the day before. "But some communities are not as affected and people are staying at home to farm and rear livestock." (AFP)Myanmar
OTHER
Climate change
Pacific islander fails in bid to be first climate refugee
A Pacific islander whose homeland is threatened by rising seas failed in an attempt to become the world's first climate change refugee Tuesday, with a New Zealand judge dismissing his case as "novel" but "unconvincing". Lawyers for Ioane Teitiota, 37, argued that New Zealand should not deport him even though his visa had expired, because climate change was gradually destroying his low-lying home in Kiribati. The difficulties Teitiota and his family would face in the tiny nation -- which consists of about 30 atolls, most only a few metres above sea level -- meant they should be recognised as refugees, the lawyers said. In a written ruling handed down on Tuesday, High Court judge John Priestley acknowledged that Kiribati was suffering environmental degradation attributable to climate change, including storm surges, flooding and water contamination. But he said millions of other people in low-lying countries were in a similar situation and Teitiota did not qualify as a refugee under international law. (AFP)
· Syria: women ‘targets of abuse and torture’
· CAR: ‘descending into chaos’-UN
· Indonesia: 18,000 flee erupting volcano
MIDDLE EAST
Syria and region
Women 'targets of abuse and torture'
Women in Syria are increasingly the targets of violent abuse and torture by government forces and armed groups. Some 6,000 women have been raped since the start of the conflict in March 2011, the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) says. A spokeswoman for the group said these women were then socially stigmatised, and often forced to flee their homes. Women are being targeted by snipers and used as human shields, often with their children, the report also says.
Violence against Women, a Bleeding Wound in the Syrian Conflict is based on interviews with victims and medical staff in the first half of 2013. The report describes how hundreds of Syrian women have been subjected to arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances and have undergone various forms of torture, in state detention facilities. "They are being used as privilege, not in the sense that they are favoured, but because sometimes of their relationship to opposition members or government-related members," EMHRN spokeswoman Hayet Zeghiche told the BBC. "They are deliberately targeted because of political issues and also because they are vulnerable victims." The report also says the kidnapping of women has also become a strategy of exchanging prisoners and exacting revenge, and that the nature of the crimes - rape and gang-rape - leaves many women isolated. (BBC)
WHO: polio cases spread to Damascus and Aleppo
The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that additional polio cases had been confirmed in two new areas of Syria, including near Damascus and in northern Aleppo, near Turkey, according to the agency's twitter account. "In addition to 15 polio cases in Deir al-Zor province, Syria, two additional cases have been confirmed, one each in rural Damascus and Aleppo," the tweet said. (Reuters)
France: peace talks to take place without Assad
Long-delayed Syria peace talks due in January will take place without the presence of President Bashar Assad or radical opposition groups, France's foreign minister said on Tuesday. "The purpose of Geneva-2 is not to have an armchair discussion about Syria, it's to have mutual agreement between regime representatives -- without Assad -- and the moderate opposition in order to form a transitional government," Laurent Fabius told French radio. "It's very difficult, but it's the only solution that allows us at once not to have Mr Bashar al-Assad and not to have the terrorists," he said, referring to the jihadist members of Syria's fractured opposition. (Daily Star)
US: Geneva peace talks ‘best chance’
Syrian peace talks planned for January are the "best opportunity" to form a transitional government, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said. He was speaking shortly after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that Syria's government and opposition would meet on 22 January in Geneva. On Monday, Mr Kerry said in a statement that the Geneva talks could help end the Syrian conflict. But he warned: "We are well aware that the obstacles on the road to a political solution are many, and we will enter the Geneva conference on Syria with our eyes wide open." Mr Kerry added that Washington would "continue to work in concert with the UN and our partners on remaining issues, including which countries will be invited to attend and what the agenda will be". (BBC)
Free Syrian Army says no ceasefire for Geneva talks
The head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Tuesday that rebel forces loyal to him would not join a planned peace conference in Switzerland in January and would continue their fight to topple President Bashar al-Assad throughout the talks. General Salim Idriss's rejection highlights how challenging it will be for international mediators to get Syria's warring and divided parties to the negotiating table. "Conditions are not suitable for running the Geneva 2 talks at the given date and we, as a military and revolutionary force, will not participate in the conference," Idriss told the pan-Arab news channel Al Jazeera. "We will not stop combat at all during the Geneva conference or after it, and what concerns us is getting needed weapons for our fighters." (Reuters)
Iran: ready to join peace talks if invited
Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday Iran was prepared to take part in the Syria peace talks in Geneva, slated for Jan. 22, if invited. "Participation of Iran in Geneva 2 is in our view an important contribution to the resolution of the problem. We have said all along that if Iran is invited, we will participate without any preconditions," Zarif said on Press TV (Reuters)
Iraq
UN Envoy: Syria war fueling Iraq terrorist threat
The conflict in Syria is helping fuel terrorism and sectarian tensions in neighboring Iraq, enabling groups like al-Qaida to forge links with similar factions across the border, the U.N. envoy to Iraq said Monday. Nickolay Mladenov told the U.N. Security Council that resolving the Syrian crisis and adopting a regional strategy against all forms of religious or sectarian extremism "are vital to bringing stability to Iraq." "Today, more than ever, Iraq's challenges cannot be considered in isolation from the broader risks that face the region," he said, noting that more than 202,000 Syrian refugees are registered in Iraq, 98 percent of them in Kurdistan. (AP)
AFRICA
CAR
UN: CAR ‘descending into chaos’
The Central African Republic (CAR) is descending into "complete chaos", the UN deputy secretary general has warned, calling for urgent action. Jan Eliasson urged the Security Council to strengthen the African Union-led force in the country, and to turn it into a UN peacekeeping operation. "We cannot have a country fall apart like that," he told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday. "There is the violence, massacres and humanitarian chaos that follow a collapse." . He added that - as was the case in Mali - the troops would be deployed for "a short period, in the range of six months". Mr Eliasson said there had been an surge in sexual violence, torture, summary executions and sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians. "The CAR is becoming a breeding ground for extremists and armed groups in a region that is already suffering from conflict and instability," he said. "If this situation is left to fester, it may develop into a religious and ethnic conflict with long-standing consequences, even a civil war that could spread into neighbouring countries." The UN Security Council is expected next week to adopt a resolution authorising the deployment of African Union troops with French support in the impoverished nation. (BBC)
France to deploy 1,000 troops for six months
France's defence minister said Tuesday that Paris would deploy about 1,000 soldiers to Central African Republic for six months to support an African peacekeeping force. "France will support this African mission with about 1,000 soldiers," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Europe 1 radio. Le Drian said French troops would act only "in support" of an African stabilisation force in Central African Republic "for a short period, in the range of about six months." (AFP)
ASIA
Indonesia
18,000 flee erupting volcano
Almost 18,000 people have now fled their homes as a volcano violently erupts in western Indonesia, an official said, as it spewed more red-hot gas and rocks Monday. Authorities at the weekend issued the highest safety alert for Mount Sinabung on the island of Sumatra after it erupted spectacularly, urging everyone in a five-kilometre (3.1-mile) radius of the volcano to evacuate. On Monday, Sinabung erupted six times more, spewing columns of ash as high as 2,000 metres (6,500 feet), national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. "The number of displaced increased a lot because we lifted the alert level," he said, adding 17,713 people had now fled their homes up from around 12,000 the day before. "But some communities are not as affected and people are staying at home to farm and rear livestock." (AFP)Myanmar
OTHER
Climate change
Pacific islander fails in bid to be first climate refugee
A Pacific islander whose homeland is threatened by rising seas failed in an attempt to become the world's first climate change refugee Tuesday, with a New Zealand judge dismissing his case as "novel" but "unconvincing". Lawyers for Ioane Teitiota, 37, argued that New Zealand should not deport him even though his visa had expired, because climate change was gradually destroying his low-lying home in Kiribati. The difficulties Teitiota and his family would face in the tiny nation -- which consists of about 30 atolls, most only a few metres above sea level -- meant they should be recognised as refugees, the lawyers said. In a written ruling handed down on Tuesday, High Court judge John Priestley acknowledged that Kiribati was suffering environmental degradation attributable to climate change, including storm surges, flooding and water contamination. But he said millions of other people in low-lying countries were in a similar situation and Teitiota did not qualify as a refugee under international law. (AFP)