Alaska Petitions to Join Russia

By Mike Krumboltz
From Yahoo News

WhiteHouse.gov petition seeks to give Alaska back to Russia

The campaign currently falls about 70K signatures short but coincides with Russia's annexation of Crimea

A petition on WhiteHouse.gov seeking to give Alaska back to Russia is probably safe to file under "N" for "Never Gonna Happen."

Still, 30,000 people have lent their virtual John Hancocks to the petition. Rules dictate petitions with 100,000 or more signatures get an official response from the White House. The creator(s) of this one have until April 20 to make that happen.

And there's the timing of the petition, which coincides with Russia's annexation of Crimea, a move that  wasrejected by the United Nations.

The petition's language is a bit difficult to follow, but a kind of Russian patriotism seems to shine through. Below, the text from WhiteHouse.gov:

Groups Siberian russians crossed the Isthmus (now the Bering Strait) 16-10 thousand years ago.

Russian began to settle on the Arctic coast, Aleuts inhabited the Aleutian Archipelago.

First visited Alaska August 21, 1732, members of the team boat "St. Gabriel »under the surveyor Gvozdev and assistant navigator I. Fedorov during the expedition Shestakov and DI Pavlutski 1729-1735 years

Vote for secession of Alaska from the United States and joining Russia.

Not exactly "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," but we can't all be Thomas Jefferson. 

While Alaska has been part of the United States for some time, it was, long ago, part of Russia. In 1867, Secretary of State William Seward purchased the land from Russia for about $7.2 million. It didn't become a state until 1959. It also happens to be rich with natural resources, from oil to timber to gold.

This isn't the first time someone has petitioned for a state to secede from the union, Fox News explains. In 2012, a similar petition involving Texas received enough signatures for a response, which was... wait for it...no.

Follow Mike Krumboltz on Twitter (@mikekrumboltz).

Egypt Routinely Tortures Detainees

From BBC News

Egyptian security forces routinely torture detainees as young as 15 years of age, according to testimony given to the BBC.

Former detainees - often held for being near a protest - have described being electrocuted, beaten and sexually abused by security personnel.

The army-backed interim government has detained some 20,000 people since it came to power last July.

A government official "categorically denied" torture had taken place.

"There might be some mistakes or transgressions in police stations however they don't reach the level of torture," said Gen Abu Bakr Abdel Karim from the interior ministry .

The accounts cannot be independently verified, but rights groups say torture and brutality in detention is common, says the BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo.

Torture and brutality perpetrated by the internal security agency under former President Hosni Mubarak fuelled opposition to his regime, which was overthrown in 2011.

Officials say this is a new Egypt, a country on a path to democracy, but human rights campaigners insist that systematic torture is back, our correspondent adds.

'Electrocution'

A 15-year-old boy told the BBC how he was accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been the target of the new government's crackdown.

He says he was electrocuted repeatedly.

"When they electrocuted me I used to fall down on the ground, and I could not stand up. At the same time they were beating me," he said.

"And sometimes they would throw water to increase the voltage."

Democracy activist Yassin Mohammed was arrested at a protest in January and held for 42 days.

The 19-year-old says he was tortured and electrocuted, and is speaking out on behalf of others who have had the same treatment.

"They took off my trousers, and then they put the wires on me. I was screaming and shouting. You feel that's it. You are going to die," he said.

Clashes

The military-backed government took over after the Islamist President Mohammed Morsi was deposed after weeks of widespread protests.

Unrest has continued amid an ongoing crackdown on Mr Morsi's followers.

On Friday at least three people were killed in clashes between security forces and supporters of Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The bloodiest of the demonstrations was in the east of the capital, Cairo.

Two demonstrators and a female journalist covering the protests died when police moved in, using tear gas and live ammunition.

Italy Asks US Help For Marines in India

Italian Marines were arrested in India. Picture from Al Jazeera.

From Al Jazeera English

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has asked for US help in resolving a long-delayed court case in India against two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen. "I thanked the US and the US government for the support that they have given us in this phase of the international discussion," Renzi said on Thursday during a joint press conference after talks with President Barack Obama.

The new Italian premier said he had also asked to be able to count on Obama for "further support" in the case, which dates back to 2012 and has been hit by a series of legal delays. "We want the issue to be dealt with at an ever more international level," Renzi added.

As tensions have boiled, Italy last month recalled its ambassador to India and summoned the Indian ambassador to express concern at the delays in the court proceedings. Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone are accused of shooting the fishermen off the coast of Kerala while they were serving as security guards on an Italian-flagged cargo ship.

The pair, who have been given bail and are staying at the Italian embassy in New Delhi, say they mistook the fishing boat for a pirate vessel and only fired warning shots. In late February, India dropped plans to prosecute them under tough anti-piracy laws, but prosecutors are now re-examining what charges to bring, which could include murder.

Italy insists the pair should be tried on home soil since the shootings involved an Italian-flagged vessel in what Rome insists were international waters. India asserts the killings took place in waters under its jurisdiction. The United States for its part has had strained relations with India in recent months over the US justice department's visa fraud case against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade over her employment of a domestic servant.

Israel Holds Off On Prisoner Release; Palestinian and Israeli Versions

Palestinian

From Al Jazeera English

Israel shuns Palestinian prisoner deal

Israel tells Palestinians it will not release fourth group of prisoners by March 29 deadline, jeopardising peace talks. srael is to renege on a commitment to release a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, a move that delivers another blow to US-brokered peace talks. A senior Palestinian official, Jibril Rajub, told AFP news agency on Friday that Israel had informed the Palestinians via US mediators that it would not abide by its commitment to release the prisoners on Saturday, March 29. "Israel has refused to commit to the names that were agreed upon of prisoners held by Israel since before the 1993 Oslo agreements," Rajub said. The Palestinians have threatened to walk away from the peace talks if the prisoners are not released. Israeli officials had no immediate comment. Final release blocked Under the US-brokered deal that relaunched the peace talks in July, Israel said it would release 104 Arabs held since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords in exchange for the Palestinians not pressing their statehood claims at the United Nations. Israel has so far freed 78 prisoners, but members of the cabinet said they would block the final release if the Palestinians refused to extend the peace talks beyond their April 29 deadline. The peace process has teetered on the brink of collapse, with Washington fighting an uphill battle to get the two sides to agree to a framework for continued negotiations until the end of the year. Israel's move follows an announcement by Arab leaders on Wednesday which blamed Israel for a lack of progress in the talks, and said that they would never recognise Israel as a Jewish state. The Arab League issued a communique at the end of a two-day summit that rejected "the continuation of settlements, Judaisation of Jerusalem, and attacks in its Muslim and Christian shrines". US Secretary of State John Kerry then met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman on Wednesday night in a bid to salvage the talks. Kerry brought Israel and the Palestinians back into negotiations on July 29, 2013, after a three-year gap, and said at the time that "our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months". As the April deadline approaches, US officials have scaled back their ambitions, saying they are now trying to forge a "framework for negotiations" by then. Israeli  From Jerusalem Post  Israel delays prisoner release due for Saturday night Names of prisoners chosen for release must be made public for 48 hours, not including Shabbat, in order to allow appeals to the High Court. Israel will not release a fourth batch of 26 Palestinian security prisoners Saturday night as stipulated under the framework deal that led to the renewal of negotiations last July. The five-minister committee chaired by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that is empowered to choose which convicted terrorists will be released would need to have met on Wednesday to make a Saturday-night release possible. The names must be made public 48 hours – not including Shabbat – prior to the prisoners going free in order to allow appeals to the High Court of Justice against the move. No date for convening the committee was publicized. The Prime Minister’s Office remained silent about whether Netanyahu intended to go ahead with the release. One official cited Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s comment last week that there was never an “automatic commitment to release prisoners unrelated to making progress in negotiations,” and said that comment remained relevant. “Things are fluid,” one official said, adding that this fluidity stemmed from Israel’s waiting to see if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – who met with US Secretary of State John Kerry for four hours in Jordan Wednesday night – would agree to continue the negotiations. Netanyahu, however, could gain some political space if he decides to carry out the release, with the Likud's court postponing a key party conference originally scheduled for Monday night, until the end of May. This is significant for Netanyahu, because he did not want to go into the conference – where Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon is challenging his authority – against the backdrop of the prisoner release. By late May, the release will likely be long gone. The US administration exerted pressure on the PA leadership to agree to postpone the release of the final batch of prisoners, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday. Under the terms of the US-brokered deal that got the sides back to the negotiation table in July, Israel was to release 104 terrorists convicted of crimes before the 1993 Oslo Accords, and the Palestinians were going to delay diplomatic moves in various international organizations to gain statehood status. PA officials said that Abbas and Kerry are scheduled to hold another meeting next week. They said no progress had been achieved during their meeting, where the two men discussed extending peace talks until the end of the year. US officials dubbed the talks “constructive,” however, and said Kerry would “remain engaged” with Abbas and Netanyahu in the coming days. Kerry and Netanyahu speak on a daily basis, according to Israeli officials. Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud al-Aloul said Kerry had tried to persuade Abbas to agree to postpone the prisoner release until the end of April, when the nine-month deadline for the peace talks expires. Abbas rejected the idea. Aloul added that the PA leadership was ready to go to international organizations and UN agencies, including the International Criminal Court, if Israel did not release the prisoners at the end of this month. “The Palestinian leadership agreed to return to the peace talks with Israel at the request of the Americans in return for the release of 104 prisoners incarcerated before the signing of the Oslo Accords,” Aloul said. The Palestinians have “paid a heavy price by returning to the negotiations and delaying their plan to join international organizations and forums until the release of these prisoners.” He said that the US administration’s failure to force Israel to fulfill its commitment to free the prisoners created the impression that Washington could not be an honest broker in the negotiations. Issa Qaraqi, PA minister for prisoners affairs, warned that failure to release the prisoners at the end of this month would lead to unrest inside Israeli prisons. “The prisoners have decided to launch protests if the fourth batch is not freed. Also, we will hold mass rallies in support of the prisoners, and their families will wait for them outside Ofer Prison [near Ramallah],” Qaraqi said, speaking at a Ramallah rally in support of the prisoners.

Tymoshenko Will Run For President of Ukraine

Former Ukrainian Prime MinisterYulia Yanukovych
Picture from AFP

From BBC News

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said she plans to run for president of Ukraine in May elections.

She was released after serving three years in jail in February following the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.

It was followed by a referendum which led to Russia's annexation of Crimea. On Thursday, the UN General Assembly voted to declare it invalid.

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to a loan deal with Ukraine worth $14bn to $18bn.

IMF loan

US President Barack Obama said the IMF announcement was a "major step forward" to help Ukraine stabilise its economy and meet the long-term needs of its people.

Speaking after talks with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Rome, Mr Obama said it was a "concrete signal" that the world stood united with Ukraine at a difficult time.

The US Senate and House of Representatives have both passed legislation backing a $1bn loan guarantee to Ukraine, which still has to be signed into law by President Obama.

Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had earlier told parliament the country was on the ""on the edge of economic and financial bankruptcy".

At the UN General Assembly, 100 countries voted in favour of a resolution declaring the Crimean referendum on 16 March illegal and affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Eleven nations voted against, with 58 abstentions. Given that the resolution was non-binding, the vote was largely symbolic, says the BBC's Nick Bryant in New York.

But Ukraine hopes the resolution will act as a deterrent and dissuade Moscow from making further incursions into its territory, he adds.

'Direct action'

Yulia Tymoshenko announced on Thursday her candidature for Ukraine's presidential elections in May.

Ms Tymoshenko, who has already served twice as prime minister and ran for president in 2010, told reporters she would stand as "a candidate for Ukrainian unity".

She said she had earned the right to be considered a candidate who was against corruption.

"My presidential campaign will be the campaign of direct action: no promises, but immediate actions, and then - in a couple of days - reporting on what's been done," she said.

Ms Tymoshenko was a major figure in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that ousted Mr Yanukovych from the presidency after an election widely seen as fraudulent.

She was imprisoned in 2011 for corruption linked to a gas deal she brokered with Russia as prime minister in 2009.

Her supporters say the case was politically motivated and instigated by Mr Yanukovych, to whom she lost the 2010 presidential election.

On Monday she denied the authenticity of a taped conversation in which she allegedly called for Russia to be turned into "scorched earth" and for ethnic Russians in Ukraine to be killed.

Ms Tymoshenko said the recording, which featured prominently on Russian news reports, was produced by Russia's security services.

Former boxer Vitaliy Klitschko and chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko are also expected to take part in the presidential election.

Opinion polls suggest Mr Poroshenko, who is one of Ukraine's richest men, is currently the most popular candidate.

The election is expected to take place on 25 May.

'Door of diplomacy'

More than 100 people were killed during protests which overthrew pro-Kremlin President Yanukovych in February.

They followed months of street protests sparked by Mr Yanukovych's decision to reject a planned EU trade deal in favour of closer ties with Moscow.

Since then, Russia has annexed the Crimean peninsula, which last week voted to become part of the Russian federation.

The West has widely condemned the move, with US President Barack Obama warning on Wednesday of further EU and US sanctions against Moscow if there were any further incursions.

Mr Obama said on Thursday that the US hoped Russia would "walk through the door of diplomacy" and resolve the issue in a peaceful way.

In other Ukraine developments:

• Six Ukrainian military officers detained by Russian troops in Crimea have been released, but five remain in custody; those released include Col Yuli Mamchur, the commander of Belbek base which fell on Saturday
• Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk says the price Ukraine pays for Russian gas will increase by 79% from 1 April
• Russian President Vladimir Putin announces plans for a new domestic payment system to circumvent financial sanctions imposed by Western nations over the Crimea issue.

ICC Charges Ivory Cost Militia Leader for Crimes Against Humanity

Charles Ble Goude. Picture from AFP/BBC News

From BBC News

Charles Ble Goude, an ally of Ivory Coast ex-President Laurent Gbagbo has made his first appearance at The International Criminal Court (ICC). Mr Ble Goude, a former minister, has been charged with committing crimes against humanity during clashes that followed the 2010 election.

He denies all the charges - including accusations that he led a militia. His extradition last week infuriated supporters of Mr Gbagbo, who is also at The Hague court, awaiting trial. The warrant against Mr Ble Goude was unsealed in September. Prosecutors at the court accused him of being responsible - "as indirect co-perpetrator" - for four crimes against humanity, including rape, murder and persecution.

The crimes are said to have been committed during between December 2010 and April 2011, following the disputed election. Some 3,000 people lost their lives in the crisis, after Mr Gbagbo refused to concede victory to his rival, Alassane Ouattara.

Mr Ble Goude was the head of the Young Patriots, an organisation of Gbagbo loyalists that was blamed for a campaign of violence against those seen as Mr Ouattara's supporters. In an interview last year with the BBC, Mr Ble Goude said that he had only organised rallies and meetings and never run a militia.

'Impartial justice'

At the hearing on Thursday, Mr Ble Goude appeared in a grey suit with a white shirt. He confirmed his name and asserted his innocence. "I'm a consultant in political communication," he said, greeting supporters in the gallery with a smile and a clenched-fist salute. "I will go home."

Supporters of Mr Gbagbo have described last week's handover of Mr Ble Goude to the ICC as a setback for reconciliation. Many have accused the ICC and the government, now led by Mr Ouattara, of pursuing "victor's justice" by targeting only those who were close to Mr Gbagbo.

A UN representative overseeing human rights in the Ivory Coast issued a statement on Thursday, emphasising the need for "impartial justice for all". "All that have committed violent crimes, whatever their political, ethnic or tribal or religious background, should be tried," Doudue Diene said.

The ICC is currently preparing to prosecute three allies of Mr Ouattara, the AFP news agency reports, quoting sources close to the court. The Ivory Coast's next election in 2015 is expected to be a test of reconciliation in the country.

U.N. Begins Human Rights Inquiry into Sri Lanka

Refugees during Sri Lanka's Civil War.
Photo from Xinhuanet.

From Al Jazeera America

The United Nations' top human rights body has approved an international criminal investigation into alleged abuses in Sri Lanka's civil war, fought between the government and Tamil Tiger separatist rebels and which ended in 2009.

Members of the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council agreed to set up the yearlong investigation, estimated to cost $1.46 million, based on the recommendation of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. By a 23-12 vote Thursday, with 12 abstentions, the council approved a U.S.-led resolution authorizing Pillay's office to launch "a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka." The inquiry also seeks to hold both sides of the conflict accountable.

Sri Lanka has come under international pressure to deal with war crimes allegedly committed in the final stage of a 26-year conflict with the rebels, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The U.N., through two previous U.S.-sponsored resolutions, has urged Sri Lanka to follow the recommendations of a local panel appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, which also urged punishment for soldiers involved in war crimes.

The third resolution, also sponsored by the U.S., comes after Sri Lanka failed to implement the recommendations, amid continued alleged rights violations. Rajapakse rejected Thursday's resolution, telling the Agence France-Presse news agency that he would instead press ahead with his own reconciliation plan.
"We reject this," Rajapakse said. "This resolution only hurts our reconciliation efforts. It does not help. "But I am not discouraged. We will continue with the reconciliation process I have started," he added in a phone call.

Mohan Samaranayake, a spokesman for president Rajapakse, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the resolution was "politically motivated," "biased" and "unjust." Samaranayake added that Sri Lanka would "study the entire process that happened so far and the changes in comparison to the previous two occasions, and will take appropriate action," referring to the previous resolutions.

A U.N. report found up to 40,000 people may have been killed in the war's final phase, but the government disputes that figure.

Pillay had told the council on Wednesday that it was crucial to recall the "magnitude and gravity" of the violations allegedly committed by both the government and the rebels, who were known for their suicide bombings.