Israel Warns Palestinian Government

From BBC News

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says his country will retaliate if the Palestinians take further unilateral steps in pursuit of statehood.

He told a weekly cabinet meeting that Israel would not continue peace talks with the Palestinians at any price.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has applied to 15 UN conventions, accusing Israel of backtracking on its promises.

US envoy Martin Indyk is to meet both sides on Sunday to try to breathe new life into the embattled peace process.

Earlier this week, Israel cancelled plans to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, arguing that Mr Abbas's decision to sign up to several international conventions at the UN had violated the conditions for the release.

The Palestinians however say that Israel had already reneged on a commitment to free the prisoners.

US frustration

On Sunday, Mr Netanyahu said the Palestinians would "achieve a state only through direct negotiations and not through empty proclamations or unilateral moves".

"Unilateral steps on their part will be answered with unilateral steps on our side," he said. "We are willing to continue negotiations, but we will not do so at any price."

Mr Netanyahu did not spell out what action Israel may take.

The top US official overseeing the negotiations, Secretary of State John Kerry, warned last week that there were limits to the time and effort Washington could afford to expend on the process.

Pakistani Couple Gets Death Sentence For Text Message

From BBC News

Human rights groups say Pakistan's blasphemy laws are often used to target minorities, including Christians.
Picture from Getty Images.

A Pakistani Christian couple have been sentenced to death for blasphemy after allegedly sending a text message insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

The couple, named as Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar, were found guilty of sending the text message to the imam of their local mosque.

Allegations of blasphemy against Islam are taken very seriously in Pakistan.

Several recent cases have prompted international concern about the application of blasphemy laws.

The imam brought a complaint against the couple last July.

The couple's lawyer told the BBC he would appeal against the sentences and said the trial had not been conducted fairly.

Pakistan has a de facto moratorium on the death penalty so it is unlikely the couple will be executed.

They come from the town of Gojra in Punjab, previously the scene of communal violence.

In 2009 the rumoured desecration of a copy of the Koran led to a mob burning nearly 40 houses and a church in Gojra. At least eight members of Christian community died in the violence.

Minorities targeted

Since the 1990s, scores of Christians have been convicted for desecrating the Koran or blaspheming against the Prophet Mohammed.

While most of them have been sentenced to death by the lower courts, many sentences have been overturned due to lack of evidence.

Critics argue that Pakistan's blasphemy laws are frequently misused to settle personal scores and that members of minority groups are also unfairly targeted.

Muslims constitute a majority of those prosecuted, followed by the minority Ahmadi community.

In 2012 the arrest of a young Christian girl, Rimsha Masih, on blasphemy charges provoked international outrage. After being detained in a high security prison for several weeks she was eventually released and her family subsequently fled to Canada.

Taliban Paying Afghans Not to Vote

By Hamid Shalizi
Thomson Reuters
From Globalpost

The Taliban have launched a violent campaign to disrupt this weekend's presidential election in Afghanistan, but in a restive eastern corner of the country they are paying villagers to surrender their voting cards.

Residents in Nangarhar province, which lies on the border with Pakistan, said local Taliban militants have been offering voters 500 Pakistani rupees — the equivalent of just over $5 — to opt out of the election.

"At first we thought the Taliban were trying to trick us and wanted to find out who had voter cards, but later we found out that they were honest and paid money," said Ahmad Shah, a youth in a village just outside the city of Jalalabad.

The Taliban did not respond to a request for comment.

Saturday's election will bring the first democratic transfer of power in war-torn Afghanistan and an end to the rule of President Hamid Karzai, who has led the country since the ouster of a Taliban regime in late 2001. The Taliban have branded the election a Western-backed sham.

More from GlobalPost: One of these men will lead Afghanistan

The Independent Election Commission has said at least 10 percent of polling stations will not be able to open due to the threat of violence, the majority of them in the east where the insurgents are most active.

"When the Taliban are in control and warn people not to vote, and instead pay money for your voter card, it's not a bad thing," Haji Khan Wali, another man in the village, where the Pakistani rupee is more commonly used than the local currency, the Afghani.

"People here have to think more about finding bread to feed their families than the election. To tell you the truth, half the people here don't know anything about the election," said Khan, wearing a white turban and long beard.

Local officials said they were aware of such reports from remote areas of Nangarhar, which are under Taliban influence.

Southern and eastern parts Afghanistan are dominated by Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group, which has traditionally enjoyed strong political influence.

Karzai is a Pashtun, which made him an obvious choice for many in these regions at the 2009 election, but the three frontrunners to succeed him are also Pashtun. Of them, the one with the closest links to eastern areas bordering lawless lands inside Pakistan is Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official.

Influential tribal elders say they would support any of the three candidates, but many people in remote areas of the region won't be casting a vote anyway.

In Nangarhar alone, 115 polling stations will not open due to concerns about mass fraud and ballot-stuffing as well as security, the provincial election chief, Akhtar Mohammad Ajmal, told Reuters. A 10-year-old was caught with 1,200 fake voting cards in neighbouring Kunar province this week.

The 2009 presidential election was marred by widespread fraud and another flawed election would undermine attempts by the United States and its allies to foster democracy ahead of the departure of foreign troops at the end of this year.

Thailand Warns of Civil War

From BBC News 

Leaders of Thailand's pro-government movement have warned that any attempt to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra could trigger a civil war.

They issued the warning at a rally outside Bangkok - the first staged by the "red shirt" movement near the capital since since violent clashes broke out in November.

Opponents of Ms Yingluck and her party have filed legal cases against her.

Months of anti-government mass protests have failed to unseat her.

Speaking to a crowd of tens of thousands, Jatuporn Promphan, the chairman of the pro-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), said judicial institutions were trying "to take over power without elections".

"What we are most concerned about - that we want to warn all sides against - is a civil war, which we do not want to happen," he said.

"It will happen if there is a coup and democracy is stolen."

Acute anxiety

Ms Yingluck is facing mounting legal cases - including charges of neglect of duty and abuse of power - that correspondents say could see her removed from office in coming weeks.

Meanwhile anti-government protesters have continued their own demonstrations from their headquarters in Bangkok's central Lumpini Park.

The government called an election in February, but that was obstructed by protesters.

Since then Thailand has been in a state of paralysis, reports the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

Ms Yingluck's party has won the last five elections, but her opponents argue that Thailand's democracy is so deeply flawed that it must be reformed before another election can be held.

Another factor driving the conflict is acute anxiety over the ailing health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, our correspondent adds.

The red shirts at Saturday's rally openly showed support for his son Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. He is the designated heir but some among traditional elite are believed to oppose him.

North Korea Claims US Hell-bent On Regime Change

From Al Jazeera English

North Korea has accused the United States of being "hell-bent on regime change" and warned that any manoeuvers with that intention will be viewed as a "red line" that will result in countermeasures.

Pyongyang's deputy UN ambassador, Ri Tong Il, also repeated that his government "made it very clear we will carry out a new form of nuclear test" but refused to elaborate, saying only that "I recommend you to wait and see what it is." His comments came at North Korea's second press conference at the United Nations in two weeks, a surprising rate for the reclusive Communist government.

Ri blamed the US for aggravating tensions on the Korean Peninsula by continuing "very dangerous" military drills with South Korea, by pursuing action in the UN Security Council against his country's recent ballistic missile launches and by going after Pyongyang's human rights performance. Ri also accused the US of blocking a resumption of six-party talks on its nuclear program by settling preconditions and said Washington's primary goal is to maintain tensions and prevent the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

A US diplomat who was not authorised to comment publicly later told the Associated Press news agency: "We have long made clear - in close consultation with our allies - that we are open to improved relations with the DPRK if it is willing to take clear actions to live up to its international obligations and commitments."

North Korea walked away from the six-party nuclear disarmament talks in 2009 over disagreements on how to verify steps the North was meant to take to end its nuclear programs. The US and its allies are demanding that the North demonstrate its sincerity in ending a drive to acquire nuclear weapons.

Nuclear tests

Since pulling out of the six-party talks, the North has conducted two nuclear tests, at least two long-range rocket tests and most recently short-range rocket launches. Using the initials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's official name, Ri said, "The DPRK has been making strenuous, hard efforts, very generous, toward easing the tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but ignoring all this generous position of the DPRK and its proposals, the US went ahead with opening the joint military drills, [in a] very aggressive nature, and they're now expanding in a crazy manner the scale of this exercise."

He also rejected as "illegal" a Security Council statement last week that condemned North Korea's test-firing of two medium-range ballistic missiles as violations of council resolutions.

The deputy ambassador did not answer questions on detained American Kenneth Bae or on his country's drone program, which it has been promoting recently. South Korean experts this week claimed that two small, camera-equipped drones had been flown across the border by the North, calling them crude and decidedly low-tech. Both drones crashed in South Korea.

Labor Protests In Belgium

From Reuters

From Al Jazeera English

Thousands in Belgium have taken part in a peaceful protest, called for by the European Trade Union Confederation and organised by labour unions, to oppose austerity measures implemented across the 28-country European Union.

Belgian police used water cannons and pepper spray on the protesters, who had showered them with oranges and cobblestones during Friday's demonstration in Brussels, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Participants also voiced their opposition to 'social dumping', whereby businesses import cheaper workers to replace local hires, or export jobs to a low-wage country or area.

As well as paralysing traffic in the Belgian capital, the demonstration sent the US embassy into lockdown as the American ambassador to the EU, Anthony L Gardner, was conducting an unrelated briefing for journalists.

Embassy staff said it was the first lockdown they could recall in years. At one of the protest hot spots, near the European Union headquarter's buildings, longshoremen from the Belgian cities of Antwerp and Ghent clashed with riot police.

Police said one demonstrator was hurt when a rock he was trying to throw hit him on the head instead.

Several people had been injured, including a policeman apparently struck by a cobblestone, AP reported. Organisers had expected 40,000 people to take part in the demonstration, but Brussels police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere estimated the turnout at about 25,000.

UK Bishop Says Gay Marriage Will Lead to Violence in Africa

From BBC News

Archbishop Welby. Picture from Reuters.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the Church of England accepting gay marriage could be "catastrophic" for Christians in other parts of the world.

The Most Rev Justin Welby told LBC that hundreds of Christians in Africa had been killed by people who associated Christianity with homosexuality.

He warned the same could happen if the Church of England backed gay unions.

Same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales last week, but is not supported by the Church.

Mass grave

Speaking on his first live phone-in on LBC Radio, Archbishop Welby recalled visiting a grave in South Sudan where 369 people had been buried.

He said the victims had been killed because local people believed allowing a Christian community to exist would mean "we would all be made to become homosexual".

"That burns itself into your soul", he said. "As does the suffering of gay people in this country."

He also spoke of visiting a group of Christians in Africa who had been attacked because of policies of churches in America.

'Enormous suffering'

And he said religious figures in South Sudan had pleaded with him not to change Church policy because it would mean they could no longer accept help from England.

Archbishop Welby in South Sudan on his tour of Africa earlier this year

Archbishop Welby acknowledged that homophobic behaviour causes "enormous suffering".

But he said there is a "danger" in looking for "simple solutions".

He added: "The impact of that on Christians in countries far from here, like South Sudan, like Pakistan, Nigeria and other places would be absolutely catastrophic - and we have to love them as much as the people who are here."

Global scale

Rev Bob Callaghan, the National Coordinator of Inclusive Church, which wants the church to be "open to all", said violence against Christians abroad was a risk.

He said the Church in England would need to consider the impact of a change in its stance "on a global scale".

But he added: "The debate is not happening and that is part of the problem".