News in Brief
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia is close to completing preparations for a like-for-like response following a U.S. missile test that was carried out last month, the RIA news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko as saying on Tuesday.
The Pentagon said last month it had tested a conventionally-configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500 km (310 miles) of flight, its first such test since the demise of the landmark INF nuclear arms limitation treaty.
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GENEVA (Reuters) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the top United Nations human rights forum on Tuesday that India’s "illegal military occupation” of the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir raises the specter of "genocide”.
India revoked the autonomy of the disputed Himalayan region, home to 8 million people and a flashpoint for the nuclear-armed neighbors, on Aug. 5.
"The forlorn, traumatized towns, mountains, plains and valleys of Indian-occupied Jammu & Kashmir reverberate today, with the grim reminders of Rwanda, Srebrenica, the Rohingya, and the pogrom of Gujarat,” Qureshi told the UN Human Rights Council.
"The people of Indian-occupied Jammu & Kashmir are apprehending the worst...I shudder to mention the word genocide here, but I must...The Kashmiri people in the occupied territory - as a national, ethnic, racial and religious group of people - face grave threats to their lives, way of living and livelihoods from a murderous, misogynistic and xenophobic regime,” he said.
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HONG KONG (Dispatches) -- Hong Kong's embattled leader warned the United States on Tuesday not to "interfere" with her government's response to the city's unrest, after fresh riots called on Washington to ramp up pressure on Beijing.
Protesters took to the streets again on Sunday, marching to the American consulate to call on Congress to pass a bill expressing support for the riots.
The proposed law could undermine Hong Kong's special U.S. trade privileges by mandating regular checks on whether authorities were respecting the Basic Law that underpins the city's semi-autonomous status.
But Hong Kong's pro-Beijing Chief Executive Carrie Lam said that any change to its economic relationship with Washington would threaten "mutual benefits".
"It's extremely inappropriate for any country to interfere in Hong Kong's affairs," she told reporters. "I hope that no more people in Hong Kong actively reach out to tell the United States to pass the act."
Beijing on Tuesday echoed Lam's remarks, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying: "We hope that they can withdraw their black hands in Hong Kong as soon as possible."
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LONDON (AFP) -- Beleaguered British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to continue his attempts to strike a new Brexit deal with Brussels, after losing yet another vote on Tuesday during a chaotic parliamentary session.
Johnson slammed the opposition for voting against his call for a snap election in the final minutes of a stormy late-night debate ahead of a controversial suspension of parliament called by the prime minister.
He said he would "strive to get an agreement" at a summit in Brussels next month -- the alternative being a "no-deal" departure that critics warn would spark economic chaos.
Johnson accused his opponents of shirking their duty by blocking an early election.
He held a cabinet meeting later on Tuesday to plot his next move after a series of defections and expulsions left him far short of a parliamentary majority and unable to garner enough votes from MPs to hold an early election.
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MADRID (Reuters) -- Spain stood on the brink of a repeat election on Tuesday after the Socialists and far-left Unidas Podemos said they had made no progress in a new round of talks aimed at striking a government deal and overcoming major differences between the two.
Spain’s politics has been in limbo since an inconclusive election in April, which the Socialists won, but without enough seats to govern on their own.
If parliament does not vote in Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez as prime minister by Sept. 23, there will be a new parliamentary election on Nov. 10.
"We see no path for reaching an agreement,” Socialist negotiator Adriana Lastra said, urging Podemos to reconsider its demand that they be made part of a coalition government.
The Socialists want Podemos to back them without being in the cabinet, which the latter refuses. Lastra said the Socialists were willing to hold new talks, but Podemos said that came with an ultimatum.
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ALGIERS (Reuters) -- Algerian Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui will resign soon to pave the way for elections this year that the army sees as the only way to end a standoff over months of protests, two senior sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
Bedoui’s departure is a major demand of protesters, who in April forced president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit after 20 years in office, and who have rejected fresh elections until there is a more thorough change of the power structure.
Bedoui’s departure is intended to "facilitate” the holding of elections said the two senior officials, speaking on condition they were not further identified.
Powerful army chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Saleh said last week that the electoral commission should by Sept. 15 call an election, a move that would trigger a 90-day countdown to the vote.
Students holding a weekly protest on Tuesday chanted that they would accept no elections "until the gang is removed”, a reference to Bouteflika’s power circle, an elite entrenched largely since independence from France in 1962.
The Pentagon said last month it had tested a conventionally-configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500 km (310 miles) of flight, its first such test since the demise of the landmark INF nuclear arms limitation treaty.
***
GENEVA (Reuters) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the top United Nations human rights forum on Tuesday that India’s "illegal military occupation” of the Muslim-majority territory of Kashmir raises the specter of "genocide”.
India revoked the autonomy of the disputed Himalayan region, home to 8 million people and a flashpoint for the nuclear-armed neighbors, on Aug. 5.
"The forlorn, traumatized towns, mountains, plains and valleys of Indian-occupied Jammu & Kashmir reverberate today, with the grim reminders of Rwanda, Srebrenica, the Rohingya, and the pogrom of Gujarat,” Qureshi told the UN Human Rights Council.
"The people of Indian-occupied Jammu & Kashmir are apprehending the worst...I shudder to mention the word genocide here, but I must...The Kashmiri people in the occupied territory - as a national, ethnic, racial and religious group of people - face grave threats to their lives, way of living and livelihoods from a murderous, misogynistic and xenophobic regime,” he said.
***
HONG KONG (Dispatches) -- Hong Kong's embattled leader warned the United States on Tuesday not to "interfere" with her government's response to the city's unrest, after fresh riots called on Washington to ramp up pressure on Beijing.
Protesters took to the streets again on Sunday, marching to the American consulate to call on Congress to pass a bill expressing support for the riots.
The proposed law could undermine Hong Kong's special U.S. trade privileges by mandating regular checks on whether authorities were respecting the Basic Law that underpins the city's semi-autonomous status.
But Hong Kong's pro-Beijing Chief Executive Carrie Lam said that any change to its economic relationship with Washington would threaten "mutual benefits".
"It's extremely inappropriate for any country to interfere in Hong Kong's affairs," she told reporters. "I hope that no more people in Hong Kong actively reach out to tell the United States to pass the act."
Beijing on Tuesday echoed Lam's remarks, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying: "We hope that they can withdraw their black hands in Hong Kong as soon as possible."
***
LONDON (AFP) -- Beleaguered British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to continue his attempts to strike a new Brexit deal with Brussels, after losing yet another vote on Tuesday during a chaotic parliamentary session.
Johnson slammed the opposition for voting against his call for a snap election in the final minutes of a stormy late-night debate ahead of a controversial suspension of parliament called by the prime minister.
He said he would "strive to get an agreement" at a summit in Brussels next month -- the alternative being a "no-deal" departure that critics warn would spark economic chaos.
Johnson accused his opponents of shirking their duty by blocking an early election.
He held a cabinet meeting later on Tuesday to plot his next move after a series of defections and expulsions left him far short of a parliamentary majority and unable to garner enough votes from MPs to hold an early election.
***
MADRID (Reuters) -- Spain stood on the brink of a repeat election on Tuesday after the Socialists and far-left Unidas Podemos said they had made no progress in a new round of talks aimed at striking a government deal and overcoming major differences between the two.
Spain’s politics has been in limbo since an inconclusive election in April, which the Socialists won, but without enough seats to govern on their own.
If parliament does not vote in Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez as prime minister by Sept. 23, there will be a new parliamentary election on Nov. 10.
"We see no path for reaching an agreement,” Socialist negotiator Adriana Lastra said, urging Podemos to reconsider its demand that they be made part of a coalition government.
The Socialists want Podemos to back them without being in the cabinet, which the latter refuses. Lastra said the Socialists were willing to hold new talks, but Podemos said that came with an ultimatum.
***
ALGIERS (Reuters) -- Algerian Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui will resign soon to pave the way for elections this year that the army sees as the only way to end a standoff over months of protests, two senior sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
Bedoui’s departure is a major demand of protesters, who in April forced president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit after 20 years in office, and who have rejected fresh elections until there is a more thorough change of the power structure.
Bedoui’s departure is intended to "facilitate” the holding of elections said the two senior officials, speaking on condition they were not further identified.
Powerful army chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Saleh said last week that the electoral commission should by Sept. 15 call an election, a move that would trigger a 90-day countdown to the vote.
Students holding a weekly protest on Tuesday chanted that they would accept no elections "until the gang is removed”, a reference to Bouteflika’s power circle, an elite entrenched largely since independence from France in 1962.