He’s not going anywhere.
Bashar Assad’s presidency looks likely to outlast Barack Obama’s.
As the United States has turned its attention to defeating the Islamic State group, it has softened its stance on the Syrian leader. More than four years ago, Obama demanded that Assad leave power. Administration officials later said Assad did not have to step down on “Day One” of a political transition. Now, they are going further.
A peace plan agreed to last weekend by 17 nations meeting in Vienna says nothing about Assad’s future, but states that “free and fair elections would be held pursuant to the new constitution within 18 months.” To clarify the timeline, the State Department said this past week that the clock starts once Assad’s representatives and opposition figures begin talks on a constitution. The vote would determine a new parliament, though not necessarily a new president.
Getting to constitutional talks will be difficult. It implies that Syria’s warring parties first reach a cease-fire and establish a transition government – something unattainable so far. Neither Syria’s government nor its fractured opposition has endorsed the strategy yet or done much to advance it.
Experts criticise WHO delay in sounding alarm over Ebola outbreak
Report suggests World Health Organisation should lose its role in declaring disease outbreaks to be international emergency
Sarah Boseley Health editor
The World Health Organisation should be stripped of its role in declaring disease outbreaks to be an international emergency following the catastrophic failure to warn the world of the dangers of Ebola in west Africa last year, according to an independent panel of experts.
The recommendation is made in a report, published in the Lancet medical journal, by 20 experts convened by the Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who analysed the response to the Ebola epidemic.
A series of Guardian articles on the United Nations in September showed up the failings of the WHO in pandemic situations. More than 11,000 people died in the Ebola epidemic, which has still not quite ended. Liberia, which appeared to be clear of the virus, has just found new cases.
Hong Kong sees mixed results in first district election since ‘umbrella protests’
In Hong Kong’s first vote since mass pro-democracy street protests, the city’s democracy movement has won at least four seats in district elections. The poll could provide an insight into the 2017 leadership election.
Despite the small success for Hong Kong’s so-called “Umbrella soldiers” in Sunday’s election, the balance of power in the semi-autonomous district remains largely the same.
Analysts of the vote believe, however, that the results reflect the continued support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. Around 900 candidates competed for Hong Kong’s 431 seats across 18 district councils.
Record turnout
“It’s a total surprise. I feel the Umbrella Movement definitely woke up many people who never cared about the district council and politics to give their first vote,” Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying, who won against a pro-Beijing candidate, told local news channel TVB.
“We will prove we’re serious,” added Kwong Po-yin, 29, of new pro-democracy group Youngspiration, who also won.
Why the chaos, violence in West Asia will not end with IS defeat
- AP, Washington Updated: Nov 23, 2015 11:40 IST
The chaos and violence gripping West Asia are not likely to evaporate even if the forces arrayed against the Islamic State militant group manage to crush the brutal army and its drive to establish an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria and beyond.
Why?
The national structures and boundaries created by European colonial powers after the Ottoman Empire was dismantled at the end of World War I are collapsing or already have disintegrated. That has unleashed powerful centrifugal forces that are melting the glue that was holding together increasingly antagonistic religious and ethnic populations.
The mix of Muslims — Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites — Christians and the big ethnic Kurdish populations in the north of both Syria and Iraq are a stew of ancient discontent, sectarian frustration and flagrant injustice.
Those social explosives were detonated by the upheaval unleashed by the US war in Iraq and the civil war in Syria.
On Okinawa, clash over war and peace began with U.S. victory in WWII
NAGO, JAPAN
As two U.S. Marine Corps aircraft soar above a pristine Pacific beach, a Japanese environmentalist on the shore below worries that she may see many more of them very soon.
“I feel the vibration” when Marine aircraft pass overhead, says Anna Shimabukuro, 37. “I feel uncomfortable.”
She’s spent more than half her life fighting a proposal to place new Marine air strips near the village where she grew up on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. Her side has thwarted the plan year after year.
But the day when Marine planes land near her may be inching closer, with Tokyo and Washington insisting that the runways must be built. They’d expand a base on the front lines of a standoff where traditional U.S. allies are guarding against China’s growing military might in the South and East China seas.
The military urgency behind the plan, however, crashes against a perennial stalemate over what to do with the dense and unpopular concentration of Marine forces the American military has kept on Okinawa since World War II.
Curbs on media mar Ethiopia’s success story
While rapidly growing economically, country has also gained one of the worst reputations in terms of media freedom.
Charles Stratford | | Ethiopia, Africa, Media
Addis Ababa – Ethiopia’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the world and its government is determined to transform the country into a middle-income nation in the next decade.
However, Ethiopia has one of the worst reputations in the world when it comes to media freedom.
“I was beaten with a cable on my bare foot,” Befeqadu Hailu, a blogger, said.
“I was forced to do sit-ups. I was slapped a lot of times. The only thing I want from the government is to allow me to freely express myself.”