The Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is safe in US custody according to a human rights group.

US-based ChinaAid confirmed that high-level talks between Chinese and US officials are underway.

The group said in a statement it had "learned from a source close to the Chen Guangcheng situation that Chen is under US protection" in Beijing.

"This is a pivotal moment for US human rights diplomacy,” said Bob Fu, ChinaAid President.

"Because of Chen's wide popularity, the Obama Administration must stand firmly with him or risk losing credibility as a defender of freedom and the rule of law. If there is a reason why Chinese dissidents revere the US, it is for a moment like this."

The US embassy's involvement in the matter could raise tensions between Beijing and Washington, a week before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to visit the Chinese capital.

Mr Chen, a prominent human rights activist and dissident, escaped from house arrest in a daring night-time escape.

The blind activist evaded almost 90 guards who were stationed around his house and in his village for over a year.

There are now fears for the safety of Mr Chen’s family members and friends.

The Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) group said they believed four of his relatives had already been detained.

"We're very concerned that authorities appear to have launched a round of retaliation against Chen's family, relatives and activists who assisted Chen Guangcheng's flight for freedom," said Renee Xia, international director of the CHRD.

UN Human Rights Chief Ms Navaneetham Pillay also expressed concern about the welfare of Mr Chen’s family in a statement.

“I’m disturbed to hear reports that other family members, including his brother Chen Guangfu and nephew Chen Kegui, have now been detained,” Pillay said.

The High Commissioner said she has previously raised concerns with the Chinese authorities over Chen Guangcheng's case, and once again urged them “to investigate the treatment of both him and his family, to ensure their physical integrity, and to provide redress for any wrongdoing by local officials.”

A former peace envoy has said that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad could face war crimes charges over the brutal crackdown by his security forces on opponents of the Syrian regime.

George Mitchell, the former US peace envoy to the Middle East, told a security conference in Dublin that Assad could face war crimes charges just like Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, who was found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes by a tribunal in The Hague earlier this week.

He added that further action should be taken to increase pressure on the Assad regime.

"I think there are more actions that could be directed at the regime and all those that are supporting what is occuring there particularly the grievous number of deaths and injuries at present." Mitchell said.

He expressed his belief that Syrians would eventually "freely choose their own leaders" and that there would be a "democratic transition".

Britain has announced restrictions on exports to the Argentine military on Thursday.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said in a statement to the House of Commons that the export controls will take effect immediately.

"The government has reviewed this policy in the light of recent actions by the Argentine government aimed at harming the economic interests of the Falkland islanders," he said.

"We are determined to ensure no British licensable exports or trade have the potential to be used by Argentina to impose an economic blockade on the Falkland islanders or inhibit their legitimate rights to develop their own economy."

"In future no licences shall be granted for any military or dual use goods and technology being supplied to military armed users in Argentina, except in exceptional circumstances."

Britain hasn’t exported any goods that could be used to improve the Argentine military since 1998, but it has until now allowed trade which would maintain the military’s current position.

China and the Philippines have been involved in a standoff for two weeks at the Scarborough Shoal over territorial rights, raising concerns that miscalculation by either side could result in severe consequences to that region.

The shoal is composed of 200 islands filled with fishing grounds and other natural resources which are claimed by Philippine, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam. The recent dispute between Philippine and China comes as the Philippine navy was unable to arrest Chinese fishermen poaching as a result of Chinese vessels protecting the fishermen.

Fishing stocks in Chinese coastal waters are depleted, forcing Chinese fishermen out further away from Chinese territory. China claims all of South China Sea as part of its territory citing historic documents, including waters close to Philippine coastal areas.

Despite China’s warning to the Philippines not to “internationalise” territory altercations, Philippines on Thursday said that it planned to seek more US military assistance during next week’s meeting.

Scott Harold, associate political scientist with the RAND Corp said,

“The Philippines has come to the conclusion over the past couple ofyears that China is growing more determined to assert its claims.”

“As China has grown more determined to assert its claims, the Philippines has moved to rebuild its defense cooperative relationswith the United States.”

German president Joachim Gauck has called off a visit to the Ukraine over the alleged mistreatment of former Prime Minister Julia Tymoshenko.

German opposition politicians and some senior figures in German football have called for a boycott of the European Championships in June, which is jointly hosted by the Ukraine and Poland.

The Ukraine has ordered an investigation into the alleged beating of Tymoshenko by prison guards, after increasing pressure by the EU and Germany.

However, the investigation called by Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is seen as meaningless by observers, as a previous investigation, which concluded this week, found that Tymoshenko was not abused in prison.

Tymoshenko claimed she was beaten and transported to a hospital against her will. She suffers from a severe spinal condition, which according to German doctors who examined her, needs urgent treatment at a specialist clinic.

Germany has offered to treat the former prime minister who has also been on hunger strike for nearly a week. Prison officials have indicated that she may be force fed.

Pressure is increasing on the European football association UEFA to take action.

German opposition politicians have called for a boycott of the tournament in June; however UEFA President Michel Platini rejected any intervention.

“UEFA is not and will never be a political institution" said Platini.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle echoed his sentiments. Westerwelle said he doesn’t ‘think much’ of boycott calls and thinks the championship will be a good opportunity to take a closer look at the human rights situation in the country.

The head of the Sports Committee of the Bundestag, disagreed with the foreign minister.

Dagmar Freitag said “I believe sport has a socio-political function. [It] does have the responsibility to raise its voice.”

The leader of the Green Party Claudia Roth told ‘Die Welt Online’:

"The leaders in the Ukraine have another thing coming if they think they can bask in the light of the international public during the UEFA men's European Championship 2012, as they, like in the case of Julia Timoshenko, trample on human and civil rights,

"The time when millions look at sports and look away at the human and civil rights [abuses] is over,

"UEFA should make this clear to the Ukrainian government."

The calls have also split German football, with the President of the DFB Dr Niersbach rejecting the boycott calls.

However, the managing director of German champions Borussia Dortmund has become the first senior figure to announce a boycott of the tournament, unless Ms Tymoshenko is allowed treatment.

Hans-Joachim Watzke told media in Germany, “I will not attend the games unless Ms Tymoshenko receives immediate medical care from independent doctors.”

Charles Taylor was found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes during Sierra Leone's civil war at The Hague today.

Taylor was convicted on 11 counts including murder, rape and terror, after a trial that has lasted almost five years.
 
Welcoming the judgment, prosecutor Brenda Hollis said,

"[This] judgment reinforces the new reality, that heads of state will be held to account for war crimes ... With leadership comes not just power and authority, but also responsibility and accountability. No person, no matter how powerful, is above the law."

The conviction was hailed as the first former head of state to be convicted by an international court since the Nuremburg trials of Nazi leaders.

In a statement, Amnesty International said,

"While today's conviction brings some measure of justice to the people of Sierra Leone, Taylor and the others sentenced by the Special Court are just the tip of the iceberg."

The US State Department said,

"[it sent] a strong message to all perpetrators of atrocities, including those in the highest positions of power, that they will be held accountable".

The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, said, 

"This landmark verdict demonstrates that those who have committed the most serious of crimes can and will be held to account for their actions; it demonstrates that the reach of international law is long and not time limited and it demonstrates that heads of state cannot hide behind immunity."

"The verdict can only be a small comfort for the victims and relatives of those killed but the court's authoritative view of what occurred will play an important role in helping the people of Sierra Leone come to terms with the past and consolidate national reconciliation."

Taylor's indictment in 2003 whilst he served as the president of Liberia, established an important principle that a serving head of state was not immune from prosecution.

Two months following his indictment he was forced to give up his power and went into safe exile in Nigeria, at the guarantee of the Nigerian government.

In 2006, Taylor was arrested by Nigerian authorities and sent to Liberia.

France says it will seek UN intervention, including the possibility of a military intervention, if Syria does not follow special envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said that France could press for Security Council action under Chapter 7 of the UN charter, although Russia and China would most certainly veto any move against Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Juppe called for the deployment of 300 UN observers as authorised by Syria and said France has all but set a May 5 deadline for implementation of Mr Annan’s peace plan.

"We think this mediation should be given a chance, on the condition that the deployment of the observer mission happens quickly," Juppe said after a meeting with Syrian dissidents at his ministry. The plan isn't dead, he said, but "it is severely compromised."

If the peace plan fails, he added, "we would have to move to a new stage with a Chapter Seven resolution (which allows for action that could be backed by force) to stop this tragedy".

"We cannot allow ourselves to be defied by the current regime,"

US President Barack Obama has signed an executive order for sanctions against regimes that use technology to perpetrate human rights abuses.

In a speech at the US Holocaust Museum, Mr Obama said,

"National sovereignty is never a licence to slaughter your people."

The executive order creates sanctions against the government of Syria and Iran "and those who abet them, for using technologies to monitor, target and track its citizens for violence".

"These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them,"

The US treasury announced the targets of the sanctions, including Syria’s state-controlled mobile phone company Syriatel, Iranian internet provider Datak Telecom and Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps.

The Canadian Prime Minister Michael Ignatieff, described the creation of an independent Quebec as inevitable, in an interview with the BBC.

Commenting on the upcoming referendum over Scottish independence, Ignatieff said that regardless of the outcome the UK will change.

Ignatieff said,

"It’s a kind of way station — you stop there for a while,"

"But I think the logic, eventually, is independence. Full independence."

Asked whether he was talking about independence for both Quebec and Scotland, Ignatieff replied, "I think, eventually, that's where it goes."

He added,

"The problem here is we don’t have anything to say to each other anymore,"

"There’s a kind of contract of mutual indifference, which is very striking for someone of my generation."

"I can't think of this country without Quebec. Je parle francais. And when I think about being a Canadian, speaking French is part of it,"

"But that's not the way most English Canadians now think of their country. They might have done 30 or 40 years ago, when we thought we could live together in this strange hybrid country called Canada.

"Now effectively, we’re almost two separate countries."

Iran’s aerospatial division commander, Amir Ali Hajizadeh announced that they have built a drone from the recovered “codes” of RQ-170 Sentinal, a U.S surveillance drone that went down last December.

US officials have acknowledged that it went down while it was on a spy mission over Iran.

Iranian engineers claim that they were successful in hacking the control system of the unmanned aircraft, which enabled them to land the aircraft in Iranian territory.

American officials continue to insist that there was a malfunction causing the UAV to go down.

There is also huge scepticism among U.S officials who doubt that Iran has the technological capability to pull off an operation of this nature.

Joe Lieberman, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee doubts that “they are really able to make a copy of it.”

Dennis M. Gormley, an expert on drones and cruise missiles at the University of Pittsburgh, dismissed Iran’s claims.

Speaking to the New York Times he said “As someone who does monitor Iranian airspace and missile claims closely, let me simply observe that they are preternaturally disposed to exaggeration.”

According to some news outlets, Russia and China have requested Iran to share information regarding the drone, but the Iran’s Defence Ministry has denied these claims.

Three members of a Channel 4 televsion crew working in Bahrain were deported by the government on Monday.

Channel 4's foreign correspondent, Jonathan Miller, cameraman Joe Sheffer and producer David Fuller were detained by Bahraini authorities on suspicion of working without formal accreditation.

According to David Fuller, due to restrictions placed by the Bahraini government, the crew had been working "under the radar", and had filmed riot police crack down on a small demonstration in a nearby village.

The Channel 4 crew was taken to the police station, however Dr Ala'a Shehabi, the British-Bahraini human rights activist and the local driver the crew had been with, were arrested and taken away, after being assaulted by security forces.

In a statement, Channel 4 later confirmed that the crew were "safe and on their way back to the UK", and that "the team’s driver - whom they saw assaulted by Bahraini authorities, and human rights activist Dr Ala’a Shehabi have also been released.”

The European Union has announced the suspension of most sanctions on Burma for one year in recognition of ‘historic changes’.

The EU will suspend its restrictions against individuals and companies based in Burma and also withheld aid money. However its embargo on arms sales will remain.

"The European Union has followed with respect and appreciation the historic changes in Myanmar/Burma over the past year and encourages the wide-ranging reforms to continue," a statement released by the Council of the European Union at the ministers' meeting in Luxembourg said.

"As a means to welcome and encourage the reform process, the council will suspend restrictive measures imposed on the government, with the exception of the arms embargo, which it will retain."

The statement said the EU would "monitor closely the situation on the ground" and constantly review its measures, as well as "respond positively to progress on ongoing reforms".

The council, however, still "expects the unconditional release of remaining political prisoners and the removal of all restrictions placed on those already released".

Meanwhile the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi did not attend todays opening of parliament, due to a disagreement on the wording of the oath.

National League for Democracy (NLD) MPs have refused to swear to ‘safeguard’ the constitution as they want to swear to ‘respect’ the constitution instead.

See below for BBC report:

Suu Kyi's NLD 'boycott' at opening of Burma's parliament (23 Apr 2012)

The New Zealand government has approved the sale of 16 dairy farms to a Chinese investor, Shanghai Pengxin, despite facing strong criticism from local farmers and businessmen. 

The government's decision to allow a foreign investor to acquire land has proved contentious across New Zealand, where agriculture plays a significant role in export earnings.

The government initially approved the sale in January, but it was challenged by local farmers and businessman, who had hoped that they could acquire the land themselves.

Shanghai Pengxin has acquired a total of 20,000 acres and it plans to spend near $200 million New Zealand dollars to buy and improve their assets.

A legal appeal against the decision to approve the sale is currently underway.

Extracts from a fascinating article by The New York Times last on Syria’s Kurds.

The Kurds of Syria, long oppressed by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, are largely staying out of the fighting, hedging their bets as they watch to see who will gain the upper hand.

But the PKK has allied itself with the Assad government. In the past, Syria armed and protected the PKK in its long campaign against Turkey.

Mr. Assad has made major efforts to keep Syria's Kurds out of the fray, aware that their support for the opposition could prove decisive. He has promised that hundreds of thousands of Kurds will be given citizenship, something the ruling Assad family has denied them for nearly half a century.

The Kurds have other reasons for holding back: the opposition movement in Syria is made up in large part by the Muslim Brotherhood and Arab nationalists, two groups that have little sympathy for Kurdish rights, and the Kurds cling to their long-sought goal of a Kurdish state.

“Syrian Kurds are, by and large, sitting out this dance,” said Jonathan C. Randal, the author of a widely respected book on the Kurds — the largest ethnic group in the world without a state.

That is not surprising, given the oppressive history of the Kurdish people, not only in Syria but also in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, the four countries that intersect the traditional Kurdish region.

In the past, they have been denied language, culture and any sort of national identity in those countries, though major changes have been made in oil-rich northern Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The Kurds make up about 10 percent of Syria's population.

The history of their poor treatment in Syria is lengthy. But the most notable event took place in 1962, when 120,000 Kurds had their citizenship denied on the grounds they were not born in Syria. Today, that number has roughly doubled because of descendants who cannot lay claim to citizenship.

In 1973, Syria began creating an “Arab belt” in northern Syria, confiscating Kurdish land along a 180-mile strip and giving it to Arabs.

Besides the banning of the Kurdish language and books from schools, celebrations like Nowruz — the traditional Kurdish New Year — were long prohibited.

Gokhan Bacik, the director of the Middle East Strategic Research Center at Zirve University in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, said the Syrian Kurds were fragmented among many political parties, making it all the more difficult for them to unite for any single cause.

But even though the Kurds as a whole do not want to jeopardize the long-term goal of a nation-state, he said, they are keeping their own counsel.

“There is a nascent idea of a Kurdish nation,” he said. “They don’t want to risk this process. For them the major point is long-term survival in better conditions.”

The Kurds have said in the past that they are seeking constitutional recognition, compensation for their suffering and a federal government, as well as the removal of the word “Arab” from Syria’s official name — the Syrian Arab Republic.

 A wild card in all this is the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK, a well-armed and well-trained militia [fighting for Kurdish autonomy from Turkey].

 The group has already threatened to turn all Kurdish areas in the region into a “war zone” if Turkey crosses the border to intervene in the Syrian crisis.