Queen Ireland visit She went to meet with Irish President Mary McAleese. The historic visit, the first by a British monarch since Ireland won independence from London in 1921, is being held amid the biggest security operation mounted by the state. It is designed to show how warm neighbourly relations have replaced centuries of animosity, but the discovery of the bomb on a bus headed for Dublin, and a coded warning on Monday about a possible bomb in London, were stark reminders that a small minority remain violently opposed to continued British rule in Northern Ireland. The Queen landed at Baldonnel military airport just before midday, where she and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh were greeted by British Ambassador Julian King, Ireland s Ambassador to the UK Bobby McDonagh and Ireland s deputy Prime Minister Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore. Police in Northern Ireland are on full alert against attempts by dissident republicans to grab headlines during the queen s visit. Streets across the capital were sealed off, with police on almost every corner and helicopters whirring overhead.
Syria President Bashar al-Assad vowed Saturday to lift the Emergency Law this week. Protesters rip posters of a smiling President Assad in Damascus, they chant "the people want the fall of the regime." Tens of thousands have filled cities across the nation for nearly a month under the same slogans of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings. The law - in place nearly 50 years - bans gatherings of no more than five and serves to throttle public dissent. But demonstrators are still demanding the release political prisoners and dismantle the repressive state security apparatus, among other reforms. On the other hand, fleeing Syrian villagers who continued to stream into Lebanon on Tuesday said they saw at least 10 tanks around the villages of Arida and Tel Kelakh which troops entered on Saturday after protests erupted against president Bashar al-Assad.
IMF Chief After a weekend in jail, the chief of the International Monetary Fund was denied bail on Monday. Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been arrested on the charges of trying to rape a hotel maid as allegations of other, similar attacks by him, began to emerge. In France, a lawyer for a novelist said the writer is likely to file a criminal complaint, accusing Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her nine years ago. A French lawmaker accused him of attacking other maids in previous stays at the same luxury hotel. And in New York, prosecutors said they are working to verify reports of at least one other case, which they suggested was overseas. Strauss-Kahn s weekend arrest rocked the financial world as the IMF grapples with the European debt crisis, and upended French presidential politics. Strauss-Kahn, a member of France s Socialist party, was widely considered the strongest potential challenger next year to President Nicolas Sarkozy. Making his first appearance on the sex charges, a grim-looking Strauss-Kahn stood slumped before a judge in a dark raincoat and open-collared shirt. The 62-year-old, silver-haired Strauss-Kahn said nothing as a lawyer professed his innocence and strove in vain to get him released on bail. The judge ruled against him after prosecutors warned that the wealthy banker might flee to France and put himself beyond the reach of the US law like the filmmaker Roman Polanski.
Libya The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor applied Monday for a warrant for Muammar Qadhafi’s arrest for crimes against humanity, a day after the Libyan strongman’s regime offered a truce in return for a halt to Nato-led air strikes. In Libya’s capital, two explosions were heard overnight Tuesday in the Bab Al-Aziziya area of Tripoli where strongman Muammar Qadhafi’s residence is located, an AFP journalist reported. A column of white smoke could be seen rising from the area after two explosions at about 1:30 am local time and ambulance sirens could be heard. Nato-led aircraft meanwhile launched fresh raids on an outlying suburb of the capital Tripoli, destroying a radar base, the state news agency JANA and residents said. ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said warrants were also sought for one of Qadhafi’s sons, Seif al-Islam, and intelligence head Abdullah Senussi for crimes against humanity. “Today, the office of the prosecutor requested the International Criminal Court arrest warrants,” Moreno-Ocampo told a news conference in The Hague, where the court is based. The Argentine prosecutor said there was evidence “that Muammar Qadhafi personally ordered attacks on innocent Libyan civilians”. A panel of ICC judges will now decide whether to accept or reject the prosecutor’s application. “Nato doubtless will appreciate the ICC investigation and indictment of top Libyan leaders, including Qadhafi,” said David Scheffer, an ex-US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, who teaches international law at Northwestern University. And Scheffer argued that the move might increase pressure on Qadhafi to think about finding refuge in a country that has not agreed to ICC jurisdiction. Protests against Qadhafi’s four-decade rule began on February 15 and Moreno-Ocampo said thousands of people had now been killed in the violence and around 750,000 people forced to flee. British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on the international community to “fully support” the ICC. “I welcome this announcement. The human rights situation in western Libya and the behaviour of the Qadhafi regime remains of grave concern,” Hague said. The rebels too hailed the move by the ICC but said that Qadhafi ought to be tried in Libya first.
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