Pink Floyd release first new song since 1994 for Ukraine

Yahoo – AFP, April 7, 2022 

David Gilmour: 'We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile
act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people
murdered by one of the world's major powers' (AFP/JOHN D MCHUGH) (JOHN D MCHUGH)

Pink Floyd have written their first new song in almost 30 years to support Ukrainians, the band announced on Thursday. 

"Hey, Hey, Rise-Up!" will be released on Friday, and be used to raise funds for humanitarian causes linked to the war. 

It samples Andriy Khlyvnyuk, from one of Ukraine's biggest bands BoomBox, singing in Sofiyskaya Square in Kyiv in a clip that went viral. 

Khlyvnyukh abandoned a world tour to return to Ukraine and help defend his country. 

"We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world's major powers," Pink Floyd said on their official Twitter feed. 

In a press release, band leader David Gilmour said he had been moved by Khlyvnyuk's video: "It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music." 

He was able to speak with Khlyvnyuk from his hospital bed in Kyiv, where the singer was recovering after being hit by shrapnel in a mortar attack, the record company said. 

"I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together in person in the future," Gilmour said. 

The image accompanying the song is of a sunflower, and was inspired by a viral video showing a Ukrainian woman insulting two armed Russian soldiers. 

In it, she tells the soldiers: "Take these seeds and put them in your pockets. That way sunflowers will grow when you all rest here." 

It is the first original music from Pink Floyd since 1994's "The Division Bell". 

Gilmour tweeted his opposition to the war soon after Russia's invasion, saying: "Putin must go". 

The band has also pulled their music from Russian and Belarusian streaming sites in protest at the invasion.

Myanmar faces genocide lawsuit at top UN court

Yahoo – AFP, November 11, 2019

Gambia has filed a lawsuit against Myanmar to force it "to cease and desist
from its genocidal acts" against Royingya victims (AFP Photo/MUNIR UZ ZAMAN)

The Hague (AFP) - Myanmar faced accusations of genocide in a landmark lawsuit filed by Gambia at the UN's top court on Monday over the Southeast Asian nation's treatment of Rohingya Muslims, Gambia's government said.

Gambia said it was acting on behalf of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in bringing the case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

The lawsuit accuses mainly Buddhist Myanmar of breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention through a brutal military campaign targeting the Rohingya minority in Rakhine state.

The 2017 crackdown forced 740,000 Rohingya to flee over the border into sprawling camps in Bangladesh, in violence that United Nations investigators say amounts to "genocide".

"The Gambia is taking this action to seek justice and accountability for the genocide being committed by Myanmar against the Rohingya," Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said in a statement.

The court is expected to hold its first hearings in December on Gambia's request for urgent interim measures "to protect the Rohingya against further harm", Gambia's lawyers Foley Hoag said in a statement, describing the case as "historic".

Human Rights Watch hailed the move by the tiny west African state, saying it was the "first judicial scrutiny" of Myanmar's alleged crimes against the Rohingya.

Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director at HRW, said the court's "prompt adoption of provisional measures could help stop the worst ongoing abuses" in Myanmar.

The lawsuit asks the ICJ to "order Myanmar to cease and desist from its genocidal acts, to punish the perpetrators, and to provide reparations for the Rohingya victims," Gambia's justice ministry said.

It said Myanmar had failed to meet its obligations to prevent and to punish genocide, accusing it of "wanton acts of violence and malicious degradation with the specific intent of state actors to destroy the Rohingya as a group".

'Stepped up'

Mainly-Muslim Gambia said it had "stepped up" to file the case on behalf of the rest of the OIC. Tambadou is a former genocide prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and has visited Rohingya camps in Bangladesh.

Other legal attempts to bring Myanmar to justice over allegations of crimes against the Rohingya have so far stalled.

The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court -- a separate tribunal from the ICJ that investigates war crimes -- launched a preliminary investigation into Myanmar in 2018 but no charges have been filed yet.

UN investigators have also called on the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the Hague-based ICC or to set up a tribunal, like for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but again no action has yet been taken.

The ICJ was set up in 1946 after World War II to adjudicate in disputes between UN member states.

It normally deals with issues of international law such as border disputes, but sometimes rules on alleged breaches of UN conventions such as those on terrorism or genocide.

The ICJ previously dealt with a genocide case when Bosnia brought a lawsuit against Serbia over the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

That case ended in 2007 with Serbia being held to have failed to prevent genocide during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and of failing to cooperate with war crimes tribunals.

USAID launches latest clean-up for Vietnam War-era Agent Orange site

Yahoo – AFP, April 20, 2019

A Vietnamese soldier stands next to a sign warning of toxic hazard at Bien Hoa
air base, on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City (AFP Photo/Thomas WATKINS)

Hanoi (AFP) - The US launched on Saturday a $183 million clean-up at a former Vietnam storage site for Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant used in their bitter war which years later is still blamed for severe birth defects, cancers and disabilities.

Located outside Ho Chi Minh City, Bien Hoa airbase -- the latest site scheduled for rehabilitation after Danang airbase's clean-up last year -- was one of the main storage grounds for Agent Orange and only hastily cleared by soldiers near the war's end more than four decades ago.

US forces sprayed 80 million litres (21 million gallons) of Agent Orange over South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 in a desperate bid to flush out Viet Cong communist guerrillas by depriving them of tree cover and food.

The spillover from the clearing operation is believed to have seeped beyond the base and into ground water and rivers, and is linked to severe mental and physical disabilities across generations of Vietnamese -- from enlarged heads to deformed limbs.

At Bien Hoa, more than 500,000 cubic metres of dioxin had contaminated the soil and sediment, making it the "largest remaining hotspot" in Vietnam, said a statement from the US development agency USAID, which kicked off a 10-year remediation effort on Saturday.

The dioxin amounts in Bien Hoa are four times more than the volume cleaned up at Danang airport, a six-year $110 million effort which was completed in November.

"The fact that two former foes are now partnering on such a complex task is nothing short of historic," said the US ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel Kritenbrink, at Saturday morning's launch attended by Vietnamese military officials and US senators.

Hanoi says up to three million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, and that one million suffer grave health repercussions today -- including at least 150,000 children with birth defects.

An attempt by Vietnamese victims to obtain compensation from the United States has met with little success. The US Supreme Court in 2009 declined to take up the case while neither the US government nor the manufacturers of the chemical have ever admitted liability.

While US officials have never admitted direct links between Agent Orange and birth defects, USAID on Saturday also issued a "memorandum of intent" to work with government agencies to improve the lives of people with disabilities in seven Vietnamese provinces.

Singapore renames exhibition on Japanese occupation after outcry

Singapore has changed the title of an exhibition on the Japanese occupation of the island after public criticism. The title's inclusion of the name "Syonan," Japan's name for Singapore at the time, had caused upset.

Deutsche Welle, 18 February 2017

An exhibition in Singapore marking the 75th anniversary of the fall of Singapore to Japanese troops has had its title changed after many locals protested at its use of the name given to the city-state by the then-occupying forces.

Critics of the title said the term "Syonan" "evoked deep hurt" among individuals affected by the three-year occupation, which saw 50,000 ethnic Chinese men massacred, according to historians and survivors.

Singaporeans welcomed liberation
by the Allies

The name of the exhibition has been changed from "Syonan Gallery: War and Its Legacies" to "Surviving the Japanese Occupation: War and Its Legacies."

Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim publicly apologized for any hurt that may have been caused, saying he had received letters of complaint.

"I have reflected deeply on what I heard. We must honor and respect the feelings of those who suffered terribly and lost family members during the Japanese Occupation," he said in a Facebook post on Friday.

But he rejected suggestions that the use of the name "Syonan" implied approval of the occupation.

"Syonan Gallery" renamed; Minister Yaacob Ibrahim apologises for pain that name caused https://t.co/cI6c8aJwz2 pic.twitter.com/DzgC3dCSJp

— The Straits Times (@STcom) February 17, 2017

'Painful and tragic'

"Our intention was to remember what our forefathers went through, commemorate the generation of Singaporeans who experienced the Japanese occupation, and reaffirm our collective commitment never to let this happen again," he wrote.

He added that the content of the exhibition had not been changed, saying it captured "a painful and tragic period in our history which we must never forget, and which we must educate our young about."

Singapore, then a British colony, was captured by Japanese imperial forces in February 1942, with British forces forced into their biggest ever surrender. The surrender was signed at what was then the Ford Motor Factory, which has been converted into a gallery and which houses the exhibition.

The occupation, which came to an end with Japan's surrender to Britain in September 1945, was marked by brutality, with beatings, killings and food scarcity for many of the island's inhabitants.

tj/rc (AFP)

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"Wild Cards" (3) - Nov 19 - 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)- (Text version)

Kryon.com, November 19, 2016

This live channelling was given in Wilmington, North Carolina

Lee Carroll

To help the reader, this channelling has been revisited [by Lee and Kryon] to provide even clearer understanding. Sometime information is even added or condensed. Often what happens live has implied energy within it, which carries a kind of communication that the printed page does not. So enjoy this enhanced message given in Wilmington, NC.

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service.

Today I want to talk about wild cards. I wish to help explain what or who they’ve been over time, but in order for this explanation to be understood and accepted and beautiful to your soul, you’re going to have to do some pretending.

Adjusting Your Attitude

If you were a scientist coming from another planet to observe Human history, you would need to do it without emotion or bias. I can tell the story about wild cards, both for your grandfathers and for you, but there is often emotion and bias involved. Because of this, I will say one thing, and you may hear another. Dear ones, it can’t be that way for you to understand this message.

Warning: What comes next has to be disengaged from what you think you know, or from the emotions of who you think you are, what you think has happened, or even from what you feel is historical. Remember, in his pretending scenario, you’re aliens coming from another planet to learn what has happened. You’re pretending so you will disengage. Pretend history will be told to you about a race you’re not part of. This is so you will have no attachment to anything as you listen. This is the only way you will understand this lesson today. It is the only way you will begin to understand the beauty of a spiritual system that pushes you when you need to be pushed.

Wild Cards Examined

Wild card, as used in spiritual language, is a term that is difficult to define. Wild cards can be events, they can be inventions, they can involve one Human or a few. They can be one of many things or many of one thing, but they follow a timeline that you can look at. We want to talk about some of the wild cards that you’ve had in the past, and some attributes of their occurrence that you might not have thought of.

The basic attribute of any kind of wild card is that it’s a surprise event. It’s often shocking, sometimes revealing, but always a surprise. We’re also going to do some of the numerology as we go, and also take a look at the energies that help define what the energy is around specific wild cards.

Numerology is an ancient system that helps define an energy around something. For instance, an event may seem to be one thing, but the numerology will tell a story around it that may be more explanatory. When you see what we will call synchronized numerology – the same numbers repeated around a wild card – it’s very telling, for there are no accidents.

Dear Kryon, you might ask, “Does spirit create wild cards for the planet?” Answer: No, you do. Your consciousness at a certain point in time gives an allowance for a wild card. Sprit is ready to enhance some wild card scenarios and not others. But the energy and consciousness of humanity allows for their occurrence.

A wild card can be a person, an invention, a thing, an event, a new system or a new paradigm that changes the planet. It is unexpected, sometimes startling and often dramatic in its influence. If it’s an invention, it has to be outside of the purview of what would normally have occurred through the evolution of science or the timing of expected scientific evolution. It is often a paradigm shifter, and it’s usually from one person. When you see that, you will know there it’s a wild card. It isn’t always an individual invention, and sometimes it’s collective. But, dear one, you can tell because every single wild card takes everybody by surprise.

Wild Cards in History

You’ve had a number of them, and I’ll list a few so you get the idea. You’ll also get to see a system of singularity that comes to inventors. You’ll see this as I go.

Tesla was a wild card. His ideas were unexpected, controversial and advanced to a degree that even to this day those in electronic engineering shake their heads. They will take a look at what he invented and will comment, “How is it possible for any one person to have seen that? If you study alternating current, it’s a conundrum. Phase relationships of alternating current are brilliant beyond brilliant.” This was Tesla.

However, what you know about him is only what he brought to you. Now, a brilliant mind like that would have other things, don’t you think? Indeed, he did, so you might ask, “Well, where are those other things?” The answer is that those other things were stopped cold – all of them. He only was able to promote the one thing that you needed for the planet. The brilliance of his mind had many other profound ideas, but he was unable to proceed. He saw ways to alter mass in his workshops, but couldn’t. He was frustrated that he didn’t have the elaborate tools to be precise enough to make it work on a regular basis. That’s just one. Transmission of electricity without wires through the ground was the other. However, it would not have been correct at the time for those things to have been presented to humanity. You weren’t ready, but you were ready for alternating current, one of the most needed inventions for the time. Tesla died frustrated, poor, in a small room and alone. He came to do one thing, and was stopped from anything else, then he passed. If you have analyzed the people who were wild cards in your history, there is a pattern.

Other wild card inventors have come into the planet just because the earth was ready for a specific invention. Remember, Spirit does not give the information, but allows for it to be released, often all at once, all over the earth. Let me give you some examples.

Another wild card is the Wright brothers. Isn’t it odd to you that it wasn’t that long ago that you got powered flight? It was just yesterday! Some of your relatives were alive when flight was discovered! Dear ones, the Chinese have been flying kites for thousands of years. Don’t you think that they knew the dynamics of a bird? Do you think that century after century after century occurred and nobody figured out how to sustain flight with any kind of power source? Two bicycle makers figured it out!

That’s odd enough, but the fact that they only beat the French by two weeks is something worth looking at. That’s odd! It’s almost like this profound invention was ready to be given to the planet simultaneously, all over the earth, at the same time. Whoever got to it first would be the ones who got the credit. The real oddity is the timing. It’s not logical that it was so hidden, then suddenly so many were working on it all at once.

The Wright brothers were here to show it to you, then stop. All they did was what you saw at Kitty Hawk. They never went past basic wing warping, and did not have first intuitive thought about ailerons, or the basics of flight control today. For them, it stopped there. Dear ones, there was great frustration, and perhaps even health issues from it, from having others take the basics and develop flight so fast beyond them. Dysfunction and sorrow followed them both, and they died without ever being able to participate fully beyond the initial invention. One died far earlier than the other, creating sorrow for the one left behind. They came to do what they did and move on. This is more common than you know with wild cards, especially when it comes to inventions that change this planet.

Who invented the radio? Was is the Italian Guglielmo Marconi, or our frustrated wild card Tesla? Marconi got the credit, but the invention was everywhere, ready to be claimed. The earth was ripe and ready for it, and it was delivered to the consciousness of the planet at the right time. But both men got it at the same time, apart from each other. I’m giving you things to think about.

We have told you that there are wild card inventions coming in the future. One in particular is ready, but you will not receive it until the time is right. It’s almost like there’s a thinking ceiling on what you can do. We even gave you some of the attributes of the coming invention, but not the one who will bring it. We’re not even concerned that you’ll do it in advance, because we know the wild card is coming. An invention is coming. It is an invention that will rewrite physics as you know it. You’d see the patterns in quantum fields, and there would be the big aha! It would be like reinventing the wheel.

“Kryon, why can’t we have it now? What’s stopping it?” We told you, it’s too easy to weaponize. When you reach the point where you won’t weaponize it, it’s yours. All this is coming. It’s natural, and it will come when it’s time just like the Wright brothers, just like Tesla, just like Einstein.

Einstein was a genuine wild card. He was not a quantum thinker at all, but what he presented is still alive and well today and they’re still looking inside the atom for the concepts he gave you. So I will make this statement: Einstein isn’t finished yet, because the very concepts that continue to be received from his work are going to be applied to the invention of the century. So the Einsteinean principles, even though they are not quantum, will be very much involved in what is coming. You might say he was a wild card and continues to be one. The joke is that his concepts last and last, outside of time, yet his main ideas were with time. If you asked Einstein if he was happy with what he brought to the planet, he would tell you no. He was frustrated that he didn’t get to do what he really wanted. Like Tesla, he felt that something was just “out of reach” and he didn’t get to do it.

Then there was World War II. Dear ones, pretend you are an alien scientist. Disengage your emotion. You’ve come in from another planet to look at this.

World War II (WWII) was not a wild card, but the man who created and enhanced it was. This planet was teetering on the edge of ultimate dark energy and destruction. Nobody expected it. The most despicable old energy card played itself out exactly as it should have, with the consciousness of this planet going to where it had brought itself. You had just finished World War I (WWI), yet WWII ignited and continued. So WWII was simply an extension of WWI. You did it again, only this time the weapons were getting bigger and more able to destroy all of humanity. Remember the prophecy of your scripture? You were headed for mass destruction. WWII would become World War III, and by the year 2000, you would be almost gone.

As I mentioned, WWII wasn’t the wild card, rather it was the man who led the lowest consciousness in recent history who was. He was the wild card, and you know of whom I speak. This wild card killed millions of people who were not even participants in the military portion of the war. Genocide had begun, a race war had begun, and many were following his lead. It showed the darkest side of humanity – more than you had ever seen before, and it almost targeted the demise of civilization if he had won.

It was a horror wild card, and the planet had created it. However, when it was over, the entire world took a breath and for a moment, just for a moment, there was a glimmer of realization: “This cannot go on, for we will do it again.” Many things took place due to this realization. Without the wild card, you would not have the European Union, you would not have the United Nations or any attempt at unity on Earth. Disengage from your logic and emotion, dear ones. These things were not created from Spirit, but rather from the depth of lower humanity. This is the dark side at its worst, showing itself with almost free reign, but the world objected to it and started to climb out of it. It was the beginning over half a century ago of what you’re starting to see now in the shift.

The amazing shift that you’re in right now is something that goes slow. It didn’t happen all at once. The Cold War was a natural occurrence out of the consciousness that was part of the end of WWII. But, dear ones, you could never have the shift if that Cold War had continued the way it was. Enter another wild card: The Soviet system fell over.

The Cold War could not continue, and it was stopped in the form it was in. Dear ones, for those reading now, that was one of the biggest wild cards of all. The consciousness of earth said “no” and it ended. That was a huge wild card. It changed everything; it wasn’t expected; nobody saw it coming, and it changed everything. It may not have changed things immediately to the way you want it right away, but it created that which you needed at that time.

Then there was Steve Jobs. He was a wild card. What he did had little to do with technology, for that would have happened anyway soon enough. Instead, it had to do with the paradigm of the business of music on Earth. He freed it, and the paradigm of how music is obtained and heard will never be the same. However, Steve Jobs did basically one thing for all of you, and then he died. Do you see any kind of connecting of the dots to some of the inventors who come and give you the one thing, then leave? If he had lived, would there be more? Yes, but you’re not ready for it. Consciousness has to support what happens.

Yes, it would seem we have left some things out – the invention of DNA, the atomic bomb, etc. However, these were not wild cards. These are your civilization, within a normal evolution of science. Wild cards are very unexpected things, and there are more coming your way.

The Wild Card of 2016

Remember: No emotion now. You have come from another planet and you’re looking at the end of 2016 – and there is the election. Understand without bias.

So for 2016, let’s do the numerology. You add the numbers and get nine. Nine is completion in simple numerology, and when you see a nine it often means the completion of something. Often it is of a time cycle, an energy or the completion of a paradigm. But it’s very strong.

The nines are stronger than many of the other numerological aspects and you feel them. The president-elect (at this writing) is a strong wild card. He is scheduled to become the 45th president. What a coincidence! Forty-five is a nine. A nine and a nine together are more than significant. They tell a story about what is happening. I will tell you something else. This story is not finished yet and there is more coming. You don’t know what you don’t know, so don’t make up your mind in advance about any outcomes. You’re from another planet, remember? There’s no emotion, no bias, no politics and nothing to judge. Look at it for what it is.

A big stick has just been inserted into what is normal and it’s going to be turned. As the big stick turns, other things will respond that never would have responded otherwise. I wish to tell you, dear one, old soul, relax with upcoming wild cards. They do what they do on purpose so that you will have a better civilization in the future. Sometimes they show you what won’t work, and sometimes they change paradigms that would have never changed otherwise. But what you have now is a profound wild card. That is the message.

It’s so common for you to respond certain ways when you are invested in the process. The knee-jerk reaction is expected or you wouldn’t be a Human. However, for this lesson, you’re from another planet and you’re looking down and you’re seeing it. Pretend.

Isn’t that interesting about a nine and a nine together? It means that truly the end of something is here. Perhaps it’s the end of the old way things were done? Perhaps it’s a shake-up of the system so it can correct itself? Don’t dare make up your mind where it’s going, because it’s not finished yet. However, wait a moment. Did you also realize that 2017 is a “one” year? Not only is the energy one of completion with a double nine, but it moves into “a new beginning” (the definition of a one in numerology).

I have more to tell you about numerology, and also something that will be clearer about this whole situation. I will give this to you in the next channelling.

Can you relax in the face of uncertainty when it’s your own country? Can you relax in the face of not knowing what’s next? When you’re so involved, can you disengage from either side of the fray? That is the test of a Lightworker.

There’s something else coming. Dear ones, this is beautiful. No matter what you think and no matter what your reaction is to this channelling, what is happening is correct for your time and needed for your immediate future. I will speak of this later. The beauty is when you step away and see how grand it is, that Spirit cares enough that it would allow a big stick to occur that would stir your complacency at this time. The real reason? The shift is here.

How do you feel? I want you to relax and smile at what the shift has brought you. For those of you who felt all the “shift talk” was nonsense, this may be your wake-up call. It’s real. Here it comes.

This is the message of the day. I am Kryon, in love with humanity, and for good reason.

And so it is.

KRYON

Could the US be tried for war crimes in Afghanistan?

The ICC is looking into possible war crimes committed by the US in Afghanistan. There are doubts about whether any CIA agents will ever be prosecuted for torture - but there are other options.

Deutsche Welle, 15 November 2016

 The alleged kidnapping, torture and rape of detainees in Afghanistan by US armed forces are coming under more scrutiny at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's annual Preliminary Examination Activities report for 2015 found that "members of the US armed forces and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) resorted to techniques amounting to the commission of the war crimes of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape."

The prosecutors have found evidence that 61 detainees were subjected to "torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity" in Afghanistan between May 2003 and December 2014 (mostly at the outset of the war in 2003 and 2004). Meanwhile, the CIA is being investigated for the same crimes - as well as rape - against 27 detainees in Afghanistan and secret prisons in Poland, Romania and Lithuania.

Fatou Bensouda presented the report 

this week

Systematic cruelty

The ICC also underlined that the alleged crimes seemed to have been part of an officially sanctioned system "approved at senior levels of the US government." "The alleged crimes were not the abuses of a few isolated individuals," it read. "Rather, they appear to have been committed as part of approved interrogation techniques in an attempt to extract 'actionable intelligence' from detainees."

This systematic nature of the crimes increased their "gravity," the report added, and caused considerable suffering: "Some victims reportedly exhibited psychological and behavioral issues, including hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation."

Andreas Schüller, program director for international crimes at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), welcomed the report, but emphasized that this was just part of a wider examination, and that the ICC itself was part of an international judicial process that also involves military and civilian courts in the US and elsewhere: there are criminal investigations and pending court cases ongoing in Spain, Germany, Poland, Romania and Lithuania into alleged crimes committed by the CIA - either because they were perpetrated on their territories or with the collusion of their security forces.

The ECCHR itself filed a lawsuit on behalf of the German-Lebanese man Khalid el Masri, who was a victim of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program and says he spent several months being tortured in Afghanistan.

"You also have cases currently open on Guantanamo against US officials by the French judiciary, where former Guantanamo commander Geoffrey Miller has been summoned earlier this year to appear as an accused witness," said Schüller. (Miller, a retired US army general, ignored the summons.)

Overcoming the obstacles

The fact that the US, like many African countries, is not a party to the ICC is not an obstacle to the investigation. For one thing, Afghanistan ratified the Rome Statute that underpins the court in 2003, and therefore any crimes carried out on its territory (whether by military personnel or not) are within ICC jurisdiction.

German citizen Khalid el Masri was
abused in Afghanistan by CIA agents

Moreover, as the ICC itself pointed out in a statement on Tuesday, its prosecutor's office is obliged to investigate all alleged crimes brought to its attention, regardless of potential legal problems. In the case of Afghanistan, prosecutors said on Tuesday that they will decide "imminently" whether to seek authorization to open a full-scale investigation.

But whether that will ever lead to any prosecutions of CIA agents is very doubtful. "It's not realistic, because the US has not signed the statute, and even if it had, the US government has said repeatedly that it will not extradite any of its citizens to the ICC," said Wolfgang Heinz, senior policy adviser at the German Institute for Human Rights.

Nevertheless, should the ICC decide to pursue its investigations and if it identifies US suspects living in other countries, it could seek their extradition. "That's been done before - the US embassy will apply pressure of course, but then you're not absolutely safe," Heinz said.

Not only that, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) can also file charges against European governments suspected of colluding in the CIA's human rights abuses. This has happened before: in 2014, the Polish government was convicted of collusion in the CIA's extraordinary rendition program and ordered to pay compensation to two men.

The US' alleged crimes are not the only ones being examined in Afghanistan - those perpetrated by the Taliban, other anti-government groups, and Afghan government forces are also mentioned in the report, as are war crimes by various parties in eight other conflict zones around the world - in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

Facebook restores Norwegian PM's 'napalm girl' protest post

Yahoo – AFP, September 10, 2016

Phan Thi Kim Phuc delivers a speech in front of a Pulitzer-Prize-winning photo
depicting her running naked on June 8, 1972 during the Vietnam war, during a
lecture meeting in Nagoya, Japan on April 13, 2013 (AFP Photo/Jiji Press)

Oslo (AFP) - Facebook had restored by Saturday a post by Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg which it had taken down over an iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing.

The world's leading social network backtracked Friday on a decision to censor the historic image because it had been flagged for violating standards regarding inappropriate posts.

An active social media user, Solberg defied Facebook early Friday by posting the photograph, helping to bring the weeks-long controversy to a head.

But it was deleted a few hours later by Facebook, in what is believed to be a first such online censorship involving a government leader.

By Saturday morning the post was restored on the Norwegian premier's Facebook page.

The online giant stopped short of apologising, saying: "An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our Community Standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg defied Facebook early Friday by posting

 the photograph of nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running down a street 

in Vietname in 1972 (AFP Photo/Vegard Wivestad Grøtt)

"In this case, we recognise the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time," it added.

Taken by photographer Nick Ut Cong Huynh for the Associated Press, the 1972 picture of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack is considered one of the war's defining images. It was honoured with the Pulitzer Prize.

After Facebook reversed its position on the image, Solberg told the BBC she was a "happy prime minister," saying: "It shows that using social media can make (a) political change even in social media."

Sri Lanka president pledges land for 100,000 war victims

Yahoo  - AFP, Amal Jayasinghe, 3 January 2016

A Tamil woman holds a baby girl at a camp for internally displaced people

in the northern town of Vavuniya (AFP Photo/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi)

Colombo (AFP) - Up to 100,000 people still living in camps six years after the end of Sri Lanka's brutal ethnic war will be given land to build homes within six months, President Maithripala Sirisena told AFP Sunday.

The leader, elected last January, has won praise for starting to hand back land after the end of one of South Asia's longest and bloodiest ethnic wars, which pitted the government against Tamil separatists. But he is also under international pressure to do more to reconcile the ethnically divided nation.

"It is an ambitious target, but I will see that all the internally displaced people are given land to build homes," the president said in an interview with AFP.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena

 during an interview with AFP in Colombo

 on January 3, 2016 (AFP Photo/Lakruwan 

Wanniarachchi)

"I am setting up a mechanism to complete this process within six months."

Sirisena said he would give land to civilians displaced by war in the embattled northern and eastern provinces, and also the northwestern coastal region of Puttalam, by the middle of this year. The families set to receive the land are currently staying in camps in those areas.

During a visit to the northern city of Jaffna last month, where much of the civil war fighting took place, Sirisena said he visited a refugee camp that has been home to about 1,300 families for the past 25 years.

"This is an unacceptable situation. I want to end this problem once and for all," he said.

"For many people the main issue was lack of land and that is something we will resolve in the next six months."

As part of a parallel scheme, he is also planning to free up additional private land occupied by the military, mainly in the former war zones in the northern and eastern provinces, starting in the next two weeks.

He said he would return to Jaffna this month to formally hand over about 700 acres (283 hectares) of land as part of the plan, in line with his election promise.

Sirisena, 64, came to power with the backing of Sri Lanka's minority Tamils and Muslims, on top of the majority Sinhalese who supported him, on the back of pledges to ensure ethnic reconciliation and end corruption and nepotism that plagued his predecessor's rule.

Soon after his election, Sirisena ordered security forces to return thousand of acres of private land they occupied in the Jaffna peninsula, the de facto capital of Tamil Tiger rebels.

The area saw some of the bloodiest fighting during the war that claimed over 100,000 lives between 1972 and 2009.

Sirisena said Sunday the new land pledges were in addition to that previously promised, although he has not specified the total area of land to that will be handed out.

War crimes probe

He said the government was also working on a mechanism to investigate allegations of war crimes in the final stages of the conflict, but said it could take time.

"We can't rush the accountability process," Sirisena said. "Some people want it to be like instant noodles. We can't do that. We have to be responsible and respect rule of law."

Sirisena's predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse's regime faced repeated UN censure over his failure to investigate allegations that at least 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by troops under his command while crushing Tiger guerrillas in 2009.

However, Sirisena said the international community has changed its attitude towards his government, which has already established nine independent commissions to run the police, the elections office, the judiciary and the public service among others.

"There is a big change in the way the leading democratic nations of the world view us today. We have tremendous international good will and support," he said.

"Their expectation is that we ensure democracy and good governance and that is what are committed to."

Sirisena said he will mark his first year in office on January 9 by calling for proposals on constitutional reforms to ensure that Sri Lanka remains peaceful.

"We can either have a brand new constitution or amend the one we already have," the president said.

"My preference is to abolish the executive presidency and go back to a (parliamentary-style) system we had till 1978" which would see a greater dispersion of power.

S. Korea, Japan strike deal on 'comfort women'

Yahoo – AFP, Park Chan-Kyong, December 28, 2015

South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se (R) and his Japanese
counterpart Fumio Kishida meet at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on
December 28, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je)

South Korea and Japan reached agreement Monday on their dispute over wartime sex slaves that has soured relations for decades, as Tokyo's leader hailed a "new era" in ties with Seoul.

Japan offered a "heartfelt apology" and a one-billion yen ($8.3 million) payment to Korean women forced into Japanese military brothels during World War II.

Now the two countries, both close US allies, "will welcome a new era", Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Tokyo after speaking by phone with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye.

The fate of the 46 surviving South Korean "comfort women" is a hugely emotional issue in South Korea, and a source of much of the distrust that has marred relations with its former colonial ruler Japan for decades.

The deal would be "final and irreversible" if Japan fulfils its responsibilities, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se said after talks in Seoul with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.

Kishida said the issue was "one that deeply hurt the women's honour and dignity with the involvement of the (Japanese) military at the time, and from this viewpoint the Japanese government keenly feels its responsibility".

Abe, he said, extends "his feeling of heartfelt apology and regret to all of those who as comfort women have suffered great pain, both mentally and physically, that is difficult to heal".

"I think the agreement we reached is historic and is a ground-breaking achievement," Kishida said.

South Korean former "comfort woman" Lee Yong-Soo (C), who was forcibly

 recruited to work in Japanese wartime brothels, and supporters demonstrate near

the Japanese embassy in Seoul on October 30, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je)

The US also welcomed the agreement, with National Security Advisor Susan Rice calling it "an important gesture of healing and reconciliation that should be welcomed by the international community".

As part of the agreement Seoul will try to relocate a statue symbolising comfort women which currently stands in front of the Japanese embassy through consultations with relevant NGOs, South Korea's Yun said.

He said Seoul would also refrain from bringing up the comfort women issue again in international forums such as the United Nations.

"I am very pleased to declare the successful conclusion of the difficult negotiations before the year is out, the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties," Yun said.

Mixed reactions

Up to 200,000 women, many of them Korean, are estimated to have been sexually enslaved by Japan during World War II.

Japan has long maintained that the dispute was settled in a 1965 agreement which saw Tokyo establish diplomatic ties and make a payment of $800 million in grants or loans to Korea, which it ruled from 1910-1945.

Kishida said Monday the one-billion-won payment was not compensation but a project to restore the women's dignity.

South Korea has said the 1965 treaty did not cover compensation for victims of wartime crimes such as comfort women, and did not absolve the Japanese government of legal responsibility.

But when Park met Abe in Seoul last month for a rare summit, they agreed to speed up talks on the issue.

Previously Park had rebuffed all bilateral summit proposals, arguing that Tokyo had yet to properly atone for its wartime past and colonial rule.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hailed the landmark agreement on 

wartime sex slaves and welcomed a "new era" of ties with South Korea (AFP

Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

Former sex slaves had mixed reactions.

"What we have been demanding is legal compensation from Japan," said 88-year-old Lee Yong-Soo.

Yoo Hee-Nam, another former comfort woman, told Yonhap news agency she was not satisfied but would accept the government's decision.

Amnesty International said the agreement should not mark the end of the road in securing justice.

"The women were missing from the negotiation table, and they must not be sold short in a deal that is more about political expediency than justice," said Hiroka Shoji, its East Asia researcher, in a statement.

Lee Won-Duk, a professor at South Korea's Kookmin University, said the deal, pushed by Washington, would help the two countries improve ties.

"With today's agreement, South Korea and Japan passed the critical point in their row," added Jin Chang-Soo, a researcher at Sejong Institute in South Korea.

But Kan Kimura, an expert on Japan-Sourea relations at Japan's Kobe University, struck a note of caution.

"This is an agreement between the two governments, but not between the two societies. So the next focus is whether the South Korean government can persuade its public to accept the deal," Kimura told AFP.