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RIM Sport - Pour la dix huitième édition du Championnat mini-karaté, les membres du Tenshokaï Karaté Club (TKC) ont mobilisé, dimanche (30...

Doris von Sayn-Wittgenstein, AfD-Vorsitzende in Schleswig-Holstein, hat ihr Amt niedergelegt. Vorausgegangen waren Spekulationen, dass die 64-Jährige einen rechtsextremen Verein unterstütze.

AMI - "Le rôle que doivent jouer les médias dans la lutte contre l’incitation à la haine et à la distinction et pour la défense des...

In der italienischen Region Abruzzen hat die Erde gebebt. Das Beben hatte eine Stärke von 4,2 auf der Richterskala und brachte Menschen dazu, auf die Strasse zu rennen. Meldungen zu Verletzten und Sachschäden liegen noch keine vor.

«Mighty Mike» Michael Van Gerwen lässt «Bully Boy» Michael Smith keine Chance im Darts-Final in London und gewinnt mit 7:3.

Last month, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti was interviewed on an i24NEWS program called The Rundown. At one point, starting at 3:33 and extending to 4:40, Tenenti described just what UNIFIL's mandate is:



So, according to Tenenti:

• UNIFIL's job is limited to monitoring
• UNIFIL has no mandate to disarm Hezbollah
• UNIFIL is not allowed to search private property

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti. Video screengrab

At first glance, Tenenti seems to be right.


In 2006, when UNIFIL took on its new mandate, the commander in charge of UNIFIL, Major-General Alain Pellegrini set the limits on UNIFIL's mandate:
Pellegrini made it clear, however, that UNIFIL's mission, even with the new rules of engagement, does not include disarming Hezbollah. "It's not my job," he said. UNIFIL's role, he said, is to assist the Lebanese army in guaranteeing state authority over all Lebanese territory.That was on September 3.
Three weeks later, Pellegrini gave an exclusive interview to The Jerusalem Post:
In his first interview to an Israeli paper since the war in Lebanon, Pellegrini revealed that last week a Syrian weapons convoy on its way to Hizbullah was intercepted by the Lebanese army near the Lebanese-Syrian border. While the new rules of engagement set by the UN allowed the new UNIFIL force to open fire in order to implement resolution 1701, Pellegrini said he would not automatically order his troops to open fire on Hizbullah guerrillas if they were spotted on their way to the Blue Line to attack Israel. The job of the new multinational force, he said, was to assist the Lebanese army and not to disarm or engage Hizbullah or even to prevent its attacks.Pellegrini's admission that UNIFIL is allowed to use force to implement Resolution 1701 contradicts Tenenti's claim that UNIFIL's role is just to monitor. That Pellegrini goes on to turn around and then claim that their role is to assist the Lebanese army and not to disarm, engage or prevent attacks is puzzling.

It also contradicts the text of Resolution 1701, which:
authorizes UNIFIL to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council, and to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, ensure the security and freedom of movement of United Nations personnel, humanitarian workers and, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of Lebanon, to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence; Again, this assigns to UNIFIL more than just a monitoring role.

Now, what about a mandate to disarm Hezbollah?

Back to the text of Resolution 1701, which:
Requests the Secretary-General to develop, in liaison with relevant international actors and the concerned parties, proposals to implement the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), including disarmament...Who are the relevant "international actors" who are supposed to implement disarmament?

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appears not to have gotten the memo -
Annan angered Israeli officials when he told Channel 2 on Tuesday that "dismantling Hizbullah is not the direct mandate of the UN," which could only help Lebanon disarm the organization.Resolution 1701 implies an orchestrated effort; the only proposal that Annan seems to have developed was to keep the UN as far away as possible. But if UNIFIL is supposed "to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind," how is it supposed to maintain that kind of control without having the authority to disarm Hezbollah at some level?

The last point Tenenti makes is that UNIFIL has no authority to search private property.

But according to the Report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, that is not exactly accurate either:
In accordance with its mandate, UNIFIL does not proactively search for weapons in the south. UNIFIL cannot enter or search private property unless there is credible evidence of a violation of the resolution, including an imminent threat of hostile activity from that location. In situations in which specific information is received regarding the illegal presence of armed personnel, weapons or infrastructure inside its area of operations, UNIFIL, in cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces, has remained determined to act with all means available within its mandate and capabilities. Again, instead of maintaining just a monitoring mode, UNIFIL does have a mandate to search homes when there is evidence of violations. More than that, the text clearly states that when the illegal presence of weapons is detected, UNIFIL not only has the authority to search but also to act "with all means available" -- meaning that it can disarm.

There is, in fact, a documented case of UNIFIL doing a search of private homes in 2010, using sniffer dogs and resulting in villagers retaliating by grabbing the weapons of a UNIFIL patrol, throwing stones at them and blocking the road.

In this case, it was UNIFIL that was disarmed.

The bottom line is that clearly, the role of UNIFIL was not intended to be as passive as Tenenti claims, limited to monitoring.

• UNIFIL is allowed to use force
• The issue of disarming Hezbollah is a hot potato everyone is trying to avoid, but there is no clear indication that UNIFIL cannot disarm Hezbollah in specific circumstances "to prevent hostile activities"
• UNIFIL is allowed to do searches when there is evidence of a violation

The fact that Hezbollah was able to dig multiple tunnels into Israel is just one more reminder of UNIFIL's failure to do its job.
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RFI- Alors que les Etats-Unis s'apprêtent à changer d'ambassadrice à l'ONU et que cinq nouveaux pays font leur entrée au Conseil de sécurité,...

Guidumakha - Ce lundi 31 janvier 2018, le député Biram Dah Abeid et son codétenu sont convoqués devant le juge du tribunal d’Arafat, une...

La ligue algérienne de défense des droits de l’homme (LADDH) a lancé, lundi, «un appel urgent» aux autorités algériennes, à l’État du Niger, au HCR et à l’Organisation internationale des migrations (OIM) pour intervenir et apporter assistance à une cinquantaine de personnes, en majorité des Syriens, refoulés par l’Algérie vers le Niger entre le 25 et le 26 décembre.

Citant le témoignage d’un Syrien, la Ligue souligne que ces personnes se trouveraient «en détresse absolue, quelque part entre l’Algérie et le Niger» et souffriraient de faim et de froid.

« Ce refoulement vers la frontière aurait été effectué par bus, avec l’implication des éléments du Croissant rouge algérien. Le groupe qui comprend aussi des Palestiniens et des Yéménites, et dans lequel figurent des femmes et des enfants, notamment une femme enceinte à son neuvième mois, était en rétention dans le centre de Tamanrasset depuis plus de deux mois », affirme le communiqué diffusé par la LADDH.

la LADDH considère que cet acte est une « violation délibérée de la Convention de Genève sur les réfugiés ratifiée par l’Algérie ». « Le refoulement de femmes enceintes et d’enfants dans de telles conditions, constitue une violation multiple des différentes conventions internationales ratifiées par l’Algérie et peut être qualifié de crime au regard du droits international », déplore l’organisation.

The post L’Algérie abandonne des réfugiés dans le désert ! appeared first on .

Lilly Becker sorgt zum Jahresbeginn für Gesprächsstoff, Ricky Martin für eine Kinderüberraschung und Ronaldo für Glücksgefühle. Willkommen zu den Foto-Storys des Tages!

Brasilia – Mit der Ankündigung eines radikalen politischen Neuanfangs hat Brasiliens neuer Präsident Jair Bolsonaro am Dienstag sein Amt angetreten. Er rief bei seiner Vereidigung im Kongress zum Kampf gegen Korruption, Kriminalität und linke Ideologie auf.

Kassataya - Pour contrecarrer l’appel du parti au pouvoir à une marche contre l’incitation à la haine diffusée sur les réseaux sociaux en...

Ken Roth is entitled to his opinion.

And Ken Roth thinks the Israeli settlements are illegal.

So far, so good.

But Ken Roth is also the executive director of Human Rights Watch



When Roth tweets, he is tweeting as the head of HRW, not as a private person -- and he does not even include the usual "retweets are not endorsements" disclaimer on his Twitter profile.

The halo effect that surrounds Human Rights Watch extends to Ken Roth, and he appears not to mind that.

That's OK too.

But Ken Roth does seem to throw around that claim of illegality an awful lot.

When he Tweets about Airbnb


And when he writes about the Gaza riots:


Using his position as executive director of HRW to support his Tweets condemning Israel for alleged illegal acts appears to imply that Roth is not merely offering an opinion, but is offering an assessment based on actual expertise and knowledge that he has.

Does Ken Roth actually have that kind of expertise?

It depends on where you look.

According to Wikipedia, Roth does have expertise:
His biography on the HRW website says he has "special expertise on: issues of justice and accountability for atrocities committed in the quest for peace; military conduct in war under the requirements of international humanitarian law; counterterrorism policy, including resort to torture and arbitrary detention; the human rights policies of the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations; and, the human rights responsibilities of multinational businesses."Wikipedia indicates its source is the 2011 version of Ken Roth's bio on the Human Rights Watch website.

As recently as last year, in his book "International Law and the Use of Force against Terrorism", Shadi Adnan Alshdaifat writes in a footnote:


As far back as 2009, Roth has been credited with having this 'expertise':
On the HRW website, Roth is listed as having ‘investigated human rights abuses around the globe’, with ‘special expertise’ on issues of justice and accountability for atrocities committed in the quest for peace; military conduct in war under the requirements for international humanitarian law etc.But when you actually take a look at his bio on the Human Rights Watch website, Roth's CV is more modest:
Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 1987, Roth served as a federal prosecutor in New York and for the Iran-Contra investigation in Washington, DC. A graduate of Yale Law School and Brown University, Roth has conducted numerous human rights investigations and missions around the world. He has written extensively on a wide range of human rights abuses, devoting special attention to issues of international justice, counterterrorism, the foreign policies of the major powers, and the work of the United Nations. [emphasis added]Roth's background in law is as a federal prosecutor. He has conducted "investigations" and "missions" on human rights and he has even written on issues of international justice -- but no, there is nothing in Ken Roth's background that makes him an expert in international law.

That has not stopped Ken Roth from regularly presenting his personal opinion on Twitter as legal fact.

This is reminiscent of the Marc Galasco controversy. Galasco resigned because of the optics of an avid collector of Nazi paraphernalia accusing Israel of war crimes. But there were questions about Galasco's expertise as well.

NGO Monitor has noted about Galasco:
Although the level of his expertise and experience are obscure, Garlasco consistently presents himself and is presented as an “expert” on weapons and military technology. He has no combat experience, and his various Pentagon positions were apparently not concentrated on dealing with the details of weapons systems. This has not prevented him from making public statements and authoring reports that project the pretense of both a detailed knowledge of weapons such as unmanned drones and white phosphorous, and an understanding of the implications of their use under international law.Even the most basic qualification, that of critical objectivity, seems to be lacking at Human Rights Watch.

A report from NGO Monitor about Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's director of its Middle East and North Africa [MENA] division, finds that:
“Whitson’s soft approach towards totalitarian regimes clearly is counterproductive and immoral, as in the Libya cover-up” adds Herzberg. “She met with Hamas in May 2010 to reassure the terrorist organization that HRW’s reports were ‘objective and impartial,’ while at the same time promising that HRW’s next report would denounce Israeli violations of international law. Prior to that, she solicited funds in Saudi Arabia to combat so-called pro-Israel ‘pressure groups.’ Instead of confronting human rights violators, the MENA division under Whitson has helped sustain their power.”

During a November 2010 trip to Lebanon, Whitson praised “the Lebanese sophistication for human rights,” contradicting HRW’s own Lebanon Director, Nadim Houry, who condemned the lack of effectual and accountable state institutions, the absence of political will to implement change, and the problems created by the country’s political “confessionalism.” Shortly after Whitson’s assessment, Hezbollah overthrew the Hariri government in a bloodless coup.Whitson's lack of objectivity may be explained by her background.

According to Whitson's biography on the HRW website:
Before joining Human Rights Watch, Whitson worked in New York for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School.David Bernstein of The Volokh Conspiracy notes what the HRW website omits about Whitson:
What the official bio doesn’t tell you is that Whitson was an active member of the New York chapter of the American-Arab Antidiscrimination Committee. She had served on the Steering Committee (source: ADC Times, Apr 30, 2002). When HRW hired her, she was serving a two-year term on the new Board of Directors, which replaced the Steering Committee (Source: ADC Times, Jan. 31, 2004).

The ADC styles itself as a civil rights organization, but like the Jewish organizations on which it is modeled, it also involves itself in Middle East issues, specifically by supporting the Arab and Palestinian cause against Israel. Local chapters are often more active on foreign policy issues than is the national organization.

...when HRW hired Ms. Whitson to be its Middle East director, it was hiring someone that was in the middle of serving what amounted to a second term on the Board of Directors of an organization that was firmly and openly on the Arab side in the Arab-Israeli conflict. And she had personally engaged in pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activism while serving in that position. I don’t know whether she resigned her position when she started working for Human Rights Watch; if she didn’t, it was a clear conflict of interest. Regardless, it should hardly come as a surprise that one of her first acts at Human Rights Watch was to involve the organization in political action, supporting the campaign to get Caterpillar to stop selling tractors to the Israeli Army.Human Rights Watch is not big on either expertise nor objectivity.


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Un joueur a trouvé la combinaison gagnante de l'Euro Millions, mardi soir, empochant la somme de 146,3 millions de francs.

20minutes - Un peu moins de deux ans avant la présidentielle américaine, la course à la Maison blanche semble (déjà) lancée. La...

Historisches Treffen im Weltraum: Noch nie ist eine Sonde an einem so weit entfernten Himmelskörper vorbeigeflogen wie nun «New Horizons». Und es gab einen weiteren Rekord im All.

Nicht Galatasaray, nicht Fenerbahçe, nicht Besiktas – Istanbul Basaksehir mit Ex-Nati-Captain Gökhan Inler ist türkischer Tabellenführer. Der Erfolg erstaunt allerdings bloss auf den ersten Blick. Der jüngste Transfercoup: Robinho (34)!

OCVIDH - Chers compatriotes, chers amis, militants des droits Humains et citoyens du monde libre, une année s'achève, une autre commence dans une...

« M’hamed Issiakhem : père de la peinture moderne algérienne », est le titre d’un documentaire sur la vie et l’œuvre de ce peintre réalisé par Hafida Meraksi, a appris l’APS de cette artiste oranaise.

Cette œuvre, soutenue par la maison de la culture « Zeddour Brahim Belkacem » d’Oran, est l’aboutissement d’une recherche approfondie sur M’hamed Issiakhem (1928/1985), sa vie, son itinéraire artistique et sa contribution au développement de l’art pictural national, a souligné Hafidha Meraksi, cadre de cet établissement culturel.

Ce documentaire se base sur des témoignages des proches du défunt artiste et traite également de ses œuvres artistiques qui reflètent ses souffrances, ses blessures physiques et intérieures et son fort attachement à son peuple et à sa société.

Cette oeuvre audiovisuelle vise à faire découvrir aux jeunes artistes M’hamed Issiakhem, cette figure de la peinture algérienne, l’une des plus connues et des plus appréciées à l’échelle mondiale.

Le documentaire a été projeté, lors de la cérémonie de clôture du salon national d’arts plastiques, organisé dernièrement à Oran en présence d’un grand nombre d’artistes de différentes générations.

The post Réalisation d’un documentaire sur l’artiste plasticien M’hamed Issiakhem appeared first on .

Le MB Rouissat, club évoluant en Inter-régions, a composté mardi son billet pour les huitièmes de finale de la Coupe d’Algérie de football en s’imposant devant le CRB Aïn Oussara sur le score de 2-0 (mi-temps: 1-0), alors que le match CR Village-Moussa – MC Alger a été arrêté par l’arbitre en raison de débordements.

Les deux buts du MBR ont été inscrits par Sayeh (38′) et Jeram (83′).

A Jijel, l’arbitre a décidé d’arrêter la partie dans le temps additionnel de la première mi-temps alors que les Mouloudéens menaient au score 3 à 0, grâce à Bourdim (5′, s.p), Souibaâ (17′) et Benchouiyeb (30′, c.s.c).

Cette rencontre a été interrompue une première fois pour 13 minutes à la suite de la blessure du milieu de terrain du MCA, Sofiane Bendebka, à la tête, puis pour 6 autres minutes, avant que l’arbitre ne décide de l’arrêter définitivement en raison des débordements.

La dernière rencontre de ce tour entre l’Amel Boussaâda et l’ES Sétif est reportée à une date ultérieure.

Mardi 1er janvier:

MB Rouissat – CRB Aïn Oussara    2-0

Déjà joués:

IB Lakhdaria – CS Constantine             0-1

USM Khenchela – NA Husseïn-Dey        1-1  NAHD qualifié aux t.a.b : 7-6

USM Alger – USM Bel-Abbès                2-1 (a.p)

CR Bouguirat – CRB Kaïs                     1-1   Bouguirat qualifié aux t.a.b: 4-2

SA Mohammadia – ARB Ghriss             1-0

USM Annaba – MB Bazer Sakhra          3-0

RA Aïn Defla – MC Oran                      1-2

AS Aïn M’lila – JSM Béjaïa                    1-2  (a.p)

CABB Arreridj – WA Tlemcen               0-0  CABBA qualifié aux t.a.b: 6-5

US Remchi – NC Magra                       0-3

USM El-Harrach – MO Béjaïa                1-0 (a.p)

CA Batna – CR Belouizdad                   0-1

USB Douala – Paradou AC                   0-2

Reporté à une date ultérieure:

A Boussaâda : Amel Boussaâda – ES Sétif.

The post Foot/Coupe d’Algérie (16es de finale): Rouissat qualifié, Village Moussa-MCA arrêté appeared first on .