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The Boy Who Cried Warming (Documentary)

Chemical weapons agency "ready" on Syria

GENEVA (Reuters) - International inspectors could be rapidly deployed to Syria's borders if any of its neighbors raise an alarm about Damascus using chemical weapons, the deputy head of the OPCWchemical weapons agency said on Monday.

While offering no evidence that President Bashar al-Assad's forces may, as Western powers assert, be preparing a last-ditch use of banned weapons against rebel fighters, the deputy director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said staff were gearing up to help if asked.

"We have intensified our capacity," Grace Asirwatham told Reuters in an interview in Geneva. "We are in preparedness."

Since Syria shunned the treaty that set up the 15-year-old OPCW, the agency has no authority there. But it could play a role in sending experts and specialist protection equipment to Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon or Iraq if neighbors feared Syrian poisons might pose a threat on their borders. None has sent any request yet and Syria has denied having any chemical weapons.

Working with the United Nations, whose secretary-general Ban Ki-moon last week warned Assad it would be an "outrageous crime" to use such arms, the Hague-based OPCW stepped up its work after U.S. and other Western officials said they had secret evidence of Syrian preparations for chemical warfare, Asirwatham said.

"We are following the situation and are also concerned about the situation," she added. "However, we cannot go into the country because we don't have a mandate to do so."

Of Western accusations against Assad, which have drawn comparison with those against Iraq's Saddam Hussein a decade ago, she said: "Without verifying such information and conducting a physical inspection on the ground, it is very difficult for us to say anything on those reports."

Syria accuses its enemies of seeking merely a pretext to attack and says that it would not use chemical weapons against its own people even if it had them. Many foreign experts believe Damascus has materials that could be used to deploy nerve agents like sarin gas, which might drift across Syria's borders.

However, Asirwatham said, Syria was bound by the Geneva Protocol of 1925 not to use chemical weapons, even though it has not signed a 1993 treaty banning their production: "They cannot use chemical weapons. It is not an option for them," she said.

"We believe the Syrian government will respect their obligations towards the Geneva Protocol and the international community's sentiment to get rid of chemical weapons."

Should any of the four OPCW member states neighboring Syria need help, however, teams of 30 to 40 from among its permanent staff of some 150 inspectors would be ready to help on their frontiers: "In case of the use of chemical weapons, or even if they feel that the threat of use is serious, we will be able to provide them with protection and assistance," Asirwatham said.

She stressed, however, that any request must be backed with valid evidence of a threat of chemical weapons being used.

Syria's fifth neighbor, Israel, has signed but not ratified the treaty. Officials there say Israel does not see an immediate threat from Syria's chemical weapons.

Israeli's Netanyahu: World has double standards

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister on Monday accused the international community of "deafening silence" in response to recent vows by the head of the Hamas militant group to fight on until the Jewish state is destroyed, and appeared unmoved by the gathering storm of global condemnation of his government's plans to continue settling the West Bank.

Benjamin Netanyahu's tough words were likely to deepen the rift between Israel and some of its closest allies, particularly in Europe, that has emerged since the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of Palestinian independence last month. In a sign of the tense relations, European Union foreign ministers were gathered in Brussels to condemn new settlement construction that Netanyahu has authorized in response to the U.N. decision.

Speaking to foreign reporters, Netanyahu accused the international community of having double standards, condemning not-yet-built settlements in the West Bank while standing quiet during a historic visit to the Gaza Strip by Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal.

Making his first trip to the Hamas-ruled territory over the weekend, Mashaal delivered a series of speeches to throngs of supporters vowing to wipe Israel off the map. The visit underscored Hamas' rising clout and regional acceptance since its eight-day conflict with Israel last month.

Netanyahu also directed his ire at Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for not speaking out.

"This weekend the leader of Hamas, sitting next to the Hamas leader of Gaza, a man who praised Osama Bin Laden, this weekend openly called for the destruction of Israel. Where was the outrage? Where were the U.N. resolutions? Where was President Abbas?" Netanyahu said.

"Why weren't Palestinian diplomats summoned to European and other capitals to explain why the PA president not only refused to condemn this but actually declared his intention to unite with Hamas. There was nothing, there was silence and it was deafening silence," he added.

Netanyahu has long complained that the world unfairly singles out Israel for criticism. In Monday's address, he accused the United Nations of passing an unbalanced resolution that supported Palestinian independence but did not address Israeli security concerns.

The U.N. resolution recognized a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Just eight countries sided with Israel in opposing the vote.

Although it does not end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the resolution gave an international endorsement to the Palestinian position on the borders between Israel and a future Palestine. It also amounted to a broad condemnation of Israeli settlements in the two areas. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005.

Netanyahu, who rejects a return to Israel's 1967 lines, responded to the U.N. resolution with plans to build thousands of new homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The most contentious plan is to develop a corridor linking east Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, one of the largest Jewish settlements inthe West Bank.

The Palestinians say this project, known as E1, would deal a death blow to any hopes for peace since it would separate the West Bank from east Jerusalem, their hoped-for capital, and drive a deep wedge between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank by creating a string of settlements jutting nearly halfway across the West Bank.

Israeli officials say construction on the E1 project is years away. But the country has come under fierce criticism by its closest allies, the U.S. and major countries in Western Europe.

Last week, a string of Israeli ambassadors were summoned for official reprimand in European capitals, and on Monday, EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss a response to the plan.

Sweden's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said the Israeli construction plans have caused "extreme concern" in the 27-nation EU. "What the Israelis did on E1 has shifted opinions in Europe," Bildt said as he arrived for the meeting. "I don't think the Israelis are aware of this."

The Palestinians say they turned to the U.N. in frustration after a four-year freeze in peace efforts under Netanyahu. The Palestinians say they will not resume talks unless Netanyahu halts settlement construction and accepts the 1967 lines as the basis for talks.

Netanyahu played down the international criticism and blamed the Palestinians for the impasse. He noted that a 10-month partial settlement freeze he imposed in 2010 had failed to restart negotiations.

"The reason why the Palestinians avoided negotiations for the past four years is a very simple one. They avoided negotiations because they were willing to take concessions from Israel but they were not prepared to make concessions to Israel," he said.

Netanyahu said that negotiations should resume without any conditions, and even held out the possibility of abandoning the E1 plan.

"We remain committed and this is what we prefer, a bilateral negotiation without preconditions in which all these questions can be raised, that is our preference and I hope the Palestinian Authority will go that route because it is better for them and it is better for us," he said.

While Netanyahu's term has been characterized by tensions with Israel's allies, he remains popular at home and appears set to win a new term as head of a hard-line coalition in parliamentary elections next month.

Netanyahu told the audience he had made great gains during his term. He claimed he had helped draw attention to Iran's suspect nuclear program, beefed up Israel's cybersecurity and missile defenses, and fortified Israel's southern border with Egypt to prevent militant attacks and waves of African migrants from entering the country.

Yet in a moment of candor, he signaled that his sometimes rocky relations with President Barack Obama could have been handled better. "Who doesn't have regrets?"

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Death from the sky: 'Falling man' from Africa changes London neighbourhood

LONDON - The suburban stillness of the comfortable, two-story homes in west London's Mortlakeneighbourhood is broken only by the roar of jets thundering overhead on the final approach toHeathrow Airport. It's a pleasant place, with easy connections into central London, generally free of crime and congestion.

That changed early on a sunny Sunday morning in September when a man from Africa literally fell from the sky and landed with a loud thud onto the sidewalk of Portman Avenue, half a block from aconvenience store, an upscale lingerie boutique, and a shop selling Chinese herbal remedies.

In the hours after the crumpled body was found, as early risers were getting up to walk their dogs, get the papers, or go to church, police thought the man was a murder victim. But it was soon determined that he had been a stowaway who fell from a passenger plane when it lowered its landing gear directly above Portman Avenue.

"It was scary, there was a body on the street, and nobody knew at first that he had fallen from a plane," neighbour Stephanie Prudhomme said. "There were police everywhere."

The identity of the man remains a mystery three months later. He carried no identification, but police believe he may have been from Angola. They are asking the public to help identify the man, whose death has traumatized the neighbourhood.

Some heard the noise on impact; others were alarmed when they opened their doors and saw a crumpled badly disfigured body lying on the street. Some didn't know anything was amiss until the police and an ambulance arrived, followed by homicide detectives.

Police came to believe the man stowed away on a passenger jet bound from the African nation of Angola to London, only to die en route and then fall when the landing gear opened — an occurrence that is rare but not unheard of.

"There is great sadness," said Catherine Lambert, who lives a few doors down from the spot where the man landed. "To think that the end of the line for him is a suburban street, miles away from his world."

The event shattered the neighbourhood's sense of being immune from the world's troubles, she said, a feeling compounded by the inability of police to identify the man.

"I felt, what was he running away from? What made him think he could survive? And how will his family ever know? He's a lost soul now; his father and mother are probably waiting for him to make contact," said Lambert, 41.

Frustrated police have released a composite electronic image of what they believe the man's face looked like before his fall, as well as a photo of a tattoo on his left arm, in hopes that he may be identified.

Based on circumstantial evidence, including some currency found in his jeans pocket, they believe he may have been from Angola, but discussions with Angolan authorities have not provided useful clues.

In the days after the macabre discovery, some residents moved by the man's death placed flowers at the spot where his body landed.

Unofficial representatives of London's Angolan community trekked to Mortlake to pay their respects to the man, even though no one knew who he was.

They prayed and also left flowers — but the bouquet was quickly removed by residents after the delegation departed, for fears that it would become an unwanted, permanent shrine to the unknown passenger.

Some are still unwilling to discuss the falling man.

"Is this about the man from the sky?" asked one woman when approached by a reporter as she parked her car on Portman Avenue. "I don't want to talk about it. That was my house."

Aviation safety specialist Chris Yates said Sunday that poor perimeter security at a number of airports in Africa — including the main Angola airport at Luanda — and in other parts of the world has made it easier for people to stow away on planes.

But it's dangerous, and often fatal, not least because areas such as the cargo hold or the wheel base, where stowaways often climb into, aren't necessarily pressurized. Yates said the man who crashed to the pavement in Mortlake had probably lost consciousness and died within the first hour of his flight.

"When you start moving beyond 10,000 feet, oxygen starvation becomes a reality," he said. "As you climb up to altitude, the issue becomes cold as well, the temperature drops to minus 40 or minus 50 degrees centigrade, so survival rates drop."

The sidewalk has been cleaned and the flowers are long gone, but residents and local workers are still talking about the man, said Jay Sivapalan, 29, an employee at the Variety Box convenience store near where the body landed.

"It was just a strange thing," he said.