Israel is a no-show at its UN human rights review

FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2005 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appears at the start of a meeting at his office, in Jerusalem. Seven years after a massive stroke removed him from office and left him in a vegetative state, comatose former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is able to process information and has exhibited "robust activity" in his brain, one of the half-dozen doctors who recently tested him said Monday. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)

GENEVA (AP) — Israel became the first nation to skip a U.N.review of its human rights record without giving a reason — and then won a precedent-setting deferral Tuesday.

The president of the U.N.'s top rights body, Polish diplomatRemigiusz Henczel, declared Israel a no-show at a meeting in Geneva and then reconvened the 47-nation Human Rights Councilto decide what to do.

Israel had asked Henczel in January to postpone the review but did not provide a public explanation.

"This is a rather unique step which has never happened in the past," said German U.N. Ambassador Hanns Heinrich Schumacher.

But after a debate, the council unanimously agreed to defer the review until its next session in October and November at the latest. It took also take it up earlier.

Henczel said the compromise would set a precedent for "how to deal with all cases of non-cooperation" in the future.

All U.N. nations are required to submit to Human Rights Council review every four years. The council's spokesman, Rolando Gomez, said once previously Haiti did not appear for its review but provided a reason.

Israel's absence comes as it is forming a new governing coalition following last week's parliamentary election.

U.S. diplomats have said the council is too focused on Israel. Israel, meanwhile, said last year that it would stop cooperating with the council because of its plans for a fact-finding mission on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Diplomats from nations such as Egypt and Pakistan quickly pounced on the Israeli absence, and the opening it could provide for other countries that might want to bow out of a rights review.

The European Union called on Israel to "respond positively" by submitting to the review later this year.

Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. ambassador to the council, urged the body to agree to the unprecedented deferral in an effort to "find common ground and to protect" the review process.

Israel has gone through one review before in 2008, when many delegations demanded it recognize and respect Palestinians' right to self-determination and a homeland.

The Geneva-based council was set up in 2006 to replace a 60-year-old commission that was widely discredited as a forum dominated by nations with poor human rights records.

U.N. nuclear watchdog backs Iran's denial of Fordow blast

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. atomic watchdog made clear on Tuesday it had seen no sign of any explosion at one of Iran's most sensitive nuclear plants, backing up Tehran's denial that such an incident had taken place last week.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an unusual move, made a brief statement following media reports at the weekend of significant damage at the underground Fordow uranium enrichment site.

IAEA inspectors regularly visit Iranian nuclear sites, including the one at Fordow, and the U.N. agency suggested in its comment that they had been at the site after the reports in some Israeli and Western media of an explosion there.

"We understand that Iran has denied that there has been an incident at Fordow. This is consistent with our observations," IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in an emailed comment in response to a question.

In late 2011 the plant at Fordow began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent fissile purity, compared with the 3.5 percent level needed for nuclear energy plants.

The West says this takes Iran a significant step closer to producing weapons-grade material. Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

For Mali Islamist rebels, death came from the sky

DOUENTZA, Mali (Reuters) - The group of Islamist rebels occupying this dusty northern Malian town at the gateway to Timbuktu had been slaughtering a cow to eat at a small hotel.

The next instant, they were caught in an explosive blizzard of flying concrete and shrapnel.

"They ate no meat. Many were killed, maybe 40," said Hamidou Dicko, a neighbor who had peered over his mud-brick wall at the hotel - used by the rebels as a base - after the French warplanes attacked late on January 12.

The French air strike against the Hotel N'douli, which once served tourists visiting the Dogon hills or the fabled desert trading town of Timbuktu some 200 km (125 miles) to the north, left scattered limbs and shattered bodies in the courtyard.

The attack was just one of hundreds of French strikes that have characterized the 18-day offensive; sudden, devastating fire-power rained down from the skies that left surviving rebels little option but to flee into the desert.

"The few survivors gathered the dead, put them in trucks and fled," said Dicko.

The overwhelming French air power has facilitated rapid advances by French and Malian troops. Islamist militants who controlled Mali's mostly desert northern half for 10 months have now vanished from the region's towns and villages.

The French-led offensive that has retaken a string of insurgent-held towns, including Timbuktu and Gao, has cheered most Malians who have greeted the French and government soldiers as liberating heroes.

Under rebel occupation, many were forced to live under a strict form of sharia Islamic law that imposed whippings and beatings for offences such as smoking or listening to music.

But the hasty retreat by the insurgents into areas of bush and desert, and to the rugged mountains further to the northeast, has raised fears of a lingering guerrilla war.

FIGHTING OVER, FEARS LINGER

French-backed Malian troops conducted house-to-house searches in Gao and Timbuktu on Tuesday, uncovering arms and explosives abandoned by Islamist fighters that could have been used in their insurgency against the government.

But many locations in areas now controlled by the Malian army, including Douentza, remain near-deserted and edgy, devoid of electricity. Soldiers patrol on pickups mounted with guns.

"Today, all the rebels have gone. We don't hear fighting," said Pastor Philippe Sagara, one of the few Christians in the mainly Muslim town.

Sagara said he removed the cross and Bibles from his small church during the rebel occupation, and rarely went outside.

"I worry that maybe they will come back in the night. I don't talk about it, but I feel it in my heart," he said.

Residents said the French air strikes that forced the rebels to flee Douentza narrowly missed killing a top Islamist commander, Abu Dar Dar of the MUJWA group, who had left for Gao just days earlier.

MUJWA was part of the Islamist rebel alliance occupying the north that included al Qaeda's North African wing, AQIM, and a Malian group, Ansar Dine.

Malian military sources said that, while most major towns in the northern region were now under the army's control, pockets of fighters lurked in the countryside between them.

"We don't know what will happen, but for the moment we are peaceful," said Douentza resident Boulker Ould Bilal.

"The French have bombed, and Douentza is free. We can smoke. We can do what we want."

Hi Miguel,

That's quite alright. I just thought that these two were quite interesting. I don't believe everything that I hear, and not all of what I see, however I believe that there is a message here somewhere. Whenever she can, there is a wonderful woman by the name of Barb Mathehaur that brings communion to us, along with defferent readings of the week. This week's reading made me thing of how we often say one thing and do the exact opposite. I hope you enjoy this.

Today is My gift to You

'Sometimes you have to forget about all the things that are upsetting you, and focusing on things that make you happy.' ~Author Unknown~

There is a story told about a school principal who asked his staff to write out their new year's resolutions about how they could be better teachers for the coming year, and that they would be put on the staff bulletin board. The teachers agreed and when the resolutions were posted, they all gathered around the bulletin board to read them. One of the younger teachers suddenly started giving out: "He didn't put up my resolution. It was one of the first ones submitted. He doesn't care about me. That just shows what It's like around here." On and on the teacher ranted and raved. The principal, who overheard this from his office, was mortified. Quickly rummaging through the papers on his desk, he found it and immediately posted it on the bulletin board. The resolution read, "I resolve not to let little things upset me anymore"

We sometimes fall into the trap of allowing the small things in life upset and tripus over. Everyone has to deal with the same small things not going right for us each day. But we simply have to deal with them and just get on with life. In the context of the bigger story and what people and families have to go through, our little upsets just fade into insignificance.

GOD BLESS YOU

~Mike~

http://www.countryvalues65.com