Colombian court backs referendum on peace deal with FARC rebels

Yahoo – AFP, July 19, 2016

A man places flowers on a Colombian national flag during a march in Cali, in
support of the peace talks between the government and the FARC guerrillas,
on July 15, 2016 (AFP Photo/Luis Robayo)

Bogota (AFP) - Colombia's constititutional court gave its approval for a popular referendum on a historic peace deal being negotiated with FARC rebels.

"There is a green light for us, the Colombian people, to approve the peace deal with our votes," President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday.

The top court held more than eight hours of deliberations before giving its go-ahead to a government bill on the plebiscite, which has already been approved by Congress.

The Colombian government and the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are in the final phase of four years of talks that it is hoped will result in a peace deal putting to an end a half-a-century of conflict.

The rebels last month signed a ceasefire and disarmament deal with the government, with the aim of becoming a political party.

The government said it hoped to move on to a full peace deal within weeks.

Alejo Vargas, an analyst at the National University's Center for Reflection and Monitoring of the Peace Dialogues, has said government supporters of the peace deal are in the majority. In a referendum, he estimated, "up to 70 percent would vote 'Yes.'"

Russian Sports Minister Mutko barred from Rio Games over doping

Yahoo – AFP, Jul 19, 2016

Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko addresses the media within the election
of a new chief of Russia's athletics federation in Moscow on January 16,
2016 (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)

Lausanne (AFP) - The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday barred Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and other ministry officials from attending the Rio Games after the revelation of a state-run doping system.

"The IOC will not grant any accreditation to any official of the Russian Ministry of Sport or any person implicated in the (independent) report for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad Rio 2016," said an IOC statement.

An independent inquiry commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency said the Russian sports ministry organised a "state-dictated failsafe system" of cheating by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics and other major events hosted by Russia.

Deputy sports minister Yury Nagornykh is among officials to have been suspended by the Kremlin since the report was released on Monday.

US transfers two Guantanamo detainees to Serbia: Pentagon

Yahoo – AFP, 11 Jul 2016

The US flag flies above the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (AFP
Photo/Paul J. Richards)

Washington (AFP) - The Pentagon on Monday transferred two Guantanamo detainees, one Yemeni and the other Tajik, to Serbia, bringing the population of the controversial US military prison to 76.

Tajik national Muhammadi Davlatov and Yemeni Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi were both unanimously approved for transfer by six US government departments and agencies, the State Department said.

President Barack Obama, as one of his first official acts after being elected in 2008, vowed to empty and shutter the notorious "war on terror" prison, which critics feel has tarnished America's reputation because of treatment deemed inhumane to the inmates there.

"As directed by the president's January 22, 2009, executive order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review" of Davlatov's case and unanimously approved his transfer, a Pentagon statement said.

US defense, homeland security and other officials determined late last year that continued imprisonment of al-Dayfi "does not remain necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States."

The Defense Department statement thanked Serbia "for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility" -- a sentiment echoed by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

"The United States appreciates the generous assistance of Serbia as the United States continues its efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," Kerry said in a statement.

"This significant humanitarian gesture is consistent with Serbia's leadership on the global stage."

The United States has in recent months accelerated the rate at which detainees who have been approved for transfer are released from the facility, which Obama urgently wants to close before he leaves office at the start of next year.

Guantanamo is a US naval base carved out of a remote chunk of land on the tip of southeastern Cuba. The administration of George W. Bush opened a prison there to hold terror suspects.

The Guantanamo prison has held about 780 inmates in all since it was opened shortly after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Transfers have been slowed because many inmates were from war-torn Yemen, and so had to be returned to a third country that can provide rehabilitation and monitoring.

Obama would like to send inmates deemed to be the most dangerous for incarceration in the United States but Republican lawmakers have steadfastly resisted any such move.

US transfers Guantanamo inmate to Italy: official

Yahoo – AFP, July 10, 2016

According to US government statistics, about 13 percent of prisoners freed from
 Guantanamo since Obama began his first term have returned to violent extremism
(AFP Photo/Mladen Antonov)

Washington (AFP) - The United States has transferred Saudi-born Yemeni inmate Fayiz Ahmad Yahia Suleiman to Italy, the Pentagon announced Sunday, as President Barack Obama seeks to close the reviled American military detention center in Cuba.

The 41-year-old, who was recommended for transfer in January 2010 by the Guantanamo Review Task Force, was originally brought to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002.

"In accordance with statutory requirements, the secretary of defense informed Congress of the United States' intent to transfer this individual and of the secretary (of defense)'s determination that this transfer meets the statutory standard," a Pentagon statement said.

"The United States is grateful to the government of Italy for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The United States coordinated with the government of Italy to ensure this transfer took place consistent with appropriate security and humane treatment measures."

A total of 78 inmates now remain at Guantanamo, which Obama took action to begin closing in one of his first acts as president. Yemenis account for the biggest group of detainees.

Obama has been unable to fulfill his long-held campaign promise due to opposition from the Republican-held Congress, concerns at home over plans to hold one-time terror suspects on US soil and the reluctance of allies to take in the prisoners.

Some of those concerns have crystallized in recent days after the disappearance of a former Guantanamo inmate in Uruguay, where he had been resettled in 2014 along with five other ex-detainees.

Jihad Diyab -- a 44-year-old Syrian -- went off the South American country's radar several weeks ago after apparently evading border controls and crossing into Brazil.

According to US government statistics, about 13 percent of prisoners freed from Guantanamo since Obama began his first term have returned to violent extremism or are believed to have done so, down from 35 percent under his predecessor George W. Bush.

Paul Lewis, the Pentagon's special envoy for Guantanamo closure, said that 14 ex-prisoners have gone on to participate in attacks that killed Americans.

In February, with less than a year left in his term, Obama released a last-ditch plan to close the facility, hoping to speed up the resettlement of all but 46 of the remaining prisoners, for whom he hopes to find alternate, secure detention centers in the United States.

All those he is seeking to resettle abroad have been deemed eligible for transfer.

Uruguay to sign up smokers to buy state marijuana

Yahoo – AFP, July 7, 2016

Uruguay government aims to begin registering users by the end of the month
authorizing them to purchase marijuana in pharmacies in an effort to undermine
drug-trafficking gangs (AFP Photo/Luis Robayo)

Montevideo (AFP) - Uruguay will this month start signing up smokers to buy marijuana from pharmacies in the world's first scheme for state-production and sale of the drug, an official source said Wednesday.

The leftist government has begun harvesting its own marijuana and aims to start selling it in mid-August, the source told AFP.

The marijuana leaves have been grown under heavy security at privately operated, state-supervised farms.

"It is being harvested and dried," said the source, who asked not to be named.

The government will buy the drug from the producers and sell it on to the pharmacies. But the amount released for sale will depend on how many users register.

The government aims to start registering users by the end of this month, the source said.

Under a law passed in 2013, Uruguay already allows users to grow marijuana if they register as members of state-regulated clubs.

In this June 30, 2016 photo, a pharmacy attends a client at Capurro neighborhood

 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguay's government is planning to sell marijuana at 50

pharmacies throughout the country. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

The state will now expand that initiative to regulate the sale of the drug in pharmacies.

The law allows for users to buy up to 40 grams (1.4 ounces) a month. Authorized buyers will be identified by their fingerprints.

The scheme is being overseen by the state Cannabis Regulation and Control Institute.

Officials have not ruled out extending sales to establishments other than pharmacies.

The initiative was launched by former president Jose Mujica as a way to undermine drug-trafficking gangs.

A poll at the time indicated that nearly two thirds of Uruguayans were opposed to the law.

Venezuela 'willing' to restore diplomatic ties with US

Yahoo – AFP, July 4, 2016

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (R) talks with US State Department envoy
 Thomas Shannon at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, on June 22,
 2016 (AFP Photo/Federico Parra)

Caracas (AFP) - Crisis-hit Venezuela is willing to restore diplomatic relations with the United States after a six-year freeze, the socialist government said Monday.

The foreign ministry's announcement came two weeks after top US diplomat Thomas Shannon met with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in a bid to help tackle the country's economic and political crisis.

In a message congratulating the United States on its Independence Day commemoration, the ministry expressed its "willingness to establish respectful bilateral diplomatic relations."

The two countries have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010 due to tensions between Washington and the government of Hugo Chavez, Maduro's mentor and late predecessor.

Like Chavez before him, Maduro has frequently accused Washington of interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs and seeking his overthrow.

The United States has expressed concern over the crisis in Venezuela, saying Maduro's opponents have a right to organize a referendum on removing him from power, which they hope to do this year.

Future diplomatic relations should be guided by international law and "principles such as sovereign equality of states and the people's right to self-determination," the ministry's statement said.