QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Without any mandate from the people, illegally and in breach of the constitution of Ukraine, these politicians - if I may use that term - have resorted to pogroms, arson and murder to try to seize power.”
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, describing violent protests in the country as an attempt to overthrow the government by his political adversaries Article, 1A
Ayatollah orders nuke-talk backup plan
VIENNA - As Iran negotiated about a nuclear pact Wednesday, the country’s top leader ordered his government to take precautionary steps in case the talks fail and the head of the Revolutionary Guards warned the Iranian negotiators against concessions that stand to tarnish the nation’s pride.
The comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the commander of the guards, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, reflected the difficulties faced by Iranian negotiators on the talks’ second day. They are bargaining with six world powers for a full end to economic sanctions while trying to salvage their country’s nuclear program.
Two days after saying he thought the talks would fail, Khamenei on Wednesday ordered his government to brace for such a scenario. He advised it to create an “economy of resistance” to counter the sanctions.
That would involve diversifying Iran’s exports, reducing its dependence on sales of raw materials and promoting knowledge-based high-tech industries.
Meanwhile, Jafari warned Iranian negotiators to preserve “red lines of the establishment … so that the national pride is not damaged.”
Reporter’s lover loses detention appeal
LONDON - The domestic partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who published information leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, lost his legal challenge Wednesday over his detention at London’s Heathrow Airport in August under counterterrorism laws.
David Michael Miranda was stopped while in transit from Germany to Brazil and was told he was being detained under Section 7 of the British Terrorism Act.
The act allows authorities to detain someone for up to nine hours for questioning and to conduct a search of personal items, often without a lawyer, to determine possible ties to terrorism. Officers in August seized items including electronic media containing an estimated 58,000 documents from the National Security Agency and its British counterpart.
Miranda, who is Brazilian, has said he was simply transporting material for Greenwald and appealed against his detention, arguing that it was unlawful and that it breached human rights. But at the High Court on Wednesday, Judge John Laws ruled that the detention was a “proportionate measure in the circumstances,” and that its objective was “not only legitimate but pressing.”
Ousted Syrian leader quits opposition
BEIRUT - The former leader of the Western-backed Syrian opposition’s military wing on Wednesday rejected his recent dismissal, and along with more than a dozen senior insurgent commanders severed ties with the political opposition-in-exile.
The statement from Gen. Salim Idris comes two days after the opposition Syrian National Coalition announced that Idris had been sacked as head of the Supreme Military Council and replaced by Brig. Gen. Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir.
In a video posted online Wednesday, Idris said that after consulting with forces inside Syria, he and the 15 other signatories of the statement were breaking ties with the council and the opposition’s political leadership.
N. Korea said to hold Australian
HONG KONG - North Korea arrested a Christian missionary from Australia, his family said Wednesday, taking him into captivity even as it continues to face pressure to release an American missionary it has held for more than a year.
The Australian, John Short, 75, was arrested in the capital, Pyongyang, on Sunday, according to his wife, Karen. She said the trip was her husband’s second to the communist dictatorship. He was in possession of religious materials that had been translated into Korean, according to a statement by his family.
Short’s detention comes more than a year after North Korea arrested Kenneth Bae, an American missionary, after he entered the country from China. Bae was eventually sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for committing “hostile acts” against the North, and Pyongyang has repeatedly resisted strong U.S. pressure seeking his release.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/20/2014