RTC Director

UN Monitors Shot at Near Site of Syrian Killings

The United Nations says its unarmed monitors in Syria were shot at and blocked from investigating the site of a newly reported mass killing, fueling international condemnation of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the U.N. General Assembly Thursday that international observers were denied access to the village of Mazraat al-Qubeir in central Hama province and “were shot at with small arms” while trying to get there.

While Mr. Ban did not directly blame Syrian forces for the latest reported atrocity, he harshly criticized what appeared to be a government effort to block monitors from visiting the site of Wednesday's massacre in which at least 78 people were killed, half of them women and children, including 35 members of one family. Some were stabbed and burned.

Kieran Dwyer, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department, said the observers were forced to turn back and were not injured, although one vehicle was hit and slightly damaged.

International envoy Kofi Annan, whose peace plan brokered in April has not been implemented, warned against allowing “mass killings to become part of everyday reality in Syria.”

Annan urged the divided U.N. Security Council and the rest of the international community to unite and act immediately to intensify pressure, especially on Mr. Assad's government. If things do not change, he warned, Syria will likely face a future of “brutal repression, massacres, sectarian violence and even all-out civil war” in which “all Syrians will lose.”

U.N. diplomats said Annan proposed that world powers and key regional players, including Iran, come up with a new strategy to end the 15-month conflict at a closed meeting of the Security Council on Thursday. Annan is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday in Washington.

If confirmed, the Qubeir massacre would be the fourth such mass slaying of civilians in Syria in the last two weeks.

The White House Thursday accused the Syrian government of orchestrating “the outrageous targeted killings of civilians, including women and children…as reported by multiple credible sources.”

Thousands of Syrians have died in attacks and clashes since the cease-fire was put in place, and the presence of hundreds of U.N. observers has not been able to stem the violence.

Speaking Thursday in Istanbul, Clinton said Mr. Assad has “doubled down on his brutality and duplicity,” and that the time has come for a post-Assad Syria.

“We have to unite the international community behind a plan that is achievable and keeps faith with those inside Syria who are protesting and demonstrating, suffering and dying for their universal human rights.”

Even as she criticized the Syrian leader, China – one of Mr. Assad's leading allies along with Russia – reiterated its opposition to any effort to oust him outside the existing Annan plan to end the fighting, seeming to limit prospects for any breakthrough.

Bob Moog, of North Carolina State University, said Russian interests will need to be taken into consideration for the peace plan to take hold.

“It's going to take a realization on the part of the Russians that they are essentially on the losing side, that the Assad regime is not going to survive a civil war in Syria, and that they are going to lose everything if they continue to hold out and fail to cooperate with much of the rest of the world.”

Moog also says expectations are low for what the U.N. can do to help the Syrian situation.

“I think many people in the world, rightly or wrongly, look to the U.S. as the final arbiter in this. And if the U.N. doesn't act, then there's going to be expectations from some quarters that the U.S. should act in a unilateral, or if not unilateral, than in a multilateral matter, but outside the confines of the U.N.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said pro-government 'shabiha' militiamen armed with guns and knives carried out the attack in Mazraat al-Qubeir after regular troops had shelled the area.

Qubeir, on the outskirts of Hama, is small and mostly Sunni Muslim. Residents said shabiha raided the settlement from two neighboring villages of Alawites, a minority Muslim sect to which the Assad family and high-ranking members of the military and security apparatus belong to.

The exiled opposition Syrian National Council called on the Free Syrian Army and other armed opposition groups to respond by escalating their resistance.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the reported attack “brutal and sickening.” He said that if true, the international community must do more to condemn “absolutely” the government of President Assad.

The Syrian government blamed a terrorist group for the violence.

by RTC Director

Niger President: Pakistanis, Afghans Train Islamists in Mali

Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou says jihadi fighters from Pakistan and Afghanistan are training members of Islamist groups in northern Mali.

Mr. Issoufou told the “France 24″ news channel in the capital, Niamey, Thursday the government has information on the presence of Afghans and Pakistanis in northern Mali operating as trainers. He said the foreigners are training “those that have been recruited in West African countries.”

Mali, once considered a beacon of African democracy, has been in turmoil since March, when a group of soldiers ousted the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure, leaving a power vacuum in the country.

Since the military coup, Tuareg rebels, with the help of Islamist militants, seized control of a large area of northern Mali and proclaimed an independent state they call “Azawad.”

Also Thursday, African leaders met in Ivory Coast's financial capital, Abidjan, to hammer out details of a possible military intervention in Mali.

Ivory Coast Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said participants from the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States will discuss whether to ask the U.N. Security Council to allow the use of force to reunite Mali if talks with armed groups failed to resolve the crisis.

ECOWAS has already pledged to help Mali fight the rebels.

by RTC Director

Egypt parties end deadlock over constitutional panel

Political parties in Egypt have agreed on how to select the panel that will write the country's new constitution, ending weeks of deadlock.

The deal was reached after talks between representatives of 22 political parties and military ruler Hussein Tantawi, officials said.

Panel members from the parliament are expected to be elected next week.

The previous panel was dissolved after liberals and secularists walked out, saying it was dominated by Islamists.

The 100-member body will include a range of politicians, members of the army, the police, the judiciary and trade unions, as well as Muslim and Christian religious leaders.

The agreement came after the military council set a 48-hour deadline on Tuesday, threatening to propose an arrangement themselves if a deal was not reached.

Islamic law

According to delegates cited by AFP news agency, 39 seats will be allocated to representatives of parties in the lower house of parliament, which is dominated by Islamist parties.

Six members will be given to judges, while nine will go to experts in law, with one seat each for the armed forces, police and the justice ministry.

Thirteen seats will be given to unions, while 21 public figures chosen at a meeting on Tuesday will also be appointed.

The Cairo-based Sunni authority Al-Azhar will be given five seats and Christian churches will get four, delegates added.

The talks also concluded that any decision by the panel must be endorsed by 67% of members.

The old constitution was suspended after the former President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year.

Correspondents say one of the debates during the drafting process will be the extent to which it should follow the principles of Islamic law.

The new document will also determine the rights of Egypt's religious and ethnic minority groups and the balance of power between the president - previously the supreme authority - and parliament.

The last panel was suspended on 10 April amid a boycott by groups who claimed they were under-represented, including liberals, moderate Muslims and the Coptic church.

Egypt is to hold a presidential election runoff on 16-17 June, where voters will be asked to choose between Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.

by RTC Director

Mitt Romney raises $17m more than Barack Obama campaign

US Republican candidate Mitt Romney raised almost $17m (£11m) more than President Barack Obama's re-election effort in May, figures show.

Mr Romney and the Republicans raised $76.8m, while the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party brought in $60m.

Mr Romney now has $107m cash on hand, almost matching the $115m Mr Obama's campaign had by the end of April.

Mr Obama's May total included $15m raised at the home of George Clooney, with tickets costing $40,000.

Members of the public also bought $3 raffle tickets to win a spot at that star-studded event.

Both presidential candidates are in the midst of a hectic fund-raising schedule as they prepare for the long campaign ahead of November's election.

Mr Obama is campaigning this week in California and Nevada, while Mr Romney has been in Texas.

The monthly campaign fundraising totals do not include millions of dollars being raised and spent by independent committees backing each campaign.

'Broken promises'

May's fundraising figures were the first since Mr Romney took an unbeatable lead in the Republican primary process, having won the required numbers of delegates to ensure he will face Mr Obama in November.

Announcing its fundraising totals early on Thursday, the Obama campaign said on Twitter that 572,000 people donated in May, 147,000 of them for the first time.

His campaign also reported that 98% of the contributions were less than $250.

In its statement shortly afterwards, the Romney campaign reported that donations of $250 or less made up 93% of all donations and $12m of the total amount raised.

"Our strong fundraising is a sign that Americans are tired of President Obama's broken promises and want a change of direction in the White House," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt used Twitter to play down Mr Romney's fundraising haul: "Reminder on RNC/Romney camp fundraising: 1st month joint committee was in existence, so all their primary donors wrote their maxout checks."

Both the camps raised considerably more in May than in April, when the Obama campaign and the Democrats brought in $43.6m, slightly ahead of their opponents.

by RTC Director