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2 weeks 3 days ago - France

It's not just the markets that have been responding to Hollande's victory. World leaders from around the globe have been sending messages of support to the president-elect, with the US and Germany inviting him for talks in the near future.

United States: Barack Obama, the US president, telephoned Hollande to offer his congratulations and to invite the president-elect to the White House for talks this month. Obama "indicated that he looks forward to working closely with Mr Hollande and his government on a range of shared economic and security challenges," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

Germany: Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, may have earlier indicated her preference for Sarkozy in the French presidential race, but on Sunday she telephoned President-elect Hollande, congratulating him on his win and inviting him for early talks in Berlin. 

She said she would welcome him "with open arms", but warned that the Europen Union's fiscal pact, which Hollande has criticised, was "not negotiable".

United Kingdom: David Cameron, the British prime minister, who had backed Sarkozy at the beginning of the election campaign, has also vowed to work with Hollande to strengthen the Franco-British relationship, said a spokesman.

Spain: Mariano Rajoy, Spain's conservative prime minister whose spending cuts have sparked street protests in a country mired in recession and suffering from a 24 per cent jobless rate, also offered his congratulations. Rajoy was due to speak to Hollande by telephone on Monday.

Italy: Mario Monto, the Italian prime minister, congratulatied Hollande on his win, adding that he hoped for close co-operation aimed "at an increasingly efficient and growth-oriented union."

Belgium: Elio Di Rupo, the Belgian prime minister, who was the only EU leader to visit France during the campaign to support Hollande, has backed the new French president's economic plans. European budget discipline had to go hand-in-hand with an ambitious growth strategy, he said, as he offered his congratulations.

European Commission: Jose Manuel Barroso, the chief of the EC, says that he shares Hollande's goal for jumpstarting the European economy. "We clearly have a common objective: relaunching the European economy to generate durable growth," said Barroso. "We must now transform these aspirations into concrete actions."

China: Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, has sent his congratulations to Hollande. China is ready to work with the new French leader "to deal with bilateral relations from a strategic and long term perspective", said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei at a briefing. 

"China believes that maintaining a positive momentum of the healthy and steady development of China-France relations not only serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and two peoples, but also world peace, stability and development."

Israel: Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has congratulated Hollande on winning the vote, and said that relations between the two countries shall remain friendly.  "I look forward to a meeting with him to continue this important relationship - important bilaterally and internationally," he said.

Brazil: "I want to transmit to him my most effusive greetings," Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian president, said in a statement posted on the official presidential blog. "France and Brazil are united by ambitious bilateral projects... I'm sure that we will continue this cooperation in the next years."

Brazil wants to purchase 38 fighter jets in a contract valued at between $4 billion and $7 billion, and French firm Dassault Aviation's Rafale jet is in the running.

Venezuela: Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, congratulated Hollande on his "clear victory" over Nicolas Sarkozy. 

Canada: Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, offered his congratulations in a telephone call to the president-elect.

United Arab Emirates: Sheikh Khalif bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, sent a telegram wishing Hollande "success" and "further progress in relations" between the two countries, the WAM news agency reported.

Bahrain: King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa  also sent a telegram wishing him "success", and hailed the "deep and strong ties between the two countries".

Qatar: King Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani also congratulated Hollande in a brief message carried by state news agency QNA.

Iran: Iran says that it hopes that "a new era" in ties between France and Iran will open up after the election of Francois Hollande as French president.

"Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat in the French presidential elections shows the defeat of his wrong polices and we hope that the polices of Francois Hollande will correct past wrong approaches," Ramim Mehmanparast, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said.

Tags France Elections, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, United States
2 weeks 4 days ago - London

French nationals in Britain flocked to voting centres Sunday to cast their ballots for president, with long lines forming in London, dubbed France's sixth city because of its large expatriate population.

There are more than 70,000 French nationals on the consular electoral list in Britain, with two polling stations in London as well as about a dozen cities including Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow.

Many people turned out as soon as the centres opened at 07:00 GMT to avoid a repeat of the situation in the first round of the contest, when there were queues of up to three hours to vote in London.

Still, a line around 100 metres (yards) long stretched from the Charles-de-Gaulle French secondary school in southwest London; while at a college in north London voters turned out with thermos flasks and cups of tea to brave the cold.

"This time, I got up early," said Nadege Galle, a 33-year-old chemist, saying that in the first round she came in the afternoon and had to wait an hour in the rain. This time it took just half an hour for her to cast her vote.

French officials took steps to reduce queues for the second round including closing voting centres an hour later at 1800 GMT, opening two extra ballot boxes at the French school and adding extra officials, most of whom are volunteers.

"It's gone much better" than in the first round, said Olivier Bertin, a Green candidate in legislative elections, who was queuing at the school. "I came at around the same time last time and and waited two hours."

An estimated 300,000 to 350,000 French nationals live in London out of the city's total population of more than eight million, but only around a fifth are registered to vote in the presidential election in their homeland.

"I think the result will be close. I said to myself, the one time that my vote is going to count, why not come and vote?" said IT worker Sebastien Bastello.

The number of ballot boxes is double that in 2007 when conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won.

French nationals living in Canada, the United States and South America went to the polls Saturday, while voters in Australia and New Zealand did so on Sunday.

[AFP]

Tags France, France Elections, United Kingdom
8 weeks 13 hours ago - United Kingdom

Britain will double non-military aid to opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and expand its scope to equipment, possibly including secure telephones to help activists communicate more easily, officials said on Thursday.

 
The British government will provide 500,000 pounds ($800,000) worth of new aid in addition to 450,000 pounds already donated, Foreign Secretary William Hague said.


"It includes agreement in principle for practical non-lethal support to them inside Syria," Hague said in a speech.

 
The aid will be for Syrian activists working peacefully to achieve a political transition in Syria, government officials said.


They said there had been no change in their opposition to arming rebels and of having no links with the Free Syrian Army.


Until now, Britain has provided the Syrian opposition with training in areas such as media skills and in gathering information on human rights abuses that could be used later to prosecute Syrian officials.


The new aid will include equipment - possibly items such as secure telephones to help activists to communicate without fear of detection and attack, a government source said.

[Reuters]

8 weeks 2 days ago - Syria

Islamic Relief (IR), the UK-based international aid and development agency, has announced that it has been distributed medical aid in Homs since March 7.

According to a press release, the IR has "delivered nearly 13,000 British pounds ($20,700) worth of medical aid to three civilian makeshift clinics".

The aid consists of anaesthetics, tetanus vaccinations, blood transfusion bags and a range of antibiotics.

Moustafa Osman, Head of Islamic Relief’s Humanitarian Department, said:

 “This aid delivery is about saving civilian lives. The humanitarian imperative under the UN’s ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine compels us to supply medical provisions to all of those who have suffered heavy bombardment under siege in Homs."

The group says there is a pressing need for more medical aid to civilians caught in the fighting.

"We have rigorously checked all assets and parties involved with our work on the ground. Following a risk analysis of the situation in Homs, we have taken the view that there is a significant humanitarian need that we should do what we can to meet," Osman said.
"Now that we have established our supply routes, we are announcing our work and hope that it will attract international support, which will translate into a safer environment for the operation," he added.
IR has been working with Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan since May 2011.
Tags aid, homs, Islamic Relief, United Kingdom
11 weeks 15 hours ago - United Kingdom

British Foreign Secretary William Hague says that Russia and China are paying "a diplomatic price" across the Arab world for their opposition to international action against Syria's ruling regime.

China and Russia have vetoed two UN resolutions condemning the Syrian government's bloody crackdown on the opposition and calling for President Bashar Assad to step down.

Hague told lawmakers Thursday in London that ``China and Russia are paying a diplomatic price for the position that they have taken; throughout the Arab world they are paying that price, particularly in the opinion of the people of many Arab nations.''

Tags China, Hague, protests, Russia, syria
11 weeks 2 days ago - United Kingdom

Syrian government forces have bombed a bridge used by refugees fleeing to Lebanon from the central province of Homs,
cutting off a key escape route to evacuate the wounded, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

"Regime forces on Tuesday bombarded a bridge near Qusayr, in Homs province, which is used by refugees and the wounded fleeing to Lebanon," Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.

Tags protests, syria, uprising
11 weeks 6 days ago - United Kingdom

A wounded British photographer who escaped the besieged Homs district of Bab Amr said on Friday that the month-long bombardment of the district was "an indiscriminate  massacre".

Paul Conroy, 47, was speaking from a hospital bed in Britain, where he returned a couple of days ago after being smuggled to Lebanon on Tuesday.

"It's not a war, it's a massacre, an indiscriminate massacre of men, women and children," he told Sky News television.

The former soldier said Syrian government forces had begun their attacks at  6:30 every morning, "systematically moving through neighbourhoods with munitions that are used for battlefields... there were no targets".

He described the humanitarian situation as "more than a catastrophe", saying there was no power or water, and food was scarce.

"There's still thousands of people in Homs... they're living in bombed-out wrecks, children six to a bed, rooms full of people waiting to die," he said.

"They see no relief, nothing, other than waiting for the moment the soldiers come in, or the shell comes through the door."

Tags Bab Amr, homs, syria
13 weeks 6 days ago - United Kingdom

Ammar Waqqaf, a member of the Syrian Social Club, a pro-government group supporting reforms, tells Al Jazeera from London that the international community is more interested in toppling the Syrian goevrnment that the interest of the Syrian people.

He also says one-third of the people killed in Syria are memebrs of the security forces, but that this has been ignored by the United Nations and many world powers.

Tags Ammar Waqqaf, syria, Syrian Social Club, United Nations
14 weeks 5 hours ago - London

William Hague, the British foreign minister, has reacted to the UN General Assembly's passing of the resolution as a "clear signal of the international community's condemnation of the Syrian regime's actions and intention to hold to account those responsible for the ongoing atrocities".

 "The message is unambiguous. The violence must stop immediately," he said, according to a British Foreign Office release.

"President Assad and the Syrian regime must heed the call of the international community and allow a peaceful political transition to resolve the crisis," he added. "President Assad and those around him should be under no doubt that we will
continue to support the Syrian people in their aspiration for a peaceful political transition in Syria."

Tags syria, United Kingdom
15 weeks 5 days ago - United Kingdom

Amnesty International said the decision by Russia and China to veto a weak draft UN Security Council resolution on Syria is a shockingly callous betrayal of the people of Syria.
   
"This is a completely irresponsible use of the veto by Russia and China," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary-General. "It is staggering that they have blocked the passage of what was already a very weak draft resolution."
   
"After a night in which the whole world watched the people of Homs suffering, the actions of these members are particularly shocking."
   
"Apart from a presidential statement issued in August 2011 condemning human rights violations, the Security Council has not acted on the crisis in Syria since the uprising began in March 2011"
   
Amnesty International said it would continue to press members of the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, impose a comprehensive arms embargo on the country and implement an assets freeze on Bashar al-Assad and other top officials.

Tags Amnesty International, China, Russia, syria

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