Kenya asks U.N. Security Council to end Hague case against president

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Kenya has asked the U.N. Security Council to end International Criminal Court proceedings against President Uhuru Kenyatta and others, but council diplomats who discussed the request on Thursday said the 15-member body could not stop the case.

The Security Council is only able to defer International Criminal Court proceedings for one year under article 16 of the Rome Statute, which established the Hague-based court a decade ago. The council would need to adopt a resolution to do that.

"The letter from the Kenyans is slightly bizarre because they are actually asking the Security Council to do something that it has no authority to do," said a senior council diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto were among six suspects initially charged by ICC prosecutors with orchestrating tribal violence after the 2007 election, when some 1,200 people were killed. Kenyatta and Ruto both deny the charges.

In a letter to the Security Council, Kenya said the implications of Kenyatta's trial "for the viability and continuity of the state should be self evident." Kenyatta's trial is due to start in July.

"What this delegation is asking for is not deferral. What this delegation is asking for is the immediate termination of the case at the Hague without much further ado," Kenya wrote to the Security Council.

The Security Council discussed the request on Thursday. The senior council diplomat said it was unlikely there would be "widespread support" for deferring the proceedings against Kenyatta - who was elected in March - for a year.

The International Criminal Court on Monday postponed the trial of Ruto on charges of crimes against humanity, saying it wanted to hold further hearings with the prosecution and the defense. Ruto asked the ICC last month to postpone the start of the trial to give his legal team more time to prepare.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Obama blesses Mexican security plan, eyes deeper business ties

By Mark Felsenthal and Steve Holland

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama gave his blessing on Thursday to a new security arrangement with Mexican leader Enrique Pena Nieto, in which Mexico will make reducing violence a priority over hunting drug cartel kingpins in the war against organized crime.

The two presidents said they also want to step up trade and business ties that have been overshadowed by the battle against drug trafficking.

"It is obviously up to the Mexican people to determine their security structures and how it engages with other nations including the United States," Obama said at a joint press conference with Pena Nieto.

At the start of a two-day visit to Mexico, Obama sought to draw attention to the emerging might of Latin America's No.2 economy, even as worries about containing drug-trafficking and related violence remained an inescapable subtext.

The two leaders pledged to begin holding cabinet level meetings focused on boosting business between the two countries and to expand educational changes. The first high-level meeting is set for the fall.

The U.S. president pledged support for Pena Nieto's new policy of restricting contacts with the United States on drugs and drug-related violence to a single point, Mexico's Ministry of the Interior. He acknowledged that the United States can play a role with its own domestic policies.

"We look forward to continuing our good cooperation in any way," he said. "I also reaffirmed our determination in the United States to meet our responsibilities to reduce the demand for illegal drugs and to combat the southbound flow of illegal guns and cash."

Mexico's new "single-door" policy would be an abrupt change from the wide latitude the U.S. government enjoyed in working with Mexican officials across agencies under Pena Nieto's predecessor, Felipe Calderon.

The change has raised questions about Mexico's commitment to combating drug trafficking and drug-related violence.

Pena Nieto plans to shift the weight of combating organized crime from the military onto a new militarized police force, but has made few concrete changes so far, instead seeking to focus public attention on the economy rather than violence.

The Mexican government has said that killings linked to organized crime fell 14 percent in the first four months of Pena Nieto's presidency, but 4,249 people still were killed during that period.

More than 70,000 people are estimated to have been killed in drug violence in Mexico since 2007, and gang-style murders continue to provide lurid headlines.

Some question whether Calderon's aggressive policies, which focused on eradicating gang leaders, has been successful or whether it has generated additional violence as rival factions vie for control of turf.

Pena Nieto said his approach will emphasize reducing bloodshed and will operate more smoothly.

"Under this new strategy, what we are trying to do is put in order, institutionalize the security cooperation we have today with the United States, and establish clear and singular channels to help us be more efficient and achieve better results," Pena Nieto said in Spanish.

RIGHTS WORRIES

In a letter to Obama ahead of his visit, rights group Human Rights Watch urged him to review the United States' public security approach with Mexico, rapping his administration for offering "uncritical support" for Calderon's policies and citing a "dramatic increase" in rights abuses.

Both Obama and Pena Nieto have said they want the visit to focus on economic issues rather than security. Pena Nieto is eager to underscore Mexico's recent run of solid economic growth, fueled in part by its increasing attractiveness as a manufacturing hub.

The leaders pledged to conclude a trade agreement with Asia-Pacific nations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, by the end of the year.

By highlighting Mexico's progress in moving up the economic ladder, Obama is also emphasizing that his own domestic goal of reforming U.S. immigration laws will not promote an exodus of Mexicans into the United States.

"Part of what we discussed is the importance of getting it done, precisely because we do so much business between our two countries," he said, referring to immigration reform that has drawn bipartisan support in Washington. "If we're going to get that done, now's the time to do it."

The two presidents at their meeting discussed a much publicized energy agreement that would remove obstacles to expanding deepwater drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. They said in a joint statement that they looked forward to implementation of the deal.

The United States has yet to finalize the deal, known as the Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement, which provides guidelines for drilling in an area of the Gulf that straddles the U.S.-Mexican boundary.

The deal is seen as the key to opening a new era of cooperation on oil production between the two countries. Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex needs technology and investment to boost its stagnant production, and U.S. companies are eager to help.

(Editing by Simon Gardner and Paul Simao)

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Tear gas fired as Egyptian Islamists target security HQ

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces fired tear gas to disperse a small group of hardline Islamist protesters who were attempting to scale the walls of the state security headquarters in a Cairo suburb late Thursday night.

Around 2,000 protesters from several Salafi Islamist groups had staged a protest earlier on Thursday night outside the security headquarters against what they said was a return to the force's pre-revolution methods.

After security forces fired tear gas, the remaining protesters, some of whom had also attempted to break into a nearby police officers' club, left the area.

The protest points to lingering suspicion harbored by the hardliners about security agencies used against them by ousted President Hosni Mubarak, and which, they say, Islamist President Mohamed Mursi has been unable to reform.

The protesters, some waving the black-and-white al Qaeda flag, chanted slogans against Mursi and accused him of building a security apparatus no different from the old one.

Earlier, at the height of the protest, no police presence was visible outside the security headquarters, where protesters tore down Interior Ministry flags and erected several al Qaeda flags and set off fireworks.

A small group had earlier on Thursday evening attempted to break down a door on the headquarter's perimeter but gave up before causing damage to the door. A Jewish Star of David was drawn by some protesters on the wall's perimeter.

The Salafi groups had issued a statement earlier in the day saying state security organs had returned to "criminal practices" such as summoning citizens for investigation, threatening the achievements of the 2011 uprising.

Egypt dissolved the feared and hated state security apparatus, which had been used by Mubarak's administration to crush political opposition, including Islamists who were repressed under the old guard, the month after he was toppled.

It was replaced by a new National Security Force, which the Interior Ministry promised would serve the nation without interfering in the lives of citizens or their right to exercise their political views.

The protesters had marched from a nearby mosque after evening prayers. Some chanted to onlookers in apartments on streets clogged by the march "come down from your houses, state security is Mubarak".

The system of law and justice has been a major stumbling block in post-Mubarak Egypt. A rift between the Islamist rulers and the judiciary, which Islamists see as controlled by Mubarak loyalists, is steadily widening amid a broader struggle over the future character of the country.

Earlier on Thursday, an Egyptian judge referred a complaint filed by a police spokesman against popular hardline Islamist cleric Hazem Salah Abu Ismail to the state security prosecution, setting a hearing for Saturday to begin the investigation.

State newspaper Al-Ahram reported that the complaint called for Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim to arrest Abu Ismail on charges of "terrorizing police officers" after Abu Ismail urged his supporters to attend Thursday's protest.

The police spokesman's complaint added that such demonstrations hindered officers in their work to protect national security.

(Reporting by Abdelrahman Youssef and Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Maggie Fick and Tom Perry; Editing by Alison Williams and David Brunnstrom)

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Obama's 'Crossed a Line' With Social Security Cuts, Critics Say

WASHINGTON - A crowd of about 100 progressive and liberal activists rallied outside the White House this afternoon to express outrage over the recently released Obama administration budget plan that would cut Medicare and Social Security benefits.

The rally, organized by left-wing organizations including MoveOn.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and attended by lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders, was held in protest over the proposal to create a chained Consumer Price Index - or CPI - included in the White House budget, which could mean lower Social Security benefits for millions of senior citizens and veterans.

The chained CPI proposal could lead to slower growth of Social Security benefits in the next few years because it would determine benefits using a slower inflation rate. The proposal discussed in the past by House Republicans could lead to the average 65-year-old losing out on $130 a year in annual benefits starting in just three years.

RELATED: Social Security Cut of $130 Per Year Seen In Cliff Proposal

Organizers have formed a coalition to deliver petitions with more than 1 million signatures to the president to prevent the bill from making it to Capitol Hill.

"We want to make sure … this is dead on arrival," Democracy for American chairman Jim Dean told ABC News.

Dean's organization is one of the many progressive groups that are part of the coalition to deliver the petition to the White House. Dean said that although he and his organization appreciate the president's "forceful leadership" on issues like gun violence prevention, the CPI proposal is one that has caused them to be extremely disappointed in him.

"People understand that we are not getting everything out of this person," Dean said. "This was never our way or the highway - even when he was elected in 2008. He's crossed a line here."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., urged President Obama to think twice about the budget plan and said it could only lead to devastating consequences in increasing the wealth disparity between the top 1 percent and the rest of America.

"People who have voted with the president … are extremely disappointed with the president," Sanders told ABC News. "(Americans) are saying do not balance the budget on people who have lost their arms and legs defending this country."

Rally organizers said Obama was doing a disservice to the senior citizens who rely on social security benefit checks to survive.

"We've got to get here now in order to be sure that the voices of people who are going to be impacted by the president's proposals will be heard by him," said Brad Wright, a spokesman for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, which is also part of the coalition. "I can't tell you how disappointed we are - he has said that he would not cut social security … and now they're doing it. That's a pretty serious disconnect."

The budget has yet to take center stage in Washington. Instead, the focus has been on the gun control debate, with some GOP lawmakers threatening a filibuster on gun control legislation.

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Libyan state TV suspends work over security row

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Staff members at Libya's state TV news channel have suspended work indefinitely after an employee was allegedly assaulted by a member of a militia guarding their building.

Live shows were cancelled, and Libya al-Wataniya was airing only archive video on Tuesday.

An employee at the channel, who spoke anonymously because he feared retribution from militiamen, said that staff wants the army or police to secure the building.

The TV building, like most of Libya, is secured by militias aligned with the government.

The channel's top managers declined to comment.

Two years after the country's civil war, Libya is struggling to build a national security force and reign in militias that were formed when rebels fought to oust the country's longtime dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, in 2011.

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Syria rebels seize security compound near Golan

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels on Sunday seized a Syrian military intelligence compound in the southern Hauran Plain near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, stepping up attacks in the strategic region which stretches to the outskirts of the capital Damascus, rebel commanders said.

The frontier, quiet since Israel and Syria agreed on a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in 1974, has turned volatile in recent weeks, after opposition brigades stepped up attacks against army and intelligence compounds dotting the agricultural plain stretching from the border with Jordan to the Damascus outskirts.

At least 70,000 people have been killed since a peaceful protest movement led by Syria's Sunni Muslim majority broke out two years ago against four decades of family rule by President Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to the minority Alawite sect, and his father, the late Hafez al-Assad.

The demonstrations were met by bullets, eventually sparking a Sunni backlash and a mostly Islamist armed insurgency increasingly spearheaded by the al Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front, creating a political dilemma for regional and Western powers and deepening the Shi'ite-Sunni divide in the Middle East.

The compound near the Yarmouk River in the town of Shagara, 8 km (5 miles) from a ceasefire line with Israel, fell after a five-day siege, the sources said.

"We have completely taken over this security compound this morning. It's a command center for the shabbiha (pro-Assad militia). They retreated after strong blows dealt to them during a five day siege," said Abu Iyas al-Haurani, a member of the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade.

"Anyone who was arrested in the Yarmouk Valley was sent to this military intelligence headquarters to be tortured and it has a strategic importance. With its fall we have completed our liberation of the town of Shagara," he added.

Another rebel commander said the aim of the attacks in western Hauran is to open a new front in the fight against Assad that would stretch troops deployed in Hauran, cradle of the two-year revolt, and to secure a supply route to the western and southern approaches of Damascus, where battles have been fierce.

Assad's elite forces, however, remain dug in at Qasioun Mountain in the center of Damascus.

DAMASCUS BATTLES

On Sunday battles broke out in the southern Damascus suburb of Sbeineh, a residential area on the main road leading south into Hauran after opposition fighters stormed a compound housing shabbiha militia, activists in the capital said.

Dozens of people were killed and wounded in the fighting and in ensuing army shelling in the town, they added.

Rebel brigades overran last week a missile squadron in Khan Sheihoun, a town southwest of Damascus on the road to the Golan, and seized an army barracks.

Further south, in the old center of Deraa, Hauran's main city, situated at the border with Jordan, rebels were trying to take the Omari mosque, scene of killings at a pro-democracy demonstration on March 18, 2011 that sparked the national revolt, but security forces positioned at a nearby post office were fighting back, activist Thaer al-Abdallah said from Deraa.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague interview with Sky News, said on Sunday that Britain has "taken no decision at the moment to send arms to anybody in Syria".

He said sending arms to the opposition had to be weighed against the risks of "international terrorism and extremism taking root in Syria, the risks of Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan being destabilized, and the risks of extreme humanitarian distress."

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi and Tim Castle; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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Analysis: Afghan security vacuum feared along "gateway to Kabul"

By Mirwais Harooni and Michael Georgy

MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The Afghan policeman manning a checkpoint glances at the snow-covered mountains that are home to Taliban fighters and predicts what would happen if elite U.S. forces leave Wardak province, seen as the gateway to the capital of Kabul.

"The Taliban will take over in one day," Mohammad Jamil says. "They are nearby."

Ever since President Hamid Karzai announced late last month that U.S. forces would be barred from the strategic province because of alleged abuses against civilians, Afghan forces who will be left to provide security without them have grown more anxious by the day.

Wardak, just a 40-minute drive from Kabul, is a prime example of what could happen in other parts of Afghanistan as the United States winds down an increasingly unpopular war, now in its 12th year.

U.S. special forces are expected to play a major role after most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014, and Karzai's decision could complicate negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan over the scope of U.S. operations after the pull-out.

"It's special forces who go usually on the front lines and fight with Taliban," said a second Afghan policeman, Mir Hussain. "If we make them leave this province than there won't be anybody to fight them. It's obvious that as soon as they leave our province the Taliban will return to power here."

Strategically located astride the Western approach to Kabul, Wardak is ideally placed for the insurgents who control nearby mountain villages to use as a staging ground for suicide operations into the city, home to nearly 5 million people and dozens of diplomatic missions.

Militants already carry out ambushes, shooting attacks and suicide bombings on American and Afghan forces there.

Fears that the departures of U.S. special forces will embolden the insurgents are heightened by the arrival of spring, which traditionally marks the start of Afghanistan's "fighting season" as the snow melts.

Earlier this week, two U.S. soldiers, reported to be special forces, were killed in an attack in the province.

LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP

Karzai ordered U.S. special forces to leave after residents complained that they, and Afghans working with them, were torturing and killing civilians, an allegation strongly denied by the Americans.

Even after the deadline for U.S. special forces to withdraw passed on Sunday, General Abdul Razaq, a senior police detective, told Reuters they were still in Wardak, a collection of mostly apple and apricot farms surrounded by mountains.

U.S. forces have refused to comment on their deployment.

Razaq said local officials had urged the Interior Ministry to provide strong support if the American forces leave, including artillery and reinforcements.

Some residents speak with hatred about the elite U.S. forces and believe allegations that they committed atrocities.

"Every day they kill our innocent people," said Abdul Ghafoor, 54, without offering any evidence to back the accusations, as his companions nodded in agreement.

But others seem far more worried about the security vacuum the province may face. Many remember how Wardak was the launching pad for the Taliban when they took over Kabul and much of the country in 1996.

They don't have to look far. Collapsed buildings, including one that served as a coordination center for security forces, are a potent reminder of the devastation wreaked by Taliban suicide bombings.

"A small number of people from Wardak province had complained to President Karzai about special forces but now they also know that their decision wasn't right," said Hameeda Akbari, a member of parliament from Wardak.

"They want to find a way to solve the problem and keep special forces for some more time. If special forces leave Wardak, the security situation will get worse."

KABUL RISK HEIGHTENS

Some fear the dangers could reach far beyond the provincial capital of Maidan Shahr, where Afghan policemen speed past a children's playground called Peace Park in jeeps mounted with machine guns.

"As soon as these forces leave this province not only Wardak, but even some parts of Kabul, will be occupied by Taliban and Kabul security will be in danger," said Haji Rokai, a tribal elder. "So I hope that the government takes a better decision and keep these forces here for longer period."

Afghan Army Chief of Staff Sher Mohammad Karimi recently told Reuters most of the suicide attacks in Kabul were planned just 25 km (15 miles) away in Wardak.

"It is one of our biggest concerns," he said.

Jittery Afghan forces have set up a multitude of checkpoints along Maidan Shahr's two paved roads. Intelligence agents, police and soldiers stop and question motorists travelling on potholed, dusty streets.

"We got a tip-off that the Taliban were sending a suicide bomber here today to carry out a mission," said an Afghan intelligence agent who checked vehicles.

LIVING IN FEAR

It is not only the Taliban who are waiting to attack. The al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, believed to be the United States' deadliest foe in Afghanistan, and other insurgent groups like Hizb-i-Islami, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, are also active.

In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, a truck bomb in Wardak wounded 77 American soldiers. A month earlier, the Taliban shot down a transport helicopter in Wardak, killing all 38 people on board, including 25 U.S. special forces.

The Taliban haven't lost their edge despite the presence of U.S. special forces and their intimidating Afghan partners, who ride off-road motorbikes and cover their faces with balaclavas and dark sunglasses.

Afghan security forces, already at a disadvantage because they lack training and equipment, could become less effective if the Americans leave.

"We have five PK light machine guns in our whole district, but the Taliban has more than five in a small checkpoint. So how can we fight with them or protect our people from their atrocities?" asked the policeman Jamil.

He recalls the consequences of a U.S. withdrawal from a nearby district, Sayedabad. "The Taliban captured that valley. Now it's a training camp for them where they learn how to attack Afghan and foreign forces."

Provincial officials are not taking any chances. Many of them refuse to spend the night in Wardak for fear of attacks by militants.

"It is a 15-minute drive from my office to my house but I cannot go there," said Esmatullah Asem, head of Maidan Shahr Hospital. "The last time I went home was two years ago. I live in Kabul."

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Alex Richardson)

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