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Kate in labour but the waiting continues

The world has been waiting for weeks for the Duchess of Cambridge to give birth so perhaps it wasn't surprising that even after going into labour and being admitted to St Mary's Hospital in London Kate wasn't about to be rushed. Royal watchers around the world were sent into a frenzy on Monday morning UK time when Kensington Palace announced the Duchess had finally entered labour. But that just meant the first phase of what the British press have dubbed The Great Kate Wait was over. Well-wishers were quick to gather outside the Lindo Wing and Buckingham Palace but then slowly realised it could still be many hours - and possibly even days - before they heard further news. Advertisement When asked to explain why they have come to wait for the Duchess of Cambridge to give birth, people generally give one of two answers. Either they are in love with Kate and her husband Prince William - the "modern royals" - or they simply want to be part of history. The first hint the Duchess has actually given birth will come when a royal aide emerges from the hospital with a signed bulletin carrying the Buckingham Palace letterhead. It will be driven to the palace and posted on an easel in public view. In front of the palace gates on Monday afternoon sisters Sue and Pauline, on holiday from New Zealand and Australia respectively, were clad in their national flags on Monday afternoon. "My sister always thought it was going to be born on Monday so we were ready to come down," Sue told AAP. "We're happy to stay here and we're hoping to see the easel. Hopefully it's not after midnight (9am Sydney time) though. I don't think it can be too far away now. She went in at 6am didn't she?" Across town at the Lindo, New Zealander Evelyn Clarke said the world had gone royal baby crazy principally because Kate was so great. But by early Monday afternoon her commitment to stick it out in the sun was wavering. The UK is officially in the grip of a heatwave. "I reckon I've just about had it," Ms Clarke, camera in hand, told AAP. "Everyone is quite tense with the anxiety of waiting for something to happen. "Everyone wants to be there at the right moment." The Duchess has said she wants a natural birth and a few hours after arriving at St Mary's a Kensington Palace spokesman said things were "progressing as normal". There have been no updates since. William took annual leave last week to be with his wife but is now on two weeks' paternity leave from his job as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot. The Duke and Duchess are expected to pose for the first photographs with the royal baby on the steps outside the Lindo Wing. It will be reminiscent of the scene three decades ago when Princess Diana stood holding the infant Duke alongside husband Prince Charles. The Prince of Wales, who will become a grandfather for the first time when Kate's baby is born, was quizzed about the birth on Monday. But he insisted he, just like everyone else, knew "absolutely nothing". "We're waiting," Prince Charles said. The Queen has been informed Kate's in labour. She returned to Buckingham Palace on Monday afternoon after spending the weekend at Windsor Castle. British Prime Minister David Cameron wished the royal couple well saying "the whole country is excited with them". The Duchess is being tended by a top medical team led by the Queen's gynaecologist Marcus Setchell. Assisting him is Alan Farthing who is gynaecologist to the royal household. Carly Gargett, 31, an event manager from Sydney who lives in London, visited the hospital on her way to work. But she admitted on Monday: "I don't think I'll be doing a lot of work today." "I have the royal baby cam live feed to my phone - I am so excited," the Australian said. Terry Hutt, 78, has become semi-famous after camping outside the Lindo Wing for 12 days dressed in a Union Jack suit. He's slept on a park bench opposition St Mary's while the public and police have supplied him with sandwiches. But 12 hours after Kate was admitted to the hospital Mr Hutt was down to Union Jack board shirts and T-shirt. Like the world's media gathered in Paddington one of his most pressing problems was finding a power-point in the nearby Starbucks to recharge his mobile. "I think my wife has called," he said. The 78-year-old was in his makeshift bed on Monday morning when Kate and her husband arrived at the hospital around 6am. He was subsequently woken by "thunder and lightning" - although there was no rain - and then heard the news. "From heaven they let us know," he told AAP. Back on earth the world continues to watch as The Great Kate Wait continues.

ADDYNAMO

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addynamo

Syria: US chemical weapons charges 'full of lies'

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government on Friday dismissed U.S. charges that it used chemical weapons as "full of lies," accusing President Barack Obama of resorting to fabrications to justify his decision to arm Syrian rebels. The commander of the main rebel umbrella group welcomed the U.S. move, saying it would lift his fighters' morale.

The U.S. decision to begin arming the rebels, though details have not been completed, marks a deepening of U.S. involvement in Syria's two-year civil war. It comes as President Bashar Assad's forces have been scoring victories, driving rebels out of a key town near the Lebanese border and launching offensives in the center and north, targeting Aleppo, the nation's largest city.
U.S. officials said the administration could provide the rebel fighters with a range of weapons, including small arms, ammunition, assault rifles and a variety of anti-tank weaponry such as shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades and other missiles. However, no final decisions have been made on the type of weaponry or when it would reach the rebels, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss internal administration discussions with reporters.
In addition to the increased military aid, the U.S. also announced Thursday it had conclusive evidence that Assad's regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against opposition forces. The White House said multiple chemical attacks last year killed up to 150 people.
Obama has said the use of chemical weapons cross a "red line," triggering greater U.S involvement in the crisis.
"The White House has issued a statement full of lies about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, based on fabricated information," a statement issued Friday by the Syrian Foreign Ministry said. "The United States is using cheap tactics to justify President Barack Obama's decision to arm the Syrian opposition," it said.
The statement also accused the U.S. of "double standards," saying America claims to combat terrorism while providing support for "terrorist" groups in Syria, such as Jabhat al-Nusra, with arms and money. The group, also known as the Nusra Front, is an al-Qaida affiliate that has emerged as one of the most effective rebel factions in Syria.
The commander of the main Western-backed rebel group fighting in Syria said he hoped that U.S. weapons will be in the hands of rebels in the near future, noting it would boost the spirits of the fighters on the ground.
"We hope to have the weapons and ammunition that we need in the near future," Gen. Salim Idris told Al-Arabiya TV.
"This will surely reflect positively on the rebels' morale, which is high despite attempts by the regime, Hezbollah and Iran to show that their morale after the fall of Qusair deteriorated," he said, referring to the town near the border with Lebanon.
Loay AlMikdad, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army, said Idris will be meeting with international players in the coming days, starting Saturday, to work out the details of what is to be delivered and how.
"We encourage them to take a decision in this relation, by establishing a no-fly zone either all over Syria or areas they choose based on their technical or military considerations on the ground," he said, to ensure safe areas for civilians.
"We hope they start arming immediately. Any delay costs blood of Syrians. It is not water, it is blood of the Syrians, women and children and its future."
AlMikdad said the rebels have asked for shoulder propelled rockets, thermal anti-tank missiles, anti-aircrafts missiles, surface to surface missiles and armored vehicles.
Assad's forces, aided by fighters from Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah, captured Qusair on June 5, dealing a heavy blow to rebels who had been entrenched in the strategic town for over a year.
Since then, the regime has shifted its attention to recapture other areas in the central Homs province and Aleppo to the north.
The regime's advances have added urgency to U.S. discussions on whether to provide the rebels with weapons.
The decision came a day after the United Nations said nearly 93,000 people have been confirmed dead in Syria's civil war, but the actual number is believed to be much higher.
Russia, a staunch ally of Assad, on Friday disputed the U.S. charge that Syria used chemical weapons against the rebels.
President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that the information provided by U.S. officials to Russia "didn't look convincing."
Asked if Russia could retaliate to the U.S. move to supply weapons to the Syrian rebels by delivering the S-300 air defense missile systems to the regime, Ushakov said "there is no talk about it yet."
"We aren't competing over Syria, we are trying to settle the issue in a constructive way," he said.
Alexey Pushkov, chairman of Russia's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, wrote on his Twitter account Friday that "the data on Assad's use of chemical weapons were faked in the same place as the lie about (Saddam) Hussein's weapons of mass destruction," referring to the deposed Iraqi dictator.
"Obama is going down the route of G. Bush," he added, in reference to former President George W. Bush's assertion — never proven, but used to justify the invasion of Iraq — that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
The Russian comments were echoed by a lawmaker in Damascus.
"This reminds us of what America did in the prelude to the invasion of Iraq by releasing fabrications and lies to the international community that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," said Issam Khalil, a member of Assad's Baath party.
Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said Obama was planning to step up military assistance to Syrian rebels.
Ushakov warned that providing such assistance could derail efforts to convene a Syria peace conference. The main opposition coalition has already said it would not attend, all but scuttling the initiative.
In Friday's violence, Syrian troops and rebels fought some of the heaviest battles in months in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, activists said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes were concentrated in the city's eastern rebel-held neighborhood of Sakhour, calling the fighting "the most violent in months." It said regime troops attacked the neighborhood from two directions but failed to advance, suffering casualties.
The fight for Aleppo, a city of 3 million that was once a bastion of support for Assad, is critical for both the regime and the opposition. If it were to fall completely into opposition hands, the rebels would score a major victory and acquire a stronghold in the north near the Turkish border. A rebel defeat would buy Assad more time, at the very least, and even possibly turn the tide of the civil war against the opposition

First the military, now the diplomacy

Pyongyang has agreed to hold official talks with Seoul over the re-opening of a joint industrial zone. North Korea expert Eric Ballbach believes the communist regime has good reasons for making this move now.

DW: The industrial park Kaesong has been closed for over two months now. Now Pyongyang has offered talks with Seoul about opening the park back up. Was this a surprising gesture?
Eric Ballbach: I wasn't surprised by it. A long-term closure does not seem likely. For one, it is a profitable project for both North and South Korea, though for the South, it does not make that much of a difference compared to the rest of its foreign trade. But there are over 120 small and medium-sized South Korean companies that produce their products there.
Economic growth will legitimize the North Korean government's power. They started out by placing emphasis on building up their military and have achieved this with their latest rocket launch and nuclear test, which also got the military behind the new leadership. Nonetheless, it is surely the case that it is even more important for Kim Jong Un and his leadership to develop the economy than it was for his father and grandfather before him. So that needs to be taken into account regarding the recent developments, i.e. the visit to China, talks with Japan, and now these positive signs being sent to South Korea.
I think there are basically two political styles in North Korea. The one focuses on autonomy - the one we have seen of late. And now the leadership is switching over to an influence-maximizing kind of politics. North Korea wants to have some say in its own development and will most likely now focus on economic issues.
How harmful has the closure of Kaesong been to North Korea's economy?
Comprehensive cooperation with the South is a real dilemma for the North. There has always been the risk that this could destabilize the regime. Since 2008 / 2009 and especially after the sinking of the South Korean corvette "Cheonan" in 2010, one could see that economic trans-Korean cooperation outside of Kaesong decreased. North Korea has been able to compensate for that by strengthening ties with China. For Pyongyang that is less of a danger, but it will not be enough on its own. As long as the regime does not see Kaesong as a danger to the regime, it will surely continue to exist.
For the South Koreans, Kaesong is a special organizational structure, because there are a number of different parties involved. Hyundai is a large investor, there are the 123 firms including insurance companies. Different interests have developed from these different kinds of companies, which put pressure on the government to resume production as soon as possible. So when it comes to Kaesong, two complementary strategies - North and South - come together.
Is it clear how much money has been lost since the closure of Kaesong?
That is not really clear because it is not certain whether the companies at Kaesong have had to continue paying rent for the facilities during the last two months or not. The information on that varies. The loss has certainly been noticeable. But for North Korea, the 53,000 unemployed people are more important than the financial loss. Many North Koreans were employed by the South Korean companies at the industrial park, some of them were brought from far away to work at Kaesong. Initially that was a precarious issue for Pyongyang: How does a region which has weak structures in place to begin with, deal with 53,000 suddenly unemployed people? It is a dangerous situation and I think that the regime saw it as a bigger threat than continued cooperation with the South.
In addition to economic issues, it is said the talks will also be about resuming family gatherings between North and South Koreans, something that has been put on hold for the past five years.
Exactly. That was the surprising bit. But it is obvious that the North wants to win back some support from the South. And the humanitarian aspect is something that North Korea's new leadership under President Park Geun-hye has been emphasizing. Park announced an idea to separate humanitarian from political issues; to give humanitarian aid, even if political security issues remain uncertain.
That is the biggest difference compared to the previous administration under Lee Myung-bak, which put the nuclear issue ahead of humanitarian ones. But now the question will surely be to what extent Seoul will insist on an apology for the sinking of the "Cheonan" and the shelling of the South Korean island Yeonpyeong at the end of 2010. The question how South Korea wants to define itself will also be pivotal. Will it see itself as a party that can play a key role in solving the nuclear issue and accordingly place this above trans-Korean ties?
If this were the case, it would also be difficult because Pyongyang sees the issue as a bilateral issue with the US and only allows Seoul a limited amount of influence. So that will be another important question: whether and to what extent the new South Korean administration will be willing to promote North-South ties should Pyongyang not agree to a complete denuclearization. And I think it is improbable that North Korea will completely scrap its nuclear program. If it did, it would be putting an end to Kim Jong Il's "historic legacy."

Britain to pay for colonial-era torture, denies liability

(Reuters) - Britain expressed regret on Thursday for the abuse of Kenyans by colonial forces during the 1950s Mau Mau insurgency and announced compensation for 5,228 survivors, but stopped short of apologizing.
The deal, settled out of court after three elderly Kenyan torture victims won the right in October to sue the British government, could encourage people in other former colonies to press claims over grievances dating back to the days of Empire.
"The British government recognizes that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration," Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament.
"The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place."
The 5,228 claimants are due to receive 13.9 million pounds ($21.4 million), about 2,600 pounds each, or about 340,000 Kenyan shillings in a country where average annual income is some 70,000 shillings.
Lawyers representing the veterans will separately receive six million pounds in fees for years of work on the case.
London will also pay for a new memorial in Nairobi to the victims of torture and ill-treatment during the colonial era.
A British diplomat said Hague stopped short of offering a formal apology because that could be interpreted as the government accepting responsibility, which would have had legal implications.
Mau Mau veterans danced, prayed and ululated to celebrate news of the agreement at an event in Nairobi.
"This is confirmation we were freedom fighters and not terrorists. We have been waiting a long time to hear the British say 'what we did in Kenya was wrong'," said Gitu Wa Kahengeri, secretary general of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association.
He said the compensation was "not enough" but the veterans accepted the offer as they feared Britain could prolong the court battle for years, by which point it would be too late because some of the elderly men and women could be dead.
"Where will we be in 30 years?" Kahengeri asked around 100 veterans gathered in Nairobi. "A bird in the hand is better than 10 in the bush."
"NOT A PRECEDENT"
The so-called Kenyan Emergency of 1952-1961 was one of the most violent episodes of British colonial rule in Africa.
Mau Mau rebels fighting for land and an end to British domination attacked British targets, causing panic among white settlers and alarming the government in London.
Tens of thousands of rebels were killed by colonial forces and their Kenyan allies, while an estimated 150,000 people, many of them unconnected to the Mau Mau, were detained in camps.
The compensation package is likely to be examined closely by others who complain of human rights abuses during British colonial times, although Hague said he believed it would not give extra force to their claims.
"We do not believe that this settlement establishes a precedent in relation to any other former colonial administration," he said.
Claims concerning the conduct of the British in Malaysia and Cyprus have already emerged, and diplomats said they expected more to come, which would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
The three Kenyans who took the British government to court were all survivors of the Emergency detention camps.
The British government tried for three years to block the legal action by Paulo Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara, now in their 70s and 80s, but the High Court ruled in October that they had the right to sue for damages.
Nzili was castrated while in detention, Nyingi suffered severe beatings during the nine years for which he was held without charge, and Mara suffered sexual abuse including rape using a soda bottle full of boiling water.
"This is a story of a massive cover-up and 50 years later justice being done. I don't know if there will be another case like this," said Harvard professor Caroline Elkins, whose book 'Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya' served as the basis for the case.
In 2008, The Times newspaper reported that U.S. President Barack Obama's Kenyan grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, had been imprisoned and tortured by the British during the Mau Mau uprising. It quoted his wife, Sarah Onyango, as saying he was whipped every day.
The report fueled speculation that Obama might have a cool relationship with Britain because of this, although a later biography of the president cast doubt on the account.
(Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Nairobi; editing by James Macharia and Andrew Roche)