Arctic states open council to China, India, Korea

KIRUNA, Sweden (AP) — Arctic states have agreed to let nations that are located nowhere near the Earth's north to become observers to their diplomatic council.

The decision Wednesday by the Arctic Council boosts rising superpowers China, India and South Korea that seek to mine the region of its untapped energy and other natural resources. The European Union also was tentatively granted observer status to the eight-state council but must first address several questions about its bid, including concerns about its ban on Canadian seal exports.

Membership to the long-obscure Arctic Council has become increasingly lucrative as the thawing region's waterways open to commercial shipping traffic.

Officials estimate the Arctic holds 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil reserves, and 30 percent of undiscovered gas deposits.

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Yemen protesters set up transitional council (Reuters)

SANAA (Reuters) – Yemeni protesters formed a transitional council of opposition figures on Saturday to lead efforts to try to force President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power.

Youth groups, which have been at the forefront of more than five months of protests against Saleh's three decade rule, told a news conference that the 17 member council would include former Yemeni President Ali Nasser Mohammed and leaders of several opposition groups, including exiles.

They named General Abdullah Ali Aleiwa, a former defense minister, as their choice for armed forces commander.

An official from an anti-Saleh coalition of mainstream opposition parties, said the Joint Meeting would not support the new council. The coalition has also called for a transitional body.

"This council does not reflect (the views) of the Joint Meeting, because we have a different plan. It only represents those who set it up," Hamid Assim, deputy secretary-general of an Arab nationalist opposition party, told Reuters.

Saleh, who is in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment following an assassination attempt in June, has backed out three times from a Gulf-brokered plan to ease him from power.

Saudi Arabia, a conservative Muslim absolute monarchy, does not want to see people power bring political change on its borders. It has long been Saleh's main financial backer, and Saleh may not stand down until Riyadh demands it.

Separately, a Yemeni deputy minister said on Saturday that the United Arab Emirates had pledged 3 million barrels of oil to Yemen, which faces a fuel crisis due to attacks on a pipeline during the widespread political unrest.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; writing by Firouz Sedarat; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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U.N. council approves Ethiopian troops for Abyei (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously approved a U.S.-drafted resolution authorizing deployment of 4,200 Ethiopian troops to Sudan's disputed Abyei region for a six-month period.

The resolution establishes a new U.N. peacekeeping force, called the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, or UNISFA. Its adoption comes a week after north and south Sudan signed a deal in Addis Ababa to demilitarize Abyei and let Ethiopian troops monitor the peace.

Although the resolution gives UNISFA the authority to use force in self-defense and to protect civilians and humanitarian aid, it does not call for UNISFA troops to monitor compliance with human rights laws, as most peacekeeping forces do.

Instead, the resolution "requests the Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) to ensure that effective human rights monitoring is carried out" and report the results to the council.

It was not immediately clear how long it would take the Ethiopians to deploy to Abyei, a region straddling the north and south that some believe may have some oil reserves. Council diplomats said they hoped the deployment would be swift.

The resolution said the 15-nation council was "deeply concerned by the current situation in the Abyei Area, and by all acts of violence committed against civilians in violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law including the killing and displacement of ... civilians."

South Sudan is due to secede from the north to form a new nation on July 9. But the north and south have yet to agree on who possesses Abyei, stirring fears a long-running quarrel over the region could sour the secession and could spark a broader conflict.

In a power play ahead of the split, Khartoum sent tanks and troops into Abyei on May 21, outraging the south, human rights groups and regional and global powers who called it a violation of the 2005 deal that ended Sudan's long civil war.

The move followed an attack on a convoy of northern troops and U.N. peacekeepers which the north blamed on the south and which the U.N. said was likely to have been carried out by southern police or soldiers.

As Khartoum moved in, tens of thousands of villagers fled south in a panicked exodus to escape looting and burning.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Will Dunham)

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U.N. Security Council to meet on Syria

United Nations (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council is planning to tackle the Syrian crisis on Wednesday, an effort to grapple with nearly three months of anti-government demonstrations and a brutal regime crackdown against the protesters.

The 15-member body will be briefed by a U.N. official on the subject and huddle over a new proposed resolution on the situation in the country.

A recent French-British resolution failed to please Russia, one of the permanent members of the council, and some other members. As a result, diplomats have tweaked the resolution language to make the measure palatable to Russia and all members.

It was not clear precisely when a vote on the resolution would happen, though Britain and France have said they would like it to take place by Friday.

A resolution would fail if one of the five permanent members vetoes it.

While vetoes by Russia and China appear possible, council members hope to get as much support possible for a resolution. The idea is to get a lot of support and highlight the opposition of those few countries that vote down the measure.

The permanent members are the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China.

The Security Council has been criticized for failing to act to stem the violence in Syria as it did in Libya. But it wants to avoid pursuing military action as it had in Libya.

The new draft differs from the council's resolution on Libya, which endorsed force by calling for "all necessary measures" to protect civilians under threat of attack by Moammar Gadhafi's government.

"Britain has circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the repression in Syria and calling for the Syrian Government to meet their people's legitimate demands, release all prisoners of conscience, lift restrictions on the media and Internet and co-operate with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights," Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Hague said Britain is "working to persuade other countries that the Security Council has a responsibility to speak out. He said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "is losing legitimacy and should reform or step aside."

U.N. officials have expressed alarm over reports of torture, the use of live ammunition and shelling casualties across the country. Officials lately have focused on reports that children have been killed in the mayhem, which has resulted in more than 1,000 deaths.

Groups such as Amnesty International have urged the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. A group of Syrian and international activists have visited the ICC at The Hague and supplied evidence of what they say are crimes against humanity by government forces.

The discord across the country has spurred the flight of some Syrians away from their towns and to other countries, such as Lebanon and Turkey.

Refugees from the Syrian border town of Jisr Al-Shugur say tens of thousands of residents have fled the town over the last week, after bloody fighting erupted resulting in the deaths of scores of people.

About 100 Syrians clustered near a border fence with Turkey on Wednesday. Hours before, Turkish authorities allowed around 120 Syrian refugees to cross into Turkish territory near the village of Karbeyaz.

In the past, the Turkish government has made a show of evacuating civilian victims of violence in Iraq and Libya.

But Ankara has taken a different approach with dozens of wounded civilians fleeing Syria.

Turkey fears a repeat of the enormous Kurdish refugee exodus from northern Iraq in 1991, and the country has spent the last decade promoting cozy relations and lucrative economic ties with Syria's al-Assad.

Over the last month, the government of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan began calling for reform in Damascus in a bid to curb the escalating violence.

"It is out of question that we close the border at this point. The developments in Syria are saddening. We are watching in worry," Erdogan said on Wednesday, according to the semi-official Anatolian Agency.

"We hope that Syria changes its attitude towards the civilians to a more tolerant one and realize its steps for reform in a more convincing way for the civilians," said Erdogan, who has been campaigning ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections.

CNN's Joe Vaccarello and Ivan Watson contributed to this report

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Council 'gets Twitter data' after court battle (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – An English local authority said it had forced Twitter to hand over users' details after it took the US microblogging site to court in California, in what is believed the first case of its kind in Britain.

South Tyneside Council, in northeast England, took the legal action in a bid to discover the identity of a blogger, known as "My Monkey", behind allegedly libellous statements against councillors.

"Twitter have released information to our lawyers and this is currently being analysed by technical experts," council spokesman Paul Robinson told AFP.

Details were handed over after the council took Twitter to court in California, where the site is based.

Commentators said the ruling could have implications for the case of footballer Ryan Giggs, whose lawyers have demanded in the British courts that Twitter reveal which users named him over an alleged affair in defiance of a court order.

Ahmed Khan, a South Tyneside councillor, said Twitter had informed him that it was giving his details to the local authority and blasted the situation as "Orwellian."

The website handed over details he had submitted when he signed up for the service, including IP identities, mobile phone numbers and email addresses, he said.

Khan said he believed the council has been given the details of five Twitter accounts, two of which are his.

He denied he was the blogger behind the "Mr Monkey" site: "I'm the kind of person who will tell you face-to-face what I think. I have no need to use an anonymous blog."

Media lawyer Mark Stephens said he believed the case was the first of its kind.

"I am unaware of any other occasion where somebody from this country has actually gone to America and launched proceedings in a Californian court to force Twitter to release the identities of individuals," he told the BBC.

"The implications are that people who have had their name released can actually now go to California and begin proceedings."

MP John Hemming last week outed Giggs as the sportsman who had won an injunction to stop British media reporting his alleged extramarital affair, publicly naming him using a right to freedom of speech in the House of Commons.

Liberal Democrat Hemming argued that the injunction was no longer practical after tens of thousands of people had named the Manchester United star on Twitter.

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Council 'gets Twitter data' after court battle (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – An English local authority said it had forced Twitter to hand over users' details after it took the US microblogging site to court in California, in what is believed the first case of its kind in Britain.

South Tyneside Council, in northeast England, took the legal action in a bid to discover the identity of a blogger, known as "My Monkey", behind allegedly libellous statements against councillors.

"Twitter have released information to our lawyers and this is currently being analysed by technical experts," council spokesman Paul Robinson told AFP.

Details were handed over after the council took Twitter to court in California, where the site is based.

Commentators said the ruling could have implications for the case of footballer Ryan Giggs, whose lawyers have demanded in the British courts that Twitter reveal which users named him over an alleged affair in defiance of a court order.

Ahmed Khan, a South Tyneside councillor, said Twitter had informed him that it was giving his details to the local authority and blasted the situation as "Orwellian."

The website handed over details he had submitted when he signed up for the service, including IP identities, mobile phone numbers and email addresses, he said.

Khan said he believed the council has been given the details of five Twitter accounts, two of which are his.

He denied he was the blogger behind the "Mr Monkey" site: "I'm the kind of person who will tell you face-to-face what I think. I have no need to use an anonymous blog."

Media lawyer Mark Stephens said he believed the case was the first of its kind.

"I am unaware of any other occasion where somebody from this country has actually gone to America and launched proceedings in a Californian court to force Twitter to release the identities of individuals," he told the BBC.

"The implications are that people who have had their name released can actually now go to California and begin proceedings."

MP John Hemming last week outed Giggs as the sportsman who had won an injunction to stop British media reporting his alleged extramarital affair, publicly naming him using a right to freedom of speech in the House of Commons.

Liberal Democrat Hemming argued that the injunction was no longer practical after tens of thousands of people had named the Manchester United star on Twitter.

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Jordan recognizes Libya interim council

Libyan Muslims perform their evening prayer Tuesday at Revolution Square in Benghazi.Amman will send a permanent envoy to the rebel-held city of BenghaziJordan's foreign minister gave the news in a call to council's executive committee chiefItaly, France and Qatar also recognize the interim council as Libyans' representative

(CNN) -- Jordan considers Libya's Interim National Council to be the legitimate representative of the Libyan people and will send a permanent envoy to the rebel-held city of Benghazi, Jordan's foreign minister said Tuesday, according to the state-run news agency Petra.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh imparted the news in a telephone conversation with the head of the interim council's executive committee and its foreign policy point man, Mahmoud Jibril, Petra said.

"The minister hailed the council's actions and 'responsible' positions, which he said reflected the Libyan people's demands, ambitions and hopes for a new era of freedom, independence and unity, adding that the council's positions and statements are consolidating its standing internally and in the world," Petra said.

Judeh said the permanent envoy in Benghazi would work to "better coordinate with the council" and ensure the continued safe flow of Jordanian aid and medical supplies to Libyans.

Jordan joins only a few countries, including France, Italy and Qatar, that have recognized Libya's interim council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.

CNN's Caroline Faraj contributed to this story.

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