[NYTr] Russia seeks emergency conference to discuss cold war arms pact Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 14:57:56 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Simon McGuinness Reuters via The Irish Times - May 29, 2007 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2007/0529/1180134074441.html Russia seeks to discuss cold war arms pact by Oleg Shchedrov in Moscow RUSSIA: Russia requested an emergency conference yesterday to discuss an arms control pact after accusing Nato nations of ignoring the deal negotiated in the months after the cold war ended. Last month, President Vladimir Putin froze Moscow's commitments under the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty and said Russia would quit if a Russia-Nato council failed to find a solution suitable to Moscow. "Russia, on May 28th, approached the Netherlands, the depositary of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, with a request to call an emergency conference on June 12th to 15th in Vienna," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement. The statement did not specify what Russia was planning to propose at the conference, but its move could further strain relations with the US already soured by a row over US plans to build a missile shield in eastern Europe. Moscow opposes the scheme to base 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic from 2012 to head off what Washington sees as a threat from Iran and North Korea. US President George W Bush will meet Mr Putin at the G8 summit of world leaders in Germany on June 6th to 8th and is due to visit the Czech Republic and Poland while he is in Europe. Mr Putin cited the US plan as the last straw which pushed him to freeze Moscow's CFE commitments.The CFE pact, signed in 1990 and updated in 1999, limits the number of battle tanks, heavy artillery, combat aircraft and attack helicopters deployed and stored between the Atlantic and Russia's Ural mountains. But after the Soviet Union collapsed and most of its Warsaw Pact allies became Nato members, the CFE treaty - still described by officials as a cornerstone of security in Europe - became a largely symbolic document. The Western partners refuse to ratify it until Russia pulls out bases from Georgia and Moldova, as it promised when the treaty was reviewed in 1999. Russia, which is in the process of pulling out of Georgia, says this issue is not part of the CFE and accuses the West of artificially linking the two issues. Moscow, unhappy about Nato's expansion eastwards, says US plans to open bases for several thousand soldiers in Romania and Bulgaria this year are in breach of the CFE. Nato officials insist the bases are not permanent installations and cannot be seen as a breach. "Russia considers that the exceptional circumstances which serve as grounds for calling the conference include the serious problems that have arisen in implementing the treaty by Nato countries as a result of the expansion of the alliance," the Russian foreign ministry added. Russian officials have expressed unhappiness with parts of the treaty requiring it to notify other signatories when it carries out redeployments of its forces inside its own borders. Some analysts say Russia's departure from the CFE could become a mirror step to match Washington's 2001 decision to quit the cold war Anti-Ballistic Missile pact with Moscow, which the US said prevented it from building a missile defence system. - (Reuters) C 2007 Reuters * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================ [NYTr] Venezuela sues CNN and Globovision Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 04:34:44 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Steven L. Robinson (activ-l)- may 29, 2007 Venezuela sues CNN and Globovision [The CNN angle of the story shows how "balanced" even the "liberal" US media is about Venezuela, The Globovision angle refutes the claim that Venezuelan media has been 'de-fanged.' How long do you think a US media network would remain on the air with a story like the one aired by Globovision? SR] AFP via DNAIndia - May 29, 2007 http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1099731 Venezuela sues CNN for linking Chavez to Al-Qaeda CARACAS: Venezuela has filed lawsuits against US cable network CNN for linking President Hugo Chavez to Al-Qaeda, and against a Venezuelan TV network for encouraging Chavez's assassination. The move comes one day after popular TV network RCTV went off the air after the Chavez government yanked its broadcast license. Information Minister William Lara showed at a press conference on Monday what he said was CNN footage displaying pictures of Chavez juxtaposed with those of an Al-Qaeda leader. CNN also aired a story about the Venezuelan protests, but used images taken in Mexico of an unrelated story, Lara said. "CNN broadcast a lie which linked President Chavez to violence and murder," Lara said. The government also sued Venezuelan network Globovision for what they said was indirectly encouraging Chavez's murder by airing footage of the 1981 assassination attempt on the late pope John Paul II. "In my view, this television network, in this specific part of its programming, committed the offence of incitement to assassination, against the Venezuelan head of state," Lara said. The charges come amid protests against Chavez's shutdown of RCTV, a privately-owned broadcaster of popular comedy and drama shows that was boldly critical of Chavez. After 54 years on the air, RCTV went black at midnight Sunday after the government refused to renew its license. It was promptly replaced by TVes, a state-backed 'socialist' station which began broadcasting cultural shows. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . 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