'Robust' UN Security Council steps needed on Gaza: lawyers

GENEVA — The International Commission of Jurists on Thursday urged the UN Security Council to take "robust" steps to ensure that human rights violations during the Israeli military offensive on Gaza are prosecuted.

The ICJ, a campaign group for judges and lawyers, said its call referred to rights violations and breaches of International Humanitarian Law by both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, in 2008/2009.

"The Security Council must take concrete and robust measures to ensure accountability for the perpetrators and justice for victims, and to this end consider the options at its disposal to break the cycle of impunity prevalent in this conflict, including by referring the situation in Gaza to the International Criminal Court," said ICJ Secretary General Wilder Tayler.

UN experts said Tuesday that Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas failed to carry out credible and adequate probes into claims of war crimes committed during the conflict in Gaza nearly two years ago.

The experts' mission was set up after a UN-mandated report by South African judge Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and Palestinian groups of war crimes during the three-week conflict which erupted in late December 2008.

Goldstone had asked for a follow-up to ensure both sides held "credible" investigations.

The ICJ argued in a statement that Israeli investigations had failed to meet international standards of "effectiveness, independence and impartiality".

The Hamas administration in Gaza has also failed to show that it was investigating violations committed by Palestinian armed groups in December 2008 to January 2009, it added.

Tayler said the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, which set up the probes "must therefore assess these domestic proceedings and report accordingly to the UN General Assembly and Security Council."

The UN experts are due to present their findings to the council on Monday.

Iranian, Algerian presidents meet for talks in Algiers

ALGIERS — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held two hours of talks with his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika Saturday during a stopover in Algiers on route to New York for the UN General Assembly.

Ahmadinejad received full military honours on his arrival at Algiers airport, where he was received by Bouteflika, an AFP photographer at the scene noted.

The Algerian leader was accompanied by Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci.

The two leaders held two hours of talks at the airport's VIP section.

According to the Algerian news agency APS, Bouteflika was accompanied by Ouyahia, Medelci and the speaker of parliament Abdelaziz Ziari; with Ahmadinejad was Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

Following the talks, Ahmadinejad described relations between the two countries as "very good and in full development."

The two leaders have met several times in the past including Ahmadinejad's state visit to Algeria in January 2009.

Algerian press reports suggested that Algeria's ambassador to Tehran has had talks with Iran's Trade Minister Mehdi Qazanfari about developing trade -- and even a free trade accord -- between the two countries.

Iran is currently suffering under the international, UN-approved economic sanctions imposed on it because of its nuclear power programme, which critics fear could have a military component.

Ahmadinejad flew into Algiers from Syria's Damascus airport, where he had had a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad.

He is due in New York where from Monday to Wednesday and he is to attend the UN General Assembly, a forum he has used in past years to blast arch-foe Israel.

Castro says misinterpreted on Cuban model not working

HAVANA — Former Cuban president Fidel Castro said Friday he was misinterpreted when a US reporter quoted him as saying the "Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more."

Castro, who left the presidency in 2006, recently gave a rare three-day interview with a reporter from The Atlantic magazine and a Cuba expert from the US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

According to The Atlantic, which published its account on Wednesday, the 84-year-old Cuban revolutionary icon joked about the state of the Cuban economy.

Castro said he made the statement "without anger or worry. Now I'm amused to see how (the Atlantic reporter) interpreted it literally" in consultation with a CFR expert.

My answer, Castro said, "meant exactly the opposite" of what the reporter wrote, Castro said, speaking at an event presenting the second volume of his autobiography.

Castro said he was clear about Goldberg's intention when he asked if the Cuban model was still worth exporting: "It's obvious that implicit in the question was the theory that Cuba was exporting the revolution."

In Washington, CFR expert Julia Sweig, who was present at the interview, told AFP on Friday that she had a different take on Castro's quote.

Castro "wasn't joking and when I heard him saying that, I took him to mean the economic model doesn't work anymore, not the revolution, not the socialist ethos, not the independence spirit, not you know, the revolution, just the model," said Sweig.

When Castro "said the 'Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore' he was almost making reference to that kind of 'fetishized' Cuban model. 'Oh, that doesn't even work for us anymore,'" Sweig said.

Cuba's feeble economy is currently propped up by subsidized oil from ally Venezuela. The government has launched minor reforms but no major structural change in an economy overwhelmingly controlled by the state.

Castro Friday did not explain exactly what he meant by his equivocal phrase, but stressed it was the capitalist system that was not working.

"My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system no longer works neither for the United States or the rest of the world; it leads to one crisis after another, ever worsening, global in scope... and inescapable.

"How could such a system work for a socialist country like Cuba?"

Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg invited Sweig to sit in on the rare interview in Havana.

The former Cuban president and head of the ruling Communist Party "was in real good shape," said Sweig. "He's obviously older and has experienced a number of physical illnesses, but you know, he's eating, talking, his conversation is witty, interested and I'd say he was 1,000 percent there."

Fidel Castro ceded the presidency to his brother Raul in 2006 after a serious stomach illness. He met with Goldberg and Sweig about two weeks ago and spoke about Israel, Iran, tension in the Middle East, and -- as happens with Castro -- a myriad of other issues.

"We were talking about a lot of things, but you know, Fidel Castro is not running Cuba foreign policy right now," Sweig said, though he "weighs in as a public figure, a senior statesmen."