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UN EXPERTS INVESTIGATING purported poison gas attacks left their Damascus hotel today, but anti-regime activists said the team’s destination was not immediately known.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the team would be leaving Syria on Saturday.
The inspectors spent two days this week taking biological samples and interviewing survivors in the suburbs of Damascus where Syrian activists say hundreds were killed in the August 21 attacks.
Sky News reports that the Syrian government has written a letter to British MPs, urging them not to be ‘reckless’.
Commons will debate the Syrian issue this afternoon.
USA
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama said that he has concluded the Syrian regime is behind the attack. But it is not clear if the Western powers will wait for the UN experts’ findings before launching a possible punitive military strike.
Speaking in Vienna today, Ban asked for time for the inspection team to complete its investigation, including a scientific analysis of the samples after they leave Syria. All opinions should be heard before decisions are made on a possible response, he said.
The US has signaled it would act even without backing from its allies or the UN.
Britain
Activists block Whitehall near the junction with Downing Street during an event organised by Stop the War Coalition to protest against potential UK involvement in the Syrian conflict in London. Pic: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire
Britain’s opposition Labour Party has indicated it may not support even a watered down version of a government resolution on Syria.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said today he is unwilling to give Prime Minister David Cameron a “blank cheque” for conducting possible future military operations against Syria.
He had earlier forced Cameron to back down on calls for an immediate strike in order to assess UN inspectors’ evidence about a possible Syrian government chemical attack on its own people.
Labour’s position leaves the results of a parliamentary vote expected late today in doubt. If approved, the measure would authorize possible strikes in principle but would require a second vote after the UN report.
The government says it plans to publish its legal advice on a possible attack today.
France
Syrian refugee boys play soccer at Zaatari Syrian refugee camp, in Mafraq, Jordan. Pic: AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon
A French defence spokesman said the French military is ready to commit forces to an operation in Syria if President Francois Hollande decides to do so.
French Defense Ministry spokesman Pierre Bayle told reporters today that “the French armed forces have put themselves at the ready to respond to the instructions of the president if he takes the decision to commit French forces” to an international intervention in Syria’s civil war.
While Hollande has spoken out strongly against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, today he stressed the importance of a political solution and making the Syrian opposition a stronger and more viable alternative.
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Where are the pro-life brigade? Why don’t they stand at airports with signs and images of rape to protect the victims of sex trafficking? Wouldn’t that be a better use of their energy and time?
@Donnachaín Ní Uallacháin: most of them were a victim already in their own countries and by the way would any of them able to read the signs?
Does the fact that more trafficked people are being identified not mean the system is getting better at finding them?? Or am I missing something?
@Lurfic: no it means that the government pathetic way to stop trafficking by punishing the buyer clearly isn’t working and is driving it further underground making it more dangerous for those involved.
@Nucky: So Nucky is saying we should punish the trafficked.
@Lurfic: No you are not missing anything nor do The IMI ever miss an opportunity to criticise a chance to slag off Ireland nor do they miss a chance to collect the funding we give them.
The ICI are against legalised prostitution which would reduce the number of trafficking so I don’t see why they are saying that more needs to be done. They are a government funded organisation so putting out these statements are routine regardless of statistics.
@Dj: the anti trafficking legislation is woefully inadequate and as part of the ff pd’s programme for government was supposed to be brought in line with what they have in the uk. However, it was never implementedand still haven’t been implemented.
The sex trade being kept illegal and swept under the carpet by an alliance of feminists and the Christian Taliban of course has nothing to do with giving gangsters ever more control of things…
Seems to me the only way to bring this to the surface is to.male it legal and tax it, like certain drugs, sometimes if you stop fighting it by embracing it will sort out a major part of the problem,
@Mick Hannigan: Except that these women – and they are mostly wome- have no right to work here,….they are immigrants- so it is kept underground no matter what legislation we bring in..
@EvieXVI: if you legalised it, the buyers would likely use legal sources meaning there will no longer be profit in trafficking people here for Sex. Help the men and women involved now, yes absolutely. But also concentrate on ensuring no others will be trafficked here for sex in future. And by legalising and taxing it, things will be much more in the open.
@Mick Hannigan: That doesn’t work. When prostitution is legalised the number of people (women and children) skyrockets.
Read up on it. The most effective thing at reducing human trafficking is to make the purchasing and sale of sex illegal, the next most effective is making the purchasing of sex illegal and the sale of sex decriminalised.
Here in Germany prostitution is completely legal, and they have one of the worst problems in the world with human trafficking for sex. There are also many children being trafficked for sex.
@sue: Unfortunately, that’s not what happens. It sounds like it would be a good idea, but it just doesn’t work that way.
Ireland could of been a great safe country, how people of all ages have been brought in here illegal sold on for God knows what. Like our crime our media still doesn’t print the full story. Even when it was happening for years they didn’t. Ireland been a new country only really booming since the Celtic Tiger era . Could of stoped all these issues by looking at other countries when they grew.
@: *have
You can go anywhere in Dublin with a smart phone and get an escort / dodgy massage with trafficked women. Quick search and you are less than 10minutes from finding someone through the millions of classified ads online. A friend was in Spain recently where prostitution is legal and searched on his phone but couldn’t find anything like the same extent here and how much easier it was here.
@James Baxter: Yes, a friend.
The realities of the country we live in :( and the “irish brides”
ah right yeah….’a friend’
Ye don’t hear much about those people held captive, Neath I think it was, twenty odd there was, all their pay was paid into one bank account by a waste disposal company.
Wondering……..me being a retired Nurse, Do the people using these sex workers, women & men….have regular health checkups ??
Only saying. I think they should.
Trafficking is slavery and people found guilty of it should be charged with slavery and kidnapping. They should also be given life sentences, BUT I HAVE A PROBLEM! Feminist groups have convinced the government to give any prostitute who’s been arrested by the guards and CLAIMS that they’ve been trafficked refugee status if they’re here illegally, instead of deporting them as would normally happen. I would be interested to know how many people IF ANY were convicted for trafficking them. What interests me more is why would they want prostitutes who have already applied for asylum to be treated in the same way. Unless for the same reason. If I have any of this wrong . Please reply
@Michael: ^ny misogynistic granda
@Michael: If you have a rebuttal argument make it . If anything I said is untrue SHOW US.
NAME CALLING IS JUST IGNORANCE !
have your say