Spokesperson’s Morning Headlines For Monday, 23 July 2012

SYRIA: The European Union on Monday tightened sanctions on Syria and required member nations to board ships and airplanes carrying suspicious cargo to the country, as foreign ministers warned that the escalating violence there was sparking a refugee crisis for its neighbors. (AP)

Arab nations have called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to swiftly give up power in order to end his country's unrest, Qatar's prime minister said Monday. (AFP)

Syrian troops commanded by the brother of President Bashar al-Assad and backed by helicopter gunships have driven rebel fighters out of a district of Damascus a week after the insurgents launched a major assault on the capital. (Reuters)

As tens of thousands of Syrians flee escalating war and chaos, the EU looked at ways of boosting humanitarian relief and beefed up sanctions and an arms embargo against the regime Monday. (AFP)

Turkey sent batteries of ground-to-air missiles to the border with Syria on Sunday, media reports said, boosting its firepower as rebels in Syria seized several border posts. (AP)

The besieged opposition stronghold of Barzeh was under heavy assault on Sunday, according to activists. (Al Jazeera)

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his concerns about the situation in Syria at a joint news conference, and urged all parties in Syria to "stop armed violence without any conditions, saying that now the UN Security Council must redouble its efforts to forge the united way forward and exercise collective responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations. (Al-Ahram Al-Messaei, Cairo)

The final chapter in the Syrian violence has started. Although it is not clear at the moment how long fights will continue between the troops of Assad and the rebels, there is no doubt that the ruling power has endured a few especially severe blows these last few days. (De Morgen, Brussels, Ed.)

The Syrian regime acknowledged for the first time Monday that it possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and said it will only use them in case of a foreign attack and never internally against its own citizens. (AP)

Syriawill not use chemical or other unconventional weapons except in the case of a foreign attack, foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said on Monday. (AFP)

The ``great threat'' to Israel from the Syrian conflict is that the Damascus government may collapse and its stock of chemical weapons and missiles fall into the hands of the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. (Reuters)

The Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak is not excluding an attack on the Syrian bunkers where presumably biological arms are stored. (de Volkskrant, Amsterdam)

It is not the UN who is wasting its political capital but the Member States and the five permanent members, who could contribute to stop this conflict. They are wasting their capital, hoping that they can reach a common position more favorable to their interests. (El País, Madrid)

For any new government in Damascus the Iranian regime will be an enemy, not an ally. It will be seen as the regime that helped to keep Mr. Assad in power and enabled him to slaughter thousands of his citizens. (The Times, London, Ed.)

External players are unlikely to play any decisive role in bringing the crisis to a close. (The Independent, London, Ed.)

An activist group said that more than 2750 people were killed this month in Syria, bringing the number of deaths to more than 19 000 since the conflict erupted. (Expresso, Lisbon)

The [South African] government had no option but to abstain on a vote on a western-backed United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria, as the 'unbalanced' resolution would have led to an increase of violence, Deputy International Relations Minister, Ebrahim Ebrahim said on Friday. (Business Day, South Africa)

Russia's flagship airline Aeroflot says it is suspending flights to Syria's capital Damascus next month. (AP)

IRAQ: At least 89 people were killed in bomb and gun attacks in Iraq on Monday after 20 died in blasts the previous day in a coordinated surge of violence against mostly Shi'ite Muslim targets. (Reuters)

The attacks come days after the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq declared a new offensive and warned in a statement that the militant group is reorganizing in areas from which it retreated before U.S. troops left the country last December. (AP)

Violence in Iraq has dropped dramatically in recent years, but near-daily deadly attacks still take place. (dpa)

Violence in Iraq has eased since the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but insurgents still carry out deadly attacks, especially around the capital, and deadly car bombs on Sunday shattered a lull in violence in the lead-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Saturday. (Reuters)

ISRAEL/PALESTINE: Israel has lodged a complaint with the UN after Syrian soldiers crossed last week into the demilitarised Golan Heights zone that separates the two countries, a foreign ministry spokesman said Sunday. (AFP)

The Arab League on Sunday backed a Palestinian plan to ask the U.N. General Assembly to recognize a state of Palestine, but stopped short of setting a date for the bid, Palestinian officials said. (AP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a botched attempt to fragment Israel's main opposition party on Monday by wooing some of its lawmakers to rejoin his governing coalition just days after the bloc bolted his coalition. (AP)

AFGHANISTAN: Three civilian police training advisers, two American and one British, were killed over the weekend by an Afghan policeman at a training academy in western Afghanistan, Afghan officials and a NATO official said on Monday. (AP)

Five NATO soldiers were killed in three separate attacks in Afghanistan at the weekend, the International Security Assistance Force said Sunday. (AFP)

This year's pullout of 23,000 American troops from Afghanistan is at the halfway mark, U.S. Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces, said Sunday in an interview with The Associated Press. (AP)

INDIA: Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in the Indian state of Assam following weekend clashes that killed at least 17 people, police say. (BBC)

Former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been appointed as 13th President of India. (Le Figaro, Paris)

Indiawants a global arms trade treaty (ATT) to be decided by consensus, with all “stakeholders” sharing obligations to prevent illicit trafficking of arms to terrorist groups. As discussions for a treaty at the UN enter the final week, India also wants arms brokers to be included in the purview of ATT but wants to keep ammunition out of the pact. (Times of India, New Delhi)

CHINA: Chinese media and internet users have raised questions after the heaviest rainfall to hit Beijing in 60 years left 37 people dead. (BBC)

China has approved the formal establishment of a military garrison on disputed South China Sea islands, state media reports. (BBC)

COTE D'IVOIRE: Displaced people at Duekoue in the volatile west of Ivory Coast have accused the army of attacking them and burning a camp while UN peacekeeping troops stood idly by. (AP)

The UN says 40 people were wounded in the two incidents and some 5,000 people from the camp have fled following the violence. They were living rough outside the town hall, in a Catholic church or simply camping in the streets. (AFP)

SOMALIA: Somalia's Islamist al Shabaab militants said on Sunday they had executed three of their own members for treason, two of them for guiding U.S. missiles to kill fellow militants. (Reuters)

SUDAN: Sudan wants to settle all its differences with South Sudan through talks, but sees little hope of a swift resolution while it believes Juba is backing rebels that threaten its territorial integrity, a senior ruling party official said on Sunday. (Reuters)

NIGERIA: A bomb blast in northern Nigeria killed a 10-year-old boy and wounded 10 others on Sunday, police said, in an area repeatedly targeted by a radical Islamist group. (Independent Online, South Africa)

DR CONGO: The United States announced Sunday it will suspend military aid to Rwanda on allegations that the southern African nation is backing the rebellion in the neighboring DR Congo. (AFP)

"The United States has been actively engaged at the highest levels to urge Rwanda to halt and prevent the provision of such support, which threatens to undermine stability in the region," State Department spokesman Darby Holladay said in an emailed statement. (AP)

RWANDA: The U.S. government is cancelling a small military assistance package that was to have been provided to Rwanda this year, citing "information that Rwanda is supporting armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo." (All Africa Online)

The United States' decision to suspend military aid to Rwanda because of concerns over evidence it is supporting a mutiny in the neighbouring DR Congo is based on incorrect information, Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said on Sunday. (Independent Online, South Africa)

ZANZIBAR: Police say they have arrested 43 suspected members of an Islamist group seeking greater independence for the country's Zanzibar archipelago on Sunday. (News24, Online)

Authorities said on Sunday that 145 people had been killed in last week's ferry disaster in the Indian Ocean, a day after the operation to find survivors was called off. (Independent Online, South Africa)

MADAGASCAR: Madagascar's defence ministry said on Sunday that a group of mutinous soldiers has taken over a military camp near the island-nation's main airport and shot an army officer sent in to negotiate their surrender. (News24 Online, South Africa)

The chief army mutineer in Madagascar has been killed in a battle with loyalist troops, the military has said. (BBC)

Madagascar's strongman Andry Rajoelina left Monday for face-to-face talks with his ousted rival Marc Ravalomanana, despite a weekend mutiny at a key military base near the main airport. (AFP)

ZIMBABWE: The European Union is to suspend most sanctions against Zimbabwe once it has held a credible referendum on a new constitution, EU foreign ministers say. (BBC)

HAITI: More than 100 Democrats from the US House of Representatives have called on the UN to take responsibility for introducing cholera to Haiti. (BBC)

Peru on Friday sent a new contingent of blue helmet peacekeepers to the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). (Xinhua)

CUBA: Prominent Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya has died in a car crash, according to fellow activists. He is known as the founder of the Varela Project - a campaign to gather signatures in support of a referendum on laws guaranteeing civil rights. (BBC)

Paya, 60, is the second key dissident to die in Cuba in less than a year. (AFP)

MEXICO: Thousands of protesters have been marching through the streets of Mexico City to protest against the official result of this month's presidential election. (BBC)

US: US President Barack Obama has told victims of the attack at a Batman film screening in Aurora, Colorado, that the whole country is thinking of them. (BBC)

Across the city, residents gathered at makeshift memorials to grieve as a community as condolences poured in from places as far as Hollywood and the Vatican. (NYT)

NORWAY: Norway on Sunday paused to commemorate the 77 victims of a bomb and gun massacre that shocked the peaceful nation one year ago, a tragedy that the prime minister said had brought Norwegians together in defense of democracy and tolerance. (AP)

“We will never again be indifferent, as history has taught us that indifference towards hateful statements is easily perceived as a silent accept. In the spirit of the 22nd of July generation we will meet blind hatred with knowledge and reasoning,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on the one-year memorial of the terrorists attacks in Oslo and Utøya. (NTB, Norway)

EURO/CRISIS: The U.S. ambassador considers that Portugal is different from Greece. But he admits that if the deadline for the ongoing adjustment can be extended, the Portuguese would be benefited. (Jornal de Negócios, Lisbon)

The German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said that Greece needs to make greater efforts to comply with the conditions that international creditors imposed as conditions to provide the country with the financial bailouts. (Expresso, Lisbon)

Greeceretakes its position at the heart of the European debt crisis this week as its creditors assess how far off course the country is from bailout targets, raising again the specter of its exit from the euro. (Bloomberg)

The German Economy Minister, Phillip Rsler, considered "possible" a Greece exit of the euro zone, a scenario that "is no longer scary”. (SIC Notícias, Lisbon)

Markets have fallen on fears Spain's indebted regional governments will push the country into seeking a bailout. (BBC)

HIV/AIDS: AIDS may hit developing countries the hardest, but the International AIDS Conference is shining a spotlight on a stubborn epidemic in the U.S., too. United Nations AIDS chief Michel Sidibe calls the impact on black Americans shocking. (AP)

Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAids said in his opening address to the 19th International Aids Conference that, for the first time, more people are on treatment than need it – 8 million of 15 million – and the trajectory of infections had been broken with a worldwide decline of 20% since 2001. (The Guardian, London)

"We look towards the end of AIDS as something that is actually within our reach," said Jim Yong Kim, who made a promise as he became the first World Bank president to address the gathering. (dpa)

Drug-resistant HIV has been increasing in parts of sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade, according to experts writing in the Lancet. (BBC)