President Barach Obama unveiled new guidance

Washington (CNN) — Under pressure by last year's classified leaks of U.S. surveillance, President Barack Obama on Friday unveiled new guidance for intelligence-gathering and reforms intended to balance what he called the nation's vital security needs with concerns over privacy and civil liberties.

It is highly unlikely the President would have gone before the American public and ordered changes to these spying programs if it were not for former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked details about the program last year.

Snowden is presumably still in temporary asylum in Russia, with felony charges waiting for him back home if he ever sets foot in the U.S. again. The data he stole is still being used to break news; the Guardian newspaper reported Thursday that the NSA is collecting almost 200 million text messages around the globe every day.

Obama argued Friday that the data collected is used to map the communication of terrorists, so law enforcement can quickly identify who they may be in contact with.

"(Obama's) own White House panel, as well as a federal court judge … both said there is zero evidence – zero – that this metadata program is actually effective in stopping any terrorist plots," said investigative journalist with First Look Media Glenn Greenwald, and author of  the forthcoming "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State." Greenwald was the first to use information given to him by Snowden to break stories of NSA surveillance.

The President also noted that it is possible Americans may regret weakening the NSA's power if something terrible happens.

"This is just fear mongering," said Greenwald. "If you're a leader, you don't govern in fear."

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Orphans of the Sahara: Rebellion

Part two of this series explores northern Mali in 2012 as it falls to Tuareg separatists and their al-Qaeda rivals.

Early in 2012, as the massive Tuareg rebellion sweeps northern Mali, defeated Mali Army officers stage a coup d'etat in the south leading to the total collapse of government in the country.

Tuareg rebels declare an independent state in the north called "Azawad", but al-Qaeda emerges from the Sahara to take over historic Timbuktu, and compete with the secular rebels for control of northern Mali.

Isolated, illiterate and imploding from extreme poverty, Tuaregs provide the foot soldiers of both separatism and jihad.

Orphans of the Sahara: Rebellion features music from the bands Toumast, Tamikrest and Terakaft. Listen to their music.
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Fanning Lebanon's sectarian flames?
Last updated: 4 hours ago

We ask if the Rafik Hariri assassination trial will bring closure to a troubled chapter or fuel further violence.
It was a political assassination that sent sectarian shockwaves through Lebanon and the region.

Now, nine years after the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the trial of four suspects has begun at The Hague.

Hariri was among 22 people killed by a truck bomb in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

To Lebanese people [the trial] means the dream of Rafik Hariri to build Lebanon, the country of constitution, the country of freedom, the country of coexistence. The start of this tribunal is a dream and it's a historic moment for all the Lebanese people. We have been attacked as politicians in Lebanon for years. It is not only the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. We have had so many assassinations for tens of years and we now believe this will be the first time we reach justice.

Kazem Kheir, an MP with Saad Hariri's Future Movement

The billionaire businessman was a Sunni leader; those charged with his murder belong to the Shia armed political group Hezbollah.

The four men on trial face nine charges, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and murder. They are being tried 'in absentia' because Hezbollah has refused to hand them over.

A fifth suspect was charged late last year.

Hariri's son Saad, who is also a former prime minister of Lebanon, was in court to watch the start of proceedings.

He said the trial marked an important step for Lebanon: "Today for the first time this act of terror that happened in Lebanon hopefully will see the time of impunity ending and the time of justice coming."

The trial opened against a backdrop of ongoing sectarian violence in a country where the Syrian war has spilled over with increasing frequency.

Even as the hearing began, a car bomb exploded in the Hezbollah-stronghold of Hermel in northern Lebanon, close to the border with Syria.

The case is being heard by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (SLT). The SLT was established by the United Nations in 2007, at Lebanon's request, to deal specifically with the Hariri attack.

The court is the first of its kind to deal with terrorism as a distinct crime, and the first international tribunal to try crimes under national law - in this case, Lebanese law.

Critics say the trial is politically motivated and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has dismissed it as a US-Israeli conspiracy.

He has refused to hand over the suspects, adding: "No Lebanese government will be able to make any arrests, whether in 30 days, 30 years or even 300 years."

Lebanon is a country plagued by political killings. There have been more than a dozen high profile assassinations since Hariri's death.

The latest was former finance minister Mohamad Chatah, who was killed in a car bomb attack in December, close to the site of Hariri's assassination. He was an adviser to Saad Hariri, and a critic of Syria and Hezbollah.

Sunni, Christian, Druze and Shia figures have all been targeted, as well as members of the army and security forces, but as yet, no one has been held accountable for any of the deaths.

So, will the tribunal mark the first time suspects have been held to account? Will it bring closure to a troubled chapter in Lebanon's history? Or will the trial further inflame sectarian tensions?

To discuss this Inside Story presenter Laura Kyle is joined by guests: Kazem Kheir, an MP with Saad Hariri's Future Movement, the largest member of the March 14 Alliance; Nicholas Noe, an author and scholar; and Ahmad Moussalli, a professor of political science at the American University in Beirut.

"I think Hezbollah's position on the tribunal is very clear, and they reject it .... It is obvious for them that this is a political tribunal coordinated by different world powers in order to corner Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. At the time of the composition of the tribunal and even before ... was, for them at least, an indication that this was going to be a political trial."

Ahmad Moussalli, a professor of political science at the American University in Beirut
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No respite for Rohingya in Bangladesh

Refugees forced to flee Myanmar are living in camps without adequate access to food or health services.
Rohingya refugee Shajida Begum, 18, has lived in northern Britain for four years, and 2014 will be the year she finishes high school and hopefully begins a university degree in accountancy. 

It is a very different life from the one she left in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, where she was born and spent her first 14 years. Shajida is grateful for her new existence in the UK, but is constantly reminded of those she left behind.

"We still miss the people who live in the refugee camps. We are happy, we have rights, we have got everything, but people who are still back home have got absolutely nothing," she told Al Jazeera.

"I was worried about leaving them because I can imagine how difficult it is to stay there. There is no electricity, no facilities, no health and safety."

About 30,000 Rohingya refugees officially live in Bangladeshi camps today. Unofficially, there are more are 200,000 unregistered Rohingya there. The registered are provided with aid and support by The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Bangladesh government. Unregistered refugees receive nothing.

Bangkok-based UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan described what she has witnessed as a "dire situation".

The number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh has increased since violence in neighbouring Arakan state in Myanmar erupted between Muslim Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in June 2012, which caused some of the 140,000 internally displaced to attempt to flee across the border.

Tayub Uddin is the vice president of the newly formed Democracy and Human Rights Party. He described in an email from his base in Yangon, capital of Myanmar, the current situation for Rohingya in that country. 

"There is completely no law and order in Arakan state for us. We are no more than animals in our motherland," he told Al Jazeera.

Since 2010, rapid democratic reforms in Myanmar have reopened diplomatic channels and an international spotlight has been shone on the plight of the Rohingya, but little is known about refugees living in Bangladesh. Even less is known about what the future might hold for tens-of-thousands of unregistered refugees.

Cramped conditions

Nijam Mohammed, 29, is a human rights activist and Rohingya refugee who, like Shajida, also lives in Bradford in northern Britain. About 350 Rohingya refugees have settled in the UK, 300 of them in Bradford.

Nijam visited Bangladesh's Kutupalong camp in October 2013. Extended families live in a room four metres by three metres, and movement is often restricted within the camp. However, Nijam acknowledged a "good" education system for registered refugees since 2004 there, despite it only reaching primary levels, as well as the provision of basic healthcare assistance from UNHCR.

This is in stark contrast to some of the estimated 70,000 out of 200,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees that he witnessed living outside Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh.

"They live under open sky, with no support from the United Nations or the Bangladeshi government," Nijam said. "People are dying every day, there is a lack of food, treatment and education. You can't imagine how life is."

This is the case for the large majority of refugees in Bangladesh, aid groups say. The Bangladeshi government banned aid agencies - including Médecin Sans Frontières (MSF), Action Contre le Faim and Muslim Aid - from operating in the refugee camps in August 2012. 

A Bangladeshi official told Al Jazeera the charities were "encouraging an influx of Rohingya refugees". Restrictions remain today, but MSF currently runs a clinic that serves both Bangladeshi and Rohingya patients.

"According to international law, if you are forced to leave your country because of political or religious persecution, you have a right for refugee status," said Nijam.

"My question is why are these people not getting refugee status in Bangladesh? Why are the Western countries silent? Are they not interested because there is no oil or gas in Arakan state [in Myanmar]?"

New strategy

The mass exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar after the 2012 riots in Arakan state was the most recent episode of decades of persecution and forced evacuation.

In 1991-92, more than 250,000 fled across the border into Bangladesh after an alleged escalation of killings, torture, rape and forced labour at the hands of the Myanmar's notorious military. A similar mass departure also occurred in 1977.

Much of the modern-day ethnic division and persecution was created and entrenched by the 1982 Citizenship Act, which effectively withdrew citizenship from the Rohingya.

The Citizenship Act accorded Rohingya only "temporary registration cards" because they were not a recognised "national race". The majority of Rohingya did not then - and still don't have today - the required identification documents to gain full citizenship status.

Even those with proper identification have often had it forcibly removed. As a consequence Rohingya are popularly perceived to be illegal Bengali immigrants, despite the fact they have settled in Myanmar - formerly Burma - for centuries.

In Bangladesh, I didn't have a chance

Salah Uddin, Rohingya student 

The 2012 riots are believed to have begun after the alleged rape and killing of a Buddhist Rakhine woman by three Rohingya males, who were then sentenced to death. A government report stated the 2012 violence resulted in nearly 200 deaths, and Rohingya areas were razed to the ground by angry Buddhists.

Human Rights Watch has described the events in Myanmar as ethnic cleansing, and the United Nations has called for its government to provide Rohingya citizenship in the country.

According to the UNHCR, Bangladeshi authorities may propose a new system to provide humanitarian assistance that will include the unregistered refugees currently stranded in Bangladesh.

But UNHCR's Tan when asked about the issue said she was unsure whether this would happen this year. "Unfortunately, there is no clarity on when exactly the government strategy will be unveiled." 

She said, however, more pressure on the government of Myanmar was urgently needed to help resolve the refugee issue.

"A crucial element in resolving the plight of the Rohingya in Bangladesh lies in improving conditions in Rakhine state," Tan said.

"The Myanmar government needs to step up efforts to promote reconciliation after the inter-communal violence of 2012. More must be done to encourage peaceful co-existence between the communities, and ensure that everyone can enjoy their basic rights."

'Didn't have a chance'

Today, a generation of refugees born in camps in Bangladesh enjoy a life they'd never thought possible.

Salah Uddin, 17, who speaks with an endearing Yorkshire inflection that has distilled his accented English, is a cricketing all-rounder and business student.

"I always prayed to God to bring happiness in our life. Suddenly it's happened and we are in the UK," Salah told Al Jazeera. "But it doesn't make me delighted. In Bangladesh, lots of people couldn't leave. In Bangladesh, I didn't have a chance."

The future of the refugees in Bangladesh remains uncertain, with the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments unwilling to provide any sort of long-term protection for those stranded and by law, effectively stateless citizens.

In this small corner of northern Britain, the fight for the Rohingya continues. The activist Nijam recently returned from a conference held by the European Rohingya Council in Stockholm, Sweden.

"We do not fight for our independence, we only fight for our rights," Nijam said.
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Herders fight farmers over Tanzania water

The government is trying to mediate as conflicts over scarce land and water resources boil over into violence.

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - Tanzanian authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with ongoing conflicts between farmers and pastoralists as they fight over limited land and water resources in this East African nation.
From Tanzania's Coast Region to Kilimanjaro, violent and sometimes deadly clashes have been raging for decades as farmers and pastoralists scramble for resources.

Most recently, on January 12, ten people were killed in Kiteto district in central Tanzania when Maasai pastoralists allegedly invaded villages in the disputed Embroi Murtangosi forest reserve and set homes ablaze. Local farmers accused district officials of colluding with the Maasai to intimidate farmers living on the reserve in an attempt to chase them off their land.

"It's no secret, we are being harassed because there are certain people who are getting paid to evict us from this area," said Kisioki Mesiaya, a farmer in Kiteto district. 

Pastoralists, who are generally more affluent than farmers here, have been accused of influencing political decisions through bribery.

Tanzania has approximately 21 million head of cattle, the largest number in Africa after Ethiopia and Sudan. According to the ministry of livestock and fisheries development, livestock contributes to at least 30 percent of agricultural GDP.

Tanzania's ministry for agriculture, food security and cooperatives says that small-scale farmers produce more than 90 percent of the country's food. Of the country's 94.5 million hectares, only half - 44 million hectares - is arable land.

The worst conflict between pastoralists and farmers here occurred in December 2000 in Kilosa district, in the Morogoro region, where 38 farmers were killed. Hostilities reignited in 2008 and eight people were killed, several houses set alight and livestock stolen.

Disputes 'fuelled by officials'

Deputy national assembly speaker Job Ndugai accused government officials of siding with pastoral communities to intimidate farmers.

"Land disputes are fuelled by officials… who have been soliciting bribes in terms of money and livestock from pastoralists to evict farmers on the pretext that the land occupied by farmers is a reserved area," Ndugai said in December from his constituency in Kongwa.

We have seen the influx of investors who take swathes of land to start commercial farming ranching or mining activities, in the process triggering conflicts with local people who are evicted from their land without due process

Yefred Myenzi, Land Rights Research and Resources Institute 

Kiteto district commissioner Martha Umbulla, however, dismissed this as false. "There's nothing like that, those allegations are not true," she said.

Experts say that these resource-based conflicts are also fuelled by ethnic hatred, dwindling resources, poor land management and population growth.

Yefred Myenzi, a researcher from the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute known locally as HakiArdhi, said that most of the fighting over land was the indirect result of decisions and actions taken by the state through its various agencies.

He said that the struggle for land and water resulted from a lack of public awareness and knowledge of the country's laws, inadequate participation of local people in policy and law formation, and violation of laws by district officials. Of Tanzania's 42 million people, only 0.02 percent have traditional land ownership titles.

"We have seen the influx of investors who take swathes of land to start commercial farming ranching or mining activities, in the process triggering conflicts with local people who are evicted from their land without due process," he added.

He blamed the existing land tenure system for sidelining pastoral communities, since no land has been set aside for them. "Although land laws require every village to have in place a land use plan, many villages are yet to implement this due to conflict," he said.

Myenzi warned that, although a conflict resolution mechanism offered hope, disputes over land were likely to persist due to corruption and a weak system of reinforcement.

'Growing social problem'

Henry Mahoo, professor of agricultural engineering at Tanzania's Sokoine University of Agriculture, said that in order to resolve tensions between the two groups, a land use plan, which would clearly identify areas under pastoralists' ownership and those controlled by farmers, should be drawn up.

"The problem [behind] these clashes is deeper than we think. All concerned parties must be involved in the negotiation process, and there must be a forum where farmers and pastoralists openly talk about their problems," he said.

"I think these conflicts are a sign of a growing social problem. There are so many idle minds out there who can be incited to do anything," he added.

Meshack Saidimu, a Maasai pastoralist in Mbalali, said that most of the disputes occurred because the government had not set aside areas for pastoralists.

"I think we are being made scapegoats for all these problems. The Maasai are disciplined people, they don't just hurt somebody for the sake of it," he said.

The disputes over land and water have also caused food insecurity among farmers, many of whom have been unable to harvest crops for fear of reprisals from enraged pastoralists.

"In analysing land conflicts we need to critically look at the issue. The farmers complain that pastoralists let their animals trample on their crops while searching for water and pasture but herders argue that there are paths that cattle use without causing damage to crops," Myenzi said.

But he said a lasting solution could be found only if pastoralists and farmers respect and value each other.
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Israel summons envoys over pro-Palestine bias

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says four European states called over 'one-sided' view of settlement conflict.

Israel has summoned envoys from four European states to protest their "one-sided" stand in favour of the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said.

The action on Friday is likely to escalate a quarrel over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, considered illegal by much of the world.

It comes a day after Britain, France, Italy and Spain called in Israeli ambassadors to hear protests against Israel's latest announcement of settlement-building on land the Palestinians want for a future state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the European criticism "hypocritical", and in a tit-for-tat move, Lieberman said envoys from the four EU countries had been summoned to a meeting in the foreign ministry in Jerusalem.

In a statement, he said Israel would make clear "that the one-sided position they constantly take against Israel and in favour of the Palestinians is unacceptable and creates a feeling that they are only looking to place blame on Israel."

Last week Israel announced plans to build 1,400 new homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where more than 500,000 Jewish settlers already live.

Israel and the Palestinians resumed US brokered peace talks in July after a three-year deadlock.

'Obsessive and messianic'

The negotiations, which have shown little sign of progress so far, were dealt a further blow after a diplomatic row erupted after the Israeli foreign minister described US Secretary of State John Kerry as obsessive and messianic.

"The American plan for security arrangements that was shown to us isn't worth the paper it was written on," Yaalon was quoted as saying in private conversations with Israeli officials.

Defence minister Moshe Yaalon apologised for the remarks after the US State Department said his remarks were "offensive."

The future of settlements is a core issue in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel says the issue should be solved within negotiations.

"Israel is making great effort to allow the dialogue with the Palestinians to continue and the position these states are taking, beyond it being biased and unbalanced, is significantly harming the chances of reaching an accord," Lieberman said.
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Putin says gays should feel welcome at Sochi

Russian President says gays are welcome at the Winter Olympic Games, but must "leave the children in peace".
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said gays should feel welcome at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, but they must "leave the children in peace".

Putin told volunteers Friday that gays visiting Sochi "can feel calm and at ease", and vowed that there would be no discrimination at the games.

But he emphasised that, according to a law banning homosexual "propaganda'' among minors, gays cannot express their views on gay rights issues to anyone underage.

"We have a ban on the propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia," Putin said in televised comments from host city Sochi, with three weeks to go until the event. 

International outcry

The president's comments were unlikely to appease critics of the ban. United States President Barack Obama has pointedly announced he was sending an Olympic delegation that includes several openly gay sports figures.

Putin and other politicians have defended the June propaganda law as a protection of child rights, but critics believe that the law discriminates against sexual minorities.

In the wake of international outcry against the bill, Russian authorities have put limits on the right to protest during the Sochi games, which run Feb. 7-23.

A senior cleric from the Russian Orthodox Church, which is closely allied to Putin, this month called for a national debate on returning a Soviet-era law repealed in 1993 that criminalised gay sex. 

One of the volunteers, set to assist visitors at the Games, commented on their rainbow-coloured uniforms and asked if they could be breaching the ban on gay propaganda, the Interfax news agency reported.
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