Melding serious statesmanship and a dose of audacity, former South African president Nelson Mandela and a clutch of world-famous figures were to launch a private alliance yesterday to make diplomatic assaults on the globe's most intractable problems.
The alliance, was scheduled to be unveiled during events marking Mandela's 89th birthday late yesterday. It will be called the Elders. It includes the retired Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu; former US president Jimmy Carter; former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and former Irish president Mary Robinson.
Many, including Mandela, have been early and harsh critics of US President George W. Bush and US foreign policy, particularly toward Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group's members and backers have insisted that they were guided neither by ideology nor by geopolitical bent.
Mandela, in remarks prepared for yesterday, said that since members no longer held public office, they could work solely for the common good, not for outside interests.
"This group can speak freely and boldly, working both publicly and behind the scenes on whatever actions need to be taken," he wrote. "Together we will work to support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire hope where there is despair."
Whether governments that become the objects of the Elders' efforts would agree remains to be seen. One of the group's founders and principal financial backers, British tycoon Richard Branson, said leaders he had briefed -- including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and South African President Thabo Mbeki -- "very much support the initiative."
"There will always be skeptics of any positive initiatives, but these are people giving up their time for nothing," Branson said. "Most individuals in the world would welcome a group of people who are above ego, who, in the last 12 or 15 years of their lives, are above partisan politics."
The Elders would not try to solve all the world's problems but would work on those where they could do some good, he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not