MOSCOW – Agence France-Presse

Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, will not permit no-fly zones to be imposed over Syria, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.

“I think we fundamentally will not allow this scenario,” Lukashevich told a news briefing, adding that calls for a no-fly zone showed disrespect for international law.

Lukashevich spoke before planned talks between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Northern Ireland which were expected to focus on the conflict in Syria that has killed at least 93,000 people.

Russia and the United States are trying to bring representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his foes to the negotiating table, but Moscow has criticised U.S. plans to arm rebel forces and to consider imposing a no-fly zone.

“All these manoeuvres about no-fly zones and humanitarian corridors are a direct consequence of a lack of respect for international law,” Lukashevich said.

He said Russia did not want a scenario in Syria that resembled the events in Libya after the imposition of a no-fly zone which enabled NATO aircraft to help rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

Ecuador’s foreign minister is due to arrive in the UK for talks with his British counterpart over the situation of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, BBC News reported.

Assange has been granted political asylum by Ecuador but will be arrested by British authorities if he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Ricardo Patino will visit Assange later and meet William Hague on Monday, June 17.

Assange is wanted in Sweden where he faces sexual assault allegations by two women, claims he denies.

He arrived at the Ecuadorean embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London a year ago on Wednesday after the UK Supreme Court refused to reopen his appeal against extradition.

The British government has spent about £3m on police officers to guard the embassy around the clock.

A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday, June 15 to demand protection for Edward Snowden, who leaked revelations of U.S. electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony, Reuters said.

Marchers gathered outside the U.S. consulate shouting slogans denouncing alleged spying operations aimed at China and Hong Kong, but the numbers were modest compared to rallies over other rights and political issues.

“Arrest Obama, free Snowden,” protesters shouted outside the slate grey building as police looked on. Many waved banners that said: “Betray Snowden, betray freedom”, “Big brother is watching you” and “Obama is checking your email”.

In his first comments on Snowden’s case, Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said late on Saturday that the government would handle it in accordance with established laws.

“Meanwhile, the government will follow up on any incidents related to the privacy or other rights of the institutions or people in Hong Kong being violated.”

Some protesters blew whistles in support of Snowden, 29, the American former CIA contractor who has acknowledged being behind leaks of the surveillance programs by the National Security Agency.

The procession moved on to government headquarters in the city, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 but enjoys far more liberal laws on dissent and freedom of expression. About a dozen groups organized two rallies, including the city’s two largest political camps. Leaders of major political parties sought explanations for Snowden’s allegations of spying.

Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing political party, the DAB, demanded an apology from Washington, clarification of “illegal” espionage activities and an immediate halt to them.

Snowden reportedly flew to Hong Kong on May 20. He checked out of a luxury hotel on Monday and his whereabouts remain unknown. Snowden has said he intends to stay in Hong Kong to fight any potential U.S. moves to extradite him.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has called on the Greek government to reopen public broadcaster ERT, after it was shut down suddenly on Tuesday.

EBU president Jean-Paul Philippot is to hand over a petition in Athens signed by 51 European directors general, including the BBC’s Tony Hall.

The EBU called the government’s action “anti-democratic” and “unprofessional.”

The Greek government said the closure was an essential measure to help meet the country’s debt bailout obligations.

Viewers watching the news on the main TV channel saw the screens go to black late on Tuesday evening.

Journalists however refused to leave the building and online and satellite broadcasts are being maintained with the help of the EBU website.

The Greek government called ERT a “haven of waste” and said they would relaunch it as a smaller, independent public broadcaster.

“ERT is a case of an exceptional lack of transparency and incredible extravagance. This ends now,” said government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou.

ERT, which began broadcasting in 1938, is funded by a direct payment of 4.30 Euros (£3.80) added monthly to electricity bills.

It ran three domestic TV channels, four national radio stations, as well regional radio stations and an external service, Voice of Greece.

Since its sudden closure, nearly 2,700 workers have lost their jobs, but they will be able to apply to work for the new corporation.

Employees have protested outside the building since Tuesday and it has also sparked a 24-hour general strike in the country.

The Greek government has pledged to cut thousands of public-sector jobs in order to receive billions of euros in rescue loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

ISTANBUL

The Taksim Solidarity Platform that represents the Gezi Park protesters has condemned the brutal police crackdown on the Taksim Square, adding that hundreds of people were injured and many had been detained. The platform also contradicted the officials’ statements that said that 44 people were injured, adding that Istanbul’s governor “had lost all credibility.” It also said that police showed a “warlike violence” during the attack.

“There are dozens of injured shot with rubber bullets or who couldn’t go to the hospital,” the platform said in a statement today adding that infirmaries set up at Divan hotel which stands at the Harbiye entrance of Gezi Park.

“The attack with rubber bullets, intense tear gas and stun grenades at a moment when there were a lot of women, kids and elderly people were at the park is a crime against humanity,” the statement said.

Police’s heavy-handed attack to evacuate Gezi Park came only an hour after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ultimatum to protesters, giving them a day to end demonstrations. Protesters had earlier decided to continue their sit-in at the park and debating on limiting the number of tents at the park.

The Taksim Solidarity Platform called on the end of police intervention that was underway nearly six hours after the evacuation of the park. “The brutal attack of the security forces should be stopped. The government will be the sole responsible of what will happen today and tomorrow,” the platform said.
The platform also appealed for letting the injured to be provided help by doctors. “[Police] should stop preventing the works of volunteer doctors,” it also added.

“This attack that took place at a moment when there was no demonstration at the park shows that the prime minister’s intention is to increase the social polarization and satisfy his ambition of authority by oppressing his people,” the statement also said.

Representatives of the Taksim Solidarity Platform, had a late night meeting with Erdoğan on June 13 where they have reached a compromise on the government’s commitment to a court ruling that bars the construction of a leaisure complex at Gezi Park. Erdoğan had then called on the protesters to end their sit-in, adding that their message on preserving the park untouched had been received.

LONDON—New genetic tests have revealed that Prince William’s ancestors were part-Armenian, part-Indian, reported The Times of London.

DNA analysis has helped researchers prove the Duke of Cambridge’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmother Eliza Kerwark was half-Indian.

Eliza – who is an ancestor of William’s and Harry’s mother Princess Diana – was always believed to have come from Armenia.

Researchers have previously traced Diana’s family line back six generations to Eliza Kework, who was born in western India in around 1790 and is believed to have married Scottish merchant Theodore Forbes in 1812.

Eliza’s father was an Armenian trader, but there is no record of her mother. Now the genetic analysis shows she must have been Indian.

Edinburgh University genetics expert Jim Wilson, who carried out the tests on Wills’s relatives, said among Eliza’s DNA was a very rare type of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which is only inherited from mothers.

He said that particular genetic code has been found in only 14 other people before — 13 Indian and one Nepalese.

Inter-racial affairs were common at the time — but researchers say snobbery could explain why Theodore abandoned Eliza and sent their young daughter Katherine back to Britain.

Katherine, known as Kitty, went on to marry in Scotland and her great-great-granddaughter was Frances Burke Roche, who married the 8th Earl Spencer and had five children including Diana Spencer.

Diana’s aunt Mary Roach, one of those who provided DNA, said: “I always assumed that I was part-Armenian so I am delighted that I also have an Indian background.”

Dr Wilson said Princes William and Harry would both have inherited Eliza’s distinctive mtDNA code but would not pass it to their children.