Former US secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger, a career foreign service officer who served briefly as the top diplomat under president George H.W. Bush, died yesterday, aged 80.
“With the passing of former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, our nation has lost a distinguished diplomat and public servant,” US President Barack Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
Current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Eagleburger as a strong voice and stalwart champion for America’s values,” adding that “his passing is America’s loss”.
Eagleburger, who ran the State Department for five months in 1992, was “one of the most capable and respected diplomats our foreign service ever produced,” Bush said in a statement, according to CNN.
“I mourn the loss of a true friend. He was a good man, and he will be missed,” he added.
Eagleburger replaced James Baker at the post in August 1992, bringing with him decades of experience as a career diplomat and a solid knowledge of Middle East issues.
He had departed public service in 1984 to form a consulting firm with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, but returned to become deputy secretary of state in 1989 at Bush’s insistence.
Oil rig protest
Eighteen Greenpeace activists have climbed a 53,000-ton oil rig in the Arctic waters off Greenland to protest against deepwater drilling by a Scottish oil company, the environmental group said yesterday.
The activists claim that Cairn Energy, which runs the Leiv Eiriksson rig, is not taking enough precautions to avoid accidents like the Gulf of Mexico blowout in 2010, and demand the group release a plan for how to manage a potential oil spill.
Cairn insists it has developed “an extensive emergency response and oil spill response plan,” but that it is not publicly available after a decision by Greenland authorities.
The activists launched five inflatable speed boats from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza early Saturday morning, bypassing the Danish navy and scaling the giant rig to make their way to the drill manager’s office.
Rebel leader killed
Colombia’s army says it has killed the security chief for the head of the country’s main rebel group.
Army spokesman Col Fernando Avila says that Alirio Rojas Bocanegra was killed in an area about 225 km southwest of Bogota, the nation’s capital.
Avila says that Rojas was leader of the security forces for the top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Guillermo Leon Saenz took over the top job in 2008.
Authorities estimate the rebel group’s strength at about 8,000 – half what it was a decade ago.
Peace talks invitation
An aide to the Palestinian president says the Palestinians have accepted a French invitation to Paris as part of an effort to relaunch Mideast peace talks. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said last week he was inviting Israeli and Palestinian leaders to Paris this month.
The talks collapsed in late 2008, reviving only briefly last September before breaking down over Israeli settlement construction.
Juppe’s invitation followed US President Barack Obama’s statement that Israel’s pre-1967 borders should be a starting point for the talks, with mutually agreed land swaps.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said today the Palestinians were prepared to go to Paris and were waiting for Israeli and American responses.
Crossing commotion
Palestinian travellers say dozens of Gazans attempted to storm a crossing at the Egyptian border but were pushed back.
The commotion came a week after Egypt permanently reopened the crossing and lifted travel restrictions on the Gaza Strip. Several travellers at the Rafah crossing say about 200 people waited to cross into Egypt yesterday but were denied entry.
Dozens then pushed up against a terminal fence until Hamas forces cordoned off the area. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their own safe passage.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the Gazans were prevented from crossing into Egypt.
Egypt’s ex-finance minister sentenced to 30 years
A former Egyptian finance minister has been sentenced in absentia to 30 years for squandering public funds and abusing his authority, the official state news agency says.
Yousef Boutros-Ghali, a nephew of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, left Egypt during the uprising that forced out President Hosni Mubarak. Yousef Boutros-Ghali was a powerful confidant of Mubarak’s son Gamal.
Boutros-Ghali’s whereabouts are unknown.
A Cairo court convicted Boutros-Ghali today in two cases. In one, he was convicted of appropriating luxury vehicles seized from the customs authority. In another, he was convicted of abusing his authority for using state print shops to produce campaign material.
In each case, he was sentenced to 15 years and was fined €4 million.