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Saudi minister responds to damning human rights report
By Mick Krever, CNN
Saudi Arabia is responding to a damning new United Nations reports, listing a catalogue of human rights abuses in their country.
“We have very significant changes, real [changes] happening in Saudi Arabia,” Deputy Labor Minister Ahmad al-Fahaid told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
The U.N. made 225 recommendations on a range of issues, including the rights of migrant workers as well as freedom of expression and the death penalty.
Saudi Arabia insists it is making progress, but admits there is still a long way to go, particularly in the realm of women's rights and on child marriages, with no minimum legal age set so far.
“Women issue is very important, and in fact we are tackling it from two different angles,” al-Fahaid said. “The first one is about, you know, education background, educational view. The second, which is very important, is that economically, also empowerment.”
“We are trying our best to find…suitable and decent jobs for our women.”
Meanwhile, Saudi women are still barred from driving.
In an interview with Amanpour in 2012, Saudi activist Manal al-Sharif made her plea.
Pilot against ‘any form of extremism,’ says Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who knows him
By Mick Krever, CNN
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the pilot of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, is not an extremist, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told CNN's Christiane Amanpour Wednesday.
"He supports our multi-racial coalition. He supports democratic reform. He is against any form of extremism," Anwar said of Zaharie, whom he said he has met "on a number of occasions." "And we take a very strong position in clamoring for change through constitutional and democratic means."
Pilot was 'against any form of extremism'
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim speaks with Amanpour about his relationship with missing pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
With frustratingly few answers about the fate of Flight 370 nearly two weeks after it disappeared, some have starting probing the possible political inclinations of crew members.
Anwar, who has been the target of ongoing attacks from the ruling government, constitutes the main Malaysian opposition.
Some have tried to tie Zaharie to Anwar as a family relation.
Anwar's press secretary told CNN that Zaharie is the opposition leader's - wait for it - son's wife's mother's father's brother's son.
"What my daughter-in-law told me is that he is a family member, not too close, but she calls him 'uncle,' which is quite common here," Anwar said. "But I know him... basically as a party activist."
Religions unite over anti-slavery initiative
By Mick Krever, CNN
Major religious faiths around the world are joining forces to fight the scourge of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
Australian billionaire and mining magnate Andrew Forrest has signed up major religious heavyweights –Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar mosque in Egypt, Islam's highest-ranking Sunni cleric.
This week their representatives gathered at the Vatican to sign on to Andrew Forrest’s initiative, the Global Freedom Network.
Forrest joined Amanpour in her London studio, along with Archbishop David Moxon of the Anglican Church and Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo of the Catholic Church.
“I got dragged, really, kicking and screaming, into this cause by my daughter, Grace,” Forrest said. “When she was 15, she worked in an orphanage in Nepal and our intelligence was that there was something was suspect about the orphanage.”
When she returned to the orphanage they discovered that the only children left were “severely disfigured” or “mentally handicapped, i.e. could not be sold.”
The Global Freedom Network has ambitious goals: to get 162 governments to publicly endorse the fund, get 50 multi-national businesses to modern slavery-proof their supply chains, and convince the G20 to adopt an anti-slavery initiative.
Ukraine on brink of ‘very dangerous conflict,’ warns Ukrainian member of parliament
By Mick Krever, CNN
Ukraine is at the beginning of a “very dangerous conflict,” Ukrainian member of parliament and former foreign minister Petro Poroshenko told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
“Several weeks ago we had a guarantee that nothing [would] happen with the Crimea. Several weeks ago we had [a situation] that there is not any military presence on Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea.”
A Ukrainian officer was killed at a Crimean military base on Tuesday, and a second person injured, by armed men in masks.
Ukraine’s armed forces then announced that it had authorized units stationed in Crimea to use weapons “to protect and preserve the life of Ukrainian soldiers.”
Ukraine on edge of 'dangerous conflict'
Ukrainian member of parliament Petro Poroshenko tells Christiane Amanpour he fears conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“We have a feeling that we are at the beginning of a very dangerous conflict. And we should do our best to stop this process.”
The Kremlin now says that Ukraine’s Crimea region is part of Russia, and President Vladimir Putin signed a draft annexation agreement on Tuesday, which still needs the Duma’s rubber stamp.
Web extra: Faith leaders on agreement with Shia Ayatollah on anti-trafficking initiative
Andrew Forrest, founder of Walk Free, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday that Ayatollah Sistani, leader of the Shia Muslim faith, had signed up to a historic anti-trafficking initiative.
Click above to watch. (Amanpour's full interview will be online tomorrow.)
Russian billionaire says West is ‘in love’ with ‘Russian dirty money’
By Mick Krever, CNN
Western sanctions on Russia will not hurt, because “the Western side” is “a bit in love with certain spheres of the Russian dirty money,” Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“And secondly,” he said, “I don't think any restrictions of travel for any members of the parliament or Russian Federation, are really anything of substance.”
Nonetheless, he admitted that if a “Cold War economic sphere” set in, punitive measures could have an effect.
“Russia will have to pay a price with prices going up because we're too dependent on imports and exports,” he said.
Europe and the United States imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 28 Russian and Ukrainian officials on Monday over their involvement in a Crimean referendum to join Russia, a vote Western officials called illegal.
Lebedev, a former KGB agent turned businessman and Kremlin-critic, was not on the sanctions list. He now runs four British newspapers, including The Independent and the Evening Standard.
Germany says it could live without Russian gas
By Mick Krever, CNN
Germany could live without its Russian gas supply if necessary, Philipp Missfelder, foreign policy spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling political coalition, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“If the Russians would stop the gas supply for us, or we would raise sanctions on the oil and gas sector, we will be able to have in the interconnected and linked European energy market – of course with higher prices – the energy supply for Germany.”
Germany has a stockpile of coal it could tap, Missfelder said, admitting that such a move would impact the country’s climate change goals.
But “for the political calculation, it’s good to know that we are independent from Russian gas.”
NATO concerned about further Russian intervention
By Mick Krever, CNN
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Monday that he is “concerned about Russian military activities along the borders of Ukraine.”
Amanpour asked Rasmussen if he was worried that Russia may be “stirring up trouble” in eastern Ukraine as a pretext for intervention. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday warned of “continuing provocations” in Eastern Ukraine.
“Absolutely,” Rasmussen said. “That is a possibility, that is a clear risk that would further deteriorate the whole situation.”
NATO worried about more Russia intervention
NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen tells Christiane Amanpour he is concerned about further Russian intervention in Ukraine.
With more than 20,000 Russian soldiers in Crimea, according to the interim Ukrainian government, Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and join Russia.
Web extra: NATO 'reassesing' relationship with Russia
In this web extra, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen talks with CNN's Christiane Amanpour about NATO's relationship with Russia.
Click above to watch.
Pakistan charting new path of non-interference, says de-facto foreign minister
By Mick Krever, CNN
Pakistan is charting a new future of non-interference with its neighbors, that country’s national security adviser and de facto foreign minister Sartaj Aziz told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
“Our policy – Pakistan’s policy – is non-interference and no favorite,” Aziz told Amanpour in London.
Pakistan supported the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s, thinking that the radical group would serve as a bulwark against India, Pakistan’s long-time enemy.
“Afghan has been a theater of great power rivalries, great power games for a long time,” he said. “One of the apprehensions of the Afghan government and President Karzai was the Taliban have a better chance because Pakistan is supporting them, and we have convinced him that is not in our security interest.”
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