'Muhammad' left out of Swedish Coke campaign

The Local reports on the name-dropping

A Europe-wide PR campaign by Coca-Cola is having the company´s logo on the bottles replaced by common names in the respective countries. In Sweden, the bottles will bear the names of Daniel, Emma and Johan, among others. However, one common name that will not be seen on the shelves is Muhammad, since Coca-Cola fears that it will be seen as provocative and insensitive towards Muslims. They worry that it would stir up strong emotions if they were to put the name of the prophet on a brand so strongly associated with the U.S.

Official number of Guantanamo Bay hunger strikers jumps to 100

http://rt.com/news/guantanamo-bay-hunger-strikers-502/

The official number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay reached 100 on Saturday – three more than the day before. Twenty of the detainees are receiving enteral feeds, five of whom are being observed in a detainee hospital.

Lawyers for the detainees contest the official numbers, saying that some 130 prisoners are actually taking part in the protest. The hunger strike began around February 6, when detainees claimed prison officials searched their copies of the Koran for contraband, according to their attorneys.

Prisoners are also protesting their extrajudicial incarceration at the prison. Most of Guantanamo Bay’s 166 detainees have been cleared for release or were never charged, a situation that has prompted criticism from human rights organizations.

Fury over 'plan to sell' Nepal embassy building in London

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22213812

A government committee is in London to look into the viability of selling the Victorian villa, which it only pays a small amount to lease.
It is in one of the UK's most expensive roads in central London.
The Nepalese government says the committee is only fact-finding and no decisions have been made.
"I want to make it clear to you that the government has not taken any decision, so it all depends on the recommendation of the team," said Nepalese foreign ministry spokesman Arjun Thapa.
The house in Kensington Palace Gardens is on the same road as mansions owned by the billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and the Sultan of Brunei.
One property expert says the villa is worth about $153m (£100m).
UK Nepalese community leaders say the embassy was given because of strong ties between Nepal and Britain, and it should be kept

Greece farm shooting: 30 injured in pay dispute

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22198699

About 30 migrant workers have been injured in a shooting on a strawberry farm in Greece after requesting salaries that had not been paid.

The migrants - mainly from Bangladesh - were shot at by at least one farm supervisor, in a Peloponnesian village in southern Greece.
Several of the workers have been taken to hospital but none are in a critical condition.
The owner of the farm in Nea Manolada and one foreman have been arrested.

How far can North Korea's missiles reach?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9962585/Graphic-how-far-can-North-Koreas-missiles-reach.html

The regime is understood to have substantial numbers of short- and intermediate-range missiles such as the Nodong, a variant on the Scud missile.

With a range of around 1,000km, the Nodong could in theory strike in South Korea and Japan. However, its poor accuracy makes it an ineffective battlefield weapon and it is unlikely North Korea would be able to pinpoint US military bases in the region, although it could cause serious civilian casualties.

The middle-range Musudan missile is of major concern to Japan as its 4,000km capability would allow the North Korean regime to strike anywhere in Japanese territory. Estimates of the size of North Korea's Musudan arsenal vary widely, with figures ranging from only a dozen to more than 200.

The Taepodong 1 was North Korea's first multi-stage missile, a significant technological development where the weapon depends on different thrusters at different times. However it has proved a poor performer, with limited range and unreliable accuracy.

Cyprus offered bailout from Russian energy firm Gazprom...if they sell offshore gas rights

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/385718/Cyprus-offered-bailout-from-Russian-energy-firm-Gazprom-if-they-sell-offshore-gas-rights

The huge multinational already own vast gas deposits in Siberia, and reportedly want the beleaguered country's Mediterranean Sea rights.

The firm are reportedly looking to acquire the rights as the emergence an independent gas industry in Cyprus would undercut their pricing power.

The news of a private financial package comes as Germany warned the country's banks may never reopen if a bailout is not agreed.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "It is important that Cyprus gets a sustainable banking sector in the future.

"The current banking sector is not sustainable."

Jailed Leader of the Kurds Offers a Truce With Turkey

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/world/europe/kurdish-leader-declares-truce-with-turkey.html?_r=1&

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — The jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Thursday called for a cease-fire and ordered all his fighters off Turkish soil, in a landmark moment for a newly energized effort to end three decades of armed conflict with the Turkish government.

Since its start late last year, the peace effort has transfixed a Turkish public traumatized by a long and bloody conflict that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives and fractured society along ethnic lines. While there have been previous periods of cease-fire between Turkey and Mr. Ocalan’s group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., never before has there been so much support at the highest levels of both the Turkish and Kurdish leadership.

“We reached the point where weapons should go silent and ideas speak,” Mr. Ocalan wrote in a letter read out to jubilant crowds gathered in the Kurdish heartland here in southern Turkey. “A new era starts when politics, instead of guns, comes to the forefront.”

For the Turkish government, seeking peace within its borders is a step toward realizing its ambition to be a regional power broker. For the Kurds, the call for peace carries with it the hope of more rights under a new constitution and the freedom to express a separate identity within a country that for decades denied their existence, forbade them to speak their language and abused their activists.

The declaration by Mr. Ocalan was seen as a critical confidence-building step in the peace process. It brought ecstatic celebration among the huge crowds gathered outside Diyarbakir to celebrate Nowruz, the traditional spring festival. Lawmakers read out statements in both Turkish and Kurdish as waves of yellow, red and green, the traditional Kurdish colors, rippled through the masses.

The deal is far from done, however. Notably, while Mr. Ocalan called for militants to retreat to bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, he did not order them to disarm. And a long process of constitutional reform and negotiations over Kurdish prisoners lies ahead.