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After Yemeni air strike, little girl is family's only survivor | SANAA (Reuters) - Her bruised eyes still swollen shut, Buthaina Muhammad Mansour, believed to be four or five, doesn t yet know that her parents, five siblings and uncle were killed when an air strike flattened their home in Yemen s capital. Despite concussion and skull fractures, doctors think Buthaina will pull through her family s sole survivor of the Aug 25 attack on an apartment building that residents blame on a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen since 2015. The alliance said in a statement it would investigate the air strike, which killed at least 12 civilians. Yemen s long war involving competing Yemeni factions and regional power struggles has killed at least 10,000 people. Millions more have been forced to leave their homes and face disease and hunger. Aid agencies have called for a speedy resolution to the conflict, warning that the impoverished country is now victim to the world s greatest man-made humanitarian disaster. Lying disoriented in her hospital bed on Saturday, Buthaina called out for her uncle, Mounir, who was among those killed in the attack. Another uncle, Saleh Muhammad Saad, told Reuters Mounir had rushed to the family s house when Buthaina s father called him at 2 a.m. to say war planes were bombing their neighborhood in Sanaa s Faj Attan district. He never returned. By the time Saleh got to the house, it was a ruin of broken concrete blocks and wooden planks. Hearing survivors groaning from beneath the rubble, he battled to free them. I could hear the shouts of one of their neighbors from under the rubble, and tried to remove the rubble from on top of (Buthaina s father) and his wife, but I couldn t. They died, he said. We lifted the rubble and saw first her brother Ammar, who was three, and her four sisters, all of them dead. I paused a little and just screamed out from the pain. But I pulled myself together, got back there and then heard Buthaina calling. He said her survival had given him some solace as he mourned the rest of the family. Her sister Raghad always used to come up and hug me and kiss me when I visited. I used to say to her, Come on, that s enough. And she would say Oh no it isn t! and just keep hugging and kissing. | worldnews | August 26, 2017 |
Man with sword injures police outside UK Queen's palace | (Reuters) - A man who assaulted police officers with a four-foot sword outside Queen Elizabeth s Buckingham Palace residence shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) was being questioned by counter-terrorism police on Saturday. Two unarmed officers suffered slight cuts as they detained the man, who drove at a police van on Friday evening, then took the sword from the front passenger foot-well of his car, London s Metropolitan Police said. It was too early to say what the man was planning to do, said Commander Dean Haydon, the head of the Met s Counter Terrorism Command. We believe the man was acting alone and we are not looking for other suspects at this stage, he said. It is only right that we investigate this as a terrorist incident at this time. Europe has been on high alert following a string of militant attacks, including four this year in Britain which killed 36 people. The country s threat level remains at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. No members of the royal family were present in the palace, which is a magnet for tourists in Britain s capital in the peak August holiday weekend. I want to thank the officers who acted quickly and bravely to protect the public last night demonstrating the dedication and professionalism of our police, Prime Minister Theresa May said in a message on Twitter. The suspect was initially arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assault on police. He was then further arrested under Britain s Terrorism Act. Police said they were investigating a 26-year-old man from the Luton area, an ethnically diverse town 35 miles (55 km) north of London where police have carried out investigations linked to other militant attacks, including one earlier this year on London s Westminster Bridge. My partner saw a sword (...) as well as a policeman with blood on him, looking like his hand or chest was injured. The police officer had it in his hand, walking away with it, said an unnamed witness quoted by The Times newspaper, who said tourists were running away from the scene. Something happened before, which is why the people ran away. I m not sure what this was. But people were already scared and I saw the policeman pull the man from the car the witness said. The suspect was treated at a London hospital for minor injuries, and there were no other reported injuries. This is a timely reminder that the threat from terrorism in the UK remains severe, Haydon added. The police, together with the security services, are doing everything we can to protect the public and we already have an enhanced policing plan over the Bank Holiday weekend to keep the public safe. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Chinese government advisor says more Mandarin needed to fight poverty | BEIJING (Reuters) - Not enough effort is being put into teaching China s ethnic minorities standardized Mandarin Chinese during Beijing s fight to eradicate poverty, a top advisor to the government said on Saturday. Chinese president Xi Jinping has declared war on poverty, and instructed local governments to eliminate impoverishment to create a moderately well-off society by the beginning of 2021, in time for centenary of the ruling Communist Party. While regional authorities have dolled out supportive policies, funds and programs in China s poorest regions, they are failing to teach ethnicities enough Mandarin, Zhu Weiqun, said in an article in the state-backed Global Times newspaper. Efforts to teach minority peoples Mandarin are not up to scratch in various places, said Zhu, who is head of the minorities and religions committee of the Chinese People s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body. I regularly come across low level cadres who with great effort use a mouthful of dialect to talk about their poverty alleviation plans without realizing that dealing with their own deficiencies in speaking Mandarin is an urgent task, he said. China promotes the use of standardized Mandarin, based on the dialect of Beijing, and encourages ethnic minorities to learn the official language in a bid to improve unity in multi-ethnic areas of the country. But there has been resistance to the push for standardization in regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang, where Tibetans and Uighurs, a Turkic speaking mostly Muslim minority, often consider language integral to their cultural identity. Beijing denies that Mandarin promotion damages minority culture, arguing that learning the official language gives minorities greater opportunities for work and schooling. Zhu said in the article that communication issues with workers from Xinjiang could cause a vicious cycle when companies group the workers together hindering their ability to work with others. Over 70 percent of the population speaks Mandarin, but there levels of fluency in west China are 20 percent lower than in the east, with only 40 percent of people able to speak Mandarin in some rural areas, Zhu said. Using standardized Mandarin to alleviate poverty, using poverty alleviation to promote standardized Mandarin, does not only have an economic importance, but also has a deep political importance, he said. | worldnews | August 26, 2017 |
Thousands rally for gay marriage in Australia ahead of vote | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Thousands of people rallied for marriage equality in Australia s second-biggest city of Melbourne on Saturday ahead of a postal survey on same-sex marriage which could lead to its legalisation. Australia is one of the only developed English-speaking countries not to have legalised same-sex marriage, despite strong popular support and the backing of a majority of lawmakers. Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, of the opposition Labor Party, called on the conservative Liberal Party-led government to do more to ensure the debate did not turn ugly ahead of the postal survey next month. I m particularly calling on the prime minister of Australia to speak out against any bile or hate speech that we might see in this campaign, he told the rally. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week urged supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage to show mutual respect as their campaigns turned increasingly vitriolic. [nL4N1LB1TJ] Rally organiser Anthony Wallace from activist group Equal Love said 15,000 people attended the event, making it one of the largest gay rights rallies in Australian history. Police declined to estimate the size of the crowd. The rally is an annual event, which this year began and ended at the Victorian State Library, where a mass same-sex wedding ceremony was held. Australians will vote over several weeks from mid-September in the non-compulsory postal ballot on whether to legalise same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is supported by 61 percent of Australians, a 2016 Gallup opinion poll showed, but the issue has fractured the Turnbull government and damaged his standing with voters, now at a six-month low. | worldnews | August 26, 2017 |
More than a thousand turn Philippine funeral to protest against war on drugs | MANILA (Reuters) - More than a thousand people attended a funeral procession on Saturday for a Philippine teenager slain by police last week, turning the march into one of the biggest protests yet against President Rodrigo Duterte s deadly war on drugs. The death of Kian Loyd delos Santos has drawn widespread attention to allegations that police have been systematically executing suspected users and dealers - a charge the authorities deny. Nuns, priests and hundreds of children, chanting justice for Kian, justice for all joined the funeral cortege as it made its way from a church to the cemetery where the 17-year-old was buried. Delos Santos father, Saldy, spoke briefly during a mass to defend his son s innocence and express anger over the police. Don t they have a heart? I m not sure they do. There s a lot of churches, they should go there, he said, his voice cracking with emotion. Delos Santos was dragged by plain-clothes policemen to a dark, trash-filled alley in northern Manila, before he was shot in the head and left next to a pigsty, according to witnesses whose accounts appeared to be backed up by CCTV footage. Police say they acted in self defense after delos Santos opened fire on them. The parents and lawyers of delos Santos filed a murder complaint against the three anti-narcotics policemen on Friday. If accepted, the complaint would follow at least two cases filed last year against police over Duterte s war on drugs, which has killed thousands of Filipinos, outraged human rights groups and alarmed Western governments. Delos Santos flower-draped coffin passed through a major highway on a small truck decorated with tarpaulins reading Run, Kian, Run and Stop the killings displayed on each side. Passing motorists honked in support. This is a sign that the people have had enough and are indignant over the impunity that prevails today, Renato Reyes, secretary general of left-wing activist group Bayan (Nation), said in a statement. The people protest the utter lack of accountability in the police force. Mourners, some of them wearing white shirts, held flowers and small flags, and placards denouncing the killing. A member of Rise Up, a Manila-based coalition of church-related groups opposing the drug war, told Reuters that families of about 20 victims joined the procession. I came to support the family. I want justice for Kian and all victims - including my son, said Katherine David, 35, whose 21-year-old son was shot dead by police with two other men in January. Department of Justice personnel armed with assault rifles were on guard during the procession and outside the church. Most people in the Philippines support the anti-drug campaign, and Duterte remains a popular leader but questions have begun to be asked since the death of delos Santos, which came during a spike in killings across the Philippines main island, Luzon, last week. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2ixnYFu) The president s communication office reiterated on Saturday he will not tolerate wrongdoing by law enforcers and called on the public to trust the justice system under the Duterte presidency. But bereaved mother David believes the response to Kian s killing marks a turning point in opposition to the drug war. There s been a big change. Before, police could kill and nobody paid attention. Now people are starting to show support and sympathy, she said. | worldnews | August 26, 2017 |
U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashes off Yemen, one service member missing | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashed off the coast of Yemen on Friday during a training mission and a search was under way for one U.S. service member, the U.S. military said. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that five other service members aboard the aircraft had been rescued after the crash, which took place about 20 miles (32 km) off the southern coast of Yemen at 7 p.m. (16000 GMT). A U.S. official told Reuters that the cause of the crash was under investigation. When the incident took place the helicopter was not very high above the water, CENTCOM spokesman Colonel John Thomas said. The United States has been carrying out air strikes against al Qaeda in Yemen, with at least 80 launched since the end of February. A small number of ground raids using U.S. Special Operations forces have also taken place, including one in January which resulted in the death of a U.S. Navy Seal. There have been a number of aviation mishaps involving U.S military aircraft in the past few months. The U.S. Coast Guard recently said that it had suspended its search off Hawaii for five Army aviators missing since their Black Hawk helicopter crashed earlier this month. In April, a Black Hawk U.S. Army helicopter crashed on a Maryland golf course, killing one crewmember and seriously injuring two others. Last month, a military transport plane crash killing 16 service members including elite special operations forces in northern Mississippi. | worldnews | August 26, 2017 |
Prosecutors target Guatemala president over campaign financing | GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s attorney general and a U.N-backed anti-graft body on Friday said they are seeking to investigate President Jimmy Morales over suspected illicit campaign financing. Ivan Velasquez, head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), told reporters there was evidence that Morales broke the law when he was head of the conservative National Convergence Front (FCN), and that prosecutors had filed a motion to investigate him. In order to advance the investigation, it s necessary to remove his immunity, said Velasquez, who on Thursday unveiled a probe into all political parties over suspected wrongdoing related to financing for the 2015 election campaign. To remove Morales immunity, prosecutors need the go-ahead from both the Supreme Court and a two-thirds majority in Congress. He could then be formally investigated and charged. In a statement, the president s office said, The President of the Republic has been and is respectful of the law and due process, and thus is confident in the objectivity of justice. Morales took office in 2016, winning the election on an anti-corruption ticket after the CICIG helped to bring down his predecessor over a multi-million-dollar corruption scandal. Earlier this week, two government officials told Reuters that Morales would ask U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to replace Velasquez, who is already investigating a graft case that involves the president s elder brother and one of his sons. He better have some really valid reasons ... to seek my removal from the post, said Velasquez, adding he would not resign. Morales met with Guterres in New York on Friday. The secretary-general reiterated his backing for Velasquez and the CICIG s work at the meeting, with Guterres citing the Organisation s continuing support to the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, the United Nations said in a statement. The president s office, in its statement, said it was worried about manipulation of information about the visit. The statement said Morales told Guterres it was important the CICIG stick to its original mandate. Guatemala s foreign minister, Carlos Morales, who is not related to the president, told Reuters that there had been no request made on Friday to remove Velasquez from office. In 2015, the CICIG was instrumental in removing former President Otto Perez from office after identifying him as a key player in an alleged multi-million-dollar corruption racket. Perez is now in prison on trial with his former vice president. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Trump slaps sanctions on Venezuela; Maduro sees effort to force default | CARACAS/WASHINGTON/ (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prohibits dealings in new debt from the Venezuelan government or its state oil company on Friday in an effort to halt financing that the White House said fuels President Nicolas Maduro s dictatorship. Maduro, who has frequently blamed the United States for waging an economic war on Venezuela, said the United States was seeking to force Venezuela to default but he said it would not succeed. The order is Washington s biggest sanctions blow to date against Maduro and is intended to punish his leftist government for what Trump has called an erosion of democracy in the oil-rich country, which is already reeling from an economic crisis. It suggests a weakening in already strained relations between the two countries. Just three days ago, Maduro said the relations between Caracas and Washington were at their lowest point ever. All they re trying to do to attack Venezuela is crazy, said Maduro on a TV broadcast on Friday. With the efforts of our people, it will fail and Venezuela will be stronger, more free, and more independent. Venezuela faces a severe recession with millions suffering food and medicine shortages and soaring inflation. The South American nation relies on oil for some 95 percent of export revenue. Citgo Petroleum [PDVSAC.UL], the U.S. refiner of Venezuela s ailing state-run oil company PDVSA, is practically being forced to close by the order, warned Maduro, adding that a preliminary analysis showed the sanctions would impede Venezuelan crude exports to the United States. He said he was calling urgent meetings with U.S. clients of Venezuelan oil. The new sanctions ban trade in any new issues of U.S.-dollar-denominated debt of the Venezuelan government and PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] because the ban applies to use of the U.S. financial system. As a result, it will be it tricky for PDVSA to refinance its heavy debt burden. Investors had expected that PDVSA would seek to ease upcoming payments through such an operation, as it did last year, which usually requires that new bonds be issued. Additional financial pressure on PDVSA could push the cash-strapped company closer to a possible default, or bolster its reliance on key allies China and Russia, which have already lent Caracas billions of dollars. They want us to fall into default, said Maduro, adding that just under two-thirds of Venezuelan bond holders are in the United States. Maduro insisted that Venezuela would continue paying its debts. The decision also blocks Citgo Petroleum from sending dividends back to the South American nation, a senior official said, in a further blow to PDVSA s coffers. However, the order stops short of a major ban on crude trading that could have disrupted Venezuela s oil industry and worsened the country s faltering economy. It also protects holders of most existing Venezuelan government and PDVSA bonds, who were relieved the sanctions did not go further. Venezuelan and PDVSA bonds were trading broadly higher on Friday afternoon. Maduro may no longer take advantage of the American financial system to facilitate the wholesale looting of the Venezuelan economy at the expense of the Venezuelan people, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday. Venezuela s Oil Ministry and PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. PDVSA, the financial engine of Maduro s government, is already struggling due to low global oil prices, mismanagement, allegations of corruption and a brain drain. Washington last month sanctioned PDVSA s finance vice president, Simon Zerpa, complicating some of the company s operations as Americans are now banned from doing business with him. Trump has so far spared Venezuela from broader sanctions against its vital oil industry, but officials have said such actions are under consideration. The Republican president has also warned of a military option for Venezuela, although White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on Friday that no such actions are anticipated in the near future. Venezuela has for months struggled to find financing because of PDVSA s cash flow problems and corruption scandals have led institutions to tread cautiously, regardless of sanctions. Russia and its state oil company Rosneft have emerged as an increasingly important source of financing for PDVSA, according to a Reuters report. On at least two occasions, the Venezuelan government has used Russian cash to avoid imminent defaults on payments to bondholders, a high-level PDVSA official told Reuters. At this point our view is that the country can scrape by without defaulting this year, largely with the help of Chinese and Russian backing and by further squeezing imports. Next year is a tossup, said Raul Gallegos, an analyst with the consultancy Control Risks. However, China has grown reticent to extend further loans because of payment delays and corruption. Russia has been negotiating financing in exchange for oil assets in Venezuela, sources have told Reuters, but going forward it would be difficult for the OPEC member to provide enough assets to keep up loans destined for bond payments. Venezuela s government has around $2 billion in available cash to make $1.3 billion in bond payments by the end of the year and to cover the import of food and medicine, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Belgian soldiers shoot dead knife attacker in Brussels | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian soldiers shot dead a man in the center of Brussels on Friday evening after he came at them with a knife shouting Allahu Akbar (God is great), in a case authorities are treating as a terrorist attack. The man, a 30-year-old Belgian of Somali origin, died after being rushed to hospital. The soldiers were not seriously hurt in the attack; one had a facial wound and the other s hand was wounded. Prosecutors said the man, who was not known for terrorist activities, had twice shouted Allahu Akbar during the attack, which occurred at around 8:15 p.m. local time (1815 GMT) just outside the city s central pedestrian zone while the soldiers were on patrol. The case passed from local to federal prosecutors, who typically handle terrorist cases. A spokeswoman for the prosecution service said they were treating the case as one of attempted terrorist murder. Brussels mayor Philip Close said the alert status, already just one off the maximum level, had not been increased. Initial indications are ... that it is an isolated attack, a single person, Close told reporters beside a street blocked by police. Soldiers routinely patrol the streets of the Belgian capital due to a heightened security alert level after Islamist shooting and bomb attacks in Paris in 2015 and Brussels in 2016. In June, troops shot dead a suspected suicide bomber at Brussels central train station. There were no other casualties. Authorities treated the incident as an attempted terrorist attack. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
At least 71 killed in Myanmar as Rohingya insurgents stage major attack | YANGON (Reuters) - Muslim militants in Myanmar staged a coordinated attack on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state on Friday, and at least 59 of the insurgents and 12 members of the security forces were killed, the army and government said. The fighting - still going on in some areas - marked a major escalation in a simmering conflict in the northwestern state since last October, when similar attacks prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses. The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, which instigated the October attacks, claimed responsibility for the early morning offensive, and warned of more. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar s most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule. It now appears to have spawned a potent insurgency which has grown in size, observers say. They worry that the attacks - much larger and better organized than those in October - will spark an even more aggressive army response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines. A news team affiliated with the office of national leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said that one soldier, one immigration officer, 10 policemen and 59 insurgents had been killed in the fighting. In the early morning at 1 a.m., the extremist Bengali insurgents started their attack on the police post ... with the man-made bombs and small weapons, said the army in a separate statement, referring to the Rohingya by a derogatory term implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh. The militants also used sticks and swords and destroyed bridges with explosives, the army said. The Rohingya are denied citizenship and are seen by many in Myanmar as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. The military counter-offensive in October resulted in some 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, where they joined many others who have fled from Myanmar over the past 25 years. The United Nations said Myanmar s security forces likely committed crimes against humanity in the offensive that began in October. On Friday, the United Nations condemned the militant attacks and called for all parties to refrain from violence. The United States also condemned the attacks on security forces and it warned the government against indiscriminate reprisals. As government and security forces act to prevent further violence and bring those responsible for the attacks to justice, we expect them to do so in a way that is consistent with the rule of law, protects and respects human rights and fundamental freedoms, demonstrates transparency, and avoids inflaming a tense situation, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. The military said about 150 Rohingya attacked an army base in Taung Bazar village in Buthidaung township. Among the police posts attacked was a station in the majority-Rakhine village of Kyauk Pandu, 40 km (24 miles) south of the major town of Maungdaw. Police officer Kyaw Win Tun said the insurgents burned down the post and police had been called to gather at a main station. Residents were fearful as darkness approached. We heard that a lot of Muslim villagers are grouping together, they will make more attacks on us when the sun goes down, said Maung Maung Chay, a Rakhine villager from the hamlet. The attack took place hours after a panel led by the former U.N. chief Kofi Annan advised the government on long-term solutions for the violence-riven state. Annan condemned the violence on Friday, saying no cause can justify such brutality and senseless killing . Military sources told Reuters they estimated 1,000 insurgents took part in the offensive and it encompassed both Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships - a much wider area compared with October. The leader of ARSA, Ata Ullah, has said hundreds of young Rohingya have joined the group, which says it is waging a legitimate defence against the army and for human rights. We have been taking our defensive actions against the Burmese marauding forces in more than 25 different places across the region. More soon! the group said on Twitter. Chris Lewa of the Rohingya monitoring group, the Arakan Project, said a major concern was what happened to some 700 Rohingya villagers trapped inside their section of Zay Di Pyin village which had been surrounded by Rakhine vigilantes armed with sticks and swords. We are running for our lives, said one of the Zay Di Pyin s Rohingya villagers reached by telephone, adding that houses had been set on fire. The government said the village had been burned down but blamed the fire on the Rohingya. Amid rising tension over the past few weeks, more than 1,000 new refugees have fled to Bangladesh, where border guards on Friday pushed back 146 people trying to flee the violence. Mohammed Shafi, who lives in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, said his cousin in Myanmar had told him of the trouble. The military is everywhere. People are crying, mourning the dead, Shafi said. Things are turning real bad. It s scary. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Saudi cleric condemns inter-Muslim conflict ahead of pilgrimage | MECCA (Reuters) - The imam of Mecca s Grand Mosque denounced those who cause conflict among Muslims in his last Friday sermon before the annual haj pilgrimage, as rifts widen among Gulf neighbors and wars rage across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, which hosts and supervises the haj, has with other Arab governments imposed sanctions on Qatar and cut all transport links with the country in recent months, accusing it of supporting Iran and backing Islamist terrorism - charges Doha denies. Relations between Shi ite Muslim-led Iran and predominately Sunni Saudi Arabia are at their worst in years, with each accusing the other of subverting regional security and supporting opposite sides in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Anyone who causes conflict and discord among Muslims ignores the blessing of harmony, imitates those who lived in ignorance (before Islam), harms his people and cheats his nation, Sheikh Saleh Mohammed al-Taleb told the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who have flocked to Mecca from around the world to perform the haj next week. Taleb did not directly refer to the political and military divisions in the Arab world that have killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more in recent years. Nearly 90,000 Iranians are expected to attend, after Tehran boycotted Mecca last year following a crush at the pilgrimage in 2015 in which hundreds of people died, many of them Iranians. Saudi officials say over 400 Qatari pilgrims have also arrived through the land border in recent days, but Qatar has accused Saudi Arabia of deliberately making it hard for them. Saudi Arabia says Qatar is seeking to politicize the ritual for diplomatic gains. The dispute has defied mediation attempts by the United States and Kuwait. Worshippers on Friday filled the mosque s haram sanctuary, the holiest place in Islam, and spilled into nearby streets, malls, hotel lobbies and garages, listening to the sermon through loudspeakers. An elderly Tunisian pilgrim named Bakari Abdel Jalil attended in a white shirt and cap while other worshippers donned customary white robes. He said he hoped regional tensions would not affect the haj. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Suicide attack on Kabul Shi'ite mosque kills at least 30 | KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a Shi ite Muslim mosque in Kabul as other attackers stormed the building, killing at least 30 people including worshippers gathering for Friday prayers, officials said. Islamic State, which has launched several attacks against minority Shi ite targets in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility, the jihadist group s news agency said. The assault sparked chaos as worshippers fled and others frantically searched for missing family members. The attackers are slaughtering people like sheep but there s no one to go and rescue them, said Murtaza, a young boy whose parents were trapped inside as the attack unfolded. A lot of people are on the ground and no one is trying to rescue them. By Friday evening police said they had secured the mosque in the Khair Khana area of the capital, and all three attackers were dead. Witnesses said they had thrown grenades, and police officials said a suicide bomber detonated himself at the gate. A second suicide bomber detonated among a group of women in the mosque, an official said. Security sources put the overall toll at 30 people killed and dozens wounded. At least 10 civilians were killed, including women and children, while another 30 were wounded, Ministry of Interior spokesman Najib Danish said earlier in the day. At least three policemen were also killed and eight wounded, he said. Police said they rescued more than 100 worshippers. At least 15 of the wounded were taken to city hospitals, said Ismail Kawosi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health. One witness, Sayed Pacha, said four attackers had entered the mosque. At first a suicide bomber opened fire and martyred two security guards at the entrance of the mosque and then they entered inside, he told Reuters. Human rights activists condemned the attack, the latest in a campaign of sectarian violence. Insurgents who carry out atrocities against a specific ethnic or religious community are committing war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, Patricia Gossman, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
New sanctions aim to restrict Venezuela access to U.S. debt market | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that new sanctions imposed against Venezuela were aimed at hobbling the regime of President Nicolas Maduro by restricting the country s access to U.S. debt and equity markets. We urge those within the regime, including those who have been sanctioned, to distance themselves from the violence and the dictatorship, Mnuchin told reporters at the White House. He said the sanctions were not aimed at changing leadership in Venezuela. White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said at the same news conference that United States had no plans to take military action in Venezuela, but that President Donald Trump intended to take advantage of a broad range of ... integrated options in the future. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Shot and dumped by a pigsty: a schoolboy killed in Philippines drugs war | MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine teenager Kian Loyd delos Santos told friends he dreamed of becoming a policeman after graduating from high school. Last week, plain-clothes policemen dragged the 17-year-old to a dark, trash-filled alley in northern Manila, shot him in the head and left his body next to a pigsty, according to witnesses whose accounts appeared to be backed up by CCTV footage. The killing has electrified the Philippines, sparked multiple investigations and galvanized what had previously been limited opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte s war on drugs. Thousands of people have been killed since he took office 14 months ago. Police said they shot delos Santos in self-defense after he opened fire on officers during an anti-drugs operation. But there was outrage when the CCTV footage emerged showing two officers marching a figure, subdued and apparently unarmed, toward the spot where the youth s body was later found. Three officers, who police say have been confined to quarters in a Manila police camp, are now defending their actions in a Senate inquiry that began on Thursday. They maintain delos Santos fired at them. The teenager s parents and the Philippines Public Attorney s Office, a government legal aid agency, have filed murder charges against the policemen at the justice department. Let us allow the formal criminal investigation to proceed and not rush into conclusion or judgment. Let us allow the personnel involved to have their day in court and defend themselves, Philippines National Police spokesman Dionardo Carlos said when asked about the case. Reuters journalists spoke to at least two dozen witnesses, friends and neighbors of delos Santos in Manila s Caloocan area about his killing. They said he was a kind, popular teenager who liked to joke around and didn t drink or do drugs. He was too poor to own a gun, they said. We no longer have our joker, said one of his friends, Sharmaine Joy Adante, 15. She said delos Santos had wanted to join the police so that his mother, who works in Saudi Arabia, could afford to live in her own country. Nearby, at the entrance to his family s tiny home, delos Santos lay in an open coffin. Among the tributes placed on its lid was a crumpled playing card - a joker - and a live chick to symbolically peck away at the conscience of his killers. Some locals said they feared reprisals from the police for speaking out and asked Reuters to withhold their second names. It was after 8 p.m. on August 16 when Erwin Lachica, 37, a welder, said he saw three men in civilian clothes enter the area on two motorbikes. All three had handguns tucked into their waistbands, he said. Lachica recognized them as officers from previous police operations in the neighborhood. They were later identified as Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz. According to a police report issued a day after the killing, when the teenager saw officers approaching, he immediately drew a weapon and shot at them. Oares, who led the operation, returned fire and killed him, it said. It was dark, he fired at us, Pereda told the Senate inquiry this week. We knew it was a gun, there was a loud sound. We saw a gleam of light. Police have cited self-defense as the pretext for killing more than 3,500 people in drug-war operations since Duterte came to power. Lachica had a different version of events. He said delos Santos was standing outside a shop when the men grabbed him, and then slapped and punched him until he started crying. No gunbattle took place, he said. He was saying he was innocent, he was not a drug addict, added Lachica, who said the men put delos Santos in a headlock and dragged him away. CCTV footage from a neighborhood security camera shows two men marching someone, his head bowed, through a nearby basketball court. A third man follows. The officers told the Senate that they were indeed in the video but were bundling away an informant, not delos Santos. Multiple witnesses, however, told Reuters they recognized the youth. One of those witnesses was Victor, a teenage student, who said he knew delos Santos because he lived in the neighborhood. He said the men hustled delos Santos across the basketball court and down a path to the filthy, flood-prone Tullahan River. Victor dared not follow. We were very scared, he recalled, his eyes filling with tears. Delos Santos life ended in a dark nook next to a disused pigsty by the river. A few paces away, a 39-year-old construction worker called Rene was eating dinner with his two daughters in his home. First, said Rene, he heard shouting - a man ordering residents to stay inside their houses - then two bursts of gunfire, perhaps 10 shots in all. We hid under the table, he said. We didn t even peek out the window. Three other residents told Reuters they heard between seven and nine shots. Others said they heard nothing at all: Manila slums are seething, raucous places, where even gunfire can be drowned out. Autopsies by the police and the Public Attorney s Office disagreed on the number of gunshot wounds delos Santos sustained, but pathologists for both told the Senate that he was kneeling when shot. You are not allowed to kill a person that is kneeling down begging for his life. That is murder, Duterte said in a speech on Wednesday. Duterte s supporters have taken to blogs and social media to express support for the police and raise doubts about delos Santos innocence. But the killing appears to have kindled grave concerns among the public because of the age of the victim and because the video supported witness accounts of his killing. It has also fueled longstanding public anxiety about the drug war s brutal methods, and could generate wider opposition to a campaign whose critics have so far been largely limited to priests, activists, lawyers and a handful of prominent politicians. Still, Duterte remains popular, said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Manila-based Institute for Political and Electoral Reform. It s not really a tipping point, he said. But Duterte is vulnerable. His popularity will take a hit. Delos Santos death was the culmination of a spike in killings across the Philippines main island, Luzon. That same night, police shot dead at least 28 people in Manila during multiple operations to crack down on drugs and crime. Two nights before that, in Bulacan province, just north of the capital, police killed 32 people. Some rights activists saw the upsurge as a government bid to regain credibility lost after Duterte s recent admission that no president could solve the drug problem in a single term. He had originally vowed to end it within six months of taking office. Many critics question the drug war s focus on killing petty users and dealers from poor communities, rather than nabbing the kingpins who supply them with crystal meth, a highly addictive stimulant known locally as shabu that officials blame for high crime rates and other social ills. In a speech this week, Duterte said he had told his police chief to jail the officers involved in the delos Santos killing until an inquiry was conducted. He also vowed to continue the drug war. If you want, shoot me. But I will not change my policy, he said later. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told Reuters that there were lessons to be learned from the events. Kian s case is a wake-up call for the need to reform government institutions, even law enforcement agencies, he said. For a graphic on death of a schoolboy, click: here | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
In stinging attack, France's Macron says Poland isolating itself in Europe | VARNA, Bulgaria/WARSAW (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday Poland was isolating itself within the European Union and Polish citizens deserve better than a government at odds with the bloc s democratic values and economic reform plans. Macron said Warsaw, where a nationalist, eurosceptic government took office in 2015, was moving in the opposite direction to Europe on numerous issues and would not be able to dictate the path of Europe s future. Poland rejected the accusations, saying Macron was inexperienced and arrogant. Europe is a region created on the basis of values, a relationship with democracy and public freedoms which Poland is today in conflict with, Macron said in Bulgaria on the third leg of a trip to central and eastern Europe to generate support for his vision of a Europe that better protects its citizens. He described Poland s refusal to change its stance on a revision of the EU s directive on posted workers - cheap labor from eastern countries posted temporarily to more affluent western countries - as a mistake. Macron has said the practice leads to unfair competition. In no way will the decision by a country that has decided to isolate itself in the workings of Europe jeopardize the finding of an ambitious compromise, he said. In a scathing attack that could drag relations between western EU powers and the European Commission in Brussels on one side and Poland s Law and Justice Party (PiS) government on the other to a new low, he said the Polish people deserved better. Poland is not defining Europe s future today and nor will it define the Europe of tomorrow, Macron said at a joint press conference with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev in the Black Sea resort city of Varna. In response, Poland s Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said Macron, 39, a former investment banker elected in May as France s youngest president, lacked political experience and accused him of undermining the EU. I advise the president that he should be more conciliatory ... Perhaps his arrogant comments are a result of a lack of (political) experience, Szydlo said in a statement emailed to Reuters. I advise the president that he should focus on the affairs of his own country. Perhaps he may be able to achieve the same economic results and the same level of security for (French) citizens as those guaranteed by Poland. Her comments were an indirect reference to her government s insistence that it will not accept migrants from the Middle East, despite pressure from Brussels, because it believes they pose a threat to national security. France has been hit hard by deadly Islamist militant attacks in recent years. The Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had urgently summoned the French charg d affaires to express the Polish government s indignation about the arrogant words of Macron. It quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Marek Magierowski as saying Poland expects that France will abandon language that is divisive and which damages the unity of the EU . Relations between Szydlo s Law and Justice (PiS) party and the French government deteriorated soon after it won election in late 2015. In October 2016, Poland abruptly canceled a nearly $4 billion military procurement deal with Airbus. Macron s election deepened the rift, with the French globalization advocate fanning worries in Warsaw that his vision of a multi-speed Europe would undermine Polish influence within the European Union. French officials have expressed concerns about Poland, and Hungary, drifting towards authoritarianism and said Macron would also make a defense of the rule of law and democratic principles one of the priorities of his mandate on the European stage. On his three-day tour Macron sought backing for his plans to tighten EU rules on the employment abroad of labor from low-pay nations. Poland strongly opposes this initiative. While posted workers comprise less than 1 percent of the EU work force, it is a political hot potato that has exacerbated the divide between the bloc s poor east and rich west for years. Macron managed to enlist the broad support of Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the lukewarm backing of Romania, all countries which fear being sidelined in a multi-speed EU, whereas Poland and Hungary remain defiant of what they see as an out-of-touch EU elite based in Brussels and Western capitals. Poland is at loggerheads with the European Commission, the Brussels-based EU executive, over issues ranging from its refusal to accept EU migrant relocation quotas to the ruling conservatives tightening grip on the judiciary and media. Macron shunned both Poland and Hungary on his trip through the region. He said he wanted Bulgaria - like Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia a former communist state that joined the EU much later than western counterparts - to be at the negotiating table on European integration. On the posted worker rules, Bulgaria s Radev said the EU needed to balance the interests of countries in the rich west and the poor east. It is important that changes are made in a way that unites rather than divides Europe, he said. Current EU rules allow workers to be posted from low-salary countries to other EU states on contracts that must guarantee the host country s minimum wage, but under which taxes and social charges are paid in the home nation. Poland and Hungary say increased restrictions on such contracts would flout the principles of the European single market and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Vatican prepared in case of Barcelona-style attack: Swiss Guard chief | VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - It is perhaps only a matter of time before Rome is hit by a Barcelona-style attack but security forces are ready in case the Vatican is targeted, the head the Swiss Guard has said. Security has been stepped up at religious sites throughout Italy, including at the Vatican, since last year, when a truck driven by a suspected Islamist militant killed 86 people in the French city of Nice. Barriers and police and army vehicles have been placed around St. Peter s Basilica to make it harder for a vehicle to gather speed in an attack such as the one last week in Barcelona, which killed 13 people. Despite threats from Islamic State, Rome and other Italian cities have so far been spared the kind of vehicle attacks that have also hit Nice, London, and Berlin. It could perhaps be just a matter of time before there is such an attack in Rome, but we are prepared, Christoph Graf, the commandant of the Swiss Guard, was quoted as telling the Swiss Catholic website Cath.ch. Graf, referring to the attack in Barcelona, spoke on the sidelines of a religious ceremony in the Swiss city of Solothurn earlier this week. Websites linked to Islamic State militants have made threats against Catholic targets in Rome in recent years. In 2015 in a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, one of the killers said: Safety for you crusaders is something you can only wish for ... We will conquer Rome, by the will of Allah. At about the same time a website used by militants ran a photo montage showing the movement s black flag flying from the obelisk at the center of St Peter s Square. The Swiss Guard has its origins as a papal protection force in the 16th century and numbers about 110 men, all of Swiss nationality. It shares responsibility for the protection of the pope and the Vatican with a police force of about the same size. Italian police are responsible for patrolling the Vatican s external perimeter in Rome. Both Vatican security forces are trained in anti-terrorism tactics and in the use of modern weapons. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
In photos, North Korea signals a more powerful ICBM in the works | SEOUL (Reuters) - With photographs obliquely showing a new rocket design, North Korea has sent a message that it is working on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) more powerful than any it has previously tested, weapons experts said on Thursday. If developed, such a missile could possibly reach any place on the U.S. mainland, including Washington and New York, they said. North Korea s state media published photographs late on Wednesday of leader Kim Jong Un standing next to a diagram of a three-stage rocket it called the Hwasong-13. Missile experts, who scrutinize such pictures for clues about North Korea s weapons programs, said there is no indication the rocket has been fully developed. In any case, it had not been flight tested and it was impossible to calculate its potential range. However, a three-stage rocket would be more powerful than the two-stage Hwasong-14 ICBM tested twice in July, they said. South Korean and U.S. officials and experts have said the Hwasong-14 may have a range of about 10,000 km (6,200 miles) and could possibly strike many parts of the United States, but not the East Coast. We should be looking at Hwasong-13 as a 12,000-km class ICBM that can strike all of the mainland United States, said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Seoul s Kyungnam University. It s likely meant to show that they are working on a three-stage design with greater boost and range, said retired Brigadier General Moon Sung-muk, an arms control expert who has represented South Korea in military talks with North Korea. He said the pictures were intended to show that North Korea was refusing to bow to international pressure to abandon its weapons programs. The North is trying to be in control of the playing field, Moon said. Wednesday s report carried by the KCNA news agency lacked the traditionally robust threats against the United States, and U.S. President Donald Trump expressed optimism about a possible improvement in relations. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said it was unclear if the photos were taken before or after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday welcomed what he called the restraint North Korea had shown recently in its weapons programs and said he hoped a path could be opening for dialogue sometime in the near future. We consider it overall a good first step that there haven t been any missile launches or testing for ...three-plus weeks or so, Nauert told a regular briefing. However Pyongyang needed to do a lot more to show it was willing to negotiate in good faith, she said. The photographs were accompanied by a report of Kim issuing instructions for the production of more rocket engines and warheads during a visit to the Academy of Defense Sciences, an agency he set up to develop ballistic missiles. We re getting a look at it to emphasize domestic production of missiles, and to advertise what s coming next, said Joshua Pollack, a nuclear weapon and missile systems expert who edits the U.S.-based Nonproliferation Review. The photographs were published as tensions between North Korea and the United States appeared to have eased slightly since North Korea tested the Hwasong-14 and later threatened to fire missiles toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. Kyungnam University s Kim said the Hwasong-13 appeared similar to the KN-08, a three-stage missile of which only a mockup has previously been seen at military parades. But the new images show a modified design for the main booster stage that clusters two engines. Another picture published by North Korean state media showed Kim Jong Un standing next to a rocket casing that appeared to be made of a material that could include plastic. Experts said if such material were used in the missile, it would be intended to reduce weight and boost range. The photographs also showed the design for the Pukguksong-3, likely a new solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile being developed for submarine launches. (For a graphic on North Korean missile ranges click tmsnrt.rs/2t6WEPL) | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Indian protests after 'godman' convicted of rape kill 29 | PANCHKULA, India (Reuters) - Violent protests erupted in India s Haryana state on Friday, killing at least 29 people, after a court convicted a self-styled godman of raping two women, angering thousands of his supporters who said he was innocent, the state chief minister said. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the head of a social welfare and spiritual group, was found guilty of raping two followers in a case dating back to 2002 at the headquarters of his Dera Sacha Sauda group in the northern town of Sirsa. Supporters rampaged in response, attacking railway stations, petrol stations and television vans in towns across the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, witnesses said. At least 29 people were killed in Panchkula town where the court returned its verdict on Singh and more than 200 people were injured in Haryana state. We tried to prevent the unrest in every possible way, but the protesters were totally out of control, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal told Reuters. All the injured are getting the best treatment in government hospitals, he said. Dozens of cars were burning in Panchkula town while a bloodied body lay in the middle of a road. About 500 army soldiers were deployed to restore order. The situation is coming under control, federal home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said in New Delhi. Television footage showed frantic scenes outside a hospital in Panchkula, with medical staff hurriedly transferring injured patients from ambulances on to wheelchairs and stretchers. Smoke could be seen rising in another part of town. Singh commands a following that he claims is in the millions, many of them elderly men and women in the countryside, drawn by his social welfare programs such as medical camps and disaster relief. The court, which held him guilty of rape, set his sentencing for Monday when there could be more protests. He faces a minimum of seven years in prison. Singh, a burly, bearded man who has scripted and starred in his own films, had denied the charges. He had called on his followers through a video message to remain peaceful. A.K. Dhir, one of his lawyers, said Singh was innocent and his followers had every right to express their outrage. Protests also erupted in Punjab, New Delhi and the neighboring state of Rajasthan. Supporters of Singh set fire to some buses and two empty train coaches in the capital. Nearly 1,000 members of his Sacha Sauda group were detained. A close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said federal and state officials had been instructed to work round the clock to restore law and order. The instances of violence today are deeply distressing. I strongly condemn the violence & urge everyone to maintain peace, Modi said on Twitter. Some Indian holy men can summon thousands of supporters onto the streets. Their systems of patronage and sermons are hugely popular with people who consider the government has failed them. In 2014, the attempted arrest of another guru on murder charges ended with his followers attacking police with clubs and stones. Television channels showed motorcycles, cars and buses in flames in Panchkula as hundreds of police personnel in riot gear watched helplessly. The mob also toppled a TV outdoor broadcasting van, while several news channels said their journalists were targeted. Besides the rape charges, Singh is also under investigation over allegations that he convinced 400 of his male followers to undergo castration, allegations he denies. A variety of reasons have been given for why the men agreed to castration, including promises of becoming closer to god. Singh s two films, Messenger of God and its sequel, include sequences in which he fights off villains and tosses burning motorbikes into the air. In his spiritual avatar, Singh dresses in plain white traditional clothes, giving sermons or planting trees. In the movies he dons bejewelled costumes, rides motorbikes and sends bad guys flying. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Spain to push EU leaders for better counter-terrorism coordination | MADRID (Reuters) - Spain will ask the leaders of France, Italy and Germany to discuss cross-border counter-terrorism at a summit in Paris on Monday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Friday after dual attacks in Catalonia. Rajoy praised the police response despite mounting questions over poor communication between different investigators and an informal tip-off from Belgium which failed to prevent Spain s deadliest attacks in over a decade. He told a news conference he wanted European Union partners to analyze the current cooperation mechanisms ... and look at options to boost them and improve them. A van plowed into a crowd in Barcelona last week, killing 13 people. Two others were killed during the driver s getaway and in a separate car and knife attack in the Catalan coastal resort of Cambrils. The assaults have drawn scrutiny over how intelligence is shared within Europe as well as within Spain, where regional police operate alongside national forces. Belgium gave police in Catalonia, a region in northeastern Spain, a tip-off in 2016 about one of the suspects, Abdelbaki Es Satty, in the cell behind the attacks. But the warning was made through unofficial channels. Catalan police records turned up nothing linking Es Satty, a Moroccan-born imam who was living in the small Catalan town of Ripoll, to Islamist militancy at the time. Authorities are also investigating possible French links to the cell as some of the attackers visited Paris in the run-up to the assaults. Of the 12 suspects linked to the attacks, six were shot dead by police and two died in an explosion before the van rampage. Two are in custody on charges of murder and membership of a terrorist organization, and two have been freed on certain conditions. Rajoy sought to play down the rift between his government and separatist leaders in Catalonia who plan an independence referendum on Oct. 1. that Madrid says would be illegal. In the fight against terrorism, we are stronger if we set aside our differences ... Political unity is fundamental, Rajoy said. Carles Puigdemont, the Catalonian leader, said in an interview published on Friday that the Spanish government had deliberately underfunded the region s police force. We asked them not to play politics with security ... Unfortunately, the Spanish government had other priorities, Puigdemont told the Financial Times. Spain s King Felipe and politicians from both Madrid and Catalonia plan to attend a demonstration in Barcelona on Saturday. Residents and local officials in Cambrils, the scene of the second attack last week, were due to march on Friday under the slogan We are all Cambrils. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Slovak government leaders strike new coalition deal to defuse crisis | BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak government leaders agreed on Friday to amend a coalition agreement to lure back a junior party which withdrew its support for the alliance three weeks ago, provoking a political crisis. The Slovak National Party (SNS), junior member in a three-party coalition, canceled the coalition agreement on Aug. 7, calling for a new deal that would give it more say in decision-making. Now leaders of the three parties Prime Minister Robert Fico of leftist Smer, ethnic-Hungarian party Most-Hid leader Bela Bugar and SNS s Andrej Danko have agreed to hold regular weekly meetings to meet the SNS s appeal for better communication within the coalition. Danko also complained on Thursday that co-ruling with Fico s Smer was difficult because both parties address the same voters. According to opinion poll by Polis agency, SNS support fell to 7.2 percent in August from 8.6 percent in March 2016 election. The government needs the votes of all three coalition parties to maintain a majority in the 150-seat parliament and Fico struck a conciliatory tone on Friday. There is no alternative to this government. We have to find new ways to communicate, to understand each other better, Fico told journalists. SNS has argued for more government investment to revitalize thermal spa resorts and wants a national airline to be set up while Smer says spending must not endanger reaching a balanced budget planned for 2019. Opposition lawmakers have alleged the SNS pulled out of the coalition to divert attention from a row over the distribution of 300 million euros ($351.69 million) in EU subsidies by the education ministry. The conflict escalated last week when Fico demanded Education Minister Peter Plavcan s resignation over the alleged mismanagement of the subsidies managed by his department. Slovak media have reported that the ministry chose several companies with no history in research or innovation as recipients of EU subsidies aimed at supporting science. SNS leader Andrej Danko said the allegations of the misappropriation of funds were unfounded but agreed to replace Plavcan. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Indian court's privacy ruling is blow to government | (Story corrects to fix spelling in paragraph 10 to Jagdish not Jagdeep) By Suchitra Mohanty and Rahul Bhatia NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - India s top court unanimously ruled on Thursday that individual privacy is a fundamental right, a verdict that will impact everything from the way companies handle personal data to the roll-out of the world s largest biometric ID card program. A nine-member bench of India s Supreme Court announced the ruling in a major setback for the Narendra Modi-led government, which argued that privacy was not a fundamental right protected by the constitution. The court ordered that two earlier rulings by large benches that said privacy was not fundamental in 1954 and 1962 now stood overruled, and it declared privacy was an intrinsic part of the right to life and liberty and part of the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution. This is a blow to the government because the government had argued that people don t have a right to privacy, said Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer involved in the case. Constitutional experts believe the judgment has a bearing on broader civil rights, and a law that criminalizes homosexuality. Lawyers say the judgment will also have an impact on a ban on the consumption of beef in many states and alcohol in some states. In his personal conclusion, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul wrote privacy is a fundamental right and it protects the inner sphere of an individual from interference from both state and non-state actors and lets individuals make autonomous life choices. The privacy of the home must protect the family, marriage, procreation and sexual orientation, Kaul wrote. The ruling is the second landmark decision to come from the Supreme Court this week. On Tuesday it ruled that a law allowing Muslim men to divorce their wives instantly by uttering the word talaq three times was unconstitutional, in a major victory for Muslim women who have spent decades arguing it violated their right to equality. The privacy judgment was delivered at the end of the tenure of the chief justice of India, Jagdish Singh Khehar, who retires in a few days. It comes against the backdrop of a large multi-party case against the mandatory use of national identity cards, known as Aadhaar, as an infringement of privacy. There have also been concerns over data breaches. India s Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said the ruling was an affirmation of the government s stand that privacy was a fundamental right, but subject to reasonable restrictions. He said it was not a setback to the government s plans for Aadhaar, and noted that the court is separately looking into the legality of the Aadhaar Act. Critics say the ID card links enough data to create a full profile of a person s spending habits, their friends, property they own and a trove of other information. Aadhaar, which over one billion Indians have already signed up for, was set up to be a secure form of digital identification for citizens, one that they could use for government services. But as it was rolled out, concerns arose about privacy, data security and recourse for citizens in the face of data leaks and other issues. Over time, Aadhaar has been made mandatory for the filing of tax returns and operating bank accounts. Companies have also pushed to gain access to Aadhaar details of customers. Those opposed to the growing demand for Aadhaar data cheered the ruling. Truly a victorious week for India - upholding liberty, dignity and freedom for all, Jyotiraditya Scindia, a member of parliament from the opposition Congress party, said in a tweet. Bhushan, the senior lawyer involved in the case, said while government demands for the use of Aadhaar for tax purposes could be considered reasonable, any demands for the use of Aadhaar for travel bookings and other purchases could now be questioned in the face of the ruling. The fact that there was no dissent is an important thing, said Raman Chima, policy director at Access Now, which defends digital rights. They made it clear that the government has to protect privacy. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Britain will not pay 'a penny more' than it thinks right to leave EU: Boris Johnson | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will pay not a penny more, not a penny less than what the government thinks its legal obligations are to the European Union as the country leaves the bloc, foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday. Talking to BBC Radio Four, Johnson said his comment that the EU could go whistle on its demands for payment was in response to being asked whether Britain would pay 100 billion euros or pounds , and not a suggestion that the government would not pay. A financial settlement is set to be one of the most difficult issues to resolve in negotiations to unravel more than 40 years of union, and the EU has said it is one of three areas the two sides must make progress on before starting talks on a future relationship, including trading arrangements. Some of the sums that I ve seen seem to be very high. Of course, we will meet our obligations, Johnson said. We should pay not a penny more, not a penny less of what we think our legal obligations amount to. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Brexit bill gets bigger as euro strengthens | LONDON (Reuters) - As Britain s pound declines against the euro, talk has begun to circulate about the potential for parity. Less noted, however, is the fact that the more the pound weakens and euro strengthens the more the eventual leaving bill Britain will pay the European Union may cost. The bill in pounds, if it came today, would have risen nearly 17 percent since the vote to leave the EU in June 2016 1.4 percent since mid-August alone. Britain and the EU return to the negotiating table on Monday with the leaving bill high on the agenda. A net 60 billion euros ($70.8 billion) has been floated in Brussels. It has been shot down by British officials. Were it to be correct, however, Britain would now owe around 9.4 billion pounds ($12 billion) more than it would have at the time of the vote. For a graphic on the Brexit bill, click: reut.rs/2iw4pNQ | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Morocco's 'mule' women scratch a living on Spanish enclave border | MELILLA, Spain (Reuters) - In a winding early-morning queue, Jemaa Laalaoua hunches over with 50 kg (110 lb) of kitchenware on her back, waiting to cross back into Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla. The 41-year-old mother of eight is one of thousands of Moroccans who eke out a living by walking loads of merchandise from Melilla into the northern Moroccan province of Nador. Goods including metal kettles that Laalaoua was carrying are counted as personal luggage and are not taxed, allowing for a small mark-up when they are shipped on and sold on across Morocco. On average, I earn about 70 dirhams ($7.40) per trip, carrying anywhere between 40 to 70 kg, says Laalaoua. But most days, we never know how much we will make. The work is backbreaking and fraught with risk. Some traders have died in stampedes through the tight border crossing. We say our prayers in the morning and brace for the day, not knowing if we will come out dead or alive, Laalaoua says. She lifts undergarments to display bruises on her leg from a Spanish Civil Guard s truncheon. She says she was beaten for attempting to advance towards the front of the queue. No one from the Civil Guard in Melilla was available to comment. When Laalaoua finally gets through the narrowly caged border crossing, she weaves through the crowd to drop off her cargo inside the bustling Beni Ansar market, before rushing back to a Melilla warehouse where she will load up for her last trip of the day. Locals with an address in the Nador province are allowed to cross through into Melilla without a visa, but cannot spend more than a day in the Spanish enclave. They can cross for five hours a day, four days a week. In total, there are between 30,000-40,000 crossings daily, according to the Spanish border police. The practice has been going on for decades. Before, it was dominated by single mothers known locally as mule women , who struggled to make a living elsewhere. But as unemployment has climbed, the women have increasingly found themselves in competition with young men. Each morning the women report to a boss who tasks them with transporting an assigned quantity of goods, coordinating with warehouse owners and shippers. By 5 a.m. crowds of hundreds swell to thousands, as people wait for Spanish guards to open the border gates. Male traders fight and women shout and scream as the jostle for a place in the crush. Most manage to make two or three crossings before the border shuts again. The merchandise spans everything from simple household goods such as towels, toilet paper, and soap, to illicit wares including alcohol and plastic bags, which have been banned in Morocco since last year. Laalaoua lives nearly 27 km (17 miles) from the border, waking up at 2 a.m. to prepare for her commute, by foot then taxi or bus. Her husband Mohammed Zoubah, 57, fell ill six years ago, forcing Laalaoua to become the primary breadwinner. She s strong, she s protecting this household, he says. May God bless her with patience. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
In their best red stilettos, German transvestites stomp on AfD | BERLIN (Reuters) - German drag queens are using satire to spoof a hard-right party s anti-Islam election campaign, and German voters are loving it. They have formed Transvestites for Germany, or TfD, a name that bears an uncanny resemblance to Alternative for Germany (AfD), the name of Germany s leading right-wing party, and launched a Facebook campaign that has almost 7,000 followers. The AfD s election campaign focuses on messages that Islamic customs don t belong in Germany. That has left a bad taste with many Germans, and TfD saw an opportunity to use drag fashion and wit to mock the AfD s own election placards. The AfD posters feature white German women in bikinis or raising wine glasses, with captions like Burka? I m into bikinis and Burka? I m into Burgundy . The posters are emblazoned with the party s election motto: I dare you, Germany! The TfD version of the posters uses the AfD s light blue party color but replaces the anti-immigrant party s red arrow with red stiletto shoes. Guzzle your crap Burgundy alone! I prefer prosecco, reads one poster with a picture of Gisela Sommer, one of several bearded men dressed like women and raising a middle finger on TfD placards, which include the hashtags #NoAfD and #NoNaziPack. JACKY-OH WEINHAUS The TfD campaign has drawn the attention of several German newspapers and has brought some flare to an otherwise largely dull election. Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to win and secure a fourth term in office without much trouble. I don t think that all AfD members are Nazis, but there is an appalling racial tone in this party which is for sure shared by many of its members, said TfD leader Jacky-Oh Weinhaus. Buffalo Meus, the media manager of the fictional party, said he gets about 50 Facebook messages a day from people asking how they can become TfD members. We just wanted an art project, Meus said. But some people have taken us for a real party. They ask us, how can I register? How can I vote for you? Not all the messages are pleasant. Other readers have wished the group members death by stoning or by hanging. The group s main goal is get the 17 million Germans who stayed home in the 2013 election to the polls. They hope their votes will cut into support for the AfD, which is forecast to enter parliament for the first time with 8 to 10 percent of the vote. Instead of supporting the AfD, the only party that criticizes Islam, you go against it, an angry Facebook user called Hans Horn wrote to TfD this week. If Islamisation continues and Muslim invaders from Africa continue to flood in you will be the first to be thrown from high roofs. The TfD responded two days later: We love you and wish you a sunny Wednesday! | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Samsung leader Jay Y. Lee given five-year jail sentence for bribery | SEOUL (Reuters) - The billionaire head of South Korea s Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was sentenced to five years in jail for bribery on Friday in a watershed for the country s decades-long economic order dominated by powerful, family-run conglomerates. After a six-month trial over a scandal that brought down the then president, Park Geun-hye, a court ruled that Lee had paid bribes in anticipation of favours from Park. The court also found Lee guilty of hiding assets abroad, embezzlement and perjury. Lee, the 49-year-old heir to one of the world s biggest corporate empires, has been held since February on charges that he bribed Park to help secure control of a conglomerate that owns Samsung Electronics, the world s leading smartphone and chip maker, and has interests ranging from drugs and home appliances to insurance and hotels. Lee, who emerged stony-faced from the Seoul courtroom in a dark suit, but without a tie, and holding a document envelope, was escorted by justice ministry officials back to his detention centre. This case is a matter of Lee Jae-yong and Samsung Group executives, who had been steadily preparing for Lee s succession ... bribing the president, Seoul Central District Court Judge Kim Jin-dong said, using Lee s Korean name. Kim said that as the group s heir apparent, Lee stood to benefit the most from any political favours for Samsung. Lee denied wrongdoing, and one of his lawyers, Song Wu-cheol, said he would appeal. The entire guilty verdict is unacceptable, Song said, adding he was confident his client s innocence would be affirmed by a higher court. The case is expected to be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court, likely next year. The five year-sentence - one of the longest given to a South Korean business leader - is a landmark for South Korea, where the family-run conglomerates - or chaebols - have long been revered for helping transform the once war-ravaged country into a global economic powerhouse. But they have more recently been criticized for holding back the economy and stifling small businesses and start-ups. Samsung, a symbol of the country s rise from poverty following the 1950-53 Korean War, has come to epitomize the cosy and sometimes corrupt ties between politicians and the chaebols. The ruling is a turning point for chaebols, said Chang Sea-jin, a business professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. In the past, chaebols weren t afraid of laws because they were lenient. Now, Lee s ruling sets a precedent for strict enforcement of laws, and chaebols should be wary. Under South Korean law, sentences of more than three years cannot be suspended. The third-generation de facto head of the powerful Samsung Group, Lee has effectively directed operations since his father, Lee Kun-hee, was incapacitated by a heart attack in 2014. Some investors worry a prolonged leadership vacuum could slow decision-making at the group, which has more than five dozen affiliate companies and assets of 363.2 trillion won ($322.13 billion). Its listed companies make up about 30 percent of the market value of South Korea s KOSPI stock index. Many tycoons, including Lee s father, were convicted of crimes in the past, ranging from bribery, embezzlement and tax evasion, only to get presidential pardons, as both the government and the public feared going too hard on them would hurt the economy. But South Korea s new liberal president, Moon Jae-in, who won a May election, has pledged to rein in the chaebols, empower minority shareholders and end the practice of pardoning tycoons convicted of white-collar crime. The presidential Blue House said in a statement that it hopes the ruling will serve as an opportunity to end the nexus of business and politics that has held back the country. In a June interview with Reuters, Moon said he did not believe Samsung s operations depended just on Lee. When Lee was taken into custody, the share prices of Samsung went up, Moon said. If we were to succeed in reforming the running of the chaebols and also increasing transparency, I believe this will not only help the economic power of Korea but also help to make the chaebols themselves more competitive. Investors say shares in chaebol companies trade at lower prices than they would otherwise because of their opaque corporate governance - the so-called Korea Discount. Shares of Samsung Electronics dropped more than 1 percent, and other group companies, including Samsung C&T and Samsung SDS, also turned lower after the verdict. The court said Samsung s financial support of entities backed by a friend of Park s, Choi Soon-sil, constituted bribery, including 7.2 billion won ($6.4 million) in sponsoring the equestrian career of Choi s daughter. In return, prosecutors say, Samsung sought government support for the 2015 merger of two of its affiliates, which helped Lee tighten control of the conglomerate. His lawyers had argued that the merger was done for business reasons. Some criminal lawyers had expected Lee to be found innocent of the major charges, as much of the evidence at the trial has been circumstantial. The appeals court and the Supreme Court might put a greater emphasis on prosecutors to provide direct proof of quid pro quo, the lawyers said. Park, who was forced from office in March, faces her own corruption trial, with a ruling expected later this year. Prosecutors have argued that Park and Lee took part in the same act of bribery - so Lee s conviction would appear ominous for the former president. Hundreds of Park s diehard supporters who rallied outside the court on Friday reacted with outrage to the ruling. Our ultimate goal is Park s acquittal and release, Kim Won-joon, a 62-year-old former construction worker said. We worry how today s guilty verdict for Lee would affect Park s ruling. Such supporters are a minority compared with the huge crowds that turned out in Seoul every week to call for Park s ouster after the bribery scandal surfaced late last year. Public approval of Lee s prosecution may underscore growing frustration in Asia s fourth-largest economy that the wealth amassed by conglomerates has not trickled down. I think it was difficult for a court to ignore public opinion, given that the scandal rocked the country, said Chung Sun-sup, chief executive of research firm Chaebul.com. The five-year sentence was low given that he was found guilty of all the charges. I think the court gave him a lighter sentence, taking into account Samsung s importance to the economy. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Thailand's ousted PM Yingluck has fled abroad: sources | BANGKOK (Reuters) - Ousted Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled the country ahead of a verdict against her in a negligence trial brought by the junta that overthrew her, sources close to the Shinawatra family said on Friday. Yingluck, 50, whose family has dominated Thai politics for more than 15 years, failed to show up at court for judgment in a case centered on the multi-billion dollar losses incurred by a rice subsidy scheme for farmers. Overthrown in 2014, Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. Her former commerce minister was jailed in a related case for 42 years on Friday. She has definitely left Thailand, said one source, who is also a member of her Puea Thai Party. The sources did not say where she had gone. Yingluck s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who heads the political clan, was overthrown in a 2006 coup and fled into exile to escape a corruption conviction that he said was aimed at demolishing the populist movement he founded. The struggle between that movement and a Bangkok-centered royalist and pro-military elite has been at the heart of years of turmoil in Thailand. The verdict against Yingluck could have reignited tension, though the army has largely snuffed out open opposition. After Yingluck failed to show up, the Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant against her and rescheduled the verdict to Sept. 27. It said it did not believe her excuse that she could not attend the court hearing because of an ear problem. It is possible that she has fled already, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters. He later said police were investigating reports that she had left via Koh Chang, an island close to the Cambodian border. Cambodian immigration police said she had not entered their country. Yingluck last commented on social media on Thursday, saying on her Facebook page that she would not be able to meet supporters at court because of tight security. She had been banned from traveling abroad at the beginning of the trial in 2015 and has attended previous hearings. The court confiscated the 30 million baht ($900,000) that Yingluck had posted as bail. Hundreds of her supporters had gathered outside the court on Friday where about 4,000 police had been deployed. Some held roses while others wore white gloves with the word love on them. Although Yingluck had already been banned from politics by the junta in 2015, she could have been a party figurehead for elections that junta leader Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has promised for next year. If Yingluck has fled it would disappoint her supporters and make her opponents feel vindicated, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University. It does not help with Thailand s division and polarization, he said. Under the rice subsidy program, Yingluck s administration paid rice farmers up to 50 percent more than market prices. It left Thailand with huge rice stockpiles and caused $8 billion in losses. Yingluck has said she was only in charge of coming up with the policy but not the day-to-day management of it. If she has fled people would not trust her, but the masses would still support her because they benefited from her policies, 38-year-old delivery man Sakunchai Muenlamai. The Supreme Court sentenced Yingluck s former commerce minister, Boonsong Teriyapirom, to 42 years in jail after finding him guilty of falsifying government-to-government rice deals between Thailand and China in 2013. He said he would appeal, but was told it was too late in the day to apply for bail so will spend the weekend behind bars. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Illegal miners in South Africa swallow gold in condoms | CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Illegal miners in South Africa are swallowing unrefined gold and platinum in condoms as a new tactic to avoid arrest for smuggling that is costing the industry $1.5 billion a year, the police told parliament on Friday. Illegal mining has plagued South Africa s mining sector for decades, and extends from small time pilfering to global organized crime networks. The crime costs the industry and government an estimated 20 billion rand ($1.5 billion) a year in lost sales, taxes and royalties, the Chamber of Mines, an industry body, says. They are ingesting the amalgam concealed in condoms and this is done for two principle reasons. One is to be able to bypass mine security and the other is also to prevent being robbed by opposing groups, Brigadier Ebrahim Kadwa, a commander in South Africa s Hawks organized crime unit, said, showing parliament slides of gold-filled condoms in miners x-rays. Potentially toxic clumps of mercury and gold concentrate can be refined to extract gold once passed through the body. Illegal mining in South Africa involves a complex criminal web that extends from desperate unemployed workers, many from neighboring countries, to gun-toting gang bosses and front companies exporting refined products to global markets. The threat posed by illicit mining and related crimes continues to proliferate across the country, Kadwa said, adding that the majority of incidents were in gold mines owned by Harmony Gold and Sibanye. However, hundreds of incidents occurred throughout the country and targeted other minerals such as diamonds and chrome. High rates of unemployment and a stagnant economy helped entice illegal miners to the dangerous work, which is also being driven by rising commodity prices. Kadwa said a weakening of the rand currency between December 2015 to April 2016, saw the relative gold price rise, encouraging illegal smuggling. In February, 22 illegal miners were given lengthy sentences after being found guilty of 577 charges, ranging from theft of gold to racketeering and money laundering. This is a landmark moment in the fight against illegal mining in the country, Kadwa said. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Downfall of ex-Samsung strategy chief leaves 'salarymen' disillusioned | SEOUL (Reuters) - Over four decades, Choi Gee-sung, the fourth son of a poor civil servant, worked his way to the top of South Korea s Samsung Group, one of the world s leading business empires, inspiring a legion of salaried workers. On Friday, a Seoul court sentenced Choi to four years in jail for his part in a corruption scandal that toppled the country s president, and handed his billionaire boss, Jay Y. Lee, a five-year jail sentence. Song Wu-cheol, lead defense attorney for Choi, Lee and others, said they would appeal the convictions. Choi s downfall has fueled a sense of disillusionment at a time when the country s biggest conglomerate looks to its army of loyal Samsung men to navigate a potential leadership vacuum. Choi was Lee s mentor and headed up Samsung s Corporate Strategy Office - dubbed the control tower - for more than four years before it was disbanded earlier this year after it came under fire for its role in the graft scandal. The office, which oversaw the Samsung group, orchestrating the big decisions on asset sales or arranging support for weakened group affiliates, was closed in February, and Choi stepped down. The Samsung scandal is the latest in a series to mire South Korea s so-called chaebols - the powerful, family-run conglomerates that dominate Asia s fourth-largest economy - which are criticized for their often cozy ties to politicians. The involvement of Choi - who rose as high in a conglomerate as possible for someone from outside the powerful chaebol families - has shocked many Samsung employees who admired his business acumen and work ethic that helped Samsung become a global technology powerhouse. Choi has been portrayed as a poster child of a successful businessman ... I am dejected and angered by this scandal, said one Samsung employee who declined to be identified. A Samsung company official said: It s hard to do a job like that without loyalty. If the previous generation s frame of thinking was loyalty, that s got to change going forward. Known for his tenacity, attention to detail, and focused drive, Choi took credit for helping Samsung Electronics, the group s crown jewel, overtake Nokia and Apple Inc in mobiles and Sony Corp in television manufacturing. It is also the world s leading chipmaker. I played a part in today s Samsung standing tall as the No. 1 in semiconductors. We surpassed (mobile firm) Nokia when everyone thought it couldn t be done, Choi recalled during his trial testimony, as Lee and other charged Samsung executives sat alongside. The day media reported Samsung surpassed Intel as the No. 1 in semiconductors was the 40th anniversary of my first day at Samsung. It was also the day when the court hearing continued until 2 a.m., he said, referring to late July when Samsung reported record earnings on strong chip sales. I was overwhelmed with feelings of regret, reflection and sadness. Born into a poor family during the Korean War in 1951, Choi joined Samsung in 1977 to put food on the table after studying at the prestigious Seoul National University. Having worked in all Samsung s main businesses - from chips and mobile to display screens - Choi was among the few to rise to the top without an engineering background. He became CEO of Samsung Electronics in 2010. Some people like me think that the higher up you go, the harder you have to work and the more unjust things you have to deal with, said a 33-year-old Samsung employee, who declined to be identified. I think he (Choi) may have agonized, though it was his choice to take the job. As head of the control tower , Choi said he accepted greater responsibility than Lee, and the decisions he made over matters related to the scandal were inevitable to protect Samsung from political pressure. The chaebols dominate the local economy, providing millions of jobs and defining many people s identity in South Korean society. Salaried workers are expected to serve them with long hours and unquestionable loyalty. That culture puts top executives under pressure to take the blame for their boss, experts say. It s like Japan s samurai, who sacrifice their lives for the sake of their masters, said Chung Sun-sup, head of Chaebul.com, a corporate analysis firm. It s very regrettable, but that s the reality of what s expected from professional managers. It s a path Choi felt he had little option but to take. If you were to hold Samsung responsible, please blame me. I am aging and lost judgment ... Others just trusted me and followed my judgment, he told the court during the trial. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Slain Philippine teenager's family files murder complaint against police | MANILA (Reuters) - The parents and lawyers of a Philippine high school student shot dead last week filed a murder complaint on Friday against three anti-narcotics policemen amid rare public outrage about the country s war on drugs. The death of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos on Aug. 16 in a rundown area of Manila has drawn huge domestic attention to allegations by activists that police have been systematically executing suspected users and dealers, a charge the authorities deny. The head of the Public Attorney s Office (PAO) and the parents of the slain youth submitted the complaint against the three policemen at the justice department, calling for them to be charged with murder and breaches of a law on torture. The PAO, a government agency, provides indigent litigants free legal assistance. Delos Santos was found dead in an alley with a gun in his left hand. Police said they killed him in self defense, but his family said he had no weapon, was right-handed and had no involvement in drugs. Security cameras showed the officers aggressively escorting a man matching delos Santos description in the direction of the spot where he was killed. The three policemen admit they were the people shown in the video, but that they were escorting another suspect, not delos Santos. PAO and police pathologists who did separate autopsies told a Senate hearing that delos Santos was shot from above, from close range. It was cold-blooded murder, he was shot while kneeling down, PAO chief Persida Acosta told news channel ANC. We are here for truth and justice so we have to file this immediately. The complaint, if accepted, would follow at least two cases filed last year against police over President Rodrigo Duterte s war on drugs, which has killed thousands of Filipinos, outraged human rights groups and alarmed Western governments. Most Filipinos however support the campaign, according to opinion polls, and domestic opposition has been muted. Several police commanders relieved of their duty over the student s killing told a Senate inquiry on Thursday that delos Santos was not the target of their operation, and his links to drug were known to them only the day after his death. Officers said they learned of his suspected links to drugs from another drug suspect, a cellphone and chatter circulating on social media. Delos Santos was among more than 90 people killed last week in three nights of intensified raids dubbed One Time, Big Time , which had Duterte s steadfast support. The term refers to a coordinated police drive to stamp out crime in a particular district. The teen s killing puts focus on Duterte s repeated promises to police administering the crackdown that he would insulate them from any legal consequences. Critics say his rhetoric is tantamount to giving police a license to kill. Duterte took a softer tone on Wednesday, telling police to arrest suspects and kill only if their lives were in danger, adding that he would not protect those who killed unarmed people. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
China says nothing will stop its long-range air force drills | BEIJING (Reuters) - No amount of interference or shadowing of its aircraft will stop the Chinese air force from carrying out long-range drills, the defense ministry said, announcing another round of exercises of the type that have unnerved neighbouring Taiwan and Japan. The air force carried out further long-range exercises on Thursday, the ministry said, without giving details of where they happened. Japan said it was concerned about bombers flying close to its territory. Such normal drills accord with international law and practices and are part of an ordinary need to raise combat abilities and strengthen the military, it added. No matter what obstructions are encountered, the Chinese air force will carry on as before; no matter who flies with us, the Chinese air force will fly a lot and as normal! the ministry added, citing an air force spokesman. China has been increasingly asserting itself in territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. It is also worried about self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its own and run by a government Beijing fears is intent on independence. Japan s government said six Chinese bombers flying from the East China Sea on Thursday passed close to its islands on route to the Pacific Ocean. It was the first time we have recorded Chinese military aircraft flying this route, Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera said during a regular press briefing on Friday. We expressed our concern through diplomatic channels, he added. Drills over the past few months have mostly focused on flying near Taiwan and by Japan s southern island chain to the north of Taiwan. Taiwan s military said earlier this month it was on a high state of alert following three straight days of drills by the Chinese air force near it. Beijing has never ruled out the use of force to bring proudly democratic Taiwan under its control, and has warned that any moves towards formal independence could prompt an armed response. Taiwan is well armed with mostly U.S. weaponry, but has been pressing Washington to sell it more high-tech equipment to better deter China. China is in the midst of an ambitious military modernization program that includes building aircraft carriers and developing stealth fighters to give it the ability to project power far from its shores. Separately, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday that Chinese warships had carried out live fire drills in the western part of the Indian Ocean, though it did not say where exactly. Chinese warships frequently pass through the Indian Ocean on their way to anti-piracy patrols in the waters off Somalia and Yemen. India, with which China has a festering border dispute, has expressed concern about Chinese military activity in the Indian Ocean. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
U.N. condemns attack on Myanmar security forces, calls for calm | GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations condemned a coordinated series of attacks on Myanmar security forces on Friday and called on all sides in the crisis in the northern state of Rakhine to refrain from violence. At least 21 insurgents and 11 members of the security forces were killed in the troubled Rakhine state on Friday when militants staged a major coordinated attack on 24 police posts and an army base, the military said. The statement, issued by the U.N. resident coordinator in Myanmar, Renata Lok-Dessallien, and read out to a Geneva news briefing, urged all parties to refrain from violence, protect civilians and restore order . We are deeply concerned about the security situation in Rakhine state, she added. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Russian nuclear bombers fly near North Korea in rare show of force | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers have flown a rare mission around the Korean peninsula at the same time as the United States and South Korea conduct joint military exercises that have infuriated Pyongyang. Russia, which has said it is strongly against any unilateral U.S. military action on the peninsula, said Tupolev-95MS bombers, code named Bears by NATO, had flown over the Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, prompting Japan and Seoul to scramble jets to escort them. The flight, which also included planes with advanced intelligence gathering capabilities, was over international waters and was announced by the Russian Defence Ministry on the same day as Moscow complained about the U.S.-South Korean war games. The U.S. and South Korea holding yet more large-scale military and naval exercises does not help reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, told a news briefing in Moscow. We urge all sides to exercise maximum caution. Given the arms build-up in the region, any rash move or even an unintended incident could spark a military conflict. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not comment specifically on the Russian mission when asked, reiterating China hoped all sides could quickly return to talks and appropriately and peacefully resolve the situation. The United States and South Korea began the long-planned joint military exercises on Monday, heightening tensions with Pyongyang which called the drills a reckless step towards nuclear conflict. Some military experts regard the hulking Russian turboprop bombers which made the flight near the Korean peninsula as a relic of the Cold War. But Russia has upgraded the aircraft since the Soviet fall and, since 2007, has used the planes to back its diplomacy with shows of force and to probe other countries airspaces. Moscow said the bombers had been accompanied by Sukhoi-35S fighter jets and A-50 early warning and control aircraft. The A-50s, the Russian equivalent of the Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft, are designed to track aerial and ground targets at a long range, among other capabilities. Moscow did not say how many aircraft had taken part or when the mission had taken place. Our long-range aviation pilots, according to an established plan, regularly carry out flights over neutral waters over the Atlantic, the Arctic, the Black Sea and the Pacific Ocean from their bases and from tactical airfields, the defense ministry said in the same statement. It said the TU-95MS bombers were refueled in mid-air during the mission, and that during parts of the route they had been escorted by South Korean and Japanese military jets. Russia, which shares a border with North Korea, has repeatedly voiced concerns about rising tensions on the Korean peninsula caused by Pyongyang s nuclear missile program, and has also complained about possible plans by Japan to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system on its soil. Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Zakharova said on Thursday that if Tokyo did go ahead and opt to deploy such a system it would be disproportional to the North Korean missile threat and could upset wider strategic stability in the region. Japan has at least twice before this year been forced to scramble its jets to intercept Russian aircraft. The daily Izvestia newspaper reported in October last year that Russia was close to finishing setting up a new division of heavy bombers to patrol the Japan-Guam-Hawaiian Islands triangle . | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Thai immigration police chief says no information Yingluck has fled country | BANGKOK (Reuters) - The head of Thailand s immigration police chief said he believed former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra remained in the country after a Supreme Court judge raised suspicion that she had fled after she failed to show up on Friday for the verdict in a negligence case. Yingluck, whose government was ousted in a 2014 coup, faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. Up until this point we have no information showing that Yingluck has exited via any of Thailand s border check points, Immigration police chief Nanthathorn Prousoontorn told Reuters. I believe she is still in Thailand. If she is found she will be arrested, he said. A lawyer for Yingluck said on Friday he did not know her wherabouts. The Supreme Court set a new date of Sept. 27 for the verdict but said it would also seek an arrest warrant for Yingluck. The court said Yingluck gave an ear problem as the reason she could not come to court to hear the verdict. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Thailand's ousted PM Yingluck has fled abroad: sources | BANGKOK (Reuters) - Ousted Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has fled the country ahead of a verdict against her in a negligence trial brought by the junta that overthrew her, sources close to the Shinawatra family said on Friday. Yingluck, 50, whose family has dominated Thai politics for more than 15 years, failed to show up at court for judgment in a case centered on the multi-billion dollar losses incurred by a rice subsidy scheme for farmers. Overthrown in 2014, Yingluck had faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. Her former commerce minister was jailed in a related case for 42 years on Friday. She has definitely left Thailand, said one source, who is also a member of her Puea Thai Party. The sources did not say where she had gone. Yingluck s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who heads the political clan, was overthrown in a 2006 coup and fled into exile to escape a corruption conviction that he said was aimed at demolishing the populist movement he founded. The struggle between that movement and a Bangkok-centered royalist and pro-military elite has been at the heart of years of turmoil in Thailand. The verdict against Yingluck could have reignited tension, though the army has largely snuffed out open opposition. After Yingluck failed to show up, the Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant against her and rescheduled the verdict to Sept. 27. It said it did not believe her excuse that she could not attend the court hearing because of an ear problem. It is possible that she has fled already, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters. He later said police were investigating reports that she had left via Koh Chang, an island close to the Cambodian border. Cambodian immigration police said she had not entered their country. Yingluck last commented on social media on Thursday, saying on her Facebook page that she would not be able to meet supporters at court because of tight security. She had been banned from traveling abroad at the beginning of the trial in 2015 and has attended previous hearings. The court confiscated the 30 million baht ($900,000) that Yingluck had posted as bail. Hundreds of her supporters had gathered outside the court on Friday where about 4,000 police had been deployed. Some held roses while others wore white gloves with the word love on them. Although Yingluck had already been banned from politics by the junta in 2015, she could have been a party figurehead for elections that junta leader Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has promised for next year. If Yingluck has fled it would disappoint her supporters and make her opponents feel vindicated, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University. It does not help with Thailand s division and polarization, he said. Under the rice subsidy program, Yingluck s administration paid rice farmers up to 50 percent more than market prices. It left Thailand with huge rice stockpiles and caused $8 billion in losses. Yingluck has said she was only in charge of coming up with the policy but not the day-to-day management of it. If she has fled people would not trust her, but the masses would still support her because they benefited from her policies, 38-year-old delivery man Sakunchai Muenlamai. The Supreme Court sentenced Yingluck s former commerce minister, Boonsong Teriyapirom, to 42 years in jail after finding him guilty of falsifying government-to-government rice deals between Thailand and China in 2013. He said he would appeal, but was told it was too late in the day to apply for bail so will spend the weekend behind bars. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Colombia FARC rebels include boots, kitchen supplies in list of assets | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia s FARC rebel group included footwear and orange juicers in the list of assets it will hand over for victim reparations, drawing ire on Thursday from officials who maintain the guerrillas have extensive criminal wealth and sparking the government to announce a special verification commission. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed under a 2016 peace deal with the government to hand over all funds and property to pay reparations to victims of forced disappearance, rape, displacement, kidnapping and land mines. The group has for decades extorted landowners and business people, earned ransoms from hostage takings and sold coca, the base ingredient in cocaine, to drug traffickers. Officials said on Thursday that the list, which was originally given to the United Nations and has not been made public, included many items that have little or no monetary value and made a mockery of victims. Pots, orange juicers, lemon juicers, plates, boots, which will be depreciated and don t have a commercial value and which above all will not be a source of reparation for victims, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez told journalists. Martinez added the full list should be released. The list will be reviewed by a special commission in a bid to find missing assets, verify their origin and decide how they will be managed, the government said later on Thursday. Those assets which have not been inventoried and are later discovered will obligatorily mean punishment and an ordinary justice procedure against members of the FARC, justice minister Enrique Gil said. All assets will be directed toward victims reparation, interior minister Guillermo Rivera added, and not to reintegration programs for the FARC fighters themselves. Colombian officials have previously accused the FARC of possessing large amounts of cash, as well as ranches, businesses and luxury homes, including some located abroad. A lawyer representing the FARC, Enrique Santiago, told local radio that the group had not earned an income in years and had to spend extensively to maintain its more than 7,000 fighters, after calling off kidnappings and extortion during peace talks. The rebels finished handing over more than 8,000 weapons to the U.N., which oversaw their demobilization, earlier this month. On Sunday the group will kick off a conference that looks set to cement its transition into a political party. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
New Zealand to increase military personnel in Afghanistan by three | WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Just days after the United States said it would increase troop numbers in Afghanistan and ask its allies to do the same, New Zealand on Friday announced an extra three non-combat military personnel, boosting its military commitment to 13. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled his strategy to end the conflict in Afghanistan, committing the United States to an open-ended conflict and signaling he would dispatch more troops to America s longest war. U.S. officials have said Trump had signed off on plans to send about 4,000 more U.S. troops to add to the roughly 8,400 now deployed in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has since said exact troop numbers are yet to be decided. Trump said he would ask coalition allies to support his new strategy, with additional troops and funding, to end the 16-year conflict. New Zealand Defence Minister Mark Mitchell s announcement boosting the country s Kabul-based troops to 13 follows a request for NATO (National Atlantic Treaty Organization) to send more troops to Afghanistan earlier this year. New Zealand has had troops in Afghanistan since 2001. Its presence has been decreasing since 2013 but it has kept some personnel on the ground to train local officers. New Zealand will continue to stand alongside our partners in supporting stability in Afghanistan and countering the threat of international terrorism, said Mitchell. Prime Minister Bill English said the government has ruled out making a decision on sending combat troops to Afghanistan before New Zealand s election on Sept. 23. Opposition leader Jacinda Ardern told local media this week she would not back sending troops to Afghanistan at the moment but was not privy to intelligence such decisions were based on. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
Trump calls Egypt's Sisi, says keen to overcome obstacles | CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump called Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday and said he was keen to overcome any obstacles in the way of cooperation, just days after the U.S. said it would withhold some financial aid to Egypt. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received a phone call tonight from U.S. President Donald Trump who affirmed the strength of the friendship between Egypt and the United States and expressed his keenness on continuing to develop the relationship and overcome any obstacles that might affect it, Sisi s office said in a statement late on Thursday. On Tuesday, two U.S. sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Washington had decided to deny Egypt $95.7 million in aid and to delay a further $195 million because it had failed to make progress on respecting human rights and democracy. Egypt, an important regional partner for the United States because of its control of the Suez Canal and its border with Israel, receives $1.3 billion in aid annually and was critical of the U.S. decision. Its foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the decision to withhold aid reflected poor judgment and that it could have negative implications on achieving common goals and interests between the two countries. The decision reflects a U.S. desire to continue security cooperation as well as its frustration with Cairo s stance on civil liberties. In particular, a new law regulating non-governmental organizations is widely seen as part a growing crackdown on dissent, said the U.S. sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Egyptian rights activists have said they face the worst crackdown in their history under Sisi, accusing him of erasing freedoms won in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak s 30-year rule. Egyptian lawmakers have said the NGO law was needed for national security. The Egyptian government has long accused human rights groups of taking foreign funds to sow chaos, and several are facing investigation regarding their funding. Sisi and his Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met Trump s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner in Cairo on Wednesday but neither the presidency nor the ministry mentioned the aid issue in statements released after the meetings. | worldnews | August 25, 2017 |
British foreign secretary visits Libyan strongman, backs ceasefire | TUNIS (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson met Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar during a visit to Benghazi on Thursday and urged him to stick to a ceasefire announced in Paris last month and to back U.N.-led efforts to end Libya s conflict. Johnson s visit is the latest show of growing Western recognition of Haftar, who has long been supported by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates for his anti-Islamist stance. Haftar is the dominant figure in eastern Libya and since early last year has spurned the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital, Tripoli, while making military gains on the ground. The GNA, hampered by infighting and its failure to win endorsement from eastern-based factions, has largely failed to extend its authority or end the turmoil that developed after a NATO-backed uprising toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since 2014 Libya has had rival governments in Tripoli and the east. It has become the main departure point for migrants catching boats to Europe and it has seen Islamic State establish and then lose a regional stronghold in the coastal city of Sirte. International efforts to broker a political deal have resulted in two meetings between Haftar and GNA Prime Minister Fayez Seraj, one in Abu Dhabi in May and the other in Paris in July. At the Paris meeting the two men shook hands on a ceasefire and elections next year, though Haftar quickly played down the commitments. Johnson met Haftar during a visit to the eastern city of Benghazi, where Haftar declared victory in early July after a three-year military campaign against Islamists and other rivals. He said he had encouraged Haftar to back new U.N. envoy Ghassan Salame s efforts to find a political settlement for Libya by revising the 2015 deal that created GNA. Field Marshall Haftar has a role to play in the political process, Johnson said in a statement. I urged him to adhere to the commitments he made during recent meetings in Paris, to respect a ceasefire, and to work with Mr. Salame in order to amend the Libyan Political Agreement. Haftar, who fell out with Gaddafi in the 1980s and lived for two decades in the United States, remains a divisive figure in Libya. His forces have replaced civilian mayors in many eastern cities and talked of liberating Tripoli. Critics have said they fear a return to military rule. On Wednesday, Johnson made his second trip to Tripoli to meet Seraj. He also traveled to Misrata, a port city and major military power that has led opposition to Haftar. I have encouraged all sides to resolve their differences by dialogue, not conflict, and to respect international human rights law, Johnson said. Since the meeting in Paris, Haftar s Libyan National Army has threatened to advance into the eastern city of Derna, and tightened a blockade around the city. The International Criminal Court has also issued an arrest warrant for a commander in an elite Libyan National Army unit accused of executing dozens of prisoners in the closing stages of the Benghazi campaign. The Libyan National Army has said it is investigating the case. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Guatemalan prosecutors to probe parties over campaign financing | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s attorney general and a United Nations-backed anti-corruption body will investigate the nation s political parties on suspicion of illegal campaign financing during the 2015 presidential election campaign, the groups said on Thursday. We have agreed with the attorney general to initiate an investigation into the electoral campaigns of all political parties in the 2015 cycle, said Ivan Velasquez, head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The CICIG has become a thorn in the side of Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales since it kicked off a graft probe focused on his elder brother and one of the president s sons. In 2015, the CICIG was instrumental in removing Morales predecessor Otto Perez from office after identifying him as a key player in an alleged multimillion-dollar corruption racket. Perez is now in prison on trial with his former vice-president. Morales, a former comedian who won office in 2015 on a pledge to fight corruption, is scheduled to meet tomorrow with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York. Two government officials told Reuters on Wednesday Morales plans to ask Guterres to replace Velasquez, a Colombian whose tenure as CICIG chief is set to run out in 2019. A Guatemalan government spokesman declined to say whether Morales would seek Velasquez s removal, but did state that the president would discuss improving the CICIG with Guterres, and also propose a new model for combating crime. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Turkey will never be EU member under Erdogan: Germany's Gabriel | BERLIN (Reuters) - Turkey will never be a member of the European Union as long as it is governed by Tayyip Erdogan, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday, accusing the Turkish president of failing to take accession talks with the bloc seriously. His remarks in an interview with mass-selling newspaper Bild are likely to further inflame relations between the two NATO allies after Erdogan urged German Turks to boycott Germany s main parties in next month s general election. It is clear that in this state, Turkey will never become a member of the EU, Gabriel said. It s not because we don t want them but because the Turkish government and Erdogan are moving fast away from everything that Europe stands for. EU leaders have been critical of Erdogan s crackdown on opponents before and after a failed military coup against him in July last year. Accession talks have ground to a virtual halt though Turkey remains a candidate for membership. Turkey s Western allies fear that sweeping new powers Erdogan won in a tightly fought referendum in April are pushing Turkey away from democratic values. Erdogan says both the crackdown and the increased presidential powers are needed to help tackle serious challenges to Turkey s security both at home and beyond its borders. At a highpoint in tensions earlier this year, Erdogan angered Germany, home to 3 million Turks about half of whom can vote in the election on Sept. 24, by accusing German authorities of Nazi-like behavior. Relations between the two countries have also been strained by Turkey s arrest of a Turkish-German journalist and a German human rights activist. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Clashes in Rome as police evict refugee squatters from square | ROME (Reuters) - Police using water cannon and batons clashed on Thursday with refugees who had occupied a small Rome square in defiance of an order to leave a building where they had been squatting. The clashes were the latest example of tensions in Italy as the country deals with an influx of migrants. They quickly became fodder for political debate, particularly on the police handling of the incident. Refugees were screaming and trying to hit police, who were dressed in riot gear, with sticks. The square, just one block from Rome s main train station, was strewn with mattresses, overturned rubbish bins and broken plastic chairs. Some 100 refugees had occupied Piazza Independenza since Saturday, when most of about 800 squatters were evicted from an adjacent office building they had occupied for about five years. Hung on the building was a sheet with writing reading We are refugees, not terrorists in Italian. A small fire burned on the pavement and a sheet hanging from a first-floor window was set alight by squatters inside. Most of the squatters were Eritreans who had been granted asylum. Police said they had refused to accept lodging offered by the city. In a statement, the police said the refugees had gas canisters, some of which they had opened, and officers had been hit by rocks, bottles and pepper spray. Two people were arrested and Doctors Without Borders said in a statement that its medics had given first aid to 13 refugees, including one for a broken bone. Human Rights Watch and members of some leftist political parties criticized the police handling of the situation, saying the use of such force was disproportionate. The authorities need to urgently find appropriate, alternative housing, and investigate the use of force by the police during the eviction, said Judith Sunderland, associate director for Europe at Human Rights Watch. It s hard to see how the use of water cannon on people was necessary or proportionate, she said. Various Roman Catholic groups that help immigrants also criticized police conduct. But the Italian police union COISIP said officers were forced to use water cannon because of the risk of explosions caused by flammable liquids . Police said they were looking at possible irregularities after what appeared to be a policeman told a colleague to break the arm of any squatter who threw anything while being chased, according to a video that circulated widely on social media. Another video showed a woman fly to the ground after being hit in the face by water cannon, and later put in an ambulance. Squatters had put cooking gas tanks on the railing of a first-floor balcony, apparently ready to be opened to be used as makeshift flamethrowers, or dropped onto the square, Reuters photographers said on Wednesday. Matteo Salvini, head of the right-wing, anti-immigrant Northern League, Tweeted his unequivocal support of police, saying Go boys: Evictions, order, cleaning up and EXPULSIONS! Italians are with you. More than 600,000 boat migrants have arrived in Italy from North Africa since 2014. Some 200,000 asylum seekers now stay in state-run shelters. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
'Let's get emotional' says German SPD, struggling to oust Merkel | BERLIN (Reuters) - One month away from a national election, Germany s Social Democrats are struggling in their efforts to narrow a yawning gap in support behind Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives. The left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD) is languishing on around 24 percent support, polls show, far behind Merkel s conservatives bloc, on some 38 percent. Germans go to the polls on Sept. 24. The SPD is having difficulty in differentiating itself from the conservatives, with whom it rules as junior partner in a grand coalition - an alliance the party wants to avoid repeating, but which polls suggest is the only partnership that can guarantee a majority. We need to get more emotional, to fight and force Merkel to speak in clear terms so that the differences become clear, SPD Labour Minister Andrea Nahles told business daily Handelsblatt. Nahles accused Merkel, who is campaigning for a fourth term on a platform of economic stability, of trying to cruise through the election without staking out clear positions. Last year, Germany s refugee crisis threatened Merkel. But with the migrant flow now stemmed and unemployment at a record low, she is able to project herself as an anchor of stability in an uncertain world. Trying to rock her, SPD leader Martin Schulz has grown increasingly critical of Merkel this week, accusing her of blocking his party s efforts in the ruling coalition to win better pay for temporary workers and improve workers rights. On Thursday, Schulz takes his campaign to Essen, in the heart of the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia that was at the center of Germany s post-war economic miracle but which is now a rust-belt. Germany s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia has traditionally been an SPD stronghold but the party lost there in a state election in May - one of three regional votes Merkel s conservatives won earlier this year. Schulz, 61, led the SPD to a brief poll surge after the party selected him as leader at the start of the year. But the revival quickly fizzled as his campaign for social justice failed to gain traction. A former European Parliament president, he cannot match the clout of Merkel, 63, gained in 12 years of experience as leader of Europe s biggest economy. Searching for another point of difference, Schulz pledged on Tuesday to have U.S. nuclear weapons withdrawn from German territory if, against the odds, he defeats Merkel. Schulz s election campaign is jumping around so many areas that it is impossible to discern a theme, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote in an editorial. Striking a defeatist note, Schulz said earlier this month he wanted to stay on as SPD leader even if his party loses the election. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Poland will not change its stance on EU's posted workers directive: PM | WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will not change its stance on the European Union s posted workers directive, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said on Thursday. We are not going to change our stance, Szydlo told reporters. We will defend our position to the very end, because it is a position that is in the interests of Polish workers. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Defense Secretary Mattis promises support to Ukraine, says reviewing lethal aid | KIEV (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on a visit to Ukraine on Thursday said Washington would keep up pressure on Russia over what he called its aggressive behavior and signaled his personal support for providing weapons to Kiev. Mattis said Russia had not abided by the Minsk ceasefire agreement meant to end the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and that the United States would maintain sanctions on Moscow. Despite Russia s denials, we know they are seeking to redraw international borders by force, undermining the sovereign and free nations of Europe, Mattis told reporters, alongside Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Mattis s visit, timed for Ukrainian Independence Day, is the second high-profile show of U.S. support in as many months, after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came to Kiev in July. Ukraine has counted on U.S. support against Russia since a pro-Western government took power following street protests in 2014 when the Kremlin-backed president fled the country. But some of President Donald Trump s comments during the election campaign last year, such as appearing to recognize Crimea as part of Russia, stoked fears in Kiev that Trump might mend ties with Moscow at Ukraine s expense. While emphasizing Trump had yet to take a decision on the issue, Mattis signaled his personal support for a longstanding Ukrainian request for defensive weapons, which could include anti-tank Javelin missiles and anti-aircaft systems. Mattis also played down fears, voiced by the previous White House administration under Barack Obama, that supplying weapons could escalate the situation. On the defensive lethal weapons, we are actively reviewing it, I will go back now having seen the current situation and be able to inform the secretary of state and the president in very specific terms what I recommend for the direction ahead, Mattis said. Defensive weapons are not provocative unless you are an aggressor and clearly Ukraine is not an aggressor since it is their own territory where the fighting is happening, Mattis said. Poroshenko said he was satisfied with the progress on discussions about weapons, and also said he and Mattis had discussed the possibility of a U.N.-backed armed force being sent to eastern Ukraine. Relations between Ukraine and Russia went into freefall after Moscow s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent outbreak of a Kremlin-backed separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people. Russia denies sending troops and weapons to eastern Ukraine. According to U.S. officials, a plan to provide defensive weapons to Ukraine has made its way to the White House but has not been signed. Thus far the Pentagon says it has provided $750 million in non-lethal aid to Ukraine since 2015, which includes radars and uniforms. Supplying weapons will be a huge boost of support to Ukraine, said Michael Carpenter, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the region. Carpenter said the weapons under discussion cannot effectively be used to take territory, which means providing them would help stabilize the situation. U.S. Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, also pressed the Trump administration to act. Secretary Mattis visit to Kiev provides yet another opportunity for the United States to correct its policy toward Ukraine and provide the lethal defensive assistance the country needs to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, McCain said in a statement on Wednesday. Mattis strong words against Moscow on Thursday are likely to reassure eastern European allies who are concerned about Russia s military activity in region, including planned war games in September. Russia and Belarus aim to hold joint exercises that some North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies believe could number more than 100,000 troops and involve nuclear weapons training, the biggest such exercise since 2013. Earlier this year, Estonia s defense minister said Russia may use the exercises to move thousands of troops permanently into Belarus in a warning to NATO. Russia has dismissed Western worries about the war games as buffoonery . | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Qatar enacts law to protect foreign domestic workers | DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar s ruler has introduced a law giving broad protection to tens of thousands of foreigners working as maids, cooks, cleaners and nannies, addressing some concerns long highlighted by human rights groups. The new rules on foreign domestic staff mandate a maximum of 10 hours per working day with breaks for prayer, rest and eating, along with three weeks of severance pay at the end of their contracts. They limit the working age to between 18 and 60, stipulate three weeks of annual vacation, and order that employers provide proper food and medical care. Like other wealthy Gulf Arab states, Qatar hosts tens of thousands of mostly female domestic workers, mostly from the Philippines, South Asia and East Africa. The measures appear to be the first in the gas-producing country to codify the rights of these employees. State news agency QNA said the measure was promulgated by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and was effective immediately. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have long complained that Gulf states do not properly regulate working conditions for low-income residents helping tend homes or toiling at ubiquitous construction sites. They say excessively long hours and insufficient flexibility to change contracts or return home contravene international labour laws and deprive workers of their human rights. HRW said in the Qatar section of its 2016 annual report that beyond exploitative working conditions, domestic workers were left vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse by a lack of regulations governing their rights. The new law does not cover Qatar s far more numerous construction workers, whose position was improved by a December 2016 law altering the kafala or sponsorship system that forced them to seek their employer s consent to change jobs or leave the country. Domestic workers continue to be recruited under the kafala system. Qatar is keen to show it is tackling allegations of worker exploitation as it prepares to host the 2022 soccer World Cup, which it has presented as a showcase of its progress and development. It is spending billions of dollars on stadiums and other infrastructure, and has imported hundreds of thousands of construction workers from countries such as India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has asked Qatar to present it with a report on the implementation of reforms to the sponsorship system by November. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Indonesians uncover syndicate spreading hate speech online: police | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities have uncovered a group spreading hate speech and fake news online, one of many that they fear could undermine national unity. Indonesia has an ethnically diverse population of 250 million people, most of them Muslim but with significant minorities from other religions, and unity across the archipelago has been a priority of governments for generations. Three people were arrested this week on suspicion of being part of a syndicate being paid to spread incendiary material online through social media, police said. If this is allowed to continue, it isn t just about violating the law but also has the potential to damage the unity of this country, said presidential spokesman Johan Budi. Budi said it was up to investigators to determine the motive of those behind the campaign, adding police should investigate the issue right down to its roots . National police spokesman Awi Setiyono said the material involved religious and ethnic issues and posts defamatory to government officials. He declined to comment on the motive, saying investigators were still building their case and had yet to identify who was behind the syndicate, which calls itself Saracen, that has been spreading the material. The police cyber crime unit said dozens of Facebook and other social media accounts were being sued to spread the material to an estimated 800,000 social media accounts. Setiyono said investigators had uncovered money transfers of up to $5,000 to pay those spreading the material. Religious and ethnic tensions flared in the capital, Jakarta, this year when city elections pitted an ethnic Chinese Christian governor, who was accused on insulting Islam, against a Muslim candidate. Authorities have scrambled to remove hate speech from social media and online forums in an attempt to defuse tension but a growing amount of content encouraging religious intolerance or radicalism is being shared. Search giant Google said this month it was working with authorities to tackle content deemed to be offensive. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
'Safer than London!' North Korea opens door to Russian tourists | MOSCOW (Reuters) - North Korea has opened its doors to Russian tourists, issuing a license for the first travel agency in Moscow to promise clients full immersion in the nation s culture and enjoyment safer than an evening walk in London . NKOREAN.RU, a Russian company licensed by North Korea s government, offers organized tours for groups of up to 10 people or individuals to show the travelers the multi-faceted life of this most closed of countries . Guests to North Korea must necessarily be checked before their trip and will always be accompanied by a guide who will monitor the adequate behavior of the tourist and guarantee his safety. Pictures of strategic and military facilities are banned and long talks with locals are not recommended . North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile tests since the beginning of last year, significantly raising tension on the heavily militarized Korean peninsula and in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Two tests of inter-continental ballistic missiles in July triggered a new round of tougher global sanctions. Faced with economic problems made harder by multiple sanctions, the Pyongyang government is keen to develop tourism to earn cash. The most pricey tour, 15 days full immersion in the culture of North Korea costing 118,090 rubles ($1,997), includes visits to a farm, a mineral water factory, a Buddhist temple, walks in the mountains and an introduction to national cuisine. Visits to numerous museums to founding leader Kim Il-Sung are also on offer. Other less demanding tours include relaxation on a beach, an aviation show and even a beer festival. It is unclear how popular these trips will be among Russians who have already developed a fondness for visiting Europe and the affordable resorts of Turkey and Thailand. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
As guns fall silent, Benghazi residents return to battered homes | BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Two months after the dominant military force in eastern Libya declared victory in a campaign to retake Benghazi, Hassan al-Zawy is living rough in his home in the district that witnessed the city s last major battle. Like many other residents, he ventured back as Khalifa Haftar s Libyan National Army gradually wrested back control from Islamist militants and other rebel groups. Parts of Libya s second city were reduced to rubble during more than three years of fighting and, with economic crisis and political turmoil gripping the country, rebuilding is a daunting challenge. There are flies, mosquitoes and garbage. At night, we have absolutely nothing, Zawy told Reuters in mid-August in the seafront neighborhood of Sabri. We ve been here for one month and 10 days and all we want from the state is (this): electricity and water, and for people to return to their homes, and stay there. A conflict that developed after strongman Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising six years ago has yet to be resolved. Benghazi, where the 2011 revolution started, has seen some of the worst violence. Tens of thousands of residents, many opposed to Haftar, were displaced to other Libyan cities. Sabri is where Haftar s rivals had their final strongholds, and was bombarded by LNA heavy artillery and air strikes up until a few weeks ago. Sporadic fighting continued after Haftar announced victory on July 5.. People recover what they can from the rubble of ruined buildings. Children help with the cleanup. Afterwards, men sit outside drinking tea or coffee and guarding their streets. One says he will stay in his home even if he has to hang towels over the doors and windows. Another Sabri resident, Farag Mahmoud, said some people were so keen to get back to their homes that they were ignoring the risk from land mines still planted in parts of the district. We found our homes had been flooded from broken pipes in the plumbing systems, and were submerged in water around 70 to 80 centimeters deep, he said. Some returning residents have formed citizens committees to lobby the municipal authorities on water, electricity and hygiene, said Milad Fadlallah, a local engineer. Most residents in the less severely damaged eastern part of Sabri would be able to spend the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which starts on Sept. 1, back in their neighborhood, Fadlallah said. But a lack of funds and political leadership in a country still divided between two rival governments will hinder reconstruction, said Osama al-Kaza, director of projects at Benghazi s municipality. In Benghazi, the conflict has also had left deep physical and psychological scars. Achieving an outstanding and modern image for the city will have to be done in stages, will take years and cost billions, he said. (Story refiles to add dropped s in second paragraph.) | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Venezuela's injured activists struggle to heal | CARACAS (Reuters) - Jesus Ibarra, a 19-year-old engineering student, has been barely able to walk or talk since a tear gas canister crushed part of his skull during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro and he fell unconscious into a river that carries sewage. Chronic shortages of medicine in Venezuela forced his family to ask for drug donations so Ibarra could undergo five surgeries on his skull and treatment for infections from the Guaire river. Ibarra, who cannot return to his studies any time soon, needs to a sixth operation and therapy. It is unclear if he will fully recover. I speak to my son a lot, and sometimes he makes me understand it was not worth suffering this, that he regrets it, that it was a mistake, said Ibarra s father Jose at their small home in the sprawling hilltop slum of Petare in Caracas. But other times he s clearly telling me that it was worth fighting for a change he believes in. Ibarra is one of nearly 2,000 people injured during four months of fierce anti-Maduro street protests, according to the public prosecutor s office. Rights groups think the number is probably higher. Venezuela has been torn by political and economic crises that have led to extreme shortages of food and medicine, crushing inflation and the collapse of the local currency. Its new government structure has been criticized as a dictatorship. Rubber bullets fired at close range, rocks, and tear gas canisters have caused most of the injuries, doctors and rights groups say. Most of those who have been hurt appear to be opposition protesters, but Maduro supporters, security forces and bystanders have also been harmed. More than 125 people have died in the unrest since April. Thousands have been arrested. The unpopular leftist president has said he was facing an armed insurgency intent on overthrowing him. Opposition politicians have said they were forced to take to the streets after authorities curtailed democratic means for change. They have also accused security forces of using excessive force against protesters. Culinary student Brian Dalati, 22, said he was passing an opposition-manned street barricade on his way to classes in July when police mistook him for a protester. They hit him and fired buckshot at his legs, fracturing both of Dalati s shinbones. I depend on my siblings to go to the bathroom, shower, brush my teeth, eat, anything. It s infuriating, he said. They didn t have to do this. It was pure hate. Thank goodness I will be able to walk again soon. The government says right-wing media are too focused on injuries to protesters. Maduro has pointed to a case in which a 21-year-old man was set afire during an opposition protest and died two weeks later. A Reuters witness said the crowd had accused the man of being a thief, but the government said he was targeted for being a Maduro supporter. Protests have subsided since Maduro s government established a controversial legislative superbody three weeks ago, but hundreds of Venezuelans are still struggling to nurse their wounds without medicine and state support. (Click on reut.rs/2xt4eoS for related photo essay) | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
India's push to broaden use of its biometric database | (Reuters) - India s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday the right to privacy is a fundamental right protected by the Indian Constitution, in a potential setback to the government s push to mandate the use of Aadhaar, or unique ID numbers for a variety of routine tasks. Over a billion Indians have already registered for Aadhaar cards, which ascribe unique ID numbers, and record fingerprints and iris scans of each person. The database was originally set-up to streamline welfare benefit payments and reduce wastage. The current government however, has been keen to mandate the use of Aadhaar for everything from the filing of income taxes to the operating of one s bank accounts. Below is a timeline on the various Aadhaar developments: March 2006: India s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology approves a Unique ID (UID) scheme for poor families. December 2006: Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) constituted to collate two schemes -the National Population Register under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the UID scheme. 2007: At its first meeting, the EGoM recognizes need to create a residents database. This leads to the creation of Aadhaar. 2009: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is created to issue unique identification numbers. Nandan Nilekani appointed the first chairman. December 2010: The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 (NIAI Bill) introduced in Parliament. September 2011: Number of Aadhaar holders crosses 100 million. December 2011: Standing committee on Finance rejects NIAI Bill in initial form; recommends requirement of privacy legislation and data protection law before continuance of scheme. 2012: Former High Court judge files petition contending that Aadhaar violates fundamental rights of equality and privacy. September 2013: Supreme Court passes interim order stating no person should suffer for not having an Aadhaar card. December 2013: The number of Aadhaar holders crosses 510 million March 2014: The Supreme Court revokes orders made by agencies demanding Aadhaar for welfare schemes. Court also forbids UIDAI from sharing information in the Aadhaar database with any agency without the individual s consent. December 2014: Number of Aadhaar holders crosses 720 million. August 2015: Three-judge bench of Supreme Court limits use of Aadhaar to certain welfare schemes, orders that no one should be denied benefits for lack of an Aadhaar card. It refers question of right to privacy as a fundamental right to a constitution bench. February 2016: Number of Aadhaar holders crosses 980 million. March 2016: Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial & Other Subsidies, Benefits & Services) Bill introduced as a money bill in the lower house of parliament. Bill passed by Parliament; receives presidential assent. January-March 2017: Various ministries make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare, pension, and employment schemes. Aadhaar made mandatory for filing of income tax returns. Aadhaar holders crosses 1.14 billion. [Data compiled from Software Freedom Law Centre and State of Aadhaar Report 2016-17] | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Finnish police release one knife attack suspect | HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish police on Thursday released one of six men detained over last week s stabbing spree that killed two women and wounded eight other people in the city of Turku. The main suspect, who is in custody, has been named as Abderrahman Mechkah, an 18-year-old Moroccan. He told a court he was responsible for the attack but denied his motive was terrorism. At the time of the attack, Mechkah was appealing against a decision on his application for asylum, which apparently was denied. The released man was arrested on Wednesday along with another suspect, who remains in police custody. Friday s stabbings in the city of Turku have been treated as the first suspected Islamist militant attack in Finland, which boasts one of the lowest crime rates in the world. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
As Syria war tightens, U.S. and Russia military hotlines humming | AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar (Reuters) - Even as tensions between the United States and Russia fester, there is one surprising place where their military-to-military contacts are quietly weathering the storm: Syria. It has been four months since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered cruise missile strikes against a Syrian airfield after an alleged chemical weapons attack. In June, the U.S. military shot down a Syrian fighter aircraft, the first U.S. downing of a manned jet since 1999, and also shot down two Iranian-made drones that threatened U.S.-led coalition forces. All the while, U.S. and Russian military officials have been regularly communicating, U.S. officials told Reuters. Some of the contacts are helping draw a line on the map that separates U.S.- and Russian-backed forces waging parallel campaigns on Syria s shrinking battlefields. There is also a telephone hotline linking the former Cold War foes air operations centers. U.S. officials told Reuters that there now are about 10 to 12 calls a day on the hotline, helping keep U.S. and Russian warplanes apart as they support different fighters on the ground. That is no small task, given the complexities of Syria s civil war. Moscow backs the Syrian government, which also is aided by Iran and Lebanon s Hezbollah as it claws back territory from Syrian rebels and Islamic State fighters. The U.S. military is backing a collection of Kurdish and Arab forces focusing their firepower against Islamic State, part of a strategy to collapse the group s self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Reuters was given rare access to the U.S. Air Force s hotline station, inside the Qatar-based Combined Air Operations Area, last week, including meeting two Russian linguists, both native speakers, who serve as the U.S. interface for conversations with Russian commanders. While the conversations are not easy, contacts between the two sides have remained resilient, senior U.S. commanders said. The reality is we ve worked through some very hard problems and, in general, we have found a way to maintain the deconfliction line (that separates U.S. and Russian areas of operation) and found a way to continue our mission, Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, the top U.S. Air Force commander in the Middle East, said in an interview. As both sides scramble to capture what is left of Islamic State s caliphate, the risk of accidental contacts is growing. We have to negotiate, and sometimes the phone calls are tense. Because for us, this is about protecting ourselves, our coalition partners and destroying the enemy, Harrigian said, without commenting on the volume of calls. The risks of miscalculation came into full view in June, when the United States shot down a Syrian Su-22 jet that was preparing to fire on U.S.-backed forces on the ground. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said those were not the only aircraft in the area. As the incident unfolded, two Russian fighter jets looked on from above and a American F-22 stealth aircraft kept watch from an even higher altitude, they told Reuters. After the incident, Moscow publicly warned it would consider any planes flying west of the Euphrates River to be targets. But the U.S. military kept flying in the area, and kept talking with Russia. The Russians have been nothing but professional, cordial and disciplined, Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the Iraq-based commander of the U.S.-led coalition, told Reuters. In Syria, U.S.-backed forces are now consumed with the battle to capture Islamic State s former capital of Raqqa. More than half the city has been retaken from Islamic State. Officials said talks were underway to extend a demarcation line that has been separating U.S.- and Russian-backed fighters on the ground as fighting pushes toward Islamic State s last major Syrian stronghold, the Deir al-Zor region. The line runs in an irregular arc from a point southwest of Tabqa east to a point on the Euphrates River and then down along the Euphrates River in the direction of Deir al-Zor, they said. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, during a visit to Jordan this week, said the line was important as U.S.- and Russian-backed forces come in closer proximity of each other. We do not do that (communication) with the (Syrian) regime. It is with the Russians, is who we re dealing with, Mattis said. We continue those procedures right on down the Euphrates River Valley. Bisected by the Euphrates River, Deir al-Zor and its oil resources are critical to the Syrian state. The province is largely in the hands of Islamic State, but has become a priority for pro-Syrian forces. It also is in the crosshairs of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). SDF spokesman Talal Silo told Reuters last week that there would be an SDF campaign toward Deir al-Zor in the near future, though the SDF was still deciding whether it would be delayed until Raqqa was fully taken from Islamic State. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
U.N. calls for pause in air strikes to spare civilians in Syria's Raqqa | GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations called on Thursday for a humanitarian pause to allow an estimated 20,000 trapped civilians to escape from the Syrian city of Raqqa, and urged the U.S.-led coalition to rein in air strikes that have caused casualties. Amnesty International said on Thursday that a U.S.-led coalition campaign to oust Islamic State from Raqqa had killed hundreds of civilians, and those remaining face greater risk as the fight intensifies in its final stages. On Raqqa, our urging today from the UN side to the members of the humanitarian task force ... is that they need to do whatever is possible to make it possible for people to escape Raqqa, Jan Egeland, U.N. humanitarian adviser on Syria, told reporters in Geneva. Boats on the Euphrates must not be attacked, people who come out cannot risk air raids when and where they come out, he said. Now is the time to think of possibilities, pauses or otherwise that might facilitate the escape of civilians, knowing that Islamic State fighters are doing their absolute best to use them as human shields, he said. Humanitarian pauses were agreed between the warring sides last December to allow the evacuation of civilians from then rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Egeland said. But he added that the United Nations has no contact with Islamic State fighters who have controlled Raqqa since 2014. Egeland, referring to U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said: There is heavy shelling from the surrounding and encircling SDF forces and there are constant air raids from the coalition. So the civilian casualties are large and there seems to be no real escape for these civilians. Syrian government forces, backed by the Russian air force and Iran-backed militias, have also been advancing against IS south of the River Euphrates that forms Raqqa city s southern edge. Inside Raqqa city, on both sides, conditions are very bleak and it is very hard to assist in all areas, Egeland said. The United Nations is still assessing the outcome of talks held this week in Riyadh between the three Syrian opposition groups - who failed to unite - Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, the U.N. deputy special envoy for Syria, said. Asked whether Syria peace talks would be held in Geneva in September, he said: We are waiting to get a full picture as to what happened in Riyadh, and we will have further consultations with the interested parties. And on that basis a decision will be taken as to when these talks will take place. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
EU citizens leaving UK pushes down net migration after Brexit vote | LONDON (Reuters) - Net migration to Britain fell to its lowest level in three years in the 12 months to the end of March, with more than half the drop caused by European Union citizens leaving and fewer arriving since the Brexit vote. The biggest drop in the figures came from eight eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary, that joined the EU in 2004, leading to a migration to Britain of many eastern Europeans hoping for better-paid jobs. Net migration, which shows the annual difference between those moving to and leaving the country, has been falling since Britain s June 2016 vote to exit the European Union. According to the Office for National Statistics, it stood at 246,000 in the 12 months to the end of March, down 81,000 from the previous year and compared with the 336,000 record number that was published just before the Brexit referendum. Within the 246,000, some 127,000 were from the EU, down 51,000 to its lowest level since the 12 months ending December 2013, as emigration rose and immigration fell compared to the previous 12 months. Business leaders said the drop in net migration was a serious concern for firms worried about wage inflation and an inability to fill skills gaps with British workers. No one should celebrate these numbers, Seamus Nevin, Head of Employment and Skills Policy at the Institute of Directors, said in a statement. Given unemployment is currently at its lowest level ever (4.5 percent), without the 3 million EU citizens living here the UK would have an acute labor shortage. Signs that it is becoming a less attractive place to live and work are a concern. According to an industry survey published on Thursday, nearly half of businesses operating in Britain s food supply chain say EU employees are thinking about leaving because of uncertainty around Brexit. Nearly a third said staff had already left [nL4N1L94S1]. The government has said it is still committed to an election promise to reduce the numbers to the tens of thousands , first made in 2010 and designed to reassure Britons who were worried about the impact immigration had on public services. Many Britons cited immigration as their reason for voting Leave in the referendum. Britain has said it aims to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in Britain and particularly important to sectors of the economy such as construction and the food and hospitality industries. But Migration Watch UK, an advocacy group which has long called for immigration to be cut, said that while Thursday s figures were a positive sign, they remained too high. This is a step forward but it is largely good fortune, said Chairman Andrew Green. This should not obscure the fact that migration remains at an unacceptable level of a quarter of a million a year with massive implications for the scale and nature of our society. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Excessive force won't solve Myanmar's Rohingya crisis: Annan panel | YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar should respond to a crisis over its Muslim Rohingya community in a calibrated way without excessive force, a panel led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday, adding that radicalization was a danger if problems were not addressed. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar s most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule. Annan s commission - appointed last year by leader Aung San Suu Kyi to come up with long-term solutions for the violence-riven, ethnically and religiously divided Rakhine state - said perpetrators of rights abuses should be held accountable. Security deteriorated sharply in the western state on the border with Bangladesh last October when Rohingya militants killed nine policemen in attacks on border posts. In response, the Myanmar military sent troops fanning out into Rohingya villages in an offensive beset by allegations of arson, killings and rape by the security forces which sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. The situation in the state deteriorated again this month when security forces began a new clearance operation with tension shifting to a township, Rathetaung, where Buddhist Rakhine and Rohingya communities live side-by-side. While Myanmar has every right to defend its own territory, a highly militarized response is unlikely to bring peace to the area, the nine-member commission said in its final report. Whatever action is taken, we should make sure that the population do not suffer and (that) they have access to support and necessary humanitarian needs they require, said Annan at a news conference in Yangon. Annan added that he discussed the military operation in Rakhine s Mayu mountains with army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who told him that the risk of a negative impact on the civilian population was small due to the remoteness of the area. Nevertheless, the commission said that a nuanced and comprehensive response was needed to ensure that violence does not escalate and inter-communal tensions are kept under control , it said. The commission warned that if human rights were not respected and the population remain politically and economically marginalized northern Rakhine State may provide fertile ground for radicalization, as local communities may become increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists . The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. Annan has visited Myanmar three times since his appointment, including two trips to Rakhine. On Thursday, he presented his findings to Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing. The United Nations said in a report in February security forces had instigated a campaign that very likely amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing. That led to the establishment of a U.N. fact-finding mission a month later. But Myanmar s domestic investigation team criticized the U.N. report this month and rejected allegations of abuses. Myanmar declined to grant visas to experts appointed by the U.N. and instead the government said it would comply with recommendations by the Annan team. But Annan s panel - which has a broad mandate to look into, among other things, economic development, education and healthcare - said it was not mandated to investigate specific cases of alleged human rights violations . It said that the government should ensure based on independent and impartial investigation that perpetrators of serious human rights violations are held accountable . The commission made a host of other recommendations, ranging from a faster and more transparent citizenship verification process to equal access to healthcare. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Britain to study effect of foreign students on economy | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain commissioned a report on Thursday on the economic impact of foreign students, part of an increasingly heated debate over whether they should be included in the government s target of reducing migration to the tens of thousands. Prime Minister Theresa May has been under pressure to drop international students from Britain s immigration figures, which have remained stubbornly high despite her pledge as interior minister seven years ago to reduce them to under 100,000 a year. High rates of immigration into Britain were a major reason for the vote to leave the European Union last year. But many officials argue that foreign students contribute to the economy. There is no limit to the number of genuine international students who can come to the UK to study, and the fact that we remain the second most popular global destination for those seeking higher education is something to be proud of, interior minister Amber Rudd said in a statement. We understand how important students from around the world are to our higher education sector, which is a key export for our country, and that s why we want to have a robust and independent evidence base of their value and the impact they have. Immigration has long been a sensitive topic in Britain. The expansion of the European Union to take in some eastern European countries saw rates jump, which critics said put pressure on public services such as hospitals. But others argue that immigration helps the economy and a provides a much-needed workforce. By including students in the immigration figures, they say, Britain is failing to acknowledge the contribution they make or that most leave after finishing their studies. International students make up around a quarter of total immigration, according to official figures. Data released on Thursday showed that net migration to Britain in the year to March 2017 fell by 81,000 to 246,000 people. More than half of those who left were EU citizens . In a separate report on What s happening with international student migration? , the Office for National Statistics said: There is no evidence of a major issue of non-EU students overstaying their entitlement to stay. Of the 1.34 million nationals from outside the European Economic Area who held visas that expired in 2016/17, 96.3 percent departed before the visa expired, the ONS said in another report. Another 0.4 percent departed after their visa had expired. Just 3.3 percent were not initially identified as having departed after their leave expired. We have always been clear that our commitment to reducing net migration to sustainable levels does not detract from our determination to attract international students from around the world, Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said. Since 2010 we have clamped down on abuse, while increasing the number of genuine students that come to the UK from around the world. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Turkish nationalist leader says Iraqi Kurdish referendum a potential reason for war | ANKARA (Reuters) - The head of Turkey s nationalist opposition said on Thursday a planned independence referendum by Kurds in northern Iraq should be viewed by Ankara as a reason for war if necessary . Turkey, which is battling a three-decade Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, is concerned the referendum could further stoke separatist sentiment among the 15 million Kurds in Turkey. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited Iraq, where he conveyed to Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani Ankara s concerns about the decision to hold the referendum, planned for Sept. 25. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, who allied with the government in supporting the ruling AK Party s campaign in April s referendum on boosting President Tayyip Erdogan s powers, called on Ankara to oppose the vote. A position must be taken to the end against Barzani s preparation for an independence referendum which incorporates Turkmen cities, Bahceli told a news conference in Ankara. This is a rehearsal for Kurdistan. If necessary Turkey should deem this referendum as a reason for war, he added. Bahceli does not set policy, though his ideas reflect those of a segment of Turkish society fiercely opposed to the idea of an independent Kurdistan and supportive of Iraq s Turkmen ethnic minority, which has historical and cultural ties to Turkey. Kurds have sought an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East and left Kurdish-populated territory split between modern-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Like Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria all oppose the idea of Iraqi Kurdish independence, fearing it may fuel separatism among their own Kurdish populations. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, deemed a terrorist organization by Ankara, the United States and European Union, has waged a 33-year insurgency in southeast Turkey in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. The United States and other Western nations fear September s vote could ignite a new conflict with Baghdad and possibly neighboring countries, diverting attention from the war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Barcelona balances security and freedom after deadly attacks | MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s northeastern region of Catalonia, hit last week by two Islamist militant attacks which killed 15 people, is to deploy more police, install bollards in Barcelona and step up security around stations and tourist landmarks. The aim is to strike a balance between security and not overloading residents with restrictions. We re looking at introducing (street) obstacles that could be mobile, Joaquin Forn, who is in charge of home affairs in Catalonia, told a news conference on Wednesday. A van plowed into crowds of holidaymakers and local residents on Barcelona s crowded Las Ramblas boulevard last Thursday, killing 13 people. Two others were killed during the driver s getaway and in a separate attack in Cambrils. The Barcelona rampage reignited a row over how cities can better prevent such attacks. Militants have used trucks and cars as weapons to kill nearly 130 people in France, Germany, Britain, Sweden and Spain over the past 13 months. Catalan authorities may also erect some permanent barriers and turn some streets into pedestrian-only thoroughfares, Forn said. The regional capital, which receives around 30 million visitors a year, is home to several landmarks designed by architect Antoni Gaudi, including the towering Sagrada Familia. Forn added that some 10 percent more police would be deployed. Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attacks in Catalonia, issued a video via one of its official channels on Wednesday showing two of its fighters making threats in Spanish against Spain, interspersed with images of the aftermath of the Barcelona attack. One fighter pledged to avenge Muslim blood spilled by the Spanish Inquisition, established in 1478, and what he said was the killing Spain was currently engaged in against Islamic State. This was an apparent reference to Iraq, where Spain has several hundred soldiers training local forces in the fight against Islamic State. Investigators are still looking into whether the suspects behind last week s attacks had links to France or Belgium and are examining their movements over recent weeks as they look for connections to possible cells elsewhere in Europe. The car used in the attack in Cambrils, south of Barcelona, was caught on camera speeding in the Paris region days earlier. We are still trying to establish why they were in the Paris area, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters at a joint news conference in Paris with his Spanish counterpart on Wednesday. Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said France and Spain would continue to reinforce border checks and step up information exchanges, including of passenger information in real time. One of the suspects has said the leader of the militant group was an imam, Abdelbaki Es Satty, who died a day before the Barcelona attack when a house the group was using to build bombs blew up. Court officials in Spain s Valencia region said on Wednesday that Spain had issued an expulsion order against Es Satty after he served a four-year jail term for drug-trafficking but that this was annulled by a court in 2015 after Es Satty appealed. The judge at the time overturned the expulsion order partly because Es Satty had employment roots in Spain which he said shows his efforts to integrate in Spanish society. A dozen Islamist militants suspected of involvement in the plot were either killed or arrested. A judge on Tuesday ordered two suspects jailed, one remained in police custody pending further investigation and a fourth was freed with conditions. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Cambodia accuses U.S. of political interference, calls U.S. democracy 'bloody and brutal' | PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia hit back on Thursday at U.S. criticism over its decision to expel a U.S.-funded pro-democracy group, accusing Washington of political interference and describing American democracy as bloody and brutal . Prime Minister Hun Sen, the strongman who has ruled Cambodia for more than three decades, has taken a strident anti-American line in the increasingly tense run up to a 2018 election. The U.S. State Department criticized Cambodia s decision to expel the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Wednesday and a statement from the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh questioned whether Cambodia was a democracy. In an open letter on Thursday, the Cambodian government asked whether the United States was coming to Cambodia to help or hinder the Khmer people and blamed it for contributing to the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Cambodians are well aware of what a democratic process means. You do not need to tell us what it is, the letter said, describing U.S.-style democracy as bloody and brutal . We wish to send a clear message again to the U.S. Embassy that we defend our national sovereignty, it added. Tensions have risen anew in Cambodia, with rights groups and the United Nations expressing alarm and the opposition accusing Hun Sen of persecution ahead of next year s election. After the government s order to expel the NDI and a threat to shut a newspaper founded by an American journalist if it didn t pay back taxes immediately, the U.S. State Department voiced concern at the government curtailing freedom of the press and civil society s ability to operate . Government supporters have threatened to protest at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, the pro-government Fresh News web site reported on Thursday. The protests are likely to be in large scale against the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh like in the 1960s because of the American interference in Cambodia s sovereignty, it said, citing an anonymous government source. The spillover from the U.S. war in neighboring Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s helped bring to power the Khmer Rouge regime, whose rule was marked by the genocide of at least 1.8 million Cambodians through starvation, torture, disease and execution. Hun Sen, the former Khmer Rouge commander who is one of China s closest regional allies, has warned of a possible return to war if his party doesn t win elections. In a statement on its website on Wednesday the NDI called on Cambodia to reconsider its decision to shut it down. The institute said it worked with all major parties and that its work was strictly nonpartisan . NDI President Kenneth Wollack said the NDI has fulfilled all legal obligations for registration. Hun Sen has also targeted local media in what rights groups say is a growing crackdown ahead of the election. Cambodia s ministry of information on Wednesday revoked the license of a local radio station for selling air time to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. The station also rents out space to the U.S. government-financed Voice of America (VOA) English news outlet. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Australian government faces uncertain two months after court delays citizenship hearing | SYDNEY (Reuters) - A citizenship crisis will loom over the Australian government for at least another two months after a court said on Thursday it would not begin hearings into the parliamentary eligibility of seven lawmakers until mid-October. Australia s parliament has been rocked by the revelation that the seven lawmakers, including the deputy prime minister and two other ministers in the coalition government, are dual citizens, meaning they are potentially ineligible to hold elected office. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull s center-right government holds just a one-seat majority in parliament and its popularity is sitting at six-month lows in opinion polls, meaning its future could rest on the outcome of the citizenship crisis. Turnbull s government had asked for an expedited ruling on the eligibility of the lawmakers, but Australia s High Court said on Thursday it would not begin the three-day hearing until Oct. 11. The delay means the crisis threatens to further erode support for Turnbull. The next national election is not due until 2019 but political analysts say prolonged poor poll results could encourage a leadership challenge. Turnbull needs to urgently remove the doubt around the credibility of his government, which has already caused him great harm, said Haydon Manning, a political science professor at Flinders University in South Australia. The High Court ruling also threatens to create a parliamentary impasse for Turnbull if his deputy, Barnaby Joyce, is disqualified. Joyce, the leader of the rural-based Nationals, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, has said he was a joint New Zealand citizen when he was elected last year. If Joyce is disqualified by the court over the citizenship rules, Turnbull would have to rely on the support of the often fractious independents in parliament to have any hope of passing legislation. The possible deadlock also threatens consumer sentiment, analysts said, a bad sign for Australia s somewhat sluggish economy. Turnbull brushed away any suggestions that the court could deliver a ruling that would doom his government. We are very, very confident that our members who have been caught up in this will be held by the court to be eligible to sit in the parliament and therefore eligible to be ministers, Turnbull told reporters in the rural town of Albury, 555 km (345 miles) south of Sydney. A 116-year-old law demands an elected lawmaker only have Australian citizenship, but some have discovered they hold dual citizenship by descent of a father being born in another country, such as neighboring New Zealand, or Britain or Italy. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Vietnam calls for Southeast Asian unity amid South China Sea tension | HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam s most powerful leader has called for greater unity among Southeast Asian states at a time the country has appeared increasingly isolated in challenging China s territorial claims in the South China Sea. Making the first visit by a Vietnamese communist party chief to Indonesia, Nguyen Phu Trong said in a speech televised at home on Wednesday that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) needed to be unified in resolving territorial disputes. Do not let ASEAN become a playing card for the competition among major countries, Trong said, without identifying which he meant. Vietnam has emerged as the most vocal opponent of China s claims in the South China Sea, where more than $3 trillion in cargo pass every year. To China s annoyance, Vietnam held out an ASEAN meeting this month for language in a communique that noted concern about island-building and criticized militarization in the South China Sea. Chinese pressure forced Vietnam to stop drilling for oil last month in a Vietnamese oil block that China claims. Beijing has also been angered by Vietnam s growing defense links to the United States, Japan and India. Some Southeast Asian countries are wary about the possible repercussions of defying Beijing by taking a stronger stand on the South China Sea. China claims most of the South China Sea, while Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Brunei claim parts of the sea, which commands strategic sealanes and has rich fishing grounds along with oil and gas deposits. After Indonesia, Trong is due to visit Myanmar. | worldnews | August 24, 2017 |
Canada frets over possible huge surge in asylum-seekers: sources | OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada fears a huge surge in asylum seekers crossing the border from the United States, putting political pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of a 2019 election, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The number of migrants illegally entering Canada more than tripled in July and August, hitting nearly 7,000. Haitians, who face looming deportation from the United States when their temporary protected status expires in January 2018, accounted for much of the inflow. Two sources familiar with Canadian government thinking said citizens from El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, who are slated to lose their U.S. protected status in early 2018, may also head north. There is concern we ll see a huge increase, mostly from Central America, said one source. The question is, which group is next, and how are we going to deal with it, and what is the impact on Canadians? added the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation. Most new arrivals are going to the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec, sparking protests from opposition politicians and anti-immigrant groups. Trudeau s Liberals need to gain support in Quebec to offset expected losses elsewhere ahead of an October 2019 election. Asked whether the Liberals were worried about losing popularity in Quebec, the source said: Absolutely. That s a concern. But if Trudeau clamps down too far, he risks tarnishing a long-cultivated reputation for openness and tolerance. He pointedly tweeted Canada s welcome of refugees after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a travel ban in January. The government is in a real quandary over this, said a third source familiar with official thinking. Ottawa has hardened its tone in recent days, warning people not to cross the border since they could well be deported. Trudeau said Canada was enforcing immigration rules. We are an open and welcoming country because citizens have confidence in our immigration and refugee system and we have been able to continue to defend and protect the integrity of that system, he told reporters in Montreal on Wednesday. He also said Ottawa might accelerate the process of issuing work permits for asylum seekers rather than make them wait for refugee claims to be processed, which now takes several months. Leger Marketing pollster Christian Bourque said there were no immediate signs that support in Quebec for Trudeau was weakening. I think that changes if people do not perceive the government is taking a strong stand, he said. A Reuters poll in March found nearly half of Canadians want to deport people who are illegally crossing from the United States. A Haitian-Canadian Liberal legislator is due to visit Miami on Thursday, home to a large expatriate community, in a bid to persuade people to stay put. Officials complain false stories are circulating about how easy it is to be granted permission to stay in Canada. Some of the Haitians are in temporary housing, including Montreal s Olympic Stadium and at least two tent camps near the border. Critics accuse Trudeau of encouraging would-be refugees to come to Canada without thinking through the consequences. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Poland asks EU to drop legal case against Warsaw over migrant quotas | WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has asked the European Commission to withdraw its legal proceedings against Warsaw over its migrant relocation quotas and said it was ready to fight its case in court, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. In July the Commission sent so-called reasoned opinions to Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary urging them to apply EU migration rules. Poland has sent a motion to the European Commission requesting it to discontinue its ongoing infringement procedure. Should it be continued, Poland is prepared to argue its case before the Court of Justice of the European Union , the ministry said in a statement. Poland s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has repeatedly criticized the EU s relocation scheme for each member state to host a given number of migrants to help ease pressure on Greece and Italy, struggling with mass arrivals of migrants across the Mediterranean. Earlier on Wednesday, Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said in a statement that the EU s relocation policy was dangerous. Paris, Stockholm, Brussels, Berlin, Manchester, Barcelona, Blaszczak said, referring to recent attacks by Islamist militants which have killed scores of people. How many more European cities have to be hit by terrorists so the European Union wakes up? So the European Commission acknowledges that accepting blindly all those who come to the European shores is akin to putting a noose around Europe s neck? | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Brazil's Lula says party may field someone else in 2018 | PENEDO, Brazil (Reuters) - Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters on Wednesday that his recent conviction for corruption might mean that his Workers Party will have to field a candidate other than him in next year s election. In an interview during a marathon bus tour through Brazil s impoverished northeastern states, Lula said the Brazilian government should spend its way out of its worst recession on record and even use some of its international reserves instead of cutting government programs that hurt the poor. Lula s 2003-11 government lifted millions from poverty and polls show he is still one of Brazil s most popular politicians. However, his political future hangs in the balance after he was convicted last month of receiving bribes from a construction firm in return for help winning government contracts. If that conviction is upheld on appeal, Lula will likely be barred from running and could be imprisoned. I know my enemies want to block any possibility of me being a candidate and I am fighting that, Lula, 71, told Reuters in a hotel room where he complained that his arms hurt from physically embracing thousands of supporters who have turned out at every stop of his tour. But nobody is irreplaceable, he added. If there is any problem, the Workers Party has to be able to launch another candidate. A possible stand-in is the former mayor of Sao Paulo, Fernando Haddad, who gained national prominence as education minister under Lula and extended university access to poorer Brazilians. Brazil s real currency extended gains on the news that Lula was contemplating his own replacement, firming more than 1.2 percent to its strongest in more than two weeks. Traders said the prospect of a 2018 race without Lula reinforced bets on Brazil sticking to fiscal austerity and pursuing structural reforms. Lula s gravelly voice has lost strength after he beat throat cancer five years ago, but his fiery speeches have lost none of their power to rally audiences with populist criticism of Brazil s elites. Corruption accusations and the impeachment of Lula s hand-picked successor Dilma Rousseff, who was ousted due to budget irregularities in 2016, caused many members to quit the party last year and led to major setbacks in local elections. Lula said members who left have not joined other parties and, with corruption scandals entangling most of Brazil s political class, they are still undecided, so the Workers Party is hoping to win them back. His three-week, 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) tour of a region that greatly benefited from his social programs aims to reconnect his party with its working class base and rebuild what is still Latin America s largest left-wing party. Polls show Lula would handily win the first round of a presidential election but he is in a statistical tie with his former Environment Minister Marina Silva, no relation despite the last name, largely because Lula has a 46-percent rejection rate, the highest among likely contenders. Lula sharply criticized President Michel Temer for privatizing state assets to try to plug a record budget deficit that cost Brazil its investment-grade credit rating two years ago. Temer s ministers blame the fiscal crisis on excessive public spending by Lula and Rousseff. Lula said Temer s spending cuts were the wrong way to pull Brazil from its worst recession on record. He would expand public investment, even if it meant increasing government debt at first, to restart the economy and recover tax revenues. Honestly, I would use some of the international reserves, and money from bank reserves, to make Brazil grow again, he said. Lula said Temer s market-friendly government did not have the courage to raise taxes and make wealthy Brazilians contribute more to government finances. Instead, the government is selling state companies, such as power utility Eletrobras. When there is nothing left to sell, they will sell their souls to the devil, he quipped. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
South Koreans practice in case of North Korea attack, but with little urgency | SEOUL (Reuters) - Traffic was halted, movie screenings interrupted and hundreds of thousands of people across South Korea were directed to underground shelters on Wednesday as part of a civil defense drill to practice in case of an attack by North Korea. But South Koreans are familiar with such preparations, having seen many over the decades since the height of Cold War tension with a neighbor it is still technically at war with, and many people have become inured to the danger. This time, the government tried to inject some urgency and get more people taking part amid a surge of tension over North Korea s weapons programs, and an exchange of dire warnings of nuclear war by both it and its sworn enemy, the United States. We need to practice because we re still at war with North Korea and people are insensitive to threats, said Hwang Jae-min, a 30-year-old prison guard who happened to be watching a movie at a Seoul cinema complex when a siren heralded the beginning of the drill. Hwang was one of about 50 moviegoers led underground to take shelter from an imaginary North Korean air raid. The siren sounded around the country and government officials and police flagged down traffic and tried to shepherd pedestrians to the nearest shelters. But skeptics doubted such an orchestrated exercise would be much use if and when it came to a real war. I do strongly believe we need this drill but it doesn t seem to be working properly, said Choi In-sook, a 45-year-old housewife strolling down a city street when the siren went off. She did not run for cover. It needs to be performed like it s a real war, she said. The drill was part of an annual joint military exercise conducted by South Korean and U.S. forces that began on Monday and will run until Aug. 31, and which North Korea denounced as a reckless step toward nuclear war. North Korea routinely denounces military exercises by U.S. and South Korean forces that it regards as thinly disguised preparations to invade it. South Korea s state run television broadcast scenes from the 20-minute drill live for the first time in two years in the hope of drumming up some enthusiasm. Jung Han-yol, director of the Ministry of Public Affairs and Safety s civil defense division, conceded that the fact that participation was voluntary meant the drill might lack some credibility. Cho Won-cheol, emeritus professor of civil and environmental engineering of Yonsei University in Seoul, said there was always a problem with getting people involved in government preparations for a war few people believe will happen. The reason why the drill is not working well is the country s civil defense drill has always been practiced mostly by the government or civil officials, not by the civilians, Cho said. South Korea and is main ally the United States are technically still at war with the North because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Venezuela ex-prosecutor says she has evidence of Maduro corruption | BRASILIA/CARACAS (Reuters) - Dismissed Venezuelan prosecutor Luisa Ortega said on Wednesday she had evidence that President Nicolas Maduro was involved in corruption with construction company Odebrecht. Ortega, 59, was a key player in Venezuela s government but broke with it in March. She fled last week to Colombia by boat and on Wednesday morning landed in Brazil. Ortega said she had been persecuted in an effort to hide details of high-level corruption, saying she had proof, though she offered none. Ortega linked the Odebrecht scandal with Maduro and Socialist Party heavyweights including Diosdado Cabello and Jorge Rodriguez. Ortega said she had evidence that Cabello received some $100 million from the Brazilian company. The international community must investigate such cases, she told a news conference. Venezuelan authorities did not respond to a request for comment. Odebrecht admitted in a settlement with U.S. and Brazilian prosecutors to paying bribes across 12 countries to win contracts. According to a U.S. court ruling, between 2001 and 2016, Odebrecht paid about $788 million in bribes in countries including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. Ortega was removed from her position early this month by Venezuela s newly formed constituent assembly, a controversial pro-government body whose installation was called dictatorial by governments worldwide. Maduro said on Tuesday he would seek Ortega s arrest, accusing her of having worked for some time with the United States. Maduro blames Washington for many of Venezuela s problems, including triple-digit inflation, shortages of basic goods and months of anti-government unrest. In Caracas, state-controlled television broadcast images on Wednesday of a police operation in what it said was Ortega s apartment. The cameras showed marble floors, large paintings of Ortega herself and one by Andy Warhol, a cellar containing an array of expensive wines and a wardrobe filled with designer labels. Ortega said she would give details of the corruption cases to authorities in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. Since settling in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland for a record $3.5 billion, Odebrecht has sought to negotiate leniency deals that would allow it to keep operating in other countries across Latin America. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Netanyahu to Putin: Israel may act to curb Iran's clout in Syria | SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that Israel was prepared to act unilaterally to prevent an expanded Iranian military presence in Syria. Russia intervened in the civil war on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015, joining a de facto alliance with Iranian forces, Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shi ite Muslim militias helping Damascus beat back Islamic State and other Sunni Muslim insurgent groups. Israel fears an eventual Assad victory could leave Iran with a permanent garrison in Syria, extending a threat posed from neighboring Lebanon by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Meeting Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Netanyahu said Iran was fighting to cement an arc of influence from the Gulf to the Mediterranean. Iran is already well on its way to controlling Iraq, Yemen and to a large extent is already in practice in control of Lebanon, Netanyahu told Putin. We cannot forget for a single minute that Iran threatens every day to annihilate Israel, Netanyahu said. Israel opposes Iran s continued entrenchment in Syria. We will be sure to defend ourselves with all means against this and any threat. Putin, in the part of the meeting to which reporters had access, did not address Netanyahu s remarks about Iran s role in Syria nor his threat to take unilateral military action. But at the United Nations, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters the de-escalation zones established in Syria, of which Iran is guarantor alongside Turkey and Russia, are real progress on the way to end that tragic war . We know the position of Israel towards Iran but we think that Iran in Syria is playing a very constructive role, said Nebenzia. Netanyahu advisers have privately said their focus is on keeping Iranian forces away from the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, the Syrian side of which falls under a partial truce brokered by Russia and the United States in recent weeks. In parallel to lobbying Moscow, Israel has been trying to persuade Washington that Iran and its guerrilla partners, not Islamic State, pose the greater common threat in the region. Bringing Shi ites into the Sunni sphere will surely have many serious implications both in regard to refugees and to new terrorist acts, Netanyahu told Israeli reporters after the three-hour meeting - his sixth with Putin since September 2015. We want to prevent a war and that s why it s better to raise the alarm early in order to stop deterioration. After the meeting, Netanyahu was due to fly back to Israel for talks with U.S. peace envoys Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and Dina Powell, who are on a Middle East tour. Russia has so far shown forbearance toward Israel, setting up a military hotline to prevent their warplanes or anti-aircraft units clashing accidentally over Syria. Israel s air force said last week it had struck suspected Hezbollah arms shipments around 100 times in Syria during the civil war, rarely drawing retaliation and apparently without Russian interference. Russian diplomats have argued that Moscow s stake in Syria deters Iran or Hezbollah from opening a new front with Israel. We take the Israeli interests in Syria into account, Alexander Petrovich Shein, Russia s ambassador to Israel, told its Channel One television on Tuesday. Were it up to Russia, the foreign forces would not stay. Zeev Elkin, an Israeli cabinet minister who joined Netanyahu in Sochi, said in a radio interview after the talks with Putin that he had no doubt that it (the meeting) will lead to practical steps . Elkin did not elaborate. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Former Libyan prime minister freed after abduction in Tripoli | TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Former Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has been released after being abducted during a visit to the capital, Tripoli, and held for nine days by an armed group, a relative said on Wednesday. Zeidan was prime minister from 2012-2014, a period when Libya slid deeper into the political turmoil and armed conflict that has plagued the country since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown six years ago. He has since been living in Germany with his family. It is not clear why Zeidan traveled to Libya or why he was abducted. He was being held by a group aligned with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, though he faced no judicial charges, a source said. The U.N.-backed government has not commented on the case. Tripoli is controlled by a number of the armed groups that have held power in the capital since 2011. Some have been given semi-official status by successive governments, but the groups remain unaccountable and involved in criminal activity. A lawyer for Zeidan, Moussa Al-Doghali, told France 24 Arabic TV channel that his client was released without explanation and that he did not know the circumstances of his arrest and detention. Zeidan was in good health and was staying in a Tripoli hotel following his release, Doghali said. In October 2013, Zeidan was briefly abducted from a Tripoli hotel room by an armed group allied to the parliament that sacked him just over a year later. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Britain outlines plans to break free of European Court after Brexit | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain on Wednesday outlined several escape routes from the direct jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice after Brexit, one of Prime Minister Theresa May s key aims in talks to unstitch 40 years of EU membership. In a government paper on the highly-sensitive topic, Britain set out its determination to negotiate a tailor-made agreement to enforce its own laws and resolve disputes once it has left the bloc in March 2019. The paper drew attention to several EU agreements which do not require the Luxembourg-based court s direct jurisdiction over other countries - a clear attempt to encourage more flexibility among EU officials who are protective of the court. May said breaking free of the ECJ s jurisdiction meant that Britain would be able to make its own laws and British judges and courts would enforce them. We will take back control of our laws, she told reporters in southern England, in a denial of suggestions by opposition lawmakers that she had watered down her demands by qualifying her words to say direct jurisdiction and opening the way to indirect influence . Her words placated many pro-Brexit lawmakers in her Conservative Party who say the ECJ has slowly sucked power from Britain s courts and parliament. Leave Means Leave, a pro-Brexit campaigning group, said it welcomed the government s overall commitment but wanted to make sure the ECJ no longer plays a part in the British legal system . But May s stance could further harden the EU s stance on the court. Many European officials see the ECJ as the ultimate arbiter of EU law and have said it should continue to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in Britain after Brexit and oversee the Brexit agreement. In the paper, Britain says its court would guarantee the rights of EU citizens or businesses in the country: Those rights and obligations will be enforced by the UK courts and ultimately by the UK Supreme Court. The EU said it was sticking to its stance and hoped to make progress on three areas as a priority - the rights of expatriates, Britain s border with EU state Ireland and a financial settlement. That distance in viewpoints could delay an agreement with the EU on the divorce, a partner from international law firm Bird & Bird said. The government s arguments about the role of the ECJ will contribute to prolonged uncertainty for businesses in relation to Brexit, said Richard Eccles. The ECJ issue has all but halted debate on guaranteeing the rights of expatriates, according to a joint status document, published last month that compared the EU and British positions. But the question of how to resolve disputes after Brexit could cause even more difficulties. In its paper, the government suggested it was not asking for the impossible, zeroing in on examples of where the ECJ does not have direct jurisdiction in resolving disputes. It said though such cases were illustrative to help discussions with the EU. Earlier, Dominic Raab, a pro-Leave campaigner who is now minister for courts and justice, said Britain would most likely suggest Britain and the EU should appoint arbitrators and agree a third party to deal with contentious issues post-Brexit. That s one possible alternative, but I think it s the most likely, he told BBC Radio Four, adding that Britain would have to keep half an eye on the case law of the ECJ in the future. He, like May, denied that use of the word direct before jurisdiction meant the government had now accepted that the court would continue to have influence over British law. But opposition lawmakers said the paper was tantamount to admitting defeat by a government which lost its authority at an ill-judged election two months ago by watering down one of its red lines . Not much is left of (Brexit minister) David Davis s so-called red line of taking back control from European judges, Andrew Adonis, a leading pro-EU campaigner, said. This is a climbdown camouflaged in jingoistic rhetoric. Even if we leave the Single Market, European judges will still have considerable power over decisions made in the UK. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Trump must be respected as U.S. president, says Germany's Merkel | BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday Donald Trump must be shown appropriate respect for holding the office of the U.S. president, even if she may differ with him on policy issues. Merkel, campaigning for a fourth term in office after a Sept. 24 national election, has refused to bend to pressure from her Social Democrat (SPD) rivals to resist demands by Trump for NATO members to increase their defense spending. As a committed Atlanticist, she has stressed the strength of German relations with the United States even when flagging differences in opinion on policy. If you take the president of the United States, whatever differences of opinion there may be, I know he prevailed in a tough election. It wasn t reserved for him on a silver platter, she told business daily Handelsblatt in an interview. In the end, he won the election under American electoral law and that means he is democratically elected and that this person should be shown the appropriate respect, regardless of how I assess his views, she added. Her SPD challenger, Martin Schulz, has been far more critical of Trump, referring to the U.S. president as this irresponsible man in the White House . Merkel, who enjoyed holidaying in the United States before becoming chancellor in 2005, said she missed the opportunity to vacation there now. I can t go on holiday in San Diego now as chancellor because the time difference is too much, and that is something I miss a bit, but the work itself is so marvelous that I can afford to miss it. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Pakistan rejects role of 'scapegoat for U.S. failures' in Afghanistan | KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan has rejected U.S. criticism of its efforts to fight terrorism, saying it should not be made a scapegoat for the failure of the U.S. military to win the war in Afghanistan. U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his policy for Afghanistan on Monday, stepping up the military campaign against Taliban insurgents and singling out Pakistan for harboring them. U.S. officials later warned that aid to Pakistan might be cut and Washington might downgrade nuclear-armed Pakistan s status as a major non-NATO ally, in order to pressure it to do more to help bring about an end to America s longest-running war. Pakistan s powerful military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, met U.S. Ambassador David Hale on Wednesday and told him Pakistan was actively working for peace in Afghanistan. We have done a lot ... and shall keep on doing our best, not to appease anyone but in line with our national interest and national policy, Bajwa was quoted in an army press statement as telling Hale. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif added his voice to a chorus of indignation over the U.S. criticism, reiterating Pakistan s denial that it harbors militants. They should not make Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures in Afghanistan, Asif said in an interview with Geo TV late on Tuesday. A group of influential Pakistani clerics including Sami-ul Haq, who runs a Islamic seminary where many senior Afghan Taliban studied, angrily condemned the United States. America is the enemy of the Muslim ummah (community), Haq told a press briefing along with other clerics who preach a jihadist doctrine. The government of Pakistan should quit the alliance for war against so-called terrorism, Haq added. The heavens will not fall if America gets angry with us. Pakistan has for years been battling homegrown Islamist militants who are seeking to overthrow the state with bomb attacks and assassinations. But critics say the Pakistani military nurtures other Islamist factions, including the Afghan Taliban, which are seen as useful to Pakistan s core confrontation with old rival India. Asif said Pakistan had suffered great losses from Islamist militancy - the government estimates there have been 70,000 casualties in militant attacks, including 17,000 Pakistanis killed - since Pakistan joined the U.S. war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The relationship between the two countries has endured periods of extreme strain during the past decade, especially after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in a 2011 raid. Last year, a U.S. drone strike killed then-Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in southwestern Pakistan, an attack Islamabad protested as a violation of its sovereignty. Pakistan has denied knowledge that either bin Laden or Mansour were in the country. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Romanian president opposes plans for judicial overhaul | BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania s justice minister proposed a significant overhaul of the judicial system on Wednesday which the president called an attack on the rule of law that would set the country back a decade. Romania is seen as one of the EU s most corrupt states and Brussels keeps its justice system under special monitoring. Attempts by the ruling coalition of Social Democrats and junior partner ALDE to weaken a crackdown on high-level corruption triggered the country s largest street protests in decades at the start of the year. Justice Minister Tudorel Toader proposed a slew of changes on Wednesday ranging from the way chief prosecutors are appointed to setting up a special prosecuting unit for crimes committed by magistrates. The proposals ... constitute an attack against the rule of law, the independence and proper functioning of the judiciary as well as the anti-corruption fight, centrist President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement. If this mix of measures is adopted by the government and approved by parliament, Romania s efforts for more than 10 years will be wiped out and the justice system will go back to a time when it was subordinated to politics. Under Romanian law, the president appoints chief prosecutors who have been proposed by the justice minister and received non-binding approval from the Superior Magistrates Council (CSM), the top watchdog that safeguards judicial independence. Toader also proposed that the justice minister, who is politically appointed, take control of the judicial inspection unit from the CSM. Analysts and magistrates have said this would lead to political interference in the justice system. The Prosecutor General s office said these proposals were an alarm signal, adding that prosecutors had not been consulted. Toader declined to answer questions but told reporters the proposals were within normal and necessary parameters for the rule of law. The proposals will be send to the CSM for an opinion before being submitted to the government and ultimately parliament for approval. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Iran, Saudi Arabia to exchange diplomatic visits: Iranian foreign minister | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran and Saudi Arabia will exchange diplomatic visits soon, Tehran said on Wednesday, indicating a possible thaw in relations between the regional rivals since they severed diplomatic ties last year. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that the visits could take place after the haj pilgrimage ends in the first week of September. The visas have been issued for both sides to make this trip, Zarif said, according to ISNA. We are waiting for the final steps to be completed so diplomats from the two countries can inspect their embassies and consulates. Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are at their worst in years, with each accusing the other of subverting regional security and supporting opposite sides in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in Jan. 2016 after a prominent Saudi Shi ite cleric was executed, prompting Riyadh to close the embassy. Saudi Arabia and several other Arab governments have severed ties with Qatar, citing its support of Iran as one of the main reasons. Iran has blamed Saudi Arabia for being behind deadly twin attacks on June 7 in Tehran claimed by Islamic State. At least 18 people were killed and more than 40 wounded in the attacks, in which Riyadh has denied any involvement. Thousands of Iranian pilgrims are currently undertaking the haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Danish police identify torso as missing submarine journalist | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Police on Wednesday identified a headless female torso washed ashore in Copenhagen as that of Swedish reporter Kim Wall, who they believe was killed by a Danish inventor on board his home-made submarine. Wall, who was researching a story on inventor Peter Madsen, went missing after he took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56-foot) submarine on Aug. 10. He denies killing her, saying she died in an accident. Announcing the results of tests on the torso, discovered by a passing cyclist on Monday, police spokesman Jens Moller said it had suffered damage suggesting an attempt to make sure air and gas inside should leave the body so that it would not rise from the seabed . He added: There was also some metal attached to the body, allegedly also to make sure the body would sink to the bottom. The arms, legs and head had been sawn from the body. Analysis showed a match with Wall s DNA, which the police had gathered from a toothbrush and a hairbrush, and with blood found in the submarine, Moller said. Police still do not know the cause of death, and divers are searching for more body parts. Madsen, 46, is charged with manslaughter, which carries a sentence of between five years and life in prison. His lawyer Betina Hald Engmark told Reuters he was maintaining his innocence and sticking to his account that Wall s death was accidental. The macabre case has riveted Swedish and Danish media, and made headlines around the world. It is with boundless sadness and dismay we received the message that the remains of our daughter and sister Kim Wall have been found, Wall s mother Ingrid Wall said on Facebook. During the horrendous days that have passed since Kim disappeared, we have received countless evidence of how loved and appreciated she was, both as a person and friend and as a professional journalist. From all corners of the world comes proof of Kim as a person who made a difference. Madsen has told a court that following the alleged accident, he buried Wall at sea - changing his initial statement to police that he dropped her off alive in Copenhagen. A day after taking Wall out on his UC3 Nautilus submarine, the inventor was rescued after the vessel sank. Police found nobody else on board. The submarine is one of three constructed by Madsen and one of the largest privately built ones in the world. It can carry eight people and weighs 40 tonnes when fully equipped. Madsen was already well known in Denmark as an entrepreneur and aerospace engineer, as well as for his submarines. He founded the association Copenhagen Suborbitals, with the goal of sending a person into space in a home-built rocket, and wrote a blog under the nickname Rocket Madsen . He is not violent, he does not drink, does not do drugs, Thomas Djursing, who wrote a book about him, told Danish tabloid B.T. earlier this month. On the other hand, he quarrels with everyone and I have argued with him too. But that is how it often is with people who are deeply driven by a passion. Wall, 30, was a freelance journalist whose work had appeared in Harper s Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, the South China Morning Post, The Atlantic and TIME. Originally from Sweden, she held degrees from New York s Columbia University and the London School of Economics and was based between New York and Beijing. She had written about topics ranging from gender and social justice to pop culture and foreign policy, according to her LinkedIn profile. She had also received training in hostile environments and emergency first-aid, she said on the profile. Her mother said she had uncovered stories all over the world. She gave a voice to the weak, the vulnerable and marginalized people. That voice would have been needed for a long, long time. Now it won t be so. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Typhoon batters Hong Kong and south China, three dead in Macau | HONG KONG (Reuters) - Typhoon Hato, a maximum category 10 storm, slammed into Hong Kong on Wednesday lashing the Asian financial hub with wind and rain that uprooted trees and forced most businesses to close, while in some places big waves flooded seaside streets. There were reports of 34 people injured in Hong Kong while in the city of Macau, across the Pearl River estuary, three people were killed, authorities there said. In Hong Kong, more than 450 flights were canceled, financial markets suspended and schools closed as Hato bore down, the first category 10 storm to hit the city since 2012. I ve never seen one like this, Garrett Quigley, a longtime resident of Lantau island to the west of the city, said of the storm. Cars are half submerged and roads are impassable with flooding and huge trees down. It s crazy. Many skyscrapers in the usually teeming streets of Hong Kong were empty and dark as office workers stayed at home. Hato, that means sky pigeon in Japanese, churned up Hong Kong s Victoria Harbor and triggered large swells and big waves on some of the city s most popular beaches, with serious flooding in low-lying areas. In residential districts such as Heng Fa Chuen on densely populated Hong Kong island, waves smashed against the sides of oceanfront buildings and surged over a promenade, sweeping away walls and benches and swamping vehicles parked nearby. Construction cranes swayed at the tops of skyscrapers, windows imploded and nearly 200 trees were uprooted, while some people used canoes to venture out into flooded streets. Authorities downgraded the storm to a category three by late-afternoon with government services, the courts, financial markets and companies set to resume normal business on Thursday. The storm also caused a power blackout across most of the gambling hub of Macau for about two hours, residents said, with disruption to mobile phone and internet networks. There was severe flooding on the streets, with some cars almost completely submerged, and the water supply was affected in some districts. The three men who died included a 45-year-old Chinese tourist who was hit by a heavy truck, according to a government statement. The former Portuguese colony s casinos, however, had backup power, two casino executives told Reuters. The storm also made landfall in China s Guangdong province, in Zhuhai city adjacent to Macau, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported. Numerous flights and trains were canceled in Guangdong province, with Shenzhen s International Airport particularly badly hit. Thousands of residents along the Chinese coast were evacuated and fishing vessels were called back to port. Maximum winds near Hato s center were recorded at a destructive 155 kph (95 mph) as it continued to move west across Guangdong in the general direction of Hainan island. A senior scientific officer for the Hong Kong observatory warned that sea levels could rise several meters in some places, with the government issuing flood alerts and opening 27 shelters across the city. Trading in Hong Kong s financial markets was halted for the day, the stock exchange said. Typhoon Nida in August last year was the last storm to close the exchange for the whole day. The city s flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific, and Hong Kong Airlines said the majority of their flights to and from Hong Kong between 2200 GMT Tuesday and 0900 GMT Wednesday would be canceled. Other transport services, including ferries to Macau and outlying islands in Hong Kong, were suspended. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Poland to allocate additional $55 bllion on defense by 2032: deputy minister | WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland will allocate an additional 200 billion zlotys ($55 billion) on defense over the next 15 years to modernize its army amid signs of growing aggression from Russia, a deputy defense minister said. Russia s Zapad military exercises next month in Belarus and western Russia, the largest in years, have raised concerns for their lack of transparency, with NATO worried the official number of troops participating might be understated. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will visit Poland on Thursday and Friday to check on deployment of U.S. troops in the east of the country and to meet Polish, Romanian and Turkish government officials. Poland, alarmed by what it sees as Russia s assertiveness on NATO s eastern flank, has lobbied hard for the stationing of NATO troops on its soil, especially since Moscow s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The government has approved a legislative amendment ... which gives us nearly 200 billion zlotys over the next 15 years, deputy defense minister Tomasz Szatkowski said, adding that this was in line with plans to raise defense spending gradually to reach 2.5 percent of gross domestic product. This is not a trivial amount, he told Reuters in an interview. The Polish government agreed in June to raise defense spending gradually from 2 pct to 2.5 percent of GDP. This means that annual spending would nearly double to about 80 billion zlotys by 2032. Szatkowski, architect of a new national concept for defense, said that although the ministry would be getting almost all the money needed to implement the strategy, some hard choices will have to be made. The plan is to increase the size of the army nearly twofold and revamp the equipment. Nearly two-thirds of equipment dates from the Soviet era when the country was in the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact. The navy, though, will fare less well from modernization. The ministry has canceled the purchase of two classes of surface vessels, including multi-task frigates used to protect other warships. We cannot afford to expand the transport fleet, Szatkowski said. Higher spending on artillery, engineering or assault helicopters will come at the cost of expanding the airborne forces. Warsaw plans to acquire fifth-generation fighter jets, but Szatkowski said that this would not happen until the second half of the next decade. Szatkowski defended the spending plans which have been criticized as unrealistic . Nobody can release from us the obligation of planning and creating a coherent vision and proving there is money for it - something that is happening for the first time on such a scope in the history of Polish defense planning, he said. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Pro-Houthi fighters call powerful Yemen ally 'evil', escalating feud | DUBAI (Reuters) - Fighters loyal to the armed Houthi movement on Wednesday decried as evil the group s main ally in Yemen s civil war, ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, widening an unusual public rift as they fight a Saudi-led coalition for control of the country. The Popular Committees , a body of rank and file pro-Houthi combatants, condemned Saleh s description of them in a speech as a militia, criticizing the former leader who remains one of Yemen s most powerful politicians and military figures. What (Saleh) said transgressed a red line and he could have only fallen into this because he s evil and void of every good, patriotic or religious characteristic, the collection of tribal and volunteer fighters said in a statement. The tactical alliance between Saleh and the Houthis has often appeared fragile, with both groups suspicious of each other s ultimate motives and sharing little ideological ground. While president, Saleh waged six wars against the Houthis from 2002 to 2009 and was for many years an ally of convenience for Saudi Arabia. Big switches of loyalty are a feature of Yemen s byzantine political landscape, particularly since 2011 Arab Spring unrest which led to Saleh s fall in 2012. A war of words has escalated in recent days between the Iran-allied Houthis and Saleh, who together run northern Yemen. The two factions have traded barbs on responsibility for challenges such as unemployment and mounting hunger after 2-1/2 years of fighting the internationally recognized government, based in the south and backed by the Saudi-led coalition. The alliance intervened in the civil war in 2015 to restore the government to power in the capital Sanaa. But the conflict, which has killed at least 10,000 people, is in stalemate. At least 30 people were killed in an air strike that hit a small hotel north of Sanaa on Wednesday, the Houthis said. The Saudi-led coalition has controlled Yemeni air space since the war began. Based in the southern port city of Aden, the government struggles to impose its writ over militias and armed groups there, but strife now looms for its northern foes. In a speech on Sunday, Saleh summoned party supporters to hold a mass rally in Sanaa on Aug. 24, a planned show of force that has deeply irritated the Houthis. Their leadership convened on Wednesday and recommended the announcement of a state of emergency and suspension of all party activity , telling Saleh s supporters any mass gatherings should be made on battlefronts, not in public squares. In comments that may deepen Houthi suspicions, the United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, spoke approvingly of the rift, saying it may represent an opportunity to break (Yemen s) political deadlock. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Germany's Schulz says he would demand U.S. withdraw nuclear arms | BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany s Social Democrats (SPD) pledged to have U.S. nuclear weapons withdrawn from German territory if, against the odds, he defeats Angela Merkel to become chancellor next month. Addressing a campaign rally in Trier late on Tuesday, SPD leader Martin Schulz also said he, unlike Merkel, would resist demands by U.S. President Donald Trump for NATO members to increase their defense spending. Trump wants nuclear armament. We are against this, Schulz said, apparently trying to differentiate his party from Merkel s more hawkish Christian Democratic Union (CDU). As chancellor, I will commit Germany to having the nuclear weapons stationed here withdrawn from our country, he said. About 20 U.S. nuclear warheads are thought to be stationed at a military base in Buechel, in western Germany, according to unofficial estimates. The U.S. embassy in Berlin said it does not comment on nuclear weapons in Germany. Taking advantage of Trump s extreme unpopularity in Germany, Schulz also said he would use the money Merkel had earmarked for increased military spending for other purposes. What to do with our money is the central question of this election, he said, referring to a 30 billion-euro tax surplus. Trump demands that 2 percent of GDP, 30 billion euros, should go to military spending, and Merkel agreed to that without asking German citizens. Germany and other NATO members had already pledged to raise their defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product before Trump was elected. While most of them have increased spending on their militaries, only a few have reached the 2 percent goal, and Germany is not one of them. Most recent polls show Schulz s party polling at around 24 percent, some 14 percentage points behind Merkel. Most expect a booming economy and low unemployment will carry her into a fourth term in Sept. 24 elections. However, with Germans historically wary of using military force since World War Two, Schulz s message may resonate among the SPD s core voters. After 12 years in office, Merkel has become increasingly confident on the global stage. She has pushed for Germany to become more militarily self-reliant, partly in response to Trump s hinting that he might abandon NATO allies if they do not spend more on defense. Earlier this year, Merkel said the times when Germany could rely on others to defend it were to some extent in the past . | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Blunt instrument? What a list of banned articles says about China's censors | SHANGHAI (Reuters) - An old review of an academic monograph on agrarian revolutionaries in 1930s China is hardly a political third rail in Beijing today, even by the increasingly sensitive standards of the ruling Communist Party. That such a piece appeared on a list of some 300 scholarly works that Cambridge University Press (CUP) said last week the Chinese government had asked it to block from its website offers clues about the inner workings of China s vast and secretive censorship apparatus, say experts. President Xi Jinping has stepped up censorship and tightened controls on the internet and various aspects of civil society, as well as reasserting Communist Party authority over academia and other institutions, since coming to power in 2012. Far from being a well-oiled machine, though, China s censorship regime is fragmented and often undermined by gaps, workarounds, and perhaps even hasty officials, say academics specializing in Chinese politics. Crude is the word, said Jonathan Sullivan, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham in Britain. The blunt way in which articles were chosen for censoring ... suggest to me that there was not a lot of thought put into it. CUP, the publishing arm of Britain s elite Cambridge University, on Monday reversed its decision to comply with the request to censor the articles published in the journal China Quarterly following an outcry over academic freedom. China s response remains to be seen. The education ministry, foreign ministry, cyberspace administration and state publishing authority all declined to comment. The list of articles the authorities wanted blocked covered topics that are considered sensitive by the government, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Tibet, Taiwan and the violence-prone far-western region of Xinjiang. But it was far from thorough or comprehensive. The article on 1930s agrarian revolutionaries may have got there by mistake, say experts. What appears to have condemned the scathing but otherwise innocuous 1991 review of Kamal Sheel s book about a Communist base area in China s southern heartland was the fact the place was named Xinjiang, and the word appeared in the book title. The Chinese characters are different for Xinjiang, the village, and Xinjiang, the mostly-Muslim region more than 2,500 km (1,550 miles) to the northwest that is beset by ethnic tensions and occasional unrest. But in English they are indistinguishable. Xu Xibai, a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford, tweeted a brief analysis of the list that noted that its creators appear to have hastily searched the China Quarterly database for taboo words in titles and abstracts. The censors probably used a few keyword searches to locate just enough articles to make a nice, long list to impress their superiors, Xu s post said. They did not bother to read the articles or go through the content list manually. An article defending Mao Zedong was on the censored list, for instance, while others more critical of the former paramount leader were not. Some sensitive subjects seem to have eluded the officials net. The Communist Party tightly controls discourse on the 1958-61 Great Leap Forward, in which millions starved to death due to ill-conceived economic policies. Censors have banned books on the topic but it was apparently not on this list. Nor were the brutal, Communist-led land reforms of the 1950s, or the Hundred Flowers Movement, an effort by Mao to lure critics out of the woodwork by feigning openness, only to punish them. The party s efforts to censor news and information have sometimes backfired or left outsiders perplexed. In 2009, software designed to check pornographic and violent images on PCs blocked images of a movie poster for cartoon cat Garfield, dishes of flesh-color cooked pork and on one search engine a close-up of film star Johnny Depp s face. Citizen Lab, a group of researchers based at the University of Toronto, compiled a list of words banned as of last year on popular live streaming sites in China. Among them: Moulin Rouge , braised rabbit , helicopter and zen . The request to block the articles was passed to Cambridge University Press by its import agent, but without knowing where it originated it is hard to draw firm conclusions, said Sebastian Veg, a China scholar at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris. The censorship system is of course centrally directed, but not uniform, Veg said. Lee Siu-yau, assistant professor of Greater China studies at the Education University of Hong Kong, suspects the request was a trial balloon. They usually start with something small-scale and gradually expand and make their requirements more difficult, he said. This might be one of the first steps that the Chinese government would take to see if it could actually influence international academic publishers. (Story refiles to add dropped words a and an in paragraphs four and six.) | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Saudi police release teenager detained for dancing in street | DUBAI (Reuters) - A 14-year-old boy who was detained by Saudi police for dancing to the song Macarena at a traffic intersection has been released with a warning about road safety, the interior ministry said on Wednesday. The boy was filmed dancing to the catchy 1990s hit song in front of five lanes of cars stopped at a traffic light, in a clip widely shared on social media. Police had said the teenager, whose name and nationality were not given, was being questioned because he had shown improper public behavior and disrupted traffic. An interior ministry statement said the boy had been released without charge, after he and his legal guardian were summoned for questioning. They signed a written pledge that the teen will not engage in behavior that could endanger his life and the life of others again, it said. The notification was solely intended to warn the boy about potential consequences for his own safety, as well as to safeguard the overall safety of motorists and pedestrians. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
The People's Princess, Britons work to keep memory alive | LONDON (Reuters) - Abdul Daoud spilt most of the cappuccino into the saucer the first time he served Princess Diana, his nerves getting the better of him. Almost 20 years on since she was killed when her car crashed in a Paris tunnel, he still works surrounded by pictures of the woman he calls the princess of the people in his cafe, named Diana, his very personal attempt to keep her memory alive. My promise to her is to put this place as a tribute for her, he said of his cafe, set up in 1989, near London s Kensington Gardens, home to the palace where Diana used to live. For him, celebrating her life is business as usual at the cafe where visitors can eat Diana salads or Diana burgers and where he said she used to stop by regularly. She is the princess of the people, always, he said, adding that he does not believe she will ever be forgotten. But many younger Britons said that while they can understand the fascination with the princess, whose struggles to fit in to the royal household played out in the full glare of the media, they don t feel it themselves. I think she maybe meant more to my mother, said Stephen Butler in the west London area Diana used to live. When she died I remember my mother shaking me awake and being quite devastated about it. Student Shermine Grigorius was three-years-old when Diana died but after being told stories about the Princess of Wales by her mother, sees her as a symbol of kindness . While the royals have always been dutifully charitable, Diana was known for going beyond her in-laws, or even any celebrity at the time, in her philanthropy. Whether in charity work or in royal life, she earned a reputation for being a rebel who defied convention: from campaigning for a worldwide ban on landmines despite opposition from the British government to flouting royal protocol to speak candidly about her experiences with bulimia and infidelity. She bought a different side to the whole monarchy, said Anika Wijuria, a 30-year-old project manager. They were quite stiff and she was quite liberal. At the Da Mario restaurant, Marco Molino remembers another side of Diana, describing a down to earth woman who liked to eat Italian dishes with her sons, Princes William and Harry, or friends. Her personality was very normal, very down to earth, very friendly, he said near an oil painting of Diana on the wall. I think that s what she really wanted - a bit of normality ... Here was one of the places where she could achieve that. Ronald van Bronkhorst, who has lived above Da Mario since the 70s, also said she never made flashy entrances. Her legacy will never leave ... You think about her all the time, especially in the area we live in. | worldnews | August 23, 2017 |
Argentina labor unions protest job losses, Macri policies | BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina s main labor unions took to the streets of the capital on Tuesday demanding more jobs and protesting center-right President Mauricio Macri s economic policies. Tens of thousands of workers gathered in the historic Plaza de Mayo criticizing Macri, who is trying to lower labor costs to attract investment and jump-start an economy that emerged from recession in the second half of last year. If some retrograde (in the government) thinks that lowering wages, precarious living conditions and destroying trade unions is going to line up investments... we say that is very wrong, said Juan Carlos Schmid, a leader of Argentina s largest umbrella union, the CGT. Standing on a podium at the protest, he said the CGT would meet in late September to discuss a potential strike. Macri told Reuters in an interview this month his government was negotiating labor agreements sector by sector rather than trying to pass a comprehensive labor reform like the one approved in neighboring Brazil. Unions fear more drastic changes could be coming after mid-term legislative elections in October, however, especially after a primary vote on Aug. 13 pointed to strong support for Macri s coalition. Macri is trying to open Argentina s long protected economy and focus on competitive industries like oil and agriculture, but has seen some manufacturing jobs lost in the meantime. The most recent employment data showed the jobless rate rose to 9.2 percent in the first quarter of the year from 7.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Exclusive: Trump's Afghan decision may increase U.S. air power, training | ON BOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force may intensify its strikes in Afghanistan and expand training of the Afghan air force following President Donald Trump s decision to forge ahead with the 16-year-old war, its top general told Reuters on Tuesday. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein said, however, he was still examining the matter, as the U.S. military s top brass had only begun the process of translating Trump s war strategy into action. Asked whether the Air Force would dedicate more assets to Afghanistan, where the United States has been engaged in its longest military conflict, Goldfein said only: Possibly. It s actually too early to tell what this will mean in terms of plus-ups and reductions, he said in a joint interview with Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson. Still, he acknowledged that the Air Force was absolutely examining the possibility of increasing air power, including to support U.S. ground forces, following Trump s promise of a stepped-up campaign against Taliban insurgents, who have gained ground against U.S.-backed Afghan government forces. Goldfein said the same about providing training to Afghan pilots. Wilson, who assumed the Air Force s top civilian job three months ago, noted the Afghan military had made strides thanks to U.S. training and equipment, but added: I think there is a long way to go there, very honestly. In a speech on Monday night, Trump appeared to answer a call from the top U.S. commander on the ground for thousands of more troops to break a stalemate with Taliban insurgents, on top of the roughly 8,400 now deployed in Afghanistan. Trump said the United States would not disclose troop numbers, but one U.S. official told Reuters they could start moving quickly. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday he would set troop levels following the review by military chiefs. During the administration of Trump s predecessor, Barack Obama, U.S. military officials privately expressed frustration about their inability to strike at many Taliban targets - including training camps - unless they could show a direct threat to U.S. forces or major impact on the Afghan state. Wilson said Trump appeared to be giving greater flexibility to strike insurgents. Obviously the Joint Chiefs will work through their plans and make proposals, but I think the guidance was pretty clear from the president last night, and we re going to go on the offensive and destroy these terrorist networks, Wilson said. Goldfein said: I thought that came out very loud and clear in the speech that that s his priority. Wilson and Goldfein spoke to Reuters while flying back to the United States after a nine-day trip that included a visit to Afghanistan, where the U.S. military has ramped up its firepower against Islamic State in recent months even as it helps Afghan forces battle the Taliban. Particularly for the U.S. Air Force, the size of the American commitment to Afghanistan far outweighs the number of airmen deployed there. A network of U.S. installations throughout the Middle East supports the Afghan campaign, including in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Still, any substantial increase in U.S. targeting of the Taliban and Islamic State militants would likely require dedicating more U.S. military assets to build intelligence, strike insurgent targets and provide support to U.S. forces in the field. Although the U.S. military is stretched, a string of U.S. coalition-backed victories by Iraqi forces against Islamic State might free up some firepower and intelligence assets for Afghanistan, experts say. Air Force spokesman Brigadier General Edward Thomas declined to speculate on operational planning. But he noted that U.S. air power from the region could be deployed, if needed, including fighter aircraft, bombers and spy planes. With the detailed planning that will follow the president s announcement, the Air Force will be ready to swing any additional airmen and aircraft to the fight as required, Thomas said. Trump ran for the presidency calling for a swift U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the United States invaded in October 2001, and he acknowledged on Monday that he was going against his instincts in approving the new campaign plan sought by his military advisers. Wilson said Trump s remarks represented a strategic correction in the war effort along with a significant shift in policy on Pakistan. In his speech, Trump delivered a sharp rebuke to Islamabad for allowing Taliban insurgents a safe haven from which launch attacks in Afghanistan, and said it had much to lose unless it changed course. Pakistan denies that it harbors militants fighting U.S. and Afghan government forces in Afghanistan. Reuters has reported that the United States has been considering a range of actions, including withholding aid to Pakistan and, perhaps, ramping up drone strikes. Successive U.S. administrations have struggled with how to deal with nuclear-armed Pakistan, and the U.S. military has been dependent in the past on overflight or land routes through Pakistan to resupply its forces in landlocked Afghanistan. Wilson did not rule out a future U.S. military role against militants in Pakistan should Islamabad fail to act, but she said Trump s focus appeared to be on diplomatic efforts for now. My assumption is that there will be some intense diplomatic pressure, she said. Goldfein said he was not aware of any changes to U.S.-Pakistani military ties, but acknowledged the military would take its cues from the State Department. I can tell you that I have a fairly robust dialogue with the Pakistani air chief. I ve hosted him. He s hosted me, Goldfein said. But that dialogue is always supportive of the diplomatic dialogue. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
U.S. puts more pressure on Pakistan to help with Afghan war | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States suggested on Tuesday it could cut U.S. aid to Pakistan or downgrade Islamabad s status as a major non-NATO ally to pressure the South Asian nation to do more to help it with the war in Afghanistan. A day after President Donald Trump committed to an open-ended conflict in Afghanistan and singled out Pakistan for harboring Afghan Taliban insurgents and other militants, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Washington s relationship with Pakistan would depend on its help against terrorism. We are going to be conditioning our support for Pakistan and our relationship with them on them delivering results in this area, Tillerson told reporters. U.S. officials are frustrated by what they see as Pakistan s reluctance to act against groups such as the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network that they believe exploit safe haven on Pakistani soil to launch attacks on neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan denies it harbors militants fighting U.S. and Afghan government forces in Afghanistan. Tillerson said the United States could consider withdrawing Pakistan s status as a major non-NATO ally, which provides limited benefits such as giving Pakistan faster access to surplus U.S. military hardware, if cooperation did not improve. We have some leverage that s been discussed in terms of the amount of aid and military assistance we give them, their status as non-NATO alliance partner - all of that can be put on the table, he said. In a televised speech on Monday offering few specifics, Trump promised a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents who have gained ground against the U.S.-backed Afghan government and he singled out Pakistan for harboring militants. U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban s hard-line Islamist government in late 2001 because it sheltered al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington that year. U.S. forces have been bogged down since in a war that has vexed three American presidents. About 2,400 U.S. troops have died there in America s longest military conflict. (For a graphic on U.S. troops and contractors in Afghanistan click tmsnrt.rs/2xm6CxQ) The Afghan government welcomed Trump s speech, but the Taliban said it would make the country a graveyard for the American empire. Successive U.S. administrations have struggled with how to deal with nuclear-armed Pakistan, which has a porous border with Afghanistan. Washington fumes about inaction against the Taliban, but Pakistan has cooperated on other U.S. counterterrorism efforts, including against al Qaeda and Islamic State militants. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said it was disappointing that the US policy statement ignores the enormous sacrifices rendered by the Pakistani nation in fighting terrorism. As a matter of policy, Pakistan does not allow use of its territory against any country, it said. A senior U.S. official said on Tuesday significant measures were under consideration, including possibly sanctioning Pakistani officials with ties to extremist organizations. Trump also called for Pakistan s great rival India to play a bigger role in Afghanistan, a prospect that will ring alarm bells for Pakistan s generals. Trump s policy of engaging India and threatening action may actually constrain Pakistan and lead to the opposite of what he wants, said Zahid Hussain, a Pakistani security analyst. The United States has little choice but to use Pakistani roads and air corridors to resupply its troops in landlocked Afghanistan, giving Islamabad considerable leverage. U.S. officials fret that if Pakistan becomes an active foe, it could further destabilize Afghanistan and endanger U.S. soldiers. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday he was awaiting a plan from the U.S. military s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, before deciding how many more troops to send to Afghanistan. When he brings that to me, I will determine how many more we need to send in, Mattis told reporters in Baghdad. It may or may not be the number that is bandied about. U.S. officials have said Trump has given Mattis authority to send about 4,000 additional troops to add to the roughly 8,400 already in Afghanistan. The U.S. Air Force may intensify its strikes in Afghanistan and expand training of the Afghan air force following Trump s decision, its top general told Reuters on Tuesday. Most U.S. troops in Afghanistan work with a NATO-led training and advising mission, with the rest part of a counterterrorism force that mostly targets pockets of al Qaeda and Islamic State fighters. | worldnews | August 21, 2017 |
Exclusive: U.S. to withhold up to $290 million in Egypt aid | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has decided to deny Egypt $95.7 million in aid and to delay a further $195 million because of its failure to make progress on respecting human rights and democratic norms, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The decision reflects a U.S. desire to continue security cooperation as well as frustration with Cairo s stance on civil liberties, notably a new law that regulates non-governmental organizations that is widely seen as part a growing crackdown on dissent, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials were especially unhappy that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in May allowed the NGO law to go into effect. Human rights groups and activists have said that it effectively bans their work and makes it harder for charities to operate. Egyptian officials had assured U.S. officials earlier this year that the law, which restricts NGO activity to developmental and social work and introduces jail terms of up to five years for non-compliance, would not go through, the sources said. Spokespeople for the White House and the State Department were not immediately available for comment. Egypt is an important Mideast partner for the United States because of its control of the Suez Canal and its border with Israel. The sources said the administration had decided to reprogram $65.7 million in fiscal year 2017 Foreign Military Financing funds (FMF) and $30 million in fiscal year 2016 Economic Support Fund (ESF) funds. Reprogramming means these funds would be used for other purposes and would not go to Egypt. The administration made a separate decision to withhold $195 million in fiscal year 2016 Foreign Military Financing funds which, had it not acted, would have expired and ceased to be available at the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. The second decision also illustrated the administration s ambivalence toward Egypt. Under U.S. law, the administration is required to withhold 15 percent, or $195 million, of the $1.3 billion it gives Egypt annually in FMF funds unless it can certify that Cairo is making progress on advancing human rights and democracy. However, the administration can issue a national security waiver that allows the funds to go through. This year, the administration again decided it could not certify Egyptian progress on rights and it chose to issue the national security waiver but it is still going to withhold the $195 million. That money will now go into an account where it will be held pending Egyptian improvement on human rights and democracy. This means that Egypt could eventually get the money if its record on democracy and civil liberties improved. Strengthened security cooperation with Egypt is important to U.S. national security, said one source, adding that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson felt it was in the interests of the U.S. to exercise the waiver. We remain concerned about Egypt s lack of progress in key areas, including human rights and the new NGO law, the source said. Egyptian rights activists have said they face the worst crackdown in their history under Sisi, accusing him of erasing freedoms won in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak s 30-year rule. Egyptian lawmakers have said the NGO law was needed to protect national security. The Egyptian government has long accused human rights groups of taking foreign funds to sow chaos, and several are facing investigation over their funding. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Trump talks tough on Pakistan's 'terrorist' havens, but options scarce | ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Outlining a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, U.S. President Donald Trump chastised Pakistan over its alleged support for Afghan militants - an approach analysts say will probably not change Pakistan s strategic calculations and might push it in directions Washington does not want it to go. Trump s call for India to play a greater role in Afghanistan, in particular, will ring alarm bells for Pakistan s generals, analysts said. Trump s policy of engaging India and threatening action may actually constrain Pakistan and lead to the opposite of what he wants, said Zahid Hussain, a Pakistani security analyst. Trump criticised Pakistan for providing safe havens to terrorist organisations and warned Islamabad it had much to lose by supporting insurgents battling the U.S.-backed Kabul government. It is kind of putting Pakistan on notice, said Rustam Shah Mohman, Pakistan s former ambassador to Kabul, predicting a bumpy road ahead for relations. Trump did resist some advisers calls to threaten to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism unless Islamabad pursued senior leaders of the Afghan Taliban and the allied Haqqani network. Pakistan should not be reassured by this speech, but it could have gone a lot worse for them, said Joshua White, a National Security Council director under former President Barack Obama. There were voices within the administration who wanted to move more quickly and aggressively to declare Pakistan not just a problem, but effectively an enemy. In Washington, a senior administration official said on Tuesday that significant measures were under consideration, including possibly sanctioning Pakistani officials with ties to extremist organizations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Pakistan s powerful military has not commented on Trump s speech, but the day before it denied any militants had havens in the country. The Pakistani government said Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif met with the U.S. ambassador on Tuesday and would speak in coming days with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the state of play in the bilateral relationship as well as the new U.S. policy on South Asia . Successive U.S. administrations have struggled with how to deal with nuclear-armed Pakistan. Washington fumes about inaction against the Taliban, but Pakistan has been helpful on other counterterrorism efforts, including against al Qaeda and Islamic State militants. The United States also has no choice but to use Pakistani roads to resupply its troops in landlocked Afghanistan. U.S. officials worry that if Pakistan becomes an active foe, it could further destabilise Afghanistan and endanger U.S. soldiers. Daniel Feldman, a special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan under Obama, said the Obama administration found it more effective to pressure Islamabad over safe havens in private than in public, and to keep the long-standing Indo-Pak rivalry from playing out in Afghanistan . Hussain, the security analyst, said Trump on Monday crossed a red line as far as Pakistan was concerned when he implored India to deepen its involvement in Afghanistan. Relations between Pakistan and the United States have endured strain during the 16-year war in Afghanistan, especially after al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces inside Pakistan in 2011. The Obama administration had already begun trimming military aid to Pakistan. Last year, the Pentagon decided not to pay $300 million in pledged military funding, and Congress effectively blocked a subsidised sale of F-16 jets to Pakistan. Analysts say Trump is likely to further curtail military aid to pressure Pakistan. But any effort to isolate Pakistan would face problems from China, which has deepened political and military ties to Islamabad as it invested nearly $60 billion in infrastructure in Pakistan. China on Tuesday defended Pakistan after Trump s remarks, saying its neighbour was on the front line in the struggle against terrorism and had made great sacrifices and important contributions in the fight. Mohman, the former ambassador, said if the United States kept putting pressure on Pakistan, then Islamabad would drift farther from the American sphere of influence. We have options, he said. We can go to China and Russia, and I think the U.S. can t afford that. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
U.S., North Korea clash at U.N. forum over nuclear weapons | GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea and the United States clashed at a U.N. forum on Tuesday over their military intentions towards one another, with Pyongyang s envoy declaring it would never put its nuclear deterrent on the negotiating table. Japan, well within reach of North Korea s missiles, said the world must maintain pressure on the reclusive country to rein in its nuclear and missile programs and now was not the time for a resumption of multi-party talks. North Korea has pursued its weapons programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and ignored all calls, including from major ally China, to stop, prompting a bellicose exchange of rhetoric between the North and the United States. North Korea justifies its weapons programs, including its recent threat to fire missiles towards the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, by pointing to perceived U.S. hostility, such as military exercises with South Korea this week. U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood told a U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva U.S. President Donald Trump s top priority was to protect the United States and its allies against the growing threat from North Korea and America was ready to use the full range of capabilities at its disposal. The path to dialogue still remained an option for Pyongyang and it had the choice between poverty and belligerence on the one hand and prosperity and acceptance. North Korea s envoy told the same forum the North s nuclear deterrent would never be up for negotiation, echoing Pyongyang s regular denunciation of U.S. aggression . The measures taken by the DPRK to strengthen its nuclear deterrence and develop inter-continental rockets is justifiable and a legitimate option for self-defense in the face of such apparent and real threats, diplomat Ju Yong Chol told the forum, referring to constant nuclear threats by the United States. DPRK stands for the North s official name, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea. Regarding joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on Monday, he warned: The ongoing military adventure would certainly add gasoline to the fire, driving the current tense situation to further deterioration. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said pressure must be maintained until the North demonstrated it would give up its nuclear program. It s not the time to discuss (the resumption of) six-party talks, Kono said, referring to stalled negotiations involving both Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan. It s time to exert pressure, he told reporters. The head of the U.S. military s Pacific Command said diplomacy was key. Admiral Harry Harris was in South Korea to observe annual joint military drills with the South Korean military, which the North called a step towards nuclear conflict masterminded by war maniacs . So we hope and we work for diplomatic solutions to the challenge presented by Kim Jong Un, Harris told reporters at a U.S. air base in Osan, about an hour from Seoul, referring to the North Korean leader. He said diplomacy was the most important starting point in response to the North s threat, when asked what actions by North Korea might trigger a preemptive U.S. strike against it. As far as a timeline, it would be crazy for me to share with you those tripwires in advance. If we did that, it would hardly be a military strategy, he said. The United States and South Korea began the long-planned exercises on Monday, called the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which the allies have said are purely defensive. The drills involve tens of thousands of troops as well as computer simulations designed to prepare for war with a nuclear-capable North Korea. The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with the North because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Delegations from about 20 countries spoke at the four-hour U.N. session, including Britain, France, Australia and South Korea, all of which criticized North Korea. I would like to repeat the appeal to the DPRK to listen to the fact that there is no alternative to stopping the different provocations and to return to dialogue, South Korean ambassador Kim Inchul said. We have never threatened the DPRK with any attacks and we have never promoted the use of force. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Mata Pires, owner of embattled Brazil builder OAS, dies | SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Cesar Mata Pires, the owner and co-founder of Brazilian engineering conglomerate OAS SA, one of the largest companies involved in Brazil s corruption scandal, died on Tuesday. He was 68. Mata Pires died of a heart attack while taking a morning walk in an upscale district of S o Paulo, where OAS is based, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. Efforts to contact his family were unsuccessful. OAS declined to comment. The son of a wealthy cattle rancher in the northeastern state of Bahia, Mata Pires links to politicians were central to the expansion of OAS, which became Brazil s No. 4 builder earlier this decade, people familiar with his career told Reuters last year. His big break came when he befriended Antonio Carlos Magalh es, a popular politician who was Bahia governor several times, and eventually married his daughter Tereza. Brazilians joked that OAS stood for Obras Arranjadas pelo Sogro - or Work Arranged by the Father-In-Law. After years of steady growth triggered by a flurry of massive government contracts, OAS was ensnared in Operation Car Wash which unearthed an illegal contracting ring between state firms and builders. The ensuing scandal helped topple former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff last year. Trained as an engineer, Mata Pires founded OAS with two colleagues in 1976 to do sub-contracting work for larger rival Odebrecht SA - the biggest of the builders involved in the probe. Before the scandal, Forbes magazine estimated Mata Pires fortune at $1.6 billion. He dropped off the magazine s billionaire list in 2015, months after OAS sought bankruptcy protection after the Car Wash scandal. While Mata Pires was never accused of wrongdoing in the investigations, creditors demanded he and his family stay away from the builder s day-to-day operations, people directly involved in the negotiations told Reuters at the time. He is survived by his wife and his two sons. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
U.S., North Korea clash at U.N. forum over nuclear weapons | GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea and the United States clashed at a U.N. forum on Tuesday over their military intentions towards one another, with Pyongyang s envoy declaring it would never put its nuclear deterrent on the negotiating table. Japan, well within reach of North Korea s missiles, said the world must maintain pressure on the reclusive country to rein in its nuclear and missile programs and now was not the time for a resumption of multi-party talks. North Korea has pursued its weapons programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and ignored all calls, including from major ally China, to stop, prompting a bellicose exchange of rhetoric between the North and the United States. North Korea justifies its weapons programs, including its recent threat to fire missiles towards the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, by pointing to perceived U.S. hostility, such as military exercises with South Korea this week. U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood told a U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva U.S. President Donald Trump s top priority was to protect the United States and its allies against the growing threat from North Korea and America was ready to use the full range of capabilities at its disposal. The path to dialogue still remained an option for Pyongyang and it had the choice between poverty and belligerence on the one hand and prosperity and acceptance. North Korea s envoy told the same forum the North s nuclear deterrent would never be up for negotiation, echoing Pyongyang s regular denunciation of U.S. aggression . The measures taken by the DPRK to strengthen its nuclear deterrence and develop inter-continental rockets is justifiable and a legitimate option for self-defense in the face of such apparent and real threats, diplomat Ju Yong Chol told the forum, referring to constant nuclear threats by the United States. DPRK stands for the North s official name, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea. Regarding joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on Monday, he warned: The ongoing military adventure would certainly add gasoline to the fire, driving the current tense situation to further deterioration. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said pressure must be maintained until the North demonstrated it would give up its nuclear program. It s not the time to discuss (the resumption of) six-party talks, Kono said, referring to stalled negotiations involving both Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan. It s time to exert pressure, he told reporters. The head of the U.S. military s Pacific Command said diplomacy was key. Admiral Harry Harris was in South Korea to observe annual joint military drills with the South Korean military, which the North called a step towards nuclear conflict masterminded by war maniacs . So we hope and we work for diplomatic solutions to the challenge presented by Kim Jong Un, Harris told reporters at a U.S. air base in Osan, about an hour from Seoul, referring to the North Korean leader. He said diplomacy was the most important starting point in response to the North s threat, when asked what actions by North Korea might trigger a preemptive U.S. strike against it. As far as a timeline, it would be crazy for me to share with you those tripwires in advance. If we did that, it would hardly be a military strategy, he said. The United States and South Korea began the long-planned exercises on Monday, called the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which the allies have said are purely defensive. The drills involve tens of thousands of troops as well as computer simulations designed to prepare for war with a nuclear-capable North Korea. The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with the North because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Delegations from about 20 countries spoke at the four-hour U.N. session, including Britain, France, Australia and South Korea, all of which criticized North Korea. I would like to repeat the appeal to the DPRK to listen to the fact that there is no alternative to stopping the different provocations and to return to dialogue, South Korean ambassador Kim Inchul said. We have never threatened the DPRK with any attacks and we have never promoted the use of force. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
U.S., North Korea clash at U.N. arms forum on nuclear threat | GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea and the United States accused each other on Tuesday of posing a nuclear threat, with Pyongyang s envoy declaring it would never put its atomic arsenal up for negotiation. The debate at the United Nations began when the U.S. envoy said President Donald Trump s top priority was to protect the United States and its allies against the growing threat from North Korea. To do so, he said, the country was ready to use the full range of capabilities at our disposal . U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood told the Conference on Disarmament that the path to dialogue still remains an option for Pyongyang, but that Washington was undeterred in defending against the threat North Korea poses . Fears have grown over North Korea s development of missiles and nuclear weapons since Pyongyang test-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in July. Those fears worsened after Trump warned that North Korea would face fire and fury if it threatened the United States. His remarks led North Korea to say it was considering plans to fire missiles towards the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. Trump responded by tweeting that the U.S. military was locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely . A few days later, North Korean media reported the country s leader, Kim Jong Un, had delayed any decision on whether to fire missiles towards Guam while he waited to see what the United States would do. Experts warned Pyongyang could still go ahead with the missile launches. North Korea s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs pose grave threats to the entire world, Wood told the Geneva forum. Its recent ICBM tests are another example of the dangerous reckless behavior of the North that is destabilizing the region and beyond. North Korea had openly stated that its missiles are intended to strike cities in the United States and its allies South Korea and Japan, he said. My president s top priority remains protecting the homeland, U.S. territories and our allies against North Korean aggression. We remain prepared to use the full range of capabilities at our disposal against the growing threat from North Korea. North Korea diplomat Ju Yong Chol said that measures taken by his country to strengthen its nuclear deterrent and develop inter-continental rockets were justifiable and a legitimate option . As long as the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threat remains unchallenged, the DPRK will never place its self-defensive nuclear deterrence on the negotiating table or step back an inch from the path it took to bolster the national nuclear force, Ju said. In a subsequent speech, Ju said: The United States should clearly understand that military threats and pressure are only serving as a momentum that pushes the DPRK further into developing fully strengthened nuclear deterrence. Regarding joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on Monday, he said: The ongoing military adventure would certainly add gasoline to the fire, driving the current tense situation to further deterioration. China s disarmament ambassador, Fu Cong, called for support for its proposal to defuse the crisis affecting its Pyongyang ally. China has called for dual suspension , that is of North Korea s nuclear activities and joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and United States. This seeks to denuclearize the peninsula and promote a security mechanism. Wood rejected Beijing s freeze for freeze plan. This proposal unfortunately creates a false equivalency between states that are engaging in legitimate exercises of self-defense who have done so for many years with a regime that has basically violated countless Security Council resolutions with regard to its proscribed nuclear and ballistic missile programs, he told the gathering. That is a false equivalency that we cannot accept and will not accept, he said. Fu retorted: I just want to say that we re not creating equivalency between anything. We are just actually making the proposal to facilitate a dialogue and to reduce the tension. We need a starting point to really launch the dialogue. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Headless torso could belong to submarine journalist: Danish police | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish police said on Tuesday the size of a headless female torso found on the sea s edge in Copenhagen suggested it could be that of a Swedish journalist who died after taking a submarine ride with the vessel s Danish inventor. Police said divers were still searching the area and they were investigating reports of other body parts that may have been spotted in Copenhagen harbor. Danish inventor Peter Madsen has been charged with killing Kim Wall, a Swedish journalist, in his home-made submarine. We re dealing with a torso where arms, legs and head were cut off deliberately. The length of the torso doesn t speak against it being Kim Wall, but we still don t know, Copenhagen police spokesman Jens Moller said in a video statement. Madsen told a court she had died in an accident on board the submarine and that he had buried her at sea, changing his earlier statement that he dropped her off alive in Copenhagen. Police are conducting DNA tests to identify the torso - found on Monday by a passing cyclist - and the results are due Wednesday morning, Moller said. The bizarre case has dominated Danish and Swedish media, and drawn interest from around the world. Madsen has been charged with the manslaughter of Wall, who has been missing since he took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56 feet) submarine on Aug. 10. He denies the charge. He was rescued a day later after his UC3 Nautilus sank in the narrow strait between Denmark and Sweden. Police found nobody else in the wreck. Madsen, an entrepreneur, artist, submarine builder and aerospace engineer, went before a judge on Saturday for preliminary questioning. The case is closed to the public in order to protect further investigations, police said. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
North Korea shipments to Syria chemical arms agency intercepted: U.N. report | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country s chemical weapons program were intercepted in the past six months, according to a confidential United Nations report on North Korea sanctions violations. The report by a panel of independent U.N. experts, which was submitted to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month and seen by Reuters on Monday, gave no details on when or where the interdictions occurred or what the shipments contained. The panel is investigating reported prohibited chemical, ballistic missile and conventional arms cooperation between Syria and the DPRK (North Korea), the experts wrote in the 37-page report. Two member states interdicted shipments destined for Syria. Another Member state informed the panel that it had reasons to believe that the goods were part of a KOMID contract with Syria, according to the report. KOMID is the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation. It was blacklisted by the Security Council in 2009 and described as Pyongyang s key arms dealer and exporter of equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons. In March 2016 the council also blacklisted two KOMID representatives in Syria. The consignees were Syrian entities designated by the European Union and the United States as front companies for Syria s Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC), a Syrian entity identified by the Panel as cooperating with KOMID in previous prohibited item transfers, the U.N. experts wrote. SSRC has overseen the country s chemical weapons program since the 1970s. The U.N. experts said activities between Syria and North Korea they were investigating included cooperation on Syrian Scud missile programs and maintenance and repair of Syrian surface-to-air missiles air defense systems. The North Korean and Syrian missions to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The experts said they were also investigating the use of the VX nerve agent in Malaysia to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korea s leader Kim Jong Un in February. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and four long-range missile launches. Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States. However, diplomats and weapons inspectors suspect Syria may have secretly maintained or developed a new chemical weapons capability. During the country s more than six-year long civil war the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has said the banned nerve agent sarin has been used at least twice, while the use of chlorine as a weapon has been widespread. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons. | worldnews | August 21, 2017 |
'Fully committed' NATO backs new U.S. approach on Afghanistan | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO allies on Tuesday welcomed President Donald Trump s decision to commit more forces to Afghanistan, as part of a new U.S. strategy he said would require more troops and funding from America s partners. Having run for the White House last year on a pledge to withdraw swiftly from Afghanistan, Trump reversed course on Monday and promised a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents, saying: Our troops will fight to win . U.S. officials said he had signed off on plans to send about 4,000 more U.S. troops to add to the roughly 8,400 now deployed in Afghanistan. But his speech did not define benchmarks for successfully ending the war that began with the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and which he acknowledged had required an extraordinary sacrifice of blood and treasure . We will ask our NATO allies and global partners to support our new strategy, with additional troops and funding increases in line with our own. We are confident they will, Trump said. That comment signaled he would further increase pressure on U.S. partners who have already been jolted by his repeated demands to step up their contributions to NATO and his description of the alliance as obsolete - even though, since taking office, he has said this is no longer the case. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement: NATO remains fully committed to Afghanistan and I am looking forward to discussing the way ahead with (Defense) Secretary (James) Mattis and our Allies and international partners. NATO has 12,000 troops in Afghanistan, and 15 countries have pledged more, Stoltenberg said. Britain, a leading NATO member, called the U.S. commitment very welcome . In my call with Secretary Mattis yesterday we agreed that despite the challenges, we have to stay the course in Afghanistan to help build up its fragile democracy and reduce the terrorist threat to the West, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said. Germany, which has borne the brunt of Trump s criticism over the scale of its defense spending, also welcomed the new U.S. plan. Our continued commitment is necessary on the path to stabilizing the country, a government spokeswoman said. In June, European allies had already pledged more troops but had not given details on numbers, waiting for the Trump administration to outline its strategy for the region.Nearly 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion - a response to the Sept. 11 attacks which were planned by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan - the country is still struggling with weak central government and a Taliban insurgency. Trump said he shared the frustration of the American people who were weary of war without victory , but a hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for groups like Islamic State and al Qaeda to fill. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
LexisNexis withdrew two products from Chinese market | LONDON (Reuters) - LexisNexis, a provider of legal, regulatory and business information, said on Tuesday it had withdrawn two products from the Chinese market in March this year after it was asked to remove some content. The issue of academic freedom in China hit the headlines this week after the leading British academic publisher, Cambridge University Press, said it had complied with a request to block online access to some scholarly articles in China. It later reversed its position. Earlier this year LexisNexis Business Insight Solutions in China was asked to remove some content from its database, LexisNexis said in a statement. In March 2017, the company withdrew two products (Nexis and LexisNexis Academic) from the Chinese market. LexisNexis is owned by information group Relx. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Minsk cultural hub becomes haven from authorities | MINSK (Reuters) - In the shadow of disused Soviet-era factories in Minsk, a street lined with eclectic bars, art galleries and yoga studios has become a haven from the vigilant eyes of the Belarussian authorities. This place is like an island, said Yegor, 21, who works at popular bar Hooligan. It s the street of freedom. The government of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for the past 23 years and has boasted that he is the last and only dictator in Europe ,has little tolerance for any opposition. A powerful police force and feared state security keep citizens in check. But police patrols are rare in Oktyabrskaya, partly due to its location on an out-of-the-way peninsula in a bend of the river Svislach. When the first restaurant opened there in 2012, few visitors came but now it ranks among the most fashionable quarters of Minsk. Such is the growing popularity of that Oktyabrskaya that investors such as Belgazprombank, a subsidiary of state-owned Russian lender Gazprombank, have big plans for the district. Earlier this year the bank purchased part of a factory there and intends to turn it into a gallery, restaurant and theater complex. The manufacturing sector has not entirely abandoned Oktyabrskaya - one machine-making factory named after the 1917 October Revolution (MZOR) still operates there. Financial difficulties prompted state-owned MZOR to lease or sell some of its facilities to Oktyabrskaya s developers, but the firm still maintains some production with a reduced workforce. Mikhail, who has worked at the factory for 42 years, said he approves of the influx of new hipster businesses. The street has come back to life, he said. Oktyabrskaya s long-term future ultimately depends on the authorities good favor, cultural analyst Maksim Zhbankov said. For now they tolerate it. But I can t say that someone won t turn up tomorrow and say they ve decided to tear it all down, he said. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Vatican upbeat on possibility of Pope Francis visiting Russia | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on Tuesday that there was positive momentum behind the idea of Pope Francis visiting Russia, but suggested there was more work to be done if it were to happen. Parolin, speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, did not give any date for such a possible visit. The Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart in 1054. The pope, leader of the world s 1.2 billion Catholics, is seeking to improve ties, and last year in Cuba held what was the first ever meeting between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch. Parolin said he had also used his talks in the Russian capital to also raise certain difficulties faced by the Catholic Church in Russia. He said that Moscow and the Vatican disagreed about the plight of Christians in certain parts of the world. He did not elaborate. Parolin, who is due later on Tuesday to meet Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said he also believed Russia could play an important role when it came to helping solve a crisis in Venezuela because of its close relations with Caracas. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |
Indonesia to buy $1.14 billion worth of Russian jets | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will buy 11 Sukhoi fighter jets worth $1.14 billion from Russia in exchange for cash and Indonesian commodities, two cabinet ministers said on Tuesday. The Southeast Asian country has pledged to ship up to $570 million worth of commodities in addition to cash to pay for the Suhkoi SU-35 fighter jets, which are expected to be delivered in stages starting in two years. Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said in a joint statement with Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu that details of the type and volume of commodities were still being negotiated . Previously he had said the exports could include palm oil, tea, and coffee. The deal is expected to be finalised soon between Indonesian state trading company PT Perusahaan Perdangangan Indonesia and Russian state conglomerate Rostec. Russia is currently facing a new round of U.S.-imposed trade sanctions. Meanwhile, Southeast Asia s largest economy is trying to promote its palm oil products amid threats of a cut in consumption by European Union countries. Indonesia is also trying to modernize its ageing air force after a string of military aviation accidents. Indonesia, which had a $411 million trade surplus with Russia in 2016, wants to expand bilateral cooperation in tourism, education, energy, technology and aviation among others. | worldnews | August 22, 2017 |