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Brazil former presidents Lula and Rousseff charged in corruption case | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil s top prosecutor on Tuesday charged former Presidents Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff along with fellow Workers Party members with forming a criminal organization, the latest accusations in Brazil s sprawling corruption scandal. The prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, alleged that eight members of the Workers Party, including Lula and Rousseff, committed a series of crimes involving state-owned oil firm Petrobras such as cartel formation, corruption and money laundering. They were the first criminal charges to be leveled against Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 for breaking budgetary laws. The 230-page document filed with the Supreme Court accused Lula of heading the organization. Lula s lawyer said the law was being misused to persecute the former president. The Workers Party said in a statement that the charges were baseless and being used to divert attention from other investigations, including one into a former federal prosecutor, referring to a case Janot announced on Monday. A representative for Rousseff said the prosecutor s office had offered no evidence of the crimes and called on the Supreme Court to guarantee the right to defend against them. Lula, who is still Brazil s most popular politician, is appealing a corruption conviction that would bar him from running for president in 2018. He faces four other corruption trials. The charges stem from the Operation Car Wash investigation that uncovered a cartel of companies paying bribes to officials to secure Petrobras contracts, revelations that have spawned a host of investigations that has shaken Brazil s political system and economy. | worldnews | September 6, 2017 |
Germans content with national direction ahead of vote: survey | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans are far more satisfied with the direction of their country and less politically polarized than other European nations, a survey showed on Wednesday, underscoring why Angela Merkel is expected to win a new term as chancellor this month. The survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation showed that 59 percent of Germans believe their country is headed in the right direction. Some 77 percent say their personal economic situation has improved or stayed the same over the past two years, while 80 percent describe themselves as political centerists. The results contrast with other European countries where dissatisfaction with the economy and political establishment has led to a surge in support for populist parties on the right and left in recent years. By contrast, German voters seem keen for continuity. Merkel is widely expected to win a record-tying fourth term on Sept. 24, with polls showing her center-right bloc 13-15 percentage points ahead of its closest rival, the Social Democrats (SPD). These findings point to a highly content and status quo oriented German society and contrast starkly with the situation elsewhere in Europe, the authors Catherine de Vries and Isabell Hoffmann said. In Italy, for example, just 13 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the direction of their country. In France and Britain, satisfaction levels stood at 36 and 31 percent, respectively. The average satisfaction level across the 28 countries in the EU was 36 percent. Both Germany and France showed sharp increases in satisfaction levels over the past months. In a survey conducted in March, before young centrist Emmanuel Macron was elected president, just 12 percent of French said their country was headed in the right direction. German satisfaction levels stood at 32 percent in March. Among the big European countries, France was the most politically polarized, with just 51 percent of respondents describing themselves as centrist. Some 24 percent identified as left or extreme left, while 25 percent described themselves as right or extreme right. In Germany, just 13 percent of respondents described themselves as left or extreme left, and only 7 percent as right or extreme right. The Bertelsmann survey was conducted in July and based on interviews with 10,755 Europeans in all EU member states. | worldnews | September 6, 2017 |
U.N. enacts sanctions against anyone hindering Mali peace | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council established a Mali sanctions regime on Tuesday that allows the body to blacklist anyone who violates or obstructs a 2015 peace deal, hinders the delivery of aid, commits human rights abuses or recruits child soldiers. Anyone added to the blacklist would be subjected to a global travel ban or asset freeze, according to the French-drafted resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the 15-member Security Council. We do see the sanctions as an additional tool in order to promote the peace agreement, French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told the Security Council. Time is not on our side and the peace agreement in Mali is one of the keys to stabilization of the regional situation in the Sahel. The vast, arid Sahel region has in recent years become a breeding ground for jihadist groups some linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that European countries, particularly France, fear could threaten Europe if left unchecked. A 2015 peace deal signed by Mali s government and separatist groups has failed to stop violence in northern Mali by Islamist militants, who have also staged assaults on high-profile targets in the capital Bamako, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. French forces intervened in 2013 to drive back Islamist fighters who had hijacked the Tuareg uprising to seize Mali s desert north in 2012. The U.N. Security Council then deployed peacekeepers to the country. Attacks on U.N. troops have made it the world body s deadliest peacekeeping mission. Anyone who attacks peacekeepers could be blacklisted by the Security Council. The United Nations said two peacekeepers were killed and two seriously injured on Tuesday in an attack on their convoy in the Kidal region. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Brazil Congress advances bill to curb party proliferation | BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil s lower house of Congress on Tuesday gave initial approval to a bill to reduce the huge array of political parties that have made it hard to govern the country and contributed to corruption. The chamber voted 384-16 for the establishment of a minimum national vote threshold that parties must reach to get public funding and free radio and television time for their election campaigns. The requirement would be 1.5 percent of votes in 2018, rising to 3 percent in 2030. The constitutional amendment must be approved twice in each chamber of Congress by Oct. 7 to apply in next year s general elections. The proliferation of parties has forced Brazilian governments to forge unwieldy coalitions to stay in power by distributing jobs, influence and pork barrel spending, which critics say has provided fertile ground for graft. Small parties facing extinction opposed the vote threshold, which they said would favor larger established parties and hinder renewal of Brazil s scandal-plagued political class. The amendment also seeks to do away with the loose, ad hoc coalitions that parties often form on an election-by-election basis, regardless of ideology or platform. Brazil currently has 35 political parties, 28 of which are represented in Congress. One of them, the Brazilian Women s Party, has only one federal lawmaker, who is a man. Brazil s public funding model has encouraged the founding of new parties, several of them with no clear platforms. There are currently 67 requests to register new parties, according to Brazil s top electoral court. A sweeping three-year-old probe of endemic corruption in Brazil has uncovered a web of political bribes and kickbacks implicating dozens of politicians, including President Michel Temer and a quarter of his cabinet. Next week lawmakers will vote on a separate amendment creating a new fund of taxpayer money to finance campaigns. That amendment would also replace a system of party lists to elect congressmen with races in which individual candidates with the most votes would win office. | worldnews | September 6, 2017 |
Putin: Russia reserves right to cut further U.S. diplomatic mission | XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - Russia reserves the right to cut further the number of U.S. diplomatic staff in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, in response to what he called Washington s boorish treatment of Russia s diplomatic mission on U.S. soil. Speaking after U.S. officials ordered Russia to vacate diplomatic premises in several American cities, Putin said he would order the Russian foreign ministry to take legal action over alleged violations of Russia s property rights. That the Americans reduced the number of our diplomatic facilities - this is their right, Putin told a news conference in the Chinese city of Xiamen, where he was attending a summit of major emerging economies. The only thing is that it was done in such a clearly boorish manner. That does not reflect well on our American partners. But it s difficult to conduct a dialogue with people who confuse Austria and Australia. Nothing can be done about it. Probably such is the level of political culture of a certain part of the U.S. establishment. As for our buildings and facilities, this is an unprecedented thing, Putin said. This is a clear violation of Russia s property rights. Therefore, for a start, I will order the Foreign Ministry to go to court - and let s see just how efficient the much-praised U.S. judiciary is. A U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington hoped to avoid further retaliatory actions with Moscow, but was confident in the legality of the consular closure and restrictions ordered last week. U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, saying he wanted to improve ties with Russia. Putin also spoke favorably of Trump. But relations have been damaged by accusations from U.S. intelligence officials that Russia sought to meddle in the presidential election. Russia has denied interfering in the vote. Asked by a reporter if he was disappointed with Trump, Putin said: Whether I am disappointed or not, your question sounds very naive - he is not my bride and, likewise, I am neither his bride nor bridegroom. We are both statesmen. Every nation has interests of its own. In his activities, Trump is guided by the national interests of his country, and I by the interests of mine. I greatly hope that we will be able, just as the current U.S. president said, to find some compromises while resolving bilateral and international problems ... taking into account our joint responsibility for international security. The U.S. order for Russia to vacate some of its diplomatic properties was the latest in a series of tit-for-tat actions that began when former U.S. president Barack Obama, late last year, expelled 35 Russian diplomats. The Obama administration said it was retaliating for Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. In July, Moscow responded, ordering the United States to cut the number of its diplomatic and technical staff working in Russia by around 60 percent, to 455. Moscow said the move aimed to bring the number of U.S. and Russian diplomats working on each other s soil to parity. But Putin said the latest expulsions ordered by Washington brought the number of Russian diplomats on U.S. soil to below parity. He said the United States was erroneously counting 155 Russian diplomats working at the United Nations headquarters in New York as being Russian diplomats on U.S. soil. If they are removed from the equation, Putin said, Russia has fewer than 455 diplomats in the United States. We reserve the right to take a decision on the number of U.S. diplomats in Moscow. But we won t do that for now. Let s wait and see how the situation develops further, he said. The United States has ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in San Francisco and two buildings housing trade missions in Washington and New York. U.S.-Russian relations have also been badly strained by Moscow s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, developments which led Washington to impose economic sanctions on Russia. Trump, himself battling allegations that his associates colluded with Russia, grudgingly signed into law the new sanctions against Moscow that had been drawn up by Congress. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Key U.S. senator says time not right for new North Korea legislation | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Any U.S. response to North Korea s latest nuclear weapons test is unlikely to include new sanctions legislation from the U.S. Congress, at least in the short term, an influential lawmaker said on Tuesday. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the tensions with Pyongyang were so heightened that he thought it would be more appropriate for lawmakers to wait. I don t think rushing out right now legislatively is probably the place we need to be, Corker told reporters at the U.S. Capitol. As part of an agreement on a broad sanctions bill that passed in July, members of Congress had agreed to consider additional, more stringent, sanctions on North Korea after returning to Washington after their August recess. For example, some lawmakers have been pushing for legislation to impose secondary sanctions targeting banks that do business with North Korea. A top North Korean diplomat warned on Tuesday that his country was ready to send more gift packages to the United States as world powers struggled for a response to Sunday s weapons test, the latest in a series. Senior officials from President Donald Trump s administrations, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, are due to hold classified briefings on Wednesday for the House of Representatives and Senate to discuss North Korea and Afghanistan. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Florida insurers shares tumble as Hurricane Irma looms | (Reuters) - Shares of Florida home insurers, including Heritage Insurance Holdings, tumbled on Tuesday and many extended losses later in the day as Hurricane Irma appeared set to hit Florida on Saturday, causing investors to brace for losses. HCI Group shares posted their biggest-ever one-day percentage drop, falling 20.0 percent at $30.94 and hitting the lowest level since November. Trading volume was 11.6 times the stock s 10-day moving average. Heritage shares hit record lows and closed down 17.0 percent at $9.35 with trading volume 7.0 times the stock s 10-day moving average. Universal Insurance Holdings Inc shares tumbled 14.6 percent in the biggest one-day percentage drop since November 2015. Irma strengthened to a highly dangerous Category 5 storm, with winds of 185 mph, as it barreled toward the Caribbean and the southern United States, threatening deadly winds, storm surges and flooding. If Irma continues its current path it will create significant insured damage, said Sandler O Neill analyst Paul Newsome. It s quite easy for them to wipe out all their earnings for the year. Shares of United Insurance Holdings fell 7.2 percent, hitting their lowest point since February. Trading volume was 8.1 times the 10-day moving average. Larger insurance companies with a broader geographic exposure were also lower after tumbling last week on expectations of massive losses from Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of Texas and Louisiana. Travelers Co was down 3.7 percent after a 5 percent drop last week, and Progressive Corp was down 3.4 percent after falling 5.7 percent last week. Chubb Ltd fell 2.6 percent. Another big hurricane in the same year adds another level of financial losses even for the big companies with enormous capital bases, Newsome said. A second hurricane strains the system as insurers will have a harder time getting enough people to do loss adjustments in order to settle claims as quickly as possible, he said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Bodies of 16 migrants found in Libya's eastern desert: official | BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan security forces said on Tuesday that the bodies of 16 migrants had been found in the desert near the country s border with Egypt. The bodies were found about 310 km (190 miles) southwest of the coastal city of Tobruk, said Ahmed al-Mismari, spokesman for the eastern-based Libyan National Army. He said the area was still being searched and no more details were available about the migrants identities. In the past, patrols and rescuers have recovered the bodies of Egyptian migrants who have perished after being stranded or abandoned by smugglers in Libya s eastern desert. Some migrate to Libya to search for work, and some try to reach Europe by boat. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Myanmar's Suu Kyi under pressure as almost 125,000 Rohingya flee violence | SHAMLAPUR, Bangladesh/DHAKA (Reuters) - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi came under more pressure on Tuesday to halt violence against Rohingya Muslims that has sent nearly 125,000 of them fleeing over the border to Bangladesh in just over 10 days. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing and regional destabilization. He urged the U.N. Security Council to press for restraint and calm in a rare letter to express concern that the violence could spiral into a humanitarian catastrophe. Reuters reporters saw hundreds more exhausted Rohingya arriving on boats near the Bangladeshi border village of Shamlapur on Tuesday, suggesting the exodus was far from over. The International Organization for Migration said humanitarian assistance needed to increase urgently and that it and partner agencies had an immediate funding gap of $18 million over the next three months to boost lifesaving services for the new arrivals. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said after meeting Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka that Jakarta was ready to help Bangladesh in dealing with the crisis. This humanitarian crisis shall be ended. I want to repeat, this humanitarian crisis shall be ended , she told reporters in Dhaka, a day after she held talks in the Myanmar capital. The latest violence in Myanmar s northwestern Rakhine state began on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people and triggered the exodus of villagers to Bangladesh. Myanmar officials blamed Rohingya militants for the burning of homes and civilian deaths, but rights monitors and Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say the Myanmar army is trying to force them out with a campaign of arson and killings. When asked if the violence could be described as ethnic cleansing, Guterres told reporters on Tuesday: We are facing a risk, I hope we don t get there. I appeal to all, all authorities in Myanmar, civilian authorities and military authorities, to indeed put an end to this violence that, in my opinion, is creating a situation that can destabilize the region, he said. The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing Suu Kyi, who has been accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution. Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against terrorists. H.T. Imam, a political adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said other countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations could join Indonesia in putting pressure on fellow member Myanmar. Malaysia, another ASEAN member, summoned Myanmar s ambassador to express displeasure over the violence and scolded Myanmar for making little, if any progress on the problem. Malaysia believes that the matter of sustained violence and discrimination against the Rohingyas should be elevated to a higher international forum, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said in a statement. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has said the violence against Rohingyas constituted genocide, told Suu Kyi the violence was of deep concern to the Muslim world, and that he was sending his foreign minister to Bangladesh. Pakistan, home to a large Rohingya community, has expressed deep anguish over the situation. About 210,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh since October, when Rohingya insurgents staged smaller attacks on security posts, triggering a major Myanmar army counter-offensive. Refugees arriving in Shamlapur, and residents of the village, said hundreds of boats arrived on Monday and Tuesday with several thousand people. Reuters reporters saw men, women and children with a few possessions, including chickens, disembark from one boat. The army set fire to houses, said Salim Ullah, 28, a farmer from Myanmar s village of Kyauk Pan Du, gripping a sack of belongings. We got on the boat at daybreak. I came with my mother, wife and two children. There were 40 people on the boat. The new arrivals - many sick or wounded - have strained the resources of aid agencies and communities already helping hundreds of thousands of refugees from previous spasms of violence in Myanmar. Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said one camp in Bangladesh, Kutupalong, had reached full capacity and resources at others were stretched. We are doing what we can, but will need to seek more resources, Tan said. Bangladesh is concerned about Myanmar army activity on the border and would lodge a complaint if Bangladeshi territory was violated, an Interior Ministry official said. A Bangladesh border guard officer said two blasts were heard on Tuesday on the Myanmar side, after two on Monday fueled speculation Myanmar forces had laid land mines. One boy had his left leg blown off near a border crossing before being brought to Bangladesh for treatment, while another boy suffered minor injuries, the officer, Manzurul Hassan Khan, said, adding the blast could have been a mine explosion. The Myanmar army has not commented on the blasts but said in a statement on Tuesday that Rohingya insurgents were planning bomb attacks in Myanmar cities including the capital, Naypyitaw, Yangon and Mandalay to attract more attention from the world . | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
U.N. chief warns Myanmar violence could destabilize region | UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Myanmar authorities on Tuesday to end violence against Rohingya Muslims in the country s Rakhine state, warning of the risk of ethnic cleansing and regional destabilization. He also urged the Security Council to press for restraint and calm, sending the 15-member body a rare letter to express concern that the violence could spiral into a humanitarian catastrophe with implications for peace and security that could continue to expand beyond Myanmar s borders. Nearly 125,00 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar s northwestern Rakhine state since the violence began on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people. When asked if the violence could be described as ethnic cleansing, Guterres told reporters on Tuesday: We are facing a risk, I hope we don t get there. I appeal to all, all authorities in Myanmar, civilian authorities and military authorities, to indeed put an end to this violence that, in my opinion, is creating a situation that can destabilize the region, he said. Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against terrorists responsible for a string of attacks on police posts and the army since last October. Myanmar officials blamed Rohingya militants for the burning of homes and civilian deaths but rights monitors and Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh say the Myanmar army is trying to force them out with a campaign of arson and killings. The U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors last week to be briefed on the situation at the request of Britain. If it continues to deteriorate then one of the things that we can do is to hold further meetings to shine a spotlight on the situation there, Britain s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said on Monday. The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the minority that has long complained of persecution. Under the rarely used Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, Guterres can bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security. While Guterres letter does not specifically involve Article 99, he writes that the international community has a responsibility to undertake concerted efforts to prevent further escalation of the crisis. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Spanish auditors demand Catalan leaders pay for previous independence vote: El Pais | MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish audit office has demanded the former leader of Catalonia and other politicians from the region pay 5 million euros ($5.96 million) for holding a consultative independence ballot in 2014, El Pais newspaper said on Tuesday. The report, which cited judicial sources, came a day before Catalonia is expected to approve plans to hold an Oct. 1 referendum on a split from Spain. The 2014 vote was non-binding, a symbolic ballot by pro-independence campaigners that was declared illegal by Spain s Constitutional Court. Catalonia, along with Britain s Scotland and Belgium s Flanders, has one of the most active independence movements in the European Union. El Pais said the former head of the Catalan government, Artur Mas and other regional leaders, were being told by the audit body in charge of overseeing the financing of political parties and the public sector to pay out of their own pocket for organizing the consultation vote. The money was due by Sept 25, it said. The audit office was not immediately available for comment. The current head of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, said the move was the Spanish state spreading fear . Catalan lawmakers are due to vote on Wednesday on laws approving the referendum and the legal framework to set up an independent state. The laws are expected to be approved because pro-independence parties have a majority in the regional parliament. The populous, north-eastern region, with its capital Barcelona, has a strong national identity with its own language and traditions, although polls show support for self-rule waning as Spain s economy improves. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Trump, UK's May agree that China must do more on North Korea: UK | LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed during a telephone call on Tuesday that China must do more to persuade North Korea to cease its missile tests, a spokesman for May said. The prime minister and the president agreed on the key role which China has to play, and that it was important they used all the leverage they had to ensure North Korea stopped conducting these illegal acts so that we could ensure the security and safety of nations in the region, he said. May also said she would also work with EU leaders on further measures the EU could take to pressure the North Korean leadership, the spokesman said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Indian journalist shot dead at her residence | NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A senior Indian journalist was shot dead on Tuesday in the southern city of Bengaluru by unidentified assailants, police said. The body of Gauri Lankesh, the editor of an Indian weekly newspaper, was found lying in a pool of blood outside her home. People in front of her house heard gunshots, the city s Police commissioner, T. Suneel Kumar, told reporters. We found four empty cartridges from the scene. Lankesh was known as a fearless and outspoken journalist. She was a staunch critic of right-wing political ideology. Last year, she was convicted of criminal defamation for one of her articles. While the motivation for the killing was not immediately clear, political leaders, journalists and activists took to Twitter to express their outrage and denounce intolerance and any threat to free speech. Karnataka state s chief minister Siddaramaiah called it an assassination on democracy . | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
NuStar's Statia terminal in St Eustatius shut down ahead of Irma | HOUSTON (Reuters) - NuStar Energy LP has shut down operations at its oil terminal in the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irma, the U.S. firm said in a statement on Tuesday. The Statia terminal has capacity to store up to 13.03 million barrels of crude and refined products and has six mooring locations to service oil tankers. We have activated our hurricane response plan and will continue to monitor the storm to determine our next course of action, the company said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Venezuela arrests top oil executive, eight other PDVSA employees: sources | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela has arrested the state oil company s boss for the western region and eight other executives at PDVSA, according to an internal company memo and a half-dozen sources in the OPEC member s oil industry. It was not immediately clear why Gustavo Malave and the other employees were apprehended, though a series of corruption probes are under way at PDVSA and have entangled other employees. The sources said Malave was arrested on Monday in Zulia state, Venezuela s traditional oil-producing region near Colombia, in what would be one of the highest-profile detentions of a PDVSA executive. PDVSA, the prosecutor s office, and Malave did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Separately, Venezuela s new chief prosecutor Tarek Saab on Thursday announced he was investigating spectacular overpricing in a dozen contracts in the nation s Orinoco oil belt, on the other side of the country. The reputation of PDVSA - short for Petroleos de Venezuela SA - has been tarnished in recent years by graft investigations involving high-profile staff. The company has blamed the problems on a small group of employees and executives, and promised a war on corruption. Last year, the opposition-led congress said $11 billion was lost at PDVSA between 2004 and 2014, when Rafael Ramirez was in charge of the company. He denied the allegations. The Caracas-based company is the financial motor of leftist President Nicolas Maduro s government, but is reeling from low oil prices, mismanagement, and lack of investments. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Nigeria's cabinet meeting canceled for second time since Buhari's return | ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria has canceled its weekly cabinet meeting for the second time since President Muhammadu Buhari returned from three months of medical leave in Britain. Information Minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement Wednesday s meeting would not take place due to inadequate time to prepare the documents . Buhari canceled the first cabinet meeting following his return on Aug. 19, raising concerns that the president, criticized for inertia by his opponents, was returning to his former ways, when he worked from home and missed ministerial meetings. But the 74-year-old president, who has been working from home since his return, last week presided over his first cabinet meeting since taking leave for an unspecified ailment. The refusal to disclose details of his illness has caused speculation about whether he is well enough to run Africa s most populous country and biggest economy. Mohammed s statement said a two-day public holiday on Friday and Monday to mark the Islamic Eid-el-Kabir celebrations had left little time to prepare for the weekly meeting. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Commander of Lesotho defense force shot dead, South Africa calls for calm | MASERU (Reuters) - Lesotho s top military leader, Khoantle Mots omots o, and two senior officers were shot dead on Tuesday at an army barracks, the government said. While it was not immediately clear what the motivation for the shooting was, the kingdom has been subject to several coups and periodic political violence since gaining independence from Britain in 1966, and South Africa called for calm. Colonel Tanki Mothae, the principal secretary for the defense force, told Reuters the two senior officers were under investigation for the murder of another former Lesotho defense commander in 2015. Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who fled the country in 2014 after a coup attempt and whose wife was shot dead in June, offered no details about the killings during a news conference other than saying the incident was being investigated. Neither Mothae nor the prime minister confirmed South African media reports that the two officers had killed the defense commander and then died in a gunfight with soldiers. South African President Jacob Zuma condemned in the strongest terms possible the senseless and regrettable killing and called for calm and restraint in the mountainous country that is entirely surrounded by its large neighbor. Lesotho is a major supplier of water to South Africa s industrial heartland. Zuma also said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would send a ministerial fact-finding mission to Lesotho on Thursday to assess the situation. South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has made frequent trips to Lesotho to try to secure peace among political rivals as a facilitator for SADC. Lesotho has been through bouts of political turbulence since the attempted coup in 2014 and its last three elections - most recently in June - have failed to produce winners with clear majorities. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
French see far-left's Melenchon as Macron's strongest opponent: poll | PARIS (Reuters) - French voters view far leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon as the strongest opponent of President Emmanuel Macron, according to a new poll on Tuesday that highlights the weakness of mainstream opposition. The Ifop-Fiducial poll showed Macron s popularity has dropped sharply since he took power in May but its key finding could help him as he embarks on reforms because polls show voters see Melenchon as too extreme to be a serious candidate for power. Melenchon is very much on the protest front but not seen as an actual alternative (to Macron), said Frederic Dab of Ifop pollsters. That can be an opportunity for Emmanuel Macron, allowing him to create a vacuum around him and replace the left-right divide by a reform vs protest debate. The poll for Paris Match and Sud Radio showed 45 percent of voters say Melenchon s France Unbowed party provides the strongest opposition to Macron. That is more than twice the figure for the conservative Republicans (LR) or the far-right National Front (FN). Only 8 percent mentioned the Socialists. France Unbowed has been much more vocal than the conservatives or Socialists. The Republicans have been subdued in the wake of their defeat in the presidential election and divided over what stance to take toward Macron, whose economic policies resemble what many in their party have asked for for years. All three parties are struggling to get their voices heard above Macron and Melenchon s criticism of each other. Macron is trying to eliminate anything there is between him and extreme parties. I won t let him do that ... I won t resign myself to Melenchon being the only opposition to Macron, Laurent Wauquiez, the frontrunner to win LR s leadership in December, said on Sunday. A government source said Melenchon s relative strength was welcome and he was Macron s only proper opponent. I was praying to have Jean-Luc Melenchon and Marine Le Pen in parliament ... The Emmanuel Macron/Edouard Philippe alliance was meant to get the Socialist Party and the right to explode and we are not disappointed, the source said. He was referring to the fact that Macron s prime minister Philippe comes from LR. Melenchon strongly opposes Macron s plans to overhaul labor laws but his party can do little to block the measures because it has just 17 lawmakers in the 577-strong parliament. Melenchon, an anti-NATO euroskeptic known for his fiery debating style, has called on his supporters to march on Sept. 23 to protest the labor reforms, which will give companies more flexibility on firings, pay and working hours. The poll confirmed Macron s drop in popularity with 46 percent saying they approved of his policies, down 10 points from July. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
White House says denuclearization remains priority for Korean Peninsula | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump continues to see the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as the priority in how it responds to North Korea s latest nuclear weapons test, the White House said on Tuesday. We re going to continue to push for a safer and denuclearized Korean Peninsula, and that s the priority here, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. Sanders said all options are on the table to deal with North Korea, including diplomatic and economic measures, but said that talks with Pyongyang were not the current focus for the White House. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
If Trump says Iran violating nuclear deal, does not mean U.S. withdrawal: Haley | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If U.S. President Donald Trump tells Congress in October that Iran is not complying with a 2015 nuclear deal it brokered with world powers, that does not mean a U.S. withdrawal from the agreement, U.S. envoy to the U.N. Nikki Haley said on Tuesday. Under U.S. law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran s compliance with the nuclear deal. The next deadline is October, and Trump has said he thinks by then the United States will declare Iran to be non-compliant. If the President chooses not to certify Iranian compliance, that does not mean the United States is withdrawing from the JCPOA (the nuclear deal), Haley told the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington. Should he decide to decertify he has grounds to stand on, said Haley, adding that she did not know what Trump would decide. We will stay in a deal as long as it protects the security of the United States. Most U.N. and Western sanctions were lifted 18 months ago under the nuclear deal. Iran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions, which are not technically part of the deal. In April, Trump ordered a review of whether a suspension of sanctions on Iran related to the nuclear deal, negotiated under President Barack Obama, was in the U.S. national security interest. He has called it the worst deal ever negotiated. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned last month that Iran could abandon the nuclear agreement within hours if the United States imposes any more new unilateral sanctions. (The nuclear deal) is a very flawed and very limited agreement ... Iran has been caught in multiple violations over the past year and a half, Haley said. The Iranian nuclear deal was designed to be too big to fail. The U.S. review of its policy toward Iran is also looking at Tehran s behavior in the Middle East, which Washington has said undermines U.S. interests in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. Iran s leaders want to use the nuclear deal to hold the world hostage to its bad behavior, she said. Haley traveled to Vienna last month to meet International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials for what she described as a fact-finding mission as part of Trump s review. The IAEA polices restrictions the deal placed on Iran s nuclear activities and reports quarterly. While Haley asked if the IAEA planned to inspect Iranian military sites to verify Tehran s compliance, something Tehran has said they would not allow, she said on Tuesday: We never ask the IAEA to do anything. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
U.S. Virgin Islands seaports closed ahead of Irma - port authority | HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Virgin Islands seaports were closed to commercial traffic by the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday morning until further notice ahead of Hurricane Irma, the port authority said on its twitter account. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
'Suicidal' Danish submarine owner says journalist killed by hatch cover | COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Swedish journalist Kim Wall died when she was accidentally hit by a heavy hatch cover on board a home-made submarine, the Danish owner of the vessel testified in court on Tuesday. Peter Madsen, who denies killing Wall, said he was holding the hatch for her but it slipped and hit her head as they sailed in the strait between Denmark and Sweden last month on the UC3 Nautilus submarine he had built. Madsen, 46, was speaking in court after being charged with killing the Swedish journalist on the submarine and mutilating her body a case bearing many of the attributes of the region s popular Nordic Noir books and films. It could mean a sentence of five years to life in prison for Madsen, if found guilty. The court on Tuesday ordered a psychiatric evaluation and that Madsen be kept in custody for four weeks. In its preliminary investigation, the court had ordered Madsen detained until Tuesday on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. Madsen said Wall s death was an accident. With the vessel at the surface, he said he had crawled out through the hatch and was standing on top, while holding it open to let Wall follow him. At that moment, the submarine was rocked by a wave from another boat. I lose my foothold and the hatch shuts, he told the Copenhagen court, saying Wall was knocked to the floor. There was a pool of blood where she had landed. A prosecutor also read earlier testimony from behind closed doors in which Madsen said the impact had fractured the journalist s skull and killed her. Madsen said he tried to bury her at sea but denied mutilating her body, and added that he had contemplated killing himself while still on board. Wall, a 30-year-old freelance journalist who was researching a story on Madsen, went missing after he took her out to sea in his 17-metre (56-foot) submarine on Aug. 10. On Aug. 23, police identified a headless female torso that washed ashore in Copenhagen as Wall s. The cause of her death has not been determined. In court, Madsen denied having amputated her limbs and said he dropped her whole body into the water, several hours after her death, after having a sleep because he was tired and exhausted . He admitted that he wanted to bury her at sea by attaching metal to the body in order for it to sink. I had no contact with the body and didn t want a dead body in my submarine, Madsen told the court. I put a rope around her feet to drag her out of the hatch, he said, adding that he was crying during this operation. I am suicidal at this stage (and) thought a fitting end for Peter Madsen would be on board the Nautilus, he said. I was in a condition where I decided I couldn t continue the life I had been living. He changed his mind, he said, because he wanted to see his wife and three cats. The submarine is one of three Madsen had built and one of the largest privately built ones in the world. It could carry eight people and weighed 40 tonnes fully equipped. A day after taking Wall out to sea, Madsen was rescued in a navy operation after deliberately sinking the vessel. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Colombia urges ELN rebels to turn over body of Russian hostage | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia s government on Tuesday urged the ELN rebels to turn over as soon as possible the body of a Russian-Armenian hostage killed in April, while a commander with the guerrillas said they were in touch with the Russian embassy about the matter. Arsen Voskanyan, 42, was seized by the rebels in northwestern Choco province in November. The group claimed he was collecting endangered frogs and accused him of wanting to smuggle wildlife overseas. The National Liberation Army (ELN) is currently in peace talks with the government in a bid to end more than 53 years of war. The two sides, who are meeting in Ecuador, said on Monday they had agreed on a bilateral ceasefire starting in October and extending into next year, which includes a ban on kidnappings. The ELN unit that had been holding Voskanyan told Reuters he was shot when he grabbed a hand grenade in an effort to escape. ELN leaders in Quito later confirmed his death. We are urging the (ELN) negotiators in Quito to facilitate the return of the Russian s body to his family, the negotiators have been in touch with the embassy, head government negotiator Juan Camilo Restrepo told journalists. They said they have given instructions and have the utmost willingness to return the body of the Russian citizen as soon as possible, I hope they fulfill it, quickly, Restrepo added. The ELN s head negotiator, Pablo Beltran, said in Quito that Voskanyan had been buried and confirmed the group was in touch with the Russian embassy in Ecuador. Colombia s long and many-sided conflict has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Brexit bill row to last the length of Brexit talks: UK minister | LONDON (Reuters) - A row over how much money Britain should pay the European Union when it leaves the bloc will probably go on for the full duration of the EU exit talks, Brexit minister David Davis said on Tuesday. The Brexit bill is a contentious issue both in Britain, where eurosceptics are keen to see as little money paid as possible, and in the EU, which is demanding Britain meets its existing commitments to the bloc. My expectation is that the money argument will go on for the full duration of the negotiation, he told parliament. Britain, which began a two-year negotiating period in March, has said it is prepared to meet its international obligations and, last week, Davis said London was willing to offer more than the bare legal minimum. The bill is one of three issues the EU is demanding progress on before it is willing to begin discussing Britain s future relationship with the bloc - something London is keen to move on to as soon as possible. But, Davis stressed that Britain would not be pressured into cutting a deal just to move talks to the next stage. Davis said the two sides disagreed over the basis of the so-called Brexit bill, and that he did not expect them to fully resolve their differences. It is clear that the two sides have very different legal stances, Davis told parliament during an update on the talks. (EU chief negotiator) Michel Barnier and I agreed that we do not anticipate making incremental progress on the final shape of the financial deal in every round ... it is also clear there are significant differences to be bridged in this sector. Davis also said that there was widespread agreement across the European Union about having an implementation period when Britain leaves the bloc, and that it would probably look to continue its relationship with the European Investment Bank. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Britain, EU have very different legal stances on Brexit bill: UK minister | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union have very different legal stances over the so-called Brexit bill London should pay as it leaves the bloc, Britain s Brexit minister David Davis said on Tuesday. After a third round of talks last week, officials said a gulf between the EU and Britain over how much London owes may be the biggest obstacle to a deal on an orderly Brexit in March 2019. It is clear that the two sides have very different legal stances, Davis told parliament during an update on the talks. (EU chief negotiator) Michel Barnier and I agreed that we do not anticipate making incremental progress on the final shape of the financial deal in every round ... it is also clear there are significant differences to be bridged in this sector. Davis also said it was still Britain s intention to negotiate a future trade agreement with the EU within the two-year divorce period. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Saudi says Iranian talk of rapprochement is laughable | LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that Iran s talk of a possible rapprochement with the kingdom was laughable. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in London that Iran would have to change its policies for any rapprochement. Iran s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, last month said the Islamic Republic would soon exchange diplomatic visits after the regional rivals severed diplomatic ties last year. The comments of the foreign minister are laughable, al-Jubeir said. If Iran wants to have good relations with Saudi Arabia, it has to change its policies. It has to respect international law. At this time, we do not see... that they re serious about wanting to be a good neighbor, al-Jubeir said Iran s Zarif was quoted by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) that diplomatic visits could take place after the haj pilgrimage ends in the first week of September. But al-Jubeir said that diplomatic exchanges with Iran over arrangements for the haj did not represent a normalization of relations and that such contacts had nothing to do with politics. We had the haj season, and when we have the haj, we try not to politicize it... But this is not normalization, he said. The meetings around the haj, have nothing to do with the politics. It s a religious issue. 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. Al-Jubeir also said that if the rift with Qatar continued for two years then so be it. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) severed ties with Qatar in June over Doha s alleged support for militants. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
France turns to armed drones in fight against Sahel militants | TOULON, France (Reuters) - France has decided to arm its surveillance drones in West Africa as part of counter-terrorism operations against Islamist militants, Defense Minister Florence Parly said on Tuesday. French President Emmanuel Macron has made fighting Islamist militants his primary foreign policy objective and the move to armed drones fits into a more aggressive policy at a time when it looks increasingly unlikely Paris will be able to withdraw from the region in the medium to long-term. France currently has five unarmed Reaper reconnaissance drones positioned in Niger s capital Niamey to support its 4,000-strong Barkhane counter-terrorism operation in Africa, and one in France. Beyond our borders, the enemy is more furtive, more mobile, disappears into the vast Sahel desert and dissimulates himself amidst the civilian population, Parly said in a speech to the military. Facing this, we cannot remain static. Our methods and equipment must adapt. It is with this in mind that I have decided to launch the process to arm our intelligence and surveillance drones. A further six of 12 Reaper drones, built by U.S. firm General Atomics and ordered after France s 2013 intervention in Mali to eventually replace its EADS-made Harfang drones, are due to be delivered by 2019. The defense ministry said on Tuesday the new drones would be delivered with Hellfire missiles while the existing six would be armed by 2020, possibly with European munitions. Previous French administrations have shied away from purchasing armed drones, fearing a possible increase in civilian casualties. Al Qaeda s north African wing AQIM and related Islamist groups were largely confined to the Sahara desert until they hijacked a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists in Mali in 2012, and then swept south. French forces intervened the following year to prevent them taking Mali s capital, Bamako, but they have since gradually expanded their reach across the region, launching high-profile attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, as well as much more frequent, smaller attacks on military targets. At the end of July, at the military base in Niger, officers and pilots had told Reuters it was imperative to arm the drones to be more efficient and quick in tackling jihadist groups. In the future, armed drones will enable us to accompany surveillance ... with the capacity to strike at the opportune moment. We will be able to gain in efficiency and limit the risk of collateral damage, Parly said. France is also working with Germany, Italy and Spain to develop a European drone, which is expected to be ready by 2025. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Exclusive: Crowded Bangladesh revives plan to settle Rohingya on isolated island | DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh, one of the world s poorest and most crowded nations, plans to go ahead with work to develop an isolated, flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal to temporarily house tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar, officials say. Dhaka says the Rohingya are not welcome, and has told border guards to push back those trying to enter the country illegally. But close to 125,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh in just 10 days, joining more than 400,000 others already living there in cramped makeshift camps. (For a graphic on Bangladesh's refugee relocation plan click tmsnrt.rs/2k7ZAZy) We are stopping them wherever we can, but there are areas where we can t stop them because of the nature of the border; forests, hills, said H.T. Imam, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina s political adviser. We have requested international agencies for help for shifting the Rohingya temporarily into a place where they can live - an island called Thengar Char. Developing Thengar Char should be given serious consideration, he said. Leonard Doyle, chief spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, said the idea of moving refugees to the island has been talked about for years, but he hadn t heard anything new in the past few days. The island, which only emerged from the silt off Bangladesh s delta coast 11 years ago, is two hours by boat from the nearest settlement. It regularly floods during June-September monsoons and, when seas are calm, pirates roam the nearby waters to kidnap fishermen for ransom. Flat and featureless, Thengar Char has no roads or buildings. When Reuters visited in February, a few buffalo grazing along its shores were the only sign of life. (For a graphic on Thengar Char click tmsnrt.rs/2wE9Tcu) The plan to develop the island and use it to house refugees was criticized by humanitarian workers when it was proposed in 2015 and revived last year. Bangladesh, though, insists it alone has the right to decide where to shelter the growing numbers of refugees. The honorable prime minister wants to resettle them in Thengar Char, though some people say that island will not be a suitable place for them, said another Hasina aide, who declined to be named. But there are many such areas in Bangladesh, where Bangladeshis live. It s our country, and we decide. Officials say no one could have foreseen just how many refugees would arrive so swiftly after violence in northern Myanmar last year sent more than 75,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border. The latest unrest in Myanmar s northwestern Rakhine state began on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base, prompting an army counter-offensive that has killed at least 400 people and forced entire villages to flee. Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against terrorists . The country s leader and Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has come under international pressure for not speaking out against the persecution of roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya in the Buddhist-majority country. Makeshift camps in Cox s Bazar, in southeast Bangladesh, have grown so rapidly they have run out of space - even for the tiny tarpaulin and bamboo shacks the Rohingya refugees typically throw together. With hundreds of new refugees streaming in every day, Kutupalong and Nayapara camps are at breaking point, Duniya Aslam Khan, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in a statement. Imam, the adviser to Hasina, said a lack of space was the biggest concern right now, adding Bangladesh could not continue to house refugees in its schools and madrassas indefinitely. We are waiting for Thengar Char to be developed. Once that s done we will shift them, he told Reuters, reflecting a growing sense of hostility towards the Rohingya even in a Muslim-majority country. The islands gradually come up because of silting. That s continuing, and that s how Bangladesh has been created. If there are people there, why can t the Rohingya live there? he said. Some officials in Bangladesh s interior ministry are concerned that settling the refugees on the island would give them a sense of permanent residency, making it harder to send them back to Myanmar. Residents of Sandwip, the nearest island to Thengar Char, say the Rohingya are not welcome. Mizanur Rahman, the administrator of Might Bangha village, the closest settlement to Thengar Char, said local residents who have lost their land to erosion should be relocated first, ahead of the Rohingya. The UNHCR s local office did not respond to an email seeking comment about the relocation plan. Rohingya camped out in Cox s Bazar said they don t want to move to the island, fearing they could die there during the monsoon season and there won t be any work. The violence and refugee exodus have ratcheted up tensions between the two neighbors, and Bangladeshi officials said fighter jets were scrambled last week in response to several Myanmar defense helicopters violating its air space. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Kenya's election body appoints key personnel for presidential vote re-run | NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s election commission said on Tuesday that different staff will be in charge of the Oct. 17 re-run of the presidential election, after the country s top court last week nullified the result of the August vote. The Supreme Court ordered on Friday that the vote be re-run within 60 days, saying incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta s victory by 1.4 million votes was undermined by irregularities in the process. Kenyatta was not accused of any wrongdoing. Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman Wafula Chebukati said in a statement on Tuesday that it had appointed for three months a project coordinator and officials to run the information technology, logistics, operations and training as well as the national tallying center during the re-run. The appointment takes immediate effect, Chebukati said. The appointments were announced hours after opposition leader Raila Odinga said his coalition would not participate in the re-run unless some officials were removed and its voting technology audited. Chebukati s statement did not mention those who previously held the positions. Kenyatta responded to Odinga s demands by saying there was nowhere in law that required the electoral body to consult Odinga. Odinga s conditions for participating in the repeat presidential election included the removal of six officials at the election board. He wants criminal investigations to be opened against them. You cannot do a mistake twice and expect to get different results, Odinga told reporters. A number of the officials of the commission should be sent home, some of them should be investigated for the heinous crimes they committed. The opposition also said it was planning to file dozens of challenges to results from races lower down the ticket, including legislative and local seats contested in the Aug. 8 vote. The Supreme Court ruling, the first time in Africa that a court had overturned the re-election of a sitting president, was hailed by Odinga s supporters as historic . Analysts have said it is likely to lead to some short-term volatility in East Africa s biggest economy, but could build confidence in institutions longer-term. On Monday, the election board said it would hold new elections on Oct. 17. But Odinga said he wanted elections held on Oct. 24 or 31 instead. Odinga s National Super Alliance said in a letter to the chairman of the election commission that before the new vote is held, it needs to audit the technology used to conduct August s election and give an assurance it will be transparent in its conduct. There will be no elections on the 17th of October until the conditions that we have spelt out in the statement are met, Odinga said. Kenyatta rebuffed Odinga s demands. There is no legal requirement that Raila be consulted. I was neither consulted. Kenya doesn t belong to one man, he said in a statement sent by his office. Odinga has lost the last three presidential elections. Each time, he has said the vote was rigged against him. A row over a 2007 poll, which Odinga challenged after being declared loser, was followed by weeks of ethnic bloodshed that killed more than 1,200 people. The opposition also plans to lodge 62 court cases contesting governorship, lawmaker, and local seats, spokeswoman Kathleen Openda told Reuters. At least 33 court cases were filed contesting election results before the presidential election was annulled, said Andrew Limo, spokesman for the election board. The judiciary said in a statement that by Tuesday a total 66 cases had been filed before various courts challenging the outcomes of such seats countrywide. The board received challenges to 189 results in 2013. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Colombia's Golfo crime gang willing to surrender, president says | BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia s notorious Golfo Clan crime gang, one of the country s most violent, has told the government it is willing to surrender, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Tuesday. The group, also known the Usuga Clan, is accused of operating profitable drug trafficking routes in partnership with Mexican cartels and taking part in illegal gold mining. We received an expression of willingness by the head of the Golfo Clan to turn themselves in, to submit to justice, President Juan Manuel Santos said at an event in Bogota. I have asked the justice minister and the attorney general to evaluate it. The government is not going to negotiate with the gang, Santos said, because members are criminals, and not politically motivated rebels like the FARC and ELN guerrilla groups. The group formerly known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who have kept their FARC acronym for their new political party, signed a peace deal with the government last year, while the National Liberation Army (ELN) is in peace talks. If they surrender to justice, the law could give them some benefits, depending on the surrender conditions, Santos said. What are they handing over, what is its value to society, for Colombians. The United States has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of Golfo gang leader Dario Antonio Usuga, known by his alias Otoniel. Second-in-command Roberto Vargas, alias Gavilan, was killed by the army in a shoot-out last week. The group is infamous for a series of police officer assassinations in the Andean country. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Egypt says suspended U.S. military exercises to resume | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt s armed forces said on Tuesday that joint U.S.-Egyptian military exercises will resume this month for the first time since 2009, after U.S. officials canceled them in 2013 following an Egyptian army crackdown on protests. The joint training is usually held every two years but was also canceled in 2011 after the Arab Spring uprising that year that overthrew Egypt s longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. The announcement on the Bright Star exercises came weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump s administration denied Egypt $95.7 million in aid and delayed $195 million because of its failure to progress on respecting rights and democratic norms. The exercises will take place from Sept. 10-20 at the new Mohamed Najuib military base in west Alexandria, according to a statement on the Egyptian military s official Facebook page. The Bright Star training is considered one of the most important joint Egyptian-American armed forces exercises, which reflects the depth of relations and cooperation between the armed forces of both countries, the Egyptian statement said. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media confirmed the timing and location of the exercise and said U.S. Central Command is due to make an official announcement soon. Egypt is one of Washington s closest Middle East allies, and U.S. military aid has long cemented its historic 1979 peace deal with Israel. Home to the Suez Canal, the stability of the Arab world s most populous state is a U.S. priority. But the strategic relationship hit a low under former U.S. President Barack Obama, who briefly froze aid to Egypt after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew his Islamist freely elected predecessor in 2013 after mass protests against him. Washington provides $1.3 billion in military aid and about $250 million in economic aid to Egypt every year. Trump has moved to reset U.S. relations with Sisi, giving him firm backing and vowing to work together to fight Islamic militants. U.S. sources have said last month s decision to freeze aid reflected a desire to continue security cooperation but also express frustration with Cairo s stance on civil liberties. A new law regulating non-governmental organizations is widely seen as part of a growing crackdown on dissent. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Brazil Senate to vote on fiscal package on Tuesday, Oliveira says | BRASILIA (Reuters) - The Brazilian Congress is ready to put to vote later on Tuesday a fiscal package key to helping the government rebalance budget accounts regardless of any source of political turmoil, Senate President Eunicio Oliveira said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters, Oliveira said he backs a deep investigation into the emergence of new evidence suggesting that witnesses who involved President Michel Temer in a corruption scandal might have not been forthcoming about all of their crimes. Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot said on Monday that billionaire meat tycoon Joesley Batista and a fellow witness seemed to have inadvertently recorded a four-hour conversation discussing crimes not covered in their plea deal bargain. They could lose immunity from prosecution and other benefits. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
French magazine found guilty over topless photos of British Duchess | PARIS (Reuters) - A French court ruled on Tuesday that celebrity magazine Closer invaded the privacy of Britain s Prince William s wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, when it published topless photos of her in 2012. The court handed the maximum fine of 45,000 euros ($53,500) to both Laurence Pieau, an editor of Closer s French edition, and Ernesto Mauri, chief executive of Italian publisher Mondadori (MOED.MI), the magazine s owner. William and Kate, who announced on Monday that they were expecting a third child, said they were pleased with the court ruling and the matter was now closed. Closer magazine, a weekly round-up of gossip about the rich and famous, published a series of topless photos of Kate, the wife of the second-in-line to the British throne, while on holiday in southern France. Two photographers from a Paris agency, who denied taking the photographs, were ordered to pay smaller fines after also being convicted under French privacy laws. The damages ordered by the court were well short of the 1.5 million euros sought by the royal couple, a subject of fascination for many in Britain and other parts of the world, who filed the suit for what they called at the time a grotesque breach of privacy. This incident was a serious breach of privacy, and their Royal Highnesses felt it essential to pursue all legal remedies, a spokeswoman for the couple said. They wished to make the point strongly that this kind of unjustified intrusion should not happen. The photos were taken as the royal couple relaxed on a balcony of a chateau in the picturesque Luberon region of southeastern France. The pictures rekindled memories for some in Britain of the media pursuit of William s mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi. Closer magazine s lawyers had sought to justify publication of the photos on public interest grounds, saying they disproved rumors circulating at the time that Kate might be anorexic. Jean Veil, a prominent French lawyer hired by the Duchess of Cambridge, said during the trial the article that accompanied the photos was only a pretext for publishing the pictures. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Austria's far-right party accuses conservatives of stealing campaign ideas | VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) on Tuesday accused Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz of stealing its platform on immigration and the economy ahead of a parliamentary election, which he is favorite to win. FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache s comments come a day after Kurz presented plans for his conservative People s Party (OVP) for a slimmer state, changes in corporate tax law and cuts to benefits for foreigners. The program Kurz presented is almost identical to the FPO economic program. We are still waiting for the presentation of the OVP s own economic plan, Strache told Reuters. Kurz has led opinion polls ahead of the Oct. 15 election with just over 30 percent. The Freedom Party and the center-left Social Democrats (SPO) trail with around 25 percent each. The conservatives and the far right have enough common ground on migration, taxes and education to launch coalition talks if the vote does not yield a clear winner, said political analyst Peter Filzmaier. Austria s system of proportional representation will likely lead to another coalition government. A coalition of the SPO and OVP has held power since 2006 but is unpopular because it failed to agree major reforms on job creation, investment and taxes. Given Sebastian Kurz s popularity, a coalition between the OVP and the FPO seems to be the most likely outcome, said Vienna-based analyst Peter Hajek. Kurz told reporters on Tuesday he did not rule out working with any party and was equidistant from the FPO and the SPO. A cartoon in daily newspaper Kurier showed a naked Strache in a police station telling an officer Kurz had stolen everything from him. The FPO and OVP focus on the free market, a small state and low taxes. The SPO wants new taxes, including on wealth and inheritance and subsidies to promote job creation. The Social Democrats under Chancellor Christian Kern have begun to consider cooperation with the Freedom Party but Kern this week said his party was light years from it. The Freedom Party s popularity rose to a high during Europe s migration crisis in 2015 when it denounced the government s decision to open Austria s borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants. It led polls for more than a year with support above 30 percent and its candidate came close to winning last year s presidential election. Tens of thousands of people from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa have arrived in Austria in the past two years, raising public spending on social benefits and fuelling support for policy makers who advocate cutting migration. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Russian court told that oil boss gave minister $2 million in a brown bag | MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court was told on Tuesday that a close ally of President Vladimir Putin personally handed the country s then economy minister $2 million in cash inside a lockable brown bag as part of an elaborate bribery sting. Former Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev is on trial on charges of extorting the $2 million bribe from Igor Sechin, the head of state-owned oil company Rosneft, in exchange for Ulyukayev approving a business deal. In the courtroom, a state prosecutor read out the transcript of a secret recording of a late-night meeting between Sechin and Ulyukayev on Nov. 14 last year at the Rosneft offices in Moscow, when prosecutors say the money was handed over. Sechin, who was cooperating with law enforcement officials, was wearing a wire to gather evidence. Ulyukayev says he was framed after having been lured to what he said was an innocent meeting to discuss Rosneft. The case has thrust into the open simmering tensions between rival Kremlin clans a spectacle rarely seen in public in the 17 years since Putin first became president. Sechin, one of Putin s closest lieutenants, is part of a powerful faction in the Kremlin that favors greater state control over the economy. They have clashed with economic liberals in the government, a group that included Ulyukayev, whose arrest is seen as weakening the latter group s hand. In the transcript read out in court on Tuesday, Sechin is quoted asking someone to bring some tea and a little basket with sausage , a reference to a gift he gave Ulyukayev. In another fragment read out by the prosecutor, Sechin is cited as telling Ulyukayev: Sorry it took a while. I was on a business trip and going here and there while putting together the amount. Consider the mission accomplished. There you go take it. And this key just in case. And take the basket too. The funds were handed over inside a lockable brown bag along with a key and the basket, the state prosecutor said. When agents from Russia s Federal Security Service swooped on Ulyukayev as he emerged from the meeting, the minister told agents that the bag he was carrying in the boot of his car contained some good wine given to him by Sechin, a state prosecutor told the court. When agents opened the bag with a key which Ulyukayev said Sechin had given him, they found 200 bundles of $100 bills, the prosecutor said. The basket was also found in the boot. Ulyukayev s hands were also found to be contaminated with a tracing agent that the bag had been marked with, the prosecutor said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Russian frigate fires cruise missiles at Islamic State targets near Syria's Deir al-Zor | MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian frigate Admiral Essen fired Kalibr cruise missiles at Islamic State targets near the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Tuesday to help a Syrian army offensive in the area, the Russian Defence Ministry said. The strike, which was launched from the Mediterranean, destroyed command and communications posts, as well as ammunition depots, a facility to repair armored vehicles, and a large group of militants, the ministry said. The strike had targeted Islamic State fighters from Russia and the former Soviet Union, it added. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Xi urges BRICS grouping to push for more 'just' international order | XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday urged BRICS nations to deepen coordination on global matters, and push for a more just world order, by boosting representation for emerging and developing countries in international bodies. Reiterating that emerging and developing markets have been the primary engine of global growth, Xi called for a bigger role for BRICS in speeding economic governance reforms and promoting trade, especially as rising risks veil a global recovery. BRICS countries should push for a more just and reasonable international order, Xi told a summit of the grouping, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. We should work together to address global challenges. In his closing remarks, Xi urged the grouping to battle for more representation power for emerging and developing countries, which some analysts say are often under-represented in global institutions such as the World Bank, by comparison with the dominance of the United States and Western Europe. The summit in the southeastern city of Xiamen has given host China its latest chance to position itself as a bulwark of globalization in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump s America First agenda. Xi appeared to rebuke the United States s resistance to international pacts - including the Paris climate accord - in a separate speech earlier on Tuesday to leaders of BRICS and other developing countries. Multilateral trade negotiations make progress only with great difficulty and the implementation of the Paris Agreement has met with resistance, Xi said. Some countries have become more inward-looking, and their desire to participate in global development cooperation has decreased. In talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Trump has sought improved terms for the United States, under threat of leaving the pact, and has said he will withdraw his country from the Paris climate accord. Xi gave $500 million for a South-South cooperation fund to help other developing countries tackle famine, refugees, climate change and public health challenges, besides an earlier $80-million summit pledge to support BRICS cooperation. Egypt, Guinea, Tajikistan, Thailand and Mexico joined the three-day summit as observer nations, and Xi called for a BRICS Plus plan to potentially expand the bloc, although no new member has been formally announced. Xi lauded smooth progress in the grouping s cooperation in areas such as anti-terrorism and internet security. Leaders from the BRICS countries are determined to work toward another golden decade , he added. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Venezuelan opposition pins hopes on elections as protests falter | CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela s opposition is shifting its focus to forthcoming state elections as protests aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro have subsided following the installation of an all-powerful, pro-government legislative body. Four months of violent demonstrations in which at least 125 people were killed have all but stopped due to fatigue among protesters and disillusionment at seeing the ruling Socialist Party cement vast powers despite the concerted opposition push. Most opposition leaders say October s elections for governors in all the country s 23 states now represent the best means to keep pressuring Maduro, providing a chance to win some of the governorships at stake and an opportunity for a protest vote to demonstrate the president s unpopularity. The opposition, which boycotted the elections for the Constituent Assembly, accused electoral authorities of inflating turn-out figures for the July 30 vote. There are few options available for adversaries of Maduro, who maintains control over the OPEC nation despite widespread public anger about triple-digit inflation and chronic shortages of basic goods. Venezuelans are fighting against a continued rupture of the constitutional order, said opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who is governor of Miranda state but who is not running in next month s election and who is barred from holding public office once his term expires. Nevertheless he urged Venezuelans to vote in the elections. If you abstain, then it s more difficult to bring about the political change that all Venezuelans want, Capriles told reporters. Capriles has called his own barring from office - because of alleged irregularities in managing public funds - a Socialist Party move to sideline him. Governorships provide little in the way of a platform to directly challenge Maduro. But they are coveted by politicians because they offer launching pads for political careers and the possibility to channel state resources toward political allies. The opposition s participation in next month s poll ensures it will have witnesses at voting stations and at the election council headquarters. Opposition coalition leaders say that should allow them to quickly identify any attempt to alter results. However, some who spent months on the streets with the encouragement of opposition leaders, especially young members of a self-styled Resistance movement, feel betrayed. They say turning attention so quickly to the election legitimizes what they view as Maduro s authoritarianism and insults the memory of slain protesters. They also see a contradiction with the opposition s decision to boycott July s vote for the Constituent Assembly. Maduro pushed for the creation of the assembly, which is meant to rewrite the constitution but which has no formal check on its powers, saying it would restore stability to a country in turmoil over the widespread anti-government protests. It has broadly supplanted the Congress, which the opposition won control of in a 2015 landslide vote. Small opposition party Vente Venezuela and its founder Maria Corina Machado, who has a high profile in the media but limited influence, broke with the opposition s Democratic Unity coalition over its decision to join next month s vote. The main opposition parties have nominated candidates and opinion polls show that in a free and fair vote they would likely take a majority, compared to just three governorships they won in 2012. But the Socialist Party-controlled Constituent Assembly may bar some of them from running or from holding office if they win. Last week, the assembly said it would seek the prosecution of opposition leaders for treason for attempting to block international financing for Maduro s government and for allegedly seeking a military intervention against him. Government leaders say the end of the protests is evidence the Constituent Assembly has brought peace to the country. They add that the opposition s decision to register candidates is a sign they believe in the electoral system despite their complaints of fraud. The Constituent Assembly has calmed the country, said assembly president Delcy Rodriguez. As soon as it was inaugurated, Venezuela returned to tranquility. Maduro says the country is a victim of an economic war by the opposition, and insists the assembly is a symbol of Venezuela s vibrant democracy. The opposition took to the streets in late March to protest a Supreme Court ruling that briefly allowed it to assume the powers of Congress, and maintained near daily rallies until the end of July. By then, street mobilizations were in decline and what had initially been massive marches steadily gave way to violent clashes between security forces and small groups of hooded demonstrators throwing rocks and at times vandalizing property. Recent opposition rallies have attracted only a few hundred people. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on top ruling Socialist Party officials, in some cases for their participation in the Constituent Assembly, while the European Union and most Latin American nations condemned the body. Maduro has acquired the reputation as a dictator around the world, said opposition leader Freddy Guevara in an interview in August broadcast on the Internet, adding that street protests were crucial in shifting public opinion. I m convinced that we have to confront the dictatorship in any situation that we can, said Guevara. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Spain pushes EU to adopt restrictive measures against Venezuela | MADRID (Reuters) - Spain is pushing for the European Union to adopt restrictive measures against members of the Venezuelan government as a way of encouraging a return to constitutional order in the crisis-hit country, the Spanish foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The head of Venezuela s opposition-led congress, Julio Borges, visited Spain on Tuesday to meet Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as part of a European tour seeking support against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro s government has been criticized by the United Nations, Washington and other governments for failing to allow the entry of foreign aid to ease an economic crisis, while it overrides congress and jails hundreds of opponents. Against the progressive worsening of the situation in Venezuela, the Spanish government is pushing ... for the adoption of restrictive, individual and selective measures, which don t hurt the Venezuelan population, the ministry said in a statement. The Spanish government was working with its partners in the EU on these measures and was in constant contact with other Latin American countries, the ministry said. A foreign ministry spokesman did not say what the measures would be. After the meeting with Borges, the ministry underlined Spain s support for a peaceful, democratic solution and called for the release of all political prisoners. Spain s foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, also met representatives of human rights activist Lilian Tintori, the wife of Venezuela s best-known detained political leader, who was barred from flying out of the country to join Borges on the tour. Venezuela s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, criticized the opposition leaders meeting with Rajoy, saying they were unpatriotic in backing sanctions that he said would hurt the Venezuelan economy. @marianorajoy assaults Venezuelan dignity, representing the worst colonial past, defeated and expelled by our Liberators, Arreaza tweeted on Tuesday. The Venezuelan opposition won control of congress in 2015. But Maduro s loyalist Supreme Court has tossed out every major law it has passed as the oil-rich country slips deeper into a recession exacerbated by triple-digit inflation and acute shortages of food and medicines. Maduro has said he faces an armed insurrection designed to end socialism in Latin America and let a U.S.-backed business elite get its hands on the OPEC nation s crude reserves. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Russian U.N. envoy: U.S. aim for Monday vote on North Korea sanctions is premature | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Russia s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Tuesday that a U.S. aim for the United Nations Security Council to vote on Monday on new sanctions on North Korea over its latest nuclear test is a little premature. I don t think we ll be able to rush it so fast, Nebenzia told reporters. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said she wanted the 15-member council to vote on Sept. 11 on a U.S.-drafted resolution to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang after it conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Haley says new North Korea sanctions unlikely to change behavior | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that more sanctions on North Korea are unlikely to change the country s behavior but would cut off funding for its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. Do we think more sanctions are going to work on North Korea? Not necessarily, Haley told the American Enterprise Institute. But what does it do? It cuts off the revenue that allows them to build ballistic missiles. Haley said on Monday she wants the United Nations Security Council to vote on Sept. 11 to impose the strongest possible sanctions on North Korea over its sixth and largest nuclear test. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
EU executive to raise pressure on Poland on Wednesday: sources | BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission will ask EU member states on Wednesday to take a stand on whether the Polish government is abusing democratic standards, three sources told Reuters, as the bloc steps up pressure on Warsaw. Poland has been in a deepening dispute with Brussels and other European Union states over upholding the rule of law since the nationalist-minded, eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party won power in late 2015. PiS denies that it is undermining democratic standards in the largest ex-communist EU country but Brussels - along with many other member states, the Polish opposition and rights activists - has been sounding the alarm for months. After German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered rare public criticism of Warsaw last week, the bloc is seen more likely to head toward an unprecedented punishment of Warsaw. Three sources said the executive Commission will ask all EU states on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Poland again at a ministerial meeting in Brussels on Sept. 25. The meeting is not expected to trigger the so-called Article 7 punitive procedure yet but the discussion will measure the willingness of the other 27 EU countries to move ahead. At the heart of the dispute is a PiS reform of the judiciary in Poland which puts the courts and judges under tighter government control. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Germany warns against Turkey travel after spate of arrests | BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s foreign ministry has warned its citizens traveling to Turkey that they risk arbitrary detention even in tourist areas, revising its travel advice after a spate of arrests of German citizens that it considers politically motivated. The change in travel advice, issued on Tuesday, marks a new low in relations between the NATO allies and is a blow for the tourist sector, which has already been hit by militant attacks and the fall-out from last year s failed coup attempt in Turkey. The trigger for the sharpening of the travel advice was the detention at the coastal Antalya airport last week of two Germans, one of whom has since been released. Berlin believes they, like 11 others, were detained for political reasons. There is a risk of similar detentions in all parts of Turkey, including in tourist regions, the new advice reads. It falls short of a formal travel warning, issued for war-afflicted countries like Afghanistan, Iraq or Yemen, which would make obtaining travel insurance harder. We can t take from tourists the decision whether to travel or not, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. But we have described in detail what you should be aware of before you go. Large numbers of European citizens have been caught up in the crackdown following last year s failed coup against President Tayyip Erdogan, in the wake of which tens of thousands of Turks have been imprisoned on terrorism charges. Critics say the crackdown amounts to an undiscriminating purge of Erdogan s opponents. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Syrian army, allies break Islamic State siege in eastern city | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces on Tuesday reached troops besieged for years by Islamic State in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, the militants last major stronghold in Syria, the army said. Tanks and troops pressed quickly toward a government-held enclave in the city, where Islamic State has trapped thousands of civilians and Syrian soldiers since 2014. The advance has opened a land route linking that territory to the outside. The advance into strategic prize Deir al-Zor, a city on the Euphrates river and once the center of Syria s oil industry, is a significant victory for President Bashar al-Assad against Islamic State and another stinging blow to the group. The group is being fought in Syria by government forces, backed by allies Iran and Russia, and separately by a U.S.-led alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters. In Iraq, the jihadists were driven out of their Mosul stronghold earlier this year. Islamic State still holds half of Deir al-Zor city and much of the province, however, as well as parts of its former stronghold Raqqa to the northwest, where the U.S.-backed offensive is being fought. Our armed forces and allies, with support from Syrian and Russian warplanes, achieved the second phase of their operations in the Syrian desert, Syria s military said. They have managed to break the siege. State media and a war monitoring group said advancing forces had linked up with the besieged troops at a garrison on the western edge of the city. Footage on Syrian state TV showed soldiers cheering near the garrison. State media said residents in government-held parts of the city were celebrating the advance. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a nearby military air base and three districts remained under siege by IS. Battles still raged around the city, the British-based war monitor said. Deir al-Zor governor Mohammed Ibrahim Samra told Reuters that government troops were also pushing toward the air base. The forces have begun to lift the siege, he said. Our residents have been waiting for this moment ... forces are (trying to) break the siege on the military airport as well. The coming days will see the clearing of Deir al-Zor city (of militants) and advances on nearby countryside under Islamic State control, Samra added. Assad congratulated the troops in a statement from his office. The army and its allies made rapid advances in recent days pushing through Islamic State lines with the help of heavy artillery and Russian air strikes. A Russian warship in the Mediterranean sea fired cruise missiles at Islamic State positions near Deir al-Zor to boost the offensive, Russia s defense ministry said. The city has been cut off from government-held Syria since 2013, after rebel groups rose up against Assad during the first flush of Syria s six-year war. Islamic State then overran rebel positions and encircled the army enclave and nearby air base in 2014. The United Nations said in August it estimated 93,000 civilians were living there in extremely difficult conditions. During the siege, high-altitude air drops have supplied them. Deir al-Zor lies southeast of Islamic State s former base in Raqqa. Hemmed in on all sides, Islamic State fighters have fallen back on footholds downstream of Deir al-Zor in towns near the Iraq border. The Deir al-Zor gains form an important launching pad for expanding military operations in the area, the army said. For Damascus, the latest advance caps months of steady progress as the army and its allies turned from victories over rebels in western Syria to push east against Islamic State. The eastwards march has on occasion brought them into conflict with U.S.-backed forces. Still, the rival campaigns have mostly stayed out of each other s way, and the U.S.-led coalition has stressed it is not seeking war with Assad. In a statement on Sunday an alliance of Iran-backed Shi ite militias allied to Damascus, including Lebanon s Hezbollah, accused Washington of trying to hinder the advance to Deir al-Zor. An official in the pro-Assad alliance said senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani was closely monitoring fighting, a sign of Iran s close military involvement. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Polish president says 'multi-speed' EU will lead to break-up of bloc | KRYNICA-ZDROJ, Poland (Reuters) - The European Union will become less attractive to some member states if it implements a multi-speed vision and the bloc will ultimately break up, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday. Deeper eurozone integration is sometimes called a multi-speed Europe because it would create different speeds of convergence within the 28-member bloc. Poland and other eastern EU states say they fear it could reduce their influence, financial support and competitiveness. A division of the Union into a multi-speed union will not be beneficial ... politically, will not be beneficial economically, Duda told an economic forum in Poland s southern city of Krynica-Zdroj. In my opinion it will ultimately lead to a break-up of the European Union, he said, adding that all member states would be hurt in such a scenario. Europe-wide polls show Poles are one of the most pro-EU societies, even though they overwhelmingly oppose adopting the euro currency.Duda also said EU support could falter in member states that do not participate in deeper eurozone integration. The remark appeared to suggest he believes EU support could fall in Poland. Duda is an ally of the ruling eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party. If EU membership becomes less attractive for countries that are thrown out of the first decision-making circle, then this moment in my opinion will be the actual beginning of the end of the union, Duda said. Sooner or later the societies of states that today view the EU positively ... will feel rejected and support for the EU will decline, which will result in further Brexits, Duda said. Since PiS won an election in 2015, the government has clashed with the European Commission over issues ranging from its refusal to accept EU migrant relocation quotas to the ruling conservatives tightening grip on the judiciary and media. French President Emmanuel Macron, one of the most vocal supporters of deeper integration within the euro zone, said in August that Warsaw was moving in the opposite direction to Europe on numerous issues and would not be able to dictate Europe s future. Poland rejected the accusations, saying Macron was inexperienced and arrogant. Macron also wants the EU to tighten its rules on the employment abroad of labor from low-pay nations, which could threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs performed by Polish employees in richer western EU states. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Romanian defense minister quits over communications mixup | BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania s Defence Minister Adrian Tutuianu said he had resigned on Tuesday after his ministry said it was unable to pay military and defense staff wages in full, only to be contradicted within hours by the finance ministry. The defense ministry said in a statement that it had run out of funds to cover salaries for its staff and would pay them in stages pending a consolidated budget revision planned for September. The finance ministry later contradicted the statement, saying no ministry was facing wage funds shortages. I have handed in my resignation for the lack of communication, Tutuianu told private television station Antena3. Prime Minister Mihai Tudose will send the resignation to the president later on Tuesday. The defense minister position carries a lot of responsibility as NATO member Romania has committed to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense every year for the next nine years, a military procurement plan for 2017-2026 showed. Romania, a country of 20 million people, hosts a U.S. ballistic missile defense station and has sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
North Korea warns of 'more gift packages' for United States | GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea is ready to send more gift packages to the United States, one of its top diplomats said on Tuesday, dismissing the international uproar over his country s latest and biggest nuclear weapons test. Han Tae Song, ambassador of the Democratic People s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the United Nations in Geneva, was addressing the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament two days after his country detonated its sixth nuclear test explosion. I am proud of saying that just two days ago on the third of September, DPRK successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test for intercontinental ballistic rocket under its plan for building a strategic nuclear force, Han told the Geneva forum. The recent self-defense measures by my country, DPRK, are a gift package addressed to none other than the U.S., Han said. The U.S. will receive more gift packages from my country as long as its relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK, he added without elaborating. U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood sought to turn the tables on Han by using his language against him. With regard to the so-called gift packages that the North is presenting, my recommendation to the North would be, instead of spending inordinate amounts of money on nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, that it give its people the gift package of peace with their neighbors, economic development and an opportunity to rejoin the family of nations. Han said military measures being taken by North Korea were an exercise of restraint and justified self-defense right to counter the ever-growing and decade-long U.S. nuclear threat and hostile policy aimed at isolating my country. Pressure or sanctions will never work on my country, Han declared, adding: The DPRK will never under any circumstances put its nuclear deterrence on the negotiating table. Wood said that North Korea had defied the international community once again with its test. We look forward to working with our partners in the (U.N. Security) Council with regard to a new resolution that will put some of the strongest sanctions possible on the DPRK, he told the conference. Advances in the regime s nuclear and missile program are a threat to us all ... now is the time to say tests, threats and destabilizing actions will no longer be tolerated, Wood said. It can no longer be business as usual with this regime. The White House said on Monday President Donald Trump had agreed in principle to scrap a warhead weight limit on South Korea s missiles following the North s latest test. The United States accused North Korea s trading partners of aiding its nuclear ambitions and said Pyongyang was begging for war . | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Putin to meet South Korean President to discuss North Korea on Sept. 6: Kremlin | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in on Wednesday to discuss the crisis around North Korea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of an economic forum in the Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok as international concerns grow over Pyongyang s recent nuclear tests that shook the Korean Peninsula. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Turkey to start first foreign aid distribution in Myanmar | ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said it will start the first foreign deliveries of aid on Wednesday to northwestern Myanmar, where hundreds of people have been killed and nearly 125,000 have fled over the border to Bangladesh in the last 10 days. A spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan, who has described the violence against Rohingya Muslims there as genocide, said the deliveries were approved after Erdogan spoke by phone with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday. Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said 1,000 tonnes of food, clothes and medicine would be distributed by military helicopters. He said Myanmar had given approval for officials from Turkey s state aid agency TIKA to enter the country and deliver the assistance, in coordination with local authorities in Rakhine state. Suu Kyi has faced increasing pressure from countries with Muslim populations to halt the violence against Rohingya Muslims which has prompted their flight to Bangladesh. Reuters reporters saw hundreds more exhausted Rohingya arriving on boats near the Bangladeshi border village of Shamlapur on Tuesday, suggesting the exodus was far from over. Erdogan told Suu Kyi that the violence against the Rohingya was violation of human rights and that the Muslim world was deeply concerned, Turkish presidential sources said. Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi, in Dhaka to discuss aid for the fleeing Rohingya, met her Bangladeshi counterpart, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, a day after urging Suu Kyi and Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing to halt the bloodshed. The latest violence in Myanmar s northwestern Rakhine state began on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive have killed hundreds. Erdogan, with his roots in political Islam, has long strived to take a position of leadership among the world s Muslim community. On Friday, he said it was Turkey s moral responsibility to take a stand over the events in Myanmar. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will travel to Bangladesh on Wednesday evening and hold meetings on Thursday, Turkish sources said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Putin, in telegram to Syria's Assad, hails 'strategic' Deir al-Zor victory | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a telegram to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, hailing the breaking of the siege of Deir al-Zor by Syrian government troops, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters that Putin had hailed the breakthrough as a strategic victory over Islamic State militants. Street-to-street fighting was now underway in Deir al-Zor, Peskov said. Russian air strikes that struck Islamic State targets in the city on Tuesday helped Syrian government troops in the area swiftly advance, he said, citing a Russian Defence Ministry report to Putin. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Russia says 'will consider' U.S. resolution on North Korea but with caveats | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is ready to consider a new U.S. resolution on North Korea provided it does not escalate military tensions and focuses on finding a diplomatic solution, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. Russia s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Lavrov had conveyed that stance to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a phone call initiated by the U.S. side. The ministry said Lavrov had also spoken of the merit of involving U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in helping find a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
U.S. Senator Graham agrees with Putin that more North Korea sanctions won't work | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday he agreed with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that more sanctions against North Korea are unlikely to work. Putin said after a summit in China that diplomacy is the only solution to tensions with Pyongyang, which appears to have escalated its nuclear program in recent months. Can t believe I m agreeing with Vladimir Putin but I am further sanctions on North Korea very unlikely to work, Graham said on Twitter. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Putin orders Foreign Ministry to sue U.S. over seizure of diplomatic property | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his Foreign Ministry to sue the U.S. government over the seizure of Russian diplomatic property in the United States, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Putin this week warned he would order to take legal action over alleged violations of Russia s property rights by Washington. Putin also said Moscow reserved the right to further cut the number of U.S. diplomatic staff in response to what he called Washington s boorish treatment of Russia s diplomatic mission on U.S. soil that took place last week. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Merkel, Abe agree sanctions against North Korea should be stepped up | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister spoke by telephone on Tuesday and agreed that sanctions against Pyongyang should be stepped up in response to North Korea s nuclear test, a spokesman for the German government said. She agreed with Prime Minister Abe that North Korea s latest nuclear test threatened the security of the entire world and that this massive violation of the U.N. Security Council s resolution must result in a resolute reaction from the international community as well as tougher sanctions, spokesman Steffen Seibert said. Merkel and Abe agreed that increased pressure on North Korea should make Pyongyang more willing to agree to a peaceful solution and that China and Russia had a key role to play in that, Seibert added. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Britain's May to speak to U.S. President Trump on North Korea | LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will speak to U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday to discuss North Korea, her spokeswoman said, after it conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test two days ago. She is due to speak to President Trump shortly, her spokeswoman told reporters, adding that May also planned to speak to French President Emmanuel Macron about North Korea. Earlier, a British minister summoned the North Korean ambassador to the foreign ministry to condemn the test on Sept. 3. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Afghan officials investigate helicopter wedding deaths | CHARIKAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan authorities are investigating an incident in which two people were killed and two others wounded when a helicopter appeared to come under fire from guests at a wedding party near Kabul and fired back, local officials said. Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahid said the circumstances of the incident in Qarbagh district outside the capital Kabul late on Monday were still being investigated and it was unclear if the victims were members of the wedding party or not. Wedding parties and similar gatherings in Afghanistan, where many people outside major city centers carry guns, sometimes feature guests firing into the air in celebration. If confirmed, the deaths would be the latest in a series that has seen at least 24 civilians killed in Afghan and U.S. air strikes over the past week. Afghan officials said the helicopter came from the NATO-led Resolute Support coalition but there was no immediate confirmation from Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul that U.S. or coalition aircraft were involved in the incident. We are aware of reports, but have no further information at this time, a spokesman said in an emailed statement. Last week, local officials said at least 13 civilians were killed in an Afghan air force strike in the western province of Heart, while another 11 were killed in a U.S. strike in the eastern Loghar province. [nL4N1LF3TJ] [nL4N1LG4VP] Fears have grown that civilian casualties will rise as a result of an increase in air strikes in Afghanistan following the U.S. decision to step up military action against the Taliban and other insurgents. Already in the first half of the year, United Nations figures showed a 43 percent spike in civilian casualties, with 95 killed and 137 wounded as the pace of air operations increased even before U.S. President Donald Trump announced his new strategy in Afghanistan. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Indonesia ready to help Bangladesh in dealing with Rohingya refugees | DHAKA (Reuters) - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Tuesday the country is ready to ease the burden of Bangladesh in dealing with Rohingya Muslims fleeing from Myanmar, but the help is likely to be only humanitarian, not financial. We will continue to discus what sort of support Indonesia could make to ease the burden of Bangladesh government, Marsudi told a news conference after she met with the Bangladeshi PM and her counterpart in Dhaka. Myanmar has come under pressure from countries with large Muslim populations to stop violence against the Muslim Rohingya. At least 400 people were killed and nearly 125,000 fled to Bangladesh in the deadliest bout of violence targeting the minority group in decades. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
India's Modi heads to Myanmar as Rohingya refugee crisis worsens | NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will discuss rising violence in Myanmar s western Rakhine state during a visit that begins on Tuesday, and push for greater progress on long-running Indian infrastructure projects, officials said. India seeks to boost economic ties with resource-rich Myanmar, with which it shares a 1,600-km (1,000-mile) border, to counter Chinese influence and step up connectivity with a country it considers its gateway to Southeast Asia. Two-way trade has grown to around $2.2 billion as India courted Myanmar following the gradual end of military rule, but Indian-funded projects have moved slowly. Modi s promises to Act East and cement ties with India s eastern neighbor have slipped even as China has strengthened its influence. His first bilateral visit comes amid a spike in violence in Rakhine, after a military counter-offensive against insurgents killed at least 400 people and triggered the exodus of nearly 90,000 villagers to Bangladesh since Aug. 25. The violence could hit development of a transport corridor that begins in Rakhine, with the Indian-built port of Sittwe and includes road links to India s remote northeast, analysts said. It s going to be a very vexed and complex issue, said Tridivesh Singh Maini, a New Delhi-based expert on ties with Myanmar. You need to play it very smartly. You need to make it clear that Rakhine violence has regional implications... but India will not get into saying, This is how you should resolve it. Last month, India said it wanted to deport 40,000 Rohingya refugees who left Myanmar in previous years. Modi arrives from China late on Tuesday in the capital Naypyidaw to meet President Htin Kyaw on a three-day visit. New Delhi believes the best way to reduce tension in Rakhine is through development efforts, such as the Kaladan transport project there, said Indian foreign ministry official Sripriya Ranganathan. We are very confident that once that complete corridor is functional, there will be a positive impact on the situation in the state, she told reporters. Modi will meet Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and visit the heritage city of Bagan and a Hindu temple. The countries share close cultural ties, and several in Myanmar trace their roots to India. Modi will also talk up a trilateral highway project connecting India s northeast with Myanmar and Thailand. There is a fear that China is already going full steam ahead, said Udai Bhanu Singh of Delhi think-tank, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. From the Indian side, there has been some laxity. Singh said India could offer Myanmar help in building its navy and coastguard, while Myanmar would seek assurances that India was a reliable economic partner and an alternative power to Beijing. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Turkey says Myanmar allows first foreign aid deliveries | ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Myanmar authorities have given approval for the first deliveries of foreign aid in the northwest of the country, Turkey said on Tuesday, after President Tayyip Erdogan spoke to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, Erdogan s spokesman said. Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said 1,000 tonnes of food, clothes and medicine would be delivered to the area by helicopter from Wednesday, where Muslim Rohingya are fleeing violence. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Vietnam protests over Chinese live-fire drills in South China Sea | HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam on Tuesday issued a strong condemnation of Chinese military live-fire exercises in the disputed South China Sea, amid rising tension between the two countries. The Maritime Safety Administration of China s southern province of Hainan, which oversees the South China Sea, said last month there would be live fire drills around the Paracel Islands, which Vietnam claims, until September 2. Vietnam strongly objects this action by China and seriously requests China to respect Vietnam s sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagos, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement. Vietnam once again asserts that (we) will resolutely protect our sovereignty and our legitimate rights and interests in the East Sea (South China Sea) through peaceful measures that are suitable with international laws, the statement said. China claims nearly all the South China Sea, through which an estimated $3 trillion in international trade passes each year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan also have claims. Tension between China and neighboring Vietnam is at its highest in three years over the disputed waters. Vietnam suspended oil drilling in offshore waters that are also claimed by China in July under pressure from Beijing. China has appeared uneasy at Vietnam s efforts to rally Southeast Asian countries over the South China Sea as well as at its growing defense relationships with the United States, Japan and India. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Don't leave Saudi-backed commission to probe Yemen abuses, U.N. says | GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations must take over responsibility for investigating rights violations in Yemen s civil war as the country s government is not up to the job, the global body s human rights office said. In a report published on Tuesday, the office challenged the U.N. Human Rights Council, which meets this month, to agree to look into atrocities committed during what it called an entirely man-made catastrophe . The 47-country council has shied away from that task for two years, leaving the job to Yemen s National Commission, which reports to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. He is backed by a Saudi-led coalition that is one of the combatants. I ...join you in asking why the members of the Human Rights Council are not taking their responsibility and their membership to this body seriously, the office s head of Middle East and North Africa, Mohammad Ali Alnsour, told a news conference. Yemen is mired in a war that has killed at least 10,000 people over the past two-and-a-half years, according to U.N. figures. Widespread hunger and internal displacement and an unprecedented cholera epidemic have led aid agencies to describe it as one of the world s worst humanitarian disasters. Alnsour said this was the third time the Council was being asked to set up an investigation. That would really put pressure on the conflicting parties to adhere to the rules and the obligations under humanitarian law, he said. The U.N. report said Yemen s National Commission was detrimentally affected by political constraints . The perceived partiality of the National Commission and its limited access have prevented it from executing its mandate comprehensively, it said. In addition... (it) appears to be lacking any instrument, or mandate, that would enable it to channel its findings into a credible accountability mechanism. The head of the U.N. World Food Programme told Reuters on Monday that Saudi Arabia should fund the entire humanitarian aid budget for Yemen, or stop the war, or both unusually direct criticism of a major U.N. donor. The U.N. report said at least 5,144 civilians were documented as being killed between March 2015 and Aug. 30, 2017, with the Saudi-led coalition responsible for more than half. Its air strikes were the leading cause of civilian and child casualties, the report said. It also blamed the coalition for stoking a food crisis that has left 7.3 million on the brink of famine. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
In Athens, Macron to urge renewal of EU democracy | PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron will go to the Athens hill considered the birthplace of democracy to urge fellow Europeans to tackle the democratic crisis he believes the continent faces, his aides said on Tuesday. Macron, who swept to power on a pro-EU platform last May, has made reforming the euro zone and EU institutions battered by a series of crises - from the economy, to immigration and Brexit - a priority of his mandate. It s a symbol of a new chapter (for Europe), a French presidency official said of the speech Macron plans to give on Thursday evening on the hill of Pnyx, where ancient Greeks gathered to host popular assemblies. We have gone through a financial crisis and a sort of confidence crisis, Greece knows that, it suffered from them. The president wants to show that Europe must be rebuilt democratically, the official said. Macron will promote his campaign proposal to launch democratic conventions - or public debates - in European countries to discuss the future of the EU. The president, whose popularity ratings have slumped at home following a series of unpopular measures including proposals to cut public spending and welfare benefits, also wants to make institutions governing Europe s single currency more democratic. He wants a euro zone finance minister to manage a common budget that would be accountable to a euro zone parliament, but that proposal has met with robust resistance abroad, notably in Berlin. During a two-day trip ending on Friday, Macron will be accompanied by around 40 French business leaders, including from blue-chip firms Total, L Oreal, Sanofi, Engie and Vinci. After a German-French consortium won a majority stake in Thessaloniki Port last June, France is keen to push its companies to invest in Greek infrastructure, energy and the agri-food business. French officials also want to avoid more strategic sectors of the Greek economy from falling into non-European hands after China s COSCO Shipping bought a 51 percent stake in Piraeus Port, Greece s biggest, for 280.5 million euros. It poses a sovereignty problem, it s kind of a European failure, the French official said. In June, Macron urged the European Commission to come up with a system for screening investments in strategic sectors from third countries, something some other western European nations have supported. But smaller eastern and southern European economies that have benefited from Chinese investments have rejected any steps against Beijing. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Irma strengthens to a Category 5 hurricane: NHC | (Reuters) - Irma on Tuesday intensified into an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory. Hurricane Irma is about 270 miles (440 km) east of Antigua and packing maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said. Irma, which is forecast to remain a powerful category 4 or 5 hurricane during the next couple of days, will move near or over portions of the northern Leeward Islands Tuesday night and early Wednesday, the NHC said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Britain's Labour says cannot vote for EU withdrawal bill unless amended | LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s main opposition Labour Party said on Tuesday it could not vote for the government s legislation to sever ties with the European Union unless it was amended to prevent ministers from grabbing powers from parliament. Parliament will begin debating the EU withdrawal bill on Thursday and there will be a vote on Monday, testing Prime Minister Theresa May s deal to shore up her majority with the support of a small Northern Irish party. Labour fully respects the democratic decision to leave the European Union ... and backs a jobs-first Brexit with full tariff-free access to the European single market, Labour said in a statement. But as democrats we cannot vote for a bill that unamended would let government ministers grab powers from parliament to slash people s rights at work and reduce protection for consumers and the environment. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Malaysia summons Myanmar ambassador over violence in Rakhine State | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia on Tuesday summoned Myanmar s ambassador to express displeasure over violence in Myanmar s Rakhine State, which has displaced nearly 125,000 Rohingya Muslims. Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said the latest incidents of violence showed that the Myanmar government had made little, if any progress in finding a peaceful solution to problems facing the Rohingya minority, most of whom live in the northwest Myanmar state near the Bangladeshi border. Given these developments, Malaysia believes that the matter of sustained violence and discrimination against the Rohingyas should be elevated to a higher international forum, Anifah said in a statement. Muslim-majority Malaysia has been particularly outspoken in its concern about the plight of the Rohingya. Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against terrorists responsible for a string of attacks on police posts and the army since last October. The latest violence began on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. In a separate statement, Malaysia s foreign affairs ministry issued a travel advisory asking Malaysians to defer all non-essential travel to Rakhine State, and for Malaysians in Myanmar to take all necessary precautions and be aware of the security situation. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Merkel wants EU to consider halting Turkish accession talks after vote | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Turkey was fast abandoning the rule of law and vowed to push her EU partners to consider suspending or ending its accession talks at a meeting in October. Less than three weeks before a German national election, she spelled out her intentions clearly to the Bundestag lower house of parliament after sharpening her rhetoric on Sunday and saying Turkey should not become an EU member. Those comments, made in a televised debate with her Social Democrat (SPD) election rival, drew charges of populism from Ankara. It was the latest of a series of spats between Merkel and President Tayyip Erdogan over the last two years which has led to a serious deterioration in relations. Turkey is moving away from the path of the rule of law at a very fast speed, Merkel said, adding her government would do everything it could to secure the release of Germans detained in Turkey, who Berlin says are innocent. The Foreign Ministry said last week 12 German citizens, four of them with dual citizenship, had been detained in Turkey on political charges. One has since been released. The ministry updated its travel advice on Tuesday and said that incomprehensible arrests were taking place all over Turkey, including regions frequented by tourists. Venting her growing frustration, Merkel said a rethink of Germany s and the EU s relations with Turkey was needed. We will also - and I will suggest this takes place at the EU meeting in October - discuss future relations with Turkey, including the question of suspending or ending talks on accession, she said. I will push for a decisive stand ... But we need to coordinate and work with our partners, she said, adding that it would damage the EU if Erdogan saw member states embroiled in an argument. That would dramatically weaken Europe s position. Although Turkey s foreign minister has said EU membership remains a strategic goal, the EU has turned very skeptical - especially since Erdogan s crackdown on opponents after a failed coup in July 2016. A European Commission spokesman said on Monday Turkey was taking giant strides away from Europe. Although her conservative party has long opposed Turkish membership of the bloc, Merkel has staked a good deal on maintaining relations with its NATO ally. She has repeatedly defended an EU-Turkey migrant deal she championed last year because it helped to stem the flow of refugees fleeing war in the Middle East to western Europe. Merkel said despite her own reservations, she had gone along with EU accession talks agreed by her SPD predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, mainly to ensure continuity in foreign policy. Erdogan accuses Germany of harboring plotters behind the 2016 coup attempt. Turkey has arrested about 50,000 people in its purges of state institutions and the armed forces. Ankara says the crackdown is necessary to ensure national security but many Western countries and human rights groups say it is an attempt by Erdogan to stifle all dissent. Erdogan also won sweeping new powers in a referendum in April. In the runup to the German election little divides the main parties, who currently share power in a grand coalition, on Turkey. SPD Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in July said Germans should be careful if they traveled to Turkey and threatened steps that could hurt investment there. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
China seeks to silence critics at U.N. forums: rights body report | GENEVA (Reuters) - Beijing is waging a campaign of harassment against Chinese activists who seek to testify at the United Nations about repression, while the world body sometimes turns a blind eye or is even complicit, Human Rights Watch said. In a report released on Tuesday, the group said China restricts travel of activists, or photographs or films them if they do come to the U.N. in Geneva to cooperate with human rights watchdogs scrutinizing its record. What we found is that China is systematically trying to undermine the U.N. s ability to defend human rights, certainly in China but also globally, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. This comes at a point where domestically China s repression is the worst it has been since the Tiananmen Square democracy movement (in 1989). So there is much to hide and China clearly attaches enormous importance to muting criticism of its increasingly abysmal human rights record. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang dismissed the report s accusations as groundless , saying Beijing was playing an active role in the United Nations human rights work. We urge the relevant organization to remove their tinted lenses and objectively and justly view China s human rights development, he told a regular briefing. Rolando Gomez, U.N. Human Rights Council spokesman, said the office did its best to protect all participants and had been extremely vigilant in addressing and investigating all acts and perceived acts of intimidation, threats, and attacks brought to its attention , regardless of which state committed them. The U.N. system offers one of the few remaining channels for Chinese activists to express their views, the New York-based rights group said. Its report, The Costs of International Advocacy: China s Interference in United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms, is based on 55 interviews. NIP-IT-IN-THE-BUD STRATEGY (Chinese President) Xi Jinping seems to have adopted a nip it in the bud strategy with respect to activism at home, but increasingly abroad. That s one of our messages, China s repression isn t stopping at its borders these days, Roth said. In China, activists have decreasing space safe from intimidation, arbitrary detention, and a legal system controlled by the Communist Party, the report said, decrying a crackdown on activists and lawyers since 2015.Some activists who have attended U.N. reviews of China s record have been punished on their return, it said. Others have their passports confiscated or are arrested before departure. When Xi addressed the U.N. in Geneva in January, the U.N. barred non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from attending, Human Rights Watch said. Dolkun Isa, an ethnic Uighur rights activist originally from China, was attending a U.N. event in New York in April when U.N. security guards ejected him without explanation, despite his accreditation, it added. Jiang Tianyong, a prominent human rights lawyer, disappeared last November, months after meeting in Beijing with U.N. special rapporteur on poverty Philip Alston who has called for his release. Jiang, after being held incommunicado for six months, was charged with subversion. At his trial last month he confessed, saying that he had been inspired to overthrow China s political system by workshops he had attended overseas. So the signal is clear - don t you dare present an independent perspective to a U.N. investigator, Roth said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Ex-Georgian leader risks extradition on return to Ukraine | KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine says it will review a request from Georgia to arrest and extradite former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, one of the most colorful and divisive figures in the politics of both countries, if he re-enters Ukraine in the next few days. Brought in to help drive reforms after the 2014 Ukrainian uprising that ousted a pro-Russian leader, Saakashvili has been at loggerheads with the Kiev authorities since quitting as governor of the Odessa region last year and accusing President Petro Poroshenko of abetting corruption. Stripped of Ukrainian citizenship while on a trip abroad, he will try to re-enter Ukraine via the Polish border on Sunday, his staff and lawyers say, and expects to be greeted by supporters and lawmakers sympathetic to his cause. It is unclear how Ukrainian border guards will respond. The justice ministry is sending the request from Georgia ... to Ukraine s general prosecutor for an extradition review, Deputy Justice Minister Serhiy Petukhov told a news conference. Saakashvili s representative Olena Galabala said: If there are any questions regarding the extradition of Saakashvili, then firstly they need to let him into Ukraine and then resolve this issue. Otherwise it looks like intimidation. Saakashvili took power in Georgia after a peaceful pro-Western uprising, known as the Rose Revolution, in 2003. He was president at the time of a short and disastrous five-day war with Russia in 2008, a conflict that his critics argued was the result of his own miscalculations. The 49-year-old is now wanted on four separate criminal charges in Georgia, including abuse of office, which he says were trumped up for political reasons. Loathed by the Kremlin, Saakashvili was once a natural ally for Poroshenko after Moscow annexed Ukraine s Crimea region in 2014. But he has become one of the president s most vocal critics casting doubt on the Western-backed authorities commitment to tackle entrenched corruption. Saakashvili has accused the Ukrainian authorities of using pressure tactics to deter him from returning to Kiev, where he has launched a campaign to unseat his former ally Poroshenko. Saakashvili s spokeswoman and his brother, David, were both questioned by authorities at the weekend. In this way they re trying to influence me to change my mind about coming back, Saakashvili said in a post on Facebook. You know me very badly - this just further strengthens my resolve to defend Ukraine and Ukrainians from the dirty dealers and their lawlessness. Interior ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said David Saakashvili s permission to reside in Ukraine had been annulled because his work permit had been withdrawn. We didn t detain him. The Kiev police ensured the delivery of the Georgian citizen to the migration services, he told news agency Interfax Ukraine. Poroshenko s office says Saakashvili failed to deliver change while governor of Odessa. They have also said his citizenship was withdrawn because he allegedly put false information on his registration form. Saakashvili says the decision was politically motivated. Saakashvili last year founded a party called the Movement of New Forces, whose support is in the low single digits and which has been seeking to unite reformist opposition forces. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Putin warns U.S. not to supply Ukraine with defensive weapons | XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that any decision by the United States to supply defensive weapons to Ukraine would fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine and possibly prompt pro-Russian separatists to expand their campaign there. On a visit to Kiev last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he was actively reviewing sending lethal weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself, an option that previous U.S. president Barack Obama vetoed. Ukraine and Russia are at loggerheads over a war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 10,000 people in three years. Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, which Russia denies. Putin, answering a question after a BRICS summit in China about the possibility of the United States supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons, said it was for Washington to decide whom it sold or gave weapons to, but he warned against the move, something Kiev wants. The delivery of weapons to a conflict zone doesn t help peacekeeping efforts, but only worsens the situation, Putin told a news briefing. Such a decision would not change the situation but the number of casualties could increase. In comments likely to be interpreted as a veiled threat, Putin suggested that pro-Russian separatists were likely to respond by expanding their own campaign. The self-declared (pro-Russian) republics (in eastern Ukraine) have enough weapons, including ones captured from the other side said Putin. It s hard to imagine how the self-declared republics would respond. Perhaps they would deploy weapons to other conflict zones. Putin also said Russia intended to draft a resolution for consideration in the United Nations Security Council, suggesting armed U.N. peacekeepers be deployed to eastern Ukraine to help protect ceasefire monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) there. It would help resolve the problem in eastern Ukraine, said Putin, saying that a slew of preconditions would need to be met before any such deployment happened. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Kidnapped Red Cross staff released in Afghanistan after seven months | KABUL (Reuters) - Two Red Cross staff members kidnapped early this year in Afghanistan have been released, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday. The two were abducted on Feb. 8 while delivering assistance in Jawzjan province, in the north of the country, on the border with Turkmenistan. Six of their colleagues were killed in the attack, which prompted the ICRC to suspend operations in Afghanistan for a time. We are relieved and grateful that our colleagues are now back with us unharmed, the ICRC head of delegation in Afghanistan, Monica Zanarelli, said in a statement. At the time of the attack, officials in the area blamed Islamic State gunmen but the ICRC said it would not comment on the identity of the abductors, their motives or details of the release. Kidnapping has been a major problem in Afghanistan for many years. Most victims are Afghans abducted for ransom but foreigners or Afghans working for foreign organizations have also been targeted. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
France appoints envoy to mediate between Qatar, Arab states | PARIS (Reuters) - France s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it picked its former ambassador to Saudi Arabia as a special envoy to see how Paris could support mediation efforts in the rift between Qatar and several of its neighbors. Kuwait s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber has led mediation efforts to resolve the row, which began in early June when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut political and trade ties with Qatar. France, which has close ties with Egypt and the United Arab Emirates while also being a major arms supplier to Qatar and a key ally of Saudi Arabia, has been relatively discreet on the crisis, largely sticking to calls for calm. I confirm that Bertrand Besancenot, diplomatic advisor to the government, will soon go to the region to evaluate the situation and the best ways to support the mediation and appease tensions between Qatar and its neighbors, Foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne told reporters in a daily briefing. Qatar s neighbors accuse it of supporting regional foe Iran and Islamists across the region, a charge Doha denies. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Malaysian police say they foiled attack on SEA Games closing ceremony | KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian police thwarted a plan by a member of the Islamic-State linked Abu Sayyaf militant group to attack the closing ceremony of the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur last week, the top police official said on Tuesday. The suspected attacker, a 25-year-old Philippine national, had been involved in fighting, kidnapping and beheading of foreign hostages in the Philippines, Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement. The arrest will raise concern about increasing cooperation among militants within Southeast Asia and what governments fear is the spreading influence of Islamic State as it loses ground in the Middle East.. Mohamad Fuzi did not identify the suspect but said he had planned to attack the closing ceremony of the games at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium, as well as an Independence Day parade the next day. He gave no detail of the plans. The man was arrested in a raid on Aug. 30, the day of the ceremony, along with seven other suspected members of the hardline Abu Sayyaf, including another Philippine national. Authorities said earlier they had detained Philippine Abu Sayyaf leader Hajar Abdul Mubin, 25, also known as Abu Asrie, in the Aug. 30 raid. Abu Asrie was arrested with six Malaysians and another Philippine national, aged between 20 and 52, police said earlier. Eleven other suspected militants, including nine foreigners, were picked up in a two-month security operation before the games. The arrests were the latest in a crackdown on militancy by Muslim-majority Malaysia. Since 2013, Malaysia has arrested more than 250 people on suspicion of links to Islamic State. Among those picked up were two Iraqi brothers, aged 41 and 63, who were suspected to have served as commanders for Islamic State, Mohamad Fuzi said. They were working as technicians and were arrested in a Kuala Lumpur suburb on Aug. 11. The Iraqis had arrived in Malaysia separately and were detained on information from foreign intelligence agencies, a Malaysian police source told Reuters. One arrived last year, while the other came in early August. We re still investigating what their activities were in Malaysia, said the source, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to media. Others picked up in the sweep included suspects from Bangladesh, the Maldives, Indonesia and the Palestinian territories. Police counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay told Reuters the number of foreigners showed the growing Islamic State threat in the region. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
UK police arrest four, including soldiers, over suspected far-right terrorism | LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested four men on Tuesday, including some serving soldiers, on suspicion of belonging to a banned far-right group and planning terrorist acts. The men, aged 22 to 32, were detained on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism and of being members of the National Action group. The neo-Nazi organization became the first far-right group to be outlawed in Britain last year after the murder of member of parliament Jo Cox, whose killing the group had praised. The four arrests were made by counter-terrorism officers in the cities of Birmingham, Ipswich and Northampton and in Powys, Wales. The arrests were pre-planned and intelligence-led; there was no threat to the public s safety, West Midlands Police said. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said a number of serving members of the army had been arrested. These arrests are the consequence of a Home Office Police Force-led operation supported by the army, an MoD spokeswoman said. This is now the subject of a civilian police investigation and it would be inappropriate to comment further. Britain is on its second-highest threat level, severe , meaning an attack is highly likely. Suspected Islamists have killed 35 people this year in London and Manchester, and a man died in June after a van was driven into worshippers near a London mosque. Last month, a senior police chief said the number of referrals to the authorities about suspected right-wing extremists had doubled since the murder of Cox, who was killed in June last year by a loner obsessed with Nazis and white supremacist ideology. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Europe could soon be within range of North Korean missiles: France | TOULON, France (Reuters) - France s defense minister warned on Tuesday that North Korea could develop ballistic missiles that reach Europe sooner than expected. The scenario of an escalation towards a major conflict can not be discarded, Florence Parly said in a speech to the French military. Europe risks being within range of (North Korean President) Kim Jong Un s missiles sooner than expected, she said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Ukraine drops tax probe of finance minister: finance ministry | KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian prosecutors have ended an inquiry into Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk over alleged tax evasion after failing to find any evidence of wrongdoing, his press service said on Tuesday. The investigation was launched in July at the request of lawmaker Tetiana Chornovol, a member of former Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk s People s Front party. Danylyuk, who became finance minister after Yatseniuk s ouster in April 2016, denied the charges and hinted they were linked to his efforts to crack down on corruption. In a statement his press service said the case has been closed due to a lack of circumstances constituting a breach of law. The General Prosecutor s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since becoming finance minister, Danylyuk, a former investment manager who has also served as a deputy head of President Petro Poroshenko s administration, has backed reforms required under a $17.5 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Syrian army nears besieged troops in Deir al-Zor: state TV | BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian state television said the Syrian army advanced on Tuesday to within 100 meters of troops that Islamic State has surrounded for years in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor. The army and allied forces have come close to relieving the Euphrates city after a swift lunge through jihadist lines. Islamic State has since 2014 besieged a government-held enclave where some 93,000 civilians live and an army garrison is stationed. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Sinn Fein's Adams to outline succession plan in November | DUBLIN (Reuters) - Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said on Tuesday he would outline his succession plans in November as the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) prepares to complete a generational shift in its leadership. Adams, Sinn Fein leader for over 30 years, will seek re-election to the one-year post at the party s annual conference and set out his future plans at that time. I will be allowing my name to go forward for the position of Uachtaran Shinn Fein (President of Sinn Fein), Adams said in a speech at a meeting of the party s lawmakers. And if elected I will be setting out our priorities and in particular our planned process of generational change, including my own future intentions. Reviled by many as the face of the IRA during its campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, Adams, 69 next month, reinvented himself as a peacemaker in the troubled region and then as a populist opposition lawmaker in the Irish Republic. Around 3,600 people were killed during Northern Ireland s Troubles , three decades of sectarian bloodshed between pro-British Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists seeking a united Ireland that was ended by a 1998 peace agreement. Whenever he decides to step down, he will almost certainly hand over to a successor with no direct involvement in the decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, say political analysts, making Sinn Fein a more palatable coalition partner in the Irish Republic where it has never been in power. Deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, who has been at the forefront of a new breed of Sinn Fein politicians transforming the left-wing party s image, is the clear favorite to take over. Michelle O Neill, another Sinn Fein lawmaker in her 40s, succeeded Martin McGuinness as leader in Northern Ireland shortly before the former IRA commander s death in March. With McGuinness, Adams turned Sinn Fein into the dominant nationalist party in Northern Ireland and the third largest party south of the border. Adams said last month that he intended to lead the party into the next parliamentary election in the Irish republic where suspicion of Sinn Fein s role in the Northern Ireland troubles still runs deep among the main political parties. The far larger ruling Fine Gael and main opposition Fianna Fail, a more natural ally, have ruled out governing with Sinn Fein but analysts say a change of leader could soften that stance. The next election is expected in the next 12 months. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Defying warnings, residents refuse to leave Mumbai's crumbling buildings | MUMBAI (Reuters) - On a sunny morning last week in Mumbai after two days of incessant monsoon rain, Mohammad Altaf had come out of his home for a cigarette when he heard a terrifying crash, followed by a huge swirl of dust. The six-storey Husainee building where he had lived for the last month had collapsed, trapping nearly 50 people. Thirty-four of them were killed, including a newborn baby. It was shocking. I had come down for a smoke, and within two minutes the building was no more, said Altaf, who says he was unaware the apartment block was declared unsafe by housing authorities in India s financial hub six years ago. Across the teeming city of 20 million people, thousands of families live in crumbling buildings that have been officially declared uninhabitable - and most of them know it. Housing officials say they cannot be forced out because of lax laws. This year, the city s municipal corporation classified 791 buildings as beyond repair and too dangerous to live in, but close to 500 of these continue to be occupied, a municipal authority official said. Although regulations vary from country to country and also from state to state, authorities in most places have more powers to order evacuations. Altaf, in his mid-thirties, is a bachelor and was living with two co-workers in the apartment in the Bhendi Bazar locality, one of the oldest in the metropolis. His two flatmates survived, with minor knee and shoulder injuries, after jumping out of their apartment on the third floor. Police say they have yet to determine the cause of the collapse, which came after days of intense rain. The 117-year-old apartment block in Bhendi Bazar, a packed neighborhood of narrow streets, shops and tenements, was declared unsafe in 2011 by the regulator, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). Yet it continued to house Altaf and his flatmates, along with five other families, a sweet shop warehouse and even a nursery on the first floor. The owner of the building, Hakimmudin Bootwala, said seven families moved out by 2014, but other tenants refused despite his urging. One of them had sub-let the apartment to Altaf and his colleagues. The people were my friends and neighbors first, and tenants later, said the 73-year-old. I sincerely advised them to move out. The building had lots of problems, leakages. The roof was fine, but the walls had become really weak and porous. An official at MHADA said there was a law to force residents to evacuate dangerous buildings but enforcing it was impossible because of loopholes and legal challenges. For instance, evicting children and senior citizens could cause trouble, said the housing official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press. We cut water and electricity supply of buildings that are identified as dangerous for living, but people manage to get water and electricity from nearby buildings, said the official. MHADA, which does a routine check of buildings that are older than 30 years, has identified more than 14,000 buildings in the city that need repair, according to its latest list. Nine thousand of these, home to nearly 250,000 families, need to be redeveloped, the housing official said, adding that the other 5,000 were relatively safe due to regular maintenance work done by landowners in consultation with the housing body. Once regulators decide a building needs to redeveloped, they have to appoint a developer to renovate or rebuild the structure in the case of public housing, or order private owners to hire one. The developer, in turn, must offer residents alternative accommodation until the work is completed, according to state law in Mumbai. But residents often complain the housing they are offered is too small, shabby or too far away. Seventy percent of tenants of both privately- and publicly-owned buildings must agree to redevelop their building according to state rules, or no redevelopment work can commence. Building owners say residents are often unrealistic, refusing to leave even if the alternative housing is adequate. Some worry they could lose their tenancy if they move. The MHADA official said the agency does everything it can to get residents and developers to clinch an agreement, but that the process often gets mired in legal challenges. The problems of the Husainee building were typical. A neighborhood body, the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust, had been selected by its owner in 2009 to redevelop the building along with other buildings in the neighborhood, even before the Husainee had been declared unsafe by MHADA. A trust official told Reuters it offered alternative housing to the residents in a place around 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the building. The official said the trust repeated the offer in 2011 after MHADA declared the building unsafe. A Reuters team visited the complex where the Husainee families who had agreed to move had been relocated, a gated high-rise complex with guards and a playground for kids. Residents said they were happy with their new apartments, although they complained about the distance to work. But other Husainee families refused to move. MHADA officials said the trust was in charge of ensuring relocation and redevelopment and MHADA could not force the Husainee families to leave. The trust has said it has repeatedly tried to evict families from Husainee but some residents refused to move. This incident should be a wake-up call for the city, and a policy needs to be actioned to evict non-cooperating tenants who continue to live in dilapidated buildings, the trust said in a written reply to Reuters queries. Building owner Bootwala says the residents who refused to leave argued they did not want to upend their lives by moving to a new neighborhood. Also, they did not know how long it would take to renovate the building. Reuters was unable to talk to other residents from Husainee, but neighbors in Bhendi Bazar told similar stories. Despite knowing their buildings were unsafe, many of them did not want to leave. A man in his 50s in the neighborhood, who refused to give his name, said he was living in a more than 100-year old building that had been deemed unsafe. The developer offered him temporary housing 13 km (8 miles) away, but he said that was too far. I spent my entire life here. I know every lane in this area, the man said. My children s college, my workplace, everything is closer from here. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
South Korea's Moon welcomes talks with North Korea, but now is not the time: media | SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday he is open to all forms of talks with North Korea, but now is not the time for dialogue, making the comments two days after the North conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test. Moon was speaking in an interview with Russia s TASS news agency in Russia a day ahead of his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum which kicks off on Wednesday. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
China's Xi wants to put relations with India on 'right track' | XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - China wants to put its relationship with India on the right track , President Xi Jinping told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, as the two countries sought to mend ties damaged by a recent tense Himalayan border standoff. The meeting was the first between the two leaders since Chinese and Indian troops ended a standoff in the Doklam border region about a week ago that was the neighbors most serious military confrontation in decades. Talks between Xi and Modi had been in question before the de-escalation, which came just in time for China to host the BRICS summit of emerging economies, which also includes Brazil, Russia and South Africa, in the southeastern city of Xiamen. Healthy, stable ties were in the interests of both countries, Xi told Modi in a meeting on the sidelines of the summit, according to a statement from China s foreign ministry. China is willing to work with India ... to increase political trust, advance mutually beneficial cooperation and promote the further development of China-India relations along the correct path, Xi said. China and India must maintain the fundamental determination that each other constitute mutual development opportunities and do not constitute a mutual threat, Xi said, adding that peaceful, cooperative relations were the only correct choice . Xi and Modi spoke for more than an hour and the discussions were constructive , Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told reporters in Xiamen after the meeting. There was a sense that if the relationship is to go forward, then peace and tranquility on the border area should be maintained, Jaishankar said, adding that both sides agreed that strong contacts between their defense personnel were needed to prevent another border incident. On both sides there was a sense that more efforts need to be made to ensure that these kinds of situations don t reoccur. Pressed on how the Doklam dispute was discussed, Jaishankar said, Both of us know what happened. This was not a backwards looking conversation. This was a forward-looking conversation. Hundreds of troops were deployed on the Doklam plateau, near the borders of India, its ally Bhutan, and China after New Delhi objected to China building a road through the mountainous area. The quiet diplomacy that ultimately ended in de-escalation was based on a principle of stopping differences becoming disputes that Modi and Xi had agreed at a June meeting in Astana, an Indian official has said. Still, China and India remain divided on many fronts, including India s deep suspicions of China s growing military activities in and around the Indian Ocean. For its part, Modi s government has upset China with its public embrace of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese regard as a dangerous separatist, and growing military ties with the United States and Japan. China has said its forces will continue to patrol in Doklam, which is claimed by Bhutan, and that it hoped India had learned a lesson from the incident. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
China and India are development opportunities for each other, not threats, Xi tells Modi | BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the two Asian giants are development opportunities for each other, not threats, China s foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, told a regular news briefing on Tuesday. Xi held a meeting with Modi in the southeastern Chinese town of Xiamen on the sidelines of a summit of the BRICS grouping of nations. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Indonesia to bar Myanmar protest at world's biggest Buddhist temple | JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police have pledged to bar Islamist groups from staging a rally on Friday at the Borobudur Buddhist temple in central Java to protest against the persecution of Myanmar s Rohingya Muslims. Islamist groups say they plan the demonstration close to the stupa-topped Borobudur temple, which dates from the 9th century and is a popular tourist site, to call for an end to violence against the religious and ethnic minority in Myanmar. Indonesia has the world s largest population of Muslims and there have been a number of anti-Myanmar protests in Jakarta and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur over the treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Rohingyas. Almost 125,000 Rohingyas have been forced to flee clashes between Rohingya insurgents and the army in the northwest Rakhine state. Tens of thousands have crossed the border into neighboring Bangladesh. The action at Borobudur temple will be prohibited, National Police Chief Tito Karnavian told reporters, according to media. This is not just part of the heritage of Indonesia, but that of the world. There is no need for protests in response to the Rohingya conflict because the Indonesian government is taking action on it already. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Monday met Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and top security officials to call for a halt to the bloodshed. Marsudi was due in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, on Tuesday. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif expressed deep anguish at the ongoing violence against the Rohingya Muslims and urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to take immediate and effective action to bring an end to all human-rights violations against innocent and unarmed Rohingya Muslim population . An organizer of Friday s planned protest said the groups wanted to protest peacefully near the Borobodur temple to show Indonesia s tolerance. The Borobudur is an extraordinary symbol of tolerance, said Anang Imamuddin. We want the world to know that it is in a majority Muslim country but it is safe. Buddhist monks are safe here too. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Venezuelan President Maduro will not go to U.N. rights forum | GENEVA (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will not address the U.N. Human Rights Council next week, contrary to what had been announced, the United Nations and his country s diplomatic mission said on Tuesday. Maduro, accused of trampling on human rights and democracy in Venezuela, had been expected to address the opening day of a three-week United Nations Human Rights Council session on Sept. 11. The president is not coming, a Venezuelan diplomat in Geneva told Reuters on Tuesday. Rolando Gomez, Council spokesman, said in a statement: Please note that per information the HRC Secretariat just received, President Maduro of Venezuela will not address the Human Rights Council. Instead, (Foreign) Minister (Jorge) Arreaza Montserrat has been scheduled to address the Council on the opening day of the session. In a report last week, the U.N. said that Venezuela s security forces had committed extensive and apparently deliberate human rights violations in crushing anti-government protests and that democracy was barely alive . The actions indicated a policy to repress political dissent and instil fear , the U.N. human rights office said in a report that called for further investigation and accountability. Maduro, whose country is currently one of the Council s 47 member states, addressed the Geneva forum in Nov. 2015. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Dangerous hurricane Irma moving towards Caribbean islands: NHC | (Reuters) - Irma, now a category 4 , is heading towards the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean and is expected to move near or over the northern part of the region by Tuesday night or Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane Irma is about 320 miles (515 km) east of the Leeward Islands and packing maximum sustained winds of 150 mph(240 km/h), the Miami-based weather forecaster said. Swells generated by Irma will affect the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands during the next several days, the NHC said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Egypt signs memo with China on $739 million of funding for new train to capital, minister says | CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt signed on Tuesday a memo of understanding with China worth about $739 million for an electric train to a new capital the north African country is building, the Egyptian investment minister said. Egypt also signed during President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi s visit to China an agreement for funding worth $45 million for a satellite project, Minister Sahar Nasr said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Boko Haram resurgence kills 381 civilians since April: Amnesty | ABUJA (Reuters) - The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has killed 381 civilians in Nigeria and Cameroon since the beginning of April, rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday, a testament to the militant group s deadly resurgence. The Nigerian military has repeatedly said Boko Haram has been defeated . But in recent months, it has carried out a string of lethal suicide bombings and other high-profile attacks on towns and an oil exploration team. The number of deaths since April 1 is more than double that for the preceding five months, Amnesty said. Boko Haram has killed 223 civilians in Nigeria since April. The forcing of women and girls to act as suicide bombers has driven the sharp rise in deaths in northeast Nigeria and northern Cameroon, said Amnesty. Boko Haram is once again committing war crimes on a huge scale, exemplified by the depravity of forcing young girls to carry explosives with the sole intention of killing as many people as they possibly can, said Alioune Tine, Amnesty s director for West and Central Africa. In Nigeria, the deadliest attack was in July, when the militants abducted an oil exploration team with staff of the state oil firm and a university while they were traveling in a military convoy. Boko Haram killed 40 people and kidnapped three others, Amnesty said. Boko Haram suicide bombers have killed 81 people in Nigeria since the start of April, said Amnesty. In Cameroon, the Islamist insurgency has killed at least 158 people in the same period. That is also linked to a rise in suicide bombings, the deadliest of which killed 16 people in Waza in July, the rights group said. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced or become refugees in the Lake Chad region - which includes Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad - while 7.2 million people lack secure access to food because of the conflict with Boko Haram, according to the United Nations. The insurgency has left more than 20,000 people dead since it began in 2009. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Putin calls tougher North Korea sanctions senseless, warns of 'global catastrophe' | XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear missile programme would be counter-productive and said threats of military action could trigger a global catastrophe . Putin, speaking after a BRICs summit in China, criticised U.S. diplomacy in the crisis and renewed his call for talks, saying Pyongyang would not halt its missile testing programme until it felt secure. Russia condemns North Korea s exercises, we consider that they are a provocation ... (But) ramping up military hysteria will lead to nothing good. It could lead to a global catastrophe, he told reporters. There s no other path apart from a peaceful one. Putin was speaking after South Korea said an agreement with the United States to scrap a weight limit on its warheads would help it respond to the North Korea threat after Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test two days ago. Russia, which shares a border with North Korea, has repeatedly joined China in calling for negotiations with Pyongyang, suggesting that the United States and South Korea halt all major war games in exchange for North Korea halting its testing programme. While describing additional sanctions as the road to nowhere , Putin said Russia was prepared to discuss some details around the issue, without elaborating. The Russian leader also lashed out at the United States, saying it was preposterous for Washington to ask for Moscow s help with North Korea after sanctioning Russian companies whom U.S officials accused of violating North Korea sanctions. It s ridiculous to put us on the same (sanctions) list as North Korea and then ask for our help in imposing sanctions on North Korea, said Putin. This is being done by people who mix up Australia with Austria, he added. The United States has floated the idea of requiring all countries to cut economic links with North Korea to try to strong-arm Pyongyang into changing its behaviour. In Moscow s case, that would mean stopping using North Korean labourers, tens of thousands of whom work in Russia, and halting fuel supplies to Pyongyang. Russia has so far refused to contemplate doing either. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Germany's Merkel says 'urgently need' more sanctions versus North Korea | BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday European Union foreign ministers would discuss taking further sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear missile program at the weekend and that these were required urgently . North Korea s nuclear tests are a flagrant violation of all international conditions, Merkel told the Bundestag lower house of parliament. I say clearly and in the name of the whole government: there can only be a peaceful, diplomatic solution, she added. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
All the president's men: China's politburo line-up a measure of Xi's power | BEIJING (Reuters) - President Xi Jinping of China is expected to place trusted allies in the Communist Party s key decision-making Politburo during a leadership reshuffle at the 19th party Congress this autumn, according to multiple Chinese sources and foreign diplomats. A key measure of Xi s power will be how many of his allies are installed on the 25-member committee. At least 10 Politburo members are slated to retire due to an unwritten rule that politicians step down if they are 68 or older when they take on a new five-year term. And the youngest Politburo member, Sun Zhengcai, 53, is out of the running. He served as Chongqing party boss before being put under investigation in July for disciplinary violations, Communist Party jargon for corruption. The fate of the top corruption watchdog, Wang Qishan, 69, is also the subject of widespread conjecture. It is unclear if he will retain his seat in the elite seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, despite his age, and therefore his spot on the wider Politburo. The State Council Information Office, which doubles as the spokesman s office for the cabinet and party, declined to comment on Politburo candidates when reached by telephone and fax. Possible newcomers to the Politburo among Xi s allies (surnames in alphabetical order): Cai Qi, 61, has enjoyed a meteoric rise under Xi and is considered a shoo-in after he was named party boss of Beijing in May, despite not being a full or alternate member of the wider Central Committee. Since 1987, whoever holds the office of Beijing party chief has also been a Politburo member. Cai overlapped with Xi during the future president s 17-year stint in the southeastern province of Fujian, and in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, where Xi was party boss from 2002 to 2007. Cai is a native of Fujian. Chen Miner, 56, was seen to have performed strongly as the leader of Guizhou province before being named party boss of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing on July 15, replacing Sun. Chen, a native of Zhejiang, is also virtually assured of a seat in the Politburo given his position in Chongqing, the sources said. Chen is a dark horse candidate to catapult straight onto the Standing Committee. Chen Quanguo, 61, was promoted to party chief of the restive far-western region of Xinjiang, bringing along with him the tough ethnic management policies he implemented at his previous post in Tibet. Chen has never worked closely with Xi. Chen Xi, 64 this month, a native of Fujian, is tipped to be promoted to minister of the party s organization department, overseeing the promotion and deployment of party officials. He is currently vice-minister at the department. Chen shared a dormitory with Xi when the two attended the prestigious Tsinghua University in the late 1970s. Ding Xuexiang, 55 this month, is likely to become director of the General Office of the Central Committee. He is currently No 2 in the General Office, which oversees day-to-day operations of the Politburo. Ding worked for Xi when the latter was party boss in Shanghai. He Lifeng, 62, chairman of the cabinet s National Development and Reform Commission, is a strong candidate to become one of five state councillors, a rank above cabinet minister but below vice premier. If he is named one of four vice premiers next March, he would be a favorite for the Politburo. He worked in Fujian from 1984 to 2009, overlapping with Xi, who was governor from 2000 to 2002. Huang Kunming, 60, a native of Fujian, is the front-runner to become the party s propaganda minister. He is currently No 1 vice-minister. He followed Xi from Fujian to Zhejiang. Li Hongzhong, 61, is party secretary of the northern port city of Tianjin. He never worked under Xi previously, but has been an ardent supporter of Xi s policies. Li Qiang, 58, a native of Zhejiang, is currently party boss of the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu. Li was Xi s right-hand man when Xi was party boss of Zhejiang. Li Xi, 60, currently party chief of the northeastern province of Liaoning, is seen to be in line for promotion to head a bigger province. He once worked in Xi s home province, Shaanxi, in China s northwest. Liu He, 65, is Xi s key economic advisor and a strong candidate to become a state councilor or vice premier. When then-U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon visited Beijing in 2013, Xi introduced Liu as very important to me , according to the Wall Street Journal. Liu holds a master s degree in public administration from Harvard University s Kennedy School of Government. Ma Xingrui, 57, was once the chief engineer of China s lunar program. Now the governor of Guangdong province, he is one of two candidates for party secretary, the top post, in the booming southern region. If successful, he would be assured of a Politburo seat. Wang Xiaohong, 60, is a candidate to lead either the police or the national security apparatus. He is currently a vice minister of public security and a vice mayor of Beijing. Wang cut his teeth in his home province Fujian, overlapping with Xi. Xia Baolong, 64, once touted to take over as security tsar, stepped down as party boss of Zhejiang province in April. In a surprise move, he was sidelined to the No 2 position in parliament s environmental protection and resources conservation committee, which may hurt his chances to join the Politburo. Xia, who ordered the tearing down of hundreds of church crosses in Wenzhou city in 2015, was Xi s deputy in Zhejiang. Ying Yong, 59, a native of Zhejiang, is currently mayor of Shanghai and a candidate to become party boss of the country s financial capital. He worked under Xi in Zhejiang as deputy police chief, the No 2 corruption watchdog and an appeals court acting chief judge. You Quan, 63, has been the Communist Party secretary of coastal Fujian province since December 2012. A native of Hebei province with a background in economics, he is a former chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission. (In entry on Cai Qi, makes clear that since 1987 the Beijing party chief office-holder, not Cai himself, has also had a seat on the Politburo) | worldnews | September 4, 2017 |
China rules out military force as option to resolve Korean peninsula issues | BEIJING (Reuters) - The use of military force to resolve issues on the Korean peninsula is never an option, China s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, told a daily news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Indian and Chinese defense forces must maintain cooperation: Indian Foreign Secretary | BEIJING (Reuters) - Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Indian and Chinese troops must maintain cooperation to ensure that a recent confrontation on their common border did not happen again. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen, Jaishankar said peace in border areas was a prerequisite for India-China development and the two countries had agreed to make more efforts to enhance mutual trust. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
China's Xi tells India's Modi to safeguard peace in border areas: media | BEIJING (Reuters) - China s President Xi Jinping told India s Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday that the two countries should respect each other and safeguard peace in border areas, according to the state-owned People s Daily. Xi also told Modi that India should treat China s development correctly and rationally in a meeting on the sidelines of a summit of BRICS countries, according to the People s Daily. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Taiwan appoints new premier to drive reform efforts | TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan has appointed as premier William Lai, the mayor of its southern city of Tainan, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday, as she moved to shore up declining public support. A reshuffle to replace the premier had been anticipated for months as Tsai s approval ratings dropped below 30 percent by August, a private foundation survey showed, from nearly 70 percent soon after her 2016 inauguration. We have a clear direction for our reforms, Tsai told a news briefing. Premier Lai will lead the administrative team, iron out any problems, and take us forward. Lai s appointment comes a day after the resignation of Lin Chuan, the premier since Tsai took office in May 2016. Frozen ties with China, a massive power outage in the tech hub for Apple Inc and other global firms, a backlash over pension reforms and a revised labor rule, are among the controversies that put pressure on Tsai to replace Lin, as she prepares for her 2020 re-election campaign. Lai, a Harvard graduate, was a lawmaker for four consecutive terms and a whip of Tsai s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus before becoming in 2010 the mayor of Tainan, home to the plants of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and other technology firms. I ll redouble our efforts to reform and transform, for the benefit of the people of Taiwan, Lai said. However, Lai s premiership would not necessarily help the president improve her ratings, some analysts have said. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Japan Airlines plane makes emergency landing in Tokyo | TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japan Airlines (JAL) plane made an emergency landing at Tokyo s Haneda International Airport shortly after takeoff on Tuesday following an apparent bird strike, an airline spokesman said. There were no injuries among any of the 248 people on board, the spokesman said. Video footage appeared to show flames shooting from one engine of the Boeing 777 soon after takeoff. A bird strike was believed to be the cause, although it was still being investigated, the spokesman said. The plane, bound for New York, was carrying 233 passengers and 15 staff. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
India, China need to do more to avoid border disputes: India foreign secretary | NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed that more needed to be done to avoid future border disputes, India s foreign secretary said on Tuesday. Modi and Xi on Tuesday met for more than an hour on the sidelines of the BRICS nations summit in the Chinese city of Xiamen, a week after agreeing to end a more than two-month long stand-off along their disputed border. One of the important points made during the meeting was that peace and tranquility in the border areas was a prerequisite for the further development of our relationship, S. Jaishankar told reporters. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Persecution of all Muslims in Myanmar on the rise, rights group says | BANGKOK (Reuters) - The systematic persecution of minority Muslims is on the rise across Myanmar and not confined to the northwestern state of Rakhine, where recent violence has sent nearly 90,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing, a Myanmar rights group said on Tuesday. The independent Burma Human Rights Network said that persecution was backed by the government, elements among the country s Buddhist monks, and ultra-nationalist civilian groups. The transition to democracy has allowed popular prejudices to influence how the new government rules, and has amplified a dangerous narrative that casts Muslims as an alien presence in Buddhist-majority Burma, the group said in a report. The report draws on more than 350 interviews in more than 46 towns and villages over an eight-month period since March 2016. Myanmar s government made no immediate response to the report. Authorities deny discrimination and say security forces in Rakhine are fighting a legitimate campaign against terrorists . Besides Rohingya Muslims, the report also examines the wider picture of Muslims of different ethnicities across Myanmar following waves of communal violence in 2012 and 2013. The report says many Muslims of all ethnicities have been refused national identification cards, while access to Islamic places of worship has been blocked in some places. At least 21 villages around Myanmar have declared themselves no-go zones for Muslims, backed by the authorities, it said. In Rakhine state, the report highlighted growing segregation between Buddhists and Muslim communities and severe travel restriction for the Muslim Rohingyas, which limited their access to health care and education. Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts and an army base. The ensuing clashes and a military counter-offensive have killed at least 400 people. The treatment of Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who critics say have not done enough to protect the Muslim minority from persecution. The London-based Burma Human Rights Network has been advocating among the international community for human rights in Myanmar since 2012, it says on its website. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Disabled in war, Afghan soldiers seek a living on the streets | JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan soldier Mehrullah Safi s military career ended in southern Helmand province last year when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded next to him, severing his right leg. Now he sells mobile telephone cards in the street. Tens of thousands of Afghan troops have been disabled in the 16 years since a U.S.-led campaign ousted the Taliban in 2001. In city streets and marketplaces all over the country, they offer a stark reminder of the human cost of the war. It was the worst day of my life, Safi, a former army lieutenant, said. We were surrounded by dozens of Taliban, there was a heavy fight going on and I was in a bad condition for two days until I was transferred to hospital. With his left leg and a hand also shattered, Safi s leg was amputated in the field. After eight unsuccessful operations on his badly damaged left leg, he hopes a ninth will stabilize it. I served my country and I don t regret being wounded but when I see my wounds have no value for my government, then I do regret it. Safi says he received a one-off payment of 184,000 afghani ($2,690) when he was disabled, besides 10,500 afghani ($153) every month. Unable to walk, he sits in a small booth in a market in the eastern city of Jalalabad, supplementing his pension with about 5,000 to 8,000 afghani earned from the sales of mobile phone scratch cards each month. I ve built a small business to feed my family but now municipal workers harass me in the market, he said. My family blames me for ruining their lives. The government says it does what it can as it battles an insurgency that kills and wounds thousands of soldiers each year and tries to rebuild an economy destroyed by decades of strife. Wounded soldiers usually get a year s pay and a monthly pension. About 130,000 severely disabled military and civilian individuals now receive benefits, said government spokesman Fatah Ahmadzai. But officials say they know the sum is far too small for veterans supporting families of five or more. As much as we provide support to our disabled, it is nothing to what they have suffered, said defense ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri. The ministry is working day and night to find a way to increase the amount our soldiers are paid. But Afghanistan does not have the money to solve this issue on its own. As U.S. forces prepare for an intensified engagement in Afghanistan, an end to the fighting appears a distant prospect and casualty numbers will certainly grow. That risks adding to the war-weariness of Afghan troops and their families and the difficulty in finding new recruits to fill the gaps. My family tried to make me leave the army the first time I was wounded, but I refused, said Hayatullah Sahar, who suffered two more injuries before leaving to work as a taxi driver. When I was wounded the second and third times, my mother cried and begged me to leave. She even tore up my army identification and hospital papers. Afghanistan has run several advertising campaigns to whip up pride in its security forces and has trumpeted an Afghan team s participation in the Invictus Games for disabled soldiers. But the bitter reality is hard to counter, leaving many feeling painfully conflicted. When I think back to when I joined the army, I regret it and blame myself, said former soldier Riazullah, who lost both legs to a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Ghazni. My family also blames me for what happened, but I tell my children to study, and one day, they will understand the value of what I did for this country. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Australia's high court hears challenge to same-sex marriage vote | SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia s high court on Tuesday began a hearing on the validity of a government plan for a postal vote to legalize same-sex marriage, a challenge that risks destabilizing the ruling center-right coalition. If the court rules against the plan, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull could find himself presiding over a government fractured on the issue, endangering his razor-thin parliamentary majority of one. With the non-compulsory vote a couple of weeks away, its opponents have launched a legal challenge, saying the vote needs the backing of parliament - which has twice rejected such a national ballot. This case is about dignity and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians, Anna Brown, director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, which leads the opposition to the vote, told reporters in Melbourne. We re here because we all believe and want marriage equality. This postal plebiscite has big question marks around its legal validity. Conservative lawmakers have threatened to resign if the ballot policy is not adhered to, risking Turnbull s parliamentary majority. But he may not be able to stick to the postal vote policy, as a group of liberal politicians has threatened to rebel and side with the opposition, which would probably end his tenure as leader, analysts say. Turnbull supports same-sex marriage, as do two-thirds of Australians, but his party s conservative wing has threatened a revolt if he deviates from the policy of a national ballot. Frustrated by the political impasse, a group of backbenchers this year said they were ready to vote with the opposition Labor Party to secure same-sex marriage, a plan only abandoned when Turnbull offered a postal vote. While a rejection of the legal challenge offers a political solution, an increasingly vitriolic campaign forced Turnbull to urge both sides to show mutual respect. Turnbull s plea has gone largely unheeded, however. Opponents of same-sex marriage last week launched a contentious campaign advertisement that the government immediately rejected as inaccurate. Since the postal vote is not a formal election it is not subject to the same rules on political advertisements, and activists fear a surge in malicious campaigning in the run-up. Our concern is around a sustained, intense campaign. It will make a question that should be a private matter between two people, a matter for public discussion, Elaine Pearson, director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, who supports same-sex marriage but opposes the national vote, told Reuters. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
China's Xi says BRICS countries should deepen coordination, quicken reform of global economic governance | XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - BRICS countries should deepen coordination on important global matters and quicken global economic governance reform, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday. Speaking at the BRICS summit in the southeastern Chinese city Xiamen, Xi also said BRICS countries have made smooth progress on anti-terrorism and internet security cooperation. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
Report on Mexican attorney general's Ferrari drives corruption debate | MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A report that Mexico s attorney general owns a Ferrari registered at an unoccupied house has added a twist to a growing political battle over who will lead a new institution designed to battle corruption. The report by a Mexican anti-graft group published on Monday said Mexican Attorney General Raul Cervantes had a $218,000 Ferrari registered at an apparently unoccupied house, worth $25,000, in the state of Morelos that also had two other Ferraris and an Audi registered to the same address. Cervantes said through his lawyer he bought a 2011 Ferrari with his earnings as a private lawyer before entering public service, and that it was registered at that address by the company that had imported the luxury car. Cervantes is already at the center of a growing political battle in Mexico, which is implementing a new anti-corruption system that will replace the current attorney general s office with a new institution next year that is designed to be more independent from political interference. President Enrique Pena Nieto s administration has been hit by conflict of interest scandals and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has been battered by corruption allegations against several governors. Revelations about the lavish lifestyles of politicians has further damaged the popularity of the ruling class in a country where 44 percent of people are officially poor. Opposition lawmakers have objected to allowing Cervantes to become the head of the new prosecutor general s office, a figure who will serve a 9-year term in a move away from the current system where the president nominates the attorney general. Ricardo Anaya, the head of the conservative National Action Party, said in a video posted online at the weekend that Cervantes could protect members of the PRI from facing corruption charges if he becomes the new prosecutor general. Anaya has himself been the subject of recent media reports that said his wife s parents had significantly expanded business and real estate holdings in recent years. Anaya has denied any wrongdoing. Cervantes lawyer said the registration of the Ferrari was an administrative error. Dr. Cervantes only found out about it this very morning in the newspaper and has already made the corresponding administrative adjustments, lawyer Cristina Rocha wrote in a letter reposted on Cervantes Twitter page. In this case, there is nothing illegal, there was only an administrative error in the registry of one address for another in Morelos, the letter said. Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity said documents showed 16 luxury cars had been registered to just four homes on the same street of low-cost town houses. The report said neighbors had never seen fancy cars on their street and said the homes in question seemed to be uninhabited. | worldnews | September 5, 2017 |
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