UN announces start of Syria peace talks as government troops advance The United Nations announced the formal start of peace talks for Syria on Monday and urged world powers to push for a ceasefire even as government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, launched their biggest offensive north of Aleppo in a year.Government troops and allied fighters captured hilly countryside near Aleppo on Monday, putting a key supply route used by opposition forces into firing range, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
Rebels said the offensive was being conducted with massive Russian air support, despite a promise of goodwill steps by the Syrian government to spur peace negotiations.
The opposition has said that without a halt to bombing, the lifting of sieges on towns and freeing of prisoners, it will not participate in talks in Geneva called by the United Nations.
« We are here for a few days. Just to be clear, only a few days. If there (is) no progress on the ground, we are leaving … We are not here for negotiations, we are here to test the regime’s intentions, » Monzer Makhous, an official from the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, told Reuters Television on arrival in Geneva.
Still, opposition delegates met in Geneva for two hours with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura, who said this session marked the official beginning of peace talks. The Syrian people deserved to see improvements on the ground and the opposition had a « strong point » in demanding goodwill steps, he said.
World powers, he said, should immediately begin talks on how to enforce a ceasefire: « There was a message … that when the Geneva talks actually start, in parallel there should be the beginning of a serious discussion about ceasefires. » The Geneva peace talks mark the first attempt in two years to hold negotiations to end a war that has drawn in regional and international powers, killed at least 250,000 people and forced 10 million from their homes.
A senior U.S. official returned from a fact-finding visit to northern Syrian territory held by Kurdish fighters, who have advanced against Islamic State militants with the help of U.S.air support.Opposition delegates agreed late on Friday to travel to Geneva after saying they had received guarantees to improve the situation on the ground. But the opposition says there has been no easing of the conflict, with government and allied forces including Iranian militias pressing offensives across important areas of western Syria, most recently north of Aleppo. »The (latest) attack started at 2 a.m., with air strikes and missiles, » said rebel commander Ahmed al-Seoud, describing the situation near Aleppo, once Syria’s biggest city and commercial centre, now partly ruined and divided between government and insurgent control.
Seoud told Reuters his Free Syrian Army group had sent reinforcements to an area near the village of Bashkoy.The British-based Observatory monitoring group said government forces were gaining ground in the area, and had captured most of the village of Duweir al-Zeitun near Bashkoy.It reported dozens of air strikes on Monday morning. Syrian state television also said government forces were advancing.
The fighting has created a new flow of refugees. A Turkish disaster agency said more than 3,600 Turkmens and Arabs fleeing advancing pro-government forces in northern Latakia province had crossed into Turkey in the past four days.The death toll from an Islamic State suicide attack near Damascus on Sunday climbed to more than 70 people, the Observatory said.The opposition High Negotiations Committee indicated it would leave Geneva unless peace moves were implemented.
Bashar al-Jaafari, head of the government delegation, said on Sunday Damascus was considering options such as ceasefires, humanitarian corridors and prisoner releases.
But he suggested they might come about as a result of the talks, not as a condition to begin them.The humanitarian crisis wrought by the almost five-year-old conflict has worsened as a result of the increased fighting.
International attention has focused in particular on the fate of civilians trapped and starving in besieged towns.The United Nations said on Monday the Syrian government had approved « in principle » a U.N. request for aid deliveries to the town of Madaya, under siege from government forces, as well as the towns of al-Foua and Kefraya, beset by insurgents. No date was given for aid shipments.Opposition delegate Farrah Atassi said government forces were escalating their military campaign, making it hard to justify the opposition’s presence in Geneva. »Today, we are going to Mr De Mistura to demand again and again, for a thousand times, that the Syrian opposition is keen to end the suffering of the Syrian people, » Atassi said.
« However, we cannot ask the Syrian opposition to engage in any negotiation with the regime under this escalation. » Since the last Syrian peace talks took place in early 2014, militants from Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, have proclaimed a « caliphate » in swathes of Syria and Iraq, drawing a U.S.-led coalition into the conflict with air strikes.Brett McGurk, U.S. envoy to the coalition, said he had visited territory held by Kurdish fighters in Syria over the weekend to assess the counter-Islamic State campaign.The Kurds have proven the most capable allies of U.S.-led forces on the ground in Syria. But their relationship with Washington irks U.S. ally Turkey, which sees the Syrian Kurds as allies of its own Kurdish separatist militants. The Syrian Kurds have so far been excluded from the Geneva talks.McGurk said he had discussed next steps in the Syria campaign with « battle-tested and multi-ethnic anti-ISIL fighters », and Washington backed an inclusive approach to the talks.
All previous diplomatic efforts have failed to stop the war.A senior Western diplomat said the opposition had shown up in the Swiss city so as not to play « into the hands of the regime » by staying away. »They want tangible and visible things straight away, but there are things that realistically can’t be done now such as ending the bombing. It’s obvious that that is too difficult. The easiest compromises are releasing civilians and children. »
Syrian opposition says government must implement goodwill measures within daysA Syrian opposition official said on Monday the government must within a few days state its readiness to implement goodwill measures on the ground, accusing the U.N. peace envoy of overstepping the mark by declaring the start of peace talks.The Syrian opposition has travelled to Geneva, where peace talks to end the country’s five year old conflict began on Friday, but has repeatedly said it will not enter negotiations without humanitarian measures, such as the lifting of sieges, being implemented first.
Monzer Makhous, an official from the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee, told Arabic news channel Al Arabiya: « The Syrian regime must state directly, frankly and without ambiguity that it is ready to implement (United Nations) Articles 12 and 13 immediately, and it must not take more than a few days. » « If not, the High Negotiations Committee will not take part in any other process, » Monzer said. »We told (U.N. envoy Staffan De Mistura) clearly that he must not interpret any interaction with him as being the start of the negotiations process, » he said.
U.N. envoy says up to big powers to bring about Syria ceasefire The U.N. special envoy to Syria on Monday handed the responsibility of agreeing ceasefires across Syria to major powers, saying his remit was only to hold talks on a U.N. resolution on elections, governance and a new constitution.Announcing the « official » start of peace talks to end the almost five-year civil war, Staffan De Mistura also said that if the government released women and children prisoners it would be a positive signal to pursue discussions in Geneva.
« So here comes the challenge, » he said. »There was a message … that when the Geneva talks actually start, in parallel there should be the beginning of a serious discussion about ceasefires, » he told reporters after meeting with the Saudi-backed, opposition High Negotiation Committee (HNC) at U.N. headquarters in Geneva.
However, this is an issue that is not in his remit, De Mistura said, and it should therefore be tackled immediately by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG).
« What I am simply saying is reminding the ISSG members of what they actually indicated – that when the actual talks would start, they themselves would start helping in ensuring that there would be a discussion about an overall ceasefire in the Syrian conflict. » The ISSG ranges from Russia and Iran, who back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to the United States, Gulf Arab states, Turkey and European nations, who provide military support to rebels on the ground and demand Assad step down.The group is scheduled tentatively to meet in Munich on Feb.11. De Mistura called on it « to make sure that what we’re doing here has international support and not simply leaving the Syrians alone on it. » After two hours of talks with the HNC, De Mistura said he understood its concerns to immediately reduce the suffering of Syrians on the ground. He would resume talks with the government on Tuesday to address this before meeting the opposition again. »The (Syrian people) deserve to see and hear facts on the ground in reduction of the violence, in the fact of the detainees and in the fact of besieged areas. We feel they have a very strong point, » he said.The HNC, which includes political and militant opponents of Assad, has indicated it will leave Geneva unless steps set out in the U.N. resolution are implemented, including releasing prisoners, lifting sieges of blockaded areas and ending bombings.
Opposition spokesman Salim al-Muslat said its delegation was waiting for government negotiators to respond to a U.N.proposal. The HNC has said it has a list of 3,000 women and children detained in government jails.
U.S. envoy visits Kurdish-held northern Syria A U.S. envoy has visited Kurdish-controlled northern Syria in what appeared to be the first declared trip to Syrian territory by an Obama administration official in three years.
The U.S. envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, Brett McGurk, said his weekend trip aimed to review the fight against the jihadist group that controls swathes of Syria and Iraq.He also said that it was long-planned and not « in any way » related to Syria peace talks in Geneva that are seeking to end a nearly five-year civil war that has killed at least 250,000 people and driven more than 10 million people from their homes.
The Syrian Kurds have established control over wide areas of northern Syria since the country erupted into civil war in 2011, and their YPG militia has become a major partner in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.The trip, which U.S. officials said appeared to be the first of its kind to northern Syria since 2013, may anger neighbouring Turkey, which is alarmed by the growing sway of Syrian Kurds for fear it could fuel separatism among its own Kurdish population.
It follows the exclusion of the main Syrian Kurdish party, the PYD, from Syria peace talks, in line with Turkish wishes.The U.S. envoy told reporters the peace talks came up during his two-day visit, during which he discussed the importance of « an inclusive process » to achieve a unified, a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian Syria where the rights of all are protected. During the visit, McGurk said he met an array of officials, including Arab, Kurdish, Christian, Turkmen representatives.There has been some speculation that McGurk’s visit, and a separate telephone call by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken to PYD leader Saleh Muslim, may have aimed to assuage Kurdish unhappiness at their exclusion from the Geneva talks.McGurk posted photos of the trip on his Twitter feed, including a shot of a cemetery where he said he « paid respects to over 1,000 Kurdish martyrs » from the battle of Kobani waged by the YPG, with U.S.-led air support, against Islamic State.
A Syrian Kurdish official said McGurk landed at a Kurdish-controlled airport he said was being used by U.S.military helicopters for logistics and deliveries. The airport at Rmeilan was currently under construction, added the source, and supplies are brought in « according to need ».U.S. officials said they were all but certain McGurk’s trip was the first declared visit to Syria by an Obama administration official since former U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford briefly crossed into northern Syria in May 2013. The U.S.embassy in Damascus was closed in 2012 but Ford kept his title.
Putin is fanning Syrian civil war, Britain’s Hammond says Russian President Vladimir Putin is undermining international efforts to end the Syrian civil war by bombing opponents of Islamic State in an attempt to bolster Bashar al-Assad, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Monday.In a clear sign of frustration with the Kremlin, Hammond scolded Putin for paying lip service to a political process aimed at ending the civil war while also bombing opponents of Assad who the West hopes could shape Syria once Assad is gone.
When Russia began air strikes in September, Putin tilted the war in President Assad’s favour, after major setbacks earlier in 2015 brought rebel groups close to the coastal heartland of his Alawite sect « It’s a source of constant grief to me that everything we are doing is being undermined by the Russians, » Hammond told Reuters at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, about 10 km (six miles) south of the border with Syria. »The Russians say let’s talk, and then they talk and they talk and they talk. The problem with the Russians is while they are talking they are bombing, and they are supporting Assad, » Hammond said.
Russia says it targets a range of militants in Syria, not just Islamic State, although it insists it focuses on IS.Russian officials say the West is playing with fire by trying to topple Assad.
On Monday, Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had conducted 468 air strikes in Syria in the past week and hit more than 1,300 « terrorist » targets, Russian news agencies reported. The ministry also said it had delivered more than 200 tonnes of aid to the besieged Syrian town of Deir al-Zor in January .But rebels and residents say the Russian air strikes are causing hundreds of civilian casualties in indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas away from the frontline.
« Since the Russian intervention in Syria, the dribble of people who were perhaps going back from these camps to Syria has stopped dead, and there is a new flow coming in because of the actions the Russians are taking – particularly in southern Syria along the border just a few kilometres from here, » Hammond said.Russia’s intervention had been a major setback for international efforts to find a political solution to the crisis, Hammond said. The effect of the intervention was to strengthen Islamic State, he said. »The Russians say they want to destroy Daesh but they are not bombing Daesh: they are bombing the moderate opposition, » Hammond said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
« Less than 30 per cent of Russian strikes are against Daesh targets, » Hammond said. « Their intervention is strengthening Daesh on the ground – doing the very opposite of what they claim to be wanting to achieve. » But he said that it was difficult to discern whether the Kremlin’s support for Assad was changing, because Putin was impossible to read. »The thing I have learned, watching Putin first as Defence Secretary and now as Foreign Secretary, is that it doesn’t matter how much you watch, you cannot see anything – completely inscrutable, » he said.
Pentagon to hike spending request to fund fight vs Islamic State President Barack Obama’s administration will seek a significant increase in funding for the fight against Islamic State as part of its 2017 defense budget request, U.S. officials say, in another possible sign of U.S. efforts to intensify the campaign.
The fiscal year 2017 Pentagon budget will call for more than $7 billion for the fight against Islamic State, a roughly 35 percent increase compared with the previous year’s request to Congress, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is due to disclose his spending priorities for the $583 billion 2017 defense budget on Tuesday in an address to the Economic Club of Washington. The White House plans to release Obama’s full budget proposal for fiscal 2017, which begins Oct. 1, on Feb. 9.
Carter in his speech is expected to cite his intent to increase the administration’s request for funds to battle Islamic State, officials say, although it was unclear how much detail he would offer.He was also expected to touch on other budget priorities, including plans to increase spending to reassure European allies following Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, and the need for the United States to maintain its military edge over China and Russia.
Carter’s budget will underscore the need for Washington to fund a new Air Force bomber awarded last year to Northrop Grumman Corp, a replacement for the Ohio-class submarines that carry nuclear weapons, and to start replacing a fleet of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to a source briefed on the plans.
The proposed budget will also seek to boost spending for several key priorities, including increased cybersecurity, electronic warfare and increased security for crucial U.S.satellites, the source said.Lockheed Martin Corp, maker of the F-35 fighter jet, Boeing Co and other big weapons makers are anxiously awaiting details about the budget and how it will affect their programs.
Senior defense officials have said that $15 billion in cuts required under a two-year budget agreement with Congress last year would largely come from procurement accounts since personnel costs and operations costs were harder to cut.One official noted that spending on the Islamic State fight was expected to be drawn from the roughly $59 billion Overseas Contingency Operations account, or OCO, a separate budget that supplements the larger, $524 billion base budget for fiscal year 2017.
Still, key details on the more than $7 billion request were unclear, including whether the funding applied to operations outside Iraq and Syria.The disclosure about plans for an increased spending request to combat Islamic State came as the Obama administration seeks to intensify its campaign, looking to capitalize on recent battlefield gains against the militants in Iraq.
U.S. arrests Hezbollah members on charges of sending drug money to Syria Members of the Hezbollah militant group were arrested on charges they used millions of dollars from the sale of cocaine in the United States and Europe to purchase weapons in Syria, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said on Monday.
Hezbollah has sent fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s almost five-year-old civil war.It is designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
Those arrested include leaders of the network’s European cell, who were taken into custody last week, the DEA statement said. Among them was Mohamad Noureddine, who the DEA accuses of being a Lebanese money launderer for Hezbollah’s financial arm.The United States has labeled Noureddine a specially designated global terrorist, it said.
The DEA did not give the total number of those arrested or say where they were apprehended.The investigation « once again highlights the dangerous global nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism, » the statement said.Seven countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Belgium, were involved in the investigation that began in February 2015 and is ongoing. The U.S. Treasury Department last week imposed sanctions against Noureddine and Hamdi Zaher El Dine, another alleged Hezbollah money launderer. Noureddine’s Trade Point International also was placed under sanctions.
Tunisia police, Islamist militants clash, two dead -government Tunisian police have clashed with Islamist gunmen in a remote mountainous area in the southern region of Gabes, killing at least two miliants, the interior ministry said on Monday. Tunisia’s security forces are on a campaign against Islamist militants who have targeted military checkpoints and patrols in outlying areas. Islamic State has also claimed three deadly urban attacks last year that hit Tunisia’s tourism industry. »During counter-terrorism operations, police exchanged fire with a group of terrorists. First indications are that two terrorists werere killed
Tensions rise in Sweden after killing of asylum centre workerMasked men chased migrants in Stockholm this weekend in a rare act of overt violence against refugees, but one that reflects smouldering tensions in Sweden as it grapples with the consequences of a record influx of migrants.
The attack came just days after a teenaged asylum-seeker killed a young woman working at an asylum residence.Between 50 and 100 masked and hooded men chased and reportedly beat up « people of foreign appearance » on Friday evening at the Sergels Torg plaza in the heart of the city and handed out leaflets calling for « the street children of North Africa to get the punishment they deserve ».
Police swiftly chased off the assailants, but footage of the racist attack shocked many Swedes as they struggle with conflicting emotions regarding the flood of arrivals.On the one hand there is a deep-rooted, longstanding sense of humanity and willingness to give refuge to those in need.
While on the other, there is a grim realisation that the country’s infrastructure is overwhelmed after welcoming more migrants per capita than any other European Union country in 2015. »What is going on in Sweden? » asked daily Expressen on Sunday, listing a growing number of issues linked to migrants, including arson attacks on asylum residency centres and cultural as well as religious tensions.
U.S. adds five Russian officials to human rights sanctions list The United States imposed sanctions on Monday on five Russian officials it accuses of human rights abuses including four it said were involved in the 2009 death in prison of a corruption-fighting Russian lawyer.
The U.S. State and Treasury Departments identified Aleksey Anichin, Boris Kibis, Pavel Lapshov and Oleg Urzhumtsev as Russian officials involved in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, whose death in prison prompted criticism of Russia’s human rights record .A fifth official named on Monday, Yevgeni Antonov, ran a prison in Chechnya notorious for human rights abuses, a senior State Department official said. As a result of the sanctions, the five are banned from obtaining U.S. visas, and any assets they hold in the United States are frozen.Magnitsky died at age 37 in 2009 after a year in jail during which he said he was mistreated and denied medical care in an effort to get him to confess to tax evasion and give evidence against a former client. He was found guilty of tax evasion in 2013 in a posthumous trial.
Suu Kyi allies form Myanmar ruling party after decades of struggle Hundreds of lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy were sworn into Myanmar’s parliament on Monday, with enough seats to choose the country’s first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962.The NLD won some 80 percent of elected seats in November’s historic vote, catapulting it to power as Myanmar’s ruling party after decades of struggle that saw many of its members imprisoned.
But the junta-drafted constitution means the party will have to share power with the army that for years suppressed, often brutally, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and her allies.
The first sitting of the NLD-dominated parliament is another step in Myanmar’s drawn-out transition, which started with the election and will go on until the NLD government officially begins its term in April after parliament has picked a president. »This is Myanmar’s first parliament in years that was chosen by the people, » said Pyon Cho, who is now a lawmaker and spent 20 years in jail as a member of the anti-junta group the 88 Generation Students.
« We have the majority. We have the duty to fulfill our manifesto and change the lives of the people in this country. » Some new members looked disoriented as they wandered through the enormous parliament building in the purpose-built capital, raised by the junta in secret from the region’s rice paddies.The presidential nomination process is likely to take place later in the month, NLD members said.
Under the 2008 constitution, Suu Kyi is barred from taking the rolebecause her children are not Myanmar citizens. She has given no indication as to who will take over from outgoing President Thein Sein and the NLD has no clear No. 2.Suu Kyi has said she will be « above the president, » and in complete control of the government, but the NLD has not explained how she will do this.
Each of the parliament’s two chambers will choose a presidential candidate and the military officials who hold a quarter of seats will also put forward their own nominee.A combined session of the chambers will then vote on the three candidates. The winner will become president, with the other two serving as vice presidents.
This week, the NLD will focus on appointing parliamentary speakers, who were announced last week. It will also prepare for the start of state and regional assemblies on Feb. 8, some in places dominated by large ethnic minorities such as Shan state in the east or Rakhine in the west.Expectations are towering for Suu Kyi, who is regarded with an almost religious zeal in the Southeast Asian country. Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest after the NLD won an election in 1990. The junta never recognised the result of that vote.In Washington, the State Department called the seating of parliament a very important step forward in Myanmar’s transition, although it said more steps were needed toward becoming a fully-fledged democracy. »We are encouraged by the commitment of Burma’s political leaders to work together in the spirit of national unity and reform and are hopeful that this will continue throughout the transition period and beyond, » spokesman John Kirby said.
Myanmar’s 51.5 million people expect the NLD to fix everything, from completing the transformation of an economy stunted by decades of isolation to bringing peace to states riven by ethnic conflict.The people « hope that every problem will be solved automatically after the NLD becomes the government, FDI (foreign direct investment) will come in, » said Shwe Mann, the outgoing speaker of parliament, who is close to Suu Kyi despite being a former leader of the junta-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Republican Cruz beats Trump in Iowa presidential race, Rubio takes third placeU.S. Senator Ted Cruz beat billionaire Donald Trump in Iowa’s Republican presidential nominating contest on Monday, upsetting the national front-runner in the race to be their party’s White House nominee.
Cruz, a conservative lawmaker from Texas, won with 28 percent of the vote compared to 24 percent for businessman Trump. Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, came in third place with 23 percent, making him easily the leader among establishment Republican candidates.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in a virtual tie with rival Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont.With 88 percent of the precincts reporting Clinton led with 49.9 percent to Sanders’ 49.4 percent.Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who had trouble gaining any traction in the Democratic race, planned to suspend his campaign. He won 0.6 percent.
Cruz’s win and Rubio’s strong showing could dent the momentum for Trump, whose candidacy has alarmed the Republican establishment and been marked by controversies such as his calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.Rubio said, « They told me I needed to wait my turn, that I needed to wait in line. But tonight here in Iowa the people of this great state have sent a very clear message. » The results could have ramifications in upcoming races.
« There is now blood in the water for Donald Trump, » said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. « Ted Cruz proved he could successfully beat back Trump attacks because he had a great ground game and identified well with evangelical voters. » Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said he was suspending his campaign for the Republican party nomination.Huckabee won the Iowa caucus in 2008.
White House hopefuls Cruz, Clinton hold slim leads in Iowa contest Republican Ted Cruz had a slight advantage over Donald Trump while Democrat Hillary Clinton held a small lead over rival Bernie Sanders on Monday in Iowa’s presidential nominating contest, the first in the 2016 race for the White House.
Cruz, a conservative U.S. senator from Texas, led the billionaire businessman 29 percent to 25.6 percent with 44 percent of the precincts reporting results in the Midwestern U.S. state.Clinton, a former secretary of state, held a lead of 50.8 percent compared to 48.6 percent for Sanders, a self-styled democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, with 64 percent of the precincts reporting.Iowans began choosing candidates at 7 p.m. CST (0100 GMT on Tuesday) in the first state-by-state battle to pick nominees for the Nov. 8 election to succeed President Barack Obama.Republican voter turnout far exceeded the normal average from previous years. Long lines were reported at many caucus sites with many new voter registrations.
« They say the record crowds are good for us so we’ll see what happens, » Trump said, acknowledging he was « a little bit » nervous.A Cruz win would upset momentum for Trump, who is leading in national polls for the Republican nomination.
« We can and we will get back to the founding principles that made America great, » Cruz said on Twitter.A win for Trump could validate a campaign that has alarmed the Republican establishment, dwarfed the efforts of many seasoned politicians and been marked by controversies such as his calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and for a wall along the Mexican border.Iowa has held the first nominating contests, called caucuses, since the early 1970s, giving it extra weight in the U.S. electoral process that can translate into momentum for winning candidates. The caucuses are voter gatherings that take place in 1,100 schools, churches and other public locations across the Midwestern state.The 2016 election is shaping up to be the year of angry voters as disgruntled Americans worry about issues such as immigration, terrorism, income inequality and healthcare, fueling the campaigns of Trump, Sanders and Cru. On the Republican side, opinion polls show foreign policy hawk Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, might win third place in Iowa and stake a claim as the best hope for the party’s mainstream. He was in third with 20.7 percent.
For the Democrats, Clinton needs a win in Iowa to prevent a potential two-state opening losing streak that would raise fresh questions about a candidate who was considered the clear front-runner just two months ago. Sanders is leading in polls in New Hampshire, the next state to hold a nominating contest.Clinton began her day at her campaign’s south Des Moines field office, where she served roughly 60 volunteers donuts and coffee. An extensive ground operation, much like Obama’s as a candidate, has been cited as one of her advantages.
A former U.S. senator and first lady, Clinton often touts her years of experience in politics, and says she will defend much of Obama’s legacy. Sanders has attacked from the left and promised to do more than Clinton to help American workers.Clinton, who lost Iowa in 2008 and went on to lose a protracted primary battle to Obama, told ABC’s « Good Morning America » program that it would be different this time, adding, « I think I’m a better candidate. » Sanders said he was pleased with his performance.
GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares slip as crude resumes drop Asian shares fell on Tuesday as crude oil prices slid on rekindled oversupply fears and after downbeat manufacturing data raised concerns about sluggish global economic growth.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 percent.Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.5 percent as investors locked in profits after two straight days of big gains following the Bank of Japan’s decision to introduce negative interest rates late last week.
U.S. crude oil was down about 1.8 percent at $31.06 a barrel after skidding as much as 7 percent overnight, pressured by weak economic data from China, a U.S. forecast for mild weather and doubts that suppliers would be able to agree on steps to address the global supply glut.Despite the declines, U.S. crude is still nearly 19 percent above the more than 12-year low of $26.19 hit in mid-January.
« (Prices) have just come back to reality a bit, although they are holding water above $30 a barrel, » said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at Sydney’s OptionsXpress, pointing to concern over rising oil supplies and weaker economic data.
Brent April crude futures slipped 1.5 percent.Oil faced fresh pressure from Chinese manufacturing data for January released on Monday showing the fastest pace of contraction since 2012.
The Australian dollar was down about 0.4 percent at $0.7088 , though it held above its recent seven-year trough of $0.6827.As expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia held interest rates steady at a record low of 2.0 percent, where they have stood since May 2015. Although the bank was hopeful on growth prospects, it reiterated that there was scope for a further cut if needed to support the economy.
The greenback slipped about 0.3 percent against its Japanese counterpart to 120.67 yen, but remained underpinned by the BOJ’s surprise move on Friday to adopt negative interest rates.Markets had a muted reaction to results of Iowa’s Republican presidential nominating primary election, in which U.S. Senator Ted Cruz beat billionaire Donald Trump. On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in a virtual tie with rival Bernie Sanders.
Wall Street marked modest losses on Monday, after January surveys of global factory activity on Monday showed the new year began much as the old one ended, with too much capacity chasing too little demand.Global manufacturing expansion accelerated slightly but remained weak at the start of 2016 as faster growth in developed markets failed to offset a contraction in emerging economies.
China shares stage tentative bounce, yuan fixed firmer Chinese shares edges higher on Tuesday while the country’s central bank guided the yuan to its highest fix in almost a month as Beijing sought to keep markets calm heading into the Lunar New Year holidays.
The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.8 percent in early trade, while the CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 0.9 percent.
The gains recovered only part of Monday’s losses, incurred after official surveys of China’s manufacturing and services sectors disappointed and sent ripples of selling through markets globally.
« The data suggest continued uncertainties and headwinds to the outlook, » wrote Shengzu Wang, an analyst at Barclays. « We have seen no sign of stabilisation since the start of 2016. » Given that, Wang was surprised China’s central bank had not cut rates or reserve requirements, rather relying on huge injections of funds to tied the banking system over the Lunar New Year holidays.The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) may have been concerned that such cuts would only encourage capital flight and further wagers on yuan devaluation.
It has been fighting to keep the currency stable through a series of higher daily yuan fixes and a range of measures that essentially make it very expensive to short the currency.On Tuesday, it set the yuan at 6.5510 per dollar, the highest fix since Jan. 6 when a sudden drop in the currency sparked worldwide concerns Beijing was seeking a competitive depreciation.
Still, many analysts suspect the currency will be allowed to drift lower over time both to help underpin exports and fight deflation risks at home. Some investors with deep pockets are laying money on it.Hedge funds have ramped up bets on a devaluation since the Bank of Japan cut rates below zero last week, with the bias towards yuan falls in options markets hitting its highest on record.Reuters data showed riskier bets that only pay out if the yuan weakens to levels well above 7 per dollar passed peaks hit around Beijing’s one-off mini-devaluation last August. »Since the Bank of Japan was so dovish last week, all of these countries are under a lot more pressure to devalue, » said a dealer with one Asian bank in London.
Bottled water is ‘the new gold’ in drought-hit Harare The joke in Harare these days is that more people per square metre are drinking bottled water here – in the drought-hit capital of Zimbabwe – than in wealthy Manhattan.Harare has developed a huge appetite for bottled water. An estimated 300,000 litres change hands daily in this city of just over 1.6 million inhabitants, with Zimbabwe’s finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, saying that imports have reached « crazy » proportions.
Buyers include poor families as well as rich, and such is the upswing of demand that bottled water now outsells alcohol and soft drinks in some desperately thirsty neighbourhoods.
The reason for the boom is simple: what’s coming out of the tap in many homes and businesses is increasingly undrinkable.
« Municipal water is smelly. Often we see visible dirty particles floating, » Precious Shumba, chair of the Harare Residents’ Trust, the biggest civic pressure group in the city, said in an interview. As water quality declines, in part the result of worsening drought, some families who drink or bathe in what comes out of the tap are becoming sick with problems from rashes to typhoid, health authorities say.
The capital has grappled with problems providing clean water for most of a decade, but an extended drought, crippling power cuts, a cash-short municipal government and an exodus of qualified water engineers mean the city now produces only about 40 percent of the water needed, Shumba said.About half of the city’s water is lost through leaks in failing distribution pipes on its way to homes, and illegal connections are also a problem, water engineers say.
Residents nervous about what’s coming out of their taps have increasingly turned to alternatives for drinking water. Domestic refrigerators are packed with containers of imported or local purified water.In many homes, the city’s municipal water is only used for bathing, gardening, laundry, or watering animals.The surge in demand for bottled water has led to new business opportunities. Sheila Dezha, 40, a widow, collects empty plastic bottles from bins and sidewalks, scrubs them clean and refills them with well water.
After refrigerating the bottles overnight, she sells them to passersby near malls and restaurants, or to motorists stopped at traffic lights. »Dirty municipal drinking water means big profits for me, » Dezha from Epworth, one of Harare’s poorest districts, said in an interview.Her home-bottled water sells for a steep $1.50, bringing in a healthy profit. »On a good day I can sell 100 bottles of water, » she said. »At first my neighbours jeered my business as shameful and deceitful, » she said. But « I can afford to put my two children through secondary school. Now neighbours borrow money from me.
On weekends I go around the community teaching women how to clean dirty bottles and sell fresh water. » As Zimbabwe struggles with a hot, dry summer, a growing share of people have become part-time bottled water vendors. Ice cream sellers, security guards and school teachers all can be found hawking water as a side business. »I stock and hide 30 tubes of bottled water in my office every day, » admitted Rarami, a secondary school teacher in the city who asked that his surname not be used. « I sell to thirsty students for $1.10 a tube. It’s a marvellous secret profit. » « Water is the new gold in Harare, » he said.Supermarkets have opened new counters advertising « sweet drinking water by reverse osmosis science. » « Business is delightful. Bottled water sales outstrip alcohol on a scale of 3-to-1, at least in our store, » said Naye Beta, a warehouse manager at a Pick n Pay supermarket, one of the country’s biggest retailers.But not all of the water for sale on Harare’s streets is safe. Arnold Gokwe, a director for Still Waters Packaging, one of the water bottling companies in the capital, said touts refilling bottles with unclean water is hurting the image of companies like his.
« Fly-by-night sellers fill bottles with rain water and stick our brand across their bottles. This spoils our reputation, » he said in an interview.Jimmy Sabelo, an infectious disease doctor who runs the private Everjoy Medical Centre, said the city has seen an upswing in health problems as a result of dirty water from taps and refilled bottles.
« Often I am treating over 10 patients with vomiting, abdominal pains and dysentery. Some of it is related to water issues, especially patients from the poorest suburbs like Mbare, east of the city, » he said.Consumers face a number of problems in determining what constitutes safe drinking water. In Harare, shelves teem with bottles of drinking water that bear the face of popular Pentecostal Christian spiritual leaders who draw up to 10,000 worshippers at their meetings.
Nigeria, Angola seek World Bank help as oil revenues slide Nigeria and Angola, Africa’s two biggest oil producers, are both in talks with the World Bank about support to help cope with low crude prices, weakening currencies and strained public finances.Nigeria has held exploratory talks with the World Bank on borrowing to help fund a record budget in 2016 but has not applied for any emergency loans, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on Sunday.
Angola also held talks with the World Bank between Jan.25-29 about securing funding support in a deal that would see Africa’s second biggest oil producer implement unspecified reforms, the state news agency reported.
The World Bank and other institutions like the International Monetary Fund have recommended that Nigeria and Angola devalue their currencies which both trade officially at huge premiums to the secondary market.Devaluations could form part of loan deals, two banking sources said on Monday. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is against devaluing the naira.The naira trades at around 197 against the dollar officially compared to street rates as weak as 305, while Angola’s kwanza is worth 155/$ but changes hands at more than 400 against the greenback on the secondary market.
Nigeria is planning to borrow as much as $5 billion to help fund a budget deficit due to a slump in vital oil revenues, of which $4 billion might come from international institutions and the rest from Eurobonds, Adeosun had said earlier this month. »We have held exploratory talks with the World Bank. We have not applied for emergency loans, » she told Reuters on Sunday.Borrowing from international institutions such as the World Bank would be a cost-effective way to raise money to fund the increased capital expenditure in the 2016 budget, she said.World Bank spokesman David Theis said the multilateral lender was in discussions with Nigeria to provide Development Policy Operation funding, which can take the form of a loan, grant or credit. »Our support will be for a program of policy reform, » Theis said in an e-mailed statement, adding that the proposal will be submitted to the World Bank’s board of directors later this year.
(World news summary compiled by Maghreb news staff)