Syrian opposition says Russia steps up bombing despite truce deal The main Syrian opposition council said Russia had stepped up air strikes since a U.S.-Russian ceasefire plan was announced on Monday and that it feared worse was to come in the days before the agreement is due to take effect on Saturday. Salem al-Muslet, a spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), also reiterated opposition fears that Russia will use the agreement to target Free Syrian Army rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
He said some terms of the deal indicated that it was heavily influenced by Russia and were obscure. « We fear that Russia will use this agreement to target the moderate factions in Syria, » Muslet said in a telephone interview with Reuters. The plan excludes militant groups such as Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. But this, rebels say, will give the government a pretext to keep attacking them because militant combatants are widely positioned in opposition-held areas.
The Russian air force has been mounting air strikes in support of Assad since Sept. 30, shifting the momentum in his favour in a five-year-old conflict that has mostly reduced his control to the big cities of Syria’s west and the coast.Islamic State fighters were reported to have tightened their grip on a Syrian government supply route to Aleppo on Tuesday as the army battled to retake the road as part of its campaign to seize the city. As Damascus accepted a U.S.-Russian plan for a « cessation of hostilities » between the government and rebels due to take effect on Saturday, heavy Russian air strikes were also said to be targeting one of the last roads into opposition-held parts of Aleppo.
« The escalation in the bombing is targeting areas in Aleppo, in Homs and in Daraya, » Muslet said, referring to the town of Daraya southwest of Damascus. « We expect more than that from the regime and from the Russian raids. » Muslet was speaking during a meeting of the Saudi-backed HNC in Riyadh. The HNC groups political and armed opponents of Assad.
The HNC said on Monday it « consented to » the international efforts but that acceptance of a truce hinged on an end to blockades of rebel-held areas, free access for humanitarian aid, release of detainees, and a halt to air strikes on civilians.It also said it did not expect Assad, Russia, or Iran to cease hostilities.
« We are studying this truce and we are worried about the obscure points. There is no objection to the truce if it is implemented precisely, without Russia taking it as an excuse to target the moderate revolutionary factions, » Muslet said.Asaad al Zoubi, chief negotiator of the HNC, told pan-Arab Al Arabiya TV news channel that he expected the HNC meeting to spell out on Wednesday its concerns to Washington about the terms of the agreement before it came into effect.
Islamic State tightens grip on Syrian govt road to Aleppo Islamic State fighters were reported to have tightened their grip on a Syrian government supply route to Aleppo on Tuesday as the army battled to retake the road as part of its campaign to seize the city.
As Damascus accepted a U.S.-Russian plan for a « cessation of hostilities » between the government and rebels due to take effect on Saturday, heavy Russian air strikes were also said to be targeting one of the last roads into opposition-held parts of Aleppo.The plan announced by the United States and Russia on Monday is the result of intensive diplomacy to end the five-year-long war. But rebels say the exclusion of Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front will give the government a pretext to keep attacking them because its fighters are widely spread in opposition-held areas.
The Syrian government, backed by Russian air strikes since September, said it would coordinate with Russia to define which groups and areas would be included in what it called a « halt to combat operations ». Damascus also warned that continued foreign support for the rebels could wreck the agreement.
The Russian intervention has turned the momentum President Bashar al-Assad’s way in a conflict that has splintered Syria and mostly reduced his control to the big cities of the west and the coast.Damascus, backed by ground forces including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is making significant advances, including near the city of Aleppo which is split between rebel- and government-control.
The Islamic State assault has targeted a desert road which the government has been forced to use to reach Aleppo because insurgents still control the main highway further west.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports the war using a network of sources on the ground, said Islamic State fighters had seized the village of Khanaser on the road, which remained closed for a second day. A Syrian military source told Reuters army operations were continuing to repel the attack.Islamic State, which controls swathes of eastern and central Syria, differs from rebels fighting Assad in western Syria because its priority is expanding its own « caliphate » rather than reforming Syria through Assad’s removal from power.
The group has escalated attacks on government targets in recent days. On Sunday, it staged some of the deadliest suicide bomb attacks of the war, killing around 150 people in government-controlled Damascus and Homs.A U.S.-Russian statement said the two countries and others would work together to delineate the territory held by IS, Nusra Front, and other militant groups excluded from the truce.
In Geneva, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said: « This is a cessation of hostilities that we hope will take force very quickly and hope provide breathing space for intra-Syrian talks to resume. » Fawzi said there were plans for additional aid deliveries to opposition-held areas blockaded by government forces near Damascus, including the Eastern Ghouta.
Damascus stressed the importance of sealing the borders and halting foreign support for armed groups and « preventing these organisations from strengthening their capabilities or changing their positions, in order to avoid what may lead to wrecking this agreement ».The Syrian military reserved the right to « respond to any breach by these groups against Syrian citizens or against its armed forces », a government statement added.The main, Saudi-backed Syrian opposition body said late on Monday it « consented to » the international efforts, but said acceptance of a truce was conditional on an end to blockades of rebel-held areas, free access for humanitarian aid, a release of detainees, and a halt to air strikes against civilians.
Kerry issues warning as Syrian parties back halt to fighting The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups accepted a plan for a cessation of hostilities to begin on Saturday and the United States warned it would be hard to hold the country together if the fighting did not stop. With hostilities reported on several fronts, rebels backed by Saudi Arabia expressed doubts about the proposal, which excludes attacks by the Syrian army and its Russian backers on the jihadist groups Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Saudi-backed rebels said Russia had stepped up air strikes since the plan was announced on Monday.
For its part, the government in Damascus has made clear that continued foreign help for the rebels could wreck the deal. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would soon know if the plan would take hold. « The proof will be in the actions that come in the next days, » he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington.
If a political transition to a government to replace the current administration does not unfold in Syria, there are options, Kerry said, in a reference to undefined contingency plans believed to include military action.
The next month or two would show if that transition process was serious and Assad would have to make « some real decisions about the formation of a transitional governance process that’s real, » Kerry said.
Faced with skepticism about the cessation plan, Kerry said that things in Syria could get uglier. »It may be too late to keep it as a whole Syria if we wait much longer, » he said.Kerry insisted Washington is working on ways to react if diplomacy does not work. « There is a significant discussion taking place now about Plan B if we don’t succeed at the table, » Kerry said.
France said the leaders of the United States, France, Britain and Germany hoped the cessation deal could take effect soon.The plan is the result of intense diplomacy to end the five-year-long war that has killed 250,000 and forced millions to flee their homes helping to cause a refugee crisis in Europe.But rebels say the exclusion of Islamic State and Nusra Front will give the government a pretext to keep attacking them because its fighters are widely spread in opposition-held areas.
Obama speaks with German, French, British leaders on Syria agreement -W. House U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday spoke with the heads of Germany, France and Britain about the agreement to end hostilities in Syria, the White House said.
During a video conference call, Obama was joined by British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in welcoming the cessation of hostilities deal reached in Munich earlier this month. The leaders « called on all parties to implement it faithfully, » and « underscored the importance of an immediate halt to the indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations, » the White House said in a statement.
Greece rages at neighbours as fears migrants could be halted Greece raged at neighbours and began bussing refugees and migrants back from its northern border on Tuesday, after new restrictions by countries on the main land route to Western Europe trapped hundreds behind a bottleneck at the frontier. Athens filed a rare diplomatic protest with fellow EU member Austria for excluding Greek officials from a high-level meeting on measures aimed at curbing Europe’s biggest inward migration since World War Two.
More than a million migrants and refugees passed through Greece last year, and nearly 100,000 have already arrived this year. Nearly all reached Greece by sea and travelled onward by land over the Balkan peninsula to richer EU countries further north and west, above all Germany.But several of the countries along that route have been taking new measures to close their frontiers, prompting those further down the chain to impose similar restrictions to prevent a bottleneck.
Greek police removed migrants from the Greek-Macedonian border on Tuesday after additional passage restrictions imposed by Macedonian authorities left hundreds of people, mainly Afghans, stuck at the border.
About 450 of them were loaded onto buses to be taken to reception centres in Athens, joining hundreds more fresh arrivals from outlying Greek islands who arrived on the Greek mainland on Tuesday morning.
As buses headed back south, hundreds more people were still travelling north towards the frontier, hoping for a chance to cross into Macedonia. Police occasionally supervised the privately-booked buses, which staggered their journeys to avoid congestion on the border.At a petrol filling station at the community of Almyros, 270 kilometres north of Athens, up to 600 people, including Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis, waited for word on when their buses could continue the journey on to the Macedonian border.
« We were told Macedonia was closed, » said Fadi, a 40 year old Syrian who arrived in Greece through the island of Kos.He was on a bus which set off from Athens on Monday morning for a trip which normally lasts 7 hours. By Tuesday evening, he, his wife and three children had been on the road for 36 hours.
At the border with Macedonia on Monday, witnesses said Syrian refugees who did not have all travel documents, including passports, were turned back. European countries are trying to slow the migration wave, which includes hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and other war zones, as well as large numbers of other migrants from north Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East.Austria is due to host west Balkan states on Wednesday to discuss efforts to manage and curb the flow, but did not invite Greece. In unusually heated language that shows how the migration crisis has raised passions across Europe, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias described the snub as a « unilateral and non-friendly act ».
« The exclusion of our country at this meeting is seen as a non-friendly act since it gives the impression that some, in our absence, are expediting decisions which directly concern us. » Greece also accused its old foe Turkey of trying to « blow apart » an agreement that NATO would help patrol the porous sea border between Greece and Turkey to clamp down on human trafficking. Turkey, which is hosting 2.5 million Syrians, the largest refugee population on earth, says it is trying to stop them from sailing for Greece but needs more aid.
Libya military makes further gains in Benghazi Military forces loyal to Libya’s eastern government said on Tuesday they had taken control of two key neighbourhoods in Benghazi, building on gains made against Islamist fighters over the previous three days.
The military said it had full control of the districts of Boatni and Laithi and claimed advances in several other areas. A hospital source said 20 people had been killed and 45 wounded in the latest clashes. The eastern city of Benghazi has seen some of the worst violence in the conflict that has plagued Libya since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising five years ago.
The violence escalated when military commander Khalifa Haftar launched a campaign in 2014 against Islamists and other armed groups, with the factions taking up entrenched positions in Benghazi’s streets.
On Tuesday residents celebrated the army’s advances by sounding car horns and setting off fireworks. Some returned to their homes for the first time in months to check for damage.
Haftar’s Libyan National Army is loyal to Libya’s eastern government, which has received international recognition but is opposed by a rival government based in Tripoli.A unity government nominated under a United Nations-backed plan is trying to win support within Libya, but its progress has been hindered by political arguments including what role Haftar could have in a future national army.
Libya’s eastern parliament rejected an initial unity government line-up last month and has repeatedly delayed voting on a revised proposal, pushing back a vote once again on Tuesday.
Islamist fighters have exploited a security vacuum to expand their presence in Libya, with militants loyal to Islamic State establishing control in the coastal city of Sirte and a presence in several other cities, including Benghazi.
In a separate development on Tuesday, the mayor of the western city of Sabratha said military brigades there had attacked several buildings housing suspected Islamic State militants.Hussein al-Thwadi said militants at one of the sites had fought back, and that four brigade members had been killed and five injured.
On Friday a U.S. air strike against a suspected Islamic State training camp in Sabratha killed nearly 50 people.Serbia’s government said two of its diplomats who were kidnapped in Libya in Benghazi in November also died in the strike.
U.S. envoy says Islamic State trying to draw foreign fighters to Libya The U.S. special envoy to the coalition fighting Islamic State rebels said on Tuesday the group is trying to attract as many foreign fighters to Libya as possible and the United States would not hesitate to act when it sees threats emerging there. Special envoy Brett McGurk, speaking to reporters at the White House, also said the United States is preparing for all contingencies amid efforts to implement a ceasefire in Syria between the government and moderate rebels, due to go into force on Saturday. McGurk told White House reporters that Islamic State activity in Libya was particularly concerning to the United States, which carried out air strikes last Friday against a militant training camp in the country. The facility was linked to a militant blamed for attacks in Tunisia last year.
Syrians suffer as anti-terror laws squeeze charities – survey Western anti-terror laws are forcing aid agencies in Syria to avoid communities controlled by extremist groups, making it harder to deliver vital supplies and leaving people vulnerable to radicalisation, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation found.
A survey of 21 international and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) found government donors and banks were also demanding more in-depth audits in the two years since jihadi group Islamic State (ISIS) took root, sending costs spiralling. Successive terror attacks in the United States and Europe have put governments under pressure to enact laws and impose controls to track the financing of extremist groups, including through SWIFT, the most widely used platform for bank transactions. While acknowledging the need for tougher laws, NGOs surveyed said operating in jihadi-run areas in Syria made them vulnerable to being blacklisted in the United States and European Union countries where the groups are branded « terrorists ».
One international NGO which responded to the confidential survey said it had had to move some of its assistance programmes to other areas in Syria « because of difficulties dealing with armed groups and fears of running afoul of anti-terrorism laws ».
The NGO’s country director for Syria said demands for additional compliance were also hampering its activities in the areas most affected by conflict. « Anti-terrorism legislation and licensing requirements reduce our nimbleness and slow down our effectiveness in reaching vulnerable people because of onerous reporting, » the country director said.
The Syrian NGO Alliance (SNA), a consortium of 90 NGOs working in the country, said its members were having to cancel projects because they could not keep up with the paperwork required by donors.
« This is really bad for Syrian people, who end up being more vulnerable to joining the terrorist groups because they do not get the humanitarian assistance, » said SNA coordinator Fadi Hakim. « The other option for many of them is to then join the exodus of Syrian refugees. » The Thomson Reuters Foundation was unable to calculate how many civilians were affected by aid agencies’ decision to steer clear of certain areas in Syria.
But the survey data revealed that the bureaucratic workload had risen by an average of 7,000 extra man hours per charity in the two years since ISIS had taken root, the equivalent of three full-time staff.
Seven NGOs, whose Syria aid budgets ranged from $500,000 to $75 million, reported that additional audit costs had risen substantially to a total of $7.5 million. One charity said the cost of compliance reporting had doubled since March 2014. Affected charities said action taken by banks and money transfer companies in Britain, the United States and Turkey was excessively « risk averse », and time and money diverted to compliance work would be better spent on getting food, water and medicines into Syria.
After the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the U.S. government moved quickly to target the finance networks that allowed militant groups to funnel money around the world to fund their operations.
Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 to stifle these clandestine money flows. This affected financial flows to agencies in some places where conflicts were rife with militant activity, including Somalia after regulators around the world tightened procedures to stop funds reaching al Shabaab Islamists.
« Banking problems are only increasing for humanitarian agencies, with millions of dollars of donations to charities working in war zones being blocked with no detailed explanation, » said Sara Pantuliano, humanitarian director at the Overseas Development Institute, a British think tank.
« The interconnected international banking system means no major financial body is immune from U.S. anti-terror laws. » The United States provides an exemption for humanitarian aid to flow to sanctioned countries. It clarified in November 2014 that banks and money agents can do business in high-risk environments if they have proper controls in place. But a quarter of survey respondents said at least one bank had frozen their account, while three quarters said payments had been delayed or blocked in the five years since the Syrian war began.
One NGO said British-based bank HSBC had closed its account.Another said its account had been frozen by Turkish Garanti Bank.
NGOs said these banks did not give an official reason for the closures, but said it was implicit they were to do with their work in Syria and concern about anti-terror laws.HSBC said it was working with the British government and industry bodies to help charity customers manage risk in their operations.
« Although we can’t always be specific about why we decide to close an account, a decision of this kind is never taken lightly and is never due to the customer’s race or religion, » an HSBC spokesman said.Garanti Bank said it « does not intermediate any transactions which may be against international sanctions » such as those imposed by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
Saudi Arabia, Gulf allies raise Lebanon travel warning amid Iran row Saudi Arabia and Bahrain warned their citizens on Tuesday against travel to Lebanon, citing safety concerns, and the United Arab Emirates said it was banning its nationals from visiting the Mediterranean country. The moves by the Gulf Arab allies came after Saudi Arabia last week suspended aid worth $3 billion to the Lebanese army over the Beirut government’s failure to sign up to statements condemning attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain both urged citizens currently in Lebanon to leave quickly for their own safety. They have both issued previous warnings on security grounds for Lebanon, which is located next to war-ravaged Syria.
In a terse statement carried by the state news agency WAM that gave no reason for its new travel ban, the UAE foreign ministry said it would also reduce the number of its diplomats stationed in Beirut. In Lebanon’s tangled political scene, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are staunchly opposed to Hezbollah, a political party in the governing coalition that also has a powerful militia backed by Iran, Riyadh’s arch regional rival.
Hezbollah fighters are playing a crucial role fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the Syrian civil war. Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni Gulf Arab states are opposed to Assad.
Relations between Shi’ite Iran and Saudi Arabia hit a new low last month when Saudi authorities executed Saudi Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, along with three other Shi’ites and 43 members of al Qaeda, on terrorism charges.Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the country, leading the kingdom to cut off ties.
Kerry Iran getting less than $50 billion in cash after nuclear deal U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that the amount of cash Iran will receive due to the implementation of the nuclear agreement is below the $50 billion level.
« It’s below the $50 billion (level), » he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, when he was asked about varying reports about how much money Iran would receive.Iran gained access to about $100 billion in frozen assets when an international nuclear agreement was implemented last month, but much of it already was tied up because of debts and other commitments. Earlier reports had said Tehran would receive as much as $150 billion.
Barred from streets, Iran’s reformists push for votes onlineThe buzzing crowds and human chains of Iran’s disputed election in 2009 may be nowhere to be seen ahead of Friday’s poll but the activists who fired up the protests then are keeping the flame alive online.After the sustained demonstrations of 2009, Iran’s hardline establishment barred reformist candidates and unauthorised gatherings, and arrested many activists on charges of sedition.
Now, reformists seeking to spread the word about moderate candidates have turned to online platforms like the messaging app Telegram. »There is no way we are allowed to have that street presence again, » said Mohammadreza Jalaeipour, a political activist who spent five months in solitary confinement for running a campaign supporting a reformist candidate in 2009.
Now a researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard, Jalaeipour runs a social media and Telegram campaign that includes the Green Online Chain, harking back to the Green Chain of 2009 when activists in green headbands held hands to form a 20-km (12-mile) line down Tehran’s Valiasr Street.
Although activists communicated in closed Facebook groups before the 2013 presidential elections, in which the reformist vote helped centrist Hassan Rouhani to a landslide, they could not replicate the reach they had offline in 2009, he said.Telegram, which has an estimated 20 million users in Iran or a quarter of the population, has « totally changed the scene », Jalaeipour said.
Saudi security forces kill terrorist suspect in village raid – agency Saudi security forces on Tuesday killed a suspect wanted on terrorism charges during a raid on a village in the country’s oil-producing Eastern Province, the state news agency SPA said.The raid took place in Awamiya, home town of a prominent Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, whose execution in January prompted angry protests in the area against the ruling Al Saud dynasty. A Saudi interior ministry statement identified the suspect as Ali Mahmoud Ali Abdullah, a Bahraini national, and said he was killed during a gun battle. He was wanted for taking part in « terrorist crimes », the ministry added.
A resident said more than a dozen armoured vehicles had entered the town and a video apparently recorded by local residents and distributed online appeared to show burning tyres, automatic rifle fire and smoke rising above houses.
Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the video.The resident said a South Asian expatriate worker had been killed during the raid when he was hit by an armoured vehicle and that 26 other people had been injured. The comments could not immediately confirmed.
Qatif has been the focal point of unrest among Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ites since protests in early 2011 calling for an end to discrimination against the minority sect and for democratic reforms in the Sunni Muslim monarchy.
Kurdish oil flows shut as pipeline sabotaged in Turkey Kurdistan’s oil exports to world markets are set to be suspended for a second week running, a shipping source said, a move that will deprive Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of its main revenue stream as the security situation in southeast Turkey worsens. The pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan from fields in Iraq’s north, which carries around 600,000 barrels per day of crude, has been halted since Feb. 17 and was unlikely to resume pumping until Feb. 29, the source said.
The outage would be one of the longest in the past two years and a major blow to Kurdistan, which depends on revenue from oil exports via the pipeline and is struggling to avert economic collapse brought on by a global slump in energy prices.
The interruption is also bad news for European refiners which have been snapping up relatively cheap Kurdish barrels over the past year, boosting profits and already being spoilt for choice in an oversupplied market.
« We were told that the pipeline would not be on line until at least Monday, » the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the information has not been made public.Turkish officials were not available for immediate comment.Industry sources have said the pipeline was sabotaged. The shipping source and a second industry source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that crude flows had been turned off due to ongoing security operations in Sirnak province, neighbouring Syria and in Iraq.
War crimes, illegal refugee returns marred 2015 human righs – Amnesty At least 30 countries illegally forced refugees to return to places where they would be in danger last year, Amnesty said on Wednesday as it warned that many governments were brazenly breaking international law. War crimes or other violations of the « laws of war » were committed by governments or armed groups in at least 19 countries, Amnesty said in its annual review of human rights around the world.
Amnesty Secretary General Salil Shetty said that short-term national self-interest and draconian security crackdowns had led to an « unprecedented assault on human rights » in 2015. « Your rights are in jeopardy: they are being treated with utter contempt by many governments around the world, » he said.
One of the most egregious examples of countries turning their backs on asylum seekers took place when human traffickers left thousands of people from Myanmar and Bangladesh adrift on the open seas without food and water. Hundreds are thought to have died from thirst and hunger as countries in the region played « ping-pong in the sea » with them, Amnesty said.
In Europe, the report strongly criticised Hungary for sealing its borders to keep out thousands of desperate refugees and obstructing collective regional attempts to help them.More than 1 million refugees and migrants arrived in Europe last year, many fleeing war zones. Amnesty said that, with the exception of Germany, the response to the crisis had been woeful. « That Europe, which is the richest bloc in the world, is not able to take care of the basic rights of some of the most persecuted people in the world is shameful, » Shetty said.
He called for the world to find legal and dignified ways for refugees to reach safety and said 1.2 million of them must be resettled without delay. Around half the arrivals in Europe last year were from Syria, which Shetty described as a « human rights-free zone ».
Amnesty condemned the killing in Syria of thousands of civilians in direct and indiscriminate attacks with barrel bombs and other weaponry and criticised lengthy sieges of civilian areas and the blocking of international aid to starving people.
It also said Saudi Arabia had committed war crimes in the bombing campaign it had led in Yemen and criticised it for obstructing the establishment of a U.N.-led inquiry into violations by all sides in the conflict. Shetty warned that not only human rights, but also the laws and institutions meant to protect them, were under attack.
Many African countries have threatened to walk out of the International Criminal Court, which was set up to end impunity for leaders who commit war crimes.Countries hampering cooperation with the ICC include Kenya, Ivory Coast and South Africa, which ignored a court order last year to arrest Sudan’s president.
Shetty also said too many governments were using the threat of violence from armed groups as an excuse to « take short cuts on human rights ». »The human rights of civilians cannot be sacrificed under some vague notions of combating terrorism, » he said.
« Human rights are a necessity, not an accessory … the stakes for humankind have never been higher. » Amnesty’s annual review, which includes reports from 160 countries and territories, said there had been some gains for human rights last year. Three countries – Madagascar, Fiji and Suriname – abolished the death penalty in 2015, and Mongolia is set to do so in 2016.Other countries launched national campaigns to end child marriage or passed laws to recognise same-sex relationships.
Israeli NGOs allege routine abuse of Palestinian detaineesIsrael’s Shin Bet domestic security agency abuses Palestinians under interrogation in a manner so systematic it points to official endorsement, two Israeli NGOs said in a report published Wednesday.The 70-page joint study by rights groups B’Tselem and Hamoked is based on accounts by 116 suspects interrogated at Shikma prison in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon between August 2013 and March 2014.
The report, a third in a series on interrogations of Palestinians, said there are marked similarities with other facilities. »Time and again, the detainees interviewed described unlawful conduct by the authorities, » said the report, entitled « Backed by the System ».
« The descriptions bear a striking resemblance to accounts previously provided by detainees held at other interrogation facilities. Taken together, it would seem that this conduct constitutes official interrogation policy. »
The Shin Bet called the data in the report « misleading and distorted, » and said in a statement that all its interrogations were carried out « in accordance with the law and to prevent activities aimed at harming the security of the state. »
Its activities were « subject to ongoing review and inspection by internal and external bodies, » it added.A Shin Bet spokesman told AFP that the Palestinians interrogated at Shikma were « terror suspects. »The report said that practises in the Shin Bet detention block at Shikma included sleep deprivation for long periods, being bound hand and foot to a chair for hours on end and exposure to extreme cold and heat.
« Being denied the possibility to shower or change clothes for days and even weeks; incarceration in a small, foul-smelling cell, usually in solitary confinement, for many days…are some of the standard features, » it added.A 1999 ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice forbade interrogators to use violence during interrogations except in the case of a « ticking bomb » when measured physical pressure could be used, but the report accuses the Shin Bet of torture.
« The combination of conditions both in and outside the interrogation room constitutes abuse and inhuman, degrading treatment, at times even amounting to torture, » it read.The report also noted that 39 of the Palestinians interrogated by Israel had been arrested and tortured by the Palestinian Authority prior to their interrogation at Shikma.Some of them said that the questioning by Israeli agents implied that the PA had shared its information with the Shin Bet. Daniel Shenhar, who was part of the team that compiled the report, lamented the lack of response of Israeli legal authorities to the allegations arising from the testimonies. »No investigations lead to no accountability, and de facto immunity to investigators and human rights breachers, » he told reporters.
UN welcomes Obama Guantanamo plan, but calls for due process The top U.N. human rights official welcomed President Barack Obama’s plan announced on Tuesday to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, but stressed that no detainee should remain in indefinite custody without charge or trial.Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the U.S. facility in Cuba had been a « serious blot on the human rights record, and reputation, of the United States for the past 14 years ».
« All Guantanamo detainees should either be transferred to regular detention centres in the U.S. mainland or other countries where fair trials before civilian courts and due process guarantees can be provided in accordance with international norms and standards, » he said in a statement. »If there is insufficient evidence to charge them with any crime, they must be released to their home country, or to a third country if they risk persecution at home. »
Campaign for ‘Brexit’ takes 6-point drop – YouGov poll for Times The campaign for Britain to leave the European Union has taken a 6-point drop over the rival « in » campaign, according to a YouGov poll taken by the Times.
The poll suggested that attempts to worry voters into staying in the EU were working and the Britons are becoming more averse to the risks of leaving, the Times reported. (http://thetim.es/20TT4B5) The newspaper said that the fears have contributed to a 6-point drop, to 31 percent, among those who thought leaving the bloc would be a safer option, while 43 percent said it would be safer to stay, which was down 1 percentage point.
The Times said the latest poll suggested that Boris Johnson, the London mayor, and Michael Gove, the justice secretary, have had little early impact by coming out for Brexit and reveals a big drop among those who think that the prime minister got a bad deal in Brussels last weekend. The poll showed 38 percent of Britons would vote to leave the bloc compared with the 37 percent who want to remain, with 25 percent saying they were undecided.Since early February when the first draft of EU deal was published, the YouGov poll showed a 9-point lead for « Brexit. »
Spain’s Socialists near deal with Ciudadanos but still far from majority Spain’s Socialist party and liberal newcomer Ciudadanos were close to striking a deal on Tuesday over a coalition government, both parties said, although their alliance would fall well short of a parliamentary majority. The move was seen by political analysts as an attempt by the two parties to put pressure on the ruling conservative People’s Party (PP) to abstain in a vote of confidence on the Socialist leader, Pedro Sanchez, scheduled for next Wednesday.
Winning that vote would make Sanchez prime minister. But the PP has said many times that it would vote against both such a coalition and against Sanchez. Instead, it will try to win support for a new term for acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the PP leader.To be elected prime minister, Sanchez needs an absolute majority on March 2 or a simple majority of seats in a second vote that would take place on March 5. A Dec. 20 national election left all Spain’s political parties short of a majority in the 350-seat lower house. The PP won 123 seats, the Socialists 90, anti-austerity Podemos 69 and Ciudadanos 40.
Since a pact between the Socialists and Ciudadanos would provide only 130 seats, it would need at least the PP or Podemos and several other parties to abstain.Rajoy had said in January he lacked support to try and form a government, but earlier this week he said he would try to lead a « grand coalition » with the Socialists and Ciudadanos. Failing that, he said, a new election would probably be necessary.
Italy summons U.S. ambassador after reports U.S. spied on Berlusconi Italy’s foreign ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador on Tuesday after media reports that American intelligence services tapped the telephones of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his aides in 2011. Newspaper La Repubblica reported the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the billionaire, four-time prime minister five years ago when his government was under pressure at the height of the euro zone debt crisis.
La Repubblica said whistleblowing site WikiLeaks showed the 79-year-old media tycoon and head of Italy’s main centre-right party had been in the NSA’s crosshairs between 2008 and 2011.Ambassador John Phillips met the director general of the foreign ministry, Michele Valensise, in the afternoon. Afterwards the ministry issued a statement saying that Italy had called for « specific clarifications about what emerged in relation to the events of 2011 ».Phillips « assured us that he will immediately refer the question to his superiors, » the ministry said. During the meeting, Phillips also pointed out that President Barack Obama banned eavesdropping on the leaders of close friends and allies of the United States in 2014, the statement said.
U.S. sanctions on Russia do not bar use of Russian rocket engines-Pentagon The Pentagon’s chief arms buyer on Tuesday said U.S. sanctions against Russia do not at this time bar the use of Russian RD-180 engines to power the Atlas 5 rockets that carry U.S. military and intelligence satellites into space. Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall said the Pentagon had reviewed the issue with the Treasury Department in response to questions raised by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain after Russia revamped the way it manages its space businesses.
Kendall told an event hosted by the Washington Space Business Roundtable the review was still being finalized, but it did not appear that the Russian reorganization would extend U.S.sanctions to rocket engines built by NPO Energomash.
McCain had asked the Pentagon to report back by Monday on the legality of doing business with Energomash after the reorganization put Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and others facing U.S. sanctions in charge of Energomash.
Kendall told reporters the Treasury Department had reached a preliminary determination that the sanctions did not apply since they required more than 50 percent ownership and control over Energomash. He said he expected the government to finalize its decision « fairly soon. » United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, buys RD-180 engines for its Atlas 5 rockets from RD-AMROSS, which is a U.S.-based joint venture of Energomash and Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp.
Pratt spokesman Bradley Akubuiro said the individuals in question were not members of the board of directors of either RD AMROSS or Energomash, and repeated reviews had shown they did not benefit financially from the sale of the engines.
Dustin Walker, a spokesman for the Senate Armed Services Committee, said McCain believed it was time to end the purchases, regardless of the determination on sanctions. »American taxpayers should not be subsidizing the corrupt Russian military industrial complex with continued purchases of Russian rocket engines, » he said.
China gearing up for East Asia dominance -U.S. commander China is « changing the operational landscape » in the South China Sea by deploying missiles and radar as part of an effort to militarily dominate East Asia, a senior U.S. military official said on Tuesday.
China is « clearly militarizing the South China (Sea), » said Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, adding: « You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to think otherwise. » Harris said he believed China’s deployment of surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the South China Sea’s Paracel chain, new radars on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys and its building of airstrips were « actions that are changing in my opinion the operational landscape in the South China Sea. » Soon after he spoke, U.S. government sources confirmed that China recently deployed fighter jets to Woody Island. It was not the first time Beijing sent jets there but it raised new questions about its intentions.
U.S. Navy Captain Darryn James, spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command, said China’s repeated deployment of advanced fighter aircraft to Woody Island continued a disturbing trend.
« These destabilizing actions are inconsistent with the commitment by China and all claimants to exercise restraint from actions that could escalate disputes, » he said. « That’s why we’ve called for all claimants to stop land reclamation, stop construction and stop militarization in the South China Sea. » But U.S. and Chinese foreign ministers signaled that despite disagreements over the South China Sea, they were near agreement on a U.N. resolution against North Korea for its recent nuclear and missile tests and stressed their cooperation on economic and other issues.
Speaking before the meeting in Washington between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Harris said China was escalating the situation in the South China Sea with new deployments. Asked about its aims, he said: « I believe China seeks hegemony in East Asia. » Responding to another question, Harris said Chinese DF-21 and DF-26 anti-ship missiles could pose a threat to U.S.
aircraft carriers, but added the vessels were resilient and that the United States had « the capability to do what has to be done if it comes to that. » Harris also said he supported regular U.S. air and naval patrols to assert freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, a vital waterway through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year.
At a news conference with Kerry, Wang said there had been no problems with freedom of navigation and China and countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – several of which have competing claims with China – « have the capability to maintain stability in the South China Sea. » He said militarization was not the responsibility of one party alone and added in apparent reference to U.S. patrols: « We don’t hope to see any more close-up military reconnaissance, or the dispatch of missile destroyers or strategic bombers to the South China Sea. » Kerry said steps by China, Vietnam and others had created an « escalatory cycle. » « What we are trying to do it break that cycle, » he said.
« Regrettably there are missiles and fighter aircraft and guns and other things that have been placed into the South China Sea and this is of great concern to everyone who transits and relies on the South China Sea for peaceful trade, » he added.
A U.S. think tank reported on Monday that China may be installing a high-frequency radar system on the Cuarteron Reef in the Spratly Islands that could significantly boost its ability to control the strategic sea.
Last Thursday, the United States accused China of raising tensions by its apparent deployment of surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island. China has also built military-length airstrips on artificial islands in the South China Sea.
China’s Foreign Ministry said ahead of Wang’s visit that Beijing’s military deployments in the South China Sea were no different from U.S. deployments on Hawaii.China’s Ministry of Defense said on its microblog on Tuesday that China had established « necessary defensive facilities » that were « legal and appropriate. »
Republican Rubio seeks boost in Nevada, but Trump dominates polls Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio aimed to outpoll rival Ted Cruz in Nevada’s caucus on Tuesday to bolster his position as the establishment favorite for his party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 election.
Looming over the tight race between the two first-term Cuban-American U.S. senators is Republican front-runner Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman who has won two of the first three state nominating contests and is expected to dominate the field in Nevada.With Trump, a blunt-spoken political outsider, commanding a double-digit lead in a handful of Nevada opinion polls, political strategists in the state said Rubio and Cruz had the more modest goal: a clear win over the other, which could propel them through the busy voting month of March.
« They’re playing for second, » said Nevada political analyst Jon Ralston.A recent CNN/ORC poll put Trump ahead by 26 percentage points in Nevada at 45 percent, followed by Rubio, from Florida, at 19 percent and Cruz, from Texas, at 17 percent.
Lagging behind were retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, with 7 percent, and Ohio Governor John Kasich at 5 percent.Kasich, who finished second to Trump in the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary, kept his focus on bigger states, including Michigan and Virginia.
The rivalry between Rubio and Cruz, who won the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, has intensified as both seek a boost going into the nominating contests in a dozen states on March 1, known as Super Tuesday.
On Saturday, Rubio beat Cruz by fewer than 1,000 votes for second place in South Carolina’s Republican primary. Strategists said Rubio also benefited from the withdrawal from the race of one-time establishment favorite Jeb Bush, some of whose donors were preparing to shift to Rubio.Rubio also picked up endorsements from several Nevada party leaders, including U.S. Senator Dean Heller and Nevada Lieutenant Governor Mark Hutchison.His campaign staff was due to be joined by Marc Short, a senior political adviser to the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch, Politico reported on Tuesday.
Though they have not endorsed any candidates, the influential brothers spend tens of millions to advance their libertarian brand of politics, which would sharply limit the role of government.
The Cruz campaign, meanwhile, lost a key staffer on Monday when the candidate fired his main spokesman for posting a video that falsely showed Rubio dismissing the Bible. Trump, who has made a habit of coming up with insults for his rivals that are unusually frank for a presidential candidate, appeared to be focusing his ire on Cru.
Cruz « lies like a dog, » Trump wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday, adding in a separate message that Cruz also fired his spokesman « like a dog ». »Ted panicked, » Trump wrote.Rubio, a former casino workers’ son who spent six years in Nevada as an adolescent, is playing up his ties to the region.
« He’s not pushing it hard, like, ‘I’m really a Nevadan,' » said Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada-Reno. « But both he and his surrogates have highlighted he has the best understanding of Nevada because he actually lived here. » Ralston estimated only 8 percent to 10 percent of eligible voters may turn up to caucus on Tuesday – or somewhere between 33,000 and 42,000 people, according to data from the Nevada secretary of state on registered Republican voters.
Cuban tourism boom seen slowing, but finding a room still hard Cuba’s tourism boom continues at a record pace but is expected to cool off during 2016 with the government forecasting nearly 6 percent growth this year after a 17 percent increase in 2015. Amid the international buzz surrounding the country’s detente with the United States, Cuba received a record 3.5 million visitors in 2015, then set another record for any single month in January 2016, officials said.
The influx has pushed capacity to the limit and forced many tourists to scramble for hotel rooms, raising questions about how Cuba will absorb additional visitors when scheduled U.S.commercial airline service starts this year. The Communist government is rushing to increase hotel capacity in the capital Havana and the beach resort Varadero, the two markets under the most strain, said Dalila Gonzalez, deputy director of marketing for the Tourism Ministry.
Cuba has forecast 200,000 additional visitors this year, or 3.7 million total, which would be less than a 6 percent increase, Gonzalez said.The January record of 417,764 visitors was up 12.7 percent from a year earlier.
« One of our priorities for this year is the construction of four- and five-star hotels, especially five-star hotels, » Gonzalez told Reuters. « All you have to do is walk the streets of Old Havana to see a lot of construction under way. » Projects remain months or years from completion, meaning the hotel crunch is likely to continue, especially during the high season from November to March.
The Manzana de Gomez, an ornate building being converted into a luxury hotel, is due for completion by early 2017. It is a joint venture between the venerable Swiss chain Kempinski and the Cuban state tourism company Gaviota.
Construction recently began on a Sofitel luxury hotel on a prime parcel fronting Havana’s famous malecon, or boardwalk.Refurbishing of out-of-commission rooms in ageing hotels is also under way.Occupancy rates at four- and five-star hotels in Havana and Varadero surpassed 80 percent last year, Gonzalez said, a figure that includes the low season.
Because Americans are still banned from tourism under the U.S. trade embargo and only allowed on officially sanctioned visits, Americans concentrate in the capital rather than at forbidden beach resorts. That makes finding a hotel in Havana during the high season a challenge.American visits last year rose 77 percent to 161,000, not counting hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans, and Gonzalez said a similar percentage increase was possible in 2016.
GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares, oil retreat as Saudi plays down output cuts Asian shares fell on Wednesday as oil prices skidded after Saudi Arabia effectively ruled out production cuts by major producers anytime soon, sending investors into safe-havens such as the yen. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended earlier losses to fall 1.1 percent as of 0246 GMT, slipping further from Monday’s six-week high.Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.7 percent on the drop in oil prices and as the stronger yen weighed on exporters. Chinese shares opened higher but surrendered the gains, with the CSI 300 index down 0.1 percent and the Shanghai Composite little changed.
The U.S. S&P 500 Index fell 1.25 percent on Tuesday to 1,921.27, having failed to rise above its peak hit on Feb. 1, with energy and material sectors being a major drag as oil prices quickly gave up Monday’s hefty gains. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi told oil executives on Tuesday that markets should not view the agreement by four major oil producers to freeze output at January levels as a prelude to production cuts.
While Naimi said he was confident more nations would join the pact, Iran was seen as unlikely to agree to the output cap, which does not allow Iran to regain the market share it lost during sanctions. Oil prices slid in early Asia trade, extending losses of more than 5 percent overnight. U.S. crude futures were down 1.8 percent at $31.29 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent futures were down 1 percent at $32.94.
« I suspect few people were expecting a deal to cut production so his comments are hardly a surprise. Yet, the latest development seems to suggest that for oil producers to get more united they will have to feel more pain, » said Ayako Sera, senior market economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.
The toll from low oil prices is also spreading to banks that have exposure to the energy sector, as roughly a third of U.S.shale oil producers are at high risk of slipping into bankruptcy this year, according to a study by Deloitte.
JP Morgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, said it will increase provisions for expected losses on energy loans by $500 million, or more than 60 percent of its existing reserves.JPMorgan shares fell 4.2 percent on the announcement.
Investors instead favoured safer assets such as U.S.Treasuries, with the 10-year notes yield falling to a two-week low of 1.714 percent overnight. The increased risk aversion led gold to erase all its losses from earlier this week to trade at $1,227.30 per ounce, coming near its one-year high of $1,262.90 touched about two weeks ago.
In the currency market, traditional safe-haven currencies such as the yen and the Swiss franc outperformed.The yen firmed to 111.77 to the dollar on Tuesday, edging near its 15-month high of 110.985 hit on Feb. 11. It last stood at 111.90.
The Swiss franc gained broadly, hitting a one-month high on the euro at 1.09165 franc per euro on Tuesday. It has since weakened to 1.0929 franc per euro.The franc got a lift also as the head of its central bank warned it could not « endlessly » take further steps to ease monetary conditions.The euro in contrast was hit by a key index on German business climate showing sentiment among German manufacturers plunged by its largest amount since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Against the dollar, the euro fell to three-week low of $1.0990 on Tuesday and last stood at $1.10160.The British pound remained on defensive, hitting a seven-year low below $1.40 in early Asian trade on Wednesday on worries Britons would vote to leave the European Union in a June referendum.
U.S. housing strong; weak consumer confidence clouds outlook U.S. home resales unexpectedly rose in January, reaching a six-month high, in the latest sign that the economy remains on firmer ground despite slowing global growth and tightening financial market conditions. The housing market strength was echoed by other data on Tuesday showing a solid rise in house prices in the year to December. But the economic outlook was tempered by a fall in consumer confidence this month amid a stock market rout.
« The housing recovery continues, but the sharp drop in consumer confidence could be a sign that consumers are becoming anxious about their economic plight as the fallout from global growth concerns filters through to Main Street, » said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York. The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales increased 0.4 percent to an annual rate of 5.47 million units, the highest level since July. January’s sales pace was also the second highest since 2007. Sales rose strongly in the U.S. Northeast, despite a massive snowstorm in late January, and were also up in the Midwest. They were unchanged in the South and fell 4.1 percent in the West, likely reflecting tight inventories and hefty home price gains.
Economists had forecast home resales decreasing 2.9 percent to a pace of 5.32 million units last month. Existing home sales were up 11 percent from a year ago, the largest year-on-year gain since July 2013. A separate report showed the S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 5.7 percent in December on a year-over-year basis, with some of the biggest gains coming from cities in the West. Prices rose 0.8 percent in December from November on a seasonally adjusted basis.
« These are solid growth numbers that continue to tell a story of a very healthy market coming into the important spring season. Not too hot, not too cold, just right, » said Stephen Phillips, president at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Irvine, California.
The housing reports added to retail sales, industrial production and employment data in suggesting the economy regained some momentum after slowing to a crawl in the fourth quarter. Economists raised their first-quarter gross domestic product estimates by at least one-tenth of a percentage point to as high as a 2.4 percent annual pace after the existing home sales data.The economy grew at a 0.7 percent rate in the fourth quarter.
European shares weighed down by oil drop; exchange operators rise European shares fell Tuesday on falling oil prices and disappointing updates from Standard Chartered and BHP Billiton, but M&A expectations boosted shares in exchange operators. Standard Chartered fell 6.7 percent after the emerging markets-focused bank reported an 84 percent fall in profits, hammered by weaker global financial markets, tumbling commodity prices and rising loan impairments.Shares in BHP Billiton dropped 6.1 percent after the miner slashed its interim dividend by 75 percent, abandoning a long-held policy of steady or higher payouts, and reporting its first net loss in more than 16 years.The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 1.3 percent at 1,289.04 points after hitting a two-week high on Monday. The index extended earlier losses in the final stretch of the session as crude oil prices fell further after Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi ruled out any production cuts.
« Following the recent relief rally from oversold levels we expect equity markets to remain range-bound ahead of next month’s ECB, Fed and BoJ policy meetings, which could prove to be the next big catalyst for 2016, » said Emanuele Rigamonti, Analyst at JCI Capital in London.News of merger talks between Deutsche Boerse and the London Stock Exchange to create a European trading powerhouse sent their shares up 3.2 and 13 percent respectively, also buoying shares in other stock exchange operators like Euronext and Spain’s BME.
« We’re going in the direction of further consolidation even though there is no certainty yet the merger is going to happen, » Activtrades chief market analyst Carlo Alberto De Casa said.France’s Thales rose 6.3 percent as the company raised its dividend after posting higher-than-expected core profit and record orders in 2015.The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources index was the biggest sectoral decliner, down 3.2 percent, hit by BHP and weaker metals prices. The STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index fell 3.2 percent as crude oil prices dropped 4 percent as Al-Naimi ruled out output cuts.
Time Inc explores bid for Yahoo’s core business -source Time Inc, the publisher of Sports Illustrated, People and Time magazines, has been exploring a bid to acquire the core internet business of Yahoo Inc for several weeks, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Tuesday. Time Inc has been reaching out to bankers on pursuing a deal with Yahoo, according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous because they were not permitted to speak to the media.
It is unclear if the company has retained an investment bank as financial advisor on the potential bid. Yahoo officially launched the sale of its core business, which includes search, mail and news sites, last week.
Time Inc could pursue a Reverse Morris Trust transaction with Yahoo, a tax-free deal in which one company merges with a spun-off unit, Bloomberg reported earlier on Tuesday. Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer would not be part of the company under such a deal, Bloomberg reported, citing one of its sources.
Time Inc has heard a presentation from Citigroup Inc bankers on pursuing a deal with Yahoo, the Bloomberg report said, adding that Citigroup had not been retained by Time. (http://bloom.bg/1mUM7lQ) Time Inc and Yahoo declined to comment on the Bloomberg report while Citigroup could not immediately be reached for comment.
Verizon Communications Inc, which already owns Internet pioneer AOL, has already publicly expressed interest in Yahoo’s core business.Time Inc, which has seen print advertising dollars dry up in recent quarters, has been trying to boost its digital presence through acquisitions of online properties. Time Inc said earlier this month it would buy social networking pioneer MySpace.
Earlier this month, the magazine publisher reported a bigger-than expected drop in fourth-quarter profit, hobbled by a strong dollar and a drop in income from print ads, and said ad revenue would likely be flat or fall in the current quarter.The company also said it would buy advertising company Viant as it seeks to boost revenue from its digital properties. Time Warner Inc spun off its publishing business Time Inc in 2014 to focus on its more profitable broadcasting businesses.Time Inc shares were down 2.5 percent at $13.97 in afternoon trading. Yahoo shares dipped about 1 percent to $30.88.
(World news summary compiled by Maghreb news staff)