Syrian opposition casts doubt on U.N. peace talk plan Syrian rebels said on Wednesday they were under fierce government attack near the Turkish border despite a cessation of hostilities agreement and a representative cast doubt on whether U.N.-backed peace talks would go ahead on March 9 as planned.
The agreement drawn up by the United States and Russia came into effect on Saturday and has slowed but not entirely stopped a conflict that has been going on for almost five years. Both the government and rebels have accused each other of violations.The agreement does not include Islamic State or al Qaeda’s Nusra Front, which is widely deployed in opposition areas.The United Nations said on Tuesday a new attempt at peace talks would begin on March 9 in Geneva, urging warring sides to ensure the cessation agreement take hold to allow them to come to the table.
But opposition official George Sabra said the date for a resumption of talks remained « hypothetical » as long as the truce did not fulfil humanitarian demands including a release of detainees held by the government.
« What is the value of a truce if its overseers – meaning America and Russia – do not push all sides to abide by it? » Sabra told Arabic news channel Arabiya al-Hadath on Wednesday.
The White House said it had seen a reduction in air strikes against the opposition and civilians in Syria in recent days but was concerned by some reported tank and artillery attacks.
Washington was also aware of reports of possible chemical weapons use by the Syrian government, the State Department said, adding that it could not confirm them but that they were being investigated. Israel said on Tuesday Syrian forces had been dropping chlorine barrels on civilians over the past few days.There was no immediate comment from Damascus, which has denied breaching the terms of the truce.The opposition is pressing for full humanitarian access to rebel-held areas and for detainees to be released – terms set out in a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in December.Opposition officials say an increase in aid access has fallen short of what is required.
A senior U.S. official said Washington was working with Moscow to improve access to besieged areas and the World Health Organisation said it had delivered medical supplies to the besieged town of Mouadamiya on Wednesday, after reporting some medicines had been removed from a previous aid delivery.President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that insurgents had breached the deal from day one, and the Syrian army was refraining from responding to give a chance for the agreement to last, warning that there « are limits ».
Five months of Russian air strikes have turned the momentum Assad’s way in the war that has killed more than 250,000 people and created refugee crises in neighbouring states and Europe.Antony Blinken, deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said in Geneva that major and regional powers were monitoring the cessation of hostilities to « prevent any escalation » but it was a « challenging process ».
« The best possible thing that could happen is for the cessation of hostilities to really take root, and to be sustained, for the humanitarian assistance to flow and then for the negotiations to start, » he said.
While residents of some parts of Syria are describing an unusually calm spell, rebels say government forces backed by Russian air strikes have continued offensives in areas of strategic importance in northwestern Syria.The Syrian government is saying very little about military operations in those areas, where the Nusra Front is widely deployed in close proximity to groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army that have accepted the agreement.
A rebel official and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said government forces pressed an offensive against insurgents in Latakia province at the Turkish border on Wednesday.
Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal Division, an FSA group, said government forces had brought in reinforcements for the battle and that fighting was as intense as anything preceding the cessation of hostilities. »The battles were today very fierce, » he said.The Syrian government, backed on the ground by Iranian forces and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has prioritised securing the Turkish border through which rebel groups are supplied with weapons from states seeking Assad’s downfall.The area being fought over in Latakia overlooks the rebel-held town of Jisr al-Shughour in neighbouring Idlib province, and the Ghab Plain, where rebel advances last year were seen as a growing threat to Assad.
A rebel commander in northern Syria said: « Battles continue in vital areas that the regime wants, and where there was no truce in the first place. There is bombardment and battles. » « We are in the fifth day and there is no change in these areas, » he said, in reference to areas in the provinces of Latakia, Homs and Hama.
Fighting also flared anew in Aleppo between insurgents and an alliance including the Kurdish YPG militia, the Observatory said.A report by the Institute for the Study of War showed Russian strikes in support of government forces and their allies had hit a number of areas in Aleppo, Idlib, Homs and Hama provinces since the truce deal took effect.While battling Syrian insurgent groups in Aleppo province, the YPG is also fighting Islamic State with the help of a U.S.-led alliance further east. The group said on Wednesday that 43 of its fighters were killed in an Islamic State attack on two towns near the Turkish border at the weekend.
U.S. says working with Russia on aid flow, truce in Syria The United States is working with Russia to improve access to besieged areas in Syria and to stop the Syrian government from removing medical supplies from aid convoys, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.Antony Blinken, deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said that major and regional powers were monitoring a fragile cessation of hostilities that went into force on Saturday to « prevent any escalation » but it was a « challenging process ».
« At the end of the day the best possible thing that could happen is for the cessation of hostilities to really take root, and to be sustained, for the humanitarian assistance to flow and then for the negotiations to start that lead to a political transition, » Blinken told a news conference.The World Health Organisation said Syrian officials had « rejected » medical supplies from being part of the latest convoy to the besieged town of Moadamiya on Monday. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said they included emergency kits, trauma and burn kits and antibiotics.
« We are indeed very concerned about reports that medical supplies were removed from some of the aid convoys. This is an issue that was brought before the task force, » Blinken said, referring to the International Syria Support Group (ISSG).
« We are now working, including with Russia, to ensure that going forward medical supplies remain in the aid convoys as they deliver assistance. » Russian officials were not immediately available to comment. »The removal of those supplies is yet another unconscionable act by the regime, but this is now before the task force and we will look in the days ahead as assistance continues to flow to make sure that those medical supplies are in fact included, » Blinken said.
The humanitarian task force, chaired by Jan Egeland, meets again in Geneva on Thursday.Another ISSG task force on the cessation of hostilities is handling reports of violations of the truce, which does not include Islamic State or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
« We’re then able to immediately try to address them and to prevent them from reoccuring and thus to prevent any escalation that leads to the breakdown of the cessation of hostilities, » Blinken said, after talks with U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura. »That’s the most effective way to try to keep it going and then to deepen it. But it is a very challenging process, it’s fragile and we have our eyes wide open about those challenges. »
Russia says 40 agreements signed on ceasefire in Syria – agencie Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday a total of 40 agreements had been signed on a tentative ceasefire in Syria and talks with other groups were ongoing, Russian news agencies reported. « With the mediation of the Russian Federation, negotiations are continuing with the leaders of 11 more armed groups, » RIA news agency quoted the ministry as saying.
Car bombing against Syrian rebels in southern province Quneitra kills 18 -monitor Eighteen fighters were killed in a car bomb blast that hit a Syrian insurgent group in the southern province of Quneitra on Wednesday, monitors reported, and a rebel source said the attack was likely carried out by hardline Islamists. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the explosion occurred in the village of al-Isha, targeting a base belonging to Jabhat Thuwwar Souria, a Free Syrian Army group.Issam al-Rayyes, spokesman for the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army, said 11 people had been killed in the blast, including the Front’s commander, known as Abu Hamza al-Naimi.
Rayyes said it was not clear who was behind the attack.Suhaib al-Ruhail, a spokesman for the Alwiyat al-Furqan group which operates in the area, said it was most likely carried out by « Daesh sleeper cells », a reference to Islamic State insurgents. He gave a lower initial death toll of 10 people.The incident did not immediately appear to be related to the current cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government and its allies and non-jihadist insurgent groups.
U.S. struggles with Arabic reports on Syria truce violations A hotline set up by the U.S.State Department to log reported violations of the cessation of hostilities in Syria has suffered from a lack of fluent Arabic-speakers, the department said on Wednesday. « There were some language issues, » State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at his daily briefing. « We’re working to correct those, obviously, because it’s important that we have Arabic speakers that were able to field incoming calls. » While parts of Syria are described as unusually calm since the cessation of hostilities began on Saturday, rebels say that government forces backed by Russian air strikes have continued offensives in strategic areas in northwestern Syria.
The U.S.- and Russian-backed halt to the violence aims to provide breathing space so that peace talks can resume between the rebels and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the nearly five-year-long civil war in which more than 250,000 people have died.Syria Direct, whose website describes itself as a non-profit journalism organization that covers Syria and trains aspiring Syrian and U.S. journalists, published a story saying it called the hotline only to find an American struggling to speak Arabic.
The Amman-datelined story quotes Syria Direct reporter Orion Wilcox as saying he had called the hotline and had trouble making himself understood to the U.S. official on the line. « I didn’t expect an American to answer; he answered in English but switched to Arabic. I started telling him in Arabic about reports we were getting from Homs province of specific ceasefire violations, » Syria Direct quoted Wilcox as saying.
« He’s really struggling and can’t understand me, » Wilcox added. « I’m like, why is this American guy on the phone who can’t speak Arabic? » A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the hotline was set up in haste last week and the State Department had put out an email seeking volunteers to help staff it. »People stepped forward … my guess is that their Arabic just wasn’t fluent enough, » the official said, « So they were struggling to … comprehend what was being told to them. »
White House says Biden to visit Middle East March 5-10 U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will travel to the Middle East on Saturday for a five-day trip that will include visits to the United Arab Emirates, Israel, West Bank and Jordan, the White House said on Wednesday.During the trip, Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, it said.Biden will also meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman to discuss the fight against the Islamic State and the Syrian conflict, the White House added.
Biden, Iraq’s Abadi discuss military, financial support in call -W.House U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Wednesday to discuss military assistance requested by Iraq to fight Islamic State militants, the White House said.Biden also pledged U.S. support for Iraq’s efforts to stabilize its economy, and said the United States would work with G7 nations and others to make sure Iraq has financial resources to fight Islamic State, the White House said in a statement.
UN says aid ship docks in Yemen after diversion to Saudi Arabia A World Food Programme (WFP) ship carrying humanitarian aid offloaded its cargo in Yemen on Wednesday, the United Nations said, after it was diverted to Saudi Arabia last month because it was carrying communications equipment. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition in a war against Iran-allied Houthi rebels and army forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in an effort to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power.The Mainport Cedar, which the United Nations said was carrying a cargo of humanitarian relief supplies bound for the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida, was diverted by the coalition to the Saudi port of Jizan on Feb. 11.
« The World Food Programme confirms that the Mainport Cedar has offloaded its cargo at Yemen’s Hodeida port today, » said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq. »The vessel was carrying interagency cargo that includes canned tuna and medical supplies. It had also been carrying information technology equipment that was left behind in Jizan to complete paperwork to allow it into Aden for the U.N.humanitarian hub, » Haq said.
Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, the Saudi-led coalition’s spokesman, said in February that the communications equipment was similar to that used by the Houthis and had not been declared by the WFP. Yemen relies almost solely on imports, but the conflict has slowed shipments to a trickle after Saudi Arabia imposed a naval blockade to stop weapons being imported.
United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien told the U.N.Security Council earlier this month that a U.N. verification and inspection mechanism for shipments had now been launched in a bid to boost commercial imports. O’Brien is due to address the council again on Yemen on Thursday.More than 6,000 people have been killed, about half of them civilians, in Yemen since Saudi-led forces began military operations in March last year after the Houthis advanced on Hadi’s temporary headquarters in the southern port city of Aden.
Security forces raid Islamic State hideout in Libya’s Sabratha -official Security forces in the western Libyan city of Sabratha said they had killed seven suspected Islamic State fighters in a raid on a militant hideout on Wednesday.Local brigades have been battling militants in Sabratha since they briefly overran the city centre last week and beheaded more than 10 brigade members. That followed a U.S. air strike on the outskirts of Sabratha on Feb. 19 in which more than 40 people were killed.Sabratha is one of several Libyan cities in which militants loyal to Islamic State have established a presence, taking advantage of the political chaos that has plagued Libya since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising five years ago.
A spokesman for Sabratha’s military council, Sabri Kshada, said Wednesday’s raid took place about 20 km (12 miles) south of the city. »Our forces were confronted by the militants and there was an exchange of fire, » he said.Three suspects escaped during the operation, and a Syrian fighter and a female Tunisian militant with a three-year-old son were detained, Kshada said.
Earlier, Kshada said that 46 members of local brigades had been killed in clashes with militants since last week. He could not give a toll for the militants, but said a « great number » had died.The situation in the city was largely calm, he said, with state offices expected to reopen in the next few days.Also on Wednesday, military forces in the eastern city of Benghazi said four troops had been killed in clashes with militants near the university.
Colonel Abdullah al-Shaafi said troops had advanced during fierce fighting in the Garyounis neighbourhood, south-west of the city centre.A medical source said at least five people died and nine were wounded.Military forces loyal to Libya’s eastern government have made major gains over the past 10 days in Benghazi, where they have long been fighting Islamist militants and other armed groups in the city’s streets.
Tunisian forces kill five militants crossing from Libya Tunisian security forces killed five Islamist militants after they infiltrated across the border from neighbouring Libya, authorities said on Wednesday.The expansion of Islamic State militants in Libya is worrying the country’s North African neighbours Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria, who fear violent spillover from the chaos there.
Tunisia has already suffered two major militant attacks last year by gunmen who officials say were trained in jihadist camps inside Libya. Western governments are now offering aid for Tunisia to better protect its Libyan frontier. »The army killed five terrorists during a raid on a house close to Ben Guerdan, after they crossed over the frontier from Libya, » army spokesman Belhassen Ouslati said, according to local state news agency TAP.
A security source told the agency the five militants were part of a group of 10 who had crossed the border with Libya in three vehicles. It was not immediately clear what happened to the other suspects.Tunisia has been held up as a model for democratic transition since the 2011 uprising against Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. But the militant attacks have battered its economy, particularly its tourist industry.More than 3,000 Tunisians have also left to fight with Islamic State and other militant groups in Iraq and Syria.Increasingly, Tunisians are also forming part of Islamic State ranks in Libya.
Jordan says foils Islamic State plot to attack civilian, military targets Jordan’s security services said on Wednesday they had thwarted a plot by sleeper cells of Islamic State militants to blow up civilian and military targets in the U.S.-allied Arab kingdom.
One of Jordan’s biggest security operations in years tracked down militants with suicide bomb belts to a hideout in the northern city of Irbid near the Syrian border, according to a statement carried by the state news agency Petra.Seven militants were killed in clashes that began on Tuesday night and lasted until dawn and a police officer was also killed, it said. Security forces seized automatic weapons, munitions and explosives from the Islamic State cell.
« After diligent and detailed intelligence gathering the intelligence department was able soon to thwart a criminal and destructive plot linked by the terrorist Daesh group aimed at destabilising national security, » the statement said, using the pejorative Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
No details were given on the targets or the plot.
Two security sources said dozens of special forces had been involved in the operation and that the militants had been holed up near a Palestinian refugee camp in the centre of Irbid.Militants who refused to surrender engaged in heavy exchanges of fire with special forces that also injured five policemen, the security services statement said. « They showed heavy resistance with automatic weapons and so the security forces dealt with the situation with the necessary force. » King Abdullah, a key Middle East ally of Western powers against Islamist militancy who has also safeguarded Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel, has been among the most vocal leaders in the region in warning of threats posed by Islamic State, which has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.
The monarch, in ceremonial military attire, attended the funeral of the dead police officer along with several thousand people near the city of Zarqa.Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour told lawmakers that the security operation had fully achieved its goals, saying the targeted « terrorist group » had forged organisational ties with Islamic State in an attempt to destabilise Jordan.
Jordan has tried and sentenced dozens of suspected militant, mostly Jordanians returning from neighbouring Syria’s civil war.Some of them were recruited by Syria’s al Qaeda offshoot Nusra Front or by Islamic State insurgents.
« We live in a neighbourhood that is full of terrorist organizations … All of our effort is directed towards stopping these terrorist organizations from attacking us and undermining the security of our country, » government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani told Reuters.Intensifying its crackdown on followers of radical Islamist groups since last year, Jordan has also arrested dozens of sympathisers who show support for such groups on social media.
International rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have accused Jordan of using the crackdown on Islamist militants as an excuse for harsher curbs on freedom of speech by civil activists and dissidents.Jordan’s military has also conducted some raids on Islamic State hideouts in Syria. Since Syria’s war erupted in 2011, hundreds of Jordanians have joined Sunni Muslim militant groups fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have meanwhile fled across the border and are now living in Jordan, some in refugee camps.Jordan has long been vigilant about the risk of militant attacks. During the U.S. occupation of neighbouring Iraq, Jordan suffered bombings of Amman hotels by al Qaeda-linked militants.
Spanish al Qaeda commander killed by French forces in Mali-sources French forces killed a Spaniard working as an al Qaeda commander in northern Mali during a military operation against the group this week, a Spanish intelligence firm and security sources said.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a group that emerged from Algeria’s civil war, has stepped up a regional insurgency in West Africa, claiming two hotel attacks in Mali and Burkina Faso’s capitals since November that killed at least 50 people.U.S. Africa Command calls it the world’s « most enduring » extremist group and a U.S. commander warned last month it could strengthen further. « The death of (Abu al-Nur al-Andalusi) happened during an attack by French forces on a meeting of al Qaeda members in northern Mali, » AICS, a Spain-based intelligence company said in a statement sent to Reuters on Wednesday, citing local sources.The firm’s CEO Salvador Burguet described al-Nur as a 35-year-old from Melilla, an autonomous Spanish enclave in north Africa. For at least the past year he has been leading a Katiba, or brigade, made up of around 25 fighters in the desert area north of Timbuktu, Burguet said.
Two other security officials in Mali confirmed al-Nur’s death, adding two French operations were made in the Gao and Timbuktu regions earlier this week. It was not clear how many other militants were killed.Spain’s Foreign Ministry said they did not have information on the case and French defence officials declined to comment.
Al-Nur has been involved in a number of attacks against the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country, known as MINUSMA.An AQIM video in September showed a smiling al-Nur, wearing sun-glasses, encouraging others to join militants in Mali in Spanish, according to a video released by the SITE global intelligence agency.
He then boards a truck with a group of fighters to ambush a U.N. vehicle and begins firing bullets into an apparently lifeless pile of bodies.The U.N. said at least six Burkinabe soldiers were killed in that attack.
Separately, MINUSMA said six peacekeepers were wounded on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a landmine in northern Mali.French forces intervened in northern Mali in 2013 to drive out Islamic militants from urban centres but scattered bands of fighters remain in desert areas.France is the largest Western power involved in fighting insurgents in the arid Sahel region, with around 3,500 troops based there.
Egypt parliament expels MP for dining with Israeli ambassador Egypt’s parliament voted on Wednesday to expel an independent lawmaker who invited the Israeli ambassador in Cairo for dinner, drawing widespread criticism and prompting a fellow deputy to attack him with his shoe.Speaker Ali Abdelaal announced that 465 lawmakers, out of 490 who attended the session voted to expel Tawfik Okasha from the legislature, less than two months after it was sworn in.Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognise Israel with a U.S.-sponsored peace accord in 1979, but Egyptian attitudes to their neighbour remain icy.
Israel has an ambassador stationed in Cairo but many Egyptian officials make a point of keeping their distance and the embassy has been the focal point of protests in the past.Okasha, a television presenter and lawmaker known for courting controversy, hosted the Israeli ambassador Haim Koren for dinner at his home in the northeastern Dakhalia province last week. He made the invitation live on his television show.
Nearly 2,000 legal cases opened for insulting Turkey’s Erdogan Turkish prosecutors have opened nearly 2,000 cases against people for insulting Tayyip Erdogan since he became Turkey’s president 18 months ago, the justice minister said on Wednesday.
Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey punishable by up to four years in jail, but the law has previously been invoked only rarely. Critics accuse Erdogan of intolerance and say he is using the law to stifle dissent.Those who have faced trial for insulting Erdogan include journalists, cartoonists, academics and even schoolchildren.
« The justice ministry has allowed 1,845 cases on charges of insulting Erdogan to go ahead, » Bekir Bozdag said, responding to questions in parliament. »I am unable to read the shameful insults made against our president. I start to blush, » said Bozdag, who is from Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party.Last month, a Turkish man filed a criminal complaint against his wife for insulting Erdogan. It is the first known case where somebody has faced legal action for comments made about Erdogan in the privacy of their own home.Erdogan became president in 2014 after serving as prime minister for more than a decade. He is now trying to reshape Turkey’s constitution to boost the powers of the president, until now a largely ceremonial role.
Egypt hands over some evidence about student’s murder to Italy Egyptian authorities have given Italian investigators some evidence they had been seeking for weeks regarding the murder of an Italian graduate student in Cairo, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.The move came just hours after an Italian judicial source told Reuters that Italy was considering recalling its seven-member legal team in Cairo because of a lack of cooperation from their Egyptian counterparts.
Giulio Regeni, 28, disappeared in January and his tortured, battered body was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo on Feb. 3. He had been studying Egypt’s independent labour unions and wrote critical articles about the government.The case has stirred outrage in Italy and strained relations between two countries that share major geopolitical and economic interests, with widespread speculation in the media that Regeni was killed by either police or security services.
Egypt has denied any such suggestion. The Egyptian authorities invited Italian police to join the murder inquiry, but the Italians have complained from the start that they were not being given the information they needed.On Wednesday investigators received some, though not all, of the evidence they had requested, including data about Regeni’s cell phone calls, a partial summary of the Egyptian autopsy and information gathered by police from witnesses.
« It’s a first, useful step, » the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. « Some of the material requested by our embassy has not yet been handed over. » On Wednesday, Milan officials hung a banner from city hall reading « The Truth for Giulio Regeni », in response to a campaign by human rights group Amnesty International. Other cities around the country started to follow suit.
An Egyptian forensics official has told the public prosecutor’s office the autopsy he conducted showed Regeni was interrogated for up to seven days before he was killed, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two sources.The findings, which were denied by Egypt’s Justice Ministry, are the strongest indication yet that Regeni was killed by security services because they pointed to interrogation methods which human rights groups say are their hallmark.
The case has caused friction between Egypt and Italy, though it looks unlikely to drive a permanent wedge between them.Italy exported some 3 billion euros ($3.25 billion) in goods to Egypt last year, Italian export credit agency Sace said.State-controlled oil producer Eni is leading the way for Italian firms, developing Egypt’s giant Zohr gas field.
In a letter to Amnesty International seen by Reuters, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi expressed his support for Regeni’s family. »We are confident in the work being done by the Egyptian and Italian governments and we can’t but hope, like everyone, that the question marks regarding this affair are cleared up as soon as possible, » Descalzi wrote last month.
Merkel calls for Germany to get more involved in world affairs Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Wednesday for Germany to play a bigger role in world affairs, resisting domestic pressure for the country to turn in on itself in the face of the migrant crisis.Campaigning for her Christian Democrats (CDU) ahead of three state elections on March 13 that will serve as a litmus test of her migrant policies, Merkel said it would no longer suffice for Germany to export goods to the rest of the world.
« Rather, we will have to take on more responsibility in an open world for what happens outside our European borders, » she told a rally in Wittlich in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, one of the three states gearing up for elections. »That means more development aid, that means more common standards on climate protection, that means fair trade and a lot more than one perhaps feels in a closed society, » she added.
Merkel’s call for a more engaged Germany shows the country’s growing confidence on the world stage as it steps out of the shadows of its Nazi past, but also runs counter to domestic pressure to take a more national approach to the migrant crisis.Merkel is scrambling to secure a Europe-wide plan to address the crisis, which saw over 1 million migrants enter Germany last year. But many voters are losing faith in her ability to make the plan work and want Germany to close its borders instead.Keeping up the pressure on Merkel is Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), her conservatives’ sister party in Bavaria, which is the point of entry into Germany for most migrants.
Seehofer and Merkel met other senior figures from their conservative alliance on Wednesday but remained at odds. »If the international measures do not come in time or are not effective enough, we will not be able to avoid national measures, » Seehofer told a rally in Halle in eastern Germany.
Merkel’s conservatives are watching nervously as they lose ground to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose hardline stance on refugees could bring it big gains in all three states.A poor showing by the Merkel’s CDU in the elections – in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in the west, and Saxony Anhalt in the east – would increase pressure on the chancellor to reverse her course, 1-1/2 years before the federal election, when she is likely to seek a fourth term.
Carson signals exit, U.S. Republicans grapple with Trump victories Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson signaled on Wednesday he was quitting the Republican presidential race, leaving three candidates facing Donald Trump as the party establishment struggled to find a way to halt the outspoken businessman.
Carson, a conservative who briefly led opinion polls among Republicans earlier in the campaign, said he did not « see a political path forward » after performing poorly in this week’s Super Tuesday nominating contests. He said he would not participate in a Republican debate on Thursday.
Despite a push by some mainstream Republicans to try to block Trump from winning the nomination, the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers will not deploy their $400 million political arsenal to attack him in the presidential primary campaign.As a conservative black Republican, Carson, 64, stood out in the mostly white Republican Party, but his campaign foundered amid staff infighting and questions about Carson’s familiarity with foreign policy.
His departure is unlikely to have a major impact on the fight among Republicans to become the party’s candidate in the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama.Reuters/Ipsos polling last month showed Carson supporters would mostly likely be split if he dropped out between Trump and U.S. Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas.
Trump consolidated his lead in the Republican race with a string of victories on Tuesday that moved him closer to becoming the nominee. The 69-year-old New York real estate tycoon won seven states from Massachusetts to the conservative Deep South.His victories compounded the problem for a party whose leaders are critical of many of Trump’s positions and values and skeptical he can defeat the likely Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Trump has showered insults on rivals and is facing strong party disapproval over his ideas to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, deport 11 million illegal immigrants and temporarily bar Muslims from entering the country. The 2012 Republican nominee, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, plans to deliver a rebuke of Trump on Thursday in a speech in Utah, sources familiar with his thinking said. It will be a high-profile display of establishment Republican unease.
Romney’s speech comes on the same day that Trump and his remaining rivals, Rubio, Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich share a debate stage in Detroit, hosted by Fox News.
The Koch brothers, the most powerful conservative mega donors in the United States, « have no plans to get involved » in the Republican primary process, James Davis, spokesman for Freedom Partners, the brothers’ political umbrella group, told Reuters.Donors and media reports have speculated that the brothers would launch a « Trump Intervention, » a strategy that would involve deploying the Kochs’ vast political network to target Trump in hopes of removing him from the race.
Trump has reached out to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the most senior Republican in Congress. The Trump campaign contacted Ryan’s office late on Monday, a day before the speaker publicly admonished Trump over his failure to repudiate the backing of his candidacy by a white supremacist group. Trump responded with a warning to Ryan.
Among Trump’s rivals, Cruz, 45, won three states on Tuesday, bolstering the conservative senator’s argument that he has the best chance of stopping former reality TV star Trump.The Republican establishment’s favored 2016 candidate, Rubio, only won one Super Tuesday state, taking Minnesota.Anti-Trump Republicans have yet to coalesce around a single strategy to halt him, but the conservative group Club for Growth claimed credit for slowing Trump in some primary states by running attack ads. It said it would air a new advertisement in Florida as part of a $1.5 million ad buy.
Some party donors – including hedge-fund manager Paul Singer and Meg Whitman, the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise chief executive – organized a phone call on Tuesday to get funding for an anti-Trump effort, The New York Times reported.But one of Trump’s former rivals in the 2016 race, Mike Huckabee, admonished Republicans for not respecting the will of the voters.
« The establishment Republicans are all bed-wetting over this and they don’t seem to understand that we have an election, » the former Arkansas governor said on Fox News. « Let’s remember that we have an election process, not a selection process. » Trump responded to the furor against him, saying in a tweet on Wednesday: « The special interests and people who control our politicians (puppets) are spending $25 million on misleading and fraudulent T.V. ads on me. » Trump later unveiled proposals for reforming U.S. healthcare that included repealing Obamacare, allowing prescription drugs to be imported, and turning the Medicaid program for the poor into block grants to states.
Democrats pounced on the Republican campaign infighting.Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called Trump a « monster » the Republicans spawned with their years of rancorous opposition to all major Obama administration initiatives.
« Republicans created him by spending seven years appealing to some of the darkest forces in America, » Reid said on the Senate floor.In the Democratic race, Clinton, 68, took big steps on Tuesday toward securing her party’s nomination, the 2016 campaign’s biggest day of state-by-state nominating contests.Clinton’s rival, U.S Senator Bernie Sanders, 74, won his home state of Vermont along with Colorado, Minnesota and Oklahoma.
Republican foreign policy veterans to rebuke Trump world view More than 50 Republican foreign policy veterans have signed a letter pledging to oppose Donald Trump and rejecting his proposals, according to one of the coordinators of the effort, in the latest sign of fissures between the Republican presidential front-runner and the party establishment.The letter will be posted early Thursday morning on the « War on the Rocks » foreign policy blog, according to one of the organizers, Bryan McGrath, a retired U.S. Navy officer who also advised Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign.
« We’ve got the right set of people, » said McGrath, founding managing director of The FerryBridge Group LLC consultancy. « It’s Republican foreign policy, defense, international types who, in signing the letter, are pledging not to support Donald Trump. » McGrath, who said 55 people had signed the letter so far, did not identify the signatories and declined to release the contents of the letter. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The War on the Rocks blog calls itself a platform for former diplomats, intelligence officers and scholars to comment on global affairs « through a realist lens ». It was not clear who hosts or funds it.
Two people with knowledge of the letter said it pledged signatories to do all they could to prevent a Trump presidency, citing several of his proposals, including building a wall along the Mexican border, threatening to impose tariffs on China and supporting waterboarding, a harsh interrogation technique that critics say amounts to torture.
Dov Zakheim, who served as undersecretary of defense under President George W. Bush, and Peter Feaver, who worked on Bush’s National Security Council staff, confirmed by email that they signed the letter.The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Robert Zoellick, the deputy secretary of state under Bush and former president of the World Bank, had signed. Zoellick could not immediately be reached for comment.
Trump has alarmed mainstream Republican foreign policy thinkers with comments denigrating Muslims and Mexican immigrants, and vowing to tear up international trade deals.Many of them fear a Trump presidency would severely strain ties with allies, and are concerned about his stated willingness to work more closely with authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump also has criticized the Republican party for its backing of Bush’s 2003 Iraq invasion.
« I would sooner work for (North Korean dictator) Kim Jong Un than for Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump is objectively more dangerous than Kim Jong Un and not as stable, » said Max Boot, who was a foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign and supported the 2003 invasion. He said he had signed the letter. Boot and two other people said the anti-Trump effort was also being organized by Eliot Cohen, a Johns Hopkins University professor who served as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s counselor in the George W. Bush administration.
Cohen declined immediate comment.McGrath said two people, who he didn’t identify, declined to sign the letter because of their « fear that Donald Trump would use this as some sort of ammunition. » Kurt Volker, who was a permanent representative to NATO under the administration of George W. Bush, said he declined to sign the letter on concerns it could end up backfiring. It was not clear if he was one of the two experts mentioned by McGrath.
« My concern is that it’s not smart for the intelligentsia – the national security intelligentsia – to come out and bash Trump, the candidate, partly, he would use that as a tool, saying: ‘Here’s the establishment. More of the same. They’re afraid of me. I can do better.’ He would actually use it as a bragging right. » Volker said he had no intention of working for Trump. But he also cautioned he wanted to be free to offer his advice to any future president, and that such a letter could prompt Trump to hold a grudge against signatories.
Several others who declined to sign, and asked not to be identified, said they did so because they feared such an effort could help Democrat Hillary Clinton win the presidency.Trump’s campaign has yet to release a full list of his foreign policy and national security advisers. Those Trump has spoken with on foreign policy include a retired U.S. general and intelligence official, Michael Flynn, who favors closer ties with Russia. Flynn has declined to comment on whether he is advising Trump.Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who won popularity for his handling of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, has said he has been having regular talks with Trump, but not in a formal role.
Philippine officials say China blocked access to disputed S. China Sea atoll China sent several ships to a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, preventing Filipino fishermen from accessing traditional fishing grounds and raising tensions in the volatile region, Philippine officials said on Wednesday.China had sent as many as seven ships to Quirino Atoll, also known as Jackson Atoll, in recent weeks, said Eugenio Bito-onon Jr, the mayor of nearby Pagasa Island in the Spratly Islands.
The Spratlys are the most contested archipelago in the South China Sea, a resource-rich region and critical shipping lane linking North Asia to Europe, South Asia and the Middle East. »This is very alarming, Quirino is on our path when we travel from Palawan to Pagasa. It is halfway and we normally stop there to rest, » Bito-onon told Reuters. »I feel something different. The Chinese are trying to choke us by putting an imaginary checkpoint there. It is a clear violation of our right to travel, impeding freedom of navigation, » he said.In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China’s Ministry of Transport had sent vessels to tow a grounded foreign ship and they had since left the surrounding waters.
« To guarantee safety of navigation and of work conditions, China urged fishing vessels near the site to leave, » Hong said, adding that China had indisputable sovereignty over the atoll.The Philippines Foreign Ministry said Chinese coast guard vessels had been seen at the atoll two weeks ago but were not in the area on Wednesday.
« The Department is monitoring reports on the situation on the ground and reiterates its call for China to exercise self-restraint from the conduct of activities that could complicate or escalate disputes in the South China Sea and affect peace and stability in the region, » the ministry said in a statement.Earlier, the Philippine military said it was looking into the situation around Jackson Atoll, where a Chinese warship allegedly fired warning shots at Filipino fishermen in 2011. »We know there are Chinese ships moving around the Spratly area, » spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla told Reuters. « There are also ships around Second Thomas Shoal, so we want to make sure if the presence is permanent. » A spokesman for the U.S. State Department said it was trying to confirm the latest reported incident.
Mark Toner told a regular news briefing that the United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines that has repeatedly expressed concerns about Beijing’s methods in pursuit of maritime claims, did not want to China using its ships « to intimidate … fishing vessels in that region. » Second Thomas Shoal is where the Philippine navy has been occupying and reinforcing a rusting ship it ran aground in 1999 to bolster its claims to the disputed reef.
A military source from Palawan said a surveillance plane had seen four to five ships in the vicinity of Jackson Atoll last week. »There are no indications China will build structures or develop it into an island, » said the source, who was not authorised to speak to the media about the South China Sea.
The Philippines Star newspaper, which earlier reported the story, quoted an unidentified fisherman as saying Chinese boats chased them away when they tried to enter the area last week.Along with China and the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the waters, through which about $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year.
Tensions have been building recently, with the United States and others expressing concerns about China’s land reclamation in the Spratly Islands and deployment of surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets in the Paracel Islands.U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter warned China on Tuesday against what he called « aggressive » actions in the region, saying there would be « specific consequences » to militarisation of the South China Sea.
In response, Hong urged Washington on Wednesday to « stop exaggerating and sensationalising » the issue.For its part, Beijing has been angered by « freedom of navigation » air and sea patrols the United States has conducted near the islands it claims in the South China Sea and says it needs military facilities for its self defence.
U.S. says does not want China use navy to intimidate fishing vesselsThe United States does not want China to use its navy to intimidate fishing vessels from other countries in a disputed area of the South China Sea, the State Department said on Wednesday. « We are aware of these press reports regarding the Chinese vessels operating near Jackson Atoll in the contested areas of the South China Sea, » State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at a news briefing. « We don’t want them using … their navy to intimidate other fishing vessels in that region. » Philippine officials said on Wednesday China had sent as many as seven ships to Quirino Atoll, also known as Jackson Atoll, in recent weeks, preventing Filipino fishermen from accessing traditional fishing grounds.
Xinjiang steel collapse casts shadow over China’s western ambitions As China slims down its bloated steel sector, the western region of Xinjiang is feeling the pain even more than the industry’s heartland to the east, threatening efforts to develop a restive area that is home to the mostly Muslim Uighur people. Over 10 million tonnes of steel production capacity in Xinjiang – enough to produce about a tenth of annual U.S. output – has shut in an area where Beijing has encouraged investment in industries ranging from steel to textiles, in the hope of stimulating growth and curbing unrest by boosting jobs.
The decline in the fortunes of Xinjiang’s steel sector highlights the challenge Chinese policy makers face ensuring job cuts do not strain social cohesion or undermine stability.China aims to lay off 5-6 million workers over the next two to three years in the country to curb industrial overcapacity and pollution, and will spend nearly 150 billion yuan ($23 billion) to cover layoffs in just the coal and steel sectors, sources told Reuters.
« The situation is very severe. There are many newly built steel mills being closed and steel prices have tumbled, » said a sales official at a unit of Xinjiang Ba Yi Iron and Steel Co., Ltd, noting the unit was losing 300-400 yuan ($45.95-$61.27) a tonne.
The official declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to media, but at least seven mills were built in western regions under Beijing’s investment drive.Thousands of steel jobs are estimated to have gone in Xinjiang after some « irrational » investments from 2010, said Chen Ziqi of China International Engineering Consulting Corporation.
Human resources’ minister, Yin Weimin, said on Monday that China expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the steel and coal sector, or 15 percent of total.But Xinjiang is particularly vulnerable given its relatively sparse population and limited export opportunities, even with China’s ambition to create a new Silk road and economic belt stretching from Western China to Central Asia and Europe.
« Xinjiang’s location is a big problem. Its internal demand hasn’t picked up sufficiently to match the expanded capacity, » said Jiang Feitao, a policy researcher at the China Academy of Social Sciences, a state thinktank. With Beijing leading a « war on pollution », traditional steelmaking provinces such as Hebei in the north and Shandong in the east are seen as priorities to cut capacity, but Xinjiang has suffered far more so far. This could concern Beijing, which has blamed violence in the area on Islamist militants seeking an independent state for Uighurs.With most of the workforce in Xinjiang’s mainly northern steel mills Han Chinese, the closures are unlikely to have any immediate impact on stability, though Beijing will monitor the situation closely, experts say.
« Any time there is a decline in employment it will have some kind of social impact, even if it’s the case that not very many people lose their jobs, because it will mean diminished prospects for future employment, » said Barry Sautman, an expert on China’s ethnic politics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Xinjiang’s 2015 steel output tumbled 39 percent to 7.40 million tonnes, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed, while industry sources said capacity utilization had fallen as low as 30-40 percent versus a nationwide average of 65-70 percent.On the other hand, despite promising to cut capacity by 60 million tonnes over 2013-2017, Hebei’s 2015 steel output rose 1.3 percent to 188.3 million tonnes, according to NBS data.
« Given the premium on stability in Xinjiang is even higher because of the ethnic issues, then the government will try to ensure there is no visible social tension coming out of this, » said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s East Asia director and an expert on Xinjiang. The prospect of new steel demand in China’s central and western regions was also used by miners such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to justify expansion, creating an iron ore glut that has sent prices <.IO62-CNI=SI> plunging 60 percent in two years.
Xinjiang had planned to more than triple crude steel capacity to 32 million tonnes by last year, but capacity may have exceeded 40 million tonnes before the latest closures, according to industry website Lange.com.
Xinjiang Ba Yi Iron & Steel Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Baosteel Group, shut 3 million tonnes of capacity last summer and Reuters calculations based on reported mill closures show that more than 10 million tonnes has been lost since 2013.Xinjiang’s Communist Party chief, Zhang Chunxian, told media in January it would not approve new projects and stop subsidising inefficient plants or power prices.The province also aims to shut another 3 million tonnes of capacity over the next two years.
GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares score 7-week peak, commodities on the mend Asian shares were trying to string together three sessions of gains on Thursday as upbeat data on U.S. jobs and gains for a range of commodities whetted risk appetites globally.Notably, oil shrugged off record high U.S. crude stockpiles as investors chose to focus on an OPEC plan to freeze production, keeping alive talk the market had bottomed from a near two-year selloff.
Early Thursday, U.S. crude was up 3 cents at $34.68 a barrel, after Brent ended 25 cents firmer at $37.06.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added another 0.4 percent to reach a seven-week top, having surged 2.6 percent on Wednesday.
Higher prices for copper and iron ore helped Australian stocks rise 0.5 percent to their highest in over a month. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.3 percent, following a 4-percent jump the previous session.
Energy and bank stocks had led Wall Street higher on Wednesday, giving the Dow a gain of 0.2 percent. The S&P 500 added 0.41 percent and the Nasdaq 0.29 percent.The calmer mood showed in the CBOE Volatility index, a measure of investor anxiety, which closed at its lowest level so far this year.
Sentiment was underpinned by a report showing U.S. private sector jobs rose a surprisingly strong 214,000 in February, adding to speculation Friday’s payrolls report would also be upbeat.Yet fissures remain in the global outlook, argued Justin Fabo, a senior economist at Australia and New Zealand Bank.Despite the latest bounce in commodities, prices were still very weak and a lot of money had been borrowed on the assumption that they would not be.
« China has huge potential to roil markets as the nation navigates a difficult structural transition, » he said. « Asian trade, traditionally a bellwether for global growth, is in recession. » « Risk is being repriced, and the ability of central banks to keep pulling rabbits out of the hat is now pretty limited. » Indeed, there are plenty of worries the European Central Bank could disappoint expectations for aggressive easing when it meets next week – just as it did in December.
Back then markets reacted violently when the central bank’s stimulus steps stopped far short of what had been priced in, leading the euro to rocket 3 percent in just one session. Fearing a re-run, investors are holding back on shorting the euro, keeping it at $1.0864 and off a one-month trough of $1.0825. The dollar also faded a little on the yen to 113.50 , after losing grip of a two-week high at 114.56.Instead, the limelight was stolen by the Australian dollar which neared its 2016 peak in the wake of surprisingly strong domestic economic data.The Aussie was taking in the view at $0.7285, following a 1.7 percent rally on Tuesday.
Delayed La Nina seen buoying U.S., Asia crops -MDA weather A delay in the onset of the La Nina weather pattern this year is likely to buoy crops across key growing regions in the United States, Australia and India, a leading weather forecaster said on Thursday.Another year of bumper production of crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans would boost global inventories that have risen near record levels following successive large harvests.
« Some models were showing La Nina developing by July but they have delayed that by a month or two now, » said Kyle Tapley, senior agricultural meteorologist at U.S.-based MDA Weather Services.
La Nina, Spanish for « the girl », prompts a cooling of Pacific Ocean temperatures that brings hot and dry weather to key U.S. growing areas, while much of Asia experiences wetter conditions. It tends to occur unpredictably every two to seven years.
Tapley said El Nino, which brought drought to parts of Asia last year and impacted India’s monsoon, has been weakening since November at a slower pace than previous examples of that weather pattern.
« If you compare with other strong El Nino events that we have had, 1998 and 1983, this event is weakening slower than those events. That is why La Nina has been pushed back. » Weather experts had earlier indicated the return of La Nina, for the first time since 2012, after the end of El Nino in the second quarter.Global wheat and corn production has been rising since 2013/14, while soybean output has climbed to record highs in the last three years, thanks to near-perfect weather conditions in many producing regions.
That has kept pressure on grain prices, with wheat declining to its lowest since June 2010 this week. Soybeans dropped to their weakest since early January and corn hit a seven-week low.Still, over the last year, El Nino has parched fields in the Philippines and Indonesia, brought unseasonable rains to areas of South America and caused flash floods in Somalia that destroyed thousands of homes.
The delay in the arrival of La Nina will mean normal weather across the U.S. Midwest between April and August – the key growing season for corn and soybeans. »If we don’t have a quicker transition to La Nina, we have less likelihood of very hot and dry summer across the United States, » Tapley said on the sidelines of a grains industry seminar in Singapore.
« Our forecasts show just above normal temperatures across eastern and central U.S., but not extreme heat by any means. On the precipitation side, we are seeing close to normal in most of the corn and soybean areas across the U.S. Midwest. » Normal rainfall between April and August will favour wheat planting in Australia, he said. There could be more rainfall from August, the crucial yield-determining period for the Australian wheat crop. »We will likely see a stronger (Indian) monsoon this year, but it depends on how quickly we move to La Nina. It might be the later part of the monsoon which might be stronger. »
Climate impact predicted to cause 500,000 extra deaths in 2050 Climate change could cause significant changes to global diets, leading to more than half a million extra deaths in 2050 from illnesses such as stroke, cancer and heart disease, experts said on Wednesday.
As extreme weather such as floods and heat waves wreaks havoc with harvests and crop yields, estimated increases in food availability could be cut by a third by 2050, according to the experts’ study published in The Lancet medical journal.This would lead to a reduction of 99 calories available per person per day, the assessment of the impact of climate change on diet composition and bodyweight found.
Climate change could also lead to a 4 percent reduction in the consumption of fruit and vegetables, along with a 0.7 percent drop in the amount of red meat consumed, the study said.Reduced consumption of fruit and vegetables could cause twice as many deaths as undernutrition by 2050, it said.
« Even modest reductions in the availability of food per person could lead to changes in the energy content and composition of diets, and these changes will have major consequences for health, » study lead author Marco Springmann from the University of Oxford said in a statement.These changes could be responsible for around 529,000 extra deaths in 2050, compared to a future without climate change in which increases in food availability and consumption could have prevented 1.9 million deaths.
Even though some climate-related deaths will be offset by reductions in obesity, the projected 260,000 fewer deaths will be balanced by lower calorie availability, the study said.Low- and middle-income countries in the Western Pacific region and Southeast Asia are likely to be worst affected, and almost three quarters of all climate-related deaths are expected to occur in China and India.
« There should be enough food to produce a better diet in 2050 than we currently have globally but if you add in climate change then you loose some of those improvements, » study co-author Peter Scarborough from the University of Oxford told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In Europe, Greece and Italy are likely to be significantly affected, with 124 and 89 deaths per a million people respectively.Cutting emissions could have substantial health benefits and reduce the number of climate-related deaths by between 29 percent and 71 percent, the study said. »We need to be mitigating greenhouse gasses. If we do, it will bring down the health impact of climate change, » Scarborough said.
Italian mafia earnings from drugs rival Fiat with cars Italian mobsters make as much money trafficking narcotics in Italy as Fiat does selling cars, but without having to pay taxes, the anti-mafia prosecutors office said on Wednesday.Citing estimates by the United Nations Office on Narcotics and Crime, anti-mafia prosecutors said that the narcotics trade earns more than 32 billion euros ($34.70 billion) annually for organised crime, which controls Italy’s drug trade.
« It’s as if the main national carmaker together with its suppliers, service providers and dealerships paid all their salaries and suppliers, and produced everything completely off the books and without any regulation, and then sold and reinvested everything without paying any taxes, » the annual report by the anti-mafia prosecutor’s office said.
« The small difference is that the profit margin for the drug traffickers is at least 10 times higher than any industrial manufacturer. » It said the Calabrian mafia, known as the ‘Ndrangheta, had become Europe’s top supplier of South American cocaine.Thanks to « privileged » ties with South American criminal groups that « recognise the full trustworthiness of the Calabrian clans », the ‘Ndrangheta has also set itself up as the main supplier of cocaine to other mafia groups in Italy, it said.
From July 2014 to June 2015, Italy seized almost 4 tonnes of cocaine, a decrease of more than 8 percent from the previous period. In the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, 3 tonnes of cocaine have been seized by police in the past three years.The report was comparing earnings to Fiat in Italy, not the work of the wider Fiat Chrysler group worldwide.
(World news summary compiled by Maghreb news staff)