Dozens killed in air strikes on Syria’s Raqqa -monitor, activists Dozens of people were killed in a series of air strikes on the city of Raqqa in northern Syria on Saturday, a monitoring group and activists said, as Damascus and Moscow waged attacks on areas controlled by Islamic State.
A cessation of hostilities in Syria took effect three weeks ago, reducing violence but not halting the fighting as peace talks take place in Geneva. The deal does not include al Qaeda or Islamic State militants, whose de facto capital in Syria is Raqqa.
Russia has been pulling out its attack aircraft after announcing a partial withdrawal from Syria, where its air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad has turned fighting in his favour. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 39 people had been killed and dozens more wounded in the raids on Raqqa.
An activist group with sources in Raqqa, called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, said more than 40 had been killed, and that separate strikes hit areas in the north of Raqqa province.
The Observatory said the dead included seven women and five children. It said it was not clear whether Syrian or Russian warplanes had conducted the air strikes.
Separately, Russian warplanes hit the Islamic State-held historic city of Palmyra and its immediate vicinity with some 70 air strikes, the Observatory said, killing at least 18 Islamic State fighters.Government forces and their allies are aiming to capture Palmyra, some 200 km southwest of Raqqa and also held by Islamic State since May.The Observatory said 16 people were also killed in air strikes in Raqqa on Friday.
Russia says Syria ceasefire mostly holding, U.S. should do moreThe ceasefire in Syria is broadly holding but the United States should be doing more to support it, Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The ministry said Russian monitors had registered no violations of the ceasefire involving the use of heavy weapons within the last 24 hours.
« On the whole the ceasefire regime between government troops and opposition forces on the territory of Syria is being observed, » the statement said.But it said that, within the last 24 hours, opposition fighters in the Homs region had opened fire on government posts, killing one soldier.
The ceasefire took effect three weeks ago, reducing violence but not halting the fighting as peace talks take place in Geneva. It does not al Qaeda or Islamic State militants.
Russia has been pulling out its attack aircraft after announcing a partial withdrawal from Syria, where its air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad has turned fighting in his favour.
The Russian statement criticised the United States for what is said was Washington’s failure to restrain rebel fighters.
« In contrast to the American side, officers of the Russian (monitoring) Centre are in the provinces and on the ground to restrain potential violations of the ceasefire, » it said. Russia had yet to receive a reply from Washington to its proposals for organising monitoring of the ceasefire, it added. »We consider that this delay in accepting the document in question is unacceptable, because it leads to new civilian casualties, » the statement said.
Bakers, teachers, painters line up to volunteer to save lives in Syria It looks like a sandstorm has blown in, the air thick with dust as a white van screeches to a halt and volunteers from Syria’s ‘White Helmets’ dash in to help dazed survivors after an airstrike in Aleppo.
In life before the war these volunteers of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, were ordinary citizens, from bakers to teachers to painters. They are now on the frontline of the conflict and the first in when the shells hit. « We used to be called to an attack once a month that had 30 martyrs, but during the Russian intervention we were called to many attacks, where the numbers of martyrs was more than 100 and the injured more than 200, » said Raed al Saleh, director of the White Helmets.
Saleh used to be an electrical supplies salesman before heading up the search and rescue operation of the group of unarmed men and women that was set up to fill the void of emergency responders no longer on hand when the bombs dropped.
The non-sectarian group was officially formed in 2014 and now has 3,000 volunteers, describing itself as the largest civil society organisation operating in areas outside of government control, and many more wish to join.
« The strikes have targeted vital centres that provide help to people on a regular basis and then attacking the people that rush to help. Recently, 10 hospitals were destroyed, » Saleh said in an interview during a recent visit to London. Many of the volunteers train across the border in Turkey before deploying to one of the 114 centres dotted across Syria, including in the besieged areas, the exact location of which remain undisclosed as they have received death threats.
They receive their funding from members of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), led by a group of countries including the United States and Britain. They say they are neutral, impartial and wanting to help anyone, no matter what side they are on – but their work has come at a cost, with at least 92 White Helmets volunteers killed while saving others.With huge parts of Syria flattened, rescue workers say part of the challenge lies in finding a hospital for the wounded.
The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has strongly criticised Syria’s warring sides for attacking clinics and hospital staff. The United Nations estimates almost half a million Syrians are living under siege, and more than 11 million from a population of 23 million have been forced from their homes during the conflict with more than 250,000 killed. »Sometimes when we are taking someone to the nearest hospital we don’t find spaces so we need to go further to the next one, » Saleh said.
« Sometimes they don’t make it .. The pain we feel is massive while rescuing people, while looking for a hospital, as most of the hospitals in the city have been completely destroyed. » As the Syrian conflict enters its sixth year the team said they have also reached their own tragic milestone having rescued over 50,000 of their own countrymen. In London recently, Saleh delivered a speech at a Syria donor conference to world leaders and non-government organisations.
But instead of calling for more money to fund his operation he appealed for a plan to stop the bombing, stressing no amount of money will save children from the dangers of barrel bombs which are the single biggest killer of civilians in Syria.Despite the risks of the job this is a story of hope.
Saleh says they get repeated requests from Syrians wanting to sign up and help the White Helmets who want to bring refugees home, clear the rubble and rebuild their country if the bombing ever stops. »Many of the people who live inside Syria are sending applications to join … because we are a friendly face inside Syria, » he said.
Syria aid charities urge Cameron to help them navigate anti-terror laws The British government must do more to reduce the negative impact of anti-terror laws on Syrians’ access to crucial humanitarian supplies, charities said on Sunday.
In a letter to the prime minister, David Cameron, 12 UK-based aid organisations said « ambiguous » legislation was slowing down or blocking the flow of funds to Syria as it was encouraging some banks to become more risk averse. « Regulators should proactively clarify the (anti money-laundering) regulations and ensure that banks act in a proportionate manner, » the letter said.
Last month a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation revealed the extent to which Western anti-terror laws were forcing aid agencies in Syria to avoid communities controlled by extremist groups.
In a survey, 21 aid organisations operating in Syria said banking regulations were making it harder for their staff to deliver vital supplies, leaving people vulnerable to radicalisation. Despite a widespread truce that has lasted three weeks, Syria’s government has refused to give permission for aid convoys to enter six areas under siege by its forces, a U.N humanitarian adviser said on Thursday.
On Friday the U.N. World Food Programme said some Syrians in the besieged areas of Daraya and Deir al-Zor, under siege by government forces and Islamic State respectively, had been reduced to eating grass because food supplies were cut off. Charities acknowledge that, in the wake of successive militant attacks in the United States and Europe, controls are needed to track the financing of groups such as Islamic State, including through SWIFT, the most widely used platform for bank transactions.
But in their letter, shown exclusively to the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Sunday Times ahead of publication, the charities said a balance needed to be struck that encourages due diligence by banks without denying support to legitimate charities doing vital work. The letter was signed by the bosses of Islamic Relief, Christian Aid, Syria Relief, Responding to Conflict, Mercy Corps UK, Care International UK, CAFOD, Sawa Foundation UK, Muslim Charities Forum, Muslim Aid, Hand in Hand for Syria and BOND, a consortium of more than 400 charities.
It recommended the British government build on its « laudable humanitarian leadership » by bringing banks, aid agencies and the umbrella group, the British Bankers’ Association together to find a way forward. »Our politicians must act to ensure that life-saving funds can continue to reach those most in need, » the letter concluded.
Suicide bomber kills four, wounds 36 in Istanbul shopping district A suicide bomber killed four people on Saturday in a busy shopping district in the heart of Istanbul, pushing the death toll from four separate suicide attacks in Turkey this year to more than 80.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the blast was « inhumane » and would not stop Turkey, which has been targeted by Kurdish and Islamic State militants, from fighting « centres of terrorism ». Israel said two of its citizens died in the attack, Washington said two Americans had been killed and a Turkish official said one victim was Iranian, suggesting that some of the dead may have had dual nationality.
The blast, which also wounded at least 36 people, was a few hundred metres from an area where police buses are often stationed. It sent panicked shoppers scurrying into alleys off Istiklal Street, a long pedestrian avenue lined with international stores and foreign consulates. « There is information that it is an attack carried out by an ISIS member, but this is preliminary information, we are still checking it, » Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters, using another name for Islamic State.
He said a third Israeli may have died. Israel also said 11 of its citizens had been wounded while Ireland said « a number » of Irish were hurt. The attack will raise further questions about the ability of NATO member Turkey to protect itself against a spillover of violence from the war in neighbouring Syria.
Turkey is battling a widening Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, which it sees as fuelled by the territorial gains of Kurdish militia fighters in northern Syria, and has also blamed some of the recent bombings on Islamic State militants who crossed from its southern neighbour.
« No centre of terrorism will reach its aim with such monstrous attacks, » Davutoglu said in a written statement. « Our struggle will continue with the same resolution and determination until terrorism ends completely. » THREE SUSPECTS Germany had shut its diplomatic missions and schools on Thursday, citing a specific threat. U.S. and other European embassies had warned their citizens to be vigilant ahead of Newroz celebrations this weekend, a spring festival largely marked by Kurds that has turned violent in the past.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Two senior officials said the attack could have been carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), fighting for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast, or by an Islamic State militant. A PKK offshoot claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings in the capital Ankara over the past month which killed 66 people. Islamic State was blamed for a suicide bombing in Istanbul in January which killed at least 12 German tourists. One of the officials said Saturday’s bomber, who also died in the blast, had planned to hit a more crowded location but was deterred by the police presence.
« The attacker detonated the bomb before reaching the target point because they were scared of the police, » the official said, declining to be named as the investigation is ongoing.
Another official said investigations were focusing on three possible suspects, all of them male and two of them from the southern city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border. There was no further confirmation of this. Armed police sealed off the shopping street where half a dozen ambulances gathered. Forensic teams in white suits searched for evidence as police helicopters buzzed overhead.
« I saw a body on the street. No one was treating him but then I saw someone who appeared to be a regular citizen trying to do something to the body. That was enough for me and I turned and went back, » one resident told Reuters. Istiklal Street, usually thronged with shoppers at weekends, was quieter than normal as more people are staying home after a series of deadly bombings.
Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said 36 people had been wounded, seven of them in serious condition. At least 24 of the wounded were foreigners, according to Istanbul’s governor. Turkey is still in shock from a suicide car bombing last Sunday at a crowded transport hub in the capital Ankara which killed 37 people and a similar bombing in Ankara last month in which 29 died. A PKK offshoot claimed responsibility for both.
The latest attack brought widespread condemnation.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on an official visit to Istanbul, said it showed « the ugly face of terrorism ». France condemned it as « despicable and cowardly ». NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg described it as « another terrorist outrage against innocent civilians », while the U.S.
State Department said it was the latest « indefensible violence targeting innocent people throughout Turkey ».The Kurdish-rooted opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) condemned the bombing. The PKK’s umbrella group said it opposed targeting civilians and condemned attacks on them.
A 2-1/2-year PKK ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence in the southeast since the 1990s. Hundreds have since died.Separately, a police officer and a soldier died in clashes with militants in the southeastern city of Nusaybin, security sources said.
In its armed campaign in Turkey, the PKK has historically struck directly at the security forces but recent bombings suggest it could be shifting tactics.At the height of the PKK insurgency in the 1990s, the Newroz festival often saw clashes between Kurdish protesters and security forces.
Turkey’s Davutoglu vows to continue fight against ‘centres of terrorism’ Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu denounced the suicide bombing that killed five people and wounded 36 in Istanbul on Saturday as « inhumane » and said Turkey would continue its struggle against « centres of terrorism ». « No centre of terrorism will reach its aim with such monstrous attacks, » he said in a written statement. « Our struggle will continue with the same resolution and determination until terrorism ends completely. »
Two Israelis killed in Istanbul blast were U.S. nationals -Israel Two Israeli citizens killed in a suicide bombing in Istanbul on Saturday were dual nationals, holding U.S. citizenship as well, an Israeli official said on Saturday. Asked whether he could confirm the two victims, whose names have not been released, were dual Israel-U.S. nationals, Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said « yes. »
Iran’s Zarif to discuss business, Syria on Turkey visit Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif joined his Turkish hosts in Istanbul on Saturday in condemning a suicide bombing by suspected Kurdish militants in a main shopping district that killed five people.
Zarif, on a visit to bolster bilateral trade and discuss political differences over the war in neighbouring Syria, said the bombing – which also injured 36 people – « displays the ugly face of terrorism ». Iran has been a strong strategic ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the start of the uprising against him, while Turkey has been one of his fiercest critics, supporting his opponents and giving refuge to rebel fighters.
While Ankara and Tehran remain divided over the conflict in Syria, Zarif and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu said both sides wanted to mend a relationship that could help establishment of peace and stability in the Middle East.
Turkey’s foreign ministry has said the aim of the talks during Zarif’s visit will be « current regional and international developments » as well as relations between the two countries.
Zarif suggested business would be high on the agenda. « We are seeking the best possible level of economic cooperation with Turkey after the nuclear deal, » he told reporters in Istanbul.After the lifting of international sanctions this year following a deal with Western powers to curb its nuclear programme, Iran has become the biggest economy to rejoin the global trading system since the Soviet Union broke up more than two decades ago.
Gains by moderate allies of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani in Iran’s last month crucial elections have raised hopes for boosting foreign investment in Iran, a country with 80 million people and some of the world’s biggest oil and gas reserves. « Iran and Turkey enjoy many commonalities … The leaders of Iran and Turkey seriously want to further develop economic ties, » Zarif told Iran’s state news agency IRNA in Istanbul.
« We face common regional threats and of course have different views regarding some issues that should be resolved through dialogue and negotiations. » At a news conference after meeting Cavusoglu, Zarif said Syria’s national unity and territorial integrity had to be respected.
« We strongly believe that as neighbours of Syria, Iran and Turkey can work together to bring peace to Syria. We are ready to help people in Syria to decide about their country’s fate, » Zarif said.Hopes of a breakthrough at the Syria peace talks in Geneva remain slim despite a more than two-week-old « cessation of hostilities » and Russia’s pulling out some of its forces.
Assad’s government has ruled out the idea of a federal system in Syria after a Russian official said that could be a possible model. Turkey, whose conflict with the Kurdish PKK has escalated in recent months, has ruled out the declaration of a federal region in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria.
Cavusoglu said the Syrian Kurdish PYD party, which Turkey sees as an extension of the PKK, and the affiliated Syrian Kurdish YPG militia had « shown their real faces ». »They want to divide Syria. With Iran, we support the territorial integrity of Syria, » he told the news conference.Zarif is also due to meet with President Tayyip Erdogan, and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during his visit.
« I was a suicide bomber » Paris suspect charged in Belgium The prime surviving suspect for the Nov. 13 Paris attacks planned to blow himself up at a sports stadium with fellow Islamic State militants but changed his mind, he told Belgian investigators on Saturday.
The admission by Salah Abdeslam came a day after he was shot in the leg and captured during a police raid in Brussels, ending an intensive four-month manhunt.
« He wanted to blow himself up at the Stade de France and …backed out, » said the lead French investigator, Francois Molins, quoting Abdeslam’s statement to a magistrate in Brussels before he was transferred to a secure jail in Bruges. The gun and bomb attacks on the stadium, bars and a concert hall killed 130 people and marked the deadliest militant assault in Europe since 2004.
Molins told reporters in Paris that people should treat with caution initial statements by the 26-year-old French national.But his capture and apparent urge to talk marked a major breakthrough for investigators after the trail had seemed to go cold.
Abdeslam’s lawyer said he admitted being in Paris during the attacks but gave no details. He told reporters his client, born and raised by Moroccan immigrants in Brussels, had cooperated with investigators but would fight extradition to France. Legal experts said his challenge was unlikely to succeed but would buy him weeks, possibly months, to prepare his defence.Belgian prosecutors charged Abdeslam and a man arrested with him with « participation in terrorist murder ».
Abdeslam’s elder brother Brahim, with whom he used to run a bar, was among the suicide bombers. Salah’s confession suggested he was the 10th man mentioned in an Islamic State claim of responsibility for the attacks, after which police found one suicide vest abandoned in garbage.
Abdeslam’s family, who had urged him to give himself up, said through their lawyer that they had a « sense of relief ». Authorities hope the arrest may help disrupt other militant cells that Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said were certainly « out there » and planning further violence. French security services stepped up their measures at frontier crossings after a global warning from Interpol that other fugitives might try to move country.
« We’ve won a battle against the forces of ignorance but the struggle isn’t over, » Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said.
The case has raised tensions with France but Michel and French President Francois Hollande, who was in Brussels for an EU summit when Abdeslam was arrested, praised each other’s security services. Hollande was attending an international soccer match at the Stade de France when the bombers struck. A man using false papers in the names of Amine Choukri and Monir Ahmed Alaaj was also charged with terrorist murder. As Choukri, he was documented by German police in the city of Ulm in October when he was stopped in a car with Abdeslam. French prosecutor Molins said Abdeslam travelled widely to prepare the attacks.
A third man in the house when the pair were arrested was charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. He and a woman who was present were charged with concealing criminals. Police had sought Abdeslam since he called two acquaintances in Belgium in a panic, hours after the attacks, to have them collect him and bring him home. Suspected to be as far away as Syria, it seems he was in Brussels all or most of the time.
Failure to complete his mission could have limited his access to any support from Syria-based Islamic State; the chief Belgian investigator on the case said he had instead relied on a network of friends, family and neighbours with whom he had a history of drug trafficking and petty crime. Security agencies’ difficulties in penetrating some Muslim communities, particularly in pursuit of Belgium’s unusually high number of citizens fighting in Syria, have been a key factor in the inquiry. As Parisians, and families of the victims, voiced relief at the arrest, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after an emergency cabinet meeting that a trial could answer questions for those who suffered in the attacks.
« Abdeslam will have to answer to French justice for his acts, » he said. « It is an important blow to the terrorist organisation Daesh (Islamic State) in Europe. » A trickle of people came to a makeshift memorial in central Paris, near the scene of much of the bloodshed, to pay their respects.
« It’s really a relief, » said Emilien Bouthillier, who works in the neighbourhood. « I can’t wait for Belgium to transfer and return him to France so he can be tried the way he should be. » Friday’s armed swoop came after Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found at an apartment following a bloody raid on Tuesday in which an Algerian was shot dead and police officers wounded.
Later, local media said, a tip-off and a tapped telephone led police to a mobile phone number used by Abdeslam and, by triangulating the device’s location, established where he was.At his nearby newspaper store, a vendor named Dominique said Abdeslam had been well known and liked in the community: « He was a very nice lad before, » he said. « How can things go this far? »
Parisians express relief, want justice after Abdeslam arrest Parisians expressed relief on Saturday after Belgian police arrested Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in November’s Islamic State attacks on Paris, in what France’s interior minister called a blow to the militant group.
Abdeslam, 26, the first suspected active participant taken alive, was questioned by police on Saturday after spending the night in hospital with a slight leg wound and will be presented to magistrates later in the day. He was captured after a shootout in Brussels on Friday afternoon during a raid on an apartment in Abdeslam’s home neighbourhood of Molenbeek. « Currently in police custody with four individuals, Abdeslam will have to answer to French justice for his acts, » Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after an emergency cabinet meeting in Paris.
« It is an important blow to the terrorist organisation Daesh in Europe, » he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed 130 people. On Saturday, a trickle of people came to a makeshift memorial in Paris that has engulfed the monument at Place de la Republique, near the scene of much of the bloodshed, to pay their respects to the victims.
« When we see the horrible things that took place here in our city, it’s really a relief, » said Emilien Bouthillier, who works in the neighbourhood where many of the attacks took place.
« I can’t wait for Belgium to transfer and return him to France so he can be tried the way he should be so justice will be served. That way, I hope, these horrors won’t be reproduced ever again. » Another Parisian, Thomas Primet, said he felt the need to come back to Republique to pay tribute to the victims.
« It means one less terrorist at large. And of course, knowing he needs to be punished in order, not to avenge, but to bring justice for all these deaths, » he said.Abdeslam’s elder brother, a Brussels barkeeper who shared a chequered history of drugs and petty crime, blew himself up outside a Parisian cafe on Nov. 13, but the role of the younger man in the killings is unclear.
Sinai attack kills at least 13 Egyptian policemen At least 13 Egyptian policemen were killed in the Sinai Peninsula when Islamist militants fired a mortar round at a security checkpoint in the city of Arish, security and medical sources said on Saturday. Islamic State claimed responsibility on several websites for the attack, and Egyptian state media later confirmed it.
Ambulances were subjected to heavy gunfire as they attempted to reach the wounded, the sources said. Eyewitnesses reported hearing a massive explosion and said the city’s entrances and exits had been closed off by security forces.
Security sources said government forces were later able to kill five of the militants who carried out the attack.
Egypt is battling an insurgency that gained pace after its military overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement, in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule. The insurgency, mounted by Islamic State’s Egyptian branch Sinai Province, has killed hundreds of soldiers and police and started to attack Western targets within the country.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief who led Mursi’s ouster, describes Islamist militancy as an existential threat to Egypt, an ally of the United States.Islamic State controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and has a presence in Libya, which borders Egypt.
Islamic State rocket kills U.S. Marine in Iraq -PentagonA U.S. Marine who was part of the coalition fighting Islamic State was killed in a rocket attack by the militant group in northern Iraq, the Pentagon said in a statement on Saturday.
It was the second combat death of an American service member in Iraq since the start of the campaign to fight the militant Islamic State group.The Marine, who was providing force protection fire, died in the rocket attack at a base near Makhmur, a town between the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said. Cook did not identify the Marine who had been killed. He said several other Marines had been wounded and were being treated for injuries.
A U.S. defense official said two rockets had been fired. One did not cause any damage.
In October, Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Oklahoma, became the first American to die in combat in Iraq since 2011 when he was killed during an overnight mission to rescue hostages held by Islamic State militants.
Earlier this year U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that a new U.S. force of special operations troops had arrived in Iraq and was preparing to work with Iraqi forces to go after Islamic State targets.While that force was expected to number only about 200, its deployment marked the latest expansion of U.S. military pressure on Islamic State.
Palestinian teenager shot dead after attacking Israeli policeman A Palestinian teenager was shot dead on Saturday after stabbing an Israeli paramilitary police officer near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Israeli police said.
« A terrorist armed with a knife stabbed a border policeman in the head after being asked for identification. Troops at the scene shot and neutralized him, » the police said in a statement on Twitter.
A police spokeswoman said he was 17 years old. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed his death and his family confirmed his age. Since October almost daily Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 189 Palestinians, 128 of whom Israel says were assailants, many of them in their teens. Most others were shot dead during clashes and protests.Palestinian leaders say attackers have acted out of desperation in the absence of movement towards creation of an independent state. Israel says they are being incited to commit acts of violence by their leaders and on social media.
Heavy gunfire in Libya capital as rivals clash Heavy gunfire broke out in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Saturday after two rival armed groups clashed in the city over the killing of one of their fighters, a local security source and witnesses said. The violence illustrated the complex security situation in Tripoli where several quasi-official groups operate as law enforcement controlling different districts, and clashes sometimes occur over territory or personal disputes.The clashes left several cars burning in the streets between the Zawiyat Addahmani area and Bab Azizziya before the capital later returned to calm, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Black smoke rose over the area and military vehicles were seen patrolling through streets nearby.The clashes were between Zawiyat Addahmani’s Alfirqa Assadisah or the Sixth Team Security brigade and Bab Azizziya’s Salah Al-Burki brigade in Camp 77, a security source said.
Libya is in chaos with two rival factions struggling for control, one in Tripoli and the other to the east each running their own government. A United Nations-brokered government of national unity based for now in Tunis is negotiating to enter Tripoli in an effort to end the conflict. With no national army, each faction is backed by loose coalitions of former rebels who five years ago fought together to topple Muammar Gaddafi but have since fallen into internecine fighting.
Tripoli’s self-declared government and several of the armed factions in the city have rejected the U.N.-backed presidential council and warned them to stay away from the capital.Tripoli has been under control of an armed alliance called Libya Dawn since 2014 when its forces drove rivals out of the city, set up their own government and reinstated the former parliament as part of power struggle for control.
Al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch claims attack on Algerian gas plant Al Qaeda’s North Africa branch has claimed responsibility for Friday’s rocket-propelled grenade attack on an Algerian gas plant operated by Norway’s Statoil and BP as part of its « war on the Crusader interests everywhere ».
The attack caused no casualties or damage but forced the facility to be closed as a precaution, though state energy company Sonatrach said Algeria’s gas production had not been affected. « This operation has destroyed your claims to have defeated ‘terrorism’ as you like to describe it, » the Islamist militant group said in a statement directed at the Algerian government and Western oil companies. « Even if your Western masters believed you were in control previously, how will you justify your position now? » Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed several attacks across the region recently, including an assault on a resort in Ivory Coast on Sunday that killed 18 people it said was revenge for a French offensive against Islamist militants in the Sahel.
Algeria, emerging from its own 1990s war with Islamist fighters that killed 200,000, has become an important partner in the Western campaign against Islamist militancy. The OPEC nation is also a major gas supplier to Europe.
Attacks in the North African country are rarer since it ended its civil war, but al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and fighters allied with Islamic State are still active, mostly in the remote south and mountains east of Algiers.Algeria’s oil and gas infrastructure is heavily protected by the army especially since the 2013 Islamist militant attack on the In Amenas gas plant, also operated by BP and Statoil, during which 40 oil workers were killed.
U.S. supports Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara The United States supports Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara, considering it both credible and realistic, the U.S. mission to the United Nations said on Saturday.
The announcement on Twitter comes amid an escalating spat between Rabat and the United Nations. Morocco accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week of no longer being neutral in the conflict, criticizing his use of the word « occupation » to describe Morocco’s annexation of the region at the center of a struggle since 1975, when it took over from colonial power Spain.
This week Morocco ordered the United Nations to withdraw 84 international civilian personnel from its peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO. It said this was a response to Ban’s « unacceptable » remarks.
« We consider Morocco autonomy plan serious, realistic, credible, » U.S. mission spokesman Kurtis Cooper said on his Twitter feed. « It represents a potential approach that could satisfy the aspirations of Western Sahara. » He added that the United States continues to support the work of MINURSO in Western Sahara as well as the U.N.-led peace process. The controversy over Ban’s comments is Morocco’s worst dispute with the United Nations since 1991, when the U.N.brokered a ceasefire to end a war over the Western Sahara and established the mission.
Earlier this month, Ban visited refugee camps in southern Algeria for the Sahrawi people, who say Western Sahara belongs to them and fought a war against Morocco until the 1991 ceasefire.Their Polisario Front wants a referendum, including over the question of independence, but Rabat says it will only grant semi-autonomy.
Ban’s spokesman said on Friday that he was disappointed by the U.N. Security Council’s failure to take a strong stand in the dispute between him and Morocco over Western Sahara and would raise it with council members soon. Diplomats said the council members that argued against a strong statement of support of Ban and in favor of countries dealing with the issue bilaterally included Morocco’s traditional ally France along with Spain, Egypt and Senegal.
Council statements need to be unanimous.
France has offered to mediate between Ban and Morocco.The Polisario’s U.N. representative Ahmed Boukhari told reporters on Thursday that Morocco’s goal was to shut down MINURSO, which he said « would mean the shortest way to the resumption of war. » Ban has said he wants to restart stalled negotiations between Morocco and Polisario Front.
Italy rescues 910 boat migrants, nearly 600 saved off Libya Italy’s coast guard said more than 900 migrants were rescued in four separate operations in the Strait of Sicily on Saturday, while Libyan authorities said they had rescued nearly 600 migrants from four boats, one of which sank.
A spokesman for Libyan naval forces, Ayoub Qassem, said the bodies of four dead women had been recovered, and some migrants were still missing.Italian emergency services recovered one corpse during their rescue operations. Now into the second year of its worst migration crisis since World War Two, Europe has seen more than 1.2 million people arrive since the beginning of 2015, most of them from Africa and the Middle East. Italy’s coast guard has continued to pick up migrants in trouble in the stretch of water between its southern coast and North Africa, although most people seeking a better life in Europe have taken less dangerous routes to Greece.
Libya has been in turmoil, and smuggling networks that send migrants across the Mediterranean towards Europe are deeply embedded there. The EU has warned that Libya could be the source of a new escalation of Europe’s migration crisis.
Those rescued off the coast of western Libya on Saturday included migrants from sub-Saharan African countries and from Bangladesh, Qassem said. More than 550 other migrants had been rescued in other operations between Wednesday and Friday, and 17 saved on Thursday had been seriously injured when their boat caught fire, he said.
The Italian coast guard said it had rescued 378 migrants in two separate operations on Saturday. Another 112 migrants were picked up by a vessel operated for the European Union border agency Frontex and another 420 people by a ship under the EU’s EUNAVFOR mission in the Mediterranean.The coast guard gave no details on the nationalities of the victim or those rescued.
Austrian politician under fire for comparing refugees to Neanderthals Austria’s Green Party on Saturday called on an Austrian lawmaker to resign after he compared refugees to « Neanderthals who trample under foot the rights of women ».
In remarks in parliament this week which he reiterated later in a statement, Robert Lugar said most refugees and migrants arriving in Austria were « uneducated, religiously blinded, fanatical (and) impossible to integrate.Austria has mainly served as a conduit into Germany for refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa but has absorbed a similar number of asylum seekers relative to its much smaller population.It has angered other European Union states by setting a cap on the number of asylum seekers it accepts – a step Brussels said was unlawful.
The coalition government has adopted tough rhetoric on migrants as the far-right Freedom Party attracts more than 30 percent approval ratings in voter surveys, about 10 percentage points ahead of each of the ruling centrist coalition parties.
Lugar is chairman of the Team Stronach parliamentary group, founded in 2012 by Frank Stronach, an Austrian-Canadian businessman who has criticised the euro and has called for a simpler tax system and a shrunken public sector. »Now we bring such Neanderthals here who thank God had been extinct in our country, » he said.
In the last parliamentary elections in 2013, Team Stronach got around 5.7 percent of the votes, but it now barely registers in opinion polls. »Not only is your speech explicitly discriminatory, but it also endangers the safety of all who live and reside in this country, » several opposition Green politicians said in an open letter.
Risk of nuclear war in Europe growing warns Russian ex-minister The East-West standoff over the Ukraine crisis has brought the threat of nuclear war in Europe closer than at any time since the 1980s, a former Russian foreign minister warned on Saturday.
« The risk of confrontation with the use of nuclear weapons in Europe is higher than in the 1980s, » said Igor Ivanov, Russia’s foreign minister from 1998 to 2004 and now head of a Moscow-based think-tank founded by the Russian government. While Russia and the United States have cut their nuclear arsenals, the pace is slowing. As of January 2015, they had just over 7,000 nuclear warheads each, about 90 percent of world stocks, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
« We have less nuclear warheads, but the risk of them being used is growing, » Ivanov said at a Brussels event with the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Poland and a U.S. lawmaker.
NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has warned Russia of intimidating its neighbours with talk about nuclear weapons, publicly voicing concerns among Western officials. Ivanov blamed a missile defence shield that the United States is setting up in Europe for raising the stakes.
Part of that shield involves a site in Poland that is due to be operational in 2018. This is particularly sensitive for Moscow because it brings U.S. capabilities close to its border. However, the United States and NATO say the shield is designed to protect Europe against Iranian ballistic missiles and is neither targeted at Russia nor capable of downing its missiles.
« It can be assured that once the U.S. deploys its missile defence system in Poland, Russia would respond by deploying its own missile defence system in Kaliningrad, » Ivanov said, referring to Russia’s territory in the Baltics.In remarks that are likely to alarm European and NATO diplomats seeking a political solution to the separatist conflict in Ukraine that has killed more than 9,000 people since April 2014, Ivanov also said Europe and Russia have little chance of a broader reconciliation.
« The paths of Europe and Russia are seriously diverging and will remain so for a long time … probably for decades to come, » Ivanov said, adding that Russia could not be the eastern flank of a « failed greater Europe. » « These beautiful plans, we have to forget, » he said, adding that Russia’s destiny was now as the leader of a greater Eurasia stretching from Belarus to the Chinese border.
Starwood signs first U.S.-Cuba hotel deal since 1959 revolution Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide on Saturday became the first U.S. hotel company to sign a deal with Cuba since the 1959 revolution, announcing a multimillion-dollar investment a day before U.S.
President Barack Obama was due to visit Havana.Starwood will manage and market two properties in Havana and signed a letter of intent to operate a third.
Such deals would normally be prohibited under the U.S.economic embargo of Cuba, but Starwood received special permission from the U.S. Treasury Department last week. Jorge Giannattasio, chief of Latin American operations, said the deals included a « multimillion-dollar investment to bring the hotels up to our standards, » making Starwood the first U.S.
company to commit major money to Cuba since Fidel Castro and his bearded rebels overthrew a pro-American government on Jan. 1, 1959. Castro quickly nationalized the tourism industry and made the Habana Hilton the new government headquarters for months. Cuba’s tourism industry has boomed since the December 2014 rapprochement with the United States. International visitors rose 17 percent to a record 3.5 million in 2015, including a 77 percent increase in American visitors to 161,000.
Cuba expects a similar increase in American visitors this year when scheduled airline service will resume despite a continued ban on tourism. Americans are allowed to travel to Cuba for 12 authorized purposes.
« The amount of travelers will skyrocket with direct flights, » Giannattasio said. Obama relaxed restrictions further this week. Americans no longer need special permission to travel, or use guides, but must self-police their activities and keep records for five years.
Obama has called for Congress to do away with the 54-year-old embargo but has been opposed by the leadership of the Republican majority. Starwood will operate the military-owned Gaviota 5th Avenue Hotel under its Four Points Sheraton brand, and the state-owned Gran Caribe Inglaterra Hotel under its Luxury Collection brand. The deal could help Obama use his historic trip to showcase what he sees as the benefits of Washington’s diplomatic opening with the former Cold War foe after decades of hostility. But Starwood, which is subject to a takeover battle, may not be American for long.
China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co made a $13-billion cash offer for Starwood on Friday, surpassing by nearly 15 percent a previous cash and stock offer by Marriott International Inc.Marriott has until March 28 to make a counteroffer. »We do not comment until a deal is executed, » Giannattasio said.
Inequality curbs enthusiasm for Obama visit among Cuba’s poor Fluttering U.S. flags, fixed-up roads and fresh paint on colonial buildings convey the optimism in Havana ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic visit this weekend, but rising inequality sours the mood for some of the city’s poor.
The White House says the first such trip by a U.S. president since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution is a step toward better lives for Cuban people suffering under a U.S. embargo. The Obama policy has specifically targeted Cuba’s small but growing private sector with measures such as allowing sales of farm and construction equipment for non-state enterprises.
Private-sector workers already enjoy advantages over those at the bottom of the income ladder, who must survive on meager state salaries and rations. These low-paid workers feel left behind as prices rise, and see Obama’s visit as far removed from their difficult lives.
« He’ll come, take a ride in a vintage car and smoke a cigar – then he’s gone, » said Alberto Hernandez, a Afro-Cuban street sweeper, whose salary of 240 Cuban pesos a month, about $10, makes it hard to afford basics like toothpaste, he said.
Like many in Cuba, Hernandez remembers the most prosperous era to be the 1980s, when the Soviet Union still funded the Communist-led island. In contrast, even fervent supporters of Obama in the city see the ongoing U.S. embargo as a leading cause of poverty. Low wages are not new to Cuba, and they are augmented by heavily-subsidised food, along with free healthcare and other government handouts, but the contrast with a relatively successful new middle class is stark.
« This is one of the biggest challenges for the state – to control inequality, » said Cuban sociologist Aurelio Alonso. « It must allow inequality to grow as little as possible. » There are no available figures for Cuban wealth distribution, but the gap between rich and poor is visibly far narrower than in most other parts of Latin America, with most of the island’s nouveau-riche living modestly by global standards.
The Cuban government under President Raul Castro has already responded to one of the causes of discontent – rising food prices, blamed partly on economic reforms that gave the private sector a bigger role in food distribution. In a partial rollback, some of Havana’s neighborhood markets have given up on cooperatives with which they had struck deals and reverted to a state-run model with fixed prices.
Most of the winners, created by Obama’s looser restrictions on Cuban-Americans sending dollars to relatives and Cuba’s cautious opening to private enterprise, are white Cubans. Their exile families are more firmly established in the United States than Afro-Cubans.
Yolanda Sanchez, an Afro-Cuban, lives in a damp, windowless room, in a maze-like building of tiny apartments, some exposed to the elements by cracks in the ceiling. The decrepit former newspaper office is two blocks from streets painted and resurfaced ahead of Obama’s visit.
« That is just a facade, » Sanchez said, adding that she had lived in the supposedly temporary accommodation, provided by the state, for 12 years waiting for a proper home. « For us nothing is repaired. » Her son, a former public sector physiotherapist now trying his luck with a cycle-taxi, was more vehement. »The change is not for the people, it’s for government officials and their children, » he said, asking not to be named.
Not all poor public sector workers feel the same. Weighing vegetables for customers at a sun-dappled market nearby, Raymundo Goulet Odelin said profits of rapprochement with the United States would be seen in the long term. »Change doesn’t happen overnight, my grandchildren will benefit from this, » he said. « This makes us happy. We’ve been enemies for 50 years, and really we’re not anyone’s enemies. »
Weaken the dollar — the dovish Fed’s hidden agenda? In lowering its likely path of future interest rate increases this week, the Federal Reserve pushed down the dollar, perhaps aiming to ease strains caused by clashing monetary policies.Economists and investors alike were surprised when the US central bank announced Wednesday that it only sees two rate hikes in 2016, half the number it envisioned in December, a more accommodative stance in exiting crisis-era policy.
The Fed also left its benchmark federal funds rate at a historically low 0.25-0.50 percent, as expected, after raising it in December for the first time in nine years. The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee « backed off on the number of expected rate hikes this year. Why, I really don’t know, » said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors.
« If you look at the recent data, and the members are supposed to be data-dependent, it is clear that whatever economic issues concern them, it cannot be US economic weakness. » While spotlighting its more optimistic view on the US economy, the Fed also broadly cited « risks » from the global economic slowdown and financial market turmoil.
Several analysts and economists interpreted the language as an effort by the Fed to rein in the dollar’s gains against other currencies. A strong dollar weighs on import prices, thus keeping US inflation in check, and encourages volatility on the financial markets. Interest rates are on an upward bound in the United States, which attracts investors seeking higher yields and boosts the greenback.The opposite is true in a number of other central banks, such as in the eurozone and Japan, where authorities are redoubling their efforts to be more accommodative and revive their sluggish economies.
The stark divergence in monetary policies — between negative rates on one side and the potential for hikes on the other — had underpinned the attractiveness of the greenback all through 2015. The dollar, which gained nearly 10 percent last year against a basket of currencies, has fallen about three percent since early March. For the economists at Barclays Research, « the Fed has become increasingly responsive to changes in financial conditions » and too much of that could lead to « policy paralysis. »
« Although not exclusively a story about the relationship between Fed policy and the foreign exchange value of the dollar… we believe it clearly illustrates the conundrum, » they said in a client note. Fed Chair Janet Yellen acknowledged the importance of the dollar in policy making at her post-FOMC meeting news conference Wednesday. »Movements in exchange rates… are a factor that any country needs to take into account in deciding what is the appropriate stance of monetary policy, » Yellen said.
But, questioned about influence from the divergence in monetary policies, she insisted: « It does not mean that monetary, US monetary policy is somehow constrained in a way that makes it impossible for our monetary policy to diverge from policies abroad. » Kit Juckes, a foreign-exchange analyst at Societe Generale, said the Fed « seems committed to driving inflation expectations higher, and in the process, is doing nothing to support the dollar. »The Fed’s more dovish tone « stymied the policy divergence trade » of investors, noted Patrick O’Hare at Briefing.com.
Some even say it goes farther than that, seeing in the Fed’s more cautious attitude as part of a concerted strategy by the Group of 20 major economies to tamp down the dollar.
« To any conspiracy theorists it’s all become quite clear. There is a global coordinated central bank effort to weaken the (dollar) in play, » said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets, evoking a secret « Shanghai Accord »at the G20 meeting of finance chiefs last month. Julian Jessop of Capital Economics also highlighted the issue: « Is the G20 trying to steer the dollar lower? »He suggested, however, that the Fed’s dovishness could « soon evaporate » if inflation pressures keep building, forcing it to raise rates and watch the dollar grow stronger.
Trump candidacy stirs alliance angst in Japan U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump’s portrayal of Japan as a free-rider on security is stirring worries in Tokyo about damage to its U.S. alliance, and could embolden hardliners keen to bolster Japan’s military in the face of a rising China. The U.S.-Japan alliance has been the lynchpin of Tokyo’s security policy for decades, but worries have simmered in recent years as to whether Washington will continue to be willing and able to defend its key Asian ally.Comments from the Republican Party frontrunner have done little to allay those fears.
« If somebody attacks Japan, we have to immediately go and start World War III, okay? If we get attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us, » Trump said at a campaign speech late last year. « Somehow, that doesn’t sound so fair. » Trump has also accused Japan of stealing jobs and criticised the U.S.-led 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact that Tokyo sees as vital for strategic as well as economic reasons.
« If you listen to his comments (on security), the United States would become isolated so I think there is great anxiety for allied countries, » Itsunori Onodera, who served as defence minister under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, told Reuters.
Last year, Abe spent considerable political capital enacting controversial legislation that allows Japan’s military to defend friendly countries under attack, a major reinterpretation of the country’s pacifist constitution. »It is incumbent on Japan to protect itself and its defence is necessary for the alliance to be maintained in the best possible posture, » said a source close to Abe.
Abe also wants to formally revise the post-war charter to further loosen limits on military action overseas.
« Most people consider Trump bad news, but for those who want to revise the constitution and strengthen the military, it actually provides a boost for their position, » said a former Western diplomat still in touch with Japanese policymakers. As host to around 50,000 U.S. troops, Japan is vital to Washington’s « rebalance » of its economic and security focus to the Asia-Pacific region.Trump did not respond to requests for comments about the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Both Washington and Tokyo are alarmed by China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea, where Beijing has territorial rows with several Southeast Asian nations. Japan has a separate dispute with China over tiny islands in the East China Sea.
Like many Trump observers around the world, Japanese policy makers at first watched with amusement and then disbelief as the reality TV star and property tycoon garnered growing momentum.Only in recent weeks have they begun taking Trump’s chances seriously and are now scrambling to find out who is advising him on security, another government source said.
Japanese policymakers have not geared up specifically to counter what they see as his misleading rhetoric, which seems to hark back to an outdated 1980s vision of Japan, the source close to Abe said.
« I think it’s too early. Number one, he has not made it known even to the American voters whom he counts on as far as foreign policy goals, » the source said, adding they expected Trump would change if elected. « We are fully aware campaign rhetoric is dramatically different from real policies pursued by incumbents. » For now, though, Japanese government insiders say they are betting that if Trump becomes the Republican nominee and goes on to win the Nov. 8 presidential election, he would surround himself with experts who would draft more realistic policies.
Publicly, Japan is playing it politely. Asked about Trump’s candidacy on Wednesday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters: « We are of course watching this because of the impact such a large country has, but we cannot otherwise comment on another country’s election. »
Anti-Trump protesters block Arizona road; march in New YorkDemonstrators briefly shut down an Arizona highway leading to a campaign rally for Donald Trump on Saturday while protesters rallied outside of Trump Tower in Manhattan to voice their opposition to the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
Television news footage of the demonstration outside Phoenix showed dozens of protesters blocking traffic while holding signs that read « Dump Trump » and « Shut Down Trump. » The demonstrators eventually started marching down the highway. Later, some were seen nearing the rally at Fountain Hills, Arizona, before Trump arrived. Three people were arrested, according to police in Maricopa County, where Joe Arpaio, a well-known critic of U.S.immigration policy and an ardent Trump supporter, serves as sheriff.
Video posted on news website Arizona Central’s Facebook page showed a truck driving through a large group of protesters. Officers from the county police department worked to clear demonstrators from the motorist’s path.A woman is seen crying and shouting for officers to take responsibility to stop the vehicle, while a deputy sheriff shrugs at the suggestion.
Later at a rally in Tucson, Arizona, Trump said the protests were « disgraceful, » and thanked police. »They arrested three people and everybody else left… They left! » Trump said to roaring cheers from the audience. »I love our police, but we should do a little bit more of that, you’d have a lot less protesters, you’d have a lot less agitators, » said Trump, who is favored to win his party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election.
Several demonstrations also broke out during the later rally, prompting police to escort out a number of people.Footage of the Tucson rally shows an attendee punching and kicking one demonstrator who is being escorted out. The clip also shows police removing the attacker.Trump has come under fire from rivals for fueling unrest with his rhetoric. This week, he warned of riots if Republicans denied him the nomination at the party’s convention.
In Trump’s home city of New York, about 1,000 demonstrators marched from Central Park to Trump Tower, the billionaire developer’s signature building on Fifth Avenue.The crowd of mostly young people chanted and carried placards denouncing Trump. Some said police used pepper spray on them as they marched from the park.
Police were seen taking at least one person into custody. A spokesman for the New York Police Department could not immediately confirm whether any arrests were made or whether pepper spray was used. HIM’ Arizona, where political parties will hold primary elections on Tuesday, shares a long stretch of border with Mexico, and is a flashpoint for the issue of illegal immigration into the United States.
Trump has made illegal immigration the signature issue of his campaign, earning the endorsement of Arpaio, the outspoken sheriff. »Donald Trump has the right to be heard by the thousands of people who love him, support him and want him to be president of the United States, » Arpaio told CNN.
Later, the sheriff, wearing civilian clothes, introduced Trump at the rally.Trump rallies have grown increasingly unruly as the months-long campaign has progressed. An event in Chicago a week ago was canceled after protesters swarmed the venue.
Last weekend, a man was arrested when he attempted to rush the stage where Trump was addressing a rally in Ohio. In another incident, a man who was caught on video punching an anti-Trump protester in the face at a North Carolina rally was arrested and charged with assault.Trump leads in opinion polls ahead of Arizona’s March 22 primary, according to a Real Clear Politics polling average, leading Senator Ted Cruz of Texas by 13 percentage points.
Five held after two Muslim cowherds hanged to death in India Police have arrested five suspects in the hanging to death of two Muslims herding cattle in India, in an incident that led to violent protests sparked an outbreak of violence in the eastern state of Jharkhand amid reports the attackers were Hindu vigilantes.
India is the world’s largest exporter of beef and its fifth biggest consumer, but the killing of cows is forbidden in some regions, including in the state of Jharkhand, as many Hindus regard the animal as sacred. The bodies of the two cattle traders were found hanging from a tree in Jharkhand’s Latehar district on Friday, stoking violence that injured six policemen, the Hindustan Times reported on Saturday.
Mazlum Ansari, 32, and Imteyaz Khan, the 13-year-old son of another cattle trader, were residents of Balumath, 110 km (70 miles) from Ranchi, it said. The area saw clashes between Hindus and Muslims over the eating of beef three months ago. « Police have arrested five persons and are looking for others involved in the incident, » Latehar police chief Anoop Birtharay said by telephone.
« So far we have not found any affiliation of these persons with any Hindu radical group. We are still examining, » he said. Opponents have accused Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of seeking to stoke religious tensions in order to polarise voters ahead of crucial state assembly elections in five states in next two months.
« This horrible incident is a result of the sustained communal campaign conducted by the Hindutva outfits, » a statement issued by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said.
Despite protests by the local people, the police and the BJP state government in Jharkhand have failed to protect minorities engaged in this trade, the CPI(M) statement said. A BJP state leader in Jharkhand condemned the killings. « This is an unfortunate incident. Our government will take strong action against the culprits, » said Ashok Kumar, secretary of the BJP’s Jharkhand unit. Attacks on cattle traders, who are typically from the Muslim minority that makes up 14 percent of India’s population, have been reported from several parts of India recently. Last September a man in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri village was lynched for allegedly eating beef.
From Sydney to New York, landmarks go dark for Earth Hour From Sydney’s Opera House to New York’s Empire State Building and Paris’s Eiffel tower, landmarks worldwide dimmed their lights Saturday for the 10th edition of the Earth Hour campaign against climate change.Millions of people from 178 countries and territories were expected to take part in WWF’s Earth Hour this year, organisers said, with monuments and buildings such as Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate plunging into darkness for 60 minutes from 8:30 pm local time. The annual event kicked off in Sydney, where the Earth Hour idea originated in 2007.
« We just saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge switch its lights off… and buildings around as well, » Earth Hour’s Australia manager Sam Webb told AFP from The Rocks area. Earth Hour’s global executive director Siddarth Das said organisers were excited about how much the movement had grown since it began nine years ago.
« From one city it has now grown to over 178 countries and territories and over 7,000 cities, so we couldn’t be happier about how millions of people across the world are coming together for climate action, » he told AFP from Singapore ahead of the lights out.
Over 150 buildings in Singapore dimmed their lights, while Taipei’s 101 skyscraper gradually turned lights off for one hour and the city’s four historical gates and bridges also went dark.
The lights also dimmed across Hong Kong’s usually glittering skyline, although online commentators pointed out that China’s People’s Liberation Army garrison headquarters on the harbour front kept the lights blazing.
« Imagine being the manager of the only building in a major metropolis to forget, » said one Twitter post alongside a picture of the PLA building lit up against a darkened skyline.
After Asia, Earth Hour shifted to Europe where St Peter’s Basilica, Rome’s Trevi Fountain and the Parthenon temple in Athens were among a slew of iconic sites to go off-grid. In London, the lights were shut off at the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Tower Bridge, St Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and Harrods department store.
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was plunged into darkness, as was the Kremlin in Moscow.When New York’s Empire State Building went dark, one New Yorker joked on Twitter « I was wondering why my skyline is black. »
In Chile’s capital, Santiago, the La Moneda presidential palace cut off its lighting for an hour, while in Mexico, the capital city’s Monument to the Revolution went dark as well. Meanwhile Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted a cozy photo of himself and his wife, illuminated only by candlelight, with a fireplace glowing in the background.
« We’re all on this planet together. During #EarthHour and every day thereafter, » he wrote. Earth Hour’s Das said momentum towards climate action was building in the wake of the global climate talks in Paris last year.
The so-called Paris Agreement sets the goal of limiting global warming to « well below » two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, with a more ambitious target of 1.5 C if possible.
Das said people were experiencing the impact of climate change more now than when Earth Hour began, adding that « climate change has now become a more personal topic ».
« I feel that there’s a renewed vigour among individuals and governments to come together for strong climate action and to fight climate change, » he said. Das said Earth Hour organisers did not collect global statistics on the energy conserved during the 60-minute blackout, and that the event has always had symbolic intent, saying it was more a moment of global solidarity about a global problem.
Bangladesh heist exposes Philippine dirty money secrets When mystery hackers launched a stunning raid on Bangladesh’s foreign reserves, a plot worthy of a John le Carre spy novel was sparked in the Philippines, exposing the Southeast Asian nation as a dirty money haven.
The $81 million stolen from the Bangladesh central bank’s American accounts last month was immediately sent via electronic transfer to the Philippines’ RCBC bank, with the thieves deliberately targeting their laundering location.The Philippines has some of the world’s strictest bank secrecy laws to protect account holders, while its casinos are exempt from rules altogether aimed at preventing money laundering.
« The Philippines is very attractive (for dirty money) because our laws have gaping holes. It’s easy to launder money here, » Senator Sergio Osmena, who is pushing for stronger anti-money laundering laws, told AFP.Still, if the thieves were to get away with their audacious heist, the money had to be moved quickly through the banking system and into the casinos.
And it did.
Authorities took four days to order a recall of the money.But by then it had vanished — leaving in its place a tale of death threats, bribes, shady business figures and a bank manager who could be the villain or a victim. « I did not do anything wrong. If this is a nightmare, I want to wake up now, » the manager of RCBC bank, Maia Deguito, told ABS-CBN television this week after authorities stopped her at Manila airport from trying to leave the country.
« I live everyday in fear. »With authorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere bamboozled over who masterminded the cyber-heist, Deguito’s role as manager of the bank that accepted and shifted the money has come under intense scrutiny.
She has accused the bank’s president, Lorenzo Tan, of ordering her to move the money. He has fiercely denied the accusations. Philippine senators who launched an inquiry this week into the affair are yet to determine whether she was a scapegoat or not, but are convinced she was not the mastermind. »It’s a big operation. This could not have been done out of the Philippines alone, » Senator Ralph Recto said.
The Senate inquiry and another probe by the Philippines’ Anti-Money Laundering Council have hit several major hurdles, including a security camera at the bank not working when the money was shifted.
Accusations and counter-accusations between Deguito and RCBC management have further confused investigators.
A final roadblock has emerged at the casinos, with the money apparently vanishing in mountains of gambling chips and mysterious middlemen. »Our money trail ended at the casinos, » Julia Abad, deputy director of the anti-money laundering council, told senators Tuesday.
On February 5, the same day Bangladesh Bank was hacked, the money was sent electronically to four accounts in Deguito’s RCBC branch in the financial capital of Makati, according to testimony to the Senate inquiry. Those accounts appeared to have been set up solely for that purpose because they were done using aliases, the Senate inquiry heard.
After that, the bulk of the money was transferred into accounts of a local ethnic Chinese businessmen, William Go, who has since protested his innocence. He said his signature was forged to set up the accounts.
From there, the money was briefly held by Philrem, a foreign exchange brokerage.
Philrem President Salud Bautista told the Senate inquiry $30 million went to a man named Weikang Xu.
He was described as a casino junket operator but senators have said they know little more about him other than he is of Chinese origin.The anti-money laundering council said another $29 million ended up in Solaire, a casino on a glittering Manila bayside strip that the Philippines hopes will become one of the world’s biggest gambling destinations.
That money was exchanged into chips but could only be turned back into cash after being played in the casino, its management told the Senate inquiry.
Another $21 million was sent to Eastern Hawaii Leisure, which runs a sparsely furnished casino with Chinese-only television in Santa Ana, a sleepy town in the far northern Philippines, according to the council. Senator Osmena said the case was likely just the tip of the iceberg. »This could have happened hundreds of times already, » he said. »We discovered this one only because someone complained. But normally, if a drug dealer from Burma (Myanmar) or China would send money here, no one would complain. »
Workers’ revenge on France’s richest man is feelgood cinema hit It’s the year’s least likely feelgood hit film in which the little guys take on France’s richest man and end up laughing all the way to the bank.A documentary about an unemployed middle aged couple in one of France’s poorest towns so desperately in debt that they were on the point of burning their home has been playing to packed cinemas, with audiences cheering in the aisles.
« Merci Patron! » (Thanks boss!) may sound like a film to slit your wrists to, but it has become a hilarious rallying cry for thousands of French workers who have lost their jobs — or fear losing them — to cheaper foreign labour. In the film, former textile workers Jocelyne and Serge Klur not only take on the « king of the catwalk » Bernard Arnault for « ruining their lives » by delocalising their jobs to Poland — they make him pay.
With the help of leftwing activist and film-maker Francois Ruffin they set up a sting operation to get the cash to save their home and land Serge a full-time job, running rings round Arnault’s sidekicks, including a former intelligence officer and a politician from the ruling Socialist party. In the process the couple, from the depressed Nord region close to the Belgium border where Arnault built his LVMH fashion and luxury goods empire, have become the country’s new working-class heroes.
– David and Goliath –
Protestors demonstrating against reforms of France’s labour laws have taken up the film’s title as a slogan on marches and sung its « Merci Patron! » theme song — a 1970s comic skit urging bosses and workers to swap places. The billionaire himself has remained tightlipped about the affair, with LVMH — which owns such fabled brands as Dior, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton — declining to comment to AFP. Critics however have hailed the film as a « David and Goliath stick-up that does the heart good » with Telerama calling it a « joyous thriller… with a perfect mix of humour and social comment ».
It also tops French website Allocine’s audience ratings of the best films currently on release alongside another documentary, « Demain » (Tomorrow), which showcases positive solutions to the global climate crisis. Ruffin said the film’s magic was its « liberating effect » on audiences. « When you see such an empire trembling in front of something so insignificant it has a liberating effect, » he insisted.
« People leave the cinema enthusiastic and ready to act. » Sociologist Michel Pincon said its Michael Moore-style scenario had caught the mood of a country where « people crave a little security in a world where capitalism has become more and more unbridled. » Pincon admitted that the movie’s « audiences were mostly middle class » but the debates after screenings « prove that they too are also worried for themselves and their children ».
– Beer and stinky cheese –
The film plays strongly on France’s working-class northern « Ch’ti » culture, contrasting the locals love of beer, French fries and stinky Maroilles cheese with Arnault, who owns the Moet & Chandon, Dom Perignon and Veuve Clicquot champagne houses. John Baxter, an American who saw the film in Paris, described the atmosphere in the packed cinema as « electric ».But he could never imagine a US business leader compensating former workers years after getting rid of them.
« Arnault is the bad guy of course — and the sting is at his expense — but he doesn’t come out of it all bad. He clearly has some kind of a conscience. Most American business leaders would not give these people the time of day. They would just blow them off, » he added.
Arnault sparked the wrath of the French left in 2012 when he applied for Belgian nationality after the government proposed higher taxes on the rich, prompting the Liberation newspaper to run the front page headline, « Clear off, rich loser! » Like its protagonists, the film faced an against-the-odds battle to get made, losing half of its tiny 30,000-euro ($33,000) budget when state funding was withdrawn « without explanation » at the last minute.
Journalists working at France’s highest selling national newspaper, Le Parisien — which is owned by Arnault — claimed they were banned from writing about it.
The host of a top radio show also admitted that the film’s director Ruffin was « uninvited » from his show after management intervened, apparently fearing they would lose advertising from Arnault’s businesses.But with more 120,000 people flocking to see the film on little more than word of mouth, it is now being expanded onto nine times as many screens across France.
Meanwhile, the Kenzo suits that the Klurs once made in Poix-du-Nord are now manufactured in Bulgaria after LVMH switched production from Poland after wages rose.But salaries have fallen so sharply in crisis-hit Greece that the Bulgarian factory’s owners are considering moving some operations there.
(World news summary compiled by Maghreb news staff)