Syrian opposition rejects any election-related delay to peace talks The Syrian opposition said on Sunday it rejected any attempt by the government to delay the next round of peace talks until after a parliamentary election on April 13 and urged Russia to press its ally into serious talks on a political transition. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called the election last month, in a sign of confidence reflecting his growing momentum on the battlefield after five years of civil war. Elections are held every four years and the last one was in 2012.
The two warring sides have been holding separate talks for the past week in Geneva with U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, who has said he plans to suspend them on Thursday and resume in early April. « We’re aware that the regime has asked for a two-week delay for the next round of talks. The regime is trying to evade its responsibilities and postpone negotiations, » Yahya Qadamani, deputy coordinator of the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), told a news conference in Geneva. « We insist that the next round be held on time. The regime is not entitled to impose any postponement of the next round that begins on the April 4. » « We hope that Russia uses its influence on the Assad regime to enter into serious negotiations over a political transition, » he said, making clear also that the political transition should end with the ousting of Assad.
Earlier, HNC spokesman, Salim Al-Muslat, told reporters in Geneva: « We won’t accept a postponement to hold illegitimate elections. » The HNC had not been informed by de Mistura of any delay in the next round, but would raise it with him in talks resuming on Monday, he said.Syrian government negotiators at the talks are coming under unaccustomed pressure to discuss the fate of Assad, whose departure the opposition demands.
De Mistura describes Syria’s political transition as « the mother of all issues » and after the latest week of talks, praised the opposition for the depth of their ideas, but criticised the veteran diplomats on the government side for getting bogged down.Riad Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister who leads the HNC delegation, is due in Geneva on Monday, HNC sources said.
Syria peace talks grind towards pivotal Assad question Syrian government negotiators at Geneva peace talks are coming under unaccustomed pressure to discuss something far outside their comfort zone: the fate of President Bashar al-Assad. And they are doing their best to avoid it.U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura describes Syria’s political transition as « the mother of all issues » and, emboldened by the Russian and U.S. muscle that brought the participants to the negotiating table, he refuses to drop the subject.After a week of talks in Geneva, he praised the opposition for the depth of their ideas, but criticised the veteran diplomats on the government side for getting bogged down.
« The government is currently focusing very much on principles, which are necessary in any type of common ground on the transition, » he said. « But I hope next week, and I have been saying so to them, that we will get their opinion, their details on how they see the political transition taking place. » Arguments over Assad’s fate were a major cause of the failure of previous U.N. peace efforts in 2012 and 2014 to end a civil war that has now lasted five years, killed more than 250,000 people and caused a refugee crisis. The main opposition, along with the United States and other Western nations, has long insisted any peace deal must include his departure from power, while the Syrian government and Russia have said there is no such clause in the international agreements that underwrite the peace process.
The Syrian president looked more secure than ever at the start of the latest round of talks, riding high after a Russian-backed military campaign.But Russia’s surprise withdrawal of most of its forces during the week signalled that Moscow expected its Syrian allies to take the Geneva talks seriously. And de Mistura appointed a Russian expert to sit in the negotiations with him and to advise on political issues.
Unlike previous rounds, the talks have run for a week without any hint of collapse, forcing the government delegation led by Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari to acknowledge de Mistura’s demands. Ja’afari began by giving de Mistura a document entitled « Basic elements for a political solution ».
« Approving these principles will open a serious dialogue under Syrian leadership without foreign intervention and without preconditions, » Ja’afari said on Friday, in a brief statement after the longest session of the talks so far.But officials and diplomats involved in the talks variously described the document as « very thin », « bland » and « off the point ».It listed familiar goals such as maintaining a secular state and Syria’s territorial integrity and the importance of fighting terrorism, according to sources who have read it. But it said nothing about a political transition. In sessions with de Mistura, Ja’afari has approached the negotiations as slowly as possible, reopening U.N. resolutions and going through them « by the letter », said a source with knowledge of the process.
« Mr Ja’afari is still in a kind of delusion of trying to filibuster his way out of town, or to filibuster the opposition out of town, » said a western diplomat. »He will spend every minute questioning the nature of the opposition, quibbling about the font in the agenda. » By Friday, de Mistura said Ja’afari’s team needed to go faster and couldn’t avoid the substantive question forever.
« The fact that the government delegation would like to set different rules or play with the terms of this agreement is I think a non-starter, » said opposition delegate Basma Kodmani.A diplomat involved in the peace process said Assad was not used to having to compromise, and that made Ja’afari’s negotiating position rigid. »He has to have control. If he gives up 1 percent, he loses 100 percent. He’s designed like that, » the diplomat said.
In three meetings with each side during the week, de Mistura quizzed the negotiators about their ideas, and they were also able to put questions to their rivals through him, one participant said.The U.N. mediation team spends the sessions « stripping the papers apart and delving deep into the subject and forcing them to do more homework and forcing them to give answers », said a source with knowledge of the process.The negotiators do not meet each other, but face de Mistura in a functional, windowless room with desks arranged in a square. There is space for eight or nine people around each side, but the conditions are slightly cramped, and afford no luxury beyond a plastic bottle of mineral water on each desk.
« De Mistura is dragging the regime in with his queries on their position paper, rather than allowing them to talk about what they want, » said the diplomat involved in the peace process. »The regime had in the past a bit of space to play and to manoeuvre, » he said. « The regime knows it has to come and stay but is not prepared for the idea that it has to engage the opposition. »
As Iraqi civilian rule weakens, Shi’ite clerics call the shots With Iraq’s politicians tainted by corruption and the army’s standing hurt by battlefield defeats, two Shi’ite clerics have re-emerged as leaders in matters of state. In their different ways, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, Iraq’s two most influential Shi’ite leaders, are pressuring Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to tackle graft at the heart of Iraq’s government.
The timing of their intervention is delicate.
If Abadi fails to satisfy Sistani and Sadr by delivering long-promised anti-corruption measures, his government may be weakened just as Iraqi forces are gearing up to fight for the largest city under Islamic State control – Mosul. In recent weeks both clerics have increased pressure on Abadi. Sistani signalled his displeasure in January by saying his voice had « become sore » with repeating his calls for reforms. On Feb. 5, he said he would no longer deliver weekly sermons about political affairs, and he has been only addressing religious matters since.
Sadr followed up by escalating street protests.
Unlike in neighbouring Iran « there is no role in the Iraqi constitution for the clerics, » said Sajad Jiyad, a Baghdad-based political analyst who advises the government. « They are playing an increasing role because the political class is discredited and no strongman can rise from the army like in the past. » While the two men may share a mission, their differences are stark.
Sistani is a reclusive octogenarian based in the holy city of Najaf, who has no formal political power but whose teachings command authority for millions of Shi’ites. Sistani expresses his displeasure through silence.
The 42-year-old Sadr, who rose to prominence when his Mahdi Army battled U.S. troops after the 2003 invasion, has been more direct, setting Abadi a 45-day ultimatum to deliver on his reform promises. Abadi has shown a willingness to act but has been slow to deliver. A plan to replace his ministers with independent technocrats, for example, was subsequently watered down. Sadr insists radical change is needed.After staging weekly demonstrations in Baghdad, his followers started a sit-in on Friday at the gates of Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone district that houses government offices, parliament, embassies and international organizations.Branding the district a « bastion for supporting corruption », Sadr urged his followers to remain peaceful.
Sistani’s office declined comment for this story.
A politician close to Sadr, lawmaker Dhiaa al-Asadi who heads the parliamentary bloc that supports Sadr, spoke of « an intuitive agreement » between the two clerics on reforming the state. »There’s no such direct coordination, but there is a sort of harmony because Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr…needs to make sure that whatever he pronounces doesn’t contradict with what…Grand Ayatollah Sistani wants, » said Asadi. The two clerics were communicating « from time to time » through their offices, he added.
According to Jiyad, Sistani and Sadr complement one another.
« Grand Ayotallah Sistani is reserved and has a moral and religious influence … Sadr is vocal, politically active, and can mobilise people on the ground, » he said.It is not the first time that Sistani has influenced the political agenda since the army’s collapse before Islamic State militants two years ago. He forced out prime minister Nuri al-Maliki after an eight-year premiership which alienated Sunni Muslims and saw corruption set in among senior army officers.
All it took for the Grand Ayatollah to oust Maliki was to say, in a Friday sermon delivered by one of his representatives, that politicians « should not cling to positions. » The move against Maliki, a close ally of Iran, showed Sistani’s independence from authorities in Tehran. Although of Iranian origin, he is opposed to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s concept of Velayat-e Faqih, or clerical rule. Sadr has also spent time in Iran, but is positioning himself as an embodiment of Arab Shi’ism that is more acceptable to the Sunnis as they are historically attached to the Arab world.
« Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr measures very well the relationship between Iraq and the neighbouring countries, » said lawmaker Asadi. « He is not against anybody, but he’s against corruption and whoever is the source of corruption. » The Shi’ite-led governments which have ruled Iraq over the past 12 years have failed to improve living standards substantially and the sharp fall in the price of oil – Iraq’s main revenue earner – has made those failures more acute.
Iraq, with crude oil reserves among the largest in the world, ranked 161 out of 168 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index in 2015.The parliament’s Commission of Integrity, which investigates kickbacks and bribery accusations, has said that in 2015 it handled 13,067 cases involving nearly 4,000 civil servants and government officials, of whom 18 were current or former ministers. The only former minister arrested was a Christian who held the environment portfolio.
« They kept stealing and now that the oil money is no longer enough, they turn to our pensions and salaries, » said Abu Aliaa, 67, the owner of a fruit shack in the central Karrada district, referring to a government plan to cut pay in order to plug the public deficit. « They will never be full and that’s why the protests won’t stop unless we get rid of them. » On March 10, Sadr formally announced his mission as guardian of good governance when he called on his supporters to rally in Baghdad in a statement that ended with a new title: The people’s servant and the fighter of corruption.
Abadi voiced concern that the street protests could spin out if control and put the nation’s security in danger when it needs to keep its focus on fighting Islamic State.Sadr has sought to calm fears of sectarian bloodshed of the kind that happened a decade ago, when his Mahdi Army militia was accused of forming death squads targeting Sunnis and Shi’ite opponents. « No clashes, no weapons, no cutting off roads, no assaults, no disobedience, » he told followers.
Analyst Jiyad says Sistani, who has no political ambitions, may not support Sadr in case of a further escalation on the streets. « Sistani wants change while keeping the government stable, » he said. « He won’t back Sadr should he choose to escalate street protest in a way that would threaten order or causes a vacuum. » Sadr’s protests may last until the end of March, the end of the 45-day ultimatum to Abadi to form a government made of technocrats not affiliated with political parties. Beyond that, the cleric plans to challenge the prime minister in a no- confidence vote in parliament.And although his bloc in parliament does not have a majority to vote down Abadi should the other parties support the premier, Sadr said he could easily sustain pressure on the prime minister by mobilising grassroots supporters to continue their protests, possibly to breach into the Green Zone. His followers had, he said, methods besides the sit-in that were no less effective.
Some U.S. Marines on ground in Iraq to fight Islamic – U.S. militaryA detachment of U.S.Marines is on the ground in Iraq to support U.S. and coalition efforts against Islamic State, the U.S. military said on Sunday.A group of Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, will add to the U.S. forces already in Iraq battling Islamic State, it said.The 26th MEU is currently deployed in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations, which covers the Gulf, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and parts of the Indian Ocean.
Algerian army kills militants behind Krechba gas plant attack – source Algeria’s army has killed four militants authorities believe were responsible for Friday’s attack on the Krechba gas facility operated by state oil company Sonatrach with BP and Statoil, a security source said on Sunday. Al Qaeda’s North Africa branch claimed responsibility for the rocket attack on the gas plant in central Algeria that caused no casualties or damage. BP had initially said the plant had been shut down as a safety precaution, but a top Sonatrach source said on Sunday production was unaffected by the assault.
« Output in Krechba’s site was not affected, and Sonatrach’s CEO visited the gas facility to support workers and encourage them to maintain production, » the Sonatrach source said on condition of anonymity.Algeria’s oil and gas facilities are heavily protected by the army, especially since Islamist militants killed 40 oil workers in an attack on the In Amenas gas plant near the Libyan border.An Algerian security source who also did not want to be identified told Reuters that four militants were killed and three others wounded by the army in the desert region of Ain Saleh, where Krechba is located.
The Algerian defence ministry has not yet confirmed the operation.The Krechba site produces 2 billion cubic meters of gas a year, and fields in the region of Ain Saleh produce around 9 billion cubic meters.Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has claimed several attacks across north and west Africa recently, including an assault on a resort in Ivory Coast last week that killed 18 people. The group said the attack was revenge for a French offensive against Islamist militants in the Sahel.Algeria fought a bloody civil war in the 1990s that pitted government forces against Islamists and killed 200,000 people.In recent years, the country has become an important partner in the Western campaign against Islamist militancy. The OPEC nation is also a major gas supplier to Europe.
U.N. staffers pull out of Western Sahara mission – state mediaDozens of United Nations international staffers pulled out of their Western Sahara mission on Sunday after Morocco demanded they leave because of Ban Ki-Moon’s remarks about the disputed territory, Morocco’s state news agency and a source said. MAP state news agency said a « significant number » of U.N.staffers had left Laayoune airport in U.N. aircraft and commercial flights to Las Palmas in Spain.
The source said 73 U.N. staffers had left, 10 would leave in the afternoon and one would remain for now.Rabat accused Ban earlier this month of no longer being neutral in the Western Sahara dispute.Morocco said he used the word « occupation » to describe its annexation of the region at the centre of a struggle since 1975, when Morocco took over from colonial power Spain.
Tunisia dissident forms own political partyA dissident member of the Nidaa Tounes party founded by Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on Sunday launched his own political grouping, several months after quitting the party.
Mohsen Marzouk, former Nidaa Tounes general secretary, announced in front of thousands of supporters the creation of the Tounes Movement Project with policies based on those of Habib Bourguiba who led the North African country to independence.The new party also opposes the moderate Islamist Ennahda, which became the largest group in parliament after 22 lawmakers quit Nidaa Tounes in January.Nidaa Tounes had already been weakened by the departure of Essebsi, in line with the constitution, after he was elected president in December 2014. »Our party is open to women and young people and we call on them to participate actively in political life and to assume major responsibilities, » said the new party’s charter distributed to reporters.
Nidaa Tounes had been riven by bad blood between Marzouk and the president’s son, Hafedh Caid Essebsi, in what insiders said was a battle for succession.The crisis came to a head at the end of October last year after accusations that Essebsi supporters wielding sticks had blocked rival party members from a meeting of its executive committee.Nidaa Tounes was created in 2012 and included political personalities from the left and centre right, as well as former officials of the regime of ousted strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.Nidaa Tounes now has only 64 MPs as against 69 for Ennahda.
Turkey says Istanbul suicide bomber was member of Islamic State A Turkish member of the Islamic State militant group was responsible for Saturday’s suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed three Israelis and an Iranian, Turkey’s interior minister said.The attack in Istiklal Street, Istanbul’s most popular shopping distict, is the fourth such bombing in Turkey this year and the second one by Islamist militants. In January a suicide bomber blew himself up in Istanbul’s historic heart, killing 12 German tourists.
NATO-member Turkey is on heightened alert after the bombings, which have killed more than 80 people. A soccer match between Istanbul rivals Fenerbahce and Galatasaray was cancelled on Sunday and the stadium evacuated on what appeared to be a security threat.Interior Minister Efkan Ala identified Saturday’s bomber as a man from a southern Turkish province, adding that five people had been detained so far in connection with the blast.
« We have determined that Mehmet Ozturk, born in 1992 in Gaziantep, has carried out the heinous attack on Saturday in Istanbul. It has been established that he is a member of Daesh, » Ala told a news conference broadcast live on television, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.Israel has confirmed that three of its citizens died in the blast. Two of them held dual citizenship with the United States.An Iranian was also killed, Turkish officials have said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is trying to determine whether its citizens were deliberately targeted. Eleven of the 36 wounded were Israelis.In his first public appearance since the bombing, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would not give in to militants. »We will never surrender to the agenda of terror. We will defeat the terrorist organisations and the powers behind them by looking after the unity of our nation, » he said. As part of a U.S.-led coalition, Turkey is fighting Islamic State in neighbouring Syria and Iraq. It is also battling Kurdish militants in its southeast, where a 2-1/2-year ceasefire collapsed last July, triggering the worst violence since the 1990s. The spate of bombings has raised questions about its ability to protect itself from a spillover of both the Syria and Kurdish conflicts.An offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for two recent car bomb attacks in the capital Ankara that killed a total of 66 people. Turkey sees the Kurdish insurgency as fuelled by the territorial gains of Kurdish militia fighters in northern Syria.
Police were questioning the father and brother of the alleged bomber Ozturk and had determined his identity by checking a DNA sample from the blast scene against one taken from his father, security sources said.
Ozturk’s family reported him missing after he went to Istanbul in 2013, the security sources said. Police were on also on alert due to concerns about potential clashes between security forces and Kurdish militants during a spring festival this weekend that is widely celebrated by Kurds.The United States and some European embassies had warned their citizens to be vigilant before the Newroz celebrations.
Interior Minister Ala said authorities had put 200,000 members of the police and gendarmerie on duty, some of whom would set up checkpoints. Hundreds of bomb control devices had also been dispatched. But he acknowledged the difficulty of catching lone suicide bombers. »We have to take all measures to prevent any terrorist acts, » he said. « But sometimes there are suicide bombings that are hard to prevent. » ‘WE ARE HERE’ Streets across the city, usually bustling with traffic and pedestrians on Sundays, were eerily quiet apart from the sound of police helicopters buzzing overhead.
Although Istiklal was quiet earlier in the day it was no longer deserted by afternoon. Crowds gathered at a makeshift memorial at the site of the bombing, where mourners laid carnations next to handwritten signs that read: « We are here. We are not afraid. » Ahmet Merkit, who was carrying a Turkish flag near the site of the blast, described the bombing as an attack against all Turks. « Those who did this cannot call themselves Muslims. They have no religion, » he said. « We must remain a democratic society. We are a nation that has never surrendered, we will not surrender now to terrorism. » Dutch Consul General Robert Schuddeboom, who had come to lay flowers at the site, said there could be more such attacks.
« With terrorism, even the best of security agencies and the best of information cannot prevent it from happening… The general analysis is that we can expect more attacks, » he said.Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook were not readily accessible, local users reported. Authorities have blocked access after past bombings, usually because graphic images have been shared online.It was not immediately clear whether Germany, which closed its diplomatic missions and German schools last week citing a security threat, would open them on Monday. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said the decision would be made at short notice.
EU-Turkey deal fails to stem refugee flight to GreeceThey waved, cheered and smiled, elated to have made it to Europe at dawn on Sunday in a packed blue rubber motor boat. The 50 or so refugees and migrants were among the first to arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos on day one of an EU deal with Turkey designed to close the route by which a million people crossed the Aegean Sea to Greece in 2015.Exhausted but relieved, the new arrivals wrapped their wet feet in thermal blankets as volunteers handed out dry clothes and supplies.
Reuters witnesses saw three boats arrive within an hour in darkness in the early hours of Sunday. Two men were pulled out unconscious from one of the boats amid the screams of fellow passengers and were later pronounced dead.
Twelve boats had arrived on the shoreline near the airport by 6 a.m. (0400 GMT), a police official said. A government account put the number of arrivals across Greece in the past 24 hours at 875 people.Under the European Union deal with Turkey, all migrants and refugees, including Syrians, who cross to Greece illegally by sea from March 20 will be sent back to Turkey once they are registered and their asylum claims have been processed.
That is expected to take effect from April 4, by which time Greece must have in place a fast-track process for assessing asylum claims. The EU has pledged to help Greece set up a task force of some 4,000 staff, including judges, interpreters, border guards and others to manage each case individually. « The agreement comes into effect from today. Greek authorities have done whatever is necessary and will continue to do what it promised, » George Kyritsis, a government spokesman for the refugee crisis, told Reuters.
« Other parties (to the agreement) should also do their part, » he said, referring to Greece’s EU partners and Turkey.
In return, the EU will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with more money, early visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations. Among the early morning arrivals on the seaweed strewn beach on the south of Lesbos was Syrian Hussein Ali Muhammad, whose studies were interrupted after the war began. He said he wanted to go to Denmark to continue university. Asked if he was aware of the European decision, he said: « I know that. I hope to cross these borders. I hope I complete my studies here (in Europe), just this. I don’t want money, I just want to complete my studies. This is my message. » Muhammed, who worked odd jobs in Turkey to pay a smuggler to bring him across, said he did not want to go back.
« I worked very, very hard in Turkey, I collected the money to come here … It’s very dangerous and not good. » Another arrival, 30-year-old computer engineer Mohammed from Daraa in Syria, said he hoped to stay in Greece until he found a way to be reunited with his wife and son in Germany. « I know the decision. I hope to (meet with) my wife and children, » he said.Doubts remain about whether the deal is legal or workable. It was not clear what would happen to the tens of thousands of migrants and refugees already in Greece.It was too early to say if the deal would be effective, a senior coastguard official said. « We haven’t yet seen the terms of the deal properly, » said Antonis Sofiadelis, head of the coastguard operations on Lesbos.
« But if returns begin I believe it will act as a deterrent. They (migrants) won’t want to pay $1,000-2,000 to a smuggler.Everything depends on whether Turkey implements its part of the deal.
« What we’re doing on our part is boosting the asylum process. » Authorities in Lesbos began removing refugees and migrants from the island on Saturday to make space for new arrivals. The island has a capacity to host 3,500 people at a place set up to register arrivals.At least 144,000 people, mostly Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, have arrived in Greece so far in 2016 according to U.N. refugee agency data. About 60 percent were women and children. Of those people, more than half landed on Lesbos, the island on the frontline of Europe’s biggest migration crisis since World War Two.Few, if any, had planned to stay in the country, seeking instead a route to northern Europe where more support and jobs are available than in Greece, which is in the grip of an economic crisis.But border closures along the main route north through the Balkans have meant at least 48,000 people are stranded in Greece, in camps and ports across the country. About 12,000 people remain at a squalid tent camp near the Macedonian border hoping to cross.
EU-Turkey deal could see Kurds moving to Germany en masse – German conservativeA prominent figure in the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives said on Sunday a deal between the European Union and Turkey to halt illegal immigration to Europe could lead to Kurds heading to Germany en masse.The deal agreed on Friday envisages Turkey taking back all illegal migrants who cross the Aegean Sea to Greece, while the EU accepts an equal number of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and gives the Turks funds, visa-free travel rights and accelerated EU membership negotiations.
« It could ultimately lead to more immigration, especially if you take visa freedom into account. Many, many Kurds fleeing the Turkish government could come to Germany, » Markus Soeder, a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU) and finance minister for the state of Bavaria, told German public broadcaster ZDF.The Turkish government has banned the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in the southeast and is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
CSU leader Horst Seehofer told newspaper Bild am Sonntag the deal between the EU and Turkey was « not a breakthrough, but rather an intermediate step on the way to a sustainable European solution » and added there was a danger of Germany bearing the greatest burden for taking in refugees again.He said the CSU, which has long been sceptical of Ankara’s bid to join the EU, would not agree to giving Turkey full EU membership or complete visa freedom because that would « import Turkey’s domestic problems to Germany ».
Merkel ally says Germany has changed course in refugee crisisGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has done an about-turn on its refugee policy and has gradually shifted away from its welcoming culture, the leader of her Bavarian allies told a newspaper.Merkel opened Germany’s borders to refugees last summer and at that time Germans applauded newcomers arriving at the train station in Munich but, as the mood towards migrants has shifted, she has stressed that the number coming needs to be reduced.
« The federal government has completely changed its refugee policy, even if it does not admit that, » Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), told Bild am Sonntag. »There has been a creeping withdrawal from the unconditional welcoming culture. Despite the images from the Greek-Macedonian border no German politician today says: ‘The borders are open, let everyone come to Germany’, » he added. Some 1.1 million refugees came to Germany in 2015.A senior member of the opposition Greens, Anton Hofreiter, also accused Merkel of changing tack, telling Rheinische Post newspaper the chancellor had « given up her humanitarian approach » by supporting a deal between the European Union and Turkey that aims to stop illegal migration flows to Europe.
Bavarian premier Seehofer has insisted the country should cap the number of refugees it accepts at 200,000 per year – a demand Merkel has rejected as she bets instead on a European solution to the crisis.He said the fact the number of refugees coming to Germany had now fallen was solely due to other countries seeking to reduce the influx but that could not be the ultimate solution.
Still, it would mean that his suggested cap of 200,000 probably would not even be reached this year, he added. Merkel’s CDU, and the CSU, which takes a tougher line on immigration, have repeatedly clashed on how to tackle the migrant crisis and the conflict has escalated in recent days, with a senior CSU lawmaker causing upset by calling for all CDU members who sympathised with Merkel’s refugee policies to leave her party and join the left-leaning Social Democrats and Greens.
Bild cited sources within the conservative faction as saying senior members of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group would meet in the second week of April to consult on a joint strategy in the refugee crisis.Seehofer said the Bundestag lower house of parliament should be given the chance to vote on the EU-Turkey cooperation deal as well as on the government’s refugee policy in general.
A survey for magazine Der Spiegel showed around two-thirds of Germans were unhappy with Merkel’s refugee policy.Deputy Finance Minister and senior CDU member Jens Spahn, a vocal critic of Merkel’s refugee policy, told the same magazine his party had « perhaps put too much emphasis on the humanitarian approach ».He said the policy of waving people across the borders had given the impression that all people had to do was board a boat to Europe and they would end up in Germany, Austria or Sweden, adding: « We should have said earlier: ‘That’s not how it works’. »
Thinker, soldier, business boss many faces of Germany’s anti-immigrant AfD A car radiator repair boss, a longtime soldier and an economics professor – they are unlikely bedfellows leading the charge of an anti-immigration party that has come from nowhere to disrupt the cosy, stable world of German coalition government.
Andre Poggenburg, Uwe Junge and Joerg Meuthen steered the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to big gains in three regional elections last weekend as voters disenchanted with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal migrant policy turned to them in droves.
It was partly a measure of success of the three-year-old party’s strategy of offering up leaders from diverse walks of life to woo voters across the social spectrum. Poggenburg who campaigned in a poor eastern state saw himself as championing the « non-academic », for example, while Meuthen delighted in debating the finer points of the German constitution in the richer west. About three-quarters of Germans now expect the right-wing party to win its first seats in the national parliament in a general election next year, a survey by YouGov showed on Friday. The rise of the AfD followed gains by other European anti-immigrant parties including France’s National Front, and has punctured the centrist consensus around which the mainstream parties have formed alliances in Germany. It added pressure on Merkel to find a solution to Europe’s refugee crisis.Yet immigration was not even on Poggenburg’s mind when he joined the party in 2013. He says his main concern was that a distant elite in Berlin was deciding on bailouts for crisis-stricken euro zone states over ordinary Germans’ heads.Now the AfD leader in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt feels the same about the refugee crisis and is angry the government has let in so many migrants – over a million arrived last year – without consulting German citizens.
« The borders were flung open and now everyone is being forced to pay the price socially and financially while suffering from a loss of domestic security, » said the 41-year-old, who grew up in the former Communist East Germany and runs a business repairing car radiators and heat exchangers. »Everyone is now expected to stump up for a decision they didn’t even make, » he told Reuters.Poggenburg secured a record 24.2 percent of the vote for the party in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt in last weekend’s election, making it the second-biggest force there behind Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU).
He plans later this month to close his company after around two decades and devote himself to politics full-time.Poggenburg said he could never have imagined working for a political party a few years back because there was not one where he felt at home. But in the run-up to the 2013 federal election, the AfD, which campaigned against the euro and bailouts, caught his eye.
Poggenburg, who joined the party in autumn 2013, has said he sees himself as representing its patriotic, non-academic and self-employed members.
The party’s support was stronger in Saxony-Anhalt, where unemployment is running at 9.8 percent, than in the richer western states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate.
« If someone says we’ve got high unemployment and we couldn’t invest here or there … and then all of a sudden there’s enough money to finance a multi-cultural experiment, of course people will say ‘we’ve had enough, it can’t go on like this and we want a party that tackles this problem’, » Poggenburg said.
His story is rather different to that of 58-year-old Junge, the AfD’s frontman in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, where the party got 12.6 percent of votes.
A lieutenant colonel who served twice in Afghanistan, Junge was born in western Germany after, near the end of World War Two, his parents and grandparents fled their homes in an area that then belonged to Germany, but is now part of Poland, as Russian troops advanced.
His grandparents often told him stories of relatives being killed or injured and they never got over leaving their property behind so he says he grew up with their « trauma of death, wounds and the loss of home ».
A CDU member for 34 years until 2009 who says his role model is former West German Social Democrat Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Junge told Reuters he was concerned that migrants would push up German unemployment and weaken the health system.Some other party leaders, particularly in the east, have prompted public outrage with their comments on the refugee crisis.Alexander Gauland, a trained lawyer with a penchant for tweed jackets who leads the AfD in Brandenburg, has compared refugees to barbarians who invaded the Roman Empire and said Germany should not be « blackmailed by children’s eyes ».And trained teacher Bjoern Hoecke, the AfD’s leader in the eastern state of Thuringia, said evolution had given Europe and Africa two different « reproduction strategies », with the African one « aiming for the highest possible growth rate ».
Political scientist Hajo Funke, an expert on the far-right, said the AfD contained radical right-wing members as well as people who did not see themselves that way.
« That’s why the AfD is playing it both ways – showing ‘we’re moderate’ and ‘we’re not’ – so it has attracted two groups: people protesting as they’re unhappy with government policy, especially on refugees, and others who get incited to unleash their resentment. » For Germans who find the likes of Gauland and Hoecke too extreme, more moderate voices have been presented.Chief among them is Meuthen, a 54-year-old bespectacled economics professor and twice-married father-of-five who is Catholic and goes to church when he can.
A polished speaker, Meuthen responded with aplomb to questions on the details of Germany’s constitution at a recent rally in Baden-Wuerttemberg, a wealthy southwestern state that is home to luxury carmakers Daimler and Porsche and where the AfD won 15.1 percent of the vote last weekend.A regional government economics specialist turned university professor, he closely watched the euro zone crisis unfold and thought the rescue packages breached the EU’s no-bailout clause.Meuthen decided to join a party for the first time after watching the AfD’s founder – also an economics professor – on television on the evening of the party’s debut, and failed, federal election campaign in 2013.
He has since become the AfD’s little-known co-chairman, overshadowed by his colleague Frauke Petry, who has suggested migrants entering Germany illegally should be shot if necessary.It’s difficult to imagine Meuthen saying such a thing. When he told Reuters about the need to deport economic refugees, he stressed that deportation was « not a nice process ».He added: « The people who are all coming to our country now are only doing what we would do in their situation so we mustn’t blame them. »
Don’t turn backs on refugees, pope says at Palm Sunday servicePope Francis, leading the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in Palm Sunday services leading up to Easter, on Sunday criticised those who he said were washing their hands of the fate of desperate refugees.Francis blessed palm and olive branches in St. Peter’s Square before tens of thousands of people to commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem the week before the crowd turned against him and he was crucified.
He departed from his prepared homily to appeal to nations not to turn their backs on refugees. After mentioning the part of the gospel recounting how Jesus was denied justice and abandoned to his fate, Francis added in unscripted remarks: « I am thinking of so many other people, so many marginalised people, so many asylum seekers, so many refugees. There are so many who don’t want to take responsibility for their destiny. » Over 1.1 million migrants fleeing war and failed states flowed into the European Union in 2015 and the influx has continued, prompting countries straddling the main migration corridor through the Balkans to the wealthy north of the EU to seal their borders, trapping tens of thousands in Greece.
Last week, Macedonia trucked 1,500 migrants back to Greece after they forced their way across the border. Images of exhausted migrants fording a fast-moving stream in the cold were splashed across Italian newspapers. Under a European Union deal reached last week with Turkey, all migrants and refugees, including Syrians, who cross to Greece illegally by sea will be sent back to Turkey once they are registered and their asylum claims have been processed.
In return, the EU will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with more money, early visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations.
Palm Sunday marks the start of the busiest week in the Catholic liturgical calendar.Francis has two events on Holy Thursday, including a ritual where he washes and kisses the feet of 12 people commemorating Christ’s gesture of humility towards his apostles on the night before he died.The pope presides at two services on Good Friday, including a candlelight Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession around Rome’s Colosseum.He leads an Easter vigil service on Saturday and on Easter Sunday he delivers his twice-yearly « Urbi et Orbi » (to the city and the world) blessing and message from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Iran’s leader says US still hostile after nuclear dealThe United States is still fundamentally hostile to Iran and its policies have undermined the benefits of sanctions relief, the Islamic Republic’s hardline leader said on Sunday, warning Iranians not to trust their old enemy.Ringing in a new Iranian year at a televised rally in the Shi’ite holy city of Mashhad, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said fear of U.S. regulations was keeping big foreign companies, particularly in the financial sector, away from Iran.
The uncompromising stance of Iran’s most senior figure poses a challenge to President Hassan Rouhani, the architect of last year’s nuclear deal who hopes to open Iran’s economy to the world. In keeping with the deal, many international sanctions on Iran were lifted in January. Since then foreign business delegations have flocked to Tehran and billions of dollars of deals have been signed.But European banks and other companies have stayed away, largely due to remaining U.S. sanctions. That, Khamenei said, was a sign that Iran should be economically self-reliant because the U.S. and its allies were not reliable partners.
« In Western countries and places which are under U.S. influence, our banking transactions and the repatriation of our funds from their banks face problems … because (banks) fear the Americans, » he said. »The U.S. Treasury … acts in such a way that big corporations, big institutions and big banks do not dare to come and deal with Iran, » Khamenei said. The Central Bank of Iran has also said remaining U.S. sanctions have scared off European firms.To drive the point home, the stage on which Khamenei sat carried a giant banner reading « the year of the Resistance Economy: Action and Implementation », his chosen slogan for the Iranian year 1395 that began on Sunday.
In a video message earlier, Rouhani said further engagement with other countries was the key to economic growth, a view that has put him increasingly at odds with Khamenei, who outranks him. « I am sure that with cooperation and effort inside the country, and constructive engagement with the world, our economy can bloom and develop, » Rouhani said.The president’s allies made gains in parliamentary elections last month that could help him push through reforms in support of a more open economy. But Khamenei and his conservative allies have the power to block new legislation.Khamenei, a 76-year-old cleric, also urged the young men in the crowd not to forget Iran’s revolutionary history, which he said was proof that the Islamic Republic could stand on its own and that foreign powers were not to be trusted.
He saw evidence of institutional hostility towards Iran in the U.S. presidential election, saying the candidates had « competed to vilify Iran in their speeches ».He also said the United States had no business trying to stop Iran developing its defensive capabilities, including missiles, or carrying out military drills. »America is thousands of kilometres away from the Persian Gulf and conducts exercises there with regional countries …but if we have exercises in our own security realm they protest loudly, » he said.
Belgium says captured Paris suspect may have planned more attacks The prime surviving suspect in the Paris attacks may have been plotting more operations with the help of a weapons cache and a network of associates, Belgium’s foreign minister said on Sunday. Didier Reynders, speaking two days after the capture of Salah Abdeslam, said the suspect’s first statement to a magistrate in Brussels suggested further attacks were planned. »He was ready to restart something from Brussels, » Reynders told a think-tank event. « That is maybe the reality, because we have found a lot of heavy weapons and we have seen a new network around him. » Reynders said Belgium and France had so far found around 30 people involved in the gun and bomb attacks that killed 130 people on Nov. 13 in bars, a sports stadium and a concert hall in the French capital.
Capturing Abdeslam alive marks a breakthrough for authorities investigating the deadliest militant strikes in Europe since 2004. Islamic State has claimed responsibility, and the United States warned on Sunday that it would try to repeat such atrocities.
The 26-year-old French national told a Belgian magistrate on Saturday he had planned to take part in the stadium attack. The admission was disclosed to reporters by the lead French investigator, Francois Molins. At a Paris news conference on Saturday, Molins read from Abdeslam’s statement, saying: « He wanted to blow himself up at the Stade de France and, I quote, backed out. » Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary said on Sunday he would sue Molins for making the comment public, calling it a violation of judicial confidentiality.
« I cannot let this pass, » Mary told Belgian state broadcaster RTBF. Mary’s office was not available for comment, but RTBF said he would start legal proceedings on Monday. Abdeslam, who was shot in the leg and caught by police in Brussels after an intense four-month manhunt, spent his first night in a high security prison in the northwestern Belgian city of Bruges. He is due to appear before a judge in Brussels on Wednesday.
« Our investigation must show how he managed to hide from police and security forces, » Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told European broadcaster RTL. Belgium’s federal prosecutor has said the fugitive relied on a network of friends and relatives involved in drug dealing and petty crime.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said the United States was working closely with European authorities to ensure they had the necessary training and intelligence to be able to prevent another Paris-style attack. « They say they intend to do this again, so we take that very seriously, and we are trying to draw lessons from what happened on that terrible night in Paris, » McDonough told the Fox News Sunday television program.Belgian prosecutors have charged Abdeslam and a man arrested with him with « participation in terrorist murder ».
Abdeslam’s lawyer said his client admitted being in Paris during the attacks but would fight extradition to France. His elder brother Brahim, with whom he used to run a bar, was among the suicide bombers.Authorities hope the arrest may help disrupt other militant cells that Michel said were at large. »There is a real threat. There are many, many people in Europe who have been radicalised, who are both from Syrian war zones and those who have grown up among us. There is a colossal amount of intelligence work to do, » Michel said.
French prime minister says 600-plus people have left France for Syria or IraqMore than 600 people have now left France for Syria and Iraq, with about 800 more wanting to leave to join Islamic State (IS), Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday. The figures show little respite in the number of people joining the jihadist group despite multiple bombing campaigns against IS strongholds and a crackdown by French authorities to prevent people from leaving the country after two major attacks in France during last year. »We are in a battle on our soil, » Valls said in a speech to Socialist party supporters.
« Each day (we) … trace networks, locate cells, arrest individuals. Today 2029 French citizens or residents are implicated in jihad networks. » European governments have been tightening anti-terrorism laws as the Syrian conflict enters its sixth year, agreeing to share more intelligence and taking down radical websites to try to stop their citizens from going to fight in the Middle East and bringing militancy home.Breaking down the figures, Valls said 609 people who are French nationals or have French resident’s status are currently among fighters, including 283 women and 18 minors. Almost 170 have been killed while in Syria or Iraq and 300 have returned to France from those countries.
« Almost 800 would today like to go to these wars zones, according to intelligence services, » Valls said, adding that 1,000 people are being monitored closely.In February 2015, only weeks after an attack in Paris that killed 17 people, Valls said there were 1,400 French citizens or residents linked to jihadist networks, with 410 present in Syria and Iraq and about 80 killed on the ground.
Paris fugitive helped more by friends and neighbours than Islamic State After the Paris attacks, security forces searched far and wide for prime suspect Salah Abdeslam, who vanished after returning to Brussels, believing Islamic State could have spirited him away to Turkey, Syria or Morocco.
It appears Europe’s most wanted man never left the Belgian capital. And it was family, friends and petty criminals who helped him evade a manhunt for four months before he was arrested on Friday in the neighbourhood he grew up in, not far from his parents’ home.As security services seek to understand how Islamic State operates in Europe to prevent more attacks, Abdeslam’s case highlights the difficulty of tracking suspects who can rely on the protection of community networks, many of which do not involve religious radicals and are not on the police radar. »Abdeslam relied on a large network of friends and relatives that already existed for drug dealing and petty crime to keep him in hiding, » Belgium’s federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said of the only surviving suspect of the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.
« This was about the solidarity of neighbours, families, » Van Leeuw told public broadcaster RTBF, speaking about Abdeslam’s ability to hide for so long despite 24,000 calls from the public to a Belgian police hotline seeking information about the suspected attackers.Abdeslam may have been hidden in the basement of an apartment of the mother of a friend with no links to militants, Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique reported on Sunday.
Such friendships, not Islamic State operatives, proved crucial from the start for Abdeslam, who ran a bar in Molenbeek with his brother, which was a nexus of social life for young Arab men with little interest in the mosque but was shut down shortly before the attacks for being a hub for drug dealing.Abdeslam relied on two friends to drive him back to Brussels after his brother Brahim blew himself up at a Paris cafe. Others drove him around Molenbeek and its environs between safe houses. Police, who were eventually able to move in to seize him at a house in the rundown North African neighbourhood of Molenbeek, have charged a man and a women whom they suspect of being part of a family who harboured the fugitive.
While Abdeslam’s networks were not infallible – his call to an acquaintance for help looking for a new hiding place let police finally locate him – they were formidable.Few residents would talk to Reuters about Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French citizen raised by Moroccan-born parents in Molenbeek, on the poorer side of the city’s industrial-era canal. Most of those that did said he was a likeable guy who was known in the area.Dominique, who ran a newsagents close to where Abdeslam was arrested, described him as « a very nice boy » who showed no signs of becoming a radical. Abdeslam did not fight in Syria. »I won’t say he was normal because everyone always say that, but he had a nice manner, he wasn’t aggressive, » said Molenbeek resident Pierre, in his 50s.
But another Molenbeek resident, Henri, meanwhile warned that Abdeslam was not the only one attracted by radicalism in the area. « It’s not over, » he said. « There are a lot of them. » Western fighters in Syria and Iraq have found some of their most willing recruits in Belgium, partly because of the frustration many jobless young men feel in the marginalised quarters of Brussels – just a few kilometres from the wealth and power of the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, but effectively a world away. Belgium has supplied the highest per capita number of fighters to Syria of any European nation. More than 300 Belgians have gone to take up arms in Syria and Iraq, according to an estimate from the Brussels-based Egmont think-tank.Radicals such as another Molenbeek man Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected planner of the Paris attacks who was killed by French police late last year, posted internet videos of his exploits as a foreign fighter in Syria.
But while three of the Paris attacks suspects grew up in Brussels, not all radicalised Belgian militants head for Syria.They are part of « networks and accomplices » who have not attracted police attention, according to Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders and who vowed to extend surveillance.Some sell drugs and weapons in an area where locals have a reputation for not cooperating with police, doing only part-time work for Islamic State such as recruiting fighters to go to Syria and helping to plan attacks, Belgian prosecutors said.
That would suggest police work cannot be focused simply on city mosques or monitoring social media and intercepting intelligence from militants in Syria and Iraq. « I don’t think Daesh is giving orders 24 hours a day. That would make it too easy for us, » said prosecutor Van Leeuw, referring to the militant group by its Arabic acronym. « People work freelance. » Such complexity has prompted European police chiefs to urge governments to focus on the links between political militants and organised crime – noting, for example, that financing for militant groups has often come from drug dealing and racketeering while established crime gangs probably supplied the Kalashnikovs favoured in recent IS attacks.
Counter-terrorism expert Rik Coolsaet said that spotting Islamic State recruits in Europe was also becoming more difficult because, unlike in the past, youngsters were less likely to be pious conservatives but rather secular rebels who feel they have no part in society and are disillusioned by a perceived lack of opportunity.Following the worst financial crisis in a generation and with few of the lower-skilled jobs their parents’ generation enjoyed in Belgian car factories and coal mines remaining, there is a « no-future atmosphere » said Coolsaet, from the Egmont think-tank. »Joining Islamic State opens a thrilling, bigger-than-life dimension to their way of life. For most of them it is akin to street gangs, drug trafficking, juvenile delinquency, » he said.
« A journey to Utopia. »
Biden says Israel settlements raise questions about commitment to peaceU.S. Vice President Joe Biden called on Israel’s government on Sunday to demonstrate its commitment to a two-state solution to end the conflict with the Palestinians and said settlement expansion is weakening prospects for peace.
« Israel’s government’s steady and systematic process of expanding settlements, legalizing outposts, seizing land, is eroding in my view the prospect of a two-state solution, » Biden said in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a leading pro-Israel lobbying group.Biden said he did not agree with Israel President Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that expanded settlements would not interfere with any effort to settle the conflict.
« Bibi (Netanyahu) thinks it can be accommodated, and I believe he believes it. I don’t, » Biden said.Biden said the region instead seems to be moving toward a one-state solution, which he termed dangerous. »There is no political will at this moment among Israelis or Palestinians to move forward with serious negotiations. And that’s incredibly disappointing, » Biden said.
Israel says it intends to keep large settlement blocs in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Palestinians, who seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say they fear Israeli settlement expansion will deny them a viable country.Palestinians have cited Israeli settlement activity as one of the factors behind the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in 2014, and a surge of violence over the past five months has dimmed hopes negotiations could be revived any time soon. « We’ve stressed to both parties the need to take meaningful steps to demonstrate their commitment to a two-state solution that extends beyond mere words, » Biden said. »There’s got to be a little ‘show-me.’ This cannot continue to erode, » he said.Biden was cheered for criticizing what he called Palestinian actions at the United Nations to undermine Israel, and he said changes in the region, including the united fight against Islamic State militants, could help thaw relations between Israel and its neighbors.
Israel and the United States are also in talks on a generous military assistance agreement, he said. »It will, without a doubt, be the most generous security assistance package in the history of the United States, » Biden said of a pact expected to be worth billions of dollars annually to the Jewish state, the largest recipient of such U.S.assistance.
France’s Le Pen criticizes Canadian immigration, refugee policy French right-wing politician Marine Le Pen, who is touring the Canadian province of Quebec, said on Sunday the country’s immigration policy was on the « wrong path, » at an event where one of her bodyguards reportedly struck a protester.
The Canadian Press news agency reported the Front National leader’s remarks at a news conference in Quebec City.Le Pen and her party could not immediately be reached for comment. Quebec police were at the scene but made no arrests, they said.The Huffington Post posted a video of the event, which showed a man hitting another in the face. It said the Canadian Press identified the attacker as a bodyguard of Le Pen.
Le Pen also said that if her party were to take power in France, it would recognize Quebec as a sovereign state, the Canadian Press reported.Le Pen began a six-day trip to the largely French-speaking province on Friday. Her party strongly opposes immigration and has been criticized as xenophobic. Quebec political leaders, including those from the separatist Parti Qu?b?cois, have declined to meet with her.
In an interview with Canada’s French La Presse newspaper published on Sunday, she labeled Canada’s decision last year to admit 25,000 Syrian refugees as « insanity. » Le Pen has sought to make the National Front more mainstream after taking over its leadership from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen. She had him expelled last year for renewing past declarations playing down the Nazi Holocaust.The elder Le Pen has also endorsed Donald Trump. The Republican U.S. presidential candidate on Sunday declined to condemn supporters who had attacked protesters at his increasingly chaotic rallies.
Obama cheered in Havana at start of historic visit to CubaPresident Barack Obama arrived to small but cheering crowds on Sunday at the start of a historic visit to Cuba that opened a new chapter in U.S.engagement with the island’s Communist government after decades of hostility between the former Cold War foes. The three-day trip, the first by a U.S. president to Cuba in 88 years, is the culmination of a diplomatic opening announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in December 2014, ending an estrangement that began when the Cuban revolution ousted a pro-American government in 1959.
« It’s a historic opportunity to engage directly with the Cuban people, » Obama told staff at the newly reopened U.S.Embassy who were gathered at a hotel, his first stop after arriving in the afternoon.
Groups of Cubans watched the motorcade from balconies and backyards as Obama was driven downtown, where a small crowd of Cubans braved a tropical downpour and tight security. They chanted: « Viva Obama, Viva Fidel, » as the president and his family left after eating dinner in a rundown neighborhood.Obama, who abandoned a longtime U.S. policy of trying to isolate Cuba, wants to make his policy shift irreversible even if a Republican wins the White House in the Nov. 8 election.But major obstacles remain to full normalization of ties, and the Democratic president’s critics say the visit is premature. U.S. officials concede the trip may not yield immediate concessions from Cuba on rights and economic freedom.
On Sunday, one bystander shouted: « Down with the blockade, » in reference to the U.S. embargo in place for 54 years that remains the top irritant for Cubans. Obama, who responded to the shout by raising his right hand, has asked Congress to rescind the embargo but has been blocked by the Republican leadership.
Underscoring the ideological divide that persists between Washington and Havana, Cuban police, backed by hundreds of pro-government demonstrators, broke up the regular march of a leading dissident group, the Ladies in White, detaining about 50 people just hours before Obama arrived. Obama arrived at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport in Air Force One, the presidential jet with « United States of America » emblazoned across its fuselage, a sight almost unimaginable not long ago on the island, just 90 miles (145 km) off the coast of Florida.He was met by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the top Cuban official present. The formal welcoming ceremony will be on Monday when Obama meets the Cuban president at the presidential palace.
U.S. officials appeared unfazed by Castro’s absence from the airport welcome, even though he personally met and greeted Pope Francis in September. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump tweeted that Obama’s visit was a « big deal » but that he got « no respect. » Obama will hold talks with Castro – but not his brother Fidel, the revolutionary leader – and speak to entrepreneurs on Monday. He meets privately with dissidents, addresses Cubans live on state-run media and attends an exhibition baseball game on Tuesday.
The trip carries both symbolism and substance after decades of hostility between Washington and Havana.
Traveling with first lady Michelle Obama, her mother and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, Obama took in the sights of the colonial-era neighborhood and was given a tour of Havana’s 18th century cathedral by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who played a role in secret talks that led to the rapprochement 15 months ago.
The Obamas dined at the San Cristobal restaurant, run by an Afro-Cuban as part of a cautious opening to private enterprise since Fidel Castro handed power to his brother in 2008. The trip makes Obama the first sitting American president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge arrived on a battleship in 1928 and may help chip away at barriers to U.S.-Cuba trade and travel.
Since rapprochement, the two sides have restored diplomatic ties and signed commercial deals on telecommunications and scheduled airline service.
Obama has used executive authority to loosen trade and travel restrictions to advance his outreach to Cuba, one of his top foreign policy priorities along with the Iran nuclear deal. Cuba still complains about U.S. control of the naval base at Guantanamo Bay under a 1934 lease agreement that Havana says is no longer valid and that Obama has said is not up for discussion. Havana is unhappy with U.S. support for dissidents and anti-communist radio and TV programs beamed into Cuba.
Speaking to reporters, Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment minister Rodrigo Malmierca D?az said before the U.S. president’s arrival that Obama’s regulatory moves « go in the right direction. » But he added: « We can’t reach a normalization of relations with the blockade still in effect. » ‘?QU? BOL? CUBA?’ The Americans in turn criticize one-party rule and repression of political opponents, an issue that aides said Obama would address publicly and privately.
Obama’s critics at home accuse him of making too many concessions for too little in return from the Cuban government and of using his trip to take an unearned « victory lap. » Obama’s first words to the Cuban people came in a message on Twitter, a social media service that few Cubans can use regularly because of government restrictions on Internet access.
« ?Qu? bol? Cuba? » he said, using Cuban slang for « what’s up? » « Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people. » Little progress on the main issues is expected when Obama and Castro meet on Monday or at a state dinner that evening.Instead, the highlights are likely to be Obama’s speech on live Cuban television on Tuesday, when he will also meet dissidents and attend an exhibition baseball game between Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba’s national team.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi to control govt as party head – party spokesman Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi will steer the incoming government of her National League for Democracy (NLD), staying on as party head, and is unlikely to take a formal position in the government, the party said on Sunday.
Myanmar’s parliament last week elected Htin Kyaw, a close friend and confidant of the Nobel peace prize laureate, as president, making him the first head of state since the 1960s who does not hail from a military background.Suu Kyi led the NLD to a historic landslide election win in November, but a constitution drafted by the former junta bars her from the top office because her two children and her late husband do not have Myanmar citizenship.Suu Kyi has vowed to defy the constitution described by senior NLD members as « ridiculous », pledging to run the country from « above the president ».
The party has not clarified how such an arrangement would be implemented, fuelling speculation about possible positions Suu Kyi might assume after the government takes office on April 1. »Taking positions is not that important any more…In the United States there are many famous lawmakers in the parliament who are very influential, but they don’t take any position in the cabinet, » Zaw Myint Maung, the NLD spokesman and one of its leaders, told Reuters late on Sunday. »It’s the same here. She will lead the (ruling) party so, she will (by extension) lead the government formed by that party, » said the spokesman, in the most detailed remarks on the issue by a senior NLD politician to date.
He did not elaborate on the party’s plans.Win Htein, another top NLD leader and Suu Kyi confidant, told Reuters in November Suu Kyi could be « something like Sonia Gandhi ». Suu Kyi herself said in October that her plan was not « quite like that », but she did not provide details on her plans.
Gandhi is the Italian-born widow of the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. As leader of the Congress party, she dominated the government of former Prime Minister Mahmohan Singh before it fell from power in 2014.Myanmar’s powerful military holds a quarter of parliamentary seats and the constitutional right to nominate one of the three presidential candidates. Its candidate, retired general Myint Swe, last week became the country’s first vice president.
Relations between the armed forces and Suu Kyi will define the success of Myanmar’s most significant break from military rule since the army seized power in 1962.The NLD spokesman said that on Monday president-elect Htin Kyaw would speak in parliament about reducing the number of government ministries. Last week the NLD said it would slash the number of ministries by about a third to 21.
GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks slip as oil skids; China up Most Asian stock markets slipped on Monday after three consecutive weeks of gains as a retreat in oil prices made investors cautious, but losses were tempered by hopes that China may soon cut interest rates again as pressure on the yuan eases.
The wobbles in the oil market, a general downturn in commodities and cooling growth in China have rattled financial markets in recent months.Fears about the outlook for global growth were also instrumental in the U.S. Federal Reserve’s move last week indicating a slower path for future rate increases.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 percent after entering positive territory for the first time this year on Friday. It is up 16 percent from January’s lows. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
« Despite the current rally in risk, we are more inclined to be broadly bearish on emerging markets given the underlying weakening trend, » said Frances Cheung, head of rates strategy, Asia ex-Japan at Societe Generale in Hong Kong.
Stocks in China and Hong Kong rose, but equity markets elsewhere in the region edged lower with Taiwan and Australia leading losses.
In the absence of any fresh major economic data in a holiday-shortened week, investors were left to ponder the softer tightening bias from the Fed even as the U.S. economic recovery appeared to be gathering fresh steam.
Dollar bulls were hit hard last week after the Fed’s less hawkish stance which cut the projected rate hikes for the rest of the year by half to only two. Financial markets, as seen by money market futures, are barely pricing in one.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen sounded doubtful that a recent firming in U.S. inflation would be sustained, suggesting the central bank is in no hurry to tighten policy.Some such as Francis Cheung, China strategist at brokerage CLSA, said the Fed’s renewed caution would encourage Beijing to pursue with its own stimulus measures to boost the economy. He expects an interest rate cut in the second quarter.
« We see this rally continuing until the second quarter with property materials, internet and industrials sectors in demand, » CLSA’s Cheung said pointing to relatively cheap valuations.On a trailing price-to-earnings basis, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan is trading at 12.3 times, nearly one standard deviation below its 20 year average. At 9.3 times, Hong Kong’s stock market was trading comfortably below one standard deviation its 20-year average.
China’s economy is showing signs of improvement while capital outflows from the country are moderating, top Chinese officials said on Sunday.Easing outflows and the softer dollar are resulting in less pressure on the yuan currency, which could give the central bank more confidence to cut interest rates and banks’ reserve requirements again after largely weak data in January and February, some market watchers say.
However, softer oil prices dampened sentiment.
Oil slipped for a second session, extending Friday’s slide of over 1 percent after the U.S rig count rose for the first time since December, renewing worries of a supply glut after an output freeze proposal had helped boost the market to 2016 highs.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell more than 1 percent to $39.01 per barrel after briefly topping $41, its highest since last December.Brent crude edged lower to $41.04 per barrel after hitting this year’s peak of $42.54 per barrel.
Rate markets also cheered the Fed’s cautiousness with 10-year and two-year U.S. yields down by 14 and 16 basis points since the U.S. central bank’s meeting last week.Credit markets basked in the afterglow of the recent rally with an index of high-yield credit extending gains to be up 9 percent in roughly a month.
In currencies, the dollar index was little changed at 95.01, not far from a five-month trough of 94.578 set on Friday.
The greenback fetched 111.31 yen, still within reach of Friday’s 17-month low of 110.67. The euro, which last week scaled a one-month peak of $1.1342, stood at $1.12830.The Australian dollar consolidated gains after hitting its highest level in nine months last week at 0.7681 per dollar. It was changing hands at 0.7591 on Monday.
Wall St Week Ahead-Eyes on the dollar with stocks out of the hole U.S. stock market investors will be watching currency markets next week for signs that the recent, related trends of a weakening dollar and a strengthening stock market will continue.After a historically bad start to the year, the Dow and S&P 500 both moved into positive territory this week, in part on expectations that a 3-week move down by the dollar could buoy corporate profits and share prices.Many investors had been concerned over the dollar’s strength, as it can crimp exports, earnings and economic growth.Between Sept. 17 and mid-February, the dollar had risen more than 2 percent against a basket of major currencies, as the U.S.Federal Reserve embarked on a tighter policy while other central banks were easing.But the S&P 500 has rallied about 9 percent off its Feb. 11 low to pull the index into positive territory for the first time this year, fueled in part by a drop in the dollar , which has fallen more than 3 percent over the last three weeks.
The dollar’s losses accelerated this week in the wake of the Fed’s policy statement on Wednesday, which cut projections for the number of interest rate hikes this year in half. The dollar suffered its biggest two-day drop in six weeks following the announcement.
That drop helped propel sharp gains in oil prices, back above the $40 mark for the first time this year, in turn lifting energy shares.
« After we get through this two-day hiccup, the knee-jerk to the policy move, I would expect the dollar to resume its rally, » said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut, who highlighted the difference in U.S. interest rates versus the ECB and Bank of Japan. »Our policy rate is going one way, theirs is going the other way, that spread is going to continue to widen, no matter what. » But Thomas Lee, managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors in New York, expects the dollar to continue to weaken as he believes it is more tied to inflation than central bank policies. With dollar strength and oil weakness a headwind for equities in 2015, Lee feels the reversal of those moves should be a benefit for stocks.
« We can build upon the gains from here, » said Lee. « If inflation is getting stronger, the U.S. dollar should weaken even more and that is an even bigger support for stocks. » With a short trading week ahead of the Easter holiday, volume is expected to be light as markets move closer to the Good Friday holiday, when the final reading on fourth-quarter gross domestic product is released.
Other economic data scheduled for release include February durable goods and several manufacturing surveys. Investors will be looking for signs of improvement after regional manufacturing surveys for New York and Philadelphia this week came in above expectations.While regional Fed surveys on their own can be considered minor, when taken as a whole they give investors a good idea of « whether we are off that bottom in terms of manufacturing, » said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey. »We want to see if it continues across the country. »
Brexit » could cost Britain 100 bln pounds and a million jobs – CBI A British vote to leave the European Union could cost the economy 100 billion pounds ($145 billion) and 950,000 jobs by 2020, according to research commissioned by employers’ group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
The CBI said « Brexit » would deliver a serious shock to the British economy, regardless of any trade deals the country could negotiate with its former European partners. »This analysis shows very clearly why leaving the European Union would be a real blow for living standards, jobs and growth, » CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn said in a statement on Monday.
« The savings from reduced EU budget contributions and regulation are greatly outweighed by the negative impact on trade and investment. Even in the best case this would cause a serious shock to the UK economy. » The CBI, which has said it will promote the economic case for Britain to remain in the EU, has been criticised by anti-EU campaigners who say the business community is split on the issue.
Two hecklers interrupted a speech by Prime Minister David Cameron at a CBI conference in November, when they unfurled a banner reading « CBI – Voice of Brussels ». In its defence, the CBI last week published research showing that 80 percent of its members wanted to stay in the European Union, while just 5 percent thought leaving the bloc would help them.Britons will vote in an in-out referendum on June 23 and are more equally divided than business, opinion polls show, with about 40 percent on either side and about 20 percent undecided.
The director general of another employers group, the British Chamber of Commerce, resigned this month after he went public with his anti-EU views, breaching the neutral position adopted by his organisation.The CBI, which mainly represents larger British businesses, commissioned accountants PwC to examine two different exit scenarios based on the likelihood of reaching new trade deals.
Under both, it said British living standards, economic growth and employment would be significantly reduced compared with staying.Economic output could be curtailed by as much as about 5 percent of GDP by 2020, or 100 billion pounds, it said, while even in a scenario where a free trade agreement with the EU was rapidly secured, GDP might still be reduced by 3 percent.
Internet ad spend to overtake TV by 2017 – ZenithOptimedia Businesses around the world are set to spend more on internet advertising than on television commercials for the first time in 2017, forecaster ZenithOptimedia said on Monday.Zenith said it expected internet advertising to grow at more than three times the rest of the industry in 2016, driven by demand for ads on social media, online video and paid search.The forecaster had said in December it expected ad spending on the internet to overtake TV only in 2018. »The global economy faces clear challenges, » it said.
« But advertisers’ confidence has remained largely unshaken, and our forecasts for global growth in 2016 have barely changed since we published our last forecasts in December. » ZenithOptimedia, owned by France’s Publicis, trimmed its expectation for growth in global advertising this year to 4.6 percent from a forecast of 4.7 percent it gave in December. That is still ahead of 3.9 percent growth in 2015.
The industry will be boosted in 2016 by advertising around the Rio Olympics, the European soccer championships and the U.S.Presidential election.However conditions in China, Russia and Brazil, along with uncertainty regarding Britain’s membership of the European Union, were among the challenges to the global economy, it said.
SWIFT to advise banks on security as Bangladesh hack details emergeThe SWIFT messaging system plans to ask banks to make sure they are following recommended security practices following an unprecedented cyber attack on Bangladesh’s central bank that yielded $81 million, a spokeswoman for the group told Reuters on Sunday. Brussels-based SWIFT, a cooperative owned by some 3,000 global financial institutions, will issue a written advisory on Monday asking banks to review internal security, the spokeswoman said. SWIFT staff will also begin calling banks to highlight the importance of reviewing security measures after the attack in Bangladesh, she added.
« Our priority at this time is to encourage customers to review and, where necessary, to reinforce their local operating environments, » the spokeswoman added.Unknown hackers breached the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank and in early February attempted to steal $951 million from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which it uses for international settlements. Some attempted transfers were blocked, but $81 million was transferred to accounts in the Philippines in one of the largest cyber heists in history.
SWIFT has so far said little about the attack, except that it was related to « an internal operational issue » at Bangladesh Bank and that there was no compromise in its core messaging system. SWIFT prepared a summary of previously issued recommendations for implementing security measures to thwart hackers, which advises members to pay close attention to best practices, the spokeswoman added.
While SWIFT can advise members to follow certain minimum security standards, there is no organization with regulatory oversight of how central banks and other financial institutions secure their networks, said independent security consultant Shane Shook. That means that security is not uniform among central banks, making some more vulnerable to cyber attacks, said Shook, who has helped investigate some of the biggest financial breaches.A confidential interim report on the investigation, which forensics experts submitted to the bank on Wednesday, said that attackers took control of the bank’s network, stole credentials for sending SWIFT messages and used « sophisticated » malicious software to attack the computers it uses to process and authorize transactions.
Investigators said in the report, which was reviewed by Reuters, that they expect to continue their investigation for another two weeks and believe the attackers have targeted other financial institutions.The report was prepared by FireEye Inc and World Informatix, which were hired by Bangladesh’s central bank to investigate the massive theft.The investigators did not identify other victims or name the hackers, but said that forensic evidence suggests they were also behind other recent cyber attacks on financial institutions.
« FireEye has observed these same suspected FIN threat actors within other customer networks in the financial industry, where these threat actors appear to be financially motivated, and well organised, » said an interim report sent to the bank last week.Representatives of Bangladesh Bank and FireEye declined to comment on the confidential report and their probe into the Feb.4 heist.
World Informatix Chief Executive Rakesh Asthana told Reuters via email that he could not discuss the investigation, but that he expected Bangladesh Bank to issue a news release on Monday.Details from the interim report were previously reported by Bloomberg News and Bangladesh’s The Daily Star.
The Daily Star also reported on Saturday that Bangladesh Bank linked its SWIFT operation with other technology operations belonging to the central bank in Dhaka and other cities in October 2015, citing an unnamed bank official. Prior to that, they were separate systems, the report said.Connecting those systems may have given the hackers a path to break into the bank’s SWIFT platform, the article cited the official as saying.
Cyber expert disappears after comments on Bangladesh central bank heistA cyber crime expert has disappeared after talking to police and the media about an attempted $951 million cyber heist from Bangladesh’s central bank, his wife said on Sunday.Kamrun Nahar Chowdhury said her husband Tanveer Hassan Zoha had been taken from a motorised rickshaw in the early hours of Thursday by people in plainclothes who blindfolded him and drove off with him in a vehicle.The heist at Bangladesh Bank led on Tuesday to the resignation of bank governor Atiur Rahman, after details emerged of $81 million of the bank’s money reaching casino operators in the Philippines. It was one of the largest cyber robberies in history.
In early February hackers tried in all to steal $951 million from the central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which it uses for international settlements.Before his disappearance, Zoha went with members of a special police force to the central bank where they spent several hours. Afterwards, he told reporters that he knew three of the user IDs used for the heist.Kamrun Nahar said police had refused to investigate her husband’s disappearance and she appealed to the government for help to free him. Police were unavailable for comment. »We don’t know why he was picked up, » she told Reuters.
For bank heist hackers, the Philippines was a handy black holeIn February 2013, the Philippines was up against a deadline to amend its Anti-Money Laundering Act and get itself off the ‘grey list’ of a global watchdog, and lawmakers were bickering over whether to include casinos under the legislation.
With one day to go, a Congressional committee heard repeated pleas not to hamstring an industry that could rival other Asian gambling meccas by obliging casinos to report suspicious transactions. Finally, the senator chairing the meeting agreed « with a heavy heart » to exclude them, a transcript of the proceedings shows. That same senator now heads a panel trying to fathom how $81 million hacked last month from the New York Federal Reserve account of Bangladesh’s central bank wound up with two casinos and a junket operator in the Philippines – and then disappeared.
It is one of the biggest cyber heists in history, and since the money trail has gone cold in the Philippines, the perpetrators may never be identified.The senator, Teofisto Guingona, told Reuters after a public hearing on the case last week that fierce lobbying by the gaming industry over the law had left the Philippines one of the world’s softest targets for money launderers, putting the financial system at serious risk.
« It can wreak havoc on the economy, » he said. « Any money coming in and out of the country will come under scrutiny.People might just say ‘to hell with it, it’s not worth doing business with the Philippines’. » The Philippines depends heavily on remittances from workers abroad, which account for about 10 percent of its GDP.
The country’s central bank chief said last week financial markets had shown no signs of distress over the scandal, but added: « We have to recognise there is a risk that is associated with this. » Unknown hackers breached the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank in early February and attempted to steal $951 million from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which it uses for international settlements. Some attempted transfers were blocked, but $81 million wound up in the Philippines.
Security researchers blamed malware and a faulty printer but said Bangladesh central bank officials were also responsible because of weak security procedures. The bank’s governor and two deputy governors quit their jobs over the scandal last week. Bangladesh said on Saturday it had formally sought the assistance of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Public hearings on the heist in the Philippines’ Senate last week focused on the manager of a Manila branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC). Her bank received the stolen money on Feb. 4 and transferred it to a foreign exchange broker who passed it on in tranches, including $30 million in banknotes that officials say would have weighed 1,500 kg.
A colleague of the manager testified he saw her drive off in her car with 20 million pesos ($431,000) in cash from one of several fictitious accounts to which the money was wired. The branch manager declined to give evidence in public.
According to an Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) document seen by Reuters, on Feb. 8 Bangladesh Bank sent RCBC several messages via the SWIFT interbank communications network requesting transactions be stopped and the funds returned.
However, five withdrawals were made from the accounts in 73 minutes the next morning. When RCBC responded to the SWIFT message later that day, all that remained of the $81 million was $68,305. RCBC President Lorenzo Tan told the Senate he could not discuss what happened because of the country’s bank deposit secrecy law, one of the world’s strictest and a legacy of the martial-law era of President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s.
« Prevention of … money laundering is being hampered by the very strict bank deposit secrecy law, » central bank Governor Amando Tetangco told reporters. « Once the funds go into a bank deposit account, that’s it. The trail turns cold. » Sergio Osmena, another senator probing the bank heist, has pressed for years to amend the bank laws. He made no headway, he said, because secrecy suits businesses that want to evade taxes and can bribe lawmakers to resist legislative change.
« I am quite happy that a scandal like this has happened, » Osmena told Reuters, explaining he believes the Bangladesh case is the tip of an iceberg alerting people to hundreds of money laundering crimes going unreported every year.
CASINOS A ‘WEAK LINK’ In a March 2 report, the U.S. State Department said only 49 anti-money laundering cases have been filed since the AMLC began operating in 2001. The number of prosecutions and convictions has been virtually nil. Recent efforts to include casinos in the law have been held up because of forthcoming elections and extensive lobbying from the gaming industry, which the report said was « a weak link » in the Philippines’ anti-money laundering regime.
« Money laundering is a serious concern due to the Philippines’ international narcotics trade, high degree of corruption among government officials, trafficking in persons, and the high volume of remittances from Filipinos living abroad, » the U.S. report said.
With ambitions to become one of Asia’s gaming hubs alongside Macau and Singapore, the government opened a tract of reclaimed land near Manila airport for casinos. Two world-class resorts now operate there, counting Chinese high rollers among nearly half of their VIP clients, and two more are under construction. The Senate hearing was told $29 million of Bangladesh’s money was transferred to one of these casinos, Solaire, owned and operated by Bloomberry Resorts Corp. »We did not know it was dirty money, » Silverio Benny Tan, corporate secretary of Bloomberry Resorts, told reporters.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, which regulates the industry, says that to prevent laundering, money transferred to casinos for players must be exchanged for ‘dead chips’ that can only be cashed in from winnings. But, for Senator Guingona, the disappearance of such large sums into casinos underlines the weakness of Manila’s anti-laundering regime and could push the country back into the ‘grey list’ of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
A spokeswoman for FATF, a Paris-based inter-governmental organisation that combats laundering and terrorist financing, said an Asia-Pacific body was responsible for reviewing Manila. »We cannot comment on the current case being reported in the media, » said Alexandra Wijmenga-Daniel. « However, ongoing deficiencies in the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance regime of the Philippines would be of concern. »
Gaza rockers and rappers struggle to carve out a space Khamiss Abu Shaban’s band would love to wow the kinds of crowds seen elsewhere, but in Hamas-run Gaza they struggle to find venues and instruments, let alone get permission to play. Even so, that hasn’t dispelled the enthusiasm for popular music in the Palestinian territory, where 70 percent of the population is under 30 years old. »Gazans are fans of music. They flock to every concert, » Abu Shaban, a 22-year-old bass player in Watar Band, says on the small stage of a sold-out 200-seat theatre.
It was only their third performance for the past year and a half.Musicians and other entertainers have found it hard to make a name and living for themselves in the hardscrabble Palestinian territory’s few venues. That is the paradox of Gaza, a fact not lost on advertisers who seek to woo young breakdancers and devotees of parkour — the urban sport combining running, acrobatics and gymnastics. But the rewards are few for the rappers, other musicians, dancers and acrobats trying to carve out a niche for themselves.
If they want to rehearse, record or be filmed, they must do it in whatever space they can find, often in their own homes.Without official authorisation and performance space, they cannot have grandiose dreams, they say.There is also a lack of instruments and equipment, thanks to an Israeli blockade of the strip in place for nearly a decade.
The French Cultural Centre was one of the few places where young Gazans could get away briefly from Palestinian political divisions, repeated wars with Israel, poverty and chronic unemployment, but it has closed its doors.
In December 2014, it was hit by a bombing claimed by Salafist jihadists.Gaza is a narrow strip of land into which 1.8 million Palestinians are jammed, wedged between Egypt, Israel and the Mediterranean Sea.Starved of permanent performance spaces, dancers and musicians are using the Internet to display their talents.Even at the height of the gruelling war of summer 2014, Watar Band and rapper Ayman Mghamess posted songs and videos shot in the ruins of bombed-out buildings because they believed people needed to hear music
(World news summary compiled by Maghreb news staff)