U.N. wants Russia to agree « workable humanitarian pause » in Aleppo

U.N. wants Russia to agree « workable humanitarian pause » in Aleppo The United Nations said on Thursday it was talking to Russia about a « workable humanitarian pause » in fighting in Aleppo and that three hours a day was « not enough » to help up to two million civilians trapped in the divided Syrian city.

The U.N. wants a 48-hour weekly halt to the violence in order to deliver large amounts of food and other aid and to evacuate the sick and wounded.

« Today in the meeting the Russian delegation confirmed their willingness to sit down with us (Thursday and Friday) to try to agree on a workable humanitarian pause for us to go the Aleppo road way to help the poor people of east as well as in the west, » U.N. humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland told reporters.

Egeland, speaking after chairing a weekly meeting of the humanitarian task force composed of major and regional powers, was referring to the Castello road, the main supply route into the rebel-held east, cut off by the Syrian government.

« We need 48 hours because the people are so many that the convoys have to be big, the road is so destroyed, it is mined, there are so many dangers, the logistics are so enormous that we do need time – each week we need 48 hours, » Egeland said.

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said: « We are available and interested in talking to ensure that the three hours could not be simply as a declaration and then nothing happens. The rest will depend on the further discussions with the Russians. » De Mistura also said that senior military officials from Russia and the United States are still working on restoring an overall ceasefire after five years of civil war that has killed a quarter of a million people and displaced 11 million.

« Russian and American teams have been meeting in this building, they are focusing on the Castello road developments, no doubt, and on general new approaches for a reduction in violence. » At least four people died and many suffered breathing difficulties when a gas, believed to be chlorine, was dropped alongside barrel bombs on an Aleppo neighbourhood on Wednesday, a hospital and a civil defence group told Reuters.

De Mistura, asked about the reports, replied: « It’s really not for me to assess who did it and whether it actually took place, although there is a lot of evidence that it actually did take place. »We have a special U.N. and other organisations addressing that. But if it did take place, it is a war crime. »

Intensifying fight for Aleppo chokes civilian population An upsurge of intense fighting around Aleppo has killed scores of Syrians in the past weeks, displaced thousands and cut water and power to up to two million people on both sides of the front line, worsening the already dire conditions faced by hundreds of thousands in the city.

In a war already marked by humanitarian crisis, the United Nations says the fighting threatens to replicate deprivation recently suffered by those in rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo among civilians living in the government-held west.

Residents and aid groups contacted by Reuters spoke of acute water shortages and power cuts, and concerns over food supplies and hygiene in a stark assessment of life in the city of Aleppo.

Advances by warring sides in the last month, which resulted in a siege of rebel-held neighbourhoods and the severing of a major route into government areas of control, have choked off supplies and raised fears of the encirclement of the entire civilian population.

Syria’s largest city pre-war has been divided into government and rebel areas of control for much of the conflict, and has been the focus of escalating violence since a ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow in February crumbled. Its capture would be a major prize for President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia’s intervention last year helped turn the war in Assad’s favour. His forces with the help of Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian fighters surrounded the eastern, opposition-held neighbourhoods in Aleppo in July.

The latest major gains were made by rebels, however, who broke the month-long government siege in an attack last week on a Syrian military complex and also cut the main supply route to the western, government-held areas of the city.

« When the attack began … rockets and shells were fired towards Hamdaniya, » said Abu George, a resident who fled that neighbourhood, close to the military complex in the southwest of the city.

« There were people who had already been displaced sheltering in nearby areas, they had to leave, » the 61-year-old agricultural engineer said via telephone.

Rebel bombardments of Hamdaniya on Wednesday killed more than a dozen people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. Syrian and Russian warplanes have heavily raided the areas taken by insurgents.

The British-based group said bombardments by both sides have killed more than 120 people in the city since the start of August.

Abu George is among thousands who fled areas in southwest Aleppo in recent days, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

« Thousands of families have been displaced from southwestern Aleppo, including already displaced families who’ve had to move for a second time, » spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said.

Residents of western Aleppo said cutting the main supply route to the government side had slowed the entry of goods and fuel and driven up food prices, but a delivery by government forces via an alternative route this week provided some relief.

« There were some problems with petrol and fuel, but supplies came in and the petrol stations are open and working, » Tony Ishaq, 26, said via internet messenger.

The alternative route used was until last month the only road into Aleppo’s opposition held sector. After intense bombardment, government forces captured the Castello Road in an advance that put eastern Aleppo under siege.

HOSPITALS HIT, WATER AND POWER CUT The siege worsened an already dire humanitarian situation in eastern Aleppo, residents and doctors said.

The rebel advance which broke through the siege on Saturday has not yet secured a safe enough passage to make more than one food delivery to the east, or for civilians to move through, with government bombardments hitting that rebel corridor on the city’s southwestern outskirts.

« Fuel, vegetables and other essentials are not entering because the regime is bombing areas it lost like crazy, » said Hossam Abu Ghayth, a 29-year-old east Aleppo resident.

« There are warplanes and helicopters hovering in the skies, they’re bombing both civilian areas and the major front lines, » he said via internet messenger.

International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which supports a number of medical facilities in the opposition held sector, said the casualty toll had risen sharply.

« Because of the bombings and the fighting in Aleppo city there are more and more people coming to the hospitals, » Middle East Operations Manager Pablo Marco told Reuters.

Hospitals were having to cope with dozens of wounded arriving at the same time, he said, with only 35 doctors for the whole of east Aleppo’s population at least 250,000 people.

All eight hospitals supported by MSF have been affected by bombardments in recent months, Marco said. A U.S.-based rights group says several hospitals were hit in July.

The bombardments have compounded water and power cuts on both sides of the city.

East Aleppo residents have long experienced a lack of both.

« There’s no electricity – there are generators which provide a small amount, enough to work a fridge or lighting, » Abu Ghayth said.

« We wash once every Friday. We’ve got used to living this way, » he said. « We economise water so it lasts. » Entire families often survive on 50 litres of water per day, transported from tanks or drawn from wells, he added. The World Health Organization says 20 litres are needed per person for basic hygiene.

The United Nations said on Tuesday the main power facility that allowed water to be pumped to both sides of the city had been hit, leaving the entire population of nearly 2 million without running water and putting children at risk of disease.

Sedky of the ICRC said residents were relying on underground water sources.

« The water pumping stations are not working anymore, on boths sides. So the whole population has been relying on boreholes for water, » she said.

Fetching water from those boreholes in some areas was dangerous, with movement restricted because of bombardments and fighting, Sedky added.

Wells and tanks would not provide enough water for very long, she said. The United Nations has called for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire in Aleppo, and is pushing for a resumption of peace talks that have failed to end the five-year conflict in which more than 250,000 people have been killed and some 11 million displaced.

Renewed Yemeni fighting points to society broken beyond repair The whitewashed dome of a Sufi shrine in the Yemeni city of Taiz gleamed for centuries until a band of hardline Sunni Islamist gunmen blew it up last month, victim to a civil war that may have disfigured a once-tolerant society beyond repair.

After a year and a half of fighting, rivalries based on tribe, region and sect have deepened and Yemen appears no longer able to resist the hatreds that have fuelled wars without end in other Middle Eastern countries.

« Before the war, there was no interest in denominations and family. Now, people scrutinise your name to see where you come from, » said Ahmed Saleh Al-Matari, 40, a civil servant in the capital Sanaa.

Unusually in a Muslim country, Yemen’s Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim schools of thought had few doctrinal differences and worshippers often shared the same mosques. That has also changed.

« Even mosques were not as they are now, with the (Sunni) Islah party and Salafis running some mosques and the (Shi’ite) Houthis running others, » Matari added. « We’ve arrived at such a dangerous situation. » War has reduced much of Yemen to battle zones, laced with landmines and roamed by militias whose quarrels seem to defy any resolution. Around half the 27 million population have no access to healthcare and are unable to put enough food on the table, while around 80 percent need some form of humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations.

As three months of U.N.-mediated peace talks collapsed over the weekend, nationwide fighting and coalition air strikes accelerated once more.

The armed Houthi group, once an obscure revivalist movement of Zaydi Shi’ites, predominant in the north, controls the capital Sanaa along with many other cities and pushed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia and its fellow Sunni-ruled Gulf states, into exile last year.

Pro-government forces largely from the Shafi’i Sunni majority in the south and east made gains last year, but appear far from victory despite arms and air cover from the Saudi-led military alliance.

Saudi Arabia fears the Houthis represent a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula for political Shi’ism inspired by Iran, and has quashed Shi’ite political stirrings both inside Saudi Arabia and in neighbouring Sunni-ruled Bahrain, a key ally.

HASHEMITES Frustrated by generations of coups, corruption and cronyism that have left the country one of the poorest in the world, some Yemenis welcomed the Houthis’ takeover of Sanaa in 2014, billed by the Houthis as a popular revolution.

The group has built alliances with poor but heavily armed northern tribes, and made the capital into a bulwark that has weathered thousands of air strikes by a Saudi-led alliance wielding some of the most advanced Western weapons.

The Houthis formalised their rule on Saturday by setting up a governing council in league with allies of the powerful ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in a move decried by both the United Nations and the government in exile.

But more subtle than their overt takeover of the state is the Houthis’ installation, in military and administrative positions throughout Yemen, of members of Hashemite families, who trace their lineage to the Prophet Mohammad.

The families, making up about 10 percent of Yemen, were important administrators in the Zaydi theocracy that ruled the north for a millennium before being largely marginalised in the wake of a 1962 republican revolution.

« The new political council brings together the Houthi base and the traditional tribal elite loyal to Saleh and strengthens them, » said Farea al-Muslimi, an analyst at the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies.

« It unifies the interests and loyalty of the most powerful military and political actors in northern society. » The sudden power shifts have unleashed demons, however, especially in Taiz, the southern city that was once a bastion of commerce and secularism.

Artillery duels between Houthi forces and a loose alliance of mostly Sunni Islamist pro-government militias have reduced much of the city to rubble without giving either side proper control, and street clashes beset much of the city.

Hardline Islamist gunmen are thought to be behind the attack on the tomb of Abdul Hadi al-Soudi, a 15th-century scholar from the more mystical and tolerant Sufi school of Sunni Islam.

« The most powerful forces fighting for the government in Taiz are al Qaeda and the Salafi militias, » a senior security official said.

« Hashemites are being targeted just for their names, and dozens have been assassinated in Taiz alone. » EXILED GOVERNMENT Despite gains, Yemen’s recognised government operates from Saudi Arabia and is therefore finding it hard to build a power base inside the country.

The southern port city of Aden, where the government has pledged but so far failed to establish itself, is out of reach of the Houthis but is still plagued by jihadist attacks.

It is run by militias and army officers who seek secession for southern Yemen, once an independent socialist state, and distrust the government, in which the Sunni Islamist Islah party is the strongest.

Political sources close to the failed U.N.-backed talks in Kuwait say that both the Houthis and the recognised government appear to believe that time favours them and the other side may soon exhaust themselves and implode.

Meanwhile, the economy is deteriorating on both sides of the divide – shops and factories lie idle or in ruins, electricity and fuel are in short supply and vital institutions shudder.

The internationally recognised government last week asked international financial institutions to cut off the Sanaa-based central bank, alleging that state funds were being used to fuel the Houthi war effort.

Bank sources have denied the charges and have suggested the moves may be a form of economic warfare on the Houthis, as state salaries paid by the bank go mostly to Houthi-run areas.

But with the central bank guaranteeing food imports as Yemen approaches famine, one senior Western diplomat wondered whether the government had put its war aims before ordinary people’s needs – something the government has denied.

« A good government should care for the wellbeing of the entire nation, its people, » the diplomat said.

« There are real concerns that the government does not seem to care much … Trying to bring down the Central Bank in a country like Yemen is like prompting a heart attack in a body already suffering from multiple organ failure. »

Libyan forces work to secure gains against Islamic State in Sirte Libyan forces on Thursday were securing and de-mining areas newly captured from Islamic State in Sirte, combing the area around a convention complex that had been a symbol of the militant group’s authority in the city.

Forces aligned with Libya’s U.N.-backed government seized the Ouagadougou convention centre and several other key sites on Wednesday, advancing into areas that had been fought over for weeks.

Those forces, supported since Aug. 1 by U.S. air strikes, said in a statement that they had taken Islamic State’s « most important bastions » in its former North African stronghold.

But they have yet to gain control of several neighbourhoods in central Sirte where an unknown number of militants are dug in. Eighteen government-aligned fighters were killed on Wednesday and 72 wounded, Rida Issa, a spokesman for the Sirte operation, said.

There has been house-to-house fighting in residential areas in recent weeks, with the brigade fighters struggling to gain ground against sniper fire, trip wires and landmines.

The fighters are led by brigades from the nearby Misrata, who repelled an Islamic State advance south of their city in early May before pushing eastwards to Sirte and besieging the militants in the centre of the Mediterranean city.

The capture of Sirte would be a major setback for Islamic State, ousting the jihadist group from the only city in Libya where it established total control.

It could also boost the fortunes of the U.N.-backed government, which has been struggling to impose its influence on a country riven by political and armed rivalries.

Brigades fighters found a house used as a laboratory for making explosive belts and seized a number of military vehicles used by Islamic State, some damaged and some in good condition, the spokesman, Issa said.

« Military engineering units are now working to clear the captured areas of mines, » he added.

From an estimated fighting force of some 6,000 men, more than 350 brigade fighters have been killed and at least 1,500 since the campaign to recapture Sirte began.

On Wednesday, Mokhtar Fakron, an air force spokesman was killed with another pilot when their jet came down over Sirte. As of Wednesday, U.S. drones and fighter jets had carried out 29 strikes in Sirte, targeting Islamic State fighting positions, vehicles and armaments, according to statements by U.S. Africa Command.

Iraq corruption row won’t derail Mosul offensive, says US envoy Iraq’s offensive to dislodge Islamic State from its de facto capital Mosul is on track despite a spat between two senior politicians over alleged corruption in the military, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the militant group said.

Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi and parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri last week exchanged accusations of bribery over defence contracts, leading to judicial investigations and sparking concerns that the offensive could be delayed.

The two men are high-profile Sunni Muslim allies of Shi’ite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is spearheading the efforts to root out the Sunni jihadist group.

Asked about how the spat had affected the Mosul campaign, Brett McGurk told a news conference in Baghdad: « We’ve seen no impact in terms of the overall timeline. » The U.S. is leading the coalition providing air and ground support to the Iraqi army in the war on Islamic State, whose forces swept through northern and western provinces inhabited mostly by Iraq’s Sunni minority two years ago.

The army and the elite units that will lead the offensive are gradually taking up positions outside the city, from whose Grand Mosque in 2014 IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate spanning parts of Iraq and Syria.

Mosul is the largest urban centre under the militants’ control, with a pre-war population of nearly 2 million. Its fall would mark their effective defeat in Iraq, according to Abadi, who has said he aims to retake the city this year.

« The conditions are now being set for the liberation of Mosul, » said McGurk, adding the coalition was focused on both the military and humanitarian dimensions of the campaign.

Once the fighting intensifies around Mosul, up to one million people could be driven from their homes in northern Iraq, posing « a massive humanitarian problem », the International Committee of the Red Cross said last month.

More than 3.4 million people have already been forced by conflict to leave their homes across Iraq, taking refuge in areas under control of the government or in the self-ruled Kurdish region. Mosul, a mostly Sunni city, should be run by its own people when the militants are dislodged. « The philosophy here, and it’s the government of Iraq’s philosophy, is decentralization, » McGurk said.

Dubai looks to boost cultural life with opera house A boat-shaped hulk of steel and glass at the foot of the world’s tallest tower, Dubai’s new opera house is set to boost the cultural life of the Gulf’s business hub.

Workers are putting the final touches on the venue, a short walk from the 828-metre (2,700-foot) Burj Khalifa, as it prepares to host Spanish tenor Placido Domingo at an opening gala on August 31.

While Dubai has a reputation for grand construction projects, it has not had a landmark venue for performing arts — until now.

« Look at everything else Dubai already has… now we’re going make it even better, » said Dubai Opera’s CEO Jasper Hope, former chief operating officer at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

« One of the areas that has been missing for many people is a venue in which to experience brilliant live music, » he told AFP.

Dubai Opera organisers hope to change that, with performances including Rossini’s « The Barber of Seville » and the Broadway musical « West Side Story ».

The venue will also host local shows, with popular Emirati singer Hussain Al Jassmi performing there in October.

In a nod to Dubai’s long history as a port city, the opera house is shaped like a dhow, a traditional wooden boat used for centuries in Gulf waters.

But the ultra-modern 2,000-seat venue can transform into three modes, operating as a theatre, concert hall and a flat-floored hall suitable for banquets and weddings.

Its developer, Dubai-based Emaar Properties which also built the Burj Khalifa, has not revealed the cost of the opera project.

– Opera a cultural import –

In the space of decades, Dubai has transformed itself into a centre for trade, travel and tourism.

Spending trillions of dollars earned from oil exports, it put itself on the map with luxury resorts, glitzy skyscrapers and artificial islands shaped as palm trees and a world map.

But its cultural scene remained low profile in the business-oriented emirate.

Now, Dubai « has a vision to be one of the top cities in the world, » said the Emirati director of the privately run Centre for Musical Arts (CMA), Tala Badri.

To succeed it has to « present the same things you would get whether you went to London or New York… and that does include performing arts, » she said.

Opera remains very much a cultural import for Gulf Arabs — the only other opera house in the region is in the Omani capital Muscat.

But Dubai’s population is predominantly foreign, including a sizable Western community.

Hope said his vision is for the opera house to inspire local artists.

« There are only a handful of musical education, dance education, theatre education projects running right now. I sincerely hope, and we will actively encourage, many more to come out of what we’re doing, » he said.

Badri said she hopes Dubai Opera will help make the emirate a cultural centre.

« The opera house is a great idea, but if you want to fill it, you need to educate a population to understand it, » Badri said. « At the moment it’s just a facility for hosting things, and it could be so much more. »

Pope hosts Syrian refugees at lunch, sees children’s drawings of war Pope Francis on Thursday hosted 21 Syrian refugees for lunch at his residence, where children gave him their drawings of war and their dramatic escapes by sea.

The pope appeared particularly moved by one drawing by a boy depicting a child first swimming in a sea of blood and then swimming in a blue-coloured sea, video released by the Vatican showed.

Another drawing showed a tank and stick figures shooting at each other while one more depicted two children running away from danger hand-in-hand.

The lunch was attended by families of Syrian refugees, most of them Muslims. The Vatican is paying for their upkeep as they start a new life in Rome under the auspices of the Sant’ Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic charity and peace group.

A dozen flew out of Lesbos on the pope’s plane when he visited a refugee camp on the Greek island in April . The others arrived in Rome later. The lunch took place at the Santa Marta residence, a guest house inside the Vatican where the pope has chosen to live instead of the spacious papal apartments used by his predecessors in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

UN rights chief criticises Bulgaria over treatment of migrants U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein accused Bulgaria on Thursday of committing systematic human rights violations by criminalising migrants.

Bulgaria’s policy « raises serious concerns about the State’s compliance with international law », he said in a statement.

He said it was « particularly disturbing to see important and influential public figures expressing support for illegal armed vigilante groups who have been brazenly hunting down migrants along parts of the border between Bulgaria and Turkey ».

« One of the most serious problems is that virtually all people entering Bulgaria in an irregular manner are detained as a matter of course, » Zeid said.

« Even worse, they may also be prosecuted and jailed – for a year or even more – if they try to leave the country. The act of leaving the country is criminalised in spite of the right of everyone, under international law, to leave a country, including their own. » A Bulgarian interior ministry spokeswoman told Reuters the statement « does not fully represent the objective situation concerning asylum seekers in the country ».

The state agency for refugees said Bulgarian law laid down rules on how asylum-seekers should be processed.

« A foreigner seeking international protection can be accommodated temporarily and for the shortest possible time in a centre that is of a closed type to establish or verify his identity or when necessary to protect national security or public order, » it said.

The agency said foreigners had not been detained by force at any of the four regional accommodation centres of an open type.

It said it had no information about human rights violations.

Zeid said that other concerns included « pushbacks » of migrants into neighbouring countries and persistent allegations of physical abuse and theft by law enforcement officials at borders.

Last month Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said the Black Sea state was bracing for a potential rush of migrants on its southern border following the attempted coup in Turkey.

Bulgaria detained about 14,000 migrants in the first six months of this year, compared with 21,000 in the same period last year. Few migrants want to stay in the European Union’s poorest state, preferring to journey onwards to wealthier EU countries like Germany and Sweden.

‘Groundhog Day’ for migrants in Rome cul-de-sac Every night the same scene unfolds in Via Cupa near Rome’s Tiburtina station: one by one, migrants take a dirty and battered mattress from a pile and place it against the wall, turning the small dark street into a star-lit dormitory.

There are up to 300 of them at a time, mostly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan. Most have left reception centres to stay here a night or two before continuing their journeys north, some unaware the borders are closed to them, others determined to try again after failed attempts to cross.

« When the landings (of migrant boats to Italy) resumed in the spring, we gradually saw a tent pop up here, then two, then three, » said Andrea Costa, a volunteer with the Baobab Experience NGO, which until last year ran a shelter on Via Cupa.

The site was repossessed in November. As discussions with the city council over an alternative spot dragged on, the migrants simply settled out in the open and the cul-de-sac now boasts sleeping bags, pots and pans and even a table-football table.

« Watch your backs! » cry volunteers as they bring a heavy saucepan of boiling rice to a serving station, where men, women and children line up in single file to fill their plastic plates, the air heavy with the smell of fried onions.

The chefs are two young Swiss who brought their mobile kitchen to the street after doing stints in the migrant camps of Calais and Grande-Synthe in France, as well as Italy’s Lake Como near the Swiss border, where some 500 migrants sleep in a park.

In some areas tempers are wearing thin as the wait to journey on to northern Europe increases: in Ventimiglia on the Italy-France border, 600 people are sheltering in a Red Cross centre. Others are put on buses and escorted back to centres down south.

In Milan some 3,300 people are camped out in the station or nearby streets in the hope of getting on a train north.

More than 100,000 migrants have been plucked off unseaworthy vessels in the Mediterranean and brought to Italy this year, and while the numbers are similar to last year, the context is radically different.

« The borders in the north are closed, migrants can’t get through, » Costa told AFP.

– ‘Almost a game’ –

« We’re worried small Idomenis will develop in Ventimiglia, Como, Milan and Rome, » he said, referring to the vast informal refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonian border that was cleared by riot police in June.

While the 35,000 or so migrants who passed through the Baobab Centre last year managed for the large part to leave Italy, Costa sees an increasing number of people this year forced to return to Via Cupa after being turned back at the border.

For returners, life in the cul-de-sac has become a sort of « Groundhog Day », where, as in the film, they re-live the same experience — resting, refuelling and planning yet another attempt at the crossing — over and over.

Maroma, a 19-year old from Sudan, has already made it over the Ventimiglia crossing but was stopped by police and returned to a centre in Taranto, at Italy’s southern tip. Once there, he simply began the journey north again.

Fellow Sudanese Mahmad Karim pulls a notebook out from under his mattress. He wants to learn English and proudly shows off his attempts at learning and writing the Roman alphabet, from ‘A’ to ‘Z’.

« My difficulty is the language, not the borders, » he says with a laugh.

Everyone here has spent weeks, months or even years on the road, trekking across the desert, through Libya and across the Med.

« They have no money and nothing to lose. Trying to cross the border becomes almost a game, » Costa said.

Under pressure from the European Union, Italy has stepped up efforts since 2015 to identify each and every migrant it rescues, preventing them under EU rules from applying for asylum in another European country.

In exchange, some were supposed to be relocated to other EU countries, but the programme has struggled to get off the ground.

The result is a sharp jump in the number of asylum seekers blocked in Italy — more than 144,000 currently reside in reception centres, compared to 66,000 in 2014 and 103,000 in 2015.

They may be stuck, but the determination to journey onwards is still very much alive.

« We need information more than food, » Costa says. And after dinner, out come the maps of Europe and a quick geography lesson for those planning to set off the next day, including the unwelcome news that Italy shares no borders with Britain.

Dutch investigate death threats against Palestinian ICC activist  Dutch authorities are investigating death threats against a Palestinian rights activist in The Hague targeted because she has made submissions to the International Criminal Court’s inquiry into the 2014 Gaza conflict.

Nada Kiswanson, a legal researcher at Palestinian rights group Al-Haq, said the threats began early this year and have continued on a regular basis since.

« My channels of communication have been totally compromised, » Kiswanson told Reuters, adding that she had received death threats by e-mail, via family members and in the form of flower deliveries to her home with accompanying messages.

When she purchased an anonymous pre-paid mobile phone number, she received a threat on it a day later. Messages had come in Dutch, English and « broken Arabic », she said.

The Jordanian-Swedish citizen had also been called on a family member’s pre-paid Jordanian number while staying in the country, while a relative in Sweden had been called and told that Kiswanson would be « eliminated ».

Human rights organisation Amnesty International said it was forced to temporarily close its office in The Hague for security reasons after an employee’s personal e-mail was hacked and used to send Kiswanson a death threat.

Since the start of 2015, the ICC has been conducting a preliminary examination of possible crimes committed by both sides in the Gaza conflict, in which more than 2,000 died.

Israel, which rejects the court’s authority, put its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians.

Dutch authorities confirmed they were investigating threats against Kiswanson, first reported publicly by newspaper NRC Handelsblad, and that they had put in place measures to protect her.

Although the war crimes court’s cases are always highly contentious, rights workers have never before been threatened in the Netherlands.

The court’s handful of prosecutors and investigators are heavily reliant on the work of human rights organisations and volunteers to provide background information on the war crimes and crimes against humanity it investigates around the world.

Actual investigations must be carried out by prosecution staff.

Court officials have not yet been able to send a mission to Gaza. Kiswanson submitted information to prosecutors that was collected by Al-Haq at the time of the conflict. Activists and witnesses linked to ICC cases have been threatened in the past. Judges at the court have said threats against witnesses contributed to the collapse of the crimes against humanity case against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta last year.

Paris condemns Israeli demolition of French-funded buildings in West Bank France on Thursday condemned the Israeli army’s demolition of French-funded buildings in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, saying it was a violation of international law.

The demolition of agricultural installations in Nebi Samuel last week, was the third time this year that buildings funded by French humanitarian aid had been demolished or confiscated by Israeli authorities, a foreign ministry spokesman said. Among them, in February, was a school.

« We urge Israeli authorities to stop these operations, that are in contravention of international law, » the spokesman said.

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an arm of the military that deals with Palestinian civilian issues, said demolition orders were issued because the structures were built without Israeli permission.

« No request for building permits of the illegal structures had been received by their owners. They were invited to a committee to give them a chance to rectify the situation and gain permission but they failed to appear, » COGAT said in answer to a Reuters query. U.S. efforts to broker an accord between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled for two years. France hosted a conference last month with the aim of breaking the impasse.

Saudi minister:Algeria meeting may discuss stabilising oil market  Saudi Arabia will work with OPEC and non-OPEC members to help stabilise oil markets, it said on Thursday a month ahead of an informal meeting of major producing countries in Algeria.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum (IEF), which groups producers and consumers, in Algeria from Sept. 26-28, Qatar’s energy ministry said on Monday.

« We are going to have a ministerial meeting of IEF in Algeria next month, and there is an opportunity for OPEC and major exporting non-OPEC ministers to meet and discuss the market situation, including any possible action that may be required to stabilize the market, » Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement.

The statement, sent by the Saudi Energy Ministry, came in the form of a question-and-answer session with the state news agency SPA.

Oil prices extended earlier gains after the remarks. Brent crude was up more than 3 percent at $45.50 a barrel.

Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest oil producer, pledged during the last OPEC meeting in June that the kingdom would not flood the market with oil.

The statement also said a July spike in Saudi oil output to a record 10.67 million barrels per day was due to summer demand and requests from customers.

The statement indicates Riyadh is worried that oil prices could be heading back towards $40 per barrel or lower due to fears of oversupply.

Prices in recent days were supported by renewed calls by some OPEC members to freeze production, a demand that non-OPEC oil-producing giant Russia was quick to dismiss.

Some OPEC officials had said a revival of talks on a global oil production freeze could be discussed informally among OPEC and non-OPEC countries in Algeria if oil prices weakened.

OPEC member Iran has been the main opponent of a freeze as it looks to raise its output to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions.

Falih said in the statement the market is on the right track towards rebalancing but « the process of clearing crude and products inventories will take time ». « But the large short positioning in the market has caused the oil price to undershoot. However, this is unsustainable. To reverse the declines in investment and output, oil prices have to go up from the current levels, » he added.

German defence, interior minister to pump up joint training for attacks Germany’s Defence Minister said on Thursday the country lay in the « crosshairs of terrorism » and pressed plans for the military to train more closely with police in preparing for potential large-scale militant attacks.

Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at an operations centre in the town of Uedem near the Dutch border, said military and police already worked together on disaster response and to defend against 9/11-style attacks and chemical and biological threats; but it was critical to meet changing circumstances.

« The debate about using the military domestically is important simply because we are now pragmatically preparing for situations that we could not imagine before the attacks in Paris and Brussels, » von der Leyen told reporters. « We all know that Germany has long been in the crosshairs of terrorism … We have to be prepared. » Islamist militants killed 130 people in simultaneous attacks in Paris last November. In March, attackers killed 32 in attacks on Brussels airport and a metro station.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, speaking in Berlin, said Germany must spend considerably more on its police and security forces, create a special unit to counter cyber crime and terrorism, and clamp down on foreigners convicted of crimes.

SUCCESSOR TO MERKEL? De Maiziere rejected calls by interior ministers in some of Germany’s 16 states to abolish rules allowing the children of foreigners born in Germany to have dual citizenship. He said he would not seek to ban head-to-toe burqas worn by Muslim women as demanded by some fellow conservative politicians.

Germany is debating security measures including domestic use of military forces after a spate of attacks on civilians, two claimed by the Islamic State group, and a mass shooting in Munich initially seen as a possible terrorist attack. It was later found to be the work of an 18-year-old deranged gunman.

The use of the military at home is a sensitive matter.

Von der Leyen triggered questions when she put a unit of 100 military police on alert for possible deployment during the Munich shooting. Germany’s postwar constitution, intended to protect democracy after the Nazi era, forbids the army from deploying at home, except for defence against invasion or in case of natural disasters or extreme emergencies.

Von der Leyen and de Maiziere are seen as most likely successors to Chancellor Angela Merkel. De Maiziere was the last defence minister but demoted by Merkel to Interior Minister. He has however won widespread praise for his steady handling of recent attacks.

Von der Leyen said German police would retain responsibility for responding to any such attacks. But she said she would meet at the end of the month with de Maiziere and state interior ministers to discuss joint training of police and military.

Von der Leyen said the military could help police forces strained by attacks that hit several different areas at once, instead of requesting reinforcements from France, Austria or other countries. « In such extraordinary situations, the military would then legally be in charge, under the leadership of the police, » she said.

Italy raises security level at tourist ports – coastguard Italy raised the security level at its tourist ports on Thursday, a coastguard spokesman said, meaning intensified controls of people and vehicles during the height of the summer tourist season.

Coastguard Admiral Vincenzo Melone sent a letter ordering passenger and cruise-ship ports to raise their alert level to 2 from 1, the spokesman said. The highest level is 3. The coastguard gave no reason for the move.

Italy’s national security alert level was already at 2, the highest possible level in absence of a direct attack, following Islamist attacks in France and Belgium last year.

After the Nice attack last month in which more than 80 people were run down by a delivery truck, Italy increased border controls, and Rome last week boosted security at the Colosseum and Vatican after a French priest was murdered in his church. Italy last week signalled it was willing to allow the use of its airbases and airspace for attacks against Islamic State militants in Libya, which have continued this week, if the United States asked.

France says fight against messaging encryption needs worldwide initiative Messaging encryption, widely used by Islamist extremists to plan attacks, needs to be fought at international level, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Thursday, and he wants Germany to help him promote a global initiative.

He meets his German counterpart, Thomas de Maiziere, on Aug.23 in Paris and they will discuss a European initiative with a view to launching an international action plan, Cazeneuve said.

French intelligence services are struggling to intercept messages from Islamist extremists who increasingly switch from mainstream social media to encrypted messaging services, with Islamic State being a big user of such apps, including Telegram.

« Many messages relating to the execution of terror attacks are sent using encryption; it is a central issue in the fight against terrorism, » Cazeneuve told reporters after a government meeting on security.

« France will make proposals. I have sent a number of them to my Germany colleague, » he said.

Cazeneuve declined to say whether France would request decryption techniques from service operators.

The man who slit the throat of an elderly French priest in the name of Islamic State last month frequently communicated with scores of followers on Telegram, which is widely used in the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

Telegram promotes itself as ultra-secure because all data is encrypted from start to finish, known in the industry as end-to-end encryption. A number of other services, including Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp, say they have similar capabilities.

Germany’s de Maiziere said on Thursday that Germany lay in the « crosshairs of terrorism » and laid out plans for the military to train more closely with police authorities to prepare for potential large-scale militant attacks.

Martyrdom video shows man pledging attack -Canada policeThe Canadian man killed by police on Wednesday recorded a « martyrdom video » quoting Quranic verses and pledging an imminent attack on a Canadian city before he detonated a bomb in the backseat of a taxi as police closed in, police said on Thursday.

« Oh Canada, you received many warnings, you were told many times what would become of those who fight against the Islamic State, » a man clad in a black balaclava and identified by police as Aaron Driver, said in a video shown by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at a news conference in Ottawa.

Driver had previously professed support for Islamic State and had indicated he planned an imminent attack on a major Canadian city, drawing the attention of the U.S. authorities who tipped off Canadian police, intelligence sources said.

Canadian police killed man after U.S. tip on imminent attack -sources A Canadian man killed by police on Wednesday had previously professed support for Islamic State and had indicated he planned an imminent attack on a major Canadian city, drawing the attention of the U.S.authorities who tipped off Canadian police, intelligence sources said.

The man was killed on Wednesday during a police raid in the small Ontario town of Strathroy, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said, but did not give further details. The National Post newspaper said that he had detonated a bomb at the home and was about to detonate another when he was shot dead.

Intelligence sources identified the man as Aaron Driver, who was arrested last year for openly supporting the militant Islamist group Islamic State on social media and had been placed under a court order earlier this year restricting his movements.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation alerted Canadian authorities early on Wednesday that an individual was engaged in potential terrorism-related activities, the sources told Reuters. The sources declined to be identified as they did not have permission to speak to media.

One source said the FBI did not know the identity of the man and sent a wide notice across Canada about the potential threat.

A second source said the Canadians then realized it was Driver and deployed to his home in Strathroy, some 225 km (140 miles) southwest of Toronto.

The RCMP said only that officers fatally shot a suspect during a police operation and that the RCMP and its partners had worked overnight securing the scene and gathering evidence.

In Washington, an FBI spokeswoman referred questions to Canadian authorities.

The National Post cited Driver’s father, Wayne Driver, as saying the RCMP had told him that a taxi driver was wounded in a bomb set off by his son during the raid and that by shooting him the police prevented the detonation of a second bomb.

A representative from the local Leo’s Taxi Transportation Ltd. said a cab had been dispatched to Driver’s address on Wednesday night before he was shot by police.

The representative, who declined to be identified, said the taxi driver was injured in the incident, but has since recovered.

« He’s shaken up a bit, but he’s OK, » the representative said. « It was a shock, right? » There were no details yet of what kind of attack Driver, who also used the alias Harun Abdurahman, had allegedly been planning. Driver, 24, was a Muslim convert who was described as a « passive individual » by his former lawyer.

Strathroy is a town of about 21,000 inhabitants in the heart of Ontario’s farmland. Driver’s house was on a tranquil street lined with detached two-storey homes, near a baseball field and a swimming pool.

Driver had not been charged with a crime. But in February he was placed on a peace bond, a court order that restricted his movements, required that he stay away from social media and computers and not have contact with Islamic State or similar groups.

It was not clear how he was able to make alleged plans for an attack given the authorities had him on their radar.

It was also not yet known what action triggered FBI concern.

The incident was the first security test for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was elected in October 2015 and who in February fulfilled a campaign pledge to withdraw Canada from the combat mission against Islamic State and to increase its mission training local fighters against the group in northern Iraq.

‘CREDIBLE INFORMATION’ Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in a statement the public had been « properly protected » after the RCMP received « credible information regarding a potential terrorist threat. » Public transit operators in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, were warned by police of potential security threats hours before officers killed Driver, they said on Thursday.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), which serves the city, and the regional operator GO Transit confirmed they were contacted by police early on Wednesday TTC spokesman Brad Ross said there was no specific threat made and nothing to indicate the transport agency was a target, but the TTC sent out a « vigilance notice » to its employees. GO Transit spokeswoman Alex Burke referred further questions to the RCMP.

Driver’s former lawyer, Leonard Tailleur, said he was surprised by the incident as he had had an expert assess Driver and had found no signs of violence, despite his sometimes extreme views.

Driver, who was single, had a poor relationship with his father after his mother died when he was 7, Tailleur told Reuters.

In 2014, Canada was stunned by two deadly attacks that police said were the work of homegrown radicals and that led to tougher new anti-terrorism measures. A gunman killed a soldier at Ottawa’s national war memorial before launching an attack on the Canadian Parliament in October 2014 while, in the same week, a man ran down two soldiers in Quebec, killing one.

Driver had expressed support for the Parliament gunman, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, on Twitter, which was how he first came to the attention of Canadian security officials.

In March last year, Canada said it had foiled a plot by a self-proclaimed Islamic State supporter to bomb the U.S.consulate and other buildings in Toronto’s financial district.

Canada saw a big jump in terrorism offences last year with 173 alleged incidents, up from 76 in 2014, according to July data from Statistics Canada, which cites police information. There were 62 instances of people being accused of participating in what the agency described as « activity of terrorist group »? in Canada, up from 26 in 2014, and 28 alleged cases of people trying to leave the country to do so, up from seven in 2014.

Four dead as Thailand hit by string of blastsA string of bomb attacks targeting Thailand’s crucial tourism industry have killed four people, officials said Friday, sending authorities scrambling to identify a motive and find the perpetrators.

Twin bombs exploded in the upscale resort of Hua Hin late Thursday, killing one woman and wounding more than 20 others, including nine foreign tourists, and were followed by two more on Friday morning that killed another person.

A further two blasts struck Friday in the popular tourist town of Phuket, while two more bombs were reported in the southern provinces of Trang and Surat Thani, in each of which one person was killed.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha called for calm and said he did not know who was behind the attacks.

« The bombs are an attempt to create chaos and confusion, » he told reporters. « We should not make people panic more. »

« Why the bombs occurred as our country is heading towards stability, a better economy and tourism — and who did it — you have to find out for me, » he added.

The two bombs that went off in Hua Hin on Thursday evening were hidden in potted plants and went off within 30 minutes of each other in the bar district of the popular beach town.

While small bombings are common in the kingdom during periods of heightened political tension, there have been few such incidents in the past year and it is rare for tourists to be targeted.

Hua Hin is home to the summer palace of Thailand’s revered royal family and the blast came on the eve of Queen Sirikit’s 84th birthday and just ahead of the first anniversary of a Bangkok shrine bombing that killed 20.

Authorities were searching for leads on the attackers and a motive behind the latest blasts.

Hua Hin’s district chief, Sutthipong Klai-udom, told AFP that the bombs on Thursday evening were detonated by mobile phone.

According to staff at local hospitals, German, Italian, Dutch and Austrian nationals were among the wounded.

« It was very shocking. There was a loud noise and police were running everywhere, it was terrible, » said Michael Edwards, an Australian tourist staying in a guest house close to where the second bomb detonated.

« I was just surprised that it happened here… now I’m thinking if it’s worth staying, » he told AFP.

– Record tourism –

Hua Hin is an upscale resort town about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Bangkok, popular with both local and foreign tourists.

It is also home to a palace for years favoured by Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch.

The 88-year-old is currently hospitalised in Bangkok for a myriad of health complications, a pressing source of anxiety for many Thais and a key factor in the kingdom’s past decade of political turmoil.

Thailand’s reputation as the « Land of Smiles » has suffered in recent years from crimes against foreigners and political unrest.

But tourists continue to flock to its white, sandy beaches and Buddhist temples.

The kingdom is expecting a record 32 million visitors in 2016, with the tourism industry a bright spot in an otherwise lacklustre economy.

The latest blasts came just days before the first anniversary of the last major attack on tourists in Thailand — an August 17 bomb that killed 20 people, mostly ethnic Chinese tourists.

The blast ripped through a crowded Hindu shrine in the heart of Bangkok and stunned the kingdom as the deadliest assault in recent history.

Two Uighur men from western China have been accused of the attack and are due to go on trial later this month.

Both deny any involvement in the bombing and mystery continues to swirl around the case, with authorities failing to catch a number of other suspects or offer a thorough explanation for a motive.

Thailand’s military junta, which seized power in 2014 after a decade of at times violent political unrest, has touted an increase in stability in the kingdom as a major accomplishment of its rule.

Yet the generals have failed to quell a long-running Islamic insurgency in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces — a region far from Bangkok or Hua Hin.

The conflict is largely contained to the far south but violence has occasionally spilled into other areas.

Zachary Abuza, an expert on militants in Southeast Asia, said it would be « very unusual » for the insurgents to target Hua Hin. If southern rebels were behind the recent blasts, « it is almost definitely a small cell operating on their own initiative », he told AFP.

French Catholic shrine prepares for pilgrimage in shadow of attacks French security forces are on high alert as thousands of Catholics converge on the shrine of Lourdes for an annual pilgrimage unfolding in the shadow of a string of terror attacks.

Each year, tens of thousands flock to the sanctuary in the foothills of the Pyrenees for the Feast of the Assumption on August 15, marking the ascent of the Virgin Mary into Heaven.

This year’s pilgrimage comes as Catholics reel from the killing of an elderly French priest on July 26 by two Islamist extremists, who stormed his church in northern France during Mass and slit his throat.

Jacques Hamel’s murder came under two weeks after a Tunisian — said by investigators to have become radicalised by online jihadist videos — ploughed a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 85 people.

Many in France are now leery about attending public gatherings after three large-scale attacks in 18 months.

With tourist arrivals in the country plummeting, authorities had worried that the number of visitors to this year’s pilgrimage would be sharply down.

But fears of mass cancellations have failed to materialise — and some organisers say there has even been a last-minute surge.

Around 25,000 faithful are expected, including mass groups from Italy and Belgium and a delegation of around 200 members of the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity.

Many pilgrims say they will not be cowed.

« We’re not going to stop living, » Christian, a 66-year-old visitor, told AFP, describing prayer as the « only weapon » in the face of violence.

« It’s important to show that life goes on, » said Matthieu Guignard, one of the coordinators.

« It’s not because a few fanatics try to sow fear that we should abandon our faith, our beliefs, our way of living. »

– Surprise bookings spurt –

Several major events have been cancelled in France since the Nice attack over security concerns, including a huge flea market in the northern city of Lille and the European road cycling championships that had been set to take place in Nice in September.

« For the past week, my fear was that my phone would be ringing with cancellations, » Fabien Lejeusne, the priest in charge of the official pilgrimage said last weekend.

Instead, the attacks appeared to mobilise the faithful, he said, reporting a last-minute bookings spurt.

The head of the local hotel workers’ union, Christian Gelis, confirmed signs of « increased interest » in the pilgrimage in the wake of the attacks.

Security has been dramatically tightened around the sanctuary built around the shrine, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in a grotto to Bernadette Soubirous, a poor shepherd girl, in 1858.

Around 250 police and two dozen soldiers, including bomb disposal experts and officers with sniffer dogs, have been deployed to protect the area.

Pilgrims filing through security barriers have their bags searched at the entrance to the site, where the number of access points has been reduced from a dozen to three.

The route of Friday’s opening procession has also been curtailed — instead of starting in the town of Lourdes and proceeding to the sanctuary, it will start and end at the shrine.

Other measures taken including shutting down the airspace above Lourdes to flights, closing off the streets around the sanctuary to traffic and replacing rubbish bins with transparent plastic bags.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve is to inspect security arrangements on Saturday.

Lourdes attracts around six million people a year, making it one of the biggest sites of Catholic pilgrimage in the world.

Many visitors bring sick or disabled relatives, who come to bathe in a spring in the cave where Bernadette said she saw Mary, believing the water to have healing properties.

Thierry Castillo, another of the organisers, described this year’s gathering as « a bit unusual » given « the threat that seems to have taken root in France. »

But « it won’t affect the quality and depth of what they experience, » he assured.

Francoise, a 58-year-old volunteer who was assisting sick pilgrims, admitted she found the presence of soldiers in fatigues « a little overwhelming ». « But if it reassures everyone, it’s good. »

U.S. military was too positive on Islamic State fight -Congressional report  A U.S. congressional report issued on Thursday found that the U.S. Central Command’s analysis of the fight against Islamic State militants was too positive in 2014 and 2015, compared with events on the ground and other intelligence analyses.

The report came from a task force established by the Republican chairmen of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Intelligence Committee and Defense Appropriations subcommittee.

It found « widespread dissatisfaction » among analysts at U.S.Central Command who felt their the superiors were distorting their products.

« What happened at CENTCOM is unacceptable – our warfighters suffer when bad analysis is presented to senior policymakers. We must continue our efforts until we fix it, » Republican Representative Ken Calvert, a member of the task force, said in a statement.

The height of the Islamic State’s rapid expansion was in 2014, as the militant group grabbed a swath of territory spread from Iraq into central Syria.

Patrick Evans, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Department of Defense had initiated a separate investigation into the issue, and would take no action or make any comment that could influence the inspector general’s work.

However, as a general comment, he said the intelligence community routinely provides a wide range of assessments.

« Experts sometimes disagree on the interpretation of complex data, and the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense welcome healthy dialogue on these vital national security topics, » Evans said. Democrats from the House committees did not have immediate comments on the report.

Military attaches, diplomats flee Turkey’s post-coup inquiry Two Turkish military attaches in Greece fled to Italy, others were caught overseas and some diplomats were on the run after being recalled as part of an inquiry into last month’s failed military coup, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

Turkey, which has NATO’s second-biggest armed forces, has dismissed or detained thousands of soldiers, including nearly half its generals, since the July 15 coup attempt, in which rogue troops commandeered tanks and warplanes in an attempt to seize power.

Western allies worry that President Tayyip Erdogan is using the putsch and the purge that has followed to tighten his grip on power. But many Turks are angered by what they see as a lack of Western sympathy over a violent coup in which 240 people died.

« Democracy rallies », largely attended by Erdogan supporters but also some parts of the opposition, have been held night after night since the putsch. Pollster Metropoll said on Thursday its monthly survey showed a surge in approval for Erdogan to 68 percent in July from 47 percent a month earlier.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told private broadcaster NTV that two military attaches in Greece – a naval and an army officer – had fled by car and ferry to Italy, but that Turkish officials would seek their return.

Cavusoglu said a military attache based in Kuwait had also tried to escape through Saudi Arabia, but had been sent back, as well as two generals based in Afghanistan who had been caught in Dubai by UAE authorities and returned to Turkey.

The hunt for fugitive Turkish officers and officials overseas expands the crackdown at home, where tens of thousands of troops, police and bureaucrats have been detained, dismissed or investigated for alleged links to the coup, which authorities blame on U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen denies any involvement and has condemned the coup bid.

But he says Erdogan is using the purges to shore up his own power in Turkey.

Turkey has detained a total of 35,022 people in relation to the failed coup, a senior official said. Just over half of those detained, or 17,740 people, have been formally arrested while a third have been released. Another 5,685 are still in custody, the official said.

« TIME HAS RUN OUT » « There are those who have escaped. There have been escapees among our diplomats as well, » Cavusoglu told NTV in an interview. « As of yesterday, time has run out for those initially called back. We will carry out the legal operations for those who have not returned. » Interior Minister Efkan Ala was quoted on Thursday as saying almost 76,100 civil servants have now been suspended.

The Greek foreign ministry said the two attaches fled before Ankara asked them to return to Turkey, and before officials cancelled their diplomatic passports.

U.S. officials told Reuters this week that a Turkish military officer on a U.S.-based assignment for NATO is also seeking asylum in the United States after being recalled by the government.

A total of 160 members of the military wanted in connection with the failed coup are still at large, including nine generals, officials have said.

One official said the foreign ministry sent instructions to Turkish diplomatic missions around the world where those suspected of links to the plotters were thought to be working, ordering them back to Ankara as part of the investigations.

Five employees of Turkey’s embassy in the Netherlands were recalled on suspicion of involvement with the Gulen movement, the Turkish charge d’affaires told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper this week.

« It wasn’t the cook or the servants, » Kurtulus Aykan, acting head of Turkey’s mission to the Netherlands, was quoted as saying. « These were high-ranking staff members. Talented people, with whom I had an excellent working relationship. I suspected nothing. That’s the talent of this movement. They infiltrate silently. » Cavusoglu has previously said around 300 members of the foreign ministry have been suspended since the coup plot, including two ambassadors. He said on Thursday two officials in Bangladesh fled to New York, and another official had fled to Japan through Moscow.

« We will return these traitors to Turkey, » Cavusoglu said.

« PARALLEL STATE » Erdogan accuses Gulen of staging the attempted putsch, harnessing his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses built up in Turkey and abroad over decades to create a « parallel structure ».

The abortive coup and subsequent purge of the military have raised concern about the stability of Turkey, a member of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State and which is battling an insurgency at home by Kurdish militants.

Turkey has been angered by the Western response, viewing Europe as more concerned about the rights of the plotters than the events themselves and the United States as reluctant to extradite Gulen.

That has chilled relations with Washington and the European Union, bringing repeated Turkish warnings about an EU deal to stem the flow of migrants. Erdogan has also repaired ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a detente Western officials worry may be used to pressure the West.

« Sooner or later the United States of America will make a choice. Either Turkey or FETO, » Erdogan told a rally late on Wednesday, using an abbreviation standing for the « Gulenist Terror Group » which is how Ankara refers to Gulen’s movement.

Turkey has also cancelled the work permits of 27,424 people in the education sector as part of its investigations, Education Minister Ismet Yilmaz said on Thursday.

Ankara prosecutors also ordered on Thursday the detention of 648 judges and prosecutors suspended a day earlier, Hurriyet newspaper and broadcasters said. They are among 3,500 judges and prosecutors – a quarter of the national total – suspended in the coup inquiry, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

Russia announces war games after accusing Ukraine of terrorist plot Vladimir Putin summoned his security council and the Russian Navy announced war games in the Black Sea, a day after the Russian president accused Ukraine of trying to provoke a conflict over Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed in 2014.

The belligerent posture heightened worries in Ukraine that Russia may plan to ramp up fighting in a war between Kiev and pro-Russian eastern separatists that had been de-escalated by a shaky peace process.

Using some of his most aggressive rhetoric against Kiev since the height of the war two years ago, Putin has pledged to take counter-measures against Ukraine, which he accused of sending saboteurs into Crimea to carry out terrorist acts.

Ukraine has called the accusations false and says they look like a pretext for Russia to escalate hostilities. Such an escalation could be used by Putin to demand better terms in the Ukraine peace process, or to inflame nationalist passions at home ahead of Russian parliamentary elections next month.

The Russian leader met his top military and intelligence service brass on Thursday and reviewed « scenarios for counter-terrorism security measures along the land border, offshore and in Crimean air space, » the Kremlin said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he had ordered all Ukrainian units near Crimea and in eastern Ukraine onto the highest state of combat readiness. He was seeking to urgently speak to Putin, the leaders of France and Germany, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and European Council President Donald Tusk.

Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border guards, said Russia had massed troops on Ukraine’s border with Crimea in recent days following an uptick in Russian military activity in northern Crimea and heavier fighting in eastern Ukraine.

« These troops are coming with more modern equipment and there are air assault units, » he told a news briefing in Kiev.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its navy – whose Black Sea Fleet is based in Crimea – would start to hold exercises in the area to practice repelling underwater attacks by saboteurs.

PUTIN’S PLAY Russia says it caught the infiltrators after at least two armed clashes on the border between Crimea and Ukraine over the weekend, and one of its soldiers and an FSB security service employee were killed. Kiev denies the events ever happened.

Whatever the truth, the allegations have already scuppered planned talks about eastern Ukraine slated for the sidelines of a G20 summit in China next month. Putin said such talks would now be « pointless. » In an editorial, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti said escalation was a proven Kremlin tactic ahead of negotiations.

Putin was trying either to alter or to tear up the Minsk peace process, named for the Belarus capital where truces were hammered out for the war in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.

« Events in Donbass in 2014-15 showed that the Kremlin tactic is to raise the stakes before negotiations. The main political question now is what will happen to the Minsk process. Will Russia break away from it or will it demand new concessions? » the newspaper wrote.

« Putin in his rhetoric has returned to the start of 2014.

Once again, he does not deem the Ukrainian authorities legitimate. » Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst in Ukraine, said he thought the Kremlin had its own revised peace plan for eastern Ukraine up its sleeve.

« Putin will scare the West with the prospect of full-scale conflict with Ukraine, » he said. « He is trying to increase pressure on Kiev to force Ukraine to accept a Russian plan to resolve the conflict in the east.

« Putin won’t go all out for a big war. But there might be pinpoint military operations against radicals whose bases are located near the border with Crimea. »

PUTIN’S AIMS The European Union and the United States have tied the success of talks under the Minsk process to any possible decision to lift financial sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

But Moscow has grown increasingly frustrated by the talks and by what it says is Ukraine’s refusal to fulfil the terms of the truce. Kiev for its part says Moscow is the one that is still stirring tensions among pro-Russian separatists.

Escalating tension over Crimea could give Putin a pretext to abandon talks altogether, or demand changes to their format and terms, while holding out the prospect of a full-scale renewal of hostilities if he doesn’t get what he wants.

It could also help rally Russians ahead of the parliamentary vote, in which the main pro-Kremlin United Russia Party might struggle to win as many votes as usual because of an economic slump caused by low oil prices as well as the sanctions.

« While polls show United Russia doing okay (60 percent support), Putin never likes to take chances with domestic politics, » Timothy Ash, a strategist at Nomura Bank, wrote in a note. « (He) will want to impress on the Russian electorate his own strength and how lucky they are to be Russian citizens as perhaps compared to their Ukrainian counterparts. » The imbroglio also gives Crimea’s pro-Russian authorities an excuse for their failure to raise living standards since Russia took over. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed prime minister, told state TV he blamed the Ukrainian incursions on the U.S.State Department.

Putin may also hope instability in Ukraine can feed into the U.S. presidential election campaign, where Republican Donald Trump accuses President Barack Obama’s administration of incompetence and has called for better ties with Moscow. Putin may yet hope to cut a deal on both Ukraine and Syria, the two big issues of contention with Washington, before Obama exits.

What actually happened in and around Crimea at the weekend remains disputed. U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt said Washington had so far seen nothing to corroborate Russia’s version. A spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini also said there had been no independent confirmation.

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper on Thursday cited unnamed security sources as saying a group of men Russia had arrested for planning attacks had confessed to seeking to destroy Crimea’s tourist industry by bombing resorts.

The sources told Kommersant two of seven saboteurs in one group had been killed and five captured. Most were Crimea residents and some had Russian passports, they said. In Ukraine, the brother of one of the detained men said he thought his brother had been kidnapped as part of « a big game. »

British PM seeks progress on Falklands in letter to Argentine leader British Prime Minister Theresa May has written to Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri calling for restrictions on oil exploration in the Falklands Islands to be lifted and for more flights to the British-run islands, her office said on Thursday.

Argentina claims sovereignty over the South Atlantic islands it calls Las Malvinas, and relations between Buenos Aires and London have been strained for decades over the issue, culminating in a war in 1982 which Britain won.

May, who became prime minister in July, called for « more productive » relations between the two countries in her letter to the pro-business Macri, who took office in December as Argentina’s first non-Peronist president in more than a decade.

« Since the election of President Macri, we have been working towards improved relations with Argentina because we think that is in the interests of both our countries and the Falkland Islanders too, » May’s Downing Street office said in a statement.

In her letter, May said she hoped that where the two countries had differences, « these can be acknowledged in an atmosphere of mutual respect ».

She called for progress towards new flights between the islands, which are located about 435 miles off the coast of Tierra del Fuego in southern Argentina, and third countries in the region.

As things stand, a Chilean airline flies from Santiago to the Falklands every Saturday via the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas, according to the Falklands Tourist Board. Once a month, the flight also stops in Rio Gallegos, Argentina, in both directions.

May also called for the removal of « restrictive hydrocarbons measures », a reference to various attempts by Argentine authorities to restrict oil and gas exploration in the waters around the islands.

Tensions flared in June last year, under Macri’s predecessor Cristina Fernandez, when an Argentine federal judge ordered the seizure of millions of dollars’ worth of assets owned by drillers operating in the Falklands area.

The Argentine measures have not halted oil exploration, although efforts have been scaled down in recent times due to low oil prices on international markets.

The Falklands are inhabited by about 3,000 people, the overwhelming majority of whom say they wish the islands to remain a British overseas territory. Argentina has rejected that argument, accusing Britain of deliberately settling people there over a long period of history to bolster an illegitimate sovereignty claim.

Trump’s criticism of Obama, Clinton as ‘co-founders’ of Islamic State called « false » Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s characterization of U.S.President Barack Obama and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as « co-founders » of the Islamic State militant group drew swift rebuke on Thursday as « false » and « unhinged. » The exchange was the latest in a series of attacks from Trump in which he has sought to depict America as less safe, Democrats to blame and himself as the only one who can restore security.

Democrats, in turn, have used Trump’s often hyperbolic statements to argue he is unfit to be president and lacks the temperament to be trusted with matters of national security.

Weary Republicans who see the New York real estate mogul as spending too much time fighting within his own party have called on Trump to refocus his campaign message on Clinton. But for those still uncertain about whether Trump has the discipline to stick to an attack against Clinton, the latest comments were concerning.

« ISIS is a solid GOP message to show contrast with Hillary Clinton and the failures of the Obama-Clinton administration, » said Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist who remains undecided about the nominee, using acronyms for Islamic State and the Republican Party.

But, she added, « Trump should have simply said that the Obama administration’s decision to pull all troops out of Iraq, with no stay-behind agreement, created a vacuum and allowed ISIS to metastasize. It’s absurd for him to say that Obama and Clinton are founders of ISIS – and he can’t blame the media for this. » Some Republicans see a small silver lining in Trump talking more about Clinton.

« It is helpful – at least to the rest of the ticket – that he is focusing a little more on Clinton than on other Republicans, whether defeated primary opponents or other elected officials who are on the ballot, for a change, » said former New Hampshire Republican Chairman Fergus Cullen, who is not supporting Trump.

« But tomorrow, or later today, he could blame (Republican Senator) Jeff Flake for A-Rod’s retirement, » Cullen said, referring to Yankees player Alexander Rodriguez’s decision to leave professional baseball. « I have zero confidence in Trump’s ability to stay on one message or to drive one message for any length of time longer than about 10 seconds. » CRITICISM OF IRAQ WAR Trump has previously criticized Clinton for supporting the Iraq War in 2003 while she was a U.S. senator. Trump frequently says, in drawing contrast with Clinton, that he opposed the war – but in interviews before the invasion he did voice support.

Now, Trump is arguing that in trying to end the war and withdrawing U.S. troops in 2011, Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, and Obama created the Islamic State.

Republicans frequently trace the birth of Islamic State to the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw the last U.S.forces from Iraq by the end of 2011.

But many analysts argue its roots lie in the decision of George W. Bush’s Republican administration to invade Iraq in 2003 without a plan to fill the vacuum created by Saddam Hussein’s ouster. It was Bush’s administration, not Obama’s, that negotiated the 2009 agreement which called for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011.

Clinton’s campaign called Trump’s statement « false. » « This is another example of Donald Trump trash-talking the United States, » senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

« What’s remarkable about Trump’s comments is that once again, he’s echoing the talking points of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and our adversaries to attack American leaders and American interests, while failing to offer any serious plans to confront terrorism or make this country more secure, » Sullivan said.

Clinton posted on the social media website Twitter that Trump’s comments are disqualifying.

« Anyone willing to sink so low, so often should never be allowed to serve as our Commander-in-Chief, » she wrote.

The White House declined to comment on Trump’s claim.

Appearing in Miami Beach, Florida, on Thursday morning, Trump repeated his attack for the third time, saying the U.S.

government « has unleashed ISIS. » « In fact, I think we’ll give Hillary Clinton … most valuable player, » Trump said. « ISIS will hand her the most valuable player award. Her only competition is President Barack Obama. » Trump first made the assertion in a speech on Wednesday night in Florida, saying, « I call them co-founders » of Islamic State.

In an interview on Thursday morning, Trump defended the remarks.

« Is there something wrong with saying that? » Trump told CNBC. « Why – are people complaining that I said he was the founder of ISIS? All I do is tell the truth, I’m a truth teller. » Trump was also asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt if he « meant that (Obama) created the vacuum, he lost the peace. » « No, » Trump responded. « I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do. » The Democratic National Committee lambasted Trump’s remarks.

« Donald Trump should apologize for his outrageous, unhinged and patently false suggestions on the founding of ISIS, » the DNC said in a statement. « This is yet another out of control statement by a candidate who is unraveling before our very eyes. » Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani defended Trump on CNN, saying his remarks were « legitimate political commentary. »

U.S. labor market firming; inflation remains benign The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week, pointing to sustained labor market strength in early August that could help spur faster economic growth.

Other data on Thursday showed an unexpected rise in import prices in July as a drop in petroleum prices was offset by gains in the cost of other goods. However, renewed dollar strength is expected to curb underlying inflation in the coming months.

« The data remain consistent with a still-strong trend in employment growth, which means the backdrop for consumer spending remains favorable, » said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S.economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 266,000 for the week ended Aug. 6, the Labor Department said. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 2,000 fewer applications received than previously reported.

Claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with a strong labor market, for 75 straight weeks, the longest streak since 1973 when the labor force was smaller.

The four-week average of claims, considered to be a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 3,000 to 262,750 last week.

With the labor market perceived to be either at or approaching full employment, there is probably little room for further declines in claims. A report on Wednesday showed layoffs fell to a near two-year low in June.

The upbeat claims report and better-than-expected financial results from retailers Kohl and Macy’s boosted U.S. stocks. Prices for U.S. government debt fell, while the dollar was largely changed against a basket of currencies.

TAME INFLATION In a separate report, the Labor Department said import prices edged up 0.1 percent last month after increasing 0.6 percent in June. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast import prices falling 0.3 percent in July.

In the 12 months through July, import prices fell 3.7 percent, the smallest decrease since November 2014, after declining 4.7 percent in the 12 months through June. Import prices excluding petroleum increased 0.5 percent, the largest gain since April 2011, after dropping 0.3 percent in June.

Last month’s increase in import prices came despite a 0.6 percent rise in the dollar against the currencies of the United States’ main trading partners in July. The dollar lost some steam early in the year. Oil prices, which had started to rise toward $50 per barrel, fell in July and are now below $45 per barrel.

The combination of dollar strength and cheap oil will likely continue to dampen imported inflation pressures and keep overall inflation below the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.

Persistently low inflation suggests the U.S. central bank is unlikely to raise interest rates in the near term, even as the labor market approaches full employment.

« Although the pass-through of import prices to consumer price inflation is small, given the large share of spending on services, the weakness in import prices remains an additional hurdle for the Fed in reaching its inflation goal, » said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The robust labor market is boosting consumer spending and putting a floor under the economy after an inventory correction and lower oil prices restricted GDP growth to an average 1.0 percent annualized rate in the last three quarters.

The economy added a total of 547,000 jobs in June and July. The low number of claims suggests job growth momentum was retained in early August.

Australia blocks electricity sale to Chinese bidders, cites security Australia blocked the A$10 billion ($7.7 billion) sale of its biggest energy grid to State Grid Corp of China and Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings citing security concerns, in a blow to the country’s privatisation plan.

Nine months after clearing the sale of TransGrid to an investor group 40 percent controlled by Kuwaiti and Abu Dhabi interests, Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison said on Thursday he was rejecting the sale of Ausgrid to the rival Asian bidders because of risks to the national interest.

« During the review process national security issues were identified in critical power and communications services that Ausgrid provides to businesses and governments, » Morrison said in a statement.

State Grid, China’s dominant power distributor, did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment. Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI), controlled by Hong Kong billionaire tycoon Li Ka-Shing, said the decision was not related to CKI.

Australia’s decision to reject the bids deprives the New South Wales state government of what would have been a record haul for a single privatisation sale, and also underscores the country’s changing political climate since a handful of protectionist senators took power in elections last month.

The Australian Senate cannot block offshore sales, but Morrison’s conservative government needs to maintain favourable relations with the crossbench which now holds the balance of power in the upper house.

CHINA TIES The decision also sets new parameters to the relationship between Australia and its biggest export partner just eight months after a A$100 billion free trade agreement took effect.

« If you put your biggest trading partner in the category of ‘security risk’, it might start to impact on the overall atmosphere, and on Chinese involvement in other areas, » said Hans Hendrischke, a professor of Chinese business at University of Sydney’s business school.

« That is not necessarily something you want with bidding for other big infrastructure projects, » he added, noting Chinese interests have routinely bid in Australian infrastructure sales.

China’s state news agency Xinhua said that Chinese investment should not become a source of strategic concern for trade partners but a sign of cooperation.

« To suggest that China would try to kidnap the countries’ electricity network for ulterior motive is absurd and almost comical, » Xinhua said in a commentary, reflecting government thinking.

« It’s also ridiculous to suggest that Chinese enterprises would risk their credit and commit suicide on the world stage by threatening to deny the Australian and British public electricity, » Xinhua added.

Britain has delayed signing off on a $24 billion nuclear power project, which has deeply frustrated the Chinese government.

BACKLASH OVER AUSTRALIAN PORT SALE Apart from Ausgrid and TransGrid – which State Grid also attempted to buy last year – the government of NSW, Australia’s most populous state, has put up a third grid for sale, rural-focused Endeavour Energy, expected to fetch about A$5 billion based on the valuation models used for the first two.

The national sell-off programme has been under political pressure since the 2015 sale of Port of Darwin to Chinese government-affiliated interests that sparked a backlash over the security implications and even a rebuke from U.S. government officials.

Soon after that, Morrison blocked proposed sales of the country’s biggest agricultural land holding, S. Kidman Co, to Chinese bidders.

NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian said she respected the federal government’s decision and « there will be no delays to our infrastructure pipeline ».

In a statement to Reuters, CKI spokeswoman Wendy Tong Barnes, said: « We believe that the Australian government must have reasons beyond the obvious which led them to make today’s announcement. The issue is unrelated to CKI. » State Grid and CKI have until Aug. 18 to make submissions to Morrison. A further rejection would open the possibility that the sale process would be re-run in the hope that a competitive local bid would emerge for the network that serves nearly a quarter of NSW’s 7.5 million people.

INSIGHT-Nigeria riven by new battles over scarce fertile land Muslim herdsmen fleeing Boko Haram jihadists and fast-spreading desertification in the north of Nigeria are clashing with Christian farmers in the south, adding a dangerous new dimension to the sectarian tensions and militancy plaguing the country.

Thousands of people from Muslim Fulani tribes have moved southwards this year, leading to a series of clashes over land that have killed more than 350 people, most of them Christian crop farmers, according to residents and rights activists.

The fighting threatens to fracture the country further by bolstering support for a Christian secessionist movement in the southeast, which has been lingering for decades but gained fresh momentum late last year when resentment over poverty and the arrest of one of its leaders spilled over into street protests.

The conflict is also exposing a growing problem that has attracted less international attention than Boko Haram and the militants threatening oil production in the Niger Delta region.

Fertile land is becoming scarcer across Africa’s most populous nation, and conflict over this dwindling resource is likely to intensify. The population of poverty-stricken Nigeria is expected to more than double to almost 400 million by 2050, according to the United Nations.

There are no signs that the secessionists will take up arms against the government like in the 1967-70 civil war that killed one million people. But the clashes and growing resentment at the arrival of Muslim herdsmen come at a time when many people in the southeast are complaining about widespread poverty.

In one of the deadliest clashes, about 50 people were killed in April when Fulanis attacked the village of Nimbo in southeastern Nigeria, according to residents, rights groups and lawmakers who visited Nimbo after the violence.

They said the attackers opened fire on villagers and torched a house where a priest and his family were sleeping, with the family only surviving by jumping out of a window.

« The Fulanis … came in the town and shot at any man they saw and killed him, » said Joseph Obeta, another priest in Nimbo, which is now almost deserted after hundreds of villagers fled during or after the attack.

Obeta said if there was an independent state in the southeast of Nigeria, it would be easier to prevent such violence.

« It would make a difference if the southeast were on its own. » He was echoing the sentiment of campaigners lobbying for an independent state. They say they want to stop the Muslim north from dominating the Christian south of the West African country, which is split fairly evenly between Muslims and Christians.

They say the influx of herdsmen from the north is part of a plan by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani Muslim, to turn Nigeria into an Islamic nation – an allegation vehemently denied by the government and Buhari.

CRISES Fulani leaders say their communities have no choice but to migrate southwards.

The precise numbers involved are unclear, but thousands first moved to central Nigeria to seek new pastures and escape the violence and insecurity of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Growing desertification – where fertile land turns into desert for reasons including over-exploitation and drought – has forced many further south this year, to more than 1,000 km from their homeland.

The Fulani leaders say they are clamping down on members who commit crimes but added that they often were themselves victims of kidnapping, attacks or cattle rustling at the hands of residents of southern farming communities.

« When they suffer maltreatment (in southern areas they migrate to), they do not usually speak up or report to police until when it becomes unbearable, then they will react, » said Alhaji Gidado, head of the Fulani cattle breeder association in the southeast.

Buhari said last week that he had ordered security forces to « deal decisively » with violence between herdsmen and farmers.

But he faces a host of other crises.

His security forces are battling the Boko Haram in the northeast – the president’s priority since taking office last year after making an election promise to defeat the jihadists.

Seven years into Boko Haram’s insurgency that spread from Nigeria into Chad, Niger and Cameroon, regional armies have retaken most of the territory that had been seized by the group, though it still stages suicide bombings.

The countries are in a final push to defeat the hardline Sunni Muslim group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, but lingering divisions in their joint task force are complicating that mission.

Buhari has also promised to crush militants that have carried out pipeline bombings in the southern Delta region and are threatening to trigger a wider conflict that could cripple oil production in a country facing a growing economic crisis.

On the problems created by Fulanis migrating south, residents and rights activists said Buhari’s previous pledges to tackle the clashes between the herdsmen and crop farmers had not been backed up by any significant security action.

Human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe, invited by the U.S.House of Representatives to give testimony in May about Boko Haram and other crises facing Nigeria, said the Fulanis had been operating in « plain sight » to stage attacks that were more brutal than the jihadist group.

VIGILANTES Police have said they had increased patrols in farming areas that have been affected by violence but local youth have nevertheless taken up arms against Fulanis since the Nimbo attack.

« The Fulani people have been robbing, raping women, » said 28-year old Anthony Okafor, searching cars at a vigilante checkpoint outside Nimbo. « That’s why we are here. » Some residents said the youth, with their outdated rifles borrowed from farmers, would be no match for the Fulanis, who they said had assault weapons.

Officials worry poverty levels are rising in rural areas, where there are few job opportunities outside agriculture, as many scared farmers have abandoned their fields.

Stanley Okeke, head of the government council in Agwu, said production of cassava, a staple crop, had fallen significantly in parts of Enugu state, to which Nimbo and Agwu belong.

James Onyimba, leader of a community comprising six villages in Enugu, said many farmers were now sitting idle at home. »Farming is our main job. We don’t have any factories, » he added. « The problem of unemployment is getting worse. »

Greek banks offer incentives to lure back ‘mattress’ cash Greek banks are offering higher interest rates to attract back billions of euros that savers pulled out in cash last year, as lenders bid to ease their liquidity strains after a slight reduction of capital controls.

Greeks withdrew more than 40 billion euros ($45 billion) of deposits since November 2014 on fears the country would topple out of the euro before capital controls imposed in June last year contained the flight.

The outflow deprived banks of liquidity, forcing them to turn to central bank borrowing to plug their funding gap. Most of the money that fled the system was hoarded « under the mattress » at home – or in safety deposit boxes. A smaller proportion was sent abroad.

Last month the government scaled back some restrictions, lifting withdrawal limits on cash redeposited into the banking system. Savers can withdraw the entire amount of new cash deposits and up to 30 percent of money transferred from abroad in cash.

To entice inflows of ‘mattress’ cash, banks are offering higher interest rates, paying up to half a percentage point above what existing time deposits earn.

« We offer 1.3 percent on a six-month time deposit, the rate is higher than the 0.8 percent rate that existing accounts earn for a similar period, » said Vasiliki Balaska, an account officer at Alpha Bank.

« The entire amount of fresh cash deposited can be withdrawn, it is not subject to capital controls, » she said.

Greek central bank data showed that banknotes in circulation stood at 47 billion euros in June. While a portion sits at the Bank of Greece’s vaults, the figure is up by about 17 billion euros from late 2014, meaning there is money to be lured back.

Rival Eurobank offers similar rates on three and six-month new time deposits.

Savers inclined to deposit large amounts of cash may face some hurdles. Capital control rules prohibit opening new accounts, meaning they will need to deposit the money into an existing account and do some explaining.

« One cannot walk into a bank with 50,000 euros in cash and expect us to accept it without questions. It helps if they can provide withdrawal slips, showing the money was pulled out during the crisis, » said another personal banker.

Banks have seen a trickle of deposit inflows in nearly a year after the country clinched a third international bailout to stay in the euro zone. The longer it takes to recover deposits, the higher the structural funding imbalance for the banks.

While corporate and household deposits rose in June for the second month in a row to 122.74 billion euros, they remain at their lowest levels seen since November 2003 but authorities expect improvement.

Deputy Finance Minister George Chouliarakis told parliament last month that the government is projecting a three to four billion euro capital injection into banks as a result of hoarded cash being redeposited

Some green shoots emerge in Argentina’s recession-hit economy At a recent agricultural fair in Argentina, manufacturers of threshers, tractors and harvesting combines did so well that some encountered an unusual problem in an economy hit by recession and high inflation — excess demand.

« We’ve sold much better than we thought we would, but the thing is we were planning too small, » Marcos Formica, an engineer representing manufacturer Mainero, told Reuters at the fair, known as La Rural, late last month.

« We were planning to sell a few machines, and we sold much more. We’ve lost some sales because we didn’t have the stock, » he said, adding that Mainero now plans to start producing machinery two months ahead of schedule for the coming season.

Sales of agricultural machinery – a useful leading indicator for the farm sector – jumped to 3,004 units in the first half of this year, up 7 percent from the same period last year, government data shows.

Despite plenty of gloom about Argentina’s economy, there are signs of green shoots in other areas of the economy as well.

A recent improvement in consumer confidence suggests some Argentines are expecting a recovery under President Mauricio Macri, who has pushed through a series of pro-business reforms since taking office in December after 12 years of interventionist, left-wing rule.

By sharply devaluing the peso, loosening price controls and hiking utility rates, Macri’s center-right government has so far failed to rein in inflation or ease the plight of the poor.

But developers say demand is heating up in the high-end commercial and residential real estate markets, and the number of construction permits taken out in terms of square footage has been rising recently.

Billionaire investor Eduardo Costantini told a Reuters Summit on Argentina this week he is eyeing a 100,000 square meter mega-plot in Buenos Aires.

Salaries have gone up as much as 35 percent in real terms for top-flight wealth-management experts over the past few months as banks try to lure back Argentines who long ago moved to global financial centers such as New York and London, said Nicolas Rocha, an executive manager at headhunter Michael Page.

Macri says Argentina is starting to see an increase in investment that will bring the economic turnaround he has promised, especially as inflation comes under control.

« That will generate stability to strengthen the investment process, which is what will generate jobs, » Macri said in an interview as part of the Reuters Summit at the Casa Rosada presidential palace.

He said he expects the economy to grow 3.5 percent in 2017 and was particularly enthusiastic about Argentina’s farm sector, a world powerhouse in soy, corn and wheat production.

Farm investment was already surging and would lead to increases of between 25 and 40 percent in the next crop cycle, Macri said. « It is a very big productive leap. » ‘INVESTMENT TAKES TIME’ Still, government data shows important parts of the Argentine economy are still mired in crisis.

The International Monetary Fund and private economists forecast a more than 1 percent economic contraction this year.

Manufacturing output was down 6.4 percent in June versus the same month last year, after a 4.5 percent fall in May.

Construction was down 19.6 percent in June, and 12.9 percent in May, year on year.

Consumer prices rose 3.1 percent in June and 4.2 percent in May. The government says monthly inflation will fall steadily but economists still forecast annualized inflation rate will end 2016 at around 40 percent.

Facundo Gomez Minujin, executive director at JP Morgan’s Argentina unit, said Macri’s government is taking the right measures but that new investment and economic recovery could be slower than it expects.

« There’s a lot of interest in investing in the country but real investment always takes time, in any country, because it is a very long process, » he told the Reuters Summit.

Some Argentines are losing patience and have taken to the streets to protest increases in home heating bills that came as a consequence of Macri reducing energy subsidies.

The number of people lining up at Buenos Aires free soup kitchens has doubled since the start of the year.

In the working class Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca, many residents say a combination of rising prices and the removal of electricity subsidies by Macri’s government has put them into an impossible bind.

« It’s bad, a disaster, » said Eduardo Jovanian, a middle-aged shopkeeper. « And it’s hard to be positive, because utilities have gone up a lot, and people don’t have the money to pay. »

Calling China: phones everywhere in world’s biggest market Sometimes it seems that no one in China, from toddlers to octogenarians, ladies in swimming pools to delivery men mid-manoeuvre, is without a cellphone to hand — and statistically it is more or less true.

There are almost as many mobile accounts as people in the world’s most populous country.

China had 1.3 billion mobile users by the end of 2015, and nearly 30 percent of them — a swathe of humanity larger than the whole population of the United States — were connected to the 4G network, according to its ministry of industry and information technology.

The zoned-out zombie stare of the smartphone addict is a common sight everywhere on the increasingly mobile-addled planet, but it can seem all the more ubiquitous in China.

People retreat behind their little blue screens at any time of day or night, in dark concert halls, taking a break from the kids on the playroom floor, or in the company of a crowd of uniformed coworkers doing exactly the same thing.

Nearly everyone who accesses the internet — a staggering 92.5 percent — does so via their mobile, official Chinese bodies say.

They are hedged in by the « Great Firewall », strict regulations that block politically sensitive content and foreign sites such as Facebook, Google and Twitter.

As a result Chinese smartphone users spend much of their time on native apps that may have begun as knock-offs of censored foreign services but are now paving the way for the future of Western technology.

These days, Chinese users can send their grandmother a virtual red envelope of money, order a box of live scorpions or summon a beautician to the door for an in-house manicure, all without even leaving the interface of a single app, such as the monstrously popular WeChat.

The huge population of mobile users, which boomed as a result of a burgeoning middle class, represents one of the world’s most important markets for companies such as Apple.

The Californian giant’s profits slumped last quarter due in large part to slowing sales in Greater China — including Hong Kong and Taiwan — where revenues dropped 33 percent in the face of increasing competition from homegrown brands such as Oppo, Huawei and Xiaomi.

Businessman Chu Ling, 48, has come a long way since 1989, when he got his first mobile: a huge, boxy Motorola. He now communicates with colleagues and clients primarily via WeChat — an app he barely used a year ago — and gets a new handset every six months.

His latest is a shiny Samsung acquired in March that, unlike an iPhone, is able to hold both his work and personal SIM cards.

« Things change so much here, even within the space of a single year, » he said.

« The West went through desktop computers and laptops before they hit smartphones, and so people still find those convenient, but in China, we were willing to jump directly over to doing everything by mobile. It’s like we skipped a few stages. »

Indonesia says ‘no room’ for LGBT rights movement Indonesia said on Thursday there was « no room » for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement in the country, after Human Rights Watch criticised the government for failing to protect the group that has come under unprecedented attack.

The LGBT community is largely tolerated in Indonesia, especially in urban areas. But LGBT people suffered a sudden public backlash when a central government minister said in January that LGBT people should be barred from university campuses.

The comment « grew into a cascade of threats and vitriol » against LGBT Indonesians, fuelling increased hostility from family and neighbours and fostered stigmatisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Thursday.

But the government hit back at the criticism.

« As a citizen, whoever the person is will have his rights protected, without looking at his sexual preference, » presidential spokesman Johan Budi told Reuters in a text message.

« But if LGBT means a mass movement to influence other parties to become like them, then there’s no room here. » Dede Oetomo, one of Indonesia’s most prominent LGBT activists and founder of LGBT rights group GAYa NUSANTARA said Budi’s remark did not come as a surprise but it showed « the president doesn’t understand human rights ».

At the height of the anti-LGBT backlash, the authorities banned TV and radio programmes from broadcasting LGBT-related information and a minister said the LGBT movement was being used by outsiders to brainwash Indonesians.

An Islamic boarding school for transgender women was also forced to shut down.

Kyle Knight, HRW’s researcher on LGBT issues, said the authorities’ failure to act had created a « social sanction from the highest level » for attacks and hate speech.

« It gives a sense that you can do it with impunity, » Knight told a news conference in Jakarta.

SHATTERING TABOOS Homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, and the barrage of criticism against LGBT has been seen as a test of the country’s largely tolerant attitude towards the group.

« I don’t feel safe with seeing all the ‘end LGBT’ statements on social media. I feel like a dog, » an unidentified 25-year-old gay man interviewed by HRW was quoted as saying in the report.

Some of Indonesia’s LGBT activists, however, saw a silver lining to the controversy.

Activist Ryan Korbarri, 28, said the backlash which was played out on television and in local newspapers prompted his parents’ curiosity about his job with a LGBT rights group.

« They did not know what I was doing before, they are more aware now although they tried to persuade me to leave my job. I told them this is the way I live and I will stick with it, » he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

« It used to be a taboo but we openly talk about it now. Many parents did not realise there are so many LGBT people here until then, » Korbarri added.

Oetomo of GAYa NUSANTARA said LGBT groups suffered setbacks after the backlash, including difficulties in securing funding for advocacy campaigns but he remained optimistic.

« It put things on the table, whether you like it or not, this is a real issue and it gets talked about, » he said.

Oetomo however sounded a note of caution, pointing to a petition lodged with Indonesia’s top court by anti-LGBT groups to criminalise consensual sex between adults of the same gender.He said if successful, the petition would lead to long term consequences with « another few decades of battle » ahead for LGBT activists wishing to fight any such criminalisation.

Cardboard coffins: Venezuelans bear high cost of dying With food and medicine short, life is hard in Venezuela — and death is hard too.

The country’s situation is so acute that families are burying their loved ones in cardboard coffins.

The more well-off ones can hire a casket for a few hours, just for the funeral.

A lack of materials and soaring inflation fueled by an economic crisis are making funerals a costly business.

« It is more expensive to die here than to stay alive, » says funeral director Ronald Martinez, in the northern city of Maracay.

Miriam Navarro had to borrow money from her neighbors after her brother died a month ago.

« I felt so depressed. I didn’t have all the money the funeral parlor was asking for, » she says.

« If it hadn’t been for people in my community, I would have had to bury him in the yard. »

The 66-year old housewife spoke to AFP in the half-built home where she lives in the northeastern town of Maracay.

With the help from neighbors, she bought a cheap fiberboard coffin from Martinez.

Sobbing, she remembers having the same difficulties six years ago, when one of her sons was shot.

« I couldn’t afford to bury him either, » she says.

« Even if the funeral home trusts you, you have to have the cash ready to pay straight away or they’ll take the body out and keep the box. »

– Rented coffins –

Venezuelans used to favor brass coffins as a cheaper alternative to wood.

But the current crisis changed that. Two years ago the price of oil — Venezuela’s crucial export — collapsed.

Factories in the country were previously turning out hundreds of tonnes of brass every month.

That has now fallen to as little as 60 tonnes, says Juan Carlos Fernandez, director of the National Chamber of Funeral Businesses.

« We have had to resort to secondary markets and that drives up costs, » he says.

The cost of the cheapest funeral service has increased by about 60 times, to some 280,000 bolivars.

The minimum wage in Venezuela is 33,000 bolivars — about $50 by the official exchange rate.

Five years ago a coffin cost 720 bolivars. Now that is the price of a loaf of bread.

For no less than 55,000 bolivars a family can buy a fiberboard coffin. Or they can rent one for 25,000.

« This kind is cheaper and no one notices that it is not made of wood or is second-hand, » Martinez says.

« I change the interior and sometimes I repaint it. »

– Cremated in cardboard –

Elio Angulo reckons renting out coffins breaches hygiene regulations. He makes « bio-urns » out of corrugated cardboard in the northeastern town of Barquisimeto.

These biodegradable containers can hold a body, or ashes for the many families who opt for cremation to avoid the cost of a cemetery plot.

He has seen families bring bodies in bags to the crematorium because they cannot afford a casket.

That is another humiliation for citizens who are already suffering the daily grind of queuing for hours to buy food.

President Nicolas Maduro’s opponents blame his economic management for the crisis. He says it is a capitalist conspiracy.

Angulo’s cardboard coffin costs 50,000 bolivars. He says it can hold up to 125 kilos (275 pounds) and is stronger than the medium-density fiberboard used for other cheap coffins.

« It is meant for cremation but can also be used for burials. It offers a solution for a country in crisis, » he says.

« It is economical and accessible to Venezuelans who do not have enough money to get by » when a relative passes away, he adds. « Nowadays, dying is making a lot of people poor. »

(World news summary compiled by Maghre news staff)