Kurdish forces launch fresh thrust to retake Mosul from Islamic State Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a fresh attack on Islamic State (IS) forces early on Sunday as part of a campaign to capture Mosul, the militants’ de facto capital in Iraq, Kurdish officials said.
The advance began after heavy shelling and air strikes by a United States-led coalition against IS forces, a Reuters correspondent reported from Wardak, 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Mosul. The militants fought back, firing mortars at the advancing troops and detonating at least two car bombs.
A Peshmerga commander said a dozen villages had been taken from the ultra-hardline Sunni militants as Kurdish forces headed towards Gwer, the target of the operation, 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Mosul.
Repairing a bridge that the militants destroyed in Gwer would allow the Peshmerga to open a new front around Mosul. The bridge crosses the Grand Zab river that flows into the Tigris.
IS said in a statement on its Amaq news service that two car bombs driven by suicide fighters were detonated in one of the villages to block advancing Kurdish forces, causing casualties among the Peshmerga.
Authorities in autonomous Kurdistan gave no toll for the fighting, other than confirming the death of a Kurdish TV cameraman and the injury of another journalist.
Clouds of black smoke rose from the scene of fighting and dozens of civilians fled in the direction of Peshmerga lines, brandishing white flags.
The Iraqi army and the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish self-rule region are gradually taking up positions around Mosul, 400 km (250 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.
It was from Mosul’s Grand Mosque in 2014 that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a « caliphate » spanning regions of Iraq and Syria.
BIGGEST CITY IN ISLAMIC STATE HANDS Mosul is the largest urban centre under the militants’ control, and had a pre-war population of nearly 2 million.
Its fall would mark the effective defeat of Islamic State in Iraq, according to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has said he aims to retake the city this year.
The Iraqi army is trying to close in from the south. In July it captured the Qayyara airfield, 60 km (35 miles) south of Mosul, which is to serve as the main staging post for the anticipated offensive.
The Peshmerga operation on Sunday was « one of many shaping operations that will also increase pressure on ISIL in and around Mosul, » said an official from the Kurdistan Regional Security Council, using another acronym to refer to IS.
« Noose tightening around #ISIL terrorists: #Peshmerga advancing east of #Mosul, #ISF shoring up south near #Qayyara, » tweeted Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the militant group.
Preparations for the offensive on Mosul are « approaching the final phase, » McGurk told reporters during a visit to Baghdad on Thursday. He said the planning included considerations for humanitarian aid to uprooted civilians.
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 forecast 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 Kurdish region.
Heavy fighting in Aleppo as Syrian rebels renew their assault -monitor Heavy fighting took place in different sectors of the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday as rebels assaulted two government strongholds in the city’s northwest and south, a monitor of the war said.
Fighting for control of Aleppo, split between its government-held west and rebel-held eastern neighbourhoods, has intensified in recent weeks causing hundreds of deaths and depriving many civilians of power, water and vital supplies.
Insurgents including Islamist militant groups detonated car bombs before launching an attack on the Jamiat al-Zahraa district, an army base and residential district, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rebel groups then attacked the army’s positions in a cement factory on the city’s southwest, adjacent to the mouth of a corridor into opposition-held east Aleppo that insurgents had opened up a week ago, breaking a government siege.
Earlier in the day, the Syrian army and its allies captured some buildings in the southwestern 1070 housing development, also located near the entrance to the rebel corridor into Aleppo.
Aleppo is one of the bastions of the rebellion to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose army is backed on the ground by Shi’ite Muslim militias from neighbouring countries and from the skies by Russian air strikes. Some recent gains by the insurgents have been made by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, previously known as the Nusra Front, which described itself as an affiliate of al Qaeda until it cut ties with the militant movement and renamed itself late last month.
Bus blast kills fighters at Syrian border crossing with Turkey A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest on a bus in Syria near the Atmeh border crossing into Turkey late on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and injuring 25 others, some critically, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The bus was carrying fighters for Syria’s civil war, the observatory reported.
Pictures circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed the burnt out remains of a bus and medics treating injured people.
Turkey’s CNN Turk television reported that the explosion took place at the entrance of Atmeh refugee camp in Syria, near the border crossing, citing local sources. Syria’s Idlib province, where Atmeh is located, is a major bastion of the Turkey-backed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule
Libyans fighting Islamic State in Sirte report advances along coast Libyan forces fighting to oust Islamic State from their former North African stronghold of Sirte said they had made advances on Sunday in a coastal neighbourhood after staging attacks by land, sea and air.
The forces, led by brigades from the city of Misrata and aligned with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, secured several key sites in Sirte this week, their progress helped by U.S. air strikes against Islamic State that began on Aug. 1.
Islamic State militants are now encircled in Sirte’s central residential areas.
« The forces have made more progress in neighbourhood Number Two, with help from artillery and from naval forces, » spokesman Rida Issa said. Libyan jets carried out two air strikes, he said, and a picture posted by the forces on social media showed guns mounted on a tug boat involved in the operation.
At least four members of the Misrata-led brigades were killed in Sunday’s clashes and 32 were wounded, said Akram Gliwan, a spokesman for Misrata Central Hospital.
The brigades said on Saturday that they had gained control of a radio building previously used by Islamic State for broadcasting. The building is close to the Ouagadougou convention complex, a symbolic landmark in Sirte that the brigades seized this past week, raising the Libyan flag there in place of Islamic State’s black banner.
As of Thursday, the United States had carried out 41 strikes targeting Islamic State fighting positions, vehicles and weapons in Sirte. Islamic State took over Sirte last year, enforcing its ultra-hardline rule on the city and basing many foreign fighters there. The government-backed brigades launched their campaign to capture Sirte in May, counter-attacking after Islamic State advanced up the coast toward Misrata.
Yemen army pushes al Qaeda fighters from 2 cities, about 40 deadYemeni army forces backed by Arab coalition aircraft killed about 40 suspected al Qaeda fighters on Sunday as they fought their way into two militant strongholds in eastern Yemen, a local official and residents said.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has exploited a 16-month-old civil war between the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Iran-allied Houthis to capture a 600-km (370-mile) stretch of Arabian Sea coastline in eastern Yemen.
Hadi’s troops and forces from the Saudi-led Arab coalition drove out AQAP – widely considered the most dangerous branch of the global militant group – from the Hadramout provincial capital of Mukalla in April.
The militants have since repeatedly withdrawn from and then returned to Zinjibar and Jaar, the capital of Abyan and the province’s second largest city.
Abyan Governor Al-Khader Mohammed al-Saidi, speaking by telephone from Jaar, told Reuters that three brigades took part in the operation and that troops have « taken complete control of both cities ».
Saidi said that 40 AQAP members were killed in both cities, while the rest fled. He said three soldiers were killed and several were wounded in the operation.
« We met with citizens and fighters and both were happy to be free under government authority, » the governor said.
Residents said an AQAP suicide bomber blew himself up in a car trying to attack troops in Zinjibar, a city of some 100,000 people, but no one else was hurt.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies intervened in the civil war in Yemen in March last year after the Houthis advanced on his headquarters in the southern port city of Aden and forced him to flee to Riyadh.
The war has killed more than 6,500 people, displaced more than 2.5 million and caused a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Coalition bombing had mostly focused on the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but began turning their attention to AQAP earlier this year when forces funded and trained by the United Arab Emirates launched a surprise attack to win Mukalla. But an armed push toward Qaeda-held towns in Abyan and neighbouring Lahj province proved more difficult, and militants launched repeated suicide attacks against Yemeni forces.
Saudi king returns home, gives bonus to personnel fighting in Yemen Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz returned home on Sunday after a month-long holiday in Morocco, and ordered a month’s extra pay for Saudi military and security personnel actively involved in military operations in Yemen, state news agency SPA said.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef had been left to manage the kingdom’s affairs in the king’s absence.
Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of Arab states backing Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces who control Yemen’s capital Sanaa.
Hadi is currently in exile in Saudi Arabia, while his forces, backed by the coalition, are waging an offensive to try to recapture Sanaa from the Houthis and troops loyal to their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
SPA said King Salman flew back from Tangier in Morocco to the Red Sea city of Jeddah, where the government of the world’s top oil exporter usually moves in the summer to escape the scorching heat of the capital Riyadh.
Referring to the two stages of the military campaign in Yemen that began in March 2015, the agency said that King Salman ordered a month’s salary for staff in the Defence Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the National Guard who are « actual participants in the front line of the Decisive Storm and Restoring Hope » operations.
Islamic State faces uphill ‘branding war’ in Afghanistan, PakistanThe U.S. drone strike that killed Islamic State’s commander for Afghanistan and Pakistan was the latest blow to the Middle East-led movement’s ambitions to expand into a region where the long-established Taliban remain the dominant Islamist force.
Islamic State has enticed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jihadist fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan to switch loyalty and has held a small swathe of territory in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, where leader Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed on July 26 by a U.S. drone, Washington confirmed late Friday.
But outside that pocket of territory, security officials and analysts say that Islamic State remains – for now – more of a « brand name » than a cohesive militant force in much of the region.
« Groups around the world want to jump on that bandwagon and cash in on their popularity and the fear they command, » said a Pakistani police official based in Islamabad, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.
Anxiety over Islamic State – also known as ISIS or « Daesh » – in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been building since the al Qaeda breakaway movement seized portions of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and began promoting itself worldwide.
Those fears had gain fresh impetus in the last month after IS’s self-declared « Khorasan province » in Afghanistan and Pakistan claimed two especially deadly bombings that each killed more than 70 people – one in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and the latest in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta last week.
Yet Pakistani officials and independent analysts have raised doubt on the IS claims, especially for the Quetta bombing – saying the more credible claim for the suicide attack at a hospital was by a Pakistani Taliban offshoot, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar.
« ISIS is increasingly on the defensive as it struggles to defend its shrinking caliphate in Iraq and Syria, so it has a strong incentive to show it’s still relevant by taking credit for something it didn’t do, » said Michael Kugelman, South Asia analyst for the Woodrow Wilson Center, a U.S.-based think tank.
SHIFTING LOYALTIES? Two years ago, Islamic State was the world’s hot new name in the eyes of jihadists bent on using violence to destroy secular institutions and impose their harsh interpretation of Islam.
Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, in fact, at one point swore allegiance to Islamic State’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014 during a spat with the Pakistani Taliban leadership.
Several months later, however, JA had switched back to the Taliban banner, and when it claimed responsibility for the Aug.8 suicide bombing in Quetta it used its full name « Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar ».
Islamic State has made it clear that it is committed to developing its « Khorasan province », declared in January 2015.
When the central IS leadership claimed responsibility for the Quetta bombing it issued statements in Arabic, English and Urdu, the latter language native mostly to Pakistan.
« Khorasan » has special significance in Islamic State’s ideology because it refers both to a historic region encompassing much of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and also a prophecy of a Muslim army emerging from the same region to conquer all of the Middle East, including Jerusalem.
History and prophecies aside, the attraction of South Asia for Islamic State is obvious enough, due to the many opportunities to recruit existing, well-armed fighters and bomb makers.
With literally dozens of loosely allied Islamist groups operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the region is ripe for a ready-made switch of allegiances.
GLOBAL JIHADIST « MARKET » But the fledgling IS movement in both Pakistan and Afghanistan faces challenges.
Various Taliban factions and their al Qaeda allies – who vehemently oppose al-Baghdadi’s claim to lead a nascent global caliphate – still control vast, overlapping networks of finance from opium, kidnappings and taxes on areas under their sway.
« It would be too big a price to pay for any Pakistani group to join a group that the Afghan Taliban have outright rejected, » said the Pakistani police official.
Aside from their seizure of several districts of Nangarhar from the Taliban, the newly declared Islamic State loyalists have taken no other major territory in Afghanistan.
Both the Taliban and Islamic State have also been pummelled by U.S. drone strikes and Afghan security forces offensives in Nangarhar – including the one that killed Khan.
The United States said last week an estimated 300 IS fighters had been killed in July.
The death of the local leader is not a fatal blow to Islamic State’s still-limited operational capabilities in the region, but it does represent a dent to its « brand » in a region rife with options for waging jihad.
Wilson Center’s Kugelman described the difference between the appeal of the Islamic State name in Afghanistan and Pakistan compared with other parts of the world.
« In Europe, disaffected and disgruntled local Islamists won’t find many enticing options at home. This prompts them to make the trip to the Middle East to join ISIS, » Kugelman said. By contrast, in Pakistan and Afghanistan « the newly radicalised in search of an affiliation don’t need to gravitate to ISIS because they already have so many other options ».
South Sudan government to review U.N. decision on extra troops South Sudan said on Sunday it would consider the U.N.’s decision to authorise sending extra troops to the country following an eruption of fierce fighting, softening its stance after initially rejecting the initiative.
The U.N. Security Council voted to authorise an extra 4,000 troops on Friday, drawing a swift response from South Sudan’s presidential spokesman who said the government would oppose the move, calling it a bid by the United Nations to take over the country.
The U.N. decision followed several days of fierce fighting in the capital Juba last month that raised fears of a slide back into civil war after more than two years of conflict in the world’s youngest nation, which gained independence in 2011.
« After lengthy deliberation of the document (U.N.resolution), it is clear that this document has some pros and cons, » Information Minister Michael Makuei told a news conference after an emergency cabinet meeting on the issue.
« It is decided that this process be taken to the executive and then parliament so that … a decision (is) taken by the whole government, » he said without giving a timeframe.
The extra U.N. troops, described as a protection force that has the backing of regional African nations, will fall under the command of the existing 12,000-strong U.N. mission UNMISS.
The U.N. resolution had threatened an arms embargo if South Sudan did not cooperate.
Sunday’s meeting followed another flare-up of fighting southwest of the capital on Saturday between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and opposition troops, led by his former deputy Riek Machar. Each side blamed the other for the violence.
Steven Lodu Onseimo, the information minister for Yei region where Saturday’s clashes took place, told Reuters two civilians and a soldier were killed but said the area was calm on Sunday.
Witnesses had reported heavy gunfire around Yei, which lies on a road linking Juba with neighbouring Uganda.
Longstanding political differences between Kiir and Machar first erupted into conflict in late 2013. They signed a peace deal in August 2015, but sporadic fighting continued. Machar had recently returned to Juba to resume his role as deputy again when the July clashes in Juba flared. Machar then withdrew with his forces from the capital.
Turkey summons Austria charge d’affaires over « indecent » report Turkey summoned Austria’s charge d’affaires in Ankara over what it said was « indecent report » about Turkey on a news ticker at Vienna airport, a foreign ministry official said on Sunday.
« Turkey allows sex with children under the age of 15, » read a headline on an electronic news ticker at the airport, images circulated on social media showed.
« Our disturbance and reaction over this display which tarnishes Turkey’s image and deliberately misinforms the public have been strongly conveyed to the charge d’affaires, » the Turkish ministry official said, adding that the headline was removed following the ministry’s intervention.
Turkey’s constitutional court last month ruled in favour of removing a provision in the penal code which identifies all sexual acts against children under the age of 15 as « sexual abuse » following an application made by a local court.
The 7-6 ruling by the panel of judges, which is to take effect in January 2017, stirred outrage on Turkish social media and among women’s rights activists, who voiced concern that it would lead to cases of child abuses going unpunished.
Activists were expected to seek a reversal of the ruling, possibly by going to the European Court of Human Rights, Turkish media quoted them as saying.
An Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed Turkey had summoned its charge d’affaires on Saturday evening. « We take notice of the reaction of the Turkish authorities, and this is for us a matter of freedom of the press, » Thomas Schnoell said.
A spokesman for Vienna airport said that while the news ticker was on its premises, it was not responsible for its contents. « (It) is operated by an Austrian newspaper, which has editorial responsibility over its content, » the spokesman said.
« The airport does not have any influence over its contents. » Tensions between Turkey and Europe have risen since Ankara’s crackdown in the wake of last month’s failed coup in Turkey.
Turkish authorities have detained, sacked or suspended tens of thousands of people over their alleged links with Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric whom the government blames for orchestrating the coup attempt.
Last week Turkey’s foreign minister called Austria the « capital of radical racism » after Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern suggested ending EU accession talks with Turkey, which have made minimal progress since they began in 2005.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and many Turks accuse the West of focusing more on the rights of the coup plotters and their supporters than on the coup itself, in which more than 240 people were killed after rogue soldiers bombed parliament and seized bridges with tanks and helicopters.
Halting Turkey’s EU accession process could scupper a landmark migration deal between Brussels and Ankara designed to stop illegal migration to Europe via Turkey in return for financial aid, the promise of visa-free travel to much of the bloc and accelerated talks on membership. Turkey has lived up to its side of the deal with Brussels but visa-free access has been subject to delays due to a dispute over Turkish anti-terrorism legislation, which some in Europe see as too broad, and to its post-coup crackdown.
US nukes at Turkey base at risk of seizure: report Dozens of US nuclear weapons stored at a Turkish air base near Syria are at risk of being captured by « terrorists or other hostile forces, » a Washington think tank claimed Monday.
Critics have long been alarmed by America’s estimated stockpile of about 50 nuclear bombs at Incirlik in southern Turkey, just 70 miles (110 kilometers) from the border with war-torn Syria.
The issue took on fresh urgency last month following the attempted coup in Turkey, in which the base’s Turkish commander was arrested on suspicion of complicity in the plot.
« Whether the US could have maintained control of the weapons in the event of a protracted civil conflict in Turkey is an unanswerable question, » said Monday’s report from the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank working to promote peace.
Incirlik is a vital base for the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, with the strategically located facility affording drones and warplanes fast access to IS targets.
But the Pentagon in March ordered families of US troops and civilian personnel stationed in southern Turkey to quit the region due to security fears.
« From a security point of view, it’s a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America’s nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, » report co-author Laicie Heeley said.
« There are significant safeguards in place. … But safeguards are just that, they don’t eliminate risk. In the event of a coup, we can’t say for certain that we would have been able to maintain control, » she told AFP.
– ‘Avoided disaster so far’ –
While the Pentagon does not discuss where it stores nuclear assets, the bombs are believed to be kept at Incirlik as a deterrent to Russia and to demonstrate America’s commitment to NATO, the 28-member military alliance that includes Turkey.
The Incirlik nuke issue has been the subject of renewed debate in the United States since the coup attempt.
« While we’ve avoided disaster so far, we have ample evidence that the security of US nuclear weapons stored in Turkey can change literally overnight, » Steve Andreasen, director for defense policy and arms control on the White House National Security Council staff from 1993 to 2001, wrote in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times last week.
Kori Schake, a fellow at the California-based Hoover Institution, noted in a written debate in the New York Times that « American nuclear forces cannot be used without codes, making the weapons impossible to set off without authorization. »
« The fact that nuclear weapons are stationed in Turkey does not make them vulnerable to capture and use, even if the country were to turn hostile to the United States, » she argued.
The Pentagon declined to comment on questions arising from the Stimson study.
« We do not discuss the location of strategic assets. The (Department of Defense) has taken appropriate steps to maintain the safety and security of our personnel, their families, and our facilities, and we will continue to do so, » it said in a statement.
The Incirlik concerns were highlighted as part of a broader paper into the Pentagon’s nuclear modernization program, through which the United States would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to update its atomic arsenal. The authors argue that a particular type of bomb — the B61 gravity bomb — should be immediately removed from Europe, where 180 of the weapons are kept in Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey.
South Africa’s ANC wants budget ‘re-prioritised’ after vote losses South Africa’s ruling African National Congress wants the national budget « re-prioritised » to focus on tackling poverty, unemployment and inequality following local election defeats this month, the party said on Sunday.
The ANC lost its majority in key urban districts including Johannesburg, the municipality encompassing the capital Pretoria and the symbolically important Nelson Mandela Bay municipality – its biggest setbacks since coming to power in 1994 at the end of white-minority rule.
The ANC will take bold action to address the party’s shortcomings, Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe told reporters after a four-day meeting of the party’s leadership in the National Executive Council (NEC).
Mantashe said the ANC wanted the cabinet to discuss changes to the budget at its next meeting.
« The NEC viewed the outcome of the elections as a clarion call of the people to the liberation movement to urgently take steps to speed up the programmes of change, and rectify the many subjective weaknesses affecting its capacity, » Mantashe said.
« It was noted that our poor performance in the 2016 local government elections is a serious setback to the cause of social transformation. » Mantashe also said the ANC took collective responsibility for the election results and would not lay the blame on President Jacob Zuma.
Opposition parties have said the election results were a referendum on Zuma’s leadership and he should stand down.
« Should we blame one person for the performance for the ANC? All of us in the NEC must take responsibility, » Mantashe said.
« There was no proposal from the floor for the president to step down, » Mantashe said in response to a question about whether anyone in the ANC top council wanted Zuma to resign.
Zuma rattled investors in December last year by changing finance ministers twice in a week, sending the rand plummeting.
The president then survived an impeachment vote in April after the Constitutional Court said he had broken the law by ignoring an order to repay some of $16 million in state funds spent on renovating his private home. Zuma has since said he will repay some of the money, as ordered by the court. Mantashe also said on Sunday there was a need to deal with perceptions that the ANC was soft on corruption, arrogant and self-serving.
Soccer-Libya to host World Cup ties in Egypt Libya will host their three World Cup qualifiers over the next 15 months in neighbouring Egypt, the country’s football association said on Sunday.
Previously Libya, who are banned from holding international matches at home because of the north African country’s tenuous security situation, had hosted the majority of their home matches in Tunisia but they are now sharing the same group with their neighbour as they seek a place at the 2018 tournament in Russia.
But Libyan Football Federation president Anwar Al Tishani told local reporters he hoped to again petition FIFA and the Confederation of African Football for a relaxation of the ban before they play their first home match in Group A against Tunisia in November.
Libya, coached by former Spain manager Javier Clemente, start the group competition away in the Democratic Republic of Congo in October. Guinea is the other team in their group.
Only the group winners advance to the finals and Libya have never previously come close to a World Cup finals appearance.
Libya’s games in Egypt will probably be played behind closed doors. Most major matches in Egypt have restrictions on attendances because of security fears.
Libya have been banned from hosting any international games since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi five years ago left the country awash with weapons and armed militias who often take the law into their own hands while central authorities struggle to impose their authority on the country.
Libya relaunched their league competition in May after a three-year hiatus but suspended it again last week because of a lack of security.
Syrian refugees invent app for Germany’s bureaucracy mazeInterminable queues, impenetrable paperwork, unpronounceable German words — the hurdles for any newcomer to Europe’s top economy can be daunting but now there’s an app for that, says a team of enterprising Syrian refugees.
It’s called Bureaucrazy, after the often Kafkaesque process of getting housing, health care and a bank account, not to mention seeking asylum.
The team is made up of six budding programmers from Berlin’s ReDI School of Digital Integration, a non-profit organisation that trains refugees in coding and entrepreneurship.
Its first class started in February with 42 students, of whom 35 were awarded diplomas in June.
« I was shocked by the long waits in line and when I first arrived, I waited two weeks for a paper called ‘Kostenuebernahme’ — it’s a permission for staying in an apartment or hotel » at state expense, said one of the developers, 30-year-old Omar Alshafai.
« Also when I signed the paper — it was in German — we didn’t know what we were signing, » said Alshafai, who came from Damascus in April 2015.
The thicket of red tape facing Germany’s refugees was highlighted last month by a Chinese backpacker who made global headlines after he accidentally signed an application for asylum when he lost his wallet. He was only able to sort out the mistake and retrieve his passport after spending 12 days in a refugee shelter.
– German tongue-twisters –
Alshafai’s teammate Ghaith Zamrik, a 19-year-old from the war-ravaged Syrian capital, arrived in Berlin last Christmas Day.Just two months later, he was enrolled at the ReDI school. « At the first session we were doing some brainstorming — we were discussing what problems we had and how technology could solve these problems, » he said.
« We had two main issues, the first was the language and the other was bureaucracy because we couldn’t understand it, how the system works here. »
But while the market was flooded with translation apps, the team saw a potentially huge audience for technology that could offer downloads of required documents, map the locations of relevant offices and address frequently asked questions.
The pair howled in mock pain as they recalled the German tongue-twisters necessary to open doors, with «
Even Germans they asked for help were often bewildered by the jargon of official correspondence, making their app a potential godsend for more than just asylum seekers.
« We’re hoping to also help all the migrants, or anybody who comes new to Germany, with the bureaucratic system, » Zamrik said.
The team started work in February and by early June had a successful demonstration at Berlin’s Startup Europe Summit.
Anne Kjaer Riechert, the CEO and co-founder of ReDI, noted Germany had an estimated 43,000 unfilled jobs in the IT sector and that refugees represented untapped potential.
The Bureaucrazy team « had no previous experience in any kind of coding but of course they are what I would call extreme users when it comes to mobile technology because the smartphone has really been a lifeline for many of them while fleeing » including as a tool for navigation and reconnecting with family on the migrant trail, she said.
While Alshafai is a trained electrical engineer, he had initially been hired at luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz as an intern on the factory floor.
Now ReDI is working with established companies like Mercedes to place qualified asylum seekers in their innovation departments.
« I firmly believe it is more profitable for everybody in the long term when we can support newcomers like Omar to help develop ideas for Mercedes’ future digital retail spaces instead of having him work on the assembly line, » she said.
– ‘Not the only ones’ –
A recent study by the Bertelsmann Foundation found that the number of jobs created by companies started by migrants shot up by more than one-third to 1.3 million between 2005 and 2014, while the number of entrepreneurs with foreign roots rose by one-quarter to 709,000.
Alshafai and Zamrik said that beyond launching a business venture, they wanted to show that with a bit of hard work and ingenuity, refugees could more than pull their weight in German society.
« Lots of refugees actually are doing something but not all of them get media coverage so I think we’re not the only ones, » Zamrik said.
Bureaucrazy has captured the attention of the German media just weeks after a series of brutal assaults committed by refugees in the south of the country, two of which were claimed by the Islamic State group.
The news revived fears that Germany had made a grave mistake in letting in nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, sending Chancellor Angela Merkel’s approval rating plunging.
Zamrik said he was heartened in the wake of the attacks to see Merkel defend her welcoming stance and repeat her « We can do this » rallying cry. »It gives me back the feeling when I left Syria, why I thought that I might choose Germany to stay in, » he said.
Tunisia: the new North African home of ice hockey?With its beaches and year-round sun, Tunisia is not the most obvious home for the winter sport of ice hockey. But one man is quite determined to make it happen.
Two years ago, Ihab Ayed quit his job in finance in the French capital to realise his dream of creating the North African country’s first ice hockey team.
Ayed had dreamt of a Tunisian team to play the game internationally ever since he first learned at the age of five how to hit a black rubber puck on ice.
« It took me six years, from 2006 to 2012, to bring together 40 players from around the world, » says the 36-year-old Franco-Tunisian.
« I combed ice hockey websites. I’d randomly type in Sami, Mohammad — Arabic names » to see whether any Tunisians came up, he says.
With the help of social media and tips from friends, he cobbled together a team of amateurs and professionals, all of whom have at least one Tunisian parent.
In 2014, the first ice hockey team from the birthplace of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings played — and lost — its first game outside Paris.But on July 30 this year, the Carthage Eagles won for the first time in Morocco and even went on to become champions of the Africa Ice Hockey Cup.
– No easy feat –
The unlikely competition — in which they faced off against teams from Egypt, Morocco and Algeria — may not be recognised internationally, but their win sparked the interest of Tunisia’s authorities.
It was no easy feat. All of the team’s members paid for their own flights to Morocco, and money from sponsors covered accommodation and team kit.
And the team’s players — largely from France, but also from Belgium, Finland, Sweden and even Canada — cannot even train together.
« Each player trains with his own club, » Ayed says.
Before the games in Morocco, « we’d do a quick warm-up to see what the ice rink was like on Monday morning, and on Monday evening we’d be playing ».
But for the players, despite the obstacles, playing means reconnecting with their Tunisian roots.
« Today I’m proud to say I’m Tunisian, » says 26-year-old Nathan Benmessaoud, who lives in France. Franco-Tunisian player Mehdi Belhassen, 30, is just as enthusiastic after the team’s victory in Morocco.
« It was a beautiful adventure and I hope the beginning of a great story, » he says.
Ayed hopes that the Tunisian Ice Hockey Association — which is registered in France — can now become a legal entity in the North African country.
– Olympic ice rink –
The dream, he says, is to see Tunisia become « an affiliated member of the International Ice Hockey Federation » with its own Olympic ice rink. »The sport won’t be able to exist in Tunisia if we don’t have an ice rink… with the official dimensions, » Ayed says.
The ministry of sports and youth has said the project is feasible and that it would waste no time in initiating procedures to turn the association into a federation.
And the minister has also said the Carthage Eagles are great for the image of the country, which is still reeling after two major jihadist attacks on tourists last year.
But the Eagles’ success also comes as Tunisia’s government is about to change.
Prime minister-designate Youssef Chahed began talks last week aimed at putting together a unity government to tackle major economic and security challenges.
Ayed is still optimistic about the future, however.
« Our ambition is for Tunisia to become renowned worldwide for ice hockey and for it to be able to send a team each year to the world championships. » »There can be changes of cabinet or president, but our goal is clear. We know where we’re headed. »
New York police hunt for gunman in Muslim cleric’s killingNew York City police searched on Sunday for a gunman who killed a Muslim cleric and his associate as they left prayers at a mosque in the borough of Queens on Saturday, a crime that sowed fear and sadness in their budding Bangladeshi community.
Police had yet to establish a motive and said there was no evidence the men were targeted because of their faith, but nothing was being ruled out. Residents demanded authorities treat the brazen daylight shooting as a hate crime.
The gunman approached the men from behind and shot both in the head at close range about 1:50 p.m. (1750 GMT) in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, one of the city’s five boroughs, police said in a statement.
The victims, identified as Imam Maulama Akonjee, 55, and Thara Uddin, 64, were wearing religious garb, police said.
Police found them bleeding in the street and took them to a hospital where they were pronounced dead.
« While we do not yet know the motivation for the murders of Maulama Akonjee and Thara Uddin, we do know that our Muslim communities are in the perpetual crosshairs of bigotry, » New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. « Rest assured that our NYPD will bring this killer to justice. » The men were attacked about two blocks from the Al-Furqan Jame Mosque where they had just left afternoon prayers. Ozone Park, a diverse, largely working-class area, is home to a growing number of Muslims of Bangladeshi heritage.
Millat Uddin, 57, an Ozone Park resident not related to the imam’s associate, said both men were born in Bangladesh. He said he was close to Akonjee, describing him as a « docile, calm » father of seven who was beloved in the neighborhood.
« What matters most is harmless people have been shot dead, regardless of whether this was a hate crime, » he said. « Our community’s heart is broken. » Akonjee was carrying $1,000 with him at the time of the attack but the money was not taken, the New York Times reported.
« I have never felt this kind of tension, » said Nizam Uddin, 57, a taxi driver who said he knew both the cleric and his associate. He also was not related to the associate.
‘MAKES ALL MUSLIMS SCARED’ The shooting appeared to be the most violent attack against local Muslim leaders in recent years, said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a civil rights and advocacy group.
A report by CAIR and the University of California at Berkeley released in June said the number of recorded incidents in which mosques were targeted jumped to 78 in 2015, the most since the body began tracking them in 2009.
Hooper said he could recall incidents in which an imam was pushed, called names or otherwise harassed. « Things like that, but nothing of this nature, nothing where people were killed, » he said.
CAIR said it was offering a $10,000 reward for information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.
Police released a sketch of a male suspect with dark hair, a beard and glasses. Police described him as having a medium complexion. He appeared to be in his 30s or 40s.
Witnesses told police they saw the assailant, dressed in a dark shirt and blue shorts, fleeing with a gun in his hand, police said. Surveillance footage showed the suspect tailing the victims.
Mohammed Ahmed, 22, works at his father’s corner store on Liberty Avenue just two blocks from the shooting. He said he heard the shots while he was at work. « It makes all the Muslims scared, » he said. « Last time someone got shot in this neighborhood that I know of was probably 2001. »
Japan PM sends ritual offering to Yasukuni shrine for war deadPrime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to a shrine for war dead on Monday, the anniversary of Japan’s World War Two defeat, but did not visit the shrine seen in China and South Korea as a symbol of Tokyo’s wartime militarism, an aide said.
Visits to Yasukuni Shrine by top Japanese politicians outrage China and South Korea because it honours 14 Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal, along with war dead.
Ties between China and Japan, Asia’s two largest economies, have also been strained in recent days as a growing number of Chinese coastguard and other government ships sailed near disputed islets in the East China Sea, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
Abe has not visited the shrine in person since December 2013, when he said he did so to show respect for those who died for their country.
« This was out of respect to those who gave their lives for the country, » said Yasutoshi Nishimura, an aide to Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who presented the offering in Abe’s name as LDP president rather than as prime minister.
Among the dozens of other lawmakers who visited the shrine were Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda and Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of popular prime minister Junichiro Koizumi who is often tipped as a future prime minister himself.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said he was aware of the visits but declined to comment, saying it was a private matter for each individual.
He also expressed regret over a morning visit by South Korean lawmakers to a disputed set of islands known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea. « It is extremely regrettable that this visit took place despite protests beforehand, » he told a news conference. He said Japan would protest strongly. New defence Minister Tomomi Inada, who has been accused by China of recklessly misrepresenting history after she declined to say whether Japanese troops massacred civilians in China during World War Two, is visiting troops in Djibouti and would not be able to attend as she usually has.
Talk of shifting funds away from Trump premature-Republican official A senior official with the Republican National Committee on Sunday played down the prospect that the party would cut off cash and logistical support to White House nominee Donald Trump in order to shift resources toward congressional races.
Last week 70 Republicans wrote a letter urging the RNC to stop helping Trump and to focus instead on candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The letter, signed by former members both of Congress and RNC staff, said Trump’s actions were « divisive and dangerous » and posed a threat to the party and the country.
Sean Spicer, RNC communications director, said in a telephone interview that abandoning Trump with nearly three months to go to the Nov. 8 election « doesn’t make logical sense. » In October 1996 the RNC moved money from the presidential race to congressional candidates after Republican nominee Bob Dole fell far behind Democratic President Bill Clinton in opinion polls.
But Spicer said giving up on Trump could be harmful to other Republican candidates and there was still time for him to rebound in opinion polls against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
« Number one, you need a strong top of the ticket. That’s number one. Number two, we’re only six points down, » Spicer said, referring to the gap that Clinton has opened up against Trump in some national polls.
Clinton led Trump by more than five percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.
Clinton has strong leads in hotly contested states such as Pennsylvania and New Hampshire and some polls show her within a few percentage points of Trump in some states such as Georgia that normally lean strongly Republican.
Any discussions of cutting off funds to Trump in August would be « ridiculous, » Spicer said.
Trump has polarized the party with his vow to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and his plan to impose a temporary ban on Muslims seeking to enter the country.
Trump has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for a prolonged feud with the Muslim family of a fallen U.S. Army captain and his assertion last week that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had co-founded the Islamic State militant group.
FOREX-Dollar on back foot after lacklustre US data, unfazed by weak Japan GDP The dollar was on the defensive on Monday, pressured by downbeat U.S. data that tempered expectations of a near-term interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The greenback was little changed at 101.340 yen after losing 0.6 percent on Friday, when the U.S. indicators were released. The euro was steady at $1.1156 after edging up 0.2 percent on Friday.
The dollar index was effectively unchanged at 95.767 after going to as low as 95.254 on Friday, its lowest since August 3.
The dollar came under pressure after Treasury yields slid sharply in response to weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales and producer prices data on Friday. The 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield fell roughly 5 basis points on Friday to a 2-week low.
« It is difficult for the dollar to rise when long-term U.S.
Treasury yields head in the opposite direction, and yields look to remain capped for a while, » said Koji Fukaya, president of FPG Securities in Tokyo.
« The drop in yields looks overdone, but Treasuries have been showing less of a response to strong data while reacting more to weak ones. This is perhaps understandable when debt market expectations are that a rate hike would not result in a series of tightening steps. » Already slim expectations for a U.S. interest rate increase in September were trimmed even further after the data, while prospects for a rate hike in December also took a knock.
Federal funds futures implied traders saw a 43 percent chance the U.S. central bank would increase interest rates at its December policy meeting, down from 47 percent shortly before Friday’s data.
« The dollar’s push lower that we anticipate until later in the month gained momentum following the disappointing U.S.
retail sales report before the weekend, » wrote Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.
« The dollar’s technical tone has deteriorated, while economic data is unlikely to be sufficient to reverse sentiment. » U.S. economic data due this week include Tuesday’s housing starts, consumer price index and industrial output and the Philadelphia Fed’s business sentiment index on Thursday.
Asian currency markets showed little reaction to Monday’s data which showed Japan’s economic growth stalled in the second quarter.
The world’s third-largest economy expanded by an annualised 0.2 percent in the second quarter, less than a median market forecast for a 0.7 percent increase, Cabinet Office data showed on Monday.
The lacklustre data was taken in stride with the market more focused on the Bank of Japan’s comprehensive policy review in September and whether it will suggest any chance in strategy.
Sterling edged up 0.1 percent to $1.2931.
The focus was on whether this week’s UK economic data would either push the pound to or away from the 31-year low of $1.2798 touched after the June Brexit referendum.
Signs of economic weakness after the Brexit vote are expected to provide incentive for the Bank of England to easy monetary policy further, which in turn could weaken the pound.
British indicators due this week include Tuesday’s consumer and producer prices, Wednesday’s employment and Thursday’s retail sales.
The Australian dollar was flat at $0.7646. The Aussie had risen to a 3-month high of $0.7760 last week, thanks in part to the country’s relatively higher yields, but it was nudged off the peak in response to weaker than expected Chinese indicators
GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares recoup losses as China hits 7-month top Asian shares inched back from one-year peaks on Monday as a rally in Chinese stocks helped offset news of Japan’s economic growth slowing to a halt last quarter.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index rose 1.3 percent to a seven-month high and Shanghai added 0.9 percent amid talk more stimulus would be forthcoming from Beijing.
The need for further policy action in Japan was underlined by the subdued economic reading, leaving the Nikkei dithering either side of flat.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan recouped early losses to stand steady. It has climbed almost 14 percent since late June when Britain’s vote to leave the European Union unleashed a new wave of global policy stimulus, led by aggressive action from the Bank of England.
All this easing has pushed rich-world bond yields dramatically lower and driven investors to seek higher returns in longer-term debt and in emerging markets.
Yields on British 10-year gilts have more than halved to all-time lows of 53 basis points, having been up at 1.39 percent just before the Brexit vote.
That has pulled down rates right across Europe, with Spanish yields, for instance, falling over 60 basis points to break under 1 percent for the first time ever.
The plunge in returns on bonds has made equities look more attractive in comparison. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all made record closing highs last week for the first time since 1999.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index dipped a touch on Friday but that was from a seven-week high.
« After a period of strong gains, shares are due to take a breather, » said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital.
« But after the consolidation, we expect shares to trend higher over the next 12 months helped by okay valuations, very easy global monetary conditions and continuing moderate global economic growth. » The same fundamentals should also underpin bonds.
« That said, the recent bond rally has taken yields to pathetic levels, leaving them at risk of a snapback, » added Oliver.
PARSING THE FED High on the U.S. calendar this week are inflation figures for July and minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting which might offer more clues on the chance of a rate hike by year end. There are also five separate Fed speakers on the docket this week.
U.S. retail sales growth was unexpectedly flat in July as consumers cut back on buying clothes and other goods, while the producer price index fell 0.4 percent in July, the biggest drop in nearly a year.
The European Central Bank releases minutes of its last meeting on Thursday, and should strike a dovish tone.
Investors have recently lengthened the odds on any Fed hike this year, with futures <0#FF:> implying around a 46 percent chance of a move in December.
That in turn has weakened the bullish case for the U.S.
dollar and dragged it down against the euro, yen and a range of emerging market currencies.
Early on Monday, the dollar was flat at 101.30 yen and not far from important support around 100.80. The euro was steady at $1.1157 having held in a $1.1050 to $1.1230 range for last couple of weeks.
One outlier has been sterling, which has slipped steadily since the BoE’s easing to stand at $1.2927 and ever closer to the post-Brexit trough at $1.2797.
In commodity markets, oil prices edged higher after boasting gains of 6 percent last week as Saudi Arabia’s oil minister held out the chance of action to help stabilize the market. Brent crude futures were up 31 cents on Monday at $47.28 a barrel, while U.S. crude added 35 cents to $44.84.
China Inc’s $3 billion land grab among Europe’s soccer royalty It was over lunch at his villa outside Milan with soccer « super-agent » Jorge Mendes that Italian tycoon Silvio Berlusconi realised an unpleasant truth: his storied club, AC Milan, needed cash, and plenty of it.
Mendes, a source familiar with the matter said, was discussing the potential sale of Colombian star James Rodriguez from Real Madrid for 85 million euros ($95 million)- cash that loss-making, debt-burdened AC Milan simply did not have.
Weeks later, Berlusconi became the latest European club owner to sell out to Chinese buyers, in a shopping spree that has caught up clubs from England’s Aston Villa to France’s OGC Nice and adds up to around $3 billion since December alone.
AC Milan, if the preliminary agreement announced last week is confirmed, will mark one of the largest club deals to date in European football – valuing the « rossoneri » – or « red and blacks » – at 740 million euros ($825 million), including 220 million of debt.
Yet the buyers – Li Yonghong, Li Han and Haixia Capital, and a handful of other entities not named by former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi’s firm – are unknown and untested in European football.
There was no public signing or press conference to herald the deal – only a handful of photographs released after a private handshake at Berlusconi’s Sardinia villa.
Other Chinese buyers of rival clubs over the past months, their cash promising to shake up the game, are similarly little known in the sport, including a packaging firm, an eco-city builder and a maker of food additives.
« If I’m honest, I haven’t got a clue who Li Han and Li Yonghong are, » said Lou Yicheng, a veteran sports commentator in China who has been in the business for more than 20 years.
« There are certainly lots of questions that still need answering. » Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing, the vehicle used for the AC Milan deal, says it has support from local government in China – which president and soccer enthusiast Xi Jinping wants to turn into a football superpower by 2050.
A spokesman for the local Changxing government said it had no financial connection with Sino-Europe Sports and was not directly involved in the deal. He declined to comment further.
No European football association has yet raised major concerns about the influx of Chinese money, though most, like England’s Football Association, do have some provision to consider if new owners are « fit and proper ».
Carlo Tavecchio, Chairman of the Italian Football Federation, said this week there were some « strange situations » arising from the flush of cash from China.
« If China intends to host the World Cup in 2030 then it means it will invest in Europe, » he told reporters. « Unlike the past, this sector now attracts and includes a series of people who are not part of the football sector. »
A QUICK BUCK With all but Europe’s very richest clubs struggling to compete in the transfer market for the best talent, the lure of Chinese cash is strong.
A sped-up AC Milan deal could help the 18-times Italian champions fund player acquisitions to bolster a squad that ended up in a lowly seventh position last season and failed to qualify for the lucrative UEFA Champions League.
A source involved in the deal said the Chinese group, advised by investment bank Rothschild, would provide a 100 million euro shareholder loan to finance new players. A deposit of 15 million euros paid by the buyers, to be followed by a further 85 million euros next month, could also be used to secure transfer deals.
For China, it is about boosting its clout in an almost universally popular sport, encouraged by President Xi Jinping, who has made it a goal to host and win the World Cup.
« It has become increasingly clear that China intends to become a major force in world football, » said London-based football finance specialist David Bick.
It is also about taking opportunities – getting a slice of the lucrative global love affair with live sports, for which sponsors and TV and internet viewers will pay up.
In England, for example, a bumper new TV deal guarantees that even the team finishing last in the Premier League will earn 100 million pounds ($130 million).
The unlikely triumph of Leicester City – owned by a Thai duty free magnate – last season has also boosted the appeal of less fashionable teams.
« Aston Villa is at the lowest ebb in its history, » said new owner Xia Jiantong after a deal to buy the English club earlier this year. The club were relegated from the Premier League last season after winning just three matches.
« For me it’s a challenge but also a huge opportunity. » But the buyers have many fans and industry veterans stumped.
AC Milan’s city rival, Inter Milan, was bought by giant Chinese electronics retailer Suning for more than $300 million in June. Suning, better known for its microwaves and rice cookers, now wants to create a global soccer empire stretching from clubs to broadcasting.
Beijing certainly has big aims: to grow the domestic sports market to 5 trillion yuan ($753 billion) by 2025, about five times its current size. And it certainly has clout among its business community.
Industry insiders and investors themselves, however, said the motivation is often simpler: cold, hard returns.
« We’re not buying OGC Nice just because we want to, instead we see opportunities and we have made a 3-5 year plan, » Chien Lee, co-founder of hotel group 7 Days Inn and the French club’s new chairman, told Reuters in an interview in Hong Kong.
Lee, who led a group of Chinese and U.S. investors to buy an 80 percent stake in OGC Nice in June, added it would help his firm promote sports tourism in the coastal city of Nice and create package tours to nearby Monte Carlo and Cannes. « I see it as a business opportunity and so I invest. » ($1 = 6.6410 Chinese yuan) ($1 = 0.8969 euros) ($1 = 0.7716 pounds)
(World news summary compiled by Maghre news staff)